Richie on the ball

Volume 42: Dan Minchin reports the First Irish record of the invasive Demon Shrimp (Dikerogammarus haemobaphes) from the Shannon River. Subscribe at irishnaturalistsjournal.org #IrishNaturalistsJournal #Zoology #Invasives

We are recruiting 🌟2 postdoctoral researchers🌟 for a NERC Large Grant project on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of badger - bovine tuberculosis (bTB) interactions.

📣 Funded* #PhD position (4 years) Wood #Ant #conservation project in Ireland🐜 @maynoothuniversity.ie Application close: 3 June 2026 More info: dirilgenecology.com/contact/ - @muresearch.bsky.social | @mu-gra25.bsky.social | @maynooth-bgs.bsky.social | * @npwsireland.bsky.social #findaphd

Join us

Join the Terrestrial Ecology Lab VacanciesOPEN [closing 3 June 2026] PhD: Irish wood ant conservation project (4 years) Postdoctoral ResearchersReach out to me if you are interested in pursuing sup…

dirilgenecology.com

2026 is the year of the horse but the horse is Artax

Funded PhD studentship with me and Dan Bradley @brad-dan.bsky.social at TCD. Medieval cattle and sheep genomics utilising parchment and bones! Deadline to apply is 27th May 🧬🐄🐑🧬 #aDNA

Victoria Mullin@victoriaemullin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Come join our aDNA community at Trinity College Dublin and explore medieval ruminant genomes! Funded PhD studentship in ancient animal genomics at Trinity College Dublin. Deadline 27th May 2026 Please see the information attached for full description and application process.

There are still a few of seats for next week's Stable Isotope Data Analysis course with Physilia - This online course will cover data validation, mixing models, foods webs, niches and trophic position, lots of R packages and time to discuss your data www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...

Applied stable isotope ecology with R – from data to decisions

18-21 May 2026

physalia-courses.org

Historical Range Contraction and Extent of Harbour Porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in the Baltic Sea Revealed by Archival Newspapers onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

This is one of those "wait for it" things: simulation of the #TracyArm landslide tsunami by Pat Lynett for our paper that came out this week in @science.org. This one is from the vantage point of a jetski at sea level. 🧪⚒️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

*camera pans to Donegal*

The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 3mo ago

Ryder Cup: Temporary train station costing €3m being built in Adare

🔥Population genetic inferences from #eDNA going strong 💪: check out my lab's recent work on screening for hybrid zones using nuclear SNPs #conservationbiology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Hybrid Horizons: Screening Hybridisation Through Nuclear Environmental DNA

Effective monitoring of hybrid zones is essential for understanding evolutionary dynamics and mitigating species loss caused by human-mediated hybridisation. Conventional methods rely on sampling num...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Meet Meta's Incredible New AI Robot Designed To Lay Off Staff

Meet Meta’s Incredible New AI Robot Designed To Lay Off Staff

TASKED with overseeing a new 10% wave of layoffs, Meta has unveiled an incredible new AI-powered humanoid robot to cut its global workforce by approximately 8,000 staff. “Humans are flawed creatures who require too much recharging …

waterfordwhispersnews.com

Dan Reed was a documentary filmmaker who specialized in terrorism and war when he detoured into very different terrain, explosive in other ways entirely: the accusations of child sexual abuse that have followed Michael Jackson since 1993.

“People Just Don’t Care”: ‘Leaving Neverland’ Director on Why Michael Jackson Won the Court of Public Opinion

Dan Reed was a documentary filmmaker who specialized in terrorism and war when he detoured into very different terrain, explosive in other ways entirely: the accusations of child sexual abuse that have followed Michael Jackson since 1993.

bit.ly

Come join our aDNA community at Trinity College Dublin and explore medieval ruminant genomes! Funded PhD studentship in ancient animal genomics at Trinity College Dublin. Deadline 27th May 2026 Please see the information attached for full description and application process.

Effective #biodiversity 🐟 🐠 🤝 policy making depends on #comparable and #generalisable data. We demonstrate how #eDNA 🧬 is empowering 💪 🌍 🌐 global biodiversity analyses. 1/8

To play it safe, they should re-edit the Michael Jackson biopic so it ends right after he's born.

Four-year fully funded PhD! The project is based on Campus Gotland (Visby), and would be suitable for students in archaeology, bioarchaeology, forensic archaeology or palaeoanthropology who have the necessary technical background. Application window closes on 27th April. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

New Atomic Ecology Meets episode 🎥 I caught up with Jessica Leuders-Dumont to talk about her recent Nature paper using nitrogen isotopes in fish otoliths to reconstruct reef ecosystem function over thousands of years. Method + application + great story 👇

Atomic Ecology Meets.... Dr. Jessica Leuders-Dumont

Over the Easter break, I had a really engaging conversation with Jessica Lueders-Dumont, Senior Research Associate at Boston College, for the latest Atomic Ecology Meets.Jessica uses stable isotope…

atomicecology.com

Current status of the Strait of Hormuz dispute

New in @science.org ‼️ In the most comprehensive study to date, we show that wildlife trade is driving animal-to-human zoonotic spillover at a planetary scale, with +1 spillover per host every 10 years. Live animal markets and illegal trade pose even greater risks. 🔓 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Intinní Áille – Beautiful Minds: A thoughtful RTÉ documentary on adult neurodivergence

Intinní Áille – Beautiful Minds: A thoughtful RTÉ documentary on adult neurodivergence

Róisín Ní Thomáin explores whether she may be neurodivergent and hears from parents seeking support for autistic children

irishtimes.com

Presenting the reopening the Strait of Hormuz as a victory is like the Greeks failing to take Troy but celebrating the safe return of their wooden horse

Out now and led by the impeccable GJ Jeunen: a new way to squeeze #eDNA sequences from preserved natural samplers! NO need to damage the old specimens: just take out the DNA leached into the ethanol! Also: we have a new entry into the #nsDNA world: #bryozoa! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This is clearly the most important event to happen in Ireland since 1990. We might not want to say it, but we all know it....

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly@seamas.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Ahead of the single most important thing that has ever happened in my entire life, I wrote about what happens when a nation holds its breath for so long that it turns blue. www.balls.ie/football/cze...

🧪 🏺 🦣 Nice coverage of 2 new #Neanderthal aDNA papers. V. interesting: - extremely low global population estimates - intense impact of MIS4, but not earlier glacials? - how we intersect this with archaeological evidence of technological diversity & cultural change is crucial, and v. challenging

Andrew Curry@andrewcurry.com · 4mo ago

Two new studies of Neanderthal DNA from @massilanilab.bsky.social, @hrougier.bsky.social, @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social and others show our ancient cousins survived for millennia in small, geographically isolated groups. www.science.org/content/arti... @science.org 🧬🏺

🧪🦣 Extremely interesting - Southern Doggerland appears to have had a microclimate w/ significant warm-species refugium, inc deciduous trees & boar, existing as early as 16 Ka. Big implications here for #Neanderthals too, if similar conditions existed in earlier cycles. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Early colonization before inundation consistent with northern glacial refugia in Southern Doggerland revealed by sedimentary ancient DNA | PNAS

Prior to the formation of the present-day North Sea during the mid-Holocene, North-Western Europe was connected through the Doggerland landmass. Wh...

pnas.org

Very excited to announce that our Leverhulme grant on insular gigantism was successful! 3 year project with @toriherridge.bsky.social @nannonstevens.bsky.social and Jesse Hennekam. Postdoc advert coming soon, but feel free to contact me via email for more details.

I’m pleased to share our new paper in Scientific Data! We compiled the first open-access, image-based dataset capturing diverse interactions between killer whales and elasmobranchs 🦈🐋 (orca emoji coming soon…) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🦇We're Hiring! 🦢 Research Assistant position at ATU to determine the feasibility of establishing a radio receiver (Motus) network in Ireland for migrating bats and birds March 26th deadline! www.atu.ie/connect/jobs... @atu-ie.bsky.social @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @shrewgod.bsky.social