Remember the current NIH director going on about protecting researchers from government censorship? Today his people called the police in to forcibly remove my colleagues from their own society meeting for sharing an editorial published in their flagship journal that was critical of him. Gift link

The Department of Biology at the University of Iowa is hiring an evolutionary ecologist at the assistant professor level for fall 2027. Come and be my colleague! jobs.uiowa.edu/faculty/view...

1/8 Inside your body lies something ancient. Our @pnas.org paper uncovers the deep unicellular prehistory of blood cell types. See paper and video. @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @icreacommunity.bsky.social @prbb.org @csic.es @csicdivulga.bsky.social pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Gàlvez-Morante, Berney & Richter report the discovery of a novel lineage within Amoebozoa with intriguing behaviors like the “double-amoeba” and suggest that retention of gene function composition played a key role in shaping Amoebozoa evolution. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag071 #evobio #molbio

I shared on LinkedIn already, but I wanted to post here as well since I've got a different audience: I will be joining the Department of Plant Pathology at the @universityofga.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor on Aug 1!! I will keep studying #Aspergillus & #Fusarium that infect plants & humans 🥰

Who’s at #AbSciCon this week?

American science right now is basically 10,000 of these stories, all with their own heartbreaking specificity Lost careers, lost progress, lost discoveries I feel so sad every day for all we’ve lost and continue to lose 💔

I dream to someday live in a world where algae has become so mainstream that google doesn’t change “phycology” to “psychology”.

I am not usually regarded as an optimistic person (lol) or particularly mushy, but I do have an encouraging story I want to share today while basic research is being terminated and the NSF is being reshaped in unrecognizable ways. 🧵

I went to go look, and this time last year, NSF SBE had funded 216 awards. This year, they have funded 2.

1/23 New preprint! Been thinking about the origin of cellular life. Specifically, how protocells (or *any* compartments) just aren't enough to support the evolution of increasingly complex cells. You gotta de-Darwinize the parts! The ribosome/genome do this. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I have THREE active institutional accounts right now and I was still unable to access two papers that I needed today, both written by Carl Woese. The academic publishing industry needs to do better.

Interested in working on the evolution of photosynthetic endosymbioses? Come join us! I have 2 open positions in my new group @cemess.bsky.social in Vienna 3yr postdoc info: tinyurl.com/4emkjpn4 4yr PhD info: tinyurl.com/mtxmsjpy Apply by 1st June! Please share/repost #Protists #Symbiosis #PhD

Horizontal gene transfer is the insurance mechanism. Bacteria swap genes between lineages. Without HGT, costly-on-average genes get purged. With HGT, they sit at stable low frequencies, available when conditions shift. Mean fitness drops slightly with HGT. That dip is the premium.

"With limits on its ability to conduct oversight, the [NSB] turned to its responsibility of advising Congress on science policy" but before they could begin advising Congress on FY27 funding levels for the NSF "they were dismissed." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/u...

IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

More details on the firing of the National Science Board. The NSF now has no director, deputy director, or board. They have issued almost no new awards in 2026. The plan appears to be to completely destroyed the agency. The details are horrifying and have Russ Vought written all over them.

Moran et al. in Science Emergent predictability in microbial ecosystems www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🆕 Our #LatestIssue is online now! 📚 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14698137... Highlights include: 🌱 Fascinating single cell red algae 🌱 Epigenetic regulation of mycorrhizal symbioses 🌱 Diversity affects microclimate temperature & humidity #PlantScience

"It’s a bright spot on the moon,” CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen said, his voice breaking up, “and we would like to call it Carroll.” The crew all shared a hug after. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/s...

In the early 60s, my grandparents named both of my uncles after astronauts and then my mom was born and there were not yet any female astronauts so she didn’t get a cool name. I’m happy that things have gotten better but we still have so much further to go to achieve gender parity in STEM!

We all know #fungi are the dominant microbial #eukaryotes in #forest #soils… or are they really? In our new paper, we revisited 51 forest metatranscriptomes from 4 European and North American forest regions - and found that protistan predators outshine fungi in activity!

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.”

Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is now published in @natecoevo.nature.com! We show that developmentally complex brown algae evolved without epigenetic silencing pathways long thought universal, underscoring why non-model lineages are important to study. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Beyond the 'One Nucleus, One Whole Genome' Rule" by Xin Li, Monika Fischer, & colleagues FREE to read till April 5th at authors.elsevier.com/a/1mcXIcQbJI...

New paper alert!

I just saw Project Hail Mary and absolutely LOVED it! And if you know anyone in show biz and you want to make my dreams come true, please hire me to consult on your next film project! If I get my paws on it you will not have two Eppendorf tubes on the same side of an otherwise empty centrifuge.

Well this sucks.

I have a new review out in TiG titled, “The ecology of horizontal gene transfer”! I’ve been thinking about these ideas for years and this field is growing so fast it’s becoming impossible to review it. I hope this paper sparks discussion on different ways we can look at DNA transfer!

I would not be a scientist without Lynn Margulis. I never would have gotten a PhD or developed a curiosity for the research topics I currently work on if I didn’t read her book, “Symbiotic Planet” when I was 21. So many male scientists I’ve worked with knew her and many say things like…(1/2)

I had an incredible time in Cambridge this week to give the Harvard University Herbaria seminar! I got to meet with scientists whose work I’ve been following since college, explored the Museum of Natural History, and spent a day in the algae collection at the Farlow Herbarium. I’m still smiling!

🚨 Post-doctoral position alert! 🚨 The Bhattacharya Lab at Rutgers University is seeking a postdoc in the field of algal multi-omics and metabolic engineering 🌊 🦠 🧬 Ideal start by June. Applications will be reviewed as received. Please share widely :) jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/269... #evobio

Posting again!

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating). A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

The National Science Foundation is systematically being converted to the National AI and Quantum Research Foundation. “I see it as the administration exerting political control over what has traditionally been NSF’s ability to fund the best science.”

Hi, I’m on my soapbox today ✨

Posting again!

I saw this live on the news this morning and my hat is off to this guy. 🎩

Has anyone else realized that the RFK Jr. + Kid Rock #MAHA video where they wear jeans and drink milk in the gym is literally the fight milk video from #alwayssunny?

It was great being involved in this paper. Check it out for an update on what’s going on in the world of Cyanidiophyceae biology!

Registration is now open! The 4th edition of the Mendel Early Career Symposium will take place on 21-22 May at the GMI, part of the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social. This two-day event brings together researchers across career stages to discuss the latest research in all areas of plant science.

Exciting announcement! My new department is launching a postdoc fellowship in quantitative biology. Fellows will be co-advised by two Bio faculty, one that is quant focused (not me) and one that is not (me???). I would love to co-sponsor a postdoc and build a collaboration so please reach out!

I’ve wanted to be a scientist since I was a little kid and would’ve loved to go to a camp like this. Trump science cuts and antipathy are now trickling down and likely stopping an entire generation of children from learning about the natural world and seeing science as an attainable career option.

Happy birthday to a relatable fellow complainer.

Exciting announcement! My new department is launching a postdoc fellowship in quantitative biology. Fellows will be co-advised by two Bio faculty, one that is quant focused (not me) and one that is not (me???). I would love to co-sponsor a postdoc and build a collaboration so please reach out!

Regulation of #chloroplast biogenesis and differentiation academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-... @tamara-hverdeja.bsky.social @jxbotany.bsky.social @sebplants.bsky.social @sebiology.bsky.social @chloroplastics.bsky.social @cellwalldynamics.com @charlotte-dlslle.bsky.social @biogenesis.bsky.social

Time lapse of an odd little monster. Presumably some kind of cercozoan from brackish water. #protistsonsky

An intracellular meteor shower. EB3 comets tracking growing microtubule plus-ends in a cultured cell.

New paper out! Here's a puzzle: phototrophy, the ability to use light for energy, is one of life's great innovations. It evolved early and transformed the biosphere. But it evolved 2x. Why not just once, why not more? Our work suggests the answer is priority effects. www.nature.com/articles/s44...