Jon's new study in @natecoevo.nature.com shows that genetic rescue can increase long-term fitness despite elevating putative genetic load. Interested? Check out our paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... A short thread below 🧵 Coauthored by @jacek-radwan.bsky.social and @mkonczal.bsky.social

This International Day for Biological Diversity, we’re celebrating conservation happening right here in our own backyard 💚

Colors and patterns of California seaweeds #SciArt #PhycologyFriday

A decades-long effort to remove dangerous plastic debris from marine and terrestrial habitats succeeded in lowering endangered Hawaiian monk seal entanglement rates, a 2024 study found, confirming that such efforts are well worth the cost and effort. #EndangeredSpeciesDay https://scim.ag/4d8jw7X

We are excited to announce our 2026 winners of the Special Event Award! Full details here: blog.theaga.org/spec...

I got excited and posted but should clarify. While we figured out the oak was a clone and likely really old, the conservation win is thanks to years of effort by a whole bunch of other folks. Attending meetings, organizing, filing lawsuits, and plain old not giving up.

🚀 Protecting Earth's biodiversity for future generations, a Lunar Biorepository at the Moon’s south pole is proposed to store cryopreserved animal fibroblast samples. These could aid ecosystem revival, genetic rescue, and space exploration. Drawing: Johann August Ephraim Goeze (1773) 1/2

Indigenous researchers and communities are reshaping how Western science thinks about data ownership. Learn more during #AANHPIHeritageMonth. ⬇️ https://scim.ag/4txYYMC

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...

A Monday morning giggle. Psst...the countdown is on. 5 days until Dawn Chorus Day. Comic: Jimmy Craig

Trump removes a thorn in his side by firing all 24 members of the National Science Board, NSF's oversight body. www.science.org/content/arti...

Ver excited to share my just-published Darwin Review with @lh3lh3.bsky.social on population-scale long-read sequencing! royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

When Einstein developed general relativity the closest thing to a practical application that could even be imagined at the time was a slightly more precise description of where to look for the planet Mercury in the sky, and yet now we’d all be literally lost without it. Anyway: fund basic research.

The acting head of the CDC has canceled the publication of a study that found that the Covid vaccine sharply cut the odds of hospitalizations and emergency visits last winter www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

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...

“Between January 2025 and February 2026, STEM and health employees at science-focused agencies saw nearly 15,000 jobs cut. The rate outpaced cuts among other federal workers.” OPM data - Figure from Wash Post article 19 April. (Where US science has been hit hardest.) NSF at -42%!

Climate change is a huge challenge for endangered species because genetic variation needed to adapt is often lacking. Our new study in Science Advances highlights the potential for conservation breeding and reintroduction to boost resilience to climate change. @science.org doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Can you believe that until now there were more genomes sequenced for the woolly mammoth than for living African elephants? Today, we bring you the first genomic, continent-scale analyses of 232 high-quality genomes of both species, the savanna and forest elephant. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“According to our observations over the past 24 hours, the vast majority of species on earth have pretty much just been holding steady and staying the course, gene-wise,” said biologist Clarice Abernathy

Happy to see this one out! Not only for the science, but because it was the first project we led as a group. This paper helped us establish a collaborative culture and good relationships, shaping how we want to work together in the future. I feel lucky to work with this bunch! #popgen #consgen

I am shocked to see this language from the NSF. “The U.S. National Science Foundation's Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment while eliminating woke and weaponized grant programs that previously funded radical DEI projects.”

NASA just dropped this image of Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch looking back at us. The first woman to ever see our planet in its entirety. I’m not crying you’re crying 🥹🔭🧪 📸: NASA

We are destroying species' habitats, leading to a mass extinction event. This habitat destruction also reduces the genetic diversity _within_ species. Our latest work develops quantitative models to predict how much genetic diversity has been and _will be_ lost. 🧬🧪🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The trouble with sycophantic AI, this week on the @science.org podcast with Myra Cheng Listen here: www.science.org/content/podc...

I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KINGS La Jolla, CA” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

The northern white rhino is effectively extinct. Can a healthy pop be restored from cryopreserved cells of only 12 inds? @arynwilder.bsky.social et al. show how restoration from biobanked cells eases constraints of a limited founder pool to enable recovery 🦏 📸 San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Out today in @science.org our paper on how evolutionary adaptation to warming will reduce fisheries yields. Please let me know if you need me to send you a copy. Summary of the paper coming soon. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The authors propose a framework to better integrate genomic metrics into conservation planning, supporting more sustainable species recovery efforts. Read more here: doi.org/10.1093/jher... Corresponding authors: www.researchgate.net... & scholar.google.com/c... #JHered 3/3

Breath to genome: Whole genome sequencing of large whales from blow sampling (Preprint) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

‪ @eveliendegreef.bsky.social's latest is out in the @asn-amnat.bsky.social feature exploring the challenges of genetic forecasting😀 "Identifying Areas of Potential Risk Based on Future Genetic Adaptability in Three Arctic Whale Species" doi.org/10.1086/738889 🧪🌎🧬🌐 #consgen #popgen #evobio

Our new perspective: The Future of the Southern Resident Killer Whales Depends on Interactions With Other Killer Whale Populations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

This paper is the culmination of my PhD at Cornell, and I'm so grateful to the team that made it possible. Co-led with @fishyomics.bsky.social, and co-authored with @jessi-rick.bsky.social, @arynwilder.bsky.social, Zofia Baumann, David Conover, Hannes Baumann, and @ntherk.bsky.social.

Four thousand years ago, the Early Bronze Age farmers of southern Germany had no Homer to chronicle their lives—but a detailed picture of their social structure emerged in 2019 from a remarkable study. #ScienceMagArchives https://scim.ag/4qH5SP4

This week, we hosted over 100 scientists at Rockefeller University in New York City for our 2025 in-person conference.

BREAKING: WE WON!!! 💥 💥 💥 Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment. Full ruling here:

No Kings protest on Oct 18 seems like a great way to practice your First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech. Find your rally location, nationwide: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=5...

🧬 1 more week until the VGP in-person conference! Can't make it to New York City? Sign up to attend virtually: www.eventbrite.com/e/vertebrate...

This ought to be engraved somewhere.

Now published in Cell! We found that ~15% of SNPs from divergent refs did not liftover as SNPs in the gray fox ref—half mapped to monomorphic sites, half failed to map. Co-authored with Matthew Genchev, @elliecat.bsky.social, and @jazlynmooney.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hahaha... #botanists

How many chromosomes can an animal have? In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Massive datasets in #ScienceAdvances confirm that higher adherence to a diet friendly to Earth and human health correlates with lower all-cause mortality. https://scim.ag/46bE644

This is now published at #MolecularEcology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Check it out!

🚨 The VGP in-person conference is fast approaching! Early bird pricing ends August 31st, so book your tickets ASAP! www.eventbrite.com/e/vertebrate...

#popgen #congen

What a sensational science story about an almost mythical beast from @carlzimmer.com www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/s...

Excited to share our new paper on genetic rescue in the Pacific pocket mouse! To conserve this endangered species, we sought to understand whether small populations at risk of outbreeding depression are better managed in isolation or with gene flow. @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...