New paper out: Artificial selection for increased reproductive effort accelerates actuarial senescence and reduces lifespan in a precocial bird url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... @uniexecec.bsky.social @erikpostma.bsky.social @joelpick.bsky.social y.social @oscarvedder.bsky.social

And if you want to read more about the survival cost of reproduction in our own species 👩‍🍼, @euantheyoung.bsky.social's @nlseb.bsky.social 2025 Prize-winning 🏆 paper is a must-read. doi.org/10.1126/scia...

New preprint looking at the associations between maternal mortality and having sons in preindustrial Finland from work with León van Dorp during his master’s project. Also with Mirkka Lahdenpera, @lummaalab.bsky.social, and @hannahdugdale.bsky.social

Mothers face immediate, but family-size dependent, costs of sons in preindustrial Finland https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.08.717249v1

I am looking for a PhD student to join my new Socio-Eco-Evo group, hosted in Katie Peichel's Evolutionary Ecology Division @ University of Bern. We're offering a fully funded 4-year position, studying social plasticity and behavioral adaptation among stickleback in Greenland. Please share around!

Thanks to some great comments and suggestions, we've updated TADA! Read it here: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... Transferable, Available, Documented, Annotated.

“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”

📢 I'm hiring! 3-year postdoc in theoretical evolutionary ecology at University of Helsinki 🇫🇮 Apply: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki-Postdoctoral-Researcher-in-Theoretical-Evolutionary-Biology/1348955157/ #AcademicJobs #Postdoc #EvolutionaryEcology #TheoreticalEcology #ScienceJobs #AcademicChatter

Life-history traits as predictors of expected genetic contributions 15 years later in a cooperatively breeding bird https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695490v1

Took me a year (😱), but I finally published a blog post about our article on the #quantgen variance partition of phenitypic plasticity with @lmchev.bsky.social, published in @peercomjournal.bsky.social. 🇬🇧 devillemereuil.legtux.org/quantitative... 🇫🇷 devillemereuil.legtux.org/fr/genetique...

So there you have it, twin study estimates were greatly inflated, and molecular data sets the record straight. I walk through possible counter-arguments, but ultimately the uncomfortable truth is that genes contribute to traits much less than we always thought.

A lot has happened since our first announcement of #ExE2026, an evolutionary ecology conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in #Cornwall from June 29 to July 3 2026. Have a look at our new website to see our confirmed plenary speakers, the mid-conference excursions, and more. 👉 evoxeco.uk 👈

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

1/6 In a new preprint we ask a question: Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates? We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

This is terrifying. "[AI agents] can... infer a researcher's latent hypotheses and produce data that artificially confirms them." ... "We can no longer trust that survey responses are coming from real people" [email protected]

Join us for this interesting project on fitness consequences of early life experiences in humans 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 or elephants 🐘🐘🐘!!

**PhD opportunity at @uniexecec.bsky.social** How does host microbiome dynamics affect wildlife disease? Combine molecular techniques, statistical modelling, and field sampling to understand how microbiome dynamics in 🦡 affects their susceptibility to bTB. 🔬🦠🧪 Please repost! shorturl.at/q3OxV

Congratulations to Dr @euantheyoung.bsky.social who defended his PhD yesterday on 'Family matters: The role of trade-offs in shaping human life-histories and health' research.rug.nl/en/publicati... @rug.nl supervised with @erikpostma.bsky.social @lummaalab.bsky.social 🎉

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

We have an open PhD position (application deadline 9 January 2026) in "Theory of fitness landscapes" at @unibe.ch 🤓⛰️📊👩‍💻🎓: banklab.github.io/positions/ Please share widely! #QueerInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #CarersInSTEM #AcademicSky #HigherED

"Asynchrony of ageing among traits in a wild bird population" doi.org/10.32942/X27...

1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age @hannahdugdale.bsky.social @lummaalab.bsky.social @erikpostma.bsky.social

Back in Ingelheim for another Evolution of Ageing workshop (massive thanks to The Gutenberg Workshops in the Life Sciences for hosting). It’s set to be a great three days of talks and presentations!

Come & work with us - fully funded 4 year PhD on Social Ageing: Social environment effects on senescence, using an epigenetic clock www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor... @rug.nl @david-s-richardson.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social photo: @charlisdavies.bsky.social

New in #ProcB - From policy to practice: Progress towards #data- and #code-sharing in ecology and evolution @asanchez-tojar.bsky.social @eivimeycook.bsky.social tell us more in our blog royalsociety.org/blog/2025/09...

Well that’s the “highlight” of my week for sure! Thrilled to see our recent paper covered in Nature’s Research Highlight: www.nature.com/articles/d41... Also see @markspa.bsky.social’s neat explainer below.

1. My first ever paper is out! With @euantheyoung.bsky.social @lummaalab.bsky.social @erikpostma.bsky.social @hannahdugdale.bsky.social How do older siblings, and their sex and age, affect the survival of younger siblings? Find out by checking below. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!

**Postdoc opportunities**👇👇 Find me at poster 302 today between 17:30-18:00 for a chat. 🦡🦠🔬🧬 #eseb2025

What do you think, can we forecast evolution❓ @sevans.bsky.social and I would love to hear your thoughts, so if you are going to #ESEB2025, submit a talk to our symposium (S24: Forecasting evolution in natural populations) and join @colingarroway.bsky.social and Patrik Nosil! Deadline April 25.

👋 Interested in working on the evolution of genetic architecture 🧬 of complex traits using linked-read sequencing of thousands of common lizards 🦎 from a wild population and common garden experiment? #evolution #genetics Well, I have a PhD offer for you 👇 devillemereuil.legtux.org/erc-funded-p...

Reminder - the deadline for abstracts is in less than a month's time! #openscience

The SPAAM has organized a virtual speed-networking event between PIs and young researchers (MSc/PhD/Postdocs)! When? Wednesday April 9th 11.00AM-01.00PM CET. Registration deadline: April 2nd. Grab your slot! For more information and registration, check:

Congratulations Dr. Chik on defending your PhD thesis yesterday on "The evolutionary and ecological drivers of senescence in two wild passerine systems" 👏🎉 doi.org/10.33612/dis...

Do you have a project in ecology and evolution that exemplifies open science? If so nominate the project for a SORTEE Commendation Award: More details about the SORTEE Commendation Award:

To be, or not to be, part-time in academia? This is a tricky question that has faced many of us and in @elife.bsky.social we discuss the benefits and challenges of being part-time. With @emiliapsantos.bsky.social and a fantastic, interdisciplinary team! elifesciences.org/articles/106...

1/11 New preprint out with @hannahdugdale.bsky.social, @lummaalab.bsky.social, and @erikpostma.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Why do we age? And can a “natural experiment” during the Great Finnish Famine with long-term data help provide some answers?

🚨 New preprint alert! More siblings, fiercer competition, extra food—but stunted growth! 🐦🍕📏 In zebra finches raised in large broods, increased energy spent on begging—not less food—causes reduced growth. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Want to use a unique dataset to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of genomic diversity and its drivers in a wild bird population? Apply for this #NERC #PhD position @uniexecec.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social. www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... 🐦🌍🧪🧬 #ExeterCEC #Vlieland #NIOO-KNAW

* NEW #PhD * #Evolution #Ecology of Immune #Senesence in Wild Badgers - exciting project with me, @btschirren.bsky.social & our awesome collaborators @ APHA. Based at @exetercec.bsky.social in Cornwall, UK. !PLEASE SHARE! See www.animalsocieties.org and apply: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin... 🌏 🧪 🦑

Age x G effects in telomere length in a wild bird! How cool is this? Another excellent paper by one of our PhD students, Janet Chik! doi.org/10.1093/evle...

The Economist covered our "Strain on scientific publishing" paper. What is this all about? We collectively churn out more & more papers *per scientist*, an increasing pace, in a rapidly changing publication landscape. Why? How? Want to make sense of this? 🧵 www.economist.com/science-and-...

I had a fab week in Montreal at #Evol2024. For those that missed it, my talk examining the genetic basis for how life-history traits shape breast cancer risk among Dutch women is available now on YouTube: youtu.be/CBHrGi9t4Ps?... Happy to answer questions or hear feedback!

This Sunday I’ll be doing the Edinburgh Marathon to raise money and awareness for Empty Kitchens: an amazing charity providing meals to those who need it using surplus food. Any donations would be greatly appreciated and you can do so here: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding... Thanks!

Happy to see this paper w/ @erikpostma.bsky.social finally out there! Low interspecific variation and no phylogenetic signal in additive genetic variance in wild bird and mammal populations - doi.org/10.1002/ece3... Big thanks to everyone who helped with revisions and gave their encouragement.