What makes human guts and coral reefs similar? Here is a blog post with some thoughts on ecosystem stability, stress, and microbiome, following a fresh pre-print by Marko Terzin et al: merenlab.org/blog/coral-r...

From coral reefs to human guts: stress is stress

Reefs and colons share no taxa, no host, no timescale, but they report stress the same way, which tells us where NOT to look for solutions.

merenlab.org

I wish I could teach people just how grating it is to get the fourth clearly AI job application of the week that reads like "While I'm interested in X, to be honest what truly drew me to your lab was Y. You not only do A; you also do B."

A new blog post on a microbiome/cancer study that earns a second thought rather than just a nod or a shrug: merenlab.org/blog/sacchar... And LET THE RECORD SHOW that this post COMPLETELY addresses the incorrect claim that Meren only complains about microbiome studies.

A probiotic yeast, colorectal cancer, and the gut microbiome

A rare correlative microbiome study careful enough to think with, and an arrow or two I would redraw.

merenlab.org

New study by Alexander Henoch (@ahenoch.bsky.social), a PhD student in our group @hifmb.de and @awi.de, shows what it takes to bring gene synteny into microbial pangenomes, and what we learn about the variability landscape of genomes when we do that. See the pre-print here: doi.org/10.64898/202...

The previous post didn't show it, but there is a sink in this blog post, which took an insane amount to exist and thus shall not be ignored: merenlab.org/blog/HIPP-on... THANKYOURFORYOURATTENTIONTOTHISMATTER.

Five Postdocs, Five Questions: An Experiment in Transdisciplinary Thinking at HIFMB

Some personal notes on what we are trying to achieve, and how we are planning to achieve that

merenlab.org

@hifmb.de advertised 5 post-doc positions to work on social science / basic science interface, and here is a blog post to tell you why I care about this, and what it looks like: merenlab.org/blog/HIPP-on... Please spread the word if you can.

in case you missed it: profmcinerney.substack.com/p/the-pangen... "The Pangenome Is Not A Parts List"

The Pangenome Is Not a Parts List

The pangenome is the total genetic repertoire of a group of organisms. It is a property of populations, maintained by evolutionary processes.

profmcinerney.substack.com

I am so excited about this: We are doing a new kind of project with the aim of transporting knowledge and methods from the humanities into a natural science context. We'll have 5 full 3yr postdoc positions! I will post more in the coming week. But here is a preview: hifmb.de/institute/hi...

HIPP 27: HUMAN PROGRESS - HIFMB Oldenburg

The HUMAN PROGRESS project aims to advance research in the natural sciences by drawing on methods, insights, and knowledge from across the humanities and social sciences. In doing so it also offers fr...

hifmb.de

Schneider Shorts 29.05.2026 – Everything can be achieved with extremely hard work forbetterscience.com/2026/05/29/s...

Schneider Shorts 29.05.2026 – Everything can be achieved with extremely hard work

Schneider Shorts 29.052026 – German universities struggle with papermill prodigies, a Polish rector removed for sexual harassment, American antivax papers removed, Serbian Lieutenant Colonel …

forbetterscience.com

🧬 New preprint on coral somatic evolution! We compare the robust coral Orbicella faveolata with the complex coral Acropora palmata. 80x whole genome sequencing shows that O. faveolata has high fixation of somatic variants in older interior polyps consistent with a segregated germline.

My quote of the day We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. Carl Sagan

Can’t believe what I found at an antique store in Madison, WI. A sketch of the Swope Center and Eel Pond at @mblscience.bsky.social. So interesting that it ended up all the way over here! This one’s going up on the wall.

Job posting - Junior Specialist at @ucdavis.bsky.social in the labs of Jay Stachowicz and Rachael Bay. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07605

Jr. Specialist - Stachowicz/Bay Lab

University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ucdavis.edu

This is from 7 years ago (merenlab.org/2019/02/24/f...). We are talking about the same things today. We will be talking about the same things 7 years from now. There is no one to blame for this apart from ourselves. I find it very depressing.

I have now read this piece and it is very good. Massive respect for @merenbey.bsky.social and Iva for their persistence and documenting this torturous process. Highly recommended reading for anyone who cares about reproducibility in science.

A. Murat Eren (Meren)@merenbey.bsky.social · 4mo ago

How every layer of science's "self-correcting machinery" failed when Iva Veseli and I simply wanted to reproduce the findings of a high-profile study on gut microbiome and autism: merenlab.org/2026/04/15/u...

How every layer of science's "self-correcting machinery" failed when Iva Veseli and I simply wanted to reproduce the findings of a high-profile study on gut microbiome and autism: merenlab.org/2026/04/15/u...

Unfalsifiable by Design: A Year of Trying and Failing to Reproduce a Human Microbiome and Autism Study

The myth of open data, reproducibility, responsibility, and accountability in science, and your role in it

merenlab.org

"A data-conscious checklist for the reviewers of 'omics studies who champion open science", a Comment Iva Veseli and I wrote is now online at metaRxiv: doi.org/10.31222/osf... Please read it and consider sharing it with your friends, colleagues, trainees, or editors of your favorite journals.

Have you listened to the #MVIFconversations podcast? There is a new episode where @cpavloud.bsky.social and I talked to @merenbey.bsky.social about open source, mentoring, and believe me it's a GREAAAT one!!

Microbiome Virtual International Forum@microbiomevif.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#MVIFconversations podcast episode 3 with @merenbey.bsky.social is OUT! ▶️ Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1Cke... ▶️ Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/81c... ▶️ Apple Music: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m... ▶️ YouTube podcast: youtu.be/-qC3qSU884U?... 1/2

Myloasm, our long-read metagenome assembler, is now published! w/ @mgmarin.bsky.social and @lh3lh3.bsky.social Very rewarding after > a year of development and countless hours thinking about assembly. Thanks to beta testers, Li lab, and reviewers who gave very helpful feedback. rdcu.be/famFj

High-resolution metagenome assembly for modern long reads with myloasm

Nature Biotechnology - A long-read metagenome assembly method recovers circular and complete genomes better than existing tools.

rdcu.be

Nature Biotechnology@natbiotech.nature.com · 4mo ago

High-resolution metagenome assembly for modern long reads with myloasm - @lh3lh3.bsky.social @jimshaw.bsky.social @danafarber.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social go.nature.com/3PBEwvR

Our new paper on the presence of xenobiotics in marine dissolved organic matter just come out. Thanks to Jarmo Kalinski and our awesome collaborators, we were able to reanalyze more than 20 public LC-MS/MS datasets from seawater and ask how many anthropogenic compounds we can detect. rdcu.be/e8q6C

New research in @aguadvances.bsky.social examined more than 14 million nitrate and phosphate measurements captured around the world between 1925 and 2025. eos.org/research-spo...

Global Observations Reveal Rapid Reorganization of Ocean Nutrients - Eos

Data reveal that changes in nutrient levels vary depending on depth and distance from shore—and that these changes are happening more quickly than scientists realized.

eos.org

Very happy to share the latest paper of our group (et al.)! rdcu.be/e7zyX . This one has a special place… 1/n

Water mass specific genes dominate the Southern Ocean microbiome

Nature Communications - Southern Ocean microbial communities are less well studied. Here, the authors generate a circumpolar-scale gene catalog from 218 metagenomics samples revealing broadscale...

rdcu.be

As of this week, I have begun a new part-time role as a Professor at Aalborg University in Denmark. I’m very excited to join AAU’s Center for Microbial Communities’ ambitious team while continuing my research programs and serving as SCGC director at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in the US.

POSTDOC POSITION --- Bernd Blasius has just opened a PostDoc position to model viral evolution. The project is a collaboration with me Dirk Brockmann and famous virologist Christian Drosten, among others. uol.de/en/job/postd...

» A new simplification in modeling enables us to predict system failures before they begin. « (@mhab.bsky.social) How? ➡️ Read in our latest newsletter: 241806.seu2.cleverreach.com/m/16915050 Also news about Red Sea coral reef protection, BBNJ, a new working group and... a special cemetery 😱

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧? 🪸 Join us for a 3-year #Postdoc and help us find out! Our ERC-funded project at @hifmb.de offers excellent facilities and an international collaborative work environment. Apply by April 1st: jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/21... #ScienceJobs

Rossella Alba, our new colleague at @hifmb.de leading the Marine Policy and Management working group, offers two fully funded PhD positions here: jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/21... apply until March 18, and feel free to make potential applicants aware. 🧪 @icbm-uol.bsky.social

Our new paper, out today! We resurrected ancient nitrogenases first used by life on Earth 3 billion years ago. We combined synthetic biology and geology & validated their chemical #biosignature in rocks that helps reveal ancient life on Earth!(and beyond!) Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Resurrected nitrogenases recapitulate canonical N-isotope biosignatures over two billion years - Nature Communications

The study shows that nitrogenase enzymes have maintained stable isotope signatures over billions of years, revealing how ancient microbes shaped Earth’s nitrogen cycle and offering a new experimental ...

nature.com

With the release of anvi'o v9, the 300k+ contigs databases available for download on the GlobDB website are now compatible with both the development version and the latest stable release (v9) of anvi'o. More info: globdb.org/news Thanks #anvio team! 🖥️🧬🦠

A. Murat Eren (Meren)@merenbey.bsky.social · 7mo ago

We just released #anvio v9, "eunice" 🎉 This version represents over 2,000 changes in the codebase since v8, increasing the total number of programs in the anvi'o ecosystem to 176. Read the release notes: github.com/merenlab/anv... Visit our up-to-date web page: anvio.org

We just released #anvio v9, "eunice" 🎉 This version represents over 2,000 changes in the codebase since v8, increasing the total number of programs in the anvi'o ecosystem to 176. Read the release notes: github.com/merenlab/anv... Visit our up-to-date web page: anvio.org