🐝 New paper out. Infected honey bees given a commercial pollen substitute developed 2.6× higher Nosema parasite loads and showed increased mortality risk. Nutrition can sometimes benefit parasites as well as hosts. doi.org/10.1016/j.ji... #HoneyBees #PollinatorHealth #DiseaseEcology #Apiculture

Can near-infrared exposure help mitigate pesticide-impaired thermoregulation in adult #bees? This new #RSOS paper investigates: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

How climate change & pesticide interact to affect bee performance; looking ahead at var. approaches (incl. microbes) to help bees tinyurl.com/2s3ndu3j @theobserveruk.bsky.social highlight work from richjgill.bsky.social and @pgraystock.bsky.social Labs at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

Charlotte's PhD is exploring what happens to bumble bee holobionts after prolonged exposure to chemical toxins - she takes both host bee and microbial impacts into account. @cfryday.bsky.social @pgraystock.bsky.social 🐝👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9v6...

🐝 Are honeybees getting too much attention? Do we really understand the global ecology of bees and how they respond to environmental change? New research asks whether our evidence base is skewed. @nesbit-sci.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... @davegoulson.bsky.social @richjgill.bsky.social

CABI is working with Imperial College London, on their new sustainable agriculture MSc. It will prepare future agricultural technologists, scientists, and sustainability professionals for careers in sustainable agriculture. blog.cabi.org/2026/02/17/d...

Discover Imperial's master's on sustainable agriculture, supported by CABI – CABI Blog

Study a Sustainable agriculture MSc with CABI and Imperial College London. Gain skills in agricultural technology and IPM training.

blog.cabi.org

Get a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture and Technology @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social & delve into the environmental and technological frontiers of modern agriculture. Partnered with CABI, explore real-world farming systems with access to agritech innovators, research farms, and commercial ops.

🐝🦠 New paper: rdcu.be/eOf7A Phages may drive microbial diversity, yet we often don’t even know how phages & bacteria correlate in nature. Our new study tackles this in the honeybee gut, thanks to the great work of PhD student @malickndiaye.bsky.social at @dmf-unil.bsky.social @fbm-unil.bsky.social

Phage diversity mirrors bacterial strain diversity in the honey bee gut microbiota - Nature Communications

Authors analyse paired viral and bacterial shotgun metagenomics data from individual honeybee guts, revealing modular, nested phage–bacteria networks, with viral diversity mirroring bacterial strain c...

nature.com

PLEASE SHARE. PhD advert: Predicting Pollinator Health and Disease Through Molecular and Sensor-Based Surveillance. tinyurl.com/559hjsm4 Rare opportunity at the intersection of molecular ecology, disease surveillance, modelling and precision apiculture. DEADLINE 24th OCTOBER!

Predicting Pollinator Health and Disease Through Molecular and Sensor-Based Surveillance at Imperial College London on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Predicting Pollinator Health and Disease Through Molecular and Sensor-Based Surveillance at Imperial College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

tinyurl.com

#microsky 🧫🧪

Paul Carini@uncultured.carinilab.com · 11mo ago

We have some full length 16S data from isolates that we'd like to match to ASV-level V4-V5 microbiomes from the same samples. It's pretty messy, especially for strains with multiple copies of 16S rRNA genes. Has anyone encountered this in their work, or in the lit? Any ideas how to approach this?

Delighted to announce the launch of the BBSRC-funded UK-wide microbiome innovation network Microbiome-Net. I'm looking forward to representing and furthering the East Midlands Microbiome Research Network's contributions to research, innovation and policy. www.liverpool.ac.uk/microbiome-i...

Monika Yordanova leads on this study exploring coexposure of pesticides & Enterococcus on the health of developing bee larvae 🐝. Often seen as a pathogen, small doses of the microbe may reduce some of the impacts of pesticide toxicity under some conditions. doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Experimenting with AI to make accessible summaries of research. What are peoples thoughts? Here is a summary of a paper looking at the role of flowers in parasite transmission. Parasites in bloom: flowers aid dispersal and transmission youtu.be/sGGHzrW0Lmc @royalsocietypublishing.org

Parasites in Bloom: The Secret Life of Flowers

YouTube video by Graystock Lab

youtu.be

🌿 Over 1000 signed up to join us at #OurImperial Silwood Park for Bugs, Birds & Beasts Day - our biggest turnout yet at this lively day of science, nature & family fun! From falconry to butterfly hunts, from an orchestra to 3D insects, this was a day out to remember! Thank you everyone! 🦅🐛💧

My 4th 'Bugs Day' at Imperial's Silwood campus. The boys (and I) had a wonderful time at an event that just gets better each year. For Imperial team's interesting in public engagement with the natural world or environmental research, Bugs day is a wonderful resource to reach public audiences.

Glad to finally be able to share this paper! We found that epiphytes and their close relatives tend to have small range sizes, meaning a high proportion are likely to be at risk of extinction www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Geographic range size and rarity of epiphytic flowering plants - Nature Plants

Epiphytes have larger ranges than closely related terrestrial species. However, a large proportion of species in epiphyte-rich clades are rare with small range sizes, regardless of their lifeform.

nature.com

Kew Gardens@rbgkew.bsky.social · last yr.

For over 100 years, epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants such as orchids & bromeliads - were believed to be widespread and resilient 🌿 But our new study in Nature Plants tells a very different story 👇

For over 100 years, epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants such as orchids & bromeliads - were believed to be widespread and resilient 🌿 But our new study in Nature Plants tells a very different story 👇

🪴 Epiphytic plants, including popular houseplants and orchids, may be at high risk of extinction across the globe, according to new research by scientists at Imperial College London and @rbgkew.bsky.social 🧵

📣 Imperial College Research Fellowships! Prestigious 4yr fellowship ✔️ Salary from £48k ✔️ Up to £45k for research ✔️ A supportive, inclusive research environment ✔️ UK or international ✔️ <4 yrs post-PhD Drop me a pm if you are interested in bee/microbe related research! tinyurl.com/mr3k5a93

Women at Imperial celebrates the achievements of our staff, students and alumni, and raises awareness of support and initiatives across the university. Join us for Women at Imperial Week from 10–14 March 2025 with a series of events and workshops. www.imperial.ac.uk/women-at-imp...

Women at Imperial

Women at Imperial is an annual event that takes place around International Women’s Day (8 March). Over the course of a week we celebrate female staff and students, past and present, and raise awarenes...

imperial.ac.uk

Looking for a masters (MRes/Msci) in Ecological sciences? @imperiallifesci.bsky.social youtu.be/b9HAZsvBpm8?...

Postgraduate Study at Imperial | Ecology, Evolution and Conservation

YouTube video by Imperial College London

youtu.be

Please don't turn your lawn into plastic. Plastic grass reduces food & shelter for wildlife such as bees & butterflies; has a high carbon footprint; sheds micro-plastics which wash into our rivers and seas. Create a wildlife-friendly space instead. More bit.ly/3wE67P8 🐝

Funded PhD opportunity in the Graystock lab! If you are interested in pollinators, microbes, parasites and machine learning, please get in touch! - only a few days left to let me know! Whilst a project using the above is planned, im happy to adapt to the strengths of a candidate

"Ants solving a geometric problem and it's amazing." This is a great example of 'emergent phenomenon': - None of the ants understand the problem they're solving. - None of them can see the whole shape. - A series of small decisions or rules add up to something with a new layer of complexity.

Otto Mas 🎙️@ottomas.es · 2y ago

Son hormigas resolviendo un problema geométrico y es para flipar en colores.

Nice to catch up with everyone at the #IUSSI conference in London today. A good representation from the lab too with some excellent student posters! With @nesbit-sci.bsky.social, Charlotte and Monika - I think it's also safe to say my phone camera has seen better days!

PhD studentships now available in all areas of Life Sciences at Imperial College London www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

FindAPhD : Department of Life Sciences funded PhD studentships at Imperial College London

Apply for a PhD: Department of Life Sciences funded PhD studentships at Imperial College London

findaphd.com

This Edinburgh Botanics light show installation is designed to illustrate mycelium networks. It’s almost as impressive in daylight as when lit up!

Wondered how pollinator learning affects pollination for 🌺🌻🌼? More complex flowers 🌺🌻🌼 require more learning, and learning ⬆️pollen collection, but has NO effect on pollen transfer! New Behavioral Ecology pub from #RussellLab grad & undergrads; collab w/ Ashman Lab academic.oup.com/beheco/advan...

Learning to handle flowers increases pollen collection for bees but does not affect pollination success for plants

Pollinator learning often increases flower handling efficiency and food collection (e.g. pollen or nectar), but whether learning thereby reduces pollinatio

academic.oup.com

Did you know we can track the movements of bumble bees using radio technology? This research reveals fascinating insights into their behaviour across different landscapes and helps guide vital conservation efforts. 🧪🌎🐝

There's just something about bee mites that makes me feel uneasy! anyway - here's a picture of some poor bees at the end of a field experiment we ran (we hadn't considered mites in the design but they became an interesting part of the study!). Its amazing how many mites a single bee can carry!