Relatedly, @mweissensteiner.bsky.social recently told me that the German science foundation (DFG) has changed its policy to allow AI review: www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles... (only in German, sorry)

A reviewer just very clearly used AI to write a review. What do I do (as an author)?

his appreciation evolved over time, apparently

In celebration of #DarwinDay, here are his decidedly mixed first impressions after landing on the Galápagos (17 Sept 1835; from 'the Voyage' Chap X): "Nothing could be less inviting..."

Reading and really liking this #openaccess paper by Ary Hoffman and @brandonscooper.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... Describing endosymbiont–host interactions within the parasitism–mutualism continuum

Check out our paper on the neo-sex chromosomes in mountain pine beetle! We assembled THREE neo-Ys that are quite distinct and their corresponding neo-Xs .

Breakfast in Poznan, Poland

❗⏰ Please remember that the deadline for submitting your applications for abstracts and awards for SMBE 2026 ends today. Join us in Copenhagen from June 28 to July 2 for a fantastic meeting! #SMBE2026

Random q: Does anyone know if it's still possible to access the titles and abstracts from the Evolution 2025 meeting? Asking for someone who forgot to save his own text...

Duke Ellington once said: “I don’t need time, I need a deadline.”

snow & stairs, Berlin

Interesting article on preprinting (though there's no guarantee that would have caught errors). More importantly, can we please stop referring to whichever lineage ends up sister to all other animals as either the "first" animal or the "root" animal? This is not helpful

noooooooooooooooooo! (nice figure btw, with time of duplication vs probability)

New paper with @smishra677.bsky.social! How many different trees can be generated by just one duplication event? It turns out A WHOLE LOT, if you consider the coalescent process. 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper with @smishra677.bsky.social! How many different trees can be generated by just one duplication event? It turns out A WHOLE LOT, if you consider the coalescent process. 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

An interesting bit of history: In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland. The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

My first PopGroup—it was great! Thanks to all the organizers, especially.

Earlier this week, David Marques, my beloved PhD brother, died after a battle with cancer. He was an amazing person, friend, father, husband, scientist, collaborator, birder, among other things. I am immensely grateful for many years of friendship and close collaboration with him. We miss you!

Final version of paper with @smishra677.bsky.social now published in a wonderful issue of GENETICS! academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

While our updated paper is fast approaching book-length, the results remain the same: our method (reconcILS) is still highly accurate. So if you want to reconcile gene trees and species trees--and you might have any ILS at all--this is the best method out there! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cheating on my German beer gardens to taste some good Dutch stuff:

My year in Christmas markets... #1 Schloss Charlottenburg

Biergarten nummer zehn

Achievement unlocked: I cancelled a doctor's appointment (for my kid) over the phone **in German**!

Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA? Well, wonder no more! (Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social) "No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.16.694700v1

Biergarten nummer neun

Today the members of the Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior graduate program at Indiana University celebrated the upcoming retirement of Dr. Ellen Ketterson. Ellen was a bastion of civility and scientific excellence. The program would not be what it is without her presence over these past decades.

Hoo- Hoo- Hoo- Hoosiers!

New paper on minimal NNs for phylogenetic inference, with former grad student, Ben Rosenzweig: arxiv.org/abs/2512.02223

How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up… Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection. Congrats to whole team! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Please pass along - We've extended the CAMBIUM fellowship deadline to December 15! Our NSF NRT supports new grad students to harness biodiversity big data to adapt to & mitigate climate change impacts. Great fit for evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics, ecology & more. cambium.arizona.edu 🧬🌐🌎

Hertha Berlin!

absolutely LOVE this preprint on tricking LLMs using poetry: arxiv.org/abs/2511.15304 Like magic spells, you need to use the correct pentameter or the demon won't listen

Read this story in The Chaser Annual 2025, available now: chasershop.com/products/the...

Look-up your software name before publishing it!

twin fox kits, grunewald berlin

Kaffeehaus

Gus absolutely ascended. Volume up.

If you're looking for a #postdoc but aren't quite a fit for my lab, check out this exciting opportunity via IU's Common Themes in Reproductive Diversity group! 2-year NIH traineeship to work on one of the group's core themes. Details here! ctrd.indiana.edu/how-to-apply/

Now in Evolution: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic... This paper started when @3rdreviewer.bsky.social, Mike, and I had a lunch at which there was a lot of, "What do you mean when you say X?" Fun to spend time thinking about when terms get too muddy, and great work by Drew to pull it all together!

Low tide, Normandy

Just now realizing that most of the French I know comes from “Three Feet High and Rising”…

Great new postdoc fellowship for foundational plant research. If you’re into genetics and genomics of plant reproductive evolution or adaptive convergence (incl in the cool and charismatic nightshades!) I’d be happy to talk about possible projects! www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

Biergarten nummer acht

I have to fan-girl for a minute here. My friend @rosvall-lab.bsky.social built an app to gather data on bird behavior during the 2024 solar eclipse. 10,000+ citizen scientists contributed (including my kids), and the resulting paper was published in Science today! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New preprint led by grad student, Yu Mo! We introduce new software to calculate evolutionary rates of quantitative characters in the presence of discordance 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New preprint led by grad student, Yu Mo! We introduce new software to calculate evolutionary rates of quantitative characters in the presence of discordance 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...