Happy to finally see this out in a peer-reviewed form 🧬🌱 Congrats to everyone who contributed! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The dual trxG/PcG protein ULTRAPETALA1 modulates H3K27me3 and directly enhances POLYCOMB REPRESSIVE COMPLEX 2 activity for fine-tuned reproductive transitions - Nature Plants

This study reports a bivalent factor, ULTRAPETALA1, that can counteract as well as promote PRC2 activity at hundreds of developmental genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. The pro-PRC2 activity of ULTRAPETAL...

nature.com

A scientific exploration of the varied forms, origins, and meanings of death. Endless Endings by @ricardsole.bsky.social is now available (29 September UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

A few months ago, I got a bit obsessed with a question about life on Mars: When—or if—“life” becomes the most parsimonious explanation for a handful of potential biosignatures, how will we know? Would we even admit it? This story grew from that question. www.scientificamerican.com/article/has-...

Has NASA already found life on Mars?

In searches for past and present Martian life, some scientists say we’ve been too cautious to see what’s right in front of us

scientificamerican.com

Stalked glass sponge at 3708 m #Okeanos B2 seamount, Cook Islands

🔬 Invited speaker spotlight: Fabien Burki, Uppsala University: Single cell genomics and fluorescence microscopy suggest a permanent plastid in a marine centrohelid. @fburki.bsky.social 👉 comparativegenomics2026.com #Genomics #SingleCellGenomics #Protistology #Protists #Microscopy #Eukaryotes

The Viking’s 50 Year Landing Anniversary Astrobiology Special Collection: Reexamining the Revolutionary Impact of Viking on Mars Exploration astrobiology.com/2026/07/27/t... #astrobiology #Mars #biosignature

The Viking’s 50 Year Landing Anniversary Astrobiology Special Collection: Reexamining the Revolutionary Impact of Viking on Mars Exploration

The NASA Viking Program laid the framework for Mars science, technology, and exploration.

astrobiology.com

This video should be saved for future generations. Explosions in the Sky playing in a record store 20 yrs ago: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VP2...

Explosions In The Sky

YouTube video by markcrymble

youtube.com

🚀 We're LIVE in 2 hours! Celebrate 50 years of Mars surface exploration with Dr. Simon Steel and Dr. Pascal Lee as they revisit Viking 1, today's Mars missions, and the future of robotic exploration. ⏰ 2:30 PM PDT ▶️ Join us live: youtube.com/live/mQelZRO... #SETILive #Mars #Viking1

50 Years on Mars: From Viking to Today's Rovers | #SETILive

Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1976, Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to successfully land and operate on Mars, transforming our understanding of the Red P...

youtube.com

Do #tintinnids dream of electric sheep? 🤯 Here is a single cell capable of building a lorica and living inside it for protection... it also swims, feeds, hunts Can even detect and habituate to mechanical cues! #celllearning #protistsonsky #cilia Read more in our preprint doi.org/10.64898/202...

We propose the following response hierarchy in tintinnid mechanosensitivity. Proving that once again, you don't need neurons to accomplish complex tasks like stimulus-dependent response selection...

#PPOD: This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of #Mars. It was obtained by NASA's #Viking1 minutes after the spacecraft landed on July 20, 1976, fifty years ago today. The lander touched down in western Chryse Planitia and operated until November 11, 1982. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 🧪

Organisms known as “extremophiles” thrive in the most brutal corners of the planet, enduring blistering temperatures, crushing pressures, and even corrosive acid. They also offer a window into life’s deep origins — and a hypothetical peek at alien biology. www.quantamagazine.org/the-organism...

The Organisms That Make Earth’s Harshest Places Home | Quanta Magazine

Extremophiles that thrive in the most unforgiving environments aren’t just biological curiosities. Understanding their resilience has many implications for us.

quantamagazine.org

Hawaiian geothermal fumaroles contain diverse and novel viruses.

Also more generally, if you’re here and looking for new opportunities in evolutionary ecology, immunology, and symbiosis of cnidarians, find me! I’m hiring for just about every position you could imagine! Exciting things on the horizon. #ICRS2026

Dr. Lauren E. Fuess@laurenfuess.bsky.social · 2w ago

If you’re planning your afternoon schedule at #ICRS2026, I’ll be speaking on a multi-institutional project investigating how holobiont interactions shape resistance and response to SCTLD. 4:15 in room 515!

"Aliens Next Door?" — You can see me chatting to @chrislintott.bsky.social on the BBC's Sky at Night next Monday about some of our experiments @theukca.bsky.social to understand recent observations by Perseverance Rover on Mars. @severinhryn.bsky.social gets a shout-out! #astrobiology

Our new work @natecoevo.nature.com shows Karenia cristata produces brevetoxins and is the dominant player in the prolonged bloom & mass mortality event in Southern Australia. Glad to be part of this work with Shauna Murray & the whole team! rdcu.be/fse9r The Conversation: tinyurl.com/3rnyxrnj

A catastrophic marine mortality event caused by a complex algal bloom including the brevetoxin producer Karenia cristata

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Genomic characterization and toxicity assays identify Karenia cristata as a brevetoxin-producing species that is the dominant component of the prolonged microalgal...

rdcu.be

Nature Ecology & Evolution@natecoevo.nature.com · 4w ago

Genomic characterization and toxicity assays identify Karenia cristata as a brevetoxin-producing species that is the dominant component of the prolonged microalgal bloom causing mass marine mortality in South Australia 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share that my postdoc work is now out @cp-cell.bsky.social! A collaborative work with co-lead author Catherine Henderson and others in the lab of @pcleves.bsky.social A deep look into how algae form symbiosis with corals and anemones. 🧵 (1/7) www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Co-option of lysosomal machinery shapes the evolution of the intracellular photosymbiosis supporting coral reefs

Corals harbor intracellular algal symbionts in specialized organelles that enable them to build diverse reef ecosystems. Corals and other cnidarians have repeatedly evolved this symbiosis through the ...

cell.com

🤔 Can a concept widely used in economics help us recognise alien life, from fossils on Mars to molecules in the outer solar system? A quick thread to explain a new paper from my research group : Can Pareto Optimality be Evidence of Life?, by Rodgers et al. 🧵 1/10 doi.org/10.1177/1531...

The asteroid Ryugu, visited by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft in 2018, contained water similar to the most common kind found on Earth. Asteroids are one possible vehicle for water’s arrival on the planet. www.quantamagazine.org/where-did-ea...

🚨 Registration for VEGA26 is 👏 officially open 👏 🚨 The 5th edition of our Viral EcoGenomics and Applications symposium will be held November 18-19, 2026, on the UC Berkeley campus 🧬 🦠 🔬 🧫 Event website ➡️ jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us... Registration link ➡️ cvent.me/e0RnA0

One more talk from my lab today at #Evol2026. Postdoc @calebcbutler.com will be presenting on our collaborative project with @raulgoch.bsky.social searching for conserved mechanisms of cnidarian symbioses. Come hear more about this exciting project.

The evolutionary transition from alga to parasite in the sister lineage of apicomplexans #microbiology #parasites #algae #MicroSky @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The evolutionary transition from alga to parasite in the sister lineage of apicomplexans

The chrompodellids are a collection of photosynthetic “chromerids” and heterotrophic “colpodellids,” which are together the sister lineage to the apic…

sciencedirect.com

Just how big a danger would "mirror life" really be? My latest column for @chemistryworld.com www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/woul...

Would mirror life really threaten our own?

New modelling suggests that even if we could create cells based on mirror-image biomolecules, their natural counterparts would outcompete them in the wild

chemistryworld.com

Tiny unicellular #eukaryotes, big #biomaterial inspiration. Excited to share our Nature Communications study showing that tintinnid ciliates build their chemical- and heat-resistant shells from self-assembling proteins we call Tintinnidorins. doi.org/10.1038/s414... #protistsonsky 1/3

Spent the last two years developing a new Intro to Physics course for undergrad biology majors. It features tons of examples from biology (especially Ecology & Evolution!) and requires only middle school-level math. Lecture note here shorturl.at/0PiVp Any comments or feedback are highly welcome!

This is a deep-sea isopod. Dr. Johanna Weston, a deep-ocean biologist and guest investigator at @whoi.edu, is confident this is Bathyopsurus nybelini, one of her favorite animals. Learn why via the YouTube caption: youtube.com/shorts/DenUj...

Our paper "Gene ancestries reveal diverse microbial associations during eukaryogenesis.” is finally out in Nature. Eukaryogenesis was likely a gradual process shaped by multiple microbial partners and virus-mediated gene transfer, rather than a single binary symbiosis. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Rethinking the Last Universal Common Ancestor of Life: Network Convergence and the Root of the Tree astrobiology.com/2026/06/reth... #astrobiology #genomics #evolution

Rethinking the Last Universal Common Ancestor of Life: Network Convergence and the Root of the Tree - Astrobiology

The tree of life is rooted at the "origin of life."

astrobiology.com

Today marks 30 years since we identified the apicoplast, a relict plastid in human and animal parasites (PMID 8632819). Apicoplasts are the target of the widely used antimalarial prophylactic doxycycline, which has saved many thousands of malaria infections.

I’m at ASM Microbe, and seeking postdoc positions after May 2027! Stop by my Rapid Fire talk (3 pm AEM session “Microbial Life on Land”) or my poster (AEM Friday poster #601) to hear some of what I’ve been working on in my PhD! @binningsingletons.com #phagesky