'Beltsville Agricultural Research Centre', Maryland - I was privately commissioned to memorialise the BARC by a past employee after learning it will be shut down by the USDA after over 100 years of research. They wanted to focus of this aerial embroidery to be the field plots... 1/3 (see thread)

Woah www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

What is your Biology or EEB departments minimum PhD stipend? Update it here: mlgaynor.com/BiologyPhDSt...

There’s no routine screening for pancreatic cancer, most cases aren’t operable, and the five year survival rate after diagnosis is around 13%. It’s a traumatic news. But new personalized mRNA immunotherapy is showing encouraging results in Phase 1 clinical trials. Keep funding science!

This unbelievable microscopic image taken by Hans Kerp is of an early land plant from ~409 million years ago. Exquisite preservation in Scottish sandstone (Rhynie Chert) reveals sperm cells (upper right) released on a fateful day by the “antheridium.” The paper: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Gift link to the article: wapo.st/3OONwh6

So you know Datura, the jimsonweeds, with the fancy erect flowers and the scary coat of knives on the outside of the fruit? Meet Daturodendron, a TREE version of Datura, discovered and described by my amazing Solanologist colleagues. onlinelibrary-wiley-com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/doi/10.1002/...

I'm hiring a postdoc (start date flexible) and a PhD student (for Fall 2027) to work in any area of computational phylogenetics! More info here: mhibbins.github.io I will be attending both PEQG and Evolution in June, so please reach out if you want to chat at these meetings!

Postdoc opportunity in plant systematics + phylogenomics 🌿 my lab at the University of Michigan is recruiting for a Research Fellow working on species delimitation in neotropical myrtles. Full details + apply here (deadline April 30) careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

WANTED: Lead Collections Manager. Smithsonian NMNH Botany is looking for a Supervisory Museum Specialist to manage the United States National Herbarium and a top-notch collections team. For more information, visit USAJOBS (www.usajobs.gov/job/864499200). Applications due in two weeks (1 May 2026).

We really only have labor for ~130 regular contributed virtual talks. So, yes! Get those talks in! Late submissions decided via Thunderdome.

Over 800 abstracts and counting! There's still time to submit and present a talk or poster at #Botany2026 in Tucson.....but write it up quickly and submit in the coming hours. Don't miss out! www.botanyconference.org

A college instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work and teach life lessons apnews.com/article/type... #AcademicSky #HigherEd

My friend and fellow scientist with a fantastic radio voice has this great podcast called Science Faire. Here I talk *much* too fast about flower color and plant pigments: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s.... But go check out the other cool episodes! lucybethpohl.wixsite.com/sciencefare-...

Columbia Heights is the suburb where Liam Ramos lives, a small working-class highly diverse community just savaged by ICE during its occupation. There's a mutual aid fund and benefit this Saturday. 1) Please come if you're local. My band is playing a set and we're not bad! 2) Please share & donate.

Insightful summary of an extraordinary person being extraordinarily fired: "you don't silence a woman of color who raised concerns about racism by silencing her...The fingerprints are distributed perfectly across the system." www.linkedin.com/pulse/uclas-...

The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.

The real damage comes years later, with elevated cancer rates, leukemia clusters, respiratory disease, cardiovascular failure, neurological damage, reproductive issues. This is chemical warfare, with delayed carnage. Worse than radiation sickness. I am ashamed to be American today. 2/2

holy shit

I love caves, inflatables and science communication. This month is #colorectal cancer awareness month - the disease that has been ruining me the last 20 months. Get a colonoscopy folks. It’s not as fun as what I’m doing here but it ain’t that bad either.

2026 basically

The seed fossil record of Solanaceae revisited is out! Using morphometrics and micro-CT data from 110 fossils and 354 extant taxa, we described 6 new genera and 6 new species, doubling fossil diversity for the nightshades! 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/tax.... @iochromaland.bsky.social

today.

❤️

After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.

Systematic Biology’s January 2026 issue (75.1) is out! It launches our 75th anniversary series, debuts the new Invited Review article category, features a Tillandsia Spotlight, along with a nice mix of empirical & methods papers. Check it out: academic.oup.com/sysbio/issue... @systbiol.bsky.social

Do you care about the future of the US NSF and science in general? The agency is seeking feedback on the draft Strategic Plan. www.nsf.gov/od/updates/n...

Join @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social for the first webinar in our 2026 series: "Taxonomy: What is it good for?" Free to all! Join us to hear @sandyknapp.bsky.social's "Of course taxonomy matters! The story of the mega-genus Solanum (Solanaceae)" Pls register & share: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Y'all, I just got out of the NSF-BIO webinar where they explained changes to peer review. It's not good. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/changes-to-n...

Come learn with us! #REU!

NSF is about to dismantle NCAR at Russell Vought's direction to protect the fossil fuel industry. It's hard to communicate just how much NCAR does, so let's take a look: I've never worked at NCAR, and I've worked with NCAR researchers once ever. What scientific discoveries has NCAR made possible? 👇

I am a student at Brown in communication with a friend at RIBC. There is an urgent need for blood donations to support RI. Donations in NY, NJ, MN, NB, DE or NJ can help supply RI. Spread the word. www.ribc.org/donate-blood/

Field botanist job with Virginia Natural Heritage, based in Roanoke, VA. $55-65K pay range. Please share widely! www.jobs.virginia.gov/jobs/field-b...

Our plant-focused REU program, led by Prof Nagel, is open for applications, please forward to undergrads and reskeet etap.nsf.gov/award/7573/o... 🌱 🧪

Ok, we're down to the last 10 (!) spots available to register for #SSB2026 in Baton Rouge in January. Who's in? ssb2026.github.io @systbiol.bsky.social

This story has been such a long time coming! We found that the family of MYB transcription factors that makes pink tomatoes has a wacky cousin involved in the evolution of red flowers in Iochroma. #MYBs4Ever

I'm hiring a full time fixed-term 1yr lab tech to assist with field and greenhouse projects related to floral evolution and plant reproductive ecology. Please share! Ideal start date early 2026. jobs.clemson.edu/psc/ps/JOBS/...

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

Mesquite 4.02 update released! It fixes a few bugs and adds Codon Alignment and various other improvements. Also, much faster with genomics files with 1000s of loci. www.mesquiteproject.org 🧪 #evolbio @bembidion.bsky.social

I just got a call from my rheumatologist. Because of the changes to Medicaid, which no longer reimburses telemedicine appointments, I can either pay out of pocket or drive two hours away every three months, which is not possible for me most of the year due to my work schedule.

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Unsolicited listicle: My list of the most criminally underused/underappreciated phylogenetic comparative methods. Note, I am not involved in ANY of these methods; but I see them as things people are often asking of comparative data but have been surprised at how infrequently they have been cited.

Now seeking associate editors for 2026! AEs receive free membership in SSE and free registration to the annual Evolution meeting. Indicate your interest in this short form by September 30: forms.gle/JwAmeM4YV9Fv...

I’ve done this for 2 weeks now and it *absolutely rules*. Best class discussions I’ve ever had. Best engagement with readings. They write in this worksheet for 15 minutes, then talk about their responses in groups of 3-4, then groups share with the whole class, and *then* we talk about the readings

We have just cross the $10,000 mark. Let's keep pushing to make that $15K goal! Thanks everyone for standing up for the botanical sciences! #ADayforBSA

🌿 'A Day for BSA' (day-for-bsa.botany.org/2025) is this Wednesday! Join us as we celebrate 130+ years of advancing botanical science, and then help us reach our campaign goal of $15,000 raised for the BSA Endowment with a gift of any amount. Give today! crm.botany.org/civicrm/cont... #ADayforBSA

The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring! We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.

Big news! We are recruiting a postdoc to work on tomatillo evolution: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta.... The clade containing tomatillos and its allies (ca 300 spp) has evolved lantern fruits at least 25 times - we want to know why! Join us @rociodeanna.bsky.social & @caschenck-bio.bsky.social