The idea that humans sit atop an evolutionary hierarchy dates back to 1866, when a scientist drew the first tree of life with "Man" at the top. This inaccurate view still shapes how we think of the animal world, despite decades of genomic evidence proving evolution has no hierarchy. buff.ly/dpXwi1r

How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications. My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/ academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Ring is a wildly dangerous company. Always has been. But it has sort of flown under the radar the last couple years as it tried to soften its image. Make no mistake that this is an extremely dangerous surveillance dragnet: www.404media.co/with-ring-am...

Wild fact from @billmckibben.bsky.social's latest newsletter: "The last colder-than-average month on planet earth was in February of 1985, which means that no one under the age of forty has ever known one."

Good resources here for dealing with the evolving issues in the GRFP — currently some applications being returned without review for being out of scope without a clear reason why the proposed work was out of scope

Question for Entomology curators: what printers are you using these days for archival specimen labels?

PLEASE REPOST AND SHARE! My intro biology course has an "Interview a Biologist" project where students connect with a wide range of biologists using cell/molecular tools. If you are willing to speak with a student for ~30 minutes on Zoom, please fill out this form: forms.gle/BCjJPgURsgSr...

New paper! From Sam Snodgrass and @genomeofforrest.bsky.social, w/ @druncie.bsky.social, @gcbias.bsky.social, and a collaboration with Andres Moreno and @santiagogmm.bsky.social. Can we quantify the impact of humans on maize dispersal? Plant yourself in a comfy chair and lend me your ear: 1/10

Hot take: folks are too focused on the AI emphasis of the PRFB & missing the most concerning part of the solicitation. The heavy emphasis on bio-AI integration for “technological advances” is a concerning degradation of NSFs mission to fund basic biological research.

Read the RFP and watch your happiness turn to pure rage

Holy shit: it's an RFP for the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB). Hello old friend www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

2/9

But, as they say, there is no time like the present [OK, maybe the 1930s if you want to nitpick] But, with some data wrangling, my first NSF Funding Curves! 2/3

Reposting again because according to Reddit threads, another round of RWR emails went out today.

"We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average" arxiv.org/abs/2601.20245

Just discovered the wonderful covers of 'Genes to Cells', the journal of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan @mbsj-official.bsky.social – absolutely beautiful! here some examples inspired by mitosis, CRISPR, the DNA helix, and plant pigments

How do we think a sealed bottle of mezcal from 1981 stacks up?

Maize genetic diversity is largely unstructured by human ethnolinguistic diversity in its center of origin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703385v1

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics? 1) Write NSF 2) Write your Congressperson 3) CC us at [email protected] so we can compile + follow up Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

Check out our paper on the neo-sex chromosomes in mountain pine beetle! We assembled THREE neo-Ys that are quite distinct and their corresponding neo-Xs .

NEW: Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old who ICE agents in Minneapolis nabbed last week and shipped off to a Texas detention facility with his dad, is now in poor health, his school superintendent told me today www.huffpost.com/entry/liam-c...

Funds available for grads and postdocs to visit @burkemuseum.bsky.social collections! Applications due Dec. 15th. Please share!

forbidden steak

This is really a nightmare for scientific integrity and public trust. The reputational damage was there before Trump even took office & it's only going to get worse. How can you convince people to enroll in these kinds of studies to improve health & wellness if this is what can happen to their data?

Happy recruitment/interview season for PhD students! Recruiting students in ecology & evolutionary biology? Make sure your department's stipend is accurate in our database: rhettrautsaw.app/shiny/Biolog...

Years of fun collaboration, led by Dr. Lacie Newton together with our #GEODE #NSF #DRAGONFLY #phylogeny #systematics team, Seth Bybee, John Abbott, Rob Guralnick, Vincent Kalkman, and rest of #GEODE community! track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

Are you a wetlab scientist with some code you know you *should* be tracking with git, but you're not sure where to start? Been there! Don't keep putting it off - the sooner you start, the sooner you'll see what all the fuss is about! 🧪 emptymodels.substack.com/p/intro-to-g...

Trump has been in office for one year. We at @nature.com did a deep dive looking at the administration's disruption of science in numbers. Take a look—the numbers are staggering. By me, @dangaristo.bsky.social, Jeff Tollefson, @kimay.bsky.social, & help from @noamross.net @scott-delaney.bsky.social

Been hearing some horrifying chatter about dealing with the new #NIH common form and #ScienCV system, so I put together a short video with some tricks for mitigating some of those pain points. Hope it helps? 🧪 open.substack.com/pub/emptymod...

Take a close look at this picture. What an interesting coin or artifact, you probably think 🤔. Such interesting detail, intricately carved or molded 🧐 ... HAHA sucker, you're looking at a SPIDER'S BUTT. Let's meet Cyclocosmia ricketti, the Chinese hourglass spider. CW: spiders & their butts

It's that time of year again! I'm looking for suggestions of 'emerging' model organisms for my #CellBio course's final proj: Organism nomination form here (links to blog on proj info): forms.office.com/r/v8zYgqVe8W #cellbiology #biology #academicsky #microsky #archaeasky #protistsonsky 🧪 (1/n)

This seems like a maliciously put headline to make people feel a certain way. Wikipedia is not partaking in generative AI. They are making AI companies and scrappers having to pay for training their modules off wikipedia texts. And having an AI (not that ai) tasked with updating dead links.

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Post-Doctoral Opportunity in Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics! If you are curious and passionate about ecology, evolution and the natural world come work with me in the Department of Biology at NYU! More details here! apply.interfolio.com/180051

Job alert: NOAA NWFSC & UW are looking for a postdoc (ASAP) in Seattle study foraging ecology of Cook Inlet beluga whales using eDNA. Genetics/ecology/eDNA experience preferred. Interested candidates reach out to [email protected] or [email protected] directly. #eDNA #ConsGen

Our Members of Congress can rein in ICE with the upcoming Homeland Security funding bill. Tell your senators that you demand ICE Out For Good: indivisible.org/ice-out-sena... And contact your representative: indivisible.org/ice-out-hous... #ICEOutForGood

I am hiring a staff bioinformatician for my new lab at the University of Utah! Please consider applying if you are on the hunt: employment.utah.edu/salt-lake-ci...

If you're an NSF funded investigator, it is a huge win. We went from a proposed 60% cut to a proposed 25% cut (in initial House budget) to a 3.9% cut (which should not affect NSF extramural appropriations). This means that most NSF directorates will continue funding at last year's rates and levels.

Like traits? Plants? Interactions between humans and the natural world? Are you looking for a PhD? There's still time left to apply for a fully-funded PhD in my lab, on macroevolutionary approaches to the ornamental plant trade! Deadline Jan. 14th. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

LSU Museum of Natural Sciences is hiring a postdoc! Come join our very active and supportive museum community. Applicants can work with any of the major divisions: 🐀🦜🦎🐸🐠 Review begins February 15th, please share! lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/LSU/job/0119...

Next Thursday in Los Angeles, @ologies.bsky.social & I are hosting an evening of activism art! We'll be creating art that communicates important messages & learning about work happening in your city. RSVP here: luma.com/fp919u5x Poster by the amazing @nicolegoux.bsky.social! Please repost, LA!

Historical PFAS trends in the Great Lakes using four decades of archived fish. #GreatLakes 🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The AMNH REU was a life-changing experience for me- definitely consider applying if you’re interested in biology, biodiversity science, or collections-based research!

Come work with the vertebrate paleontology team at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC this summer! REU Students will have the opportunity to study and reconstruct the skulls of Permian and Triassic reptiles 😃 Reach out to me if you have any questions (: Apply by the 31st!!

Consider your sign to stop and stare at logs a little more often because just LOOK at this glorious velvet mite! (Third photo is where it was spotted.) 📷 jeremyhegge on iNaturalist 📍 Australia 🔗: www.inaturalist.org/observations... #ObservationOfTheDay

The destruction doesn't make for a photo-op like tearing down the East Wing of the White House or bulldozing the Rose Garden, but it's every bit as bad. Generations of American children learned to spell and count, learned the Preamble to the Constitution, from watching shows produced by the CPB.

I'm not the only one with a new book released over the holidays! Here's Jeremy Fox's new book, 'The Ecology of Ecologists'. I read it in MS; it's excellent. If you're an ecologist, work with ecologists, or are interested in science studies - this is for you!

#AI may indeed exacerbate our bad academic habits: #LLM science summaries were nearly five times more likely than human-authored science summaries to contain broad generalizations (95% CI [3.06, 7.70], p < 0.001). And newer models over-generalized more; not less! doi.org/10.1098/rsos... #philSci

She also provided useful info about actually waiting until the May deadline for other reasons (funding decisions are in the same fiscal year, responding to summary statements might be more useful, etc). But again, REACH OUT TO YOUR PO, who may have useful info about navigating this unstable time

If this accommodation is useful for your situation, PLEASE reach out to your POs. She specifically suggested that having some documentation from your PO may be useful to demonstrate eligibility for this accommodation.