And that's how you integrate digital elements into an exhibition. Part of the temporary "China's Dinosaur World" at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, China. Closing this November. Video source: Shanghai Let's Meet

Genome-wide selection on transposable elements in maize https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676665v1

🚨 Cool educational item alert 🚨 We teamed up with Philly Nature Illustrator, Meg Lemieur @megstampede.bsky.social to create a 12 month wall calendar all about animals! The calendar includes lessons we can learn from animals & how we can help them. Pre-order here! www.etsy.com/listing/4366...

It's no "Murder in Mesopotamia", but I do have my own mystery. Who sent me this?!

Archeology friends, are you aware of rock art depicting headbutting sheep in Asia or Africa? I have examples in Europe and N. America but want to add more globally. (I'll also take any other headbutting references including other forms of art and other species if you have em). Please share! 🏺 🧪

In which I beg archaeologists to sign up for the fall semester of Skype a Scientist, because we're getting buried in requests for your area of expertise. Sign up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

BHL's future is uncertain, but hopeful. Securing its future requires new partners & sustained investment. For more information, follow along here & on the #BHLblog: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/tag/transition. Help us safeguard the world’s collective biodiversity knowledge. #ILoveBHL 🧪 📖 🌱 🌏

Hua Yang from UM on ploidy and genome balance in maize in this morning's #Zeavolution. We still have a couple open slots this Fall. Reply or DM if you'd like to join!

Genomics hivemind: I want to genotype a bunch of diverse, heterozygous diploids with a messy genome (🌽 -- who'd have guessed?) but I care about phase. Computational phasing doesn't really cut it, so wondering what the cheapest alternatives are -- nanopore to 10-20X? Linked shortreads?

It's Minnesota State Fair time! It's time for Minnesotan folk art! Here, for example, is Saturn Devouring His Corn, in the seed art category!

Michigan State University is hiring a new Director of our herbarium! This is an open rank, tenure-stream faculty position, with research focus in plant or fungal systematics, ecology, and/or evolution Please consider applying and help spread the word! plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

Seeking science journalists: @quantamagazine.bsky.social is hiring a physics editor! A rare opportunity to join this great team and lead coverage of this foundational vertical. Please reach out with any questions and share widely simonsfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/simons...

Excited to share our new preprint for the tskit_arg_visualizer Python package! ARGs can sometimes feel like a black box, so @yanwong.bsky.social and I have been developing a method to programmatically drawing these graphs. 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2508.03958 1/6

Calling all natural history/museum collections folxs The theme of the @systbiol.bsky.social breakout meeting in Baton Rouge is 'The Importance of Natural History Collections' The LSU Museum of Natural Science will host some events. Hope to see you there, Jan 9-11, 2026. ssb2026.github.io

for the record, that's about 20x the number of coal miners in the US

I got the bean app... just in time to help me focus on a manuscript.

FlyBase, a Drosophila database, will lose a third of its team in early October because the Harvard grant that covered the employees’ salaries was canceled. Scientists warn that losing FlyBase could devastate fly research. By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

Top reading this week www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Using Modern Coexistence Theory to understand community disassembly https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.06.668499v1

An exciting preprint by fellow platypode Jasen Liu!

As you plan your #ESA2025 schedule, be sure to stop by our session honoring the life and legacy of Margaret Davis: pollen-loving paleoecologist, global change biologist, and trailblazing woman scientist. We have an exciting line-up of interdisciplinary talks, and there are rumors of a zine!

Also if you're at #ESA2025 and interested in bats (maybe birds too), bioacoustics, arid landscapes, and thinking of a PhD, please say hello. I plan to recruit 1-2 grad students. Spring or fall 2026 start with a focus on desert waters or renewable energy. lavertylab.org Happy to meet up!

If you're at #ESA2025, make sure to check out Joe's talk Tuesday morning!

At #ESA2025 and interested in an #AltAc career? Holden Arboretum is hiring! DM me if you want to chat about either of these positions - Urban ecologist (PI / research scientist position) holdenfg.org/career-and-i... - Forest health postdoc holdenfg.org/career-and-i...

Do you love alpine plants, ancient DNA, and/or population genetics? My lab will be hiring a postdoc soon to be based at the University of Maine! We’re looking for someone who uses genetic tools and thinks like a community ecologist. Happy to chat at #ESA2025 if you’re interested.

⏳ Just under a month to go! 🌱 BHL’s Call for Support soft closes 31 Aug. That’s when we begin reviewing offers. Hosting, funding, services – every contribution counts. Help shape BHL’s future: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #OpenScience 🧪

Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.

I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!

Last fall, the First Lego League project was focused on the ocean, so we had a massive number of requests for marine biologists come in to Skype a Scientist. I just got word that this year's theme is archaeology. Know any archaeologists? tell them we're gonna NEED 'em. forms.gle/HKYTUpEUWd91...

The #BHLTransition is underway! ⛵ We’re charting the course to a strong and sustainable future for the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Read our latest update and, if you have visionary ideas about how BHL can evolve and grow, get in touch 🚀: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/07/bhl-...

In Fall '26 the Himmel Lab will open at NJIT Biological Sciences. I'm beyond stoked! Interested in a PhD/postdoc in the function/evolution/origins of the senses (computation or experimentation)? Message me and come join a great department in the NY metro! Sharing is appreciated. Info: himmellab.org

How can climate distribution models help to harness crop diversity? We look at recent advances in grain amaranth genomics and breeding to suggest how leveraging genetic diversity of underutilized crops could contribute to resilient and sustainable cropping systems. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📰 Discovery of monumental architecture in the Andes 1500 years earlier than expected suggests remembrance of the dead was the impetus for hunter-gatherer monument building. #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @ucdavis.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/news/new-stu...

Headed to the @botsocamerica.bsky.social meetings in Palm Springs this year? Do mark my lab's talks/posters on your calendars! Jeez when did we become a plant lab?! Excited for y'all to hear some fun science that we've been up to.

If you don't know about mosquito dunks, you should! They're floating plant material containing a type of bacterium that only attacks mosquito larvae. Just put one in the water and stop mosquitos from hatching. They're inexpensive and highly effective. Signed, a friendly bluesky entomologist.

I'm super excited to share our new paper on Norwegian lemming genomics just published in @pnas.org!! Read the paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.... Summary ⬇️

Waterhemp has recently evolved separate M & F sexes from a monoecious ancestor. @jmkreiner.bsky.social @stepheniwright.bsky.social &co reveal surprising #chromosomal complexity associated with this transition, challenging assumptions of how separate #sexes evolve @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/46sTg6u

Here's the end-of-workday update, on Day 1 of the United States of Science. A whopping 57% of the map has been covered in the first 24 hours which is *amazing*. Thank you to everyone who filled bubbles! The top 5 states are still open: CA, NY, PA, NJ, FL Fill a few bubbles! givebutter.com/USS2025

Large #teeth & highly protrusible #jaws are 2 feeding innovations that have evolved in #fish. But @cichlidnick.bsky.social &co suggest that they're incompatible with each other; large teeth unlock new feeding modes, but constrain how prey can be captured @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3HVH7go

Medieval pigs!! 🐷 Check out the convo I had with the great folks over at @themerl.bsky.social

NONE in Life science?! NONE?!

Proud to share my first first-author paper out this week! Can we leverage environmental data from germplasm banks to improve climate adaptation in maize breeding? journals.plos.org/plosgenetics... (1/3)

In #GENETICS, @spicybotrytis.bsky.social‬, @jrossibarra.bsky.social‬, & colleagues identified sites under positive selection, estimated the timing of gene & locus divergence, and discovered a siRNA-mediated mechanism of silencing the reproductive barrier in #maize.🌽 Read more: buff.ly/cQFkzfP

Line up of talks by Coop lab folks #Evol2025 (do double check times): @kitchensjn.bsky.social Reconstructing the spatial histories of populations from ancestral recombination graphs June 21st Sat. 2:45 PM. Population Genetic Theory III. 1/n

Looking forward to seeing folks at #Evol2025! I'll be sharing some of our preliminary work on the 2,000 Aspen Genomes Project in Poster Session 2 on June 23 at poster A4. "Evolutionary and ploidy-informed tools for quaking aspen management"

I’ll be there at #Evol2025 giving a talk on “To what extent do sex-ratio meiotic drivers interfere with each other?” Talk schedule: June 06, 2025 Evolutionary Theory I 9:45AM - 10:00AM @sse-evolution.bsky.social

Pleased to share that my first, first-author publication was published yesterday in @pnas.org ! We (me + @jrossibarra.bsky.social) did a little bit of detective work to better understand the age and origin of a mutation that played a key role in maize domestication. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... (1/n)

Looking for whole genome sequencing datasets of n≥20 for any non-cultivated, annual, native N. American species. Mimulus and Brachypodium, but struggling to find more. Suggestions welcome!

📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

NPR's internship program is coming back! Apply by June 30 to work with the Science Desk and Short Wave this fall/winter. I was an intern in 2019, and it set me on the path towards coming back for a staff job! job-boards.greenhouse.io/nationalpubl...