Just posted: a group paper describing major updates to my software pixy, for population genetic summary statistics. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... New since 2021: arbitrary ploidy, multiallelic sites, missingness-aware Watterson's θ and Tajima's D, Hudson's FST, multicore execution!

Nothing convinced me more of the importance of publicly funded basic research more than my time in industry.

Eugene Vinitsky 🍒@eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 6d ago

Love this idea that industry should subsidize basic research. Industry famously is great at prioritizing timelines longer than a year or two

I am thrilled to share that the biology dept at Hamilton College is hiring a TT Evolutionary Ecologist to start in fall of 2027! This position would teach an upper level Evolution lect/lab, a section of Bio-100, rotate through our 200-level Eco/Evo course, and a seminar. apply.interfolio.com/190184

The formal end of DOGE marks the collapse of a massive scam. Elon Musk used it to secure tax cuts for the rich while delivering less than ten percent of promised budget cuts. The initiative crippled US soft power and cost more money to fix than it saved. It also caused thousands of deaths

The NIH is an ENORMOUS bargain for the American people. Do folk think that private industry will do the background slog work for drug discovery for 250K direct costs?

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · last mo.

Scott Atlas, the champion of herd immunity as an Fox News commenter and the Trump Advisor during COVID, weighs in with a DEEPLY MININFORMED op-ed in the WaPo. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202... 1/7

It is sad that Scott Atlas doesn’t understand basic economics. Paul Samuelson wrote about public goods—why NIH has been such a stunning success—more than 75 yrs ago. Also, to see why Atlas urges ending US success, just look at who elevates him: pro-privatization billionaires. 1/

Interactive schedule (2.0) for SMBE2026! Enjoy the conference #SMBE2026 moicoll.github.io/SMBE2026_sch...

I'll be talking about Barred owls at 2:25pm in the Evolutionary informed management of vulnerable populations in a rapidly changing world at #SMBE26!

Truly bizarre story of how two papers from the 1940s by physics pioneer Max Planck have been "retracted" from Naturwissenschaften, potentially by an algorithm, for anachronistic "plagiarism" issues, leaving the current editor baffled (but it is Springer Nature so.... www.science.org/content/arti...

Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted?

Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame

science.org

I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...

My Peer Review of The 1%

I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.

open.substack.com

So excited to announce our search for 4 postdocs (funded by the Simons Foundation) who will use genomics to "test how ecological interactions, natural selection, natural enemies, hybridization & environmental gradients shape...tropical tree communities" in Panama: stri.si.edu/story/bci-ev... ...1

My editorial in this week’s Science @aaas.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪

The enduring pursuit of science in America

Imagine an American organization that convenes scientific experts not to advance any ideology or interest but to provide the nation with a clear understanding of complex problems. Imagine this body wo...

science.org

I've made the mistake of listening to a lot of Peter Thiel interviews recently to try to understand his worldview. The guy is an absolute third-rate thinker who contradicts himself every 30 seconds and nobody pushes him on it.

This is more money than was spent on cancer research at the National Cancer Institute since 2014.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · last mo.

This amount would fund the US National Science Foundation for a decade. 🧪

Job ad is not out yet, but we're going to be hiring an Asst Prof at Cal State Northridge who works on either birds or mammals (area of research is broadly defined). Track down @jbyoder.org, @mutualismecology.bsky.social, or me at #Evol2026 with questions!

another NNT win

Science Magazine@science.org · last mo.

In what may be one of Earth’s craziest forms of mimicry, researchers in 2023 reported a species of rove beetle that grows a termite puppet on its back to fool real termites into feeding it. Learn more during #InsectWeek: https://scim.ag/4mM2aS9

as I finish preparing my flash talk for SMBE, I keep wondering the scientific value of this format. 3min is just not enough time. I’d much rather present a poster.

I wonder who gave the idea to name this initiative X-labs... My blood boils reading this shit.

Science Magazine@science.org · last mo.

Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm

This is a violation of Congress' will

Science Magazine@science.org · last mo.

Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm

For years I've tracked billionaire excess. Each year I show students a chart that blows their minds. This year I had to redraw it for a trillionaire: Elon Musk, $1.32T. Depressing that we're here. Silver lining: couldn't have happened to a less deserving person, proof that wealth ≠ merit.

Elon Musk's $1.32 Trillion, to Scale

The first trillionaire's fortune, one pixel per $1,000 — scroll past every dollar, and see what a fraction of it could do instead.

stanford.edu

Postdoc search update! I am continuing to solicit applications for a postdoc opening in the lab, and probably around the beginning of July I will start selecting applicants to interview. See evoldir ad here: evoldir.net/brian/evoldi... Please RT or whatever!

there needs to be a coordinated global effort among democracies to destroy this man's financial and social media empires and leave him impoverished and powerless

Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 2mo ago

come on. come the fuck on

Looking for a postdoc opportunity in evolutionary genetics? Join the Wolf Lab at LMU Munich. job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/7...

I'm attending a digital humanities event in Montreal. There was a keynote on AI and something about the talk made me wonder if it had been written by Claude. I said as much in the Q&A. As I posed the question, the speaker shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. What he said next shocked the room +

I am recruiting a PhD student (fully funded, 4yrs) to analyze modern 🧬 and ancient 🦴 genomic data from humans and domestic animals 🐑 Please share, I am happy to chat at #ICP2026 or #SMBE2026 this summer www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

𝚒 𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚣 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚞𝚕𝚝 𝚘𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚏𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝐆-𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚡 𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚎𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 ;-; 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔 𝚞𝚖 𝚘𝚞𝚝 ⋆˚꩜｡ bobweek.github.io/talks/driftG...

I haven't looked at this manuscript for 3mo. now I want to change everything. is this normal?!?

🚨Very happy to share our new paper out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! 🦉 We show that barn owl colour morphs do not simply experience moonlight differently — they hunt differently under it. White morphs appear to turn bright moonlight into a hunting advantage. 1/3 #movementecology #barnowl #moon

Cell Press@cellpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"Barn owl color morphs hunt differently in moonlight" Learn more in Current Biology: www.cell.com/current-biol... Kim Schalcher, @pbecciu.bsky.social, @owlsforpeace.bsky.social & colleagues @currentbiology.bsky.social

I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇