Interesting approach described in Science: www.science.org/content/arti...

Balogun, Sztepanacz & Ness investigate the evolutionary forces that shape the transcriptome in 24 wild strains of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, finding that gene expression displays moderate heritability. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag142 #societyjournal #algae #evolution

Women in STEM- gettin’ it done 💪

Eastern bluebird cognitive performance is resilient to acute anthropogenic noise disturbance academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

It's July 1, which means I'm officially a full entire just plain PROFESSOR, with no adjectives before my title. Whoop!

Remember X-Labs? Without transparency, and in defiance of Congress, a new memo to NSF directs “program managers to stop seeking funding for any proposals, even those that received the highest marks from outside reviewers and program staff, “until we are able to provide more details.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/o... Resources for US scientists concerned about the proposed OMB ruling to curtail peer review, limit conference travel, and limit scientific inquiry 🧪👨‍🔬

Thrilled to be honored by this great group! And alongside some fantastic scientists! @amornith.bsky.social

How can a study be cool and depressing at the same time? This one definitely is. A new “transcriptomic clock” that measures biological age by analyzing gene activity. The science is cool, but it's sort of a "time-to-death timer". 🧪 Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10542-3​

“‘A lot of researchers are asking themselves difficult Qs right now,’ says @kendallsciwrite.bsky.social , an ed for Nature’s careers team. ‘Is this career sustainable? Do I still see a future for myself in science? Am I making a difference? We want to understand how widespread those feelings are’”🧪

🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n

New paper: do temperature fluctuations influence long-term survival prospects? In pied flycatchers, both experimental warming and cooling during early life resulted in shorter telomeres, indicating potential impacts on future performance ➡️ vist.ly/42wi4 #ornithology #birds #development

New paper: how does urbanization shape avian development? In common mynas, urban nests produced more fledglings, but nestlings exhibited compromised growth trajectories and lower body condition. ➡️ vist.ly/55ry8 #ornithology #urbanisation #birds #reproduction

📣 EvolDir is now managed by @eseb.bsky.social! We are delighted to be taking the reins and express our gratitude to both Brian Golding who began this service to the community in the mid-1980s and to @rdmpage.bsky.social who ran this account until now 👏 You can now find evoldir here: evoldir.net

What if graduate school wasn’t just preparation for academia, but a chance to intentionally explore multiple possible futures as a scientist? 🧪 #SciComm buff.ly/rpm6EKY

More devastation to science

🚨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

Apply for the Career Diversity Travel award to attend the Animal Behavior Society Conference in Cincinnati, July 14-18, 2026. Deadline: March 23, 2026. More info: https://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/awards-career-diversity.php #conference

A little blue flash of joy

Friends in the USA - @planet.com is hiring for a (remote) education and research program manager, which seems like a sweet gig. 🧪🛰️ www.planet.com/company/care...

In 2025, departures of govt scientists outnumbered new hires by a ratio of 11 to 1. This reduction in STEM PhDs translates to 106k yrs of federal work experience across 10,000 employees. These talents will take their expertise elsewhere. Experience is indispensable. 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

Did you know there's a searchable library of science stories about failure? It was truly an honor to contribute my story to Fail-Safe Science, "an initiative designed to normalize experiencing and overcoming challenges in science graduate programs." risecenter.asu.edu/fail-safe 🧪

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons: 1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress 2) Write to your congressional reps. 3) Write to [email protected] to request re-consideration;

It’s going to be political hacks. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Biologist kidnapped in Mexico news.mongabay.com/short-articl... 🧪🌎

Stanford Data Science Fellow for Graduating PhD students Deadline: February 16th, 2026 Duration: 1 year (starting September 1st 2026) Location: Stanford, CA datascience.stanford.edu/programs/dat...

ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS. I cannot imagine knowing stuff without getting sucked into a citation rabbit-hole / wonderland and then reflecting on how these works engage with each other.

A lot of folks here probably don’t know I wrote a paper about using the game of Mastermind to teach logic & experimental design & interpretation: 🧪 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

New Perspective from myself, Sarah Heilbronner and @myoo.bsky.social . “Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization” in Nature Neuroscience. 🧵 rdcu.be/eVZ1A

14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.

See Candice Malone's paper published in Biology of Sex Differences on California mice: Social bonding, perineuronal nets and the anterior cingulate cortex. Congrats Candice! scienmag.com/sex-based-ge...

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.

In case anyone is interested, I ran a journal club in my classes that went well, structured to reduce reliance on AI. 1: Students sign up in groups of 5 2: Each student does hand-drawn mind map of each section (intro, hyp, methods, results, disc) 3: Each brings mind map to class 1/2

NSF bio hour - NSF BIO lost 40% of its staff 😑

This is the account that auto-posts my blog posts. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Up to 10 doctoral positions at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology now open for application! Start date September 2026. More info here: www.evolbio.mpg.de/imprs

2026 Hallowe'en costume just dropped www.cbc.ca/radio/asitha...

Poke, gape, or escape? Diurnal anthropogenic noise disrupts Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) incubation and nest attendance behavior | Journal of Field Ornithology | doi.org/10.5751/JFO-... | #ornithology #fieldwork #nestingbirds

What can researchers do if they suspect that their manuscripts have been peer reviewed using AI? go.nature.com/4pxUNyD

Now that the Sept and Oct data are (belatedly) in, it looks like 2025 will be the second warmest year in the record (~80% probability). The last three years are in a class of their own.

Some people are replying here with things already addressed in this thread and paper, so please click through bsky.app/profile/oliv...

MAGA’s ongoing war on academic freedom, reflected in headlines from the last 24 hours.

Good guardian, bad parent: tradeoffs between territory defense and parental care in Darwin's finches #Bird #TradeOff #PlaybackExperiment doi.org/10.1093/behe...

Dispersion tests in generalised linear mixed-effects models - a methods comparison and practical guide doi.org/10.32942/X23...

We have TWO post-doctoral fellowships in the Biodiversity Centre at UBC next year! Am happy to chat if you might want to be hosted in my lab. biodiversity.ubc.ca/training-and... Deadline January 15th!

Years ago, I attempted a self-assessment of my potential gender biases in an academic research setting: ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.com/2016/04/subt... Today, I happened on a very nice summary of how to avoid such biases in letters of recommendation, which provides an comprehensive outline. Check it out

How bowhead whales live for centuries—and how we might borrow some of their biology to extend our healthy lifespan. Gift link to my new column: nyti.ms/4hyD9ry

AI tools like DeepLabCut and SuperAnimal are changing how scientists study movement, helping them understand how brain activity drives behavior. Read more: bit.ly/4qnX7JF @trackingactions.bsky.social @deeplabcut.bsky.social

This is a brilliant piece. youtu.be/EsxYrC_dwVk?...