Super excited about this review/new data preprint on aquatic plant photosynthetic methods - turns out its *hard* to measure stuff underwater! Led by awesome grad in the lab @ellliieee.bsky.social with postdoc @wickellomics.bsky.social and some brilliant people at LiCor! 💧🌿

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Techniques and challenges in studying photosynthetic diversity in freshwater aquatic vascular plants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.677520v1

GRFP call is out: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... Deadlines pushed back to Nov.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

nsf.gov

As we all eagerly (anxiously?) await NSF's release of the 2026 GRFP solicitation, please consider signing up as a mentor for BSA's GRFP workshop. We especially need more senior mentors (PIs, postdocs, and research scientists)!

Botanical Society of America@botsocamerica.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Mentors needed for BSA’s GRFP Workshop! 🌱 The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Workshop for Plant Researchers is returning in 2025. With NSF’s 2026 GRFP deadline set for Oct 27, we’re looking for mentors to guide student applicants. Learn how you can help! mailchi.mp/botany.org/b...

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

Mike Wagner@prowag.bsky.social · last yr.

Friday Night Massacre of accurate information. A devastating day for the USA as tens of millions of dollars of grants seeking to combat the spread of false information were terminated. We have a federal govenrment that does not consider the verifiable truth a priority. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

The first step in generating public support for science is telling people what the heck we're doing and why it matters! If you are a researcher who benefits from federal funding, please consider writing a letter to your local paper: blogs.cornell.edu/asap/events-...

The reviews are in, this was the best Quillwort Conference ever! Thanks so much to our speakers: Gemma Milly Lisa George David Wickell @wickellomics.bsky.social Megan Nibbelink @megantheebotanist.bsky.social Jacob Suissa John Evans

The National Science Foundation benefits communities in every state.

RNA xkcd.com/3056

Firings happening right now at the NSF.

I absolutely love my new 'Isoetes nerd' mug courtesy of the multi-talented, and incredibly thoughtful @ellliieee.bsky.social.

This was my experience on a recent panel. No change to how proposals were evaluated.

Jeremy Yoder says no war@jbyoder.org · last yr.

This is, I think, pretty big given what we know about the statutory basis for Broader Impacts: “NSF continues to apply the statutorily required Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts review criteria, as well as any solicitation-specific review criteria.”

📣Now Free Access: Low internal air space in plants with crassulacean acid metabolism may be an anatomical spandrel Get the Paper:

To update people on the NSF PRFB situation: despite the court challenge and rescinding the original memo, the NSF has continued to comply with the executive order. They have not communicated with us at all and our paychecks are still canceled indefinitely. I know people who cannot pay their rent.

This is shameful and completely unnecessary.

Kevin Bird@stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 2y ago

Official NSF confirmation of complete cancellation of all fund requests from Tuesday

NSF PRFB fellows: talk to your POs and transfer the remaining year’s balance of salary and research funds by 5pm today!! Dm me if you want to join the prfb slack where fellows are sharing info with each other #nsf #nsfprfb

For the record this doesn't appear to be a blanket cancel of all panels (yet).

Cara Ocobock@caraocobock.bsky.social · 2y ago

All NSF panels have been cancelled until further notice.

We are working on a major update to Mesquite, version 4! We welcome any suggestions for features or fixes. A major emphasis will be phylogenomic data. We may not have time for more big features, but please suggest small features for data maintenance or editing that could make your lives easier.

Lots of incredible SEM images of Isoetes megaspores in this preprint by Larsén et al. mapping spore ornamentation and surface structure onto the quillwort phylogeny (not my work, but I'm glad someone's doing it!): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Last week we published a peanut genome that was much more complex than it originally appeared. A 🧵 about 🥜 genomes and what we found ... Find the article as a ‘featured’ genome report in G3: academic.oup.com/g3journal/ar....

Relics of interspecific hybridization retained in the genome of a drought-adapted peanut cultivar

The genome sequence for the drought tolerant peanut variety

academic.oup.com

NSF makes you say who you got conflicts (coauthored) with. We (really just Jordan Matelsky) just built you a tool for that. Literally one click: bib.experiments.kordinglab.com/nsf-coa

A nice starter pack for society journals in ecology and evolution go.bsky.app/VGQ2eYJ

Shoot apical meristem of my "pin"📌 Mimulus mutant, with plasma membranes of cells fluorescently labeled. #MicroscopyMonday #MeristemMonday #MimulusPropaganda

If you need a distraction on the Election Day, you can read our latest paper out in Molecular Plant - we found that #hornwort #Rubisco is wicked!! Absolutely fun collaboration with Zhen Guo Oh and Laura Gunn at Cornell Plant Bio www.cell.com/molecular-pl...

Unique biogenesis and kinetics of hornwort Rubiscos revealed by synthetic biology systems

Hornworts are non-vascular land plants, which diverged from vascular plants approximately 500 million years ago, and yet the CO2 fixing enzyme (Rubisco) in hornworts has received little prior attentio...

cell.com

Join us on Wednesday, November 6, at 11 AM PST for the the next #PolyploidyWebinar! Sylvia Kinosian and Tamsen Dunn will present. The zoom link will be emailed out before the talks - sign up here if you have not signed up before! www.barkerlab.net/polyweb

Check out our new preprint where we explore downstream impacts of CAM on primary metabolism in Yucca. There's more to it than just malate! doi.org/10.1101/2024...

Integrative analysis of CAM photosynthesis reveals its impact on primary metabolism in Yucca

Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) is an adaptation that temporally separates carbon uptake at night from photosynthesis during the day. CAM has evolved repeatedly across vascular plants, perhaps, in ...

doi.org

Love this sticker

📢 Calling all prospective grad students: join us Oct 30 for a zoom webinar hosted by UofA EEB in a step towards demystifying the grad school application process. Info below 👇, registration required (register here: bit.ly/eebgradwebinar)

It's my Littorella's first birthday! I mean they're clonal... so maybe more of a one year anniversary? Unclear. Either way, I want cake. 🍰🌱🎉

🚨🧬🌾New pub!🌾🧬🚨 Asplenium (ferns) biogeography with a focus on sub-Saharan African taxa! Link to pub: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...