I was very happy to be able to address the National Mycorrhiza Meeting, talking about our recent work on common mycorrhizal networks. Pics by B. Chen.

Today, I gave a presentation on our work on multiple global change factors at Northwest A & F University, hosted by Quan Wang.

Looking forward to giving a seminar at Tsinghua University tomorrow (and to a visit to the wonderful art museum there).

Morgen (am 25.9.25) erscheint mein Buch "Mutter Erde", geschrieben gemeinsam mit dem Wissenschaftsjournalisten Jörg Blech. Im Buch schildere ich auch den wissenschaftlichen Prozess der Erforschung des Bodens und seiner Ökologie.

My pleasure to make a small appearance in this book! :)

Very interesting read: Historical and experimental evidence that inherent properties are overweighted in early scientific explanation | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

At China Agricultural University, I am giving several lectures on soil ecology and also on other topics, such as creativity. This is my 4th year teaching at CAU.

Visited amazing exhibit in the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. Chiharu Shiota 'Silent Emptiness'.

Paper just out, a review paper written together with the group of Fang Wang at ISS-CAS, Nanjing Microplastics and antibiotics in agricultural soil: mechanisms and implications of co-contamination www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Free share link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1loaZ7spEi...

Decluttering your academic life: prioritizing tasks open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

Very much enjoyed my visit to Beijing Normal University yesterday, delivering a talk on multi-factor global change and talking with researchers there.

I have been enjoying my stay at China Agricultural University, hosted by my friend Gaowen Yang, where I teach graduate students about soil ecology and global change.

Pleased to share our new article in Cell Host & Microbe, a collaboration with the group of Zhong Wei at NJAU Common mycorrhizal networks facilitate plant disease resistance by altering rhizosphere microbiome assembly Free share link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lnTD6t8JE...

Here's some food for thought: Microbial Plastic Degradation: A Solution or a Pollution Problem? Viewpoint paper in ACS Sustainable Resource Management written w/ Deep Deb pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

An art gallery of science? What would your art gallery of ecology look like.....? open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

Enjoyed my visit today to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Beautiful new campus near a lake and mountains. Great to meet Prof. Yanfen Wang and colleagues.

Potential planetary health impacts of the airborne plastisphere Our new review paper out in @cp-oneearth.bsky.social led by @changchao-li.bsky.social w/ Ling N. Jin www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy to give a talk at the RCEES of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, this year on our recent work on common mycorrhizal fungal networks. Thanks to Baodong Chen for hosting me.

Enjoyed giving a talk atvthe Institute of Urban Ecology, CAS in Xiamen, followed by nice discussions and fabulous seafood.

Arrived in beautiful Xiamen today and spent the day with the group of Xin Sun at the IUE CAS.

Enjoyed giving talks and participating in stimulating workshops at Nanjing Agricultural University and at Fudan University in Shanghai these last few days.

Academic appointments differ widely among institutions and countries. What makes a good system? And what is not ideal? Let me know what you think! open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

Happy to visit with Evgenios Agathokleous at NUIST in Nanjing, giving a lecture and meeting other faculty.

Here some pictures from the award ceremony at the Institute of Soil Science, CAS in Nanjing. Very honored to be a Distinguished Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Land availability and policy commitments limit global climate mitigation from forestation | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Interesting: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have lost DNA polymerase genes in a lineage-specific fashion.

Today I enjoyed visiting the FACE site of the Institute of Soil Science in Nanjing. FACE = free air carbon enrichment to study the effects of elevated carbon dioxide. Also worked on this during my PhD a long time ago

Looking forward to giving a talk today in Nanjing. Also looking forward to the award ceremony....

User guide to the head of the lab: I just updated mine. Read the newsletter post to find out what I added and why.... 😃 Interested in hearing what you think. open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

Our garden party "18 years of Rillig Lab" yesterday also featured two very curious young foxes that wanted to check out what this is all about.

Rillig Lab celebrated its coming of age party, since the lab has been in Berlin for 18 years now. One of the highlights: this excellent matcha cake featuring the lab logo, made by Yaqi.

Celebrating the small wins in academia….a reminder to myself (and maybe you….) Please share with someone you think might also need this reminder :) open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

ICYMI Navigating the academic job market in what seems like an increasingly anti-science world Hope you find it useful; please share. open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

Paper just accepted: Zoonotic pathogen-driven antibiotic resistance emerges in urban soils Will share details once available

Reading in journal club: Science becomes trustworthy by constantly questioning itself @plosbiology.org @briannosek.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

When a PI grows older, the gap between him/her and the lab members inevitably becomes larger, and perception and roles change. Very helpful to think about, and I can definitely relate. Thanks for writing this, @mrillig.bsky.social! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

As a PI, your role evolves. Over time, more experience and recognition can make you less approachable—whether you notice it or not. Your opinions carry more weight, and fewer people may challenge you. Ways to counter this change, via @mrillig.bsky.social

Very interesting! Guo et al. Linalool-triggered plant-soil feedback drives defense adaptation in dense maize plantings | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mycorrhizal allies: synergizing forest carbon and multifunctional restoration @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social by Tengteng Li (李腾腾), Richard Phillips, @mrillig.bsky.social, @gangst.bsky.social, @tobykiers.bsky.social, Paola Bonfante, Nico Eisenhauer & Zhanfeng Liu (刘占锋) www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Paper just out by Lehmann et al. Research landscape of experiments on global change effects on mycorrhizas A systematic mapping of all experiments on this topic...collaboration of several postdocs and BSc students in the lab. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Reading in journal club Evolution of antifungal resistance in the environment www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This week's newsletter talks about how lab dynamics can change with increasing experience of the PI....if you're not careful. open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

My YouTube channel Life in the Soil just passed the one thousand subscriber mark, and I am super happy about that! Thanks for watching! www.youtube.com/@LifeintheSoil

Lin et al. Climate warming fuels the global antibiotic resistome by altering soil bacterial traits www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Who aligns generative AI so their answers don't cause environmental harm?

Very interesting article about AI agents. Many different kinds of harm are discussed (emotional, monetary). I also wonder about environmental harm, a topic about which we've written before. Gabriel et al. We need a new ethics for a world of AI agents www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"Denn es gilt als sicher, dass sich die #Plastik Produktion in den nächsten zwanzig Jahren verdoppeln wird. Mit einem Abkommen habe man die historische Chance, das Kunststoffproblem in den Griff zu bekommen, so Melanie Bergmann vom @awi.de." #PlasticsTreaty #Plastic www.dw.com/de/plastikmu...

Quite troubling: The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly | PNAS @reeserichardson.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New article (in French) about our work on microplastic, and the hypothesized plastic toxicity debt

Science becomes trustworthy by constantly questioning itself Important reminder by @briannosek.bsky.social writing in PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...