🎄 Just published 🎉! Our ongoing genome sequencing of the basal dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncovered a new lineage of endogenized Polinton-like viruses, OmPLV. Notably, OmPLV encodes ... [cont] #VirEvol #MicroSky #Mevosky #SymbioSky #ProtistsOnSky

Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :) The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used > neal.fun/size-of-life/

What skill did you master that you will never, ever use again? My giant acrylamide sequencing gels were pretty good

#OtD 6 Dec 1928 the banana massacre took place in Ciénaga, Colombia, when soldiers killed up to 2000 striking workers of the United Fruit Co., and their wives and children, who were fighting for one day off per week and pay in money rather than coupons stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1059...

Check out our latest paper on mirusviruses, one of the most remarkable new groups of protist viruses - extremely diverse, carry lots of spliceosomal introns (including new homing introns) and are at the evolutionary crossroads between tailed phages and herpesviruses! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Come join us! Soon I will be advertising a postdoc vacancy in my group as part of my @erc.europa.eu AdG project 'DARK ROOTS'. Focus of the project will be on phylo- and metagenomic mining of novel prokaryotic lineages. I will soon post a link here - stay tuned, and please repost! #asgardarchaea

According to the microbial ecologist Puri López-García, pictured here at a salt flat in the Chilean Andes, some 25% to 50% of all bacterial cells may be parasites of other cells.

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵

Today in What Could Go Wrong with AI.

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚀 New in @natmicrobiol.nature.com EMCG — droplet-based single-particle genomics method 🧬⚠️Sequencing marine microbes one by one — in nL of seawater! Ultra-high resolution — no culture, no bulk averaging. A new way to see the invisible 🫥 🌊 rdcu.be/eOsUF #protistsonsky @bigelowlab.bsky.social

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Our diatom paper walks in the footsteps of giants :) Meet the mother paper also out today from the @dudinlab.bsky.social @centriolelab.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social in @cellpress.bsky.social on a full catalogue of 200 microeuks... 3/n www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Canadian researchers should be aware the there is a motion before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Research to force Tricouncils to hand over disaggregated peer review data on all applications: Applicant names, profiles, demographics Reviewers names, profiles, comments, and scores

🦧 Animal #809 🐨 I figured it out in 5 guesses! 🟨🟨🟩🟨🟩 🔥 1 | Avg. Guesses: 8.7 metazooa.com #metazooa

If sovereign data servers outside the reach of US law are the goal, why doesn’t the government just create a Crown corporation to build & run them? This unthinking fetish for public-private partnerships is yet another example of how this government remains beholden to 1980s-era economic ideologies.

I’m saddened by recent layoffs of departmental staff by @dalhousieu.bsky.social Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Engineering on Tuesday Oct 7, 2025. Please join me in signing this petition to express our collective concern ⬇️ docs.google.com/document/d/1...

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1. The $20 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package for Argentina, announced last week by the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, delivers an enormous windfall to hedge fund billionaire Rob Citrone. Citrone has a longstanding personal and professional relationship with Bessent.

"The sheer number of American elites willing to acquiesce to the destruction of democratic institutions is demoralizing. But it’s worth noting that many ordinary people seem to be made of sterner stuff." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Excellent piece on the ideological antecedents of Trumpism and MAGA, from @mattpolprof.bsky.social. Core point: MAGA is expressly anti-egalitarian, something that constantly gets airbrushed away or just passes unnoticed in mainstream pundit depictions of it www.commonwealmagazine.org/sam-francis-...

SMU Part-Time Faculty remain some of the lowest paid across the entire country at one of the top undergrad Canadian universities. SMU has offered us a 1% pay increase, and a shrug on contract timelines. @caut.bsky.social / Canadian academics, please send a letter: win.newmode.net/canadianasso...

This is the most accurate mainstream news article I’ve seen on the lockout.

In Canada, proposed cuts of 15% across the federal government would have a dramatic effect on already globally decimated research & science. Join Canada's research & science community and tell PM Mark Carney to preserve the funding promised in 2024. Send a letter: win.newmode.net/canadianasso...

La trampa de la falsa libertad.

Sounds familiar. Is this the same playbook used by the Dal BoG in the current labour dispute with @dalfaculty.bsky.social Dalhousie faculty members? What's the role of the NS govt? @keepdalstrong.bsky.social

Here is a detailed and truthful account of what is going on with the Dalhousie labour dispute. @dalhousieu.bsky.social @dalfaculty.bsky.social #keepdalstrong www.reddit.com/r/Dalhousie/...

Join us! Friday September 12 for the Solidarity March starting at the Killam Library on University Avenue. Let's show @dalhousieu.bsky.social Admin and Board a level of solidarity they have not seen before! #keepdalstrong @ansut.bsky.social @cautdefencefund.bsky.social @caut.bsky.social

Another day of #DalLockout2025 means another day of research lost. @dalfaculty.bsky.social members want to get back to work asap. @noreenkamal.bsky.social shares the impacts of the lockout on her research program and long term consequences that @dalhousieu.bsky.social faces #keepdalstrong

Just one example of the huge impact the lockout is having on the research programs of @dalfaculty.bsky.social members. Well said, @tonyrwalker1.bsky.social

Let's GOOOO! #KeepDalStrong

F yeah, we are KEEPING DAL STRONG. Amazing. #KeepDalStrong

Ren Thomas has a nice blog discussing Nous Group and Dalhousie @dalfaculty.bsky.social @dalhousieu.bsky.social : renthomas.ca/theres-a-nou...

From our colleague in Law, this is a brilliant dissection of the Board’s doubling down on unfair bargaining tactics in presenting their tepid "offer" www.reddit.com/r/Dalhousie/... #keepdalstrong

DFA proposal that @DalhousieU demanded we drop for "interest arbitration"- Dal increase child care spots at Dal to benefit all parents at Dal, not just faculty. Not fully discussed before the Board left conciliation. #KeepDalStrong

DFA proposed a $500/yr increase in the Health Spending Account. About 60% of DFA members max out this benefit. This increase would cost @dalhousieu.bsky.social approx $300k/yr. But they wouldn't discuss it. The Board has saved $5.6 MILLION by having faculty locked out for 2 weeks. #keepdalstrong

Today was supposed to be the first day of my 5 (yes...5) courses at @dalhousie.bsky.social that aren't happening because the @dalfaculty.bsky.social is still locked out and the University has not come to the table...at all. What's the deal with that? check out www.wearedal.ca #KeepDalStrong

“Over the past 20 years, Paris has undergone a major physical transformation, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces. Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.” Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris

Dalhousie @dalhousieu.bsky.social has already contracted Nous Group to do surveys...One wonders if the "crisis narrative" of the upper level admin (i.e. the "deficit crisis") and the strange behaviour of the board is somehow related. Please read on: circles.eduvation.ca/posts/inviti...

Rally Today- DFA Lockout Rally kicks off Friday, Aug 29 at 12 noon. We will stream it live from our other Facebook page, Dalhousie Faculty Association #keepdalstrong #halifax #workers #unions #solidarity

Feeling mitochondrially challenged lately? Here are two classic reviews on #mitochondria that should help. www.cell.com/current-biol... www.cell.com/current-biol...

The @dalhousieu.bsky.social Board of Governors' "offer" for interest arbitration won't resolve this. It's just creating further delays. Bargaining on the issues important to our members is required. Stop with the stunts, let's get back to the table and talk. It's the only way to #KeepDalStrong

“Stop Dictating; Start Negotiating.” Keep Dal Strong @dalfaculty.bsky.social #keepdalstrong #InSolidarity

WATCH Dal Board refuses to bargain?! 1st they step away fr conciliation 2nd they lockout Academics & siphon their salaries Now Provost “offers Interest Arbitration’ — bypassing good faith relations 2 impose compromises Cruel 2 Profs & Students & Future of amazing East Coast Uni #KeepDalStrong

@dalhousieu.bsky.social board of governors need to meet with the @dalfaculty.bsky.social ASAP to bargain properly, otherwise your reputation and ranking is going to slip. Some of us maybe be on "the list", but we can't confirm our affiliation! www.dal.ca/news/2024/08... #keepdalstrong

This isn’t bargaining, this is a publicity stunt by the @dalhousieu.bsky.social Board of Governors 👎 Board offers arbitration to resolve DFA labour disruption www.dal.ca/dept/hr/labo... @dalfaculty.bsky.social #keepdalstrong #solidarity

Chris Algar, Assoc Prof, Oceanography @dalhousieu.bsky.social Lessons in solidarity from the picket lines. This isn’t just a fight to #KeepDalStrong; it’s a fight against employer greed. @ansut.bsky.social @caut.bsky.social

Please tune in—and consider calling in: Today on The Todd Veinotte Show: - Students and parents are feeling frustrated amid the Dalhousie University contract dispute. - House Calls with Dr. John Gillis. 📞902-405-6000 / 1-877-801-8255

New paper alert! We suggest caution in the analyses of viral auxiliary metabolic genes and propose a new overarching term - 'auxiliary viral genes' (AVGs) to describe different types of such genes. @simrouxvirus.bsky.social #phagesky #Microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...