New work out, and so happy to have it in a journal with wide, interdisciplinary readship! I just presented on this at #Botany2026 and look forward to continuing research with this * very pretty * pathosystem in the coming years! I'm recruiting grad students for Fall 2027; be in touch!

Plants, People, Planet@plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social · last wk.

From settler gardens to digital naturalists: human aesthetic preferences and land use changes facilitate the biogeographical expansion of a wild plant–virus interaction 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... by Lombardi et al. @emlombardi.bsky.social Image credit: Mia Brown-Seguin

🚨New paper! We study a wild plant-virus interaction through a socioecological lens and find that humans play a key role in TuMV biogeography. @juanpajordan.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

From settler gardens to digital naturalists: human aesthetic preferences and land use changes facilitate the biogeographical expansion of a wild plant–virus interaction

Anthropogenic facilitation of wild plants based on aesthetic preferences for particular traits can change the biogeography and ecology of natural communities. We use a mixed-methods socioecological a....

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

It's time! They're blooming! Join the #PrettyVirusProject on @inaturalist.bsky.social to join a community of plant virus hunters: (1) Join the project on iNaturalist (2) Identify Dame's Rocket in your area and (3) Tag "TuMV" when the petals are speckled www.inaturalist.org/projects/pre...

Pretty Viruses Project

Viruses infect plants in agricultural fields, marginal habitats, prairies, on mountain peaks...and everywhere else we look! Not all virus infections induce visible symptoms, though, and it's chall...

inaturalist.org

🚨🧪🌧️🌪️

Alexandra Witze@alexwitze.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Here's our reporting on the proposed dismantling of the jewel of US atmospheric science, @ncar-ucar.bsky.social. The plan is to break NCAR apart and disburse some parts to other locations (like the research aircraft fleet) and eliminate others. www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪 #AGU25 #climate

New #OER for biology teachers! We use *real data* from the RMBL phenology project to teach about changing plant phenology in warming mountain environments, R programming, and science writing. Please use and improve! qubeshub.org/publications... @rmblscience.bsky.social @jkleinkopf.bsky.social

Here's my latest contribution to the "Lost Science" series at the New York Times: Jay Falk, a scientist who studies why some female hummingbirds look just like males. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qF7Qje

What a terrific few days at #botany2025! I saw so many fascinating talks, and am leaving Palm Springs excited to be part of this creative, dedicated scientific community. In particular, thanks to @ca-naturalist.bsky.social and the RevBayes team, and to @botsocamerica.bsky.social for organizing!

On my way to #BSA2025 and feeling pretty pumped to learn from colleagues and friends. This year, it feels like a form of resistance to pursue my work, and I look forward to celebrating other plant biologists as we keep on discovering.

BIG NEWS! We’ve found that ash trees are fighting back against ash dieback disease! 🌳💪 Scientists at Kew & QMUL ‪@qmul.bsky.social have discovered that young ash trees are evolving resistance to this devastating fungus - & fast 🌍 Read the story👉 www.kew.org/read-and-wat... #PlantScience #SciNews

🧪

Scott P. Egan@scottpegan.bsky.social · last yr.

Hey #Evol2025 - My colleague @waspvenom.bsky.social and I are looking for a postdoc for our #NSF - #USDA funded grant to understand the genetic basis of gall formation! Please see that attached ad, and feel free to talk to me @evolmtg.bsky.social, or contact Dr. Ellen Martinson directly!

#PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky 🧪🛟

Krutika Kuppalli, MD FIDSA@krutikakuppalli.bsky.social · last yr.

Phasing out NIH’s HIV clinical guidelines is flat-out immoral and unethical. These guidelines drive early diagnosis, ART initiation, and viral suppression—82% linked to care within 30 days, 69% virally suppressed by 6 months. Removing them puts millions of lives at risk. wapo.st/3FQovhf

Climate.gov, a major US government website supporting public education on climate science, will likely shut down after almost all of its staff were fired. What would be worse is if the website were co-opted to publish climate denial content.

Major US climate website likely to be shut down after almost all staff fired

Exclusive: Climate.gov, which supports public education on climate science, will soon no longer publish new content

theguardian.com

Thread with an email being sent to @asn-amnat.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social members today calling for a Tri-society week of action for NSF: Dear members: The tri-societies (ASN, SSE,SSB) are running a ‘Week of Action for NSF’. Your engagement is crucial.

Such a cool and important paper, both because the science is rad and because the treatment of people and data is just. Super neat 🧪

Monica H Green@monicamedhist.bsky.social · last yr.

I can't wait to dive into this #GlobalMiddleAges story: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Prior skepticism about links between past and present Puebloan groups "has negatively affected Tribal Nations seeking to protect and preserve Chaco Canyon and its ancestral role in the Puebloan world" 🧪

Congratulations to the winner of the 2024 Harper Prize, @botanicallykarina.bsky.social! 🏆 Read our blog post with Karina here: buff.ly/4aEocNt 🍃

Now it's nearly 270 university presidents who have signed onto this "unprecedented government overreach" public letter. It was less than 180 this morning. www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c... Universities, and judges, taking the lead in standing up.

A Call for Constructive Engagement | AAC&U

A Call for Constructive Engagement

aacu.org

James Fallows@jfallows.bsky.social · last yr.

Number is up just today, from 180 to around 240. University leaders, time to join in. www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

Rebekah Tromble@rebekahtromble.bsky.social · last yr.

NSF has posted an “update on priorities.” They’re canceling all “DEI and misinformation/disinformation” grants. And the guidance on how to fulfill the longstanding, legally mandated Broadening Participation requirement is utterly incoherent. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

The stretch of road connects NCAR, NOAA, NIST and the University of Colorado-Boulder. Homes to people doing some of the most important research on Earth and its warming climate. I commuted this exact stretch of road on a free bus for 3 years and this video hit me smack in the feels.

Kristine ❌👑@extrasuperkk.bsky.social · last yr.

Hundreds protested at the national labs today in Boulder, Colorado. #SaveOurServices #resist #NOAA #NIST #NCAR #ScienceSavesLives

This is an incredible, important collection. Please consider supporting if you can! #biodiversity #IndigenousScience #botany

Isaac Lichter Marck@ca-naturalist.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨Urgent: Help Save Decades of Work by Navajo Botanists🚨 For decades, Arnold Clifford has built up the Carrizo Mountain Herbarium. Now, this collection is at risk—snowstorms are causing the roof to cave in, putting >30,000 specimens in danger. #IndigenousScience #Conservation #MutualAid #botany

I just called my rep and got through to a human for the first time in weeks. It was honestly nice, but now I wonder if momentum is dropping. So, let's goooo: 5calls.org

5 Calls

Spend 5 minutes. Make 5 calls. Make your voice heard.

5calls.org

Our newest research in @nature.com We built a robot (!) to track plant-fungal trade networks. By following half a million fungal highways & nutrient flows within them, we discovered how plants & fungi build hyper-efficient supply chains www.nature.com/articles/s41... 📹 @sasaspacal.bsky.social

Checkout the Rare Plant RaMP program, a 1-yr (Aug '25 to Jul '26) research experience for those who have completed a baccalaureate degree & are interested in gaining research & prof. dev. experience in botany, plant science, or conservation. Deadline: Mar 14, 2025 etap.nsf.gov/award/530/op...

Getting quality transcriptome assemblies from Herbarium samples is possible doi.org/10.1101/2025.... Work led by @atyszka.org. Another fun collaboration with @philcarella.bsky.social and @khongsamchia.bsky.social, who functionally validated an NLR immune receptor from a sample collected in 1956.

Herbaria provide a valuable resource for obtaining informative mRNA

While DNA has built the framework for molecular insights from museum collections, the utility of archival RNA remains largely unexplored. Likely a consequence of the known instability of RNA relative ...

doi.org

"To plan for the future, it’s sometimes necessary to look to the past." Nice highlight of our work synthesizing temporal, taxonomic, and spatial trends in botanical collections to facilitate new research avenues @emlombardi.bsky.social @softcorebotany.bsky.social

Here we go. This is and will continue to hurt science, scientists and the public.

Jonathan Lambert@jonlambert.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: NSF confirmed that they fired 168 employees today, out of their staff of ~1,500 feds. This includes some people who'd finished their 1-year probationary periods, which were extended to 2-years last month without explanation. More to come.

*shocking*

Annie WhereButHere@anniewherebuthere.bsky.social · last yr.

Relatable

Robert McNees@mcnees.bsky.social · last yr.

"But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything. One lives only to make blunders." Charles Darwin, who had a pretty bad day every now and then, was born #OTD in 1809. 🧪 The letter to Charles Lyell with the quote above: www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter?docId...

I usually reserve this account for my personal views; but today I want to represent my position as President of @asn-amnat.bsky.social to post a message that will shortly go out to the membership of the American Society of Naturalists from the ASN Executive Council

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.