Michael Lynch did a back of the envelope calculation of the cumulative length of all DNA molecules in his book “The origins of genome architecture”. It blew my mind: about 10 times the diameter of the observable universe. #popgen 🧪🧬

Why does life explore so few of the forms it could possibly take? Using fractal descriptors, this #scienceadvances paper shows that Earth’s biosphere clusters around simple shapes, reflecting deep evolutionary constraints. @artemyte.bsky.social @manlius.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

Life in topological dimensionality morphospace. 🧪 #Geology ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio

Fish at it again. They have been a surprisingl case of #phylosymbiosis in a rising number of gut and skin appears. This study investigates 903 gut/skin samples from 121 species in southwest China under the Wild Freshwater Fish Microbiome Catalog. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Excited to share our work on the first complete cp genome of Bergenia crassifolia 🌿🧬 🔬 156,378 bp | 128 genes | 84 PCGs 🌳 Sister to B. purpurascens & B. scopulosa Valuable insights into Bergenia evolution #ChloroplastGenome #Phylogenomics Further reading: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A new preprint from the lab, with postdoc @deboraycb.bsky.social and collaborators @aidaandres.bsky.social and Tim Connallon: “Characterising the detectable and invisible fractions of genomic loci under balancing selection” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

FastSpeciesTree: Fast and Scalable Species tree Inference https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700630v1

I am looking for free trainings in functional genomics, including proteomics, metagenomics, and microbiome-focused studies. I’d greatly appreciate any courses, lecture series, or other training resources you could recommend. Thank you in advance! #FunctionalGenomics #OpenScience #EvoBio

Song et al. discover and characterize three co-opted/captured ERV envelope gene clades, revealing that each plays a distinct and critical role in neural regulation, reproductive maturation, and viviparity in vertebrates. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf333 #evobio #molbio #devbio

Understanding the evolution and clade diversity of Mayorella (Amoebozoa): Description of Novel Species from freshwater near Cape coast, Ghana https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.15.699748v1

🍄Transposon traffic in the mycocosmos🍄 Fascinating work reveals extensive horizontal TE transfer across fungi (@jromeijn.bsky.social, Iñigo Bañales & @mfseidl.bsky.social; doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...). I wrote a Dispatch to prime non-specialists,check it out here: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu.... #TEworldwide

Selfish B chromosomes can spread via super- #Mendelian transmission, but this can be limited by forces like drag. This study shows that jewel #wasp PSR #chromosome spreads via strong paternal drive, hidden female meiotic drag, and restriction to a single copy @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4r0cJCE

Application deadline for this postdoc position in my group closing next week 🦠 thank you all who have shared so far!

Dominant contribution of Asgard archaea to eukaryogenesis. tldr; Best guess, ~ 50% of conserved eukaryotic protein families are from from Asgard archaea! #science #biology #evolution #nature #bioinformatics www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What happens when scientists studying population, evolutionary, and quantitative genetics all get together in one room? You get #PEQG26! Hear why PEQG 2026 stands apart directly from conference organizers: buff.ly/O0jiIBE 1/2🧵

Over on our blog, guest writer Nilakshi Das discusses how her research on the scientific careers of South Asian women ties in with the themes of our recent conference, ‘Women in Science: historical perspectives’. Read more: #WomenInSTEM https://royalsociety.org/blog/2026/01/seen-and-unseen/

A new plant species has been described from Cameroon: Phragmanthera bidaultii (Loranthaceae), discovered along the Sanaga River. Found in threatened riverine forests, it has unique floral traits and a very restricted range, and is assessed as Endangered. ➡️ doi.org/10.5091/plec...

What do unicellular organisms teach us about cancer? 🦠 Elena took the stage at @congresofuturo.bsky.social (LatAm's biggest science event!) to explain the connection.🎥 Watch Elena's talk: www.youtube.com/live/eyEYS3a... @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @csic.es @prbb.org @icreacommunity.bsky.social

Correction: the “you” is, of course, James Lovelock (not Ruse). With thanks to @jdagg.bsky.social for catching it.

This position is still open. The Weisberg lab is recruiting a postdoc or Ph.D. student to study horizontal gene transfer in plant-associated microbial communities. Please see the job ad for more information and feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

It's easier to tear down than build up, and in science we have a bad case of that. So: how to lead a journal club that actually finds value in what you read. scientistseessquirre... 🧪

Postdoc in statistical ecology & evolution! Develop models bridging evolutionary theory with empirical data on sex differences in immunity and life history. Apply now! #postdoc #statistics #evolution #academicjobs #ecology jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

🚨🚨read about our findings! Negative biodiversity- ecosystem function relationships along pitcher plant bacterial succession. 🌱🦠🦟

New paper from the lab! Led by PhD student Chris Carlson, with me and Matt Osmond (not on Bluesky), this study explored the effects of genotype-by-environment interactions on the maintenance of genetic variation in mutualisms

Cyclic parthenogenesis helps populations cross fitness valleys https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.12.699030v1

There's still time to apply to be a 2026 @dev-journal.bsky.social Pathway to Independence fellow For those about to apply for their first independent academic position, the programme offers - mentoring - leadership training - profile rising - networking journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...

🚨 New offer in our lab: 🐝🧬22-month postdoc or engineer position to estimate the effectiveness of the genetic queen fertilisation control in honey bees through large-scale sequencing and genomic analysis Location: Toulouse, France 😍 More information: thibaultleroyfr.github.io/pdf/Annonce_... Reposts🙏

🦋🧬 A milestone for biodiversity genomics. Project Psyche is building chromosome-level genomes for ~11,000 European butterflies & moths — 1,000 sequenced, 3,000+ collected, across 34 countries. 🔗 Read the publication: bit.ly/ProjectPsyche @projectpsyche.bsky.social #BiodiversityGenomics 🧬🌍

does this 👇 resonate?

Why do some planktonic protists develop a gelatinous matrix? We suggest that this original adaptation is a strategy to cope with ocean oligotrophy: doi.org/10.1111/1462... Led by @n-llopis-m.bsky.social, and thanks to all co-authors, I'm very happy to finally see it out! #protistsonsky

Led by Anthony Duncan, and after much hard work, we have now published an Enterosignature follow-up paper: cvaNMF academic.oup.com/nar/article/... This work represents a generalization of the Enterosignature (ES) framework e.g. discovering ES disease associations, and describe "Terrasignatures" 👇👇👇

Apparent stabilizing selection explains micro and macroevolution of Drosophila wings https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.08.698402v1

Our #PhD students look forward to kicking off this years #popgen seminar series tomorrow with @alexeimaklakov.bsky.social "Why do organisms age? Challenges in the evolutionary biology of ageing". Check our website for full schedule and streaming signup popgen-vienna.at/news/seminars/ #evolution

Nucleotide diversity is a poor predictor of short-term adaptive potential https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697705v1

Novel genes arise from genomic deletions across the bacterial tree of life https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697752v1

Two distinct green algal symbionts cohabiting in the Japanese black salamander Hynobius nigrescens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698294v1

1/n New paper alert! Bottlenecks are common in life cycles, but how do they shape the evolution of multiple cooperative traits at once? We tested this in M. xanthus under stringent vs relaxed bottlenecks.

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41509017/

The re-analysis of this #sponge #ctenophore study made me realize how important it is to really *look* at your data. Their filtering pipeline was meant to retain "strong" genes, but many of them had NO ctenophores and most had polyphyletic sponges. Time to put down the pitchforks for a while.

Statistical Rethinking 2026 Lecture B01 Multilevel Models is online. This is the first lecture of the "experienced" section, in which we start with multilevel models and venture into vast covariance spaces. Full lecture list still here: github.com/rmcelreath/s...

This is going to be my EGOT year. Empirical, Genomics, Organismal and Theoretical papers.

📢 I'm hiring! 3-year postdoc in theoretical evolutionary ecology at University of Helsinki 🇫🇮 Apply: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki-Postdoctoral-Researcher-in-Theoretical-Evolutionary-Biology/1348955157/ #AcademicJobs #Postdoc #EvolutionaryEcology #TheoreticalEcology #ScienceJobs #AcademicChatter

Weak pervasive incompatibilities and compensatory adaptation drive hybrid genome evolution in yeast https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698244v1

Finally published! "Thirty-three new species of Agromyzidae (Diptera) from the United States and Canada, with new host and distribution records for 154 additional species." Now I've got some updating to do on BugGuide and iNaturalist...

Ecological Interactions Drive Metabolomic Diversification in Amazonian Pseudonocardia Symbionts https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697768v1

#RNAi is an ancestral #antiviral system that degrades viral RNA, but what about in #cnidarians? @yehumoran.bsky.social &co show that #Nematostella has an siRNA-mediated antiviral response that lacks 2ary amplification & functions as a short-term antiviral mechanism @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3N192OD

How relaxed preferences facilitate the evolution of novel animal signals doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by Gabrielle T Welsh et al.

Book review 📚 These women helped to shape quantum mechanics — it’s time to recognize them go.nature.com/3Ls2yYu

Putting together slides for a talk on brevity next week and was reminded of this: one of the shortest scientific papers I know of. 1/2

New #ISEPpapers #preprint! Environmental #phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown #eukaryotes starting from the mid Proterozoic www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Phylogeny #Proterozoic #Eukaryogenesis