Cooperation is a universal feature of complex systems, from the origins of life and microbiomes to societies. What universal patterns can be found in these systems? Here's our new @pnas.org paper. @jordipinero.bsky.social @artemyte.bsky.social @sfiscience.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

"The changing roles of Escherichia coli" -- a short essay by yours truly. rdcu.be/eVtXT

in 2013, Elio was so fascinated by the 'heterologous multicellularity' of 𝘊𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘮 that he chose a cross-section to celebrate STC's 10th anniversary 🙂 👉 smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2... #MicroSky

🚨 What if evolution is the ”law”… and networks are the machines that do the work? In this paper (just published) I try to formalize how living systems are non-equilibrium, information-processing, adaptive matter. With a great biological flavor! 🧪🌐🌍🧬🦠 👉 iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1... 🧵 1/

How do simple cells make complex patterns? We discovered a key piece in cyanobacteria—an ancient enzyme repurposed to activate a pattern-forming signal. A conserved signaling strategy, showing how nature reuses tools to build multicellularity. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

The 2026 Guarda Summer Course in Evolutionary Biology is now accepting applications. Amazing place, amazing course, amazing opportunity for early grad students. tb.ethz.ch/education/gu...

1/28 New preprint up, which I think is the best theoretical idea I've ever had. We asked a simple question: what are the costs of investment into non-reproductive somatic cells? Turns out these costs decrease with the *logarithm* of organism size! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I am very excited to announce that a fully funded PhD position is available in my group. Topic: Synergistic coevolution in mono-specific and multi-species microbial consortia Please RT or forward this information to interested candidates. Deadline: 11.01.26 More info: shorturl.at/f1TuF

@kostchristian.bsky.social has an open PhD position as a part of #SPP2389 ! #microsky #mevosky

Very proud that @gauravathreya.bsky.social's brilliant work based on his Master's thesis is out as his first paper in @asn-amnat.bsky.social. Interested in host-symbiont interdependence, eukaryogenesis, evolutionary transitions in individuality, and some great theory to back it?...check out the🧵👇

One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint! Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How does agency change as life evolves from single cells to complex bodies? This review by Stuart Newman and colleagues examines the surprising roles of development, microbes, and even cancer in reshaping what organisms can do. @multicellgenome.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1...

1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬 www.science.org/doi/full/10....

We loved hearing @khammerschmidt.bsky.social talk about evolution at the #MultiBac2025 conference this January - check out the @asm.org report on the origins of early microbial life!

Happy to have been part of EVOLUTION & MECHANISMS GOVERNING MULTICELLULARITY—one of 3 workshops behind @asm.org’s new report. Big questions, great conversations—looking back on origins of microbial life and what lies ahead. Highly recommended read: asm.org/reports/earl... #MicroSky #MEvoSky #EvoSky

New preprint: eukaryotic origins! 🥁 We propose that iron -not oxygen- may have delayed the rise of complex life. Our model reframes the “oxygen delay” puzzle: the gap between atmospheric O2 and early eukaryotic fossils may reflect iron-mediated stress, not for O2: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Abstract submission extended to 1 July – Submit your work now!

Kimberly Chen, a former postdoc in my lab, has published a new article in Genome Biology and Evolution. Selection on mixed populations of Chlamydomonas resulted in the evolution of multicellular structures, all from 2 of 10 founder strains. www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-... doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

This is still open for another week or so! Please apply :)

#multicellularity lovers: the website for the EMBO workshop in multicellularity is live. Barcelona is waiting for you! #protistsonsky

Check out our latest work on the evolution of animal genome regulation out today in @nature.com. Nicely summarized below by @ianakim.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41... This is a major output from our ERC-StG project Evocellmap @erc.europa.eu at @crg.eu

Check out this amazing segment on Pittsburgh's WTAE about our EvolvingSTEM program. 🙏🏻 to anchor Shannon Perrine for telling our story and showcasing how we engage students grades 6-12 to learn w/ authentic experiments. Teachers and students see themselves as scientists! #SaveNSF #SupportNIH

1/ In our new paper, we explored whether obligate mutualisms can survive abrupt stress via evolutionary rescue. We found that evolutionary rescue is possible—but it comes at the cost of mutualism. @jfriedman.bsky.social #microsky #evosky #mevosky

Striking new study from @archaeon-alex.bsky.social's lab just out in @science.org on multicellular development induced by compression in Archaea: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our new preprint by @nanamikubota.bsky.social shows that P. aeruginosa, and likely many other bacteria carrying filamentous prophages (like V. parahaemolyticus), risk being exploited by these phages in a runaway process that reduces fitness of both host and virus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵

Super cool new paper by @sshekhr.bsky.social and @wallaceucsf.bsky.social showing that there are collective benefits to simple multicellularity in the *very* charismatic Stentor. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Great write up in the NYT by @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...

1/35 New paper out! @jamesTstroud and I dive into why long-term studies are crucial for understanding evolution. They reveal processes impossible to detect in short timescales and capture rare events that transform our understanding of evolutionary dynamics. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We have a 2-year postdoc position available in the Lind Lab at Umeå University, Sweden! Predicting and steering experimental evolution of antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Reposts appreciated. umu.varbi.com/en/?jobtoken...

A theoretical biology PhD position at the University of Leiden on the coevolution of aging and sociality with awesome @lottedevries.bsky.social please spread the word! www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies...

1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Workshop-Recap "Concepts in Evolutionary Biology" From Feb 10–13, 2025, researchers gathered in Plön to discuss key concepts, present new findings & engage in lively debates. Big thanks to all participants—looking forward to the next edition! #Evolution #EvoBio #Science交流 #ResearchCommunity

Published online! Everything you wanted to know about different cable bacteria and their electrical conductivity. @cemau.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s443...

I'm delighted to announce that the 2025 @microbiologysociety.org meeting on "Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics" will be held in Liverpool 26-27 November 2025! Abstract submission will open soon... #microsky 🧪🧫🦠 microbiologysociety.org/event/societ...

It's interesting, I recorded two interviews this week, and both asked me to comment on group selection vs inclusive fitness. I was diplomatic, but honestly, I think the anti-group selection dogma stemming from the 60s is pretty embarrassing, highlighting a surprising lack of critical thinking.

☎️ Calling #MEvoSky ☎️ 2x 5-year research associate / research assistant positions in experimental evolution ERC-funded project: How do mobile genetic elements and defence systems shape bacterial genome evolution? Join the friendly and exciting @mermanchester.bsky.social community in Manchester!

Since 1991, the NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) is dedicated to K-12 students & funds innovative STEM educational projects. It supports our EvolvingSTEM program that engages >1500 students/yr in authentic research. 🚨Its Program Announcement (PAR-23-137) is now GONE.😡 nihsepa.org

Hi folks, I'm excited to share a whale of a tale (sorry, bad pun), where we engineer snowflake yeast to express sperm whale myoglobin, and explore how oxygen-binding proteins may have helped overcome anatomical limitations to early multicellularity. 🧪 #MEvoSky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Hey folks, microbial evolution (and I interpret this super broadly- bacteria, archaea, viruses, theory, Alife, field, lab, biophys, etc) now has a feed thanks to @atinygreencell.bsky.social. I hope this will be my ye olde Science Twitter v2. Come join us! 🧪 #MEvoSky Link: bsky.app/profile/did:...

New paper from my group and the group of @kiranrpatil.bsky.social: Obligate cross-feeding of metabolites is common in soil microbial communities By Ghada Yousif @metagenomez.bsky.social with @swagatika.bsky.social @isamirgiri.bsky.social Sharvari Harshe et al. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵👇

Alright I made a feed! Please feel free to pin this feed to your bluesky profile and if you wish to add to the feed, simply add the #MEvoSky hashtag (NOT case sensitive) and the feed will aggregate the posts. Looking forward to seeing you there! Please repost for reach. :) bsky.app/profile/did:...

I am happy that my first post on bluesky is to congratulate my former PhD student Hanna Isaksson for publishing work from her thesis on multicellularity in PNAS (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...).

A new paper of Saskia Wilmsen and me on "Defining organismality" just came out in Biological Theory . Open access: rdcu.be/d6but 🧵👇

Katrin Hammerschmidt @khammerschmidt.bsky.social on Sodium energetics constrains the transition to filamentous division of labour in marine cyanobacteria #MultiBac2025

🍾Our small #UExM adventure is only starting! #ProtistsOnSky We are happy to announce that the Moore Foundation will be funding our efforts in creating an Expansion Microscopy atlas of #Microbial #Eukaryotes with @gautamdey.bsky.social @UNIGE @embl.org LINK: www.unige.ch/sciences/chi... 1/4

#Multicellularity enthusiasts! Mark your calendars! EMBO Workshop on "Evolution and Origins of Multicellularity Across the Tree of Life" 📅 October 9-11, 2025, Barcelona 🔗 Pre-register here: coming-soon.embo.org/w25-102 @csic.es @embopress.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxKj...

Can't wait to read this one

Don't miss this opportunity to visit beautiful Venice to learn about the latest ideas in evolutionary systems biology! Deadline is March 31, 2025. Registration link below. #VeniceEvoDevo

We have a DFG-funded Phd position for 3 years to study gene regulation in cyanophages. This is at Cyanolab in beautiful Freiburg/Germany, from Jan 2025, or later. More details here: cyanolab.de/index.php

This 👉🏻 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... We badly need to re-start an informed conversation with all stakeholders on the deployment of SynBio-based biologics for multi-scale environmental bioremediation 🤔

Faculty mentoring in academic institutions, a thread. As I advance in my academic career (read: as I keep getting more gray hair), I've come to appreciate, even more than before, the profound responsibility we (senior-ish faculty) have to support and nurture emerging talent, not diminish it.