The Stanley Lab is hiring! For anyone looking for a post-doc and interested in mycorrhizal fungi 🍄, this could be of interest. Deadline 4th Jan. www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Sign up now for the EMBO Workshop "#MolecularBiology of #Archaea: Life Through the Prism of Archaea" in Cambridge, UK, 6–10 July 2026. Deadline: 15 April https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-archaea#MolecularBiology#Archaea#EMBOArchaeaBiology #EMBOevents #CellBiology #StructuralBiology #ecology #evolution #biophysics 🧪

Are you a long-time fan of Archaea, an extremophile-phile, or are you simply curious? Either way, we have good news. We’re delighted to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on Archaea, 6–10 July. Sign up: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc... We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge, UK. Please repost!

📢 Deadline approaching fast 📢 to submit an abstract for the great cytoskeleton extravaganza!

Please RT‼️ #TenureTrack position @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de one of the best #proteostasis research centres in the world. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

The 2026 Guarda Summer Course in Evolutionary Biology is now accepting applications. Amazing place, amazing course, amazing opportunity for early grad students. tb.ethz.ch/education/gu...

Some archaea—an ancient group of microorganisms—have an entirely novel genetic code, according to a new study in Science. The findings expand our understanding of how alternative genetic codes evolve and hint at new molecular tools for biotechnology applications. https://scim.ag/4omApQ7

📣 We are moving to Barcelona to join the amazing @crg.eu and explore how centrosomes & cilia work, evolve & respond to the environment. We are looking for PhD students www.crg.eu/en/content/t... Postdocs gimm.pt/jobs/postdoc... Other calls to open, also for an experienced lab manager. Get in touch!

Eukaryogenesis was a billion year spree, but the acquisition of mitochondria happened when the party was winding down www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy birthday Robert! Farewell friends and Falkor (too)

And ‘Searching for the Asgards’ the movie: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgmE...

Back in Montevideo port. Time to clear up and get shipments sent. All hands on deck

Pilar raises her Asgard bridge from the sea!

And another Asgard paper. Cells in motion! Wow! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Expedition is coming to an end. Last sediment cores are up. Neil gives us a tour of Falkor (too)’s engine room. It gives us a sense of the immensity of the ‘behind the scenes’ work thst has made SPARC possible.

Bifrost (bridge to Asgard) being assembled! #AsgardArchaea @schmidtocean.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social @texasscience.bsky.social @utmsi.bsky.social

Javier has done beautiful work (following on from the study he did with Diorge Souza), showing how Asgard Escrt-III likely cut membranes. The answer: with Hofund.

Pilar finalises everything for the raising of her sculpture. It is due to enter the sea at 7pm Uruguay time

Sunday. That means cabin inspection @ 10:30. Last time we got a note, which read like reviewer feedback. ‘Excellent, but… 2 flaws.’ This time Danilo and I hope to do better.

The most amazing thing I ever saw: hundreds and hundreds of dolphins

Mike 3D prints us lids for our modified EM grid boxes for ExM samples on 6mm coverslips for Pavel and Robert’s cells. After several attempts at changing the screw thread, they finally fit.

Up on deck, a fellow traveller - a Fork-tailed Flycatcher

And presenting the enigmatic vampire squid. First glimpse.

Yesterdays star

How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery? Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore. 👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1

Late at night comedy with the cortadores

The sediment in these cores is pungent. ‘Smells like a new phylum’ says Stavros. We are all hoping for a new old one.

An outcrop 200m down. Beggiatoa - bacterial threads like rice noodles. That means sulphur. We take a sample with a vacuum.

Watching the sunset from the Falkor (too) decks. Looking for the green flash.

Seal checks out the sub

Up on the bridge of Falkor (too), Lucia is surveying the horizon for marine mammals. So far on the trip she has spotted a playful group of humpbacks, dolphins, sperm whales and a southern right whale.

2470m down - tracking the bottom. The sediment is flat with large spirals drawn by worms in the mud. Anyone thinking Escrt-III?

Waiting for the wind to subside, while the ship maps a channel on the sea floor for the next dive, Galen visits the bridge and settles right in.

#AsgardArchaea team, led by @archaeal.bsky.social fr @texasscience.bsky.social — sequencing the DNA collected fr mouth of Rio de la Plata to the continental shelf of Uruguay to detect Asgards, a group of single-celled organisms & our closest microbial relatives on the tree of life. bit.ly/3MdniTH

Stormy waters have cleared. Winds and light. Currents moderate. Live streaming from 850m. Collecting push cores.

Other researchers in action on Falkor (too)

Ten days left to apply to be a @crick.ac.uk Early Career Group Leader Closing date 27th November www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

It’s wonderful to see and sample what could only once be imagined…

Cryo plunging at sea in high winds - Luke at the helm

We just planned this canyon and now we are diving to explore and collect samples. Watch live here - www.youtube.com/@SchmidtOcea... #AsgardArchaea @schmidtocean.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social @texasscience.bsky.social @utmsi.bsky.social

It’s a beautiful afternoon. Dive 3 (864). We are taking Subastian into a deep underwater canyon. Live feed will begin soon: www.youtube.com/@SchmidtOcea...

Livestream dive two. We see a strawberry squid and a sea of brittle stars: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZLe...

Aboard the Falkor - dusk. Water collection. Evening experiments.

Asgard collaborative expedition begins… Falkor (too) has left Montevideo

Did someone say Asgard? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Another Asgard paper to digest over breakfast! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How to become a "hot RNA" 🌡️? The answers were kindly provided by hyperthermophilic archaea: rRNA modifications are key! Check out this new publication presenting pan-modification profiling of the epitranscriptome. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex.... (1/3)

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️ Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Was a wild journey also with @magdalechowska.bsky.social @joeparham19.bsky.social @iainrichard.bsky.social @emaguilarpine.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social Heimdallarchaeia are beautiful!