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...

The most important paper in evolutionary biology I'd never heard of: 1/ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Biergarten nummer sieben (It’s getting cold out, but I’m just going to keep saying “Biergarten”)

This is a great opportunity. Apply!

Happy that our new paper is out, led by super-postbacc Daniel Rickert (now a PhD student at UNC). Also kind of excited to have my first TPB paper... 1/2 "Inconsistency of parsimony under the multispecies coalescent" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

kites over Berlin, tempelhofer feld

Scientists, DON'T USE LaTeX UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON'T GIVE LaTeX TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON, BREAK UP THE .tex DOC INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE DOCS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE [Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has occurred]

Biergarten nummer sechs

Berlin adventures

Hell yes

Die Mauer

Die Mauer

Just in case anyone was worried about me. Doesn’t count as a biergarten, but still staying hydrated!

You may have missed this #ant poster at #ESEB2025, but be sure not to miss the article just published in #openacess in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper led by @yadirapga.bsky.social! Opossums have babies at 6-months of age, but are still highly male-biased in their mutations academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

New paper led by @yadirapga.bsky.social! Opossums have babies at 6-months of age, but are still highly male-biased in their mutations academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Biergarten nummer fünf (featuring Dr. Turelli!)

Biergarten nummer vier

Biergarten nummer drei

Ich bin ein Berliner

I'm a little bit late, but happy to see this new paper led by @imillercrews.bsky.social and anchored by @rosvall-lab.bsky.social now out on bioRxiv. We analyze comparative songbird RNA-seq data using new features in our software package, CAGEE. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Biergarten nummer zwei