📣CALL FOR APPLICATIONS!! The next deadline for the #GodfreyHewitt mobility award is 31st January 2026. Open to ECRS in support of research trips or lab visits. For more information, eligibility and how to apply: eseb.org/prizes-fundi...

Excited to share our latest paper led by Ph.D. Candidate, Owen Hale, titled Elevated rates and Biased Spectra of Mutations in Anaerobically Cultured Lactic Acid Bacteria out now in mBio! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

I wrapped up field work in Siang & Dibang Valleys, Arunachal Pradesh, India, two days ago. At my last rest stop, a stunning visitor landed on the dining table, as if saying, 'don't leave!'. It was Banded Redeye (Gangara lebadea; www.ifoundbutterflies.org/gangara-leba...). I'll be back next year!

Today, join #MVIF 43! We will discuss the new bioinformatics approaches, latest findings in drug development, cancer studies and more! There's still time to register: cassyni.com/s/mvif-43

Now accepting nominations for the Gould Prize, which recognizes an individual who has advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance. The awardee will present a public lecture at #Evol2026 in Cleveland. Nominations due January 15! shorturl.at/jornc

We are excited to welcome our three new SMBE Fellows! Ioanna Kotari, Shady Kuster, and Haoran Cai will join @molbioevol.bsky.social and @genomebiolevol.bsky.social as writing fellows. Keep an eye on our next Highlight articles in MBE and GBE! #society #scicomm #evobio #molbio #genome #evolution

Out now at @plosbiology.org we evaluate the potential for antibiotic efflux and cell wall biogenesis as targets for reversing drug resistance and preventing its de novo evolution in Escherichia coli. Link below: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I'm the incoming SSE president and am behind this idea -- if you're interested in putting together an app and have questions, pls reach out!

Next illustration of the series: lab animals #art #digitalart #illustration

I wrote a commentary about the recent paper by @deepaagashe.bsky.social and @vrindarvkm.bsky.social Also go have a look at the original paper if you haven't ! The timeframe of prediction for eco-evolutionary dynamics | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The MBE Best Student Paper award of 2024 goes to Julien Joseph (winner) and William S. Henriques (runner-up). 👏 Congratulations Julien and William for this recognition of your amazing work! Check below for details on their research ⬇️

Many sea stars begin life as young fairy-like creature (called a brachiolaria) that float through the open ocean. Eventually, a small star forms within them (here in yellow). The fairy-like brachiolaria sinks under the star’s weight, and the star pops out! 🎥@the_story_of_a_biologist (on Insta)

Due to the aforementioned school project, I've been inundated with dragon content in recent weeks. Yup, it's the school mascot. So I was transported back to my first Ecuador trip (2006), where we traveled deep into the Amazon, The highlight was... this Amazon Forest Dragon (yes, it was slow).

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols. Thread 1/n

Magical! As dawn kisses Brazil's Veadeiros Tablelands, a stunning field of rare, endangered wildflowers mirrors the sun's rays, giving the impression of self-luminescence. Marcio Esteves Cabral, Gold Prize, Plants & Funghi, 2025 #Nature #Landscape Comp. #EastCoastKin #Escape #BloomScrolling #Plants

The buff-tip moth (Phalera bucephala) has mastered a very particular kind of camouflage. When they close their wings up, they resemble a broken twig. Native to large parts of Europe, there's regional pattern variation that reflects the local tree species. This one best resembles birch twigs?

Sofya is a fantastic scientist and a super nice person. Definitely recommend finding a way to work with her!

About 10 years ago, we set up lots of experimental beetle populations, censused monthly. Expecting extinction, I said the workload would drop soon. But they all rescued themselves! 😱 So Vrinda & co kept counting. Many hundreds of thousands of beetles later, we have some neat outcomes. Enjoy!

NEW PAPER! Some kinds of genetic mutations are more likely to arise than others. Such "biases" in mutation vary between species. Analyzing data from 14 species, we show that this variation explains species differences in the genetics of adaptation! (1/3) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

*Congratulations* to former Darwin Trust-funded PhD student Arun Prakash for being awarded the Alfred Russel Wallace award from @royentsoc.bsky.social for his PhD on #immune regulation of disease #tolerance and immune #priming in #Drosophila! @edinburghbiology.bsky.social @uoe-eid.bsky.social

Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑

Season 5 is going to start 🔜 Check out the program and feel free to join the keynotes by presenting your work–abstract submission is open www.microbiome-vif.org/en-US/-/info... @kathlemon.bsky.social ‬ @saramitri.bsky.social @simrouxvirus.bsky.social @halllab.bsky.social @deepaagashe.bsky.social

Aurelien Tellier presenting the details of #eseb2027 which will be a hub meeting, with connected and local sessions in 4 hubs (Gothenburg, Munich, London, Istanbul) eseb2027.org #eseb2025

✨ Day 5 of #ESEB2025 wrapped! Thanks for an inspiring week: safe travels home, and see some of you tonight 🎉

So excited to share this new paper by @sulheim.bsky.social and others! It's rare that you find a pattern, propose a hypothesis and the more you look, the more data you find that fits! Snorre's intuition, hard work and rigour to put it all together have been inspiring! Let us know what you think...

New paper out @molbioevol.bsky.social on antimutator Ecoli, mutational spectra and the distribution of fitness effects of antibiotic resistance with @knightjar.bsky.social @rokkrasovec.bsky.social and others @mermanchester.bsky.social doi.org/pzfm Read🧵for highlights and fun stats (1/13)

Very cool work, showing how to increase adaptation rates with very specific tuning of local mutation rates!

We will be in the exhibition hall @eseb2025.bsky.social! ✅ Meet our editors ✅ Support your society journal @agonzalezvoyer.bsky.social @maxreuter.bsky.social @ebablab.bsky.social @vakirlis.bsky.social @arnaudlerouzic.bsky.social @francescaraffini.bsky.social @masahitotsuboi.bsky.social

Welcome to Jurassic Pork 🦕🥟🦖 #Delicious #Dinosaur #Dumplings

New paper alert! 🚨 Plasmids promote bacterial evolution through a copy number-driven increase in mutation rate. We combine theory, simulations, experimental evolution, and bioinformatics to demonstrate that mutation rates scale with plasmid copy number. Let's dive in! 🧵👇

After a mutation makes E. coli more resistant to cefotaxime, can it coexist with its less resistant ancestor? In collaboration (Philip Ruelens, Arjan de Visser, Eline de Ridder): with measurements of growth, detoxification, and death rates we can predict coexistence. doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Here's our new broad review on the extended mobility of plasmids, about all mechanisms driving and limiting their transfer. From conjugation to conduction, phage-plasmids to hitchers, molecular to evolutionary dynamics, ecology to biotech. The state of affairs. 1/9 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

This morning ended with the Graduate Student Excellence Symposium, where our eight awardees presented their great work. 👏 Congratulations to all GSEA recipients! #SMBE2025

So happy to see this paper finally out! Ridiculous amount of work by Mrudula Sane and Shazia Parveen, showing that reversing baseline transition bias is good, as predicted by models from Lindi Wahl and co. Big thanks to @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social and DBT/WT India Alliance for support.

📣 Call for Proposals: 2026 SMBE Satellite, Interdisciplinary and Regional Meetings SMBE is calling for proposals for meetings held between Jan-Dec 2026, with competitive funding for actions on important, focused, and timely topics 📅 Deadline Aug 15 📝 smbe.org/guidelines

New paper in Evolution Letters @evolletters.bsky.social by an undergrad in my lab! academic.oup.com/evlett/advan... We modeled eco-evo dynamics of infection & immunity and then analyzed 50 years of data from stickleback & tapeworms (thanks to museum samples!)

😊 so good to catch up. If you haven't done it recently, I do recommend popping a hello to your shelter/fertilizer/sun from days bygone.

If you need a ten-minute break from the horrors, ogle this selection of the year's best nature photography and read the story behind each photo, as written by me and @skylarknight.bsky.social. You will learn things that make the world seem a tiny bit brighter, I promise.

Thrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #MicroSKy #Microbiology

Very useful list of How to Conference

Tuffaha, Wahl et al. analyzed tumors from 20 tissues to show that nonhypermutated tumors reverse germline mutation biases, facilitating adaptation without elevated mutation rates. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf105 ‪@ryangutenkunst.bsky.social @castellanoed.bsky.social

If you've ever wondered what a moth looks like in full evening wear, I feel like the Scarce Forester puts on a pretty good showing.... #MothMay #SciArt #ArtSky #BugSky #Moths #Procreate #illustration

Something lovely to start the week! 🐙🏺❤️ I revisited Heraklion Archaeological Museum a few days ago to see these fabulous clay pots with octopus decoration. Made by artisans from Bronze Age Crete about 3,500 years ago! 📷 by me #Archaeology 🏺

Meet Jacky Kaiyuan Li, Ph.D. student @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social, and winner of the Graduate Student Excellence Award. Jacky's research interests lie in statistical modeling for evolutionary biology and population genetics. 📊 Follow Jacky on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jacky-kai...

Can keep watching all day!

Here are 3 incredibly beautiful mantids that I saw last month. Toxodera fimbriata Paratoxodera meggitti Hymenopus coronatus

#PhDone! 🎓 Congratulations Dr Shivansh! 🎉 Shivansh Singhal, from Dr Deepa Agashe's lab successfully defended his thesis! 🧵Scroll down to learn about his work on studying #genomic changes in the red flour beetle to understand species #adaptation and #evolution. 🪲 🧬 @deepaagashe.bsky.social (1/6)

The great Sally Otto and I are hosting a series of interviews called “Reflections on the history of modeling and theory”, as part of @smtpb.bsky.social. First one drops next week, with Simon Levin. Tune in for great stories, some pearls of wisdom, and the long view on modeling and theory in biology.