Just over a month left to apply for scholarships on this project. We will run internal pre-selection interviews end of November, so if you consider applying, please reach out now. I can guarantee amazing scientific and intellectual environment at the Institute for Eco Evo @edinburghup.bsky.social

Very happy about the article by Glenn Zorpette in IEEE Spectrum. He joined @projectpsyche.bsky.social during COST-funded @10klepgenomes.bsky.social fieldwork in Italy where we collected & preserved butterflies & moths for reference genomes @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, enjoyed learning & networking.

Gelechioidea, that superdiverse superfamily of Lepidoptera that has been a super mess taxonomically, finally gets some structure at the family level with phylogenomics! Read all about it in our article led by PhD student @etkayapar.bsky.social ! resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

Only 4 days left to register for virtual participation at "Understanding Life: Using Large-scale Biodiversity Reference Genomes" 27-29 Oct. 4 half-days full of talks and discussions on biodiversity genomics: coursesandconferences.wellcomeconnectingscience.org/event/unders... @eventswcs.bsky.social

Celebrating the first 1000 genomes of Lepidoptera in Europe, sequenced at @sangerinstitute.bsky.social in collaboration with sampling hubs across the UK via the DToL project www.darwintreeoflife.org & across Europe via @projectpsyche.bsky.social www.projectpsyche.org & @10klepgenomes.bsky.social

We are also deeply saddened that the Madeiran Large White, Pieris wollastoni, is now officially extinct: it was last seen in 1986. The full report can be downloaded here www.bc-europe.eu/documents/68...

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.” Diary of Anne Frank January 13, 1943

Whole Genome Sequencing Will Transform Our Understanding of Life. The Earth BioGenome Project is using cutting-edge tech like long-read sequencing to map the DNA of 1.8 million organisms. Researchers anticipate major discoveries in evolution and medicine.

The ATLASea program is releasing its 100th genome assembly - cephalopods fans rejoice, it is for a Nautilus species. Article in French: www.mnhn.fr/fr/actualite...

Exciting news! The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris. This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics. More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk See you there !

Celebrating the first 1,000 sequenced genomes on @projectpsyche.bsky.social 😎🧬🦋 #ProjectPsyche #MothStitching

Looking for a PhD? I am advertising two industry sponsored PhD projects. One on black soldier fly genetics with #betabugs and another on searching insect biodiversity for novel enzymes #Syngenta. Get in touch if you are interested!! bbsrcdtp.lifesci.cam.ac.uk/available-ic...

How many chromosomes can an animal have? In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Research into tiny charismatic peacock spiders makes the news! BBC Breakfast this morning featured research by PhD candidate Jonah Walker and @joanameier.bsky.social @sangerinstitute.bsky.social Find out more: bit.ly/3JUL5qF

Good memories of fieldwork collecting butterflies and moths for @projectpsyche.bsky.social in Italy with lepidopterists from across Europe. We identified, dissected and preserved them onsite for optimal conditions to sequence reference genomes. In a few weeks we will reach 1000 genomes!

Very exciting findings.

Huge thanks and congrats to @siluwang.bsky.social and Anne Yoder for organising this amazing special issue. It has been fun contributing and interacting with Silu, Anne and the authors of the other manuscripts, including in a Zoom "tea break" where we presented our projects to each other.

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...

New research on glasswing butterflies🦋 by an international team of researchers, including @joanameier.bsky.social and Prof @chrisjiggins.bsky.social offers fresh insights into insect evolution and may help shape more effective conservation of these species. Read more: bit.ly/4oi4XUo

A new study tracks the recent and rapid diversification of glasswing butterflies, which evolved within the last two million years in the tropics of South America. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/geno... Study: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Advances in computational methods for inferring networks from #genome-scale data and guidelines for deriving biological insights from #phylogenetic networks www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Experts have remapped the evolutionary tree of glasswing butterflies found across Central and South America, highlighting six new species. This research helps track biodiversity and reveals genetic insights into how these insects evolve into new species. sanger.ac.uk/news_item/re...

Wanna see what it was REALLY like collecting data in the rainforest for our recent @pnas.org paper? I made a wee video about it, on YouTube now. As usual, thanks to my amazing field-assistant-turned-camera-operator Theodora for most of the sweaty Ecuadorean mug shots… 😇 youtu.be/6jNxgvK0kU0?...

thanks everyone for respecting the fact that i'm going to have to promote my book all the time now and while i'm excited about it i also know that promotion is awkward and weird and i'm just gonna push through and try to stay excited if you get annoyed, please just keep scrolling, you'll be ok

Ultimately, this means that I can use my birds to both produce data, and back it up.

4,000 NASA workers are leaving through deferred resignation. "The cuts amount to an estimated 20% of NASA's workforce" www.npr.org/2025/07/26/n...

From beautiful #moth trapping locations to sampling Alpine meadows filled with butterflies 🦋 and learning about sample preparation 🧬, I had the best week on the @10klepgenomes.bsky.social field trip! Huge thanks to all the entomologists, #COST10KLepGenomes, #LepEu and @projectpsyche.bsky.social!

New Correspondence: "While Brazil prepares to host ... COP 30 in Belém — in the heart of the Amazon — in November 2025, it is also pushing to drill for oil in the region, one of the world’s last biodiversity frontiers." www.nature.com/articles/s41... Free to read rdcu.be/ewOZB

Do you like to think about temporal niches and coexistence theory? Or perhaps you want to hear some really quirky natural history of marine insects & the moon? Or both? Read on: a mystery & its potential solution in two papers!

Very much looking forward to teaching our second edition of the Latin American biodiversity genomics course, this time in Argentina.

@10klepgenomes.bsky.social is spending this week in beautiful Vinschgau valley in South Tyrol, collecting as many new species for @projectpsyche.bsky.social as possible!

First field trip of the #WG2 has come to an end! We will share some of the most relevant moments of this fantastic week! Stay tuned 🦋🧬

So very excited for the magnum opus of my #PhD to finally be out in @pnas.org. 🎉🎉 We demosntrate that mutualistic co-mimicking tropical butterflies not only converge in light microhabitat but, as a consequence, have also converged in visual system morphology! 1/n😀 www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

A nice unauthored tribute to Henry Walter Bates, who was born 200 years ago. Bates famously discovered "Batesian mimicry" - between palatable and unpalatable species. However, his paper "Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley" had many other firsts! doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Anyone got a video of a hare having the shit scared out of it by a curlew — ah, don’t worry, got one anyway!

Huge News Coartem® Baby—1st malaria drug approved for newborns <5 kg It's a cherry-flavored mix of artemether (rapid parasite clearance) & lumefantrine (long-acting, prevents recrudescence)—dissolves in breast milk and optimized PK/PD for infant metabolism Not-for-profit launch planned in Africa

On my way to Kolymbari. Very much looking forward to this meeting.

We can learn a lot from Ithomiini "glasswing" butterflies :-)

Great faculty opportunities within the Cellular Genomics Programme @sangerinstitute.bsky.social Please share with your networks and do contact me if you would like to find out more sanger.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Wellco...

The UK Govt just released its 10 year plan for the NHS and it is legitimately ambitious and exciting. Genomic population health features heavily... on the cover even! assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/686638...

Join us for the celebration of life at #Biodiversity25! 10 more days to submit abstracts.

Some personal news, to be filed under “things I did not see coming”…. 1/n

Brilliant to see Wellcome signing @barcelonadori.bsky.social as one of a series of impressive announcements in @jarottingen.bsky.social’s superb keynote at #Metascience2025 @wellcometrust.bsky.social

(1/4) Exciting news 📣 Announcing the #COST10KLepGenomes initiative! 🦋🧬 We're leveraging genomic data to tackle biodiversity loss, disentangle Lepidoptera evolution and address climate change impacts on European butterflies and moths.

Very excited about this paper led by Erika Castro. She has shown that Heliconius were ancestrally plastic in how they acquired their cyanogens, but some species have lost the ability to biosynthesise toxins, and have lost genes involved www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🪹 It’s fledgling season! If you see a baby bird hopping around, don’t panic—they’re not hurt. Just learning! Mom & Dad are nearby bringing snacks. Let nature do its thing. They grow up so fast 🥹🫶🏾 #BirdJoy #EmptyNestSeason 🪶

Join us on the Wellcome Genome Campus of the Sanger Institute and EBI for a symposium on biodiversity genomics from 27th-29th October! Abstract deadline on 14 July. There is also an option to join via Zoom, but in-person is much nicer if you can make it.