Happy to share that this paper led by @caberger.bsky.social with @stoilovamarina.bsky.social @rebeccavarney.bsky.social @pcart.bsky.social Sam Abrams and Maria Pia is published -- Unexpectedly predictable molecular evolution with diverse ecologies 🧪 🧬 🌊 #Molevol #EvoBio www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Todd Oakley@ostratodd.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We started by studying gene reuse in eyes over deep time -- but were astonished to find adaptive molecular convergence to be rampant and not directly related to important traits, including eyes. Led by PD Cory Berger www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Oregon State University's Department of Integrative Biology is currently hiring up to three tenure-track faculty members, with an emphasis on organismal biology. Note: Previous links are no longer active due to a change in our hiring system. oregonstate.wd501.myworkdayjobs.com/OSU_Careers_...

Assistant Professor

Department: Special Instructions to Applicants: To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by 10/1/26. Applications will continue to be accepted after the full consideration date, unt...

oregonstate.wd501.myworkdayjobs.com

Many thanks to the Ocean Census and the Nippon Foundation for supporting our work!

Ocean Census@oceancensus.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Ocean Census Species Discovery Awards provide financial support to help scientists work through specimen collections. Meet the 14 taxonomists supported this year. oceancensus.org/the-ocean-ce...

I am recruiting Ph.D. students this cycle. Students interested in deep-sea fishes and phylogenetic comparative methods are an especially good fit.

Well, Chevron has figured out their candidate. Always helpful to know who Big Oil is rooting for. As for me, I think Tom Steyer will take on the oil and utility industries, and save Californians a bundle. Which is why those industries hate him.

Leah Stokes@leahstokes.bsky.social · 3mo ago

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra just took half a million dollars from the fossil fuel industry. This on top of the max contribution from Chevron. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

If you live in California like me, it's election season. I'm voting for 3 climate champions: Tom Steyer for Governor, Josh Fryday for Lt. Governor and Ben Allen for Insurance Commissioner. Get out there and vote!

Any guesses who made this shell? I found a couple of them in a deep-water sponge from Alaska. @elizabethbeston.bsky.social

Bye, Country Joe! Unfortunately, your song remains relevant as the President discusses bringing back the draft. And it's one, two, three, What are we fighting for ? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is in Iran.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 5mo ago

Country Joe McDonald, one of the starring acts at Woodstock whose satirical anti-Vietnam War song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” became an anthem, died on Saturday. He was 84. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/a...

NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26) Directorates to follow 1/10

So excited to share this manuscript led by the inimitable Cara Brand, who discovered that Topoisomerase II evolution causes hybrid female lethality in Drosophila. Congrats to Cara, @nickbr0wn.bsky.social, Anirban, and @buszczaklab.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How do #sponges coordinate their bodies despite lacking neurons and true muscles? We show that sponges use monoamines to control water flow in their canals — reminiscent of how adrenaline regulates blood vessels. My PhD story, now on BioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #Evolution

Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday. 📷️: Aaron Lavinsky

Back from holiday and it's finally time to post about this. I am taking on a section editor role for the new diamond open access journal Biogeography, put together by @biogeographyjfab.bsky.social. That means that it's free to publish and free to read. (thread) biog.journals.sup.org/index.php/bi...

Some baby sponges grow inside their mothers, and little baby sponges are later released. This is the case in deep-sea golf ball sponges (genus Craniella). Want to know more? Read our new article 🙂 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

📣We're Hiring!📣 Come join us as a marine micro lab tech in sunny Santa Barbara! A great position for a 2-year post-bacc or starting point for a long-term technician position. Apply by 9 October for full consideration, and please share widely! careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psp/ucsb/EMP...

Thanks to @joanaxavier.bsky.social, Javier Cristobo, and everyone else for a lovely 12th International Sponge Conference in Vila do Conde, Portugal. @wscommunity.bsky.social

Yet another study (Danish) has found no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines & 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma & autoimmune diseases. In this study, they tracked 1 million kids over 21 years. 🧪🔗 en.ssi.dk/news/news/20...

Large Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or 49 other health conditions

A new Danish study finds no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. The findings reaffirm the safety o...

en.ssi.dk

“Fulfilling Koch’s postulates, V. pectenicida strain FHCF-3, cultured from the coelomic fluid of a diseased sunflower sea star, caused disease and mortality in exposed sunflower sea stars, demonstrating that it is a causative agent of SSWD” (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) 🦑🌊🧪 #MarineLife

Vibrio pectenicida strain FHCF-3 is a causative agent of sea star wasting disease - Nature Ecology & Evolution

The causative agent of sea star wasting disease has been elusive. This study used genetic datasets and experimental exposures to demonstrate that a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida caused di...

nature.com

Alexa Robles-Gil@alexaroblesgil.bsky.social · last yr.

Since 2013, a mysterious epidemic wiped out billions of sea stars. A new study finally identifies the culprit. My latest for @nytimes.com (gift link below!) #marinelife www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/s...

While it is still #spongethursday, it is w/sadness that I note that the sponge taxonomist, Dr. Welton Lee who famous described the carnivorous "harp sponge" in 2012 w/ @mbarinews.bsky.social & a host of co-authors passed away earlier this year in March. A good man and apparently QUITE the violinist!

So this morning, as I sip my coffee and get ready for a day of meetings, I'll be thinking of Will, who was moved to ICE detention in South Texas on Tuesday morning. I can't imagine what's going through his mind, the anxiety & fear. Fear of losing the only home he's ever known.

Korean PhD student detained in California despite green card, lawyer says

A green card holder from South Korea who has lived in the United States since the age of five was taken into government custody by immigration authorities.

abcnews.go.com

A little belated but I've started a faculty position at Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology department at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social. I'm absolutely stoked! I'll be recruiting at all levels and will be at #Botany2025 Reach out! www.martinezgomezlab.com

Martinez-Gomez Lab

Plant Evo-Devo

martinezgomezlab.com

They all find savings associated with turning up or off your A/C while you're out. Air conditioning accounts for 19% of energy consumption in US homes! Any little bit you can do to reduce your A/C usage can save you money on your energy bills and fight climate change. 9/9

Santa Barbara #nokings

This shouldn't even be a particularly "hot" take in the sense that it's objectively & quantitatively correct! In formal studies on return on investment for federally funded research at universities, the enormous value is very clear. It is even (dare I say it?) a very *efficient* public expenditure.

P. Gabrielle Foreman@profgabrielle.bsky.social · last yr.

Hot take. The government isn’t subsidizing university budgets. Universities are lending subsidized expertise to research and development that contributes to the public good. It’s called partnership.

He resolved that he would not stop either, even though it was a huge sacrifice on his part. I believe this is what we owe our trainees: so long as they are invested in their work, we must be as well, even if it seems like the world is on fire around us, both literally and figuratively. 10/

Done. Please comment, click on public comments on left bar. Suggestions in thread. bsky.app/profile/free...

Jon Freeman@freemanjb.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

OOF! @Pacificklaus captures this video of a CRAB occupying this urchin's ANAL BULB! youtu.be/yyGMrOXNn5Y?...

The Special Sea Urchin Crab

YouTube video by Pacificklaus

youtu.be