Our latest preprint is out www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... . Fantastic work by @lukecoevo.bsky.social, with Emanuel Kopp, Simon Jäggi and Pascal Niklaus. #DarwinianAgriculture #soybean #breeding

The most honest #farmer in Britain: “I spent a lot of time looking at the evidence on the impact of #meat & it was overwhelming. 10 billion people can’t live sustainably on this planet if we’re eating anything like the level of meat consumed in a western diet… www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“Utilizing new genomic techniques #NGT in #organic production could improve yields …. and will help achieve the #EU ’s sustainable #agriculture goals” several authors together with our president @apmweber.bsky.social advocate in Cell Reports Sustainability www.cell.com/cell-reports...

❗ We have an open post-doc position in our group! 🌱🥔🧬 Are you interested in novel crop breeding techniques and potatoes? If yes, the CRISPS project (in collaboration with Wageningen University and SLU Sweden) may be something for you! You can apply here: jobs.admin.ch/job-vacancie... #NBTs

📣 Latest from the lab: Performance of deep-learning-based approaches to improve polygenic scores www.nature.com/articles/s41... Its thought deep learning will substantially improve PGS but the reality is MANY have tried but no/little gain has been seen so far. Here we report our negative results.

How can biological systems anticipate future events? In our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social, we show how a simple genetic circuit can predict future trends through a simple (and perhaps widespread) mechanism @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @koseskalab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to do a postdoc in beautiful Neuchatel / Switzerland🇨🇭? We have several postdoc positions open at the moment! Check our website for the full ads here: pathogen-genomics.org/jobs Happy to answer any question and please spread the word to anyone who might be interested!

I am deeply honored to receive the 2025 Women in Triticum Early Career Award from the BGRI (Cornell Univ. & CIMMYT) ! This award is not only a recognition of my work, but also an opportunity to encourage women to pursue their aspirations. #WomeninScience #Wheat bgri.cornell.edu/awards/wit-e...

Well written and sobering take-down of the blue origin flight. Worth a read. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#Agroscope 🇨🇭🚜 is looking for a new leader. Please share! jobs.admin.ch/offene-stell...

I grew up in Bangladesh and studied about the Sub1 gene as an undergrad! Every time I see this time lapse of Sub1 by Pamela Ronald makes me happy 🌾🌾🌾 Thanks for your tremendous contributions to Bangladeshi farmers over the years.

@yoginho “De-extinction” is the “carbon capture and storage” of ecology: a glitzy techy always-in-the-future promise meant to distract from having to do anything meaningful or disruptive today.

A paper in Nature presents a new method to increase the speed and efficiency of sunflower breeding. This new technique could increase the yield for this important oilseed crop while simplifying and shortening the breeding process. https://go.nature.com/41WCQAQ #horticulture 🧪

Things that could be happening outside

THREAD The numbers are in. @bsky.app research sharing volumes vs X Formerly Twitter In March 2024, on most days, Bluesky hosts more posts linked to research published in 2025 than X. By quite a lot. Release the Kraken... #AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics 1/11

I am super happy to see that our institution has also chosen to come over to Bluesky!!! Welcome Agroscope! Follow if you’re interested in Swiss 🇨🇭 governmental research for agriculture. 🌱🌾🧬🚜🐖🐄👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾 @agroscope.bsky.social A quick presentation of Agroscope: m.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ue...

Something I would recommend to every plant biologist: attending a tree pruning course

Es geht um eine Modernisierung des über 30 Jahre alten Gentechnikrechts in Europa. Den nun auf dem Tisch liegenden Verhandlungsmandaten nach sollen gleiche Pflanzen ähnlich reguliert werden. Das ist sinnvoll und folgt weitgehend den Empfehlungen aus der Wissenschaft.

🧵 Thread on #SessilePlants: Plant Scientists: "As sessile organisms, plants [𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 "𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨" 𝘢𝘯𝘥/𝘰𝘳 "𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴"]. David Attenborough: "👇"

I think it was Jim Hightower who used to say "you can still make a small fortune in agriculture. Problem is, you got to start with a large one." What a waste, all for lack of an agronomist or two. 🙂 luxurylaunches.com/other_stuff/...

I didn’t think I was still capable of being as angry as I am right now. Zelensky is an absolute hero, in an impossible situation. Слава Україні, always. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

Zelensky not punching him right in the face is perhaps the greatest act of self-restraint I have ever witnessed.

(3/3) Misperceptions around optimal planting levels of Bt maize cause less effective resistance to corn rootworm. Paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... and associated Policy Forum here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Happy reading!

Dear dept head, My accomplishments last week are: 1. I have climbed highest mountains 2. I have run through the fields Only to be with you (X2) 3. I have run, I have crawled 4. I have scaled these city walls Only to be with you (X2) But I still haven't found what I'm looking for (X2) Sincerely,

This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.

Registration is open for the International Brachypodium Research Conference 2025 (IBRC2025) #Brachy2025 July 6 - 10, 2025 in Monte Verità, Switzerland www.brachypodium2025.org/registration Registration deadline is May 5 🌾 Join us if you love grass biology 🌾

This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

A dark day for health, food and agriculture. #RFKjr confirmed to lead @HHSGov. A victory for diseases, conspiracy theorists and pseudoscience 😟 www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Our symposium on plant breeding for the supply chain at @unihohenheim.bsky.social is about to start. breedingsymposium.uni-hohenheim.de/en

Imagine you were the richest man in the world. You could have anything you wanted, go anywhere you wished, do whatever took you fancy. How would you spend your weekend? Depriving the poorest people in the world of food and healthcare and boasting about it?

Do you know Daisy Roulland-Dussoix? She is one of the discoverers of restriction enzymes, who’s findings paved the way for the development of recombinant DNA and cloning technologies. Accordingly, the finding was rewarded with a #NobelPrize. But the prize didn’t go to her. 🧵👇

Our research is finally out 📜 @natureportfolio.bsky.social in our publication we show that #landscape_diversity 🏞️promotes #productivity using #remote_sensing on a continental scale 🌎 across 20 years Thanks to everyone who contributed✨ #University_of_Zurich #URPP_GCB www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Given that these men really do have the potential to destroy society, democracy and the world, some might find it rather glib to complain about their cringiness. But I'm with Shaw: it seems unjust that it should also be so deeply embarrassing to watch this happen. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates have made an unprecedented plea for financial and political backing to develop “moonshot” technologies with the greatest chance of averting a hunger catastrophe in the next 25 years. www.worldfoodprize.org/documents/fi...

Here is a link to a study based on a master thesis at @unihohenheim.bsky.social that I co-advised with an economist. Using a risk database of a reinsurance company it tries to assess the economic costs of environmental hazards to ex situ genebanks of crop plants. www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/12...

The worst thing that agriculture does to nature is use land.

I've been researching the idea of Unconditional Universal Basic Income since 2013. Here's a collection of findings I've compiled from various UBI experiments and studies of cash transfer programs around the world. This will be a VERY LONG and ongoing thread focused entirely on empirical evidence. 🧵

Winterwonderland

Merry Christmas

Wenn die Leute doch in Geschichte nicht immer nur gepennt hätten… de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_...

Always a fun read when Hans et al go on a rant 😆 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Hi Adam, I take your point that the quadratic formula can be presented in a way that does not inspire understanding or affection. And it sounds like that's how it was taught to you. So let me try to make a better case for it. Here's how I discussed it in my book The Joy of x. (1/9)

Three must read papers for PhD students. #scisky #PhD #science #research #academicsky 1. The importance of stupidity in scientific research Open Access journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Eine weitere klare Stellungnahme aus der Wissenschaft zu Genom-Editing (NGT) von Pflanzen, diesmal von der AG Gentechnologiebericht. Mit guten Argumente an die Politik, vor allem SPD und Grüne, endlich die Blockade gegen die EU-Vorschläge aufzugeben. www.gentechnologiebericht.de/publikatione...

This looks sweet- adding it to the reading list! @gsherloc.bsky.social @petrovadmitri.bsky.social @grantkinsler.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I would heartily agree, and we have data consistent with this journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

Early morning surprise.... too much Gluehwein? Looks like a painting of stars on a winter sky, though.

Just your regular reminder how awesome this review on inbreeding depression is. www.nature.com/articles/nrg...