Ever wondered how the #cuticle, a hallmark of land plants, was established? In our latest study, we show that the CUTIN SYNTHASE enzyme family was a key driver of this evolutionary innovation. #plantscience ▶️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A thread 🧵 [1/8]

For anyone wondering where modern #chemicalecology stands, here is an instant classic example 🤩 Small changes in the olfactory receptors of Drosophila suzukii agricultural pest explain its preference for laying eggs in ripe fruit instead of overripe fruit bc of detection of ester fruit volatiles 🤯

Here is the Cornell Chronicle article about our PNAS paper on the evolution of milkweed toxins (N,S-cardenolides), to which the monarch butterfly is sensitive, despite being co-evolved with milkweeds! @cornellentomology.bsky.social news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

My first podcast 😅 on how decoding the smell of organisms could help us to find solutions to protect crops in agriculture, and improve plant, animal, and human health by detecting diseases before symptoms appear! @Cornell @CornellEnto @CornellAgriTech youtu.be/szTAWwYC5bc

The International Society of Chemical Ecology Conference will be hosted by Cornell (Ithaca, NY) this June 21-26! 🐛🧪🥀🦠🦇 Early Bird registration until April 7! Please spread the word! Lots of great talks and sessions! Post-conference Metabolomics Workshop! events.ces.scl.cornell.edu/event/ISCE20...

Our most accomplished work on chemical evolution 🥳 These N,S-cardeneolides have unique structures and bioactivities, and they also have divergent macroevolutionary histories 🤩 Structural innovation in the evolution of plant chemical defense | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Here is Petra testing her bee 🐝 cage experiment to assess biomiticide peptide against varroa mites as an alternative to chemical pesticides 🤩 Thanks to Project Apis m. for the support! @CornellAgriTech @CornellCALS @CornellEnto

Our paper on using #eDNA from rainwater to study hidden biodiversity in #tropical #forest #canopies is now out in Science Advances! This method is a major step forward for the study and #conservation of this inaccessible compartiment. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Photo: J. Raynaud

With a few chemical tweaks to a known metal-organic framework (MOF), researchers have developed a material that quickly detects and removes a common per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) from contaminated water. cen.acs.org/environment/... #chemsky 🧪

Very excited about this paper led by Erika Castro. She has shown that Heliconius were ancestrally plastic in how they acquired their cyanogens, but some species have lost the ability to biosynthesise toxins, and have lost genes involved www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Researchers have mapped the chemical pathway for 4-vinylanisole that causes locusts to swarm and figured out how to inhibit it: cen.acs.org/biological-c... #chemsky 🧪

Excited to head to #Evol2025 next week! It will be my last year in a presidential role for The Society of Systematic Biologists @systbiol.bsky.social and as such I will be giving the SSB Presidential Address. www.evolutionmeetings.org/plenaries.html

A coalition of 36 chemistry department chairs from US universities has published an open letter in Science highlighting their concern over recent federal policy decisions impacting science. cen.acs.org/policy/resea... #chemsky 🧪

Apologies for missing the last few weeks for themes! In light of our new article www.nature.com/articles/s41..., the #Sundayfishsketch #Fishytheme is biofluorescent fishes! #sciart 🦑

Sharing this fluidic excretion alignment chart you did not know you needed. #TheMoreYouKNow www.usatoday.com/story/graphi...

🎉 We’re hiring! Two ERC-funded #PostdocJobs on insect–phytopathogen mutualisms are available in my lab. Explore the chemical and molecular evolution of symbioses! 🧪Chemical ecology: tinyurl.com/chem-ecol-symb 🦠Phytopathology & mutualisms: tinyurl.com/symb-plantpath #SymbioSky #PlantPathology

Travel 400M years in a flip. FERNS explores the evolution, survival, and modern ties of Earth’s most adaptable plants. By @fernway.bsky.social & Jacob Suissa, illustrated by Laura Silburn. Out May 6: go.btiscience.org/ferns #FernsBook #PlantScience

Out today, we report how small chemical modifications in the metabolism of ergosterol are needed for yeast membranes to phase seperate into ordered yet fluid domains www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (1/n)

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.

I did a podcast interview for Voyage to the Wild with Charlie Young about Ants in the Amazon! You can listen to it here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Remember when you first learned about genetics at school? All those fascinating examples of human traits that are each apparently determined by just a single gene? Time to check in on some of your favourites to see how they’re doing. 🧬🧵🧪 1/n

I am so excited about this upcoming publication about the Bees of Pennsylvania! 🐝 Stay tuned; we will have a page online where you can purchase this book in July! @nashturley.bsky.social @napoleonicento.bsky.social @stephanidae.bsky.social

Kicking off my Bluesky account by sharing a new review I wrote with @lindymcbr.bsky.social for @currentbiology.bsky.social! If you’ve ever wondered about the source of your stank or just want to learn why humans smell weird (it's true!), then this review is for you! 👃🧪🤔 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Complex signals, complex defences: there’s more to defences than meets the eye. New from @amatageorgeii.bsky.social & @liisahamalainen.bsky.social @kateumbers.bsky.social @mherberstein.bsky.social @jmappes.bsky.social @mpic.de royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #aposematism #chemecol

Published an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.” A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world. www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

👀🦋🐝🐞🐜🦗🪲🕷️Ento-Education Job alert!!👀

With my neighbors we had the #Ithaca’s best croissant 🥐 and butter 🧈 competition 😅 Tied for first place (out of 5 contenders)🥇 for croissant Bank coffee & gimme coffee for butter Minerva Amish style butter & Isigny butter (France)

#HandsOff in Ithaca, New York

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

Measure the salamanders Measure them all

New firefly antennal transcriptome preprint live on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

“What does that 🐶 smell that I don’t?” Analytical chemistry has methods to find an answer. In this case, scientists are looking for the chemical compounds responsible for the smell of powdery mildew on grapevines. 🍇 buff.ly/RjJr7kH

It’s an honor to receive the ACS Chem Biol Young Investigator Award! I’m most grateful for the contributions from all past & present lab members — it is an award for all of you as much as for me. (& also grateful to still be considered young 😅) axial.acs.org/chemical-bio... @acsbiol.bsky.social 1/2

@CornellAgriTech campus wide breakfast 😆 Amazing community of food scientists, entomologists, plant pathologists, horticultural scientists 🤩

Pleased to share a new article from my Phd student Jorge Ruiz-Arocho that examines how #cropdomestication and #nitrogen #fertilization affects #leaf traits for #maize, #beans, and #squash. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New study out from my group showing how the volatile geosmin (the wonderful 'smell of dirt') serves as a cue to influence the behavior of soil protists rdcu.be/edCJj

Just heard that Trump is putting an end to atmospheric monitoring site NY67 that is run out of my lab. This is one of the oldest NADP sites in the US, continually measuring acid rain and other pollutants since 1977. Closing it down is tragic.

Why all media are silent about the attack on higher education and science? People should know that US science innovation is at risk of collapsing! @ahmedbaba.bsky.social

Porkchop and Peanut dog fight (kind of lazy and totally inefficient 🤣)

It was amazing to have Professor Raychelle Burks give a lecture on my campus yesterday!

The crisis in higher education and science (I mean the attack we're under) is worse than the Covid crisis .... even in Fall 2020 we didn’t stop recruiting grad students 😞

We got the cover of Nature Eco Evo for our anglerfish study!! Shoutout to our graduate student HoWan Chan for the slick image. Read to study here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hi BlueSkyers! I'm an evolutionary biologist, microbiologist, entomologist, lover of nature, and long-time researcher on symbiosis. I'm realizing that BlueSky is useful and generally non-toxic so here I am (having quit Facebook in Jan 2017, and Twitter in Oct 2022).

[̲̅P][̲̅A][̲̅R][̲̅A][̲̅D][̲̅I][̲̅G][̲̅M] [̲̅S][̲̅H][̲̅I][̲̅F][̲̅T] 𝘏𝘺𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 isolated from Yellowstone hot springs use both oxygen (aerobic) and elemental sulfur (anaerobic) respiration AT THE SAME TIME. Until now, cells were thought to toggle between the two—not do both simultaneously www.nature.com/articles/s41...

-22% of butterflies abundance in 20 years in the us. That is scary… Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

NSF plans to reinstate all probationary employees who were fired on 18 Feb! NSF’s decision. 👏🏻👏🏻❤️

I am thrilled that this study by my former PhD student and current postdoc Chrisin Walther is now published in Ecology Letters! Congratulations Tine!!! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

It’s official, 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began🚨 The latest findings from #BeeWalk, the national bumblebee monitoring scheme, have revealed bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter (22.5%) across Great Britain💔 www.bumblebeeconservation.org/british-bumb...

Using Bayesian neural networks and evolutionary modelling, we show that trophallaxis evolved twice in ants: 130 million years ago when flowering plants became more abundant and ants began harvesting sugary liquids from plants and their insect partners, and again in others ~90 million years ago.