Party tonight by the bird feeder!

“What is it like to be a dad taking care of a toddler? It’s basically like being a backup quarterback. You’re part of the team, but you’re not the star player and everybody gets nervous when you come in.” :/ Paraphrased from a joke by a standup comedian I’ve now forgotten.

Thoughts of Spring.

Okay, Grandma, that's enough Winter Olympics for you! 😆

A note at the start of today’s stats class.

Our capacity to do experimental aquatics research is truly unmatched. Get in touch if you have ideas for cool studies, collabs & experiments!

Some data on the importance of immigration in the US. www.ms.now/morning-joe/...

Happy belated Darwin Day to all those who celebrate! Life is not easy, but it is worth fighting for. Could not post this yesterday. Photo from a Study Abroad course to the Galapagos from a few years back. Hoping to go back this Summer, fingers crossed.

Fishing ban halts seven decades of biodiversity decline in the Yangtze River | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... A collaboration with Yushun Chen, Seb Brosse, @sjcfishy.bsky.social and other! @uwenvironment.bsky.social @uwsafs.bsky.social

Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules. Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change—all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.

😂

How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications. My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/ academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Remarkable. Report of a Brazilian spiny-rayed fish dating to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous, preceding the oldest known acanthomorphs by ~20 million years. Gondwanacanthus extends the roots of one of today's most prominent vertebrate radiations: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Bring back the pollinators.

Interesting article: Evaluation of nanopore-based diatom metabarcoding in tropical freshwater ecosystems link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Curious about the aquatic plants growing in your lakes or streams? Sign up for our 2-day Aquatic Plant ID Workshop at @kelloggbiostn.bsky.social in June! We'll cover Michigan aquatic plants, focusing on plant morphology, identification, and field-based species ID. www.kbs.msu.edu/events/aquat...

Sunrise in Crystal Lake.

Save the date! The organizers of the Midwest Zebrafish Meeting would like to personally invite you to attend their next gathering, which will be held June 24–26, 2026, at the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Check out this thread for more details about the conference!👇 #zebrafish 🧪

Priority deadline (Feb 16) for this years Fish Class at Friday Harbor is coming up quick! Get your applications in for what will be an amazing summer filled with great science, people, and tools! Financial aid is available!! @cmdonatelli.bsky.social @fishguy.bsky.social @karlycohen.bsky.social

New preprint from our big collaborative evolution experiment in 9 whole lakes in Alaska, written by McGill grad student @lucaseckert.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... What happens if you put a mixture of multiple source populations together to complete & evolve in multiple new lakes?

La Asociación Colombiana de Biología Evolutiva #COLEVOL tiene nueva página web www.colevol.org. Conócenos y mantente informado sobre nuestras actividades. #cienciacriolla

New paper alert! doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... My first, first author paper with the @tobler lab 😁

Students are the best! The knobs on our vintage pcr machine broke and two students 3d printed replacements. It is back in business. The PCR deities are happy. :)

Applications due Monday for the T. H. Huxley Award, which recognizes high-quality evolution education resources! The recipient will have the opportunity to attend and present their work at the NABT meeting in October or #Evol2026 in June. Apply today! bit.ly/2kP2pPM

#FishADay Enneacanthus chaetodon Blackbanded Sunfish. Thrives in tannic, vegetated waters from New Jersey to Florida. Range decreasing and fragmenting with drying of wetlands; extirpated or endangered in some parts of Eastern US. Pet trade also a problem in some places. www.fws.gov/rivers/story...

The video to accompany the song. Streets of Minneapolis. youtu.be/GDaPdpwA4Iw?...

Our little stream is all frozen! Oh no! 🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶

I wrote today about AlphaGenome, Google DeepMind's AI for DNA. It's powerful, experts told me, but it won't solve the mysteries of the genome overnight. Gift link: nyti.ms/4k5NFIl

Anderson Cooper speaks to son of Alex Pretti’s patient. www.cnn.com/2026/01/28/u...

Some science for some sanity: A Beginner's Guide to Structural Variants in Eco-Evolutionary Population Genomics onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara: "People have had enough. This is the third shooting in less than 3 weeks. The MPD went the entire year last year recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn't shoot anyone ... this is not sustainable."

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Does not feel real but here we are. The United States government is now openly killing US citizens and justifying their murder with lies. apnews.com/article/immi...

At least Mac and Scout look fashionable for our “Arctic” adventure.

Brutal cold coming to Chicagoland tomorrow. At least winter looks pretty here! Crystal Lake sunrise.

Global warming surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius for the past three years, meaning Earth is currently on track to breach the Paris climate agreement by the end of the decade

Students are the best. Painting of the ship we used for our Galapago study abroad program on the cover of a journal given to me by a student that is graduating. :’)

“Thanks to our latest findings, we now know that early citizens of the United States had a more nuanced system of government than previously thought,” said Professor Lee Somers, director of the site excavation

Every other summer we run a fish biomechanics course at Friday Harbor Labs. It is an awesome opportunity to learn the tools of biovisualization while experiencing the rich fish diversity of the Salish Sea. Come join us! 🧪

The deadline is fast approaching to sign up for our online Introduction to Lakes course. January 27 at 5 pm is when the boat leaves the dock! We hope you can join us, and help us spread the word.

Week 2 of the Winter quarter begins.

Scout enjoying the pretty sunrise this morning.

Love how much fun they’re having!

Alfred Russel Wallace FRS was born #OnThisDay in 1823. He independently conceived of the theory of evolution by natural selection and his work prompted Darwin to publish 'On the Origin of Species'. Wallace laid the foundations of modern biogeography.