30 SCIENTISTS SLAM STRAT STUDY 30 experts just published a series of three eLetters in Science May 4-9. The letters systematically dismantle the claims made by Surovell et al. that Monte Verde is <8k yr old, upholding the rigorously documented conclusion that Monte Verde really is 14.5kyo 🏺🧪🌎

Excited to share this new pre-print from the fantastic @kelsiehunnicutt.bsky.social! Kelsie put together a thoughtful and thorough review on hybridization in animal evolution: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v.... She tracks notable shifts in perspectives on the study of hybridization through time.

I'm hiring a postdoc to lead sedimentary aDNA reconstructions of alpine plant biodiversity as part of a broader project exploring the mechanisms of alpine plant resilience. Come join a collaborative team working in beautiful places! Bonus: postdocs at UMaine are unionized!

So far I’ve resisted the syrinx song of bird watching but Merlin is on fire here in Costa Rica.

🎓 Fully Funded PhD in Human Ecology & Behaviour – Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany 🌿 Field-based research in Nicaragua | Longitudinal behavioural analysis + ecology 🎓 Eligibility: Master’s 🔗 higherjobz.com/fully-funded... #PhD @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social

Canvas, the Strait of Hormuz for American education

Yesterday our article was featured on the cover of Nature. I'm incredibly proud of this team, led primarily by Latin Americans, & the result of the decade-long work by @hunemeier.bsky.social & lab. Kudos to the 1st authors too (incl @macscastro.bsky.social here on 🟦☁️) www.nature.com/nature/volum...

On one hand, canvas outage during an online class is no fun, on another, much nicer, tropical dry forest hand, this is my office for the Maymester.

The University of Colorado accelerated our Spring semester so grades were due days ago. At first I thought it was a frivolous attempt to squeeze an extra summer session for the tuition money but now I see it was a brilliant move to anticipate and foil the Canvas hack.

Rasmus Winther and I just published “Troubling Populations: Where races go, populations must follow” in Current Anthropology (doi.org/10.1086/741015. Please contact me if you don’t have access).1/16

Sooooo I’m teaching an online summer class for the first time. It’s all asynchronous and over Canvas and the first exam (equivalent) was due to start tonight 🫠 #canvas #canvasoutage

Anyone know the lore of X-Men? The internet is no help: do all humans have the x gene and it is only active in some?

May the Fourth be with YOU, from the Obama Presidential Center. Opening June 19.

Slightly diminish a book A Lord on the Rings Two of the Towers The Visit of the King

Welcome to the last half of the US federal fiscal year. Here is where we're at with National Science Foundation--the agency that funds basically everything other than biomedical research at American universities--grant numbers. grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

This is my fifth hooding ceremony and once again I find myself running across the campus lawn in full wizard garb

The last nine Vaquitas in existence watching them spend their time "resurrecting" extinct species like

Emma Darwin was born 218 years ago today. Here is the story of how her unstinting self-sacrifice in managing Charles's chronic illnesses as well as those of their family made his evolutionary publications possible. tinyurl.com/47ffzhkd #WomenInSTEM #HiddenHelper #BioSky #Evolution

Simons Graduate Fellowships in #Ecology and #Evolution #science #scienceSky #evoSky www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

I'm looking to hire a postdoc. Please share if you can!

Penn State Biology is hiring! We have an opening for a tenure-line faculty position in plant biology - if you'd like to pursue awesome science in a supportive and interdisciplinary community of researchers, consider applying! psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Pioneering scientist J. Craig Venter has died at 79. His "whole genome shotgun method" helped genome sequencing become faster and cheaper. n.pr/4eSO7cc

Congratulations to @jrossibarra.bsky.social on being elected to the National Academy of Sciences! We'll be popping some corn in his honor www.ucdavis.edu/news/nationa...

We're looking for a postdoctoral fellow to work at the intersection of ecology and data science 🧪 www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/posts/postdo... #movingtonewzealand #movingtonz

Please repost: My department at USC is hiring for a teaching-track faculty position. We are looking for someone principally to teach statistics for biologists, but there will be opportunities for other courses in statistics & algorithms applied to biology usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

More details on the firing of the National Science Board. The NSF now has no director, deputy director, or board. They have issued almost no new awards in 2026. The plan appears to be to completely destroyed the agency. The details are horrifying and have Russ Vought written all over them.

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR. We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets. Thread + link below.

96% of surveyed early career researchers on NIH K awards reported that federal changes in science funding has impacted their career stability

Such an amazing honor! Thanks to my students, colleagues, collaborators and mentors for making science so fun!

U.S. President Donald Trump has fired all 24 members of the National Science Board, the body that oversees the National Science Foundation. https://scim.ag/4cxQWhl

Anne C. Stone, Regents Professor @arizonastateuni.bsky.social has been awarded our Lifetime Contribution Award. @acstone.bsky.social Visit our website to learn more about the SMBE Faculty Awards 🔗 smbe.org/faculty-awards #society

1/7 Our papers may seem to address different themes, but they coalesce around the deep human past as a process of niche expansion and feedbacks, into the transition to human dominated landscapes. A starting point was the pan-African structured theory of human origins: www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

🚨 Check out our new paper in Nature! In our new study, we sequenced 128 high-coverage genomes from Indigenous peoples across Latin America and uncovered their unique genetic diversity and history. 👇🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The largest and most diverse collection of Indigenous American genomes 👉🏻 “The evolutionary history and unique genetic diversity of Indigenous Americans” @macscastro.bsky.social @hunemeier.bsky.social @chiarabarbieri.bsky.social @jrockdrigo.bsky.social 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“South America—the last continet to be settled—was peopled in surprisingly complex way” by Lizzie Wade @science.org www.science.org/content/arti... (Link to the paper in the quoted skeet below)

The number of NIH competitive awards is down 50% from 2025, and down ~70% from prior years. Even if they catch up by the end of the year, only wealthy institutions can bridge these huge funding gaps.They're killing science-and violating the constitution-by weaponizing the bureaucracy

I am hiring a popgen postdoc! Looking for a creative scientist to join us at USC to investigate recessive variation and complex traits in model or non-model species. The project is funded by a multi-year NIH grant, contract can be renewed. Job add & details 👇🏽 usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

Hayate Takeuchi and Takashi Hayakawa investigated rhodopsin structural evolution in deep-diving whales, showing that rhodopsins have evolved for both spectral sensitivity and structural resilience under extreme hydrostatic pressure. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... #genome #evolution

I truly feel for all the future PI’s who won’t have this resource. How much talent is going to go unfunded.

Feels like this paper on protein-templated DNA synthesis by a natural enzyme warrants some comment. So here's a 🧵. /1 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

AAAG Past President @amylnon.bsky.social is hosting a FREE workshop on Epigenetics for Anthropologists 🧬 at the University of California San Diego from August 17 - 21, 2026. Applications are due May 4, 2026 🗓️. Click on link👇🏾 for details docs.google.com/document/d/1...

re the newly published paper on signals of positive selection in Eurasian genomes through time.

On a deeper level there’s a disconnect, in that the GWAS hits on which they base their calibration have tiny effect sizes, in contrast to the large selection coefficients estimated here. 14/

Reposting this old thread on the "Pervasive findings of directional selection" from ancient DNA. While the authors extended their results in various ways, I think many of these points still stand.

DNA is not the same as kinship. Our perspective paper argues that treating genetics as the ultimate proof of identity or family can: • erase community-defined relationships • reinforce Western biases • and even cause real harm in policy + research Special Issue: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

😊 🥂👩🏻‍🔬

Great example of genetic data in PCA space mirroring geography - this time in Scandinavian lemmings!

Spread the word! UChicago BSD is currently searching for an instructional professor (open rank) to help develop and support graduate training in quantitative biology at UChicago. This is an Instructional Professor position (open rank). apply.interfolio.com/183517.

Once again it is time to contract your representatives: The FY27 budget request for NSF (see nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...) would get rid of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.