Well deserved award for @katelaskowski.bsky.social ! I am honored to have her as a mentor at UC Davis and to learn from her what it means to produce rigorous and just science 🥳

Retraction Watch@retractionwatch.com · yesterday

The Center for Scientific Integrity is proud to announce the inaugural winners of the 2026 Ctrl-Z Award. Named for the universal keyboard shortcut for “undo,” the Ctrl-Z Award this year honors @cetaceanneeded.bsky.social and @katelaskowski.bsky.social for choosing transparency over reputation.

New paper on the evolution of A-to-I #RNA editing in #fungi with Jiachen Li and George Zhang is out! I did some very preliminary analysis near the tail end of my PhD (but didn't continue), and Jiachen fully developed this project. doi.org/10.1093/molb...

I am beyond excited to share that our paper, "Neurodivergent Perceptions, Experiences, and Perspectives in Academic Biological Sciences Spaces" has been published! A 🧵incoming because this paper is so special to me and the co-authors. doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

Neurodivergent Perceptions, Experiences, and Perspectives in Academic Biological Sciences Spaces

Abstract. Neurodiversity has received considerable attention recently from the general population and academic researchers, coinciding with an increase in

doi.org

This was what was at stake in 2024. If you didn't vote for Harris, the only person who could've won against Trump - you are no less responsible for this. A Harris administration never signs the EO. A Harris administration never appoints Homan, Miller, or Hegseth. You are not an ally.

Heba Gowayed هبة جويد@hebagowayed.bsky.social · last wk.

My Haitian friend was just fired from his job. "They said I don't have a legal status now." This is likely happening to hundreds of thousands of people across this country today. Sick.

A 6yo killed in a failed gene therapy trial done *secretly*, *before* the animal experiment results were published. The man behind it, Zilong Qiu, deserves to be jailed. Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public

Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals

science.org

Encountered this rice paper #butterfly (Idea leuconoe) today. This is the prefecture butterfly of #Okinawa and the largest butterfly here, with a wingspan of 12-14cm.

A nice summarization of concepts. It’s focused on animals but it’s enough to illustrate that any single definition of sex has limitations. (I’d still love to see a “sequel” that discusses other groups that conduct sexual reproduction though lol)

Andy Lee, PhD@andylee.bsky.social · 4w ago

In our Viewpoint (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...) we synthesize the gametic definition (outlined by Janicke et al below) and other definitions of sex (e.g., multivariate definition). We contend that is NO consensus on “biological sex” (maybe a consensus isn’t actually necessary…)

okay fine i'll read the thing based on the first skim i did i'm not holding my breath, but since we're cited repeatedly i'll engage in good faith.

IMAO biological sex is rooted in the asymmetric inheritance of organelle DNA, and microorganisms that are isogamous and/or have >2 mating types do have biological sex (albeit not referred to using names of anisogamous sexes). This should be the cleanest way biological sex can be defined.

Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them)@jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 4w ago

okay fine i'll read the thing based on the first skim i did i'm not holding my breath, but since we're cited repeatedly i'll engage in good faith.

My 1st wild #octopus 🐙 sighting Apparently feeding on a #crab 🦀

It's the season of blueberry hermit crab (Coenobita purpureus) now. Today I encountered a shell-less one on the beach. No jettisoned shell 🐚 nearby either. Hope it can find a nice new home soon. #Okinawa #HermitCrab #Crustacean

Paper of @haorancai.bsky.social on apparent stabilizing selection on fly wing shape is out 🎉 Persistent selection on size explains micro- and macroevolutionary alignments in fly wings | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

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

NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵

Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants

Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.

nature.com

I hope that @qedscience.bsky.social will implement an opt-out mechanism @odedrechavi.bsky.social I personally do not want to be included in those ranking metrics; it is the part of academia I dislike most and find the most damaging

Yasin Dagdas@plantophagy.bsky.social · last mo.

@richardsever.bsky.social Is it correct that @qedscience.bsky.social scored all #preprints from last year and made those scores public? Was this cleared by authors?If editors or reviewers can see those scores isn’t this unfair to all of us that want to share our science @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social?

I’m obligated to post some new 🦀 sightings, ain’t I? This time it’s a dimorphic pair of tetragonal fiddler crabs (Gelasimus tetragonon)..,

Jo Wolfe, PhD@jopabinia.bsky.social · last mo.

It's #JapaneseCrabDay! In honor of this auspicious day, which I learned from @crabspromenade.bsky.social, here is a two part hermit crab story 🦀🦑 Post your crabs!

Encountered a Ryukyu flying fox 🦇 (Pteropus dasymallus) today and luckily managed to film it this time #bat #flyingfox

🧵 It’s not so much an instant decapitation of American science as it’s a slow but steady asphyxiation. But the effect is the same. We’re planting the seeds of doubt in the next generation of scientists that maybe this is not what they should sign up for.

Daniel Bolnick@danielbolnick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A recently finished undergraduate (with lots of research time in my lab) applied for 60 research tech jobs with no luck... And this week I talked to an undergrad (son of a family friend) looking unsuccessfully for summer research in evolutionary genetics - AS A VOLUNTEER. (thread...)

The US truly seems to be pushing eager young scientists to reconsider their life goals of research & higher ed. I'm sure these anecdotes are being repeated for many of you & am curious what systematic efforts are underway to catalogue & measure this deterrent effect on future talent

Greetings from Eriphia sebana (Well, just an excuse to share new crab 🦀 clip)

Jo Wolfe, PhD@jopabinia.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Crabby (Pachygrapsus crassipes) says hi for #WorldOceansDay 🦀🦑

Migration should be a human right and right to reside in a country should not be dictated by labour you can/cannot do.

This is North Korea level bullshit, and a total fucking disaster for science and for the United States alike. It doesn't matter whether it fails to pass; this kind of thinking is already penetrating NIH, NSF, NASA, etc and causing severe harm. NASEM, AAAS, AAUP, etc must condemn unequivocally.

Lawmakers propose banning all U.S.-Chinese research collaborations

Critics say bill would weaken U.S. science by cutting flows of ideas and talent

science.org

Now I can no longer acknowledge #NIH grants of collaborators based in US in my papers. Not fatal to me since my own work is theoretical/computational, but for many others it'd be much harder (e.g., if they do experimental work). The insanity that's consuming US science is eroding the outer world.

I looked at my past 6 years of papers, out of curiosity. 42 are co-authored with foreign collaborators. 16 with international students or postdocs, some of whom subsequently left the US. Only 26 were by US residents only, less than 1/3 of my scientific work. This policy will kill US innovation

I'm presenting this study for the virtual meeting of @evolmtg.bsky.social on May 22 at 6:15 PM Eastern Time. Please come!

Daohan "Rex" Jiang@rexjiang.bsky.social · 5mo ago

New preprint alert! In this study, we tackled a long-debated question: is the genetic basis of convergent evolution predictable? Should we expect the same gene/loci contributing to convergent adaptation to a common selective pressure? Thread ahead 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I walked back home today, which is much slower than the shuttle bus but allowed me to encounter some cool creatures, like this colorful #beetle. Probably Sophiodela okinawana (I didn’t find its English common name), a tiger beetle #endemic to #Okinawa.

This is why I would rather assume the worst is going to happen than be optimistic. There exists a population of morons who’d remain ignorant, cruel, and hypocritical as always no matter what.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Some of the people interviewed are three-time Trump voters who nonetheless consider themselves political independents who distrust both parties, in case you needed another reminder of what that actually means

I'm looking for postdoc opportunities for the 2026-2027 academic year. If you're looking for a postdoc with a broad skill set spanning evolutionary genetics, bioinformatics, and various omics methods, feel free to reach out. Some recent pubs: (1) doi.org/10.1126/scie... (2) doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Macroevolutionary divergence of gene expression driven by selection on protein abundance

The regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein abundances is well-studied, but less is known about the evolutionary processes shaping their relationship. To address this, we derived a new phylogen...

doi.org

Indeed, people need to know this, just like they need to know birds are dinosaurs and mammals are synapsids…

Jo Wolfe, PhD@jopabinia.bsky.social · 3mo ago

They are indeed. Source: literally me (and a whole bunch of other authors from multiple datasets)

Have been working on a Chinese proposal recently (and will keep working on it for some time). It has become clearer that being a native Chinese speaker doesn’t automatically make me good at academic writing in Chinese. 1/2