PhD on greenbeards! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

#NatMicroPicks A network like none other! 🌍🍄 Global data and modeling estimates that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi form extensive underground networks that play a major role in plant carbon–nutrient exchange #MicroSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I will be talking about The Tree of Life at the Linnean Society on 25th June. If you are interested you can find out a little more and sign up for a ticket at the link below. Hope to see some of you there! members.linnean.org/events/69f21...

Is disease just a cost of social life, or can it shape the evolution of social life itself? New research from @mingpapilio.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social suggests social immunity can be both a result of cooperation and a force that promotes larger, more complex societies 👇

Social insects tackle pathogens with behaviours like grooming and the removal of infected individuals. These behaviours facilitate the evolution of larger more complex societies. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @mingpapilio.bsky.social @georgeshillcock.bsky.social @tomwscott.bsky.social

New paper is out! Disease is often seen as a cost of social life. But can it also shape how complex societies evolve? Here, we use mathematical models to study social immunity: collective disease defence in ants, termites, bees and other group-living insects. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Masturbation in pet birds is natural and shouldn't be punished. A new study led by @unilancashire.bsky.social and coauthored by Oxford's  @matildabrindle.bsky.social  say vets and owners should be reassured that it is not the consequence of captivity, but common.  Read more:

Thoughtful review of The Paradox of the Organism book homunculusmusic.wordpress.com/2026/05/30/i... @tomwscott.bsky.social

Chance to join the incredible banded mongoose project! 🇺🇬❤️ 3 year postdoc on the mongoose project, working on the evolution and maintenance of group identity in animal societies. The closing date for applications is 16 June 2026. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRN272/p...

Why do sex chromosomes stop recombining? New models show even weak sexual antagonism can strongly drive recombination suppression, with mating systems shaping the outcome. By @ewanflintham.bsky.social and @charlesmullon.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/evle...

We’re hiring for OrthoFinder! Great role for someone who enjoys scientific software development: Python, data analysis, workflows, Git, scalability, and making tools nicer to use. Comparative genomics or open-source bioinformatics experience would be a lovely bonus. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Excited to be part of this ambitious project newly published in BES. I hope we see microbes stealing a piece of this pie in ten years time! 🦠💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 Thanks to @tcmbakker.bsky.social and James Traniello for the invitation and co-author @stuwest.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk

Mycorrhizal fungi control the nutrient flow within their hyphal networks. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @spun.earth

Dear ISBE members, We are looking for nominations for the upcoming ISBE elections for the following roles: (1/3)

“The health of Palmyra’s coral reefs ultimately depends on seabirds, which depend on Pisonia trees for nesting, which depend on fungi,” said Charlie Cornwallis. “Remove any link in that chain and the whole system could unravel.” @spun.earth www.earth.com/news/native-...

Symbiotic fungi play a crucial role in maintaining - and restoring - tropical island ecosystems New research with @stuwest.bsky.social suggests a crucial missing ingredient for reforestation: mycorrhizae. Some trees even appear to depend on a remarkably specific fungal partner 👇 bit.ly/4dcLctz

New study shows that regenerating #Palmyra, Earth’s most remote atoll, may depend on underground #fungi too. Scientists from Lund University, @ox.ac.uk, @nature.org, and @spun.earth, found mycorrhizal fungi in every Pisonia root sampled. Paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social: buff.ly/prQdvbW

Symiotic fungi are crucial to restoration on earth's most remote island www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @spun.earth @tobykiers.bsky.social @nature.org

We're recruiting! We're looking for two graduate students to join us at UBC in Vancouver. Fully funded and open to global applicants, with flexible start-date. Topics include theory, bioinformatics, and microbiology. More details: asherleeks.com/apply #socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪

This paints a disheartening picture for replication studies in EE. So how do we address this?? In a fantastic initiative led by @katelaskowski.bsky.social, Behavioural Ecology @behavecol.bsky.social now accept replication articles doi.org/10.1093/behe...

@shrylishreekar.bsky.social and me wrote a commentary on Chunhui Hao's and @stuwest.bsky.social et al.'s recent paper "Cooperation and the evolution of bacterial niche breadth" in PNAS. Please find our commentary here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Check our new paper which I had the privilege to write with @kostchristian.bsky.social published in PNAS!

The story behind our new paper (www.cell.com/current-biol... on symbiotic fungi and forest regeneration www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ma6...

Symiotic fungi are crucial to restoration on earth's most remote island www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @spun.earth @tobykiers.bsky.social @nature.org

The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement names Toby Kiers as the 2026 Laureate. Her research reveals how underground fungal networks support life on Earth. Explore the hidden world beneath our feet: tylerprize.org/laureates/toby-kiers spun.earth/underground-atlas @spun.earth

The link comes with gorillas! 😂 Persister cells surprising us by forming at peak growth rate. What does this mean for our understanding of their function? tinyurl.com/3r4f97w5 @royalsocietypublishing.org @uphoff.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social @sarandavies.bsky.social

An ant that behaves like a cleaner fish? With awesome photos. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🚨 PhD opportunity in evolutionary microbiology! Join our lab to study how horizontal gene transfer drives host–microbe symbioses and ecological function Plus: a PDRA position in comparative genomics is available ✉️ [email protected] Apply below #PhD #Postdoc #Microbiology #Evolution #Genomics

An insect that produces a nasty secretion to defend the local group against predators. Our commentary on some brilliant fieldwork by @caritalindstedt.bsky.social & Raphael www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @asgriffin.bsky.social

Read our perspective piece on a brilliant new piece of work out in @pnas.org studying public goods in an insect. Congratulations to the team! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @caritalindstedt.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social

I have a story today about the quest to turn eggs into low-cost factories for medicines. Gift link: nyti.ms/4bzSabB

Final version just published of our review on the ecological and evolutionary consequences of cooperation www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... @ryosukeiritani.bsky.social @annadewar.bsky.social @asgriffin.bsky.social @lauriebelch.bsky.social @asn-amnat.bsky.social

Great summary of our haplodiploidy paper! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Women haven’t always had equal space in learned societies, yet most of our staff are women. For #IWD2026, we celebrate the colleagues who help make the Society what it is today. We invited them to reflect on this year's theme of justice and action and the barriers women still face: buff.ly/oY03aSN

New paper showing that bacteria with more genes for cooperation can live in a broader range of habitats and that genes for cooperation are more more likely to be in the accessory genome www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @lauriebelch.bsky.social

Thank you to Doug Emlen and Matthias Fischer for the wonderful images we used in this figure, illustrating the parallels of studying adaptation across scales of visibility: scarab beetles and giant viruses www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @stuwest.bsky.social

Why and how to study adaptation in invisible things. A follow up from @asgriffin.bsky.social 's talk at the 2024 @isbe2026.bsky.social meeting www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🚨JOB alert🚨 We have three (yes, THREE) 🌟lectureships🌟 advertised in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol. Broad remit, including #AnimalBehaviour & #GlobalChangeBiology ⏱️Deadline: 8th March 2026 🙏Please circulate widely 😊Come join us! Full #job details: tinyurl.com/y3us95rc

ASN Address: The Evolutionary and Ecological Consequences of Cooperation Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

My interview with @manymindspod.bsky.social! Come for a deep dive into the evolution of kissing 💋, stay for the earth-shattering insights 🤯 "fish don't run" 🐠🏃 "monkeys tend to loll around quite a lot" 🙈 "chimps have moved on to grass-in-bumhole behaviour" 🍑🌱 disi.org/origins-of-t...

Delighted to have been a part of this. It's a very exciting area in the field of social evolution and beyond!

Does haplodiploidy - a method of sex determination seen in bees and ants among other animals - promote eusociality? New research from @rbonifacii.bsky.social and @stuwest.bsky.social enters evidence into this long debate that - despite popular belief - this is not the case 👇 bit.ly/4qEoEWm

We understand a great deal about how and why cooperation evolves, but what about its long-term consequences? Great to see our new review on this out now in @asn-amnat.bsky.social!

Oh I’m excited to dig into this! I especially love that figure with the environment & behavioral variables mapped onto the phylogeny! In my grad work, I found that nutrient stress intensifies selection against a selfish mtDNA… can’t help but wonder if it was a molecular case of a similar phenomenon.

Huge thanks to @asn-amnat.bsky.social for inviting our review on the evolutionary and ecological consequences of cooperation. @annadewar.bsky.social @asgriffin.bsky.social @lauriebelch.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Comparative analysis across 5,678 insect species shows that, when you control for phylogenetic bias, eusociality has not evolved at a faster rate in haplodiploid species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Applications for our Fellowship Mentorship Programme are open! The programme supports promising early career researchers to submit fellowship applications and move towards research independence. Find out more ⬇️ https://bit.ly/BioIRF

A super handy database to help support academic society journals and other ethical publishing. academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

HBES newsletter on what experimental replication does and doesn't do www.hbes.com/what-the-rep...

Robots, fungal growth strategies, and proportional resource exchange between mycorrhizal fungi and plants www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... @spun.earth @tobykiers.bsky.social