I try to teach my students how to be smarter than AI, and I think that can happen if they learn how “smart” AI is and how they can use it for their purpose. Which means they need to distinguish AI good answers from wrong answers and that leads them to research more and learn. I hope 🤓

Is there some pattern in who uses allele frequency spectrum (AFS) instead of site frequency spectrum (SFS)?

Today’s class was so much fun! I love students’ questions driven classes… meaning, I love to draw on the board. 😬

Just in case there was any doubt, ChatGPT 5.0 still makes up completely random citations that don't exist and should not be used for literature search.

I realize broad science-literacy problems cannot generally be solved just by shoving more facts at people but I really wish more people understood that the entire purpose and mechanism of a vaccine is to educate your OWN immune system, making it about the most "natural" medical intervention possible

We concluded the Evolutionary Genomics workshop 2025: Analysis of genomic and transcriptomic data. “I loved the class, the way of teaching…”, “I think is very good, it was very helpful…” were some of the comments of the participants. @sse-evolution.bsky.social @selvaorgco.bsky.social @uniandes.

Applications are open for the International Event Grants! These grants support symposia, workshops, courses, and other evolutionary biology events, including virtual events. Learn more and apply by September 15: rb.gy/76fgi

Ya está abierta la pre-incripción al Taller de Genómica Evolutiva 2025. Organizado por @selvaorgco.bsky.social y La Universidad de los Andes, con el apoyo de @sse-evolution.bsky.social. Hay becas disponibles! ciencias.uniandes.edu.co/56-eventos/7...

Lineage-resolved analysis of embryonic gene expression evolution in C. elegans and C. briggsae | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 😍

You're invited to inform science policy this summer with the AIBS Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits. This event enables scientists to meet with their federal or state elected officials in their home state. Sign up by July 14!

We are excited to announce that tidypopgen – a new package for rapid population genetic workflows in R – is now available at evolecolgroup.github.io/tidypopgen/ 🧬💻 Read more in the preprint describing its features here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #popgen #Rpackage #genetics 1/2

After traveling back and forward these three are finally together. Can’t wait for the next one @crom-ink.bsky.social

Long-term flowering-time data on Japanese mountain cherry (recorded since the 9th century!) shows a shift in full-flowering date beginning in the late 19th century. Fascinating new @newphyt.bsky.social paper by @jgpausas.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬 Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025

Una va para donde el corazón la lleva, en la ciencia y en la vida. 🧬❤️

know what's exhausting? being angry I just had a nap, god damn

As the US House tax and spending bill goes to the Senate, we encourage those who can to continue contacting your representatives about supporting funding for the NSF, NIH, EPA, and other science agencies. Use our media tool to get started: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

And we're on! After a successful day of workshops yesterday, talks have started for Virtual Evolution 2025. www.evolutionmeetings.org/program--lin... #Evol2025

Harvard president receives standing ovation during commencement.

We have EXTENDED the deadline for applications for the Skutch Research Grants to July 1. Don't miss this opportunity!

Gloria Fuertes:

The program for Evolution 2025 is now live! Talk schedules for both the virtual and in-person meetings can be found here: www.xcdsystem.com/evolution/pr... @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social @asn-amnat.bsky.social #Evol2025

Heaps of people seemed to like the AI bit of the speech I made recently in LA (search Minchin GDay USA if you haven’t seen it). Pondering further about human striving and improv, I remembered I was quite happy with this very flawed but very “in-the-moment” solo from my Unfunny show.

"Overnight" in a protocol is something between 5 and 23 hours in a protocol depending on what day of the week it is

With the news of NSF divisions being abolished and more grants terminated, we urge our community to continue communicating with Congress to #SupportNSF and #SaveNSF. Scripts and tools you can use: shorturl.at/i7WfU

Your daily Avian Hybrids story! Genomic analyses point to speciation with gene flow in the Northern Saw-whet Owl avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/g... #ornithology

Thread with an email being sent to @asn-amnat.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social members today calling for a Tri-society week of action for NSF: Dear members: The tri-societies (ASN, SSE,SSB) are running a ‘Week of Action for NSF’. Your engagement is crucial.

"... son tan amables los días de laboratorio, Tan exquisitos los colores de las muestras fecales de los pajaritos, Tan satisfactorio el orden de los tubos, Tan preciso el volumen de los reactivos en las pipetas, El movimiento fluido entre una muestra y otra...

One more re-up for my hissy fit about wolves. arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...

Making of Birdking vol 4.

Six-decade research bias towards fancy and familiar bird species | Proceedings B royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... "Publication trends explained by aesthetic salience (visual appeal), range size (familiarity) and the number of universities within ranges (accessibility)." #ornithology

Are you a member of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE)? I'm holding zoom chats during which I will get your feedback and thoughts about what the society can do for you and for the field! Everyone is welcome to join -- sign up for a time and pls RT this!!

Looking for something good to do about . . . [waves all around] . . . but not so big on protesting? How about this: Choose a person in a position of power whom you respect, and write them a letter of praise. Encourage them to keep going. The forces of good need your support.

My ornithology students today got to speak (over zoom) with the wonderful @camilagomezm.bsky.social ! They read 1 of her papers, reviewed it, then spent class having a Q & A which ranged from climate change to her work day to the wonders of long-distance migration. Thanks Camila!

With this paper, we are releasing a new Julia package, GenomicDiversity.jl, which was used to conduct analyses and make figures in the paper. GenomicDiversity is officially registered as a Julia package, so can be easily installed like any other package. github.com/darreni/Geno... #julialang

About fifty years ago, NASA strapped a message in a bottle to a rocket and flung it into the deep dark It wasn’t supposed to go this far, but it did. Long past its mission, it’s still out there so far away now that a simple hello takes a day to reach it, and another day to hear if it says hello back

Sky chromosomes

Science is on your side, in what you eat, in what you wear, in your house, in your phone, since when you were born until your last breath, science is there for you, making your life better!! Don’t let them scrap it from you. Science is yours, stand up for science!! 🧬❤️

To this day playing Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar Live Arena Tour was one of the highlights of my career. It’s playing at cinemas at the moment I believe.  A while back now, I got to honour the brilliant Tim Rice by singing “Heaven On Their Minds” on the BBC. You might not have seen it. 🤷‍♂️

Me with fellow honorees at the G'Day USA Arts Gala! 🤩🥰Warwick Thornton and Teresa Palmer. -> and me with the lovely David Duchovny who presented me with my award.

It’s my birthday and as usual I celebrate a topic. This year considering everything that’s going on in my life and in the world the topic is “el movimiento” well represented in this song “lo mismo con las canciones, los pájaros, los alfabetos…” youtu.be/lIGRyRf7nH4

🚨 COOL BIRD JOB ALERT! 🚨 @cornellbirds.bsky.social is looking for a Research Associate to run their research and student training program at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, focusing on Black-throated Blue Warblers and Ovenbirds. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/29599

May I now laugh (I mean cry) at all that people saying that science is not political. 🙁

New story on the Avian Hybrids blog! And it is a very special one. Blog post #600!!! 🥳 Does the Splendid Fairywren comprise one or three species? avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2025/02/26/d... Based on the Emu paper by Anne Kearns and her colleagues | #ornithology

Nice podcast on aphantasia and mental imagery open.spotify.com/episode/0G1V...

En nuestra clase "Hablemos de evolución y ecología" hoy, Merly Escalona hablando de su trabajo ensamblando genomas para el California Conservation Genomics Project. Ha ensamblado mas que 150 genomas, desde plantas a alacranes!

I deleted a post on flu in people and cats because I don’t think I accurately summed up some recent research and I didn’t want to cause confusion. (Here is the original paper: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes... )

It’s Evolution as We Know It (And We Feel Fine)! (With apologies to REM) Registration for Evolution 2025 is now open! Join us virtually May 29-30, in-person June 20-24. www.evolutionmeetings.org/registration... @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social @asn-amnat.bsky.social #Evol2025