Here's the latest and constantly updating news on the fast-moving university crisis. Now up to 30 institutions shedding jobs after more than 10 extra have paused for now. About a third of the so-called 'system'. No doubt more every day or two. 👇 qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

I've got a postdoc position open in my lab. Do you work on moss, single cell transcriptomics or plant developmental genomics? Consider applying for this position - more here: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF06360

February 2024 was the warmest February on record in the ERA5 dataset, at around 1.79C above preindustrial records. It beat the prior record set during the 2016 super-El Nino by 0.12C: pulse.climate.copernicus.eu

Me having fun with my students at the museum www.ox.ac.uk/news/feature...

OUP blog on Scientific Writing as a research skill blog.oup.com/2024/02/scie... @queensoxbiology.bsky.social @oxfordbiology.bsky.social

[Please repost] Don't miss this exciting EMBO | EMBL Symposium "Diversity of plants: from genomes to metabolism" April 9-12, 2024, in Heidelberg. Registration closes soon! www.embl.org/about/info/c...

Really chuffed about this. I’m so proud of these books, working with a brilliant team, Ben the writer, Helen the editor and Alison the designer. I hope this helps to bring them to a wider audience of 12+ children with a fascination for science.

We're looking for enthusiastic field assistants to work on a range of projects at beautiful Wytham Woods near Oxford this spring: some posts for ornithologists with ringing licences; some for more general ecology. Please share with anyone who might be interested:

🚨 I don't think this should surprise anyone - last year's average Antarctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record... Data averaged from January to December using nsidc.org/data/seaice_...

Saw two sulphur-crested cockatoos in Nice! Apparently, there are a few individuals who have been living wild since at least 2012 when they last attempted to breed. Amazing birds. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Great news for Springer! Not only did they make an obscene profit from your publicly-funded science but now they’ve struck a deal with OpenAI to make that science available to large language models. Will any of that money be given back to science do you think?🤔 www.theguardian.com/media/2023/d...

An informative article about the career, contributions, and ongoing saga of award-winning ecologist, Priyanga Amarasekare! Nice write-up from Andy Dobson and Ottar Bjornstad. doi.org/10.1002/bes2...

Don’t forget to be unavailable every time Queen Mary’s needs an external examiner! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Resurrected seeds from #herbarium specimens reveal rapid #evolution of #drought resistance in a selfing annual New #AJB research by Kyle Christie, Natalie Pierson, Liza Holeski & David Lowry bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #botany #climatechange

My GIFT-XPERT™ algorithm will help you with those tricky Christmas shopping decisions!

Applications now open for the 2024 R. C. Lewontin Early Awards, which provide up to $2500 in research funds for 1st and 2nd year PhD students. Deadline: February 23 www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Open Day recordings of all the sessions are now up in how-to-apply area of our website www.environmental-research.ox.ac.uk. The DTP Office will be closed from 21 December to 8th January, so applicants needing advice are very likely to find the answer there.

Proud of my latest article with @tmkeesey.bsky.social in @botsocamerica.bsky.social #PlantSciBull on using Phylopic for #PlantScience tons of resources for figure creation including step-by-step videos issuu.com/botanicalsoc...

Pretty extraordinary that Al Jaber is now talking about oil as a low-carbon fuel, because extracted efficiently in the UAE with low leakage. Makes it sound even better than gas, which, as we all know, is a ‘transition fuel’. Really - what’s to worry about?

Terrible picture, but there’s a pair of blackcaps at my house every day, stripping the tiny olives from my olive tree. They used to all head south for the winter, but significant numbers now overwinter in the UK.

every story about a breakthrough in women’s health is like, previously doctors thought the symptoms were caused by their abnormally small and hysterical brains but researchers have found there is a legitimate medical explanation that has been ignored for 70 years.

COP28 🎉

Wow, the last three months have really shattered the previous September to November temperature record for our planet... Using data from ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dat... 🧪⚒️

Man! I know how that feels! Big thank you to all those who were kind enough to buy my book - and a special thanks to those who left a review. It’s such a boost!

Reminder. UK #Curlew need to produce 10,000 more fledged chicks each year, to stop declines: wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/12/m... NEW. Update on productivity in 2023 from Curlew Action: youtube.com/watch?v=OMuY... #waders #ornithology #birds #UKbirding

[Please repost] Looking for a PhD program that goes from molecules to ecosystems? Look no further, and apply to us! I'm offering two projects, on the 1001 Genomes Plus project and on investigating functional diversity in the plant immune system www.phd.tuebingen.mpg.de/8387/detlef-...

There it goes... 📈 Updated through November 2023. More climate indicator visualizations at zacklabe.com/climate-chan...

Do you know your Mistle Thrushes from your Song Thrushes? If not, here's another wonderful identification video from @btobirds.bsky.social British Trust for Ornithology www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VED... More BTO bird identification videos, here: www.bto.org/id-videos #birds #birdidentification

@stuwest.bsky.social I just think you’ll love this…maybe we can hold a competition? Who’s the most professor?

New research from Nilo Merino Recalde et al. on the drivers of cultural evolution in great tit song. Analysis of >100K songs from >400 males allows us to disentangle effects of age-structure, dispersal & immigration on song diversity and turnover at multiple scales biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Exciting opportunity at the Queen’s College Oxford in association with @oxfordbiology.bsky.social. The Browne JRF is a three year independent research fellowship available in any area of biology that complements Oxford Biology. www.queens.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/br... Please repost!

New in Science with @jaescudero.bsky.social . A combinatorially complete fitness landscape with >260.000 E.coli genotypes shows unexpected properties. Despite ~500 fitness peaks in this landscape, adaptive evolution can easily navigate to highest fitness peaks www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@juliajones.bsky.social will be talking on Monday 5 pm at Oxford Martin School on “is conservation working?”. Online and in person. All welcome !

Today's species is one of the most widespread and long lasting of #Ginkgoales species. This is #Ginkgo #adiantoides! It lived from the latest Cretaceous all the way until the Pliocene and is perhaps the closest relative of the modern #Ginkgobiloba. #paleobotany #paleoart

The Royal Society intends to deliver a new mid-career Fellowship, funded by a £250 million Government endowment. To be launched in 2024, the Faraday Discovery Fellowships, will support scientists to pursue discovery-led ground-breaking #STEM research: royalsociety.org/news/2023/11...

Incredible news from Seychelles! Blue whales are hanging out there and probably breeding. www.bbc.co.uk/news/science...

Are mathematicians ok? 🧪 arxiv.org/pdf/2106.11285

Cool journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social will be joining us in @oxfordgeography this Friday to talk about how we can combine rewilding, restoration and agroecological approaches to give pragmatic solutions for #naturerecovery. In person and online. Book here: bookwhen.com/oxfordbiodiv...

That’s a wrap! The last episode of the series is all about ecology. Find out more about the state of populations, keystone species and the all-important ecological niche. Massive thanks to my son who did all the hard work making these videos. youtu.be/aSMMq60nvbE

There's a deep sense of sadness and loneliness seeing this record shattering graph. November 17, 2023 was the first day in recorded history when the earth's surface was a whole 2°C hotter than pre-industrial times. Yet, there's barely any chatter about this staggering breach.

This week's EGI seminar will be given by Dr Jack Shutt (Cambridge University) on Garden Bird Feeding: Friend or Foe to Conservation - please come along to the Seminar Room in Biology, Mansfield Road at 3.30pm on 24 November: all welcome

Oh, and if you want to see a diagramme of the trachea, here's one from this paper (left) www.nature.com/articles/19873. It's nto the strangest trachaea of any bird, which I think is probably won by the Trumpet Manucode, a bird of paradise with probably ever growing trachea (right).

Full brakes!! Hard turn!! Mr Allen’s I. A tight maneuver, looking pretty sharp! 🤎 Hummingbird #birds SoCal

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) averaged about 419 ppm in October 2023 10 years ago October averaged about 394 ppm Preliminary data from gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

Finally - we’ve reached Chapter 9 and plants get to muscle in and tell their story. I’m certain that if plants had faces everyone would be studying them. The greatest traders in the history of our planet. What’s not to like?! www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7pu...

Not all stereotypes about Oxford are true... Join our Virtual Open Day and find out more about us, Sessions include What is a DTP? What Assessors are looking for; The application process; The application form; Student Q&A; Careers. www.environmental-research.ox.ac.uk youtube.com/shorts/82ty0...

Balloon causes death of Gervais' beaked whale. So sad and totally avoidable. #plastic pollution. Press article from U of NC, Willmington. 🌏🦑🐳 "it is common for us to identify plastic ingestion as the cause of death in these rare deep-diving marine mammals" Full article: uncw.edu/news/2023/11...

Join my lab @UniversityZurich! #PhD #Position in #Molecular #Ecology and Aquatic #Biodiversity Details: apply.refline.ch/673277/1112/... Become part of a larger team on studying taxonomy, genetic biodiversity & ecosystem role of #amphipods. #PopulationGenetic #DNA Apply by Dec 10. Please #RT! 1/3

Having joined Bluesky today, can I introduce my book Not Just for the Boys to #womeninSTEM !