This tiny world is actually the top of a fence post.

Sci-comm is hard. I loved these and other similar signs around the zoo but then overheard a family seeing the arrow and explaining that Utahraptor evolved into hornbills.

25 years ago I presented a poster at #Evol2001 (as a postbac in Brian Farrell's lab). I'm now a faculty colleague of many of the organizers of that meeting. Today I'm presenting a poster again at #Evol2026 (A-16). And this time, it moves!

I’m recruiting a PhD student to join our lab in the fall of 2027. If you’re excited about phylogenetics, comp bio, paleobiology, stats theory, macroevolution, etc. please get in touch! Folks at #Evol2026, you can talk to @brpetrucci.bsky.social & @sigournie.bsky.social to learn more about our lab

I just learned about this USDA bee lab that is about to be shutdown by the Trump administration. Like many science related decisions from this admin, this short sighted decision will have longterm scientific, ecological, and economic consequences. #SavetheBees theconversation.com/shutting-dow...

How do you turn a purple flower white? Another from lab, led by @damianmicroeco.bsky.social and Emily Glasgow, with big contributions from Martin Henry, Margaret Li, and Amanda Peake. Mendelian Polymorphisms for the Win! #evolbio #plantscience

This lab group is ready to rock on some botany research this summer. Thank you #NSF and #CUBoulder for the support that made this possible!

A while back I timidly knocked on a neighbor's door to ask if they would mind not pulling up the native Physalis in their side yard. They humored me as I explained why and got a little into the weeds, so to speak. Now this is the ICONIC sign they have posted on the fence behind the plants.

The @sse-evolution.bsky.social crowdfunding campaign for student research grants is at 10% of its $30k goal! Chip in here to help evolutionary biologists in the first stages of their scientific careers: gofund.me/70d1ce65e

'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.