Saw this caterpillar crawling on water surface today! Apparently it fell into water and was trying to find its way to survival. I suppose it isn't that common a scene to see, is it?

I’ve seen lots of Coenobita land hermit crabs here in #Okinawa, but this time it’s a different one! Saw this ribbed hermit crab (Clibanarius striolatus) in a little pool when tide was low. #HermitCrab #crustacean

There’s a classic Chinese idiom 求仁得仁 that describes someone who gets what they seek (usually something bad). Perfectly appropriate for #Kirk.

Encountered this Scylla serrata 🦀 today. Most of them promptly swam away as approached. This one apparently lost its way, allowing me to take the photos (before releasing it).

Some beautiful #arthropods 🦀🦋🕷️ seen today in #Okinawa

The "prior generations of women in science" were expected to silently tolerate all the toxicity and assaults. Sadly, such expectation persists today, and shark science is far from unique.

Saw this weird account reply to my posts. It looks like some sort of chatbot that rather randomly replies to various things but never “understands “ any context.

In hindsight, I kinda regretted not mentioning Gould & Lewontin’s spandrel paper 😂

Also quite close to the conference venue of #ESEB2025 is Parc de Diagonal Mar. There are a lot of birds (and bugs) here. Very enjoyable to walk around here.

With my #ESEB2025 tour concluded and myself on the way back, I’m arranging photos taken in #Barcelona. First of all, the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona, which is sweetly located near the conference venue.

About to fly back to Okinawa now! #ESEB2025 is an amazing experience. Also hope I'm not being delayed by typhoon on my way back😂

Read some articles in this collection made available in #ESEB2025 today. I saw what has happened to my friends and colleagues, and even a bit of myself. Once again, I’m asking myself if I could have got this far had I been more underrepresented than I am now.

About to give my talk at #ESEB2025, which will take place in room 114 at 15:15! There will be some new results that haven’t been presented before. Welcome to stop by!

Haven’t checked out the cursed app these two days nor #ESEB2025 posts there 😂 Anyway, good point!

This time I’m quickly back from coffee break and I got a seat!🪑 #ESEB2025

Finally I’m here at #ESEB2025! I will be presenting my work on Tuesday afternoon in Symposium 36. You’re welcome to come by!

Heard a Chinese mother tell her kid that this Gastornis “is the smallest dinosaur, yet still so big”. I told them that the Archaeopteryx displayed a few meters away is a much smaller dinosaur, before realizing that they probably didn’t know birds are dinosaurs. 😂

First surprise on my way to #ESEB2025: flight delayed due to bad weather in Hong Kong (from which I’ll fly to Spain). Let’s see how many more such delays are ahead…

Many Chinese citizens suddenly became aware of academic misconduct because the person in question is a women and victim of sexual misconduct. So I'm quite confident female Chinese academics have much better integrity than the males, since higher standard is applied.

The 2025 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are a professor in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, or Texas it's for you. Ends 8/29 at 5pm Eastern forms.gle/v7T3BH2w9LXs...

Watched #TerminatorZero recently and binge watching some older #Terminator films. Now I'm thinking: would mass time traveling (to past) leave population genetic signatures? How could this be detected from population genetic data? And how could identity by descent make sense in such a world?

Cute #mudskipper saw over the weekend, in #Okinawa.

UCLA and the state of California better not pay Trump. They better fight in court.

"...two large Tyrannosaurus rex trackways were also discovered walking side-by-side and perpendicular to the herd..." The tracks weren't assigned to T. rex specifically in the research paper, nor is T. rex known from this formation (which instead has Daspletosaurus & Gorgosaurus).

Finally, Josh came here! A milestone in the death of X/Twitter.

Received this tsunami alert this morning… Where I am appears fine—for now…

Some cool #crustaceans recently seen in #Okinawa.

“Social murder” is a term created by Friedrich Engels to describe the premature death of marginalized people due to political, social, or economic oppression. What is happening right now in America is the premeditated, calculated, & planned extermination of children who are trans. This is genocide.

Are you a PI in a biology field looking for postdocs? Here is a Starter Pack of early career biologists currently seeking postdoctoral positions! (Also if you are searching for a postdoc, let me know if you want to be added!) go.bsky.app/8zZNEGV

Are you a PI in a biology field looking for students to join your lab as a PhD student? I made a Starter Pack to help PIs and potential PhD students connect! If you would like to be added to this pack, please let me know! go.bsky.app/EFj87fi

I am making a Starter Pack for people who are looking for PHD STUDENT POSITIONS in the biological sciences! If you wish to be added, please respond directly to this post saying you want to be added. I need at least 5 people to create the pack. Please share widely!

At this point, I think international scientific societies should avoid having their conferences in the US or you'd be marginalizing international scholars. If, for some reason, it must be in US, at least be considerate for women, LGBTQ, POC etc. & avoid the most unsafe states like FL or TX.

Sadly, Japan also has anti-vaccine activists, like Takashi Higa from Ginowan, Okinawa, who’s running for the House of Councillors. Let’s hope people can learn from what’s going on in the US.

I've been looking into some Chinese job ads this year (for obvious reason). Some explicitly require "good health". idk how this can be enforced, but the basic attitude probably tells something.

I'm wondering why the Alligator Alcatraz isn't instead a Crocodile Alcatraz, given that American crocodiles are more aggressive & bad tempered. Perhaps it's because American alligators are more abundant. Or maybe most Republicans just don't know their difference or even the existence of crocodiles?

The “had I stayed in LA, I could have been…” list keeps expanding, with the worst item getting worse.

Even if MAGA isn’t in power 3+ years from now,there is almost no way we’ll ever get back anything like NSF. The country will be so gutted and the necessary rebuild so extensive and expensive that it just won’t be a priority. And after a generation, it will be forgotten.

I left #LosAngeles a bit too early to join you, but thank you all for speaking out! #NoKings apnews.com/article/no-k... demonstrators crowd streets, parks and plazas across the US. Organizers say millions came

Not exactly “a” character, but almost.

@rexjiang.bsky.social & Pennel investigate how differences in mutational architecture shape evolutionary outcomes. Simulations show pleiotropy can constrain within-population variance, divergence, and adaptation rates, even when M-matrices are identical. doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... #genome #mutation

The near future seems bleak also to postdocs who aren't even eligible for NSF PRFB, like me.

A few days after June 4, we are seeing American versions of the ‘tank man’ scene…

In response to US becoming hostile to international students, @oistedu.bsky.social is having a special application deadline for students admitted to US PhD programs. Glad to see OIST taking effort attracting talents that US is losing. www.oist.jp/admissions/s...

Now online at @genomebiolevol.bsky.social 🎉 ! academic.oup.com/gbe/advance-...

Harvard isn’t going to be the only target, is it?

I’m excited to announce that this manuscript is just accepted at @genomebiolevol.bsky.social. A lot of thanks to the editorial office for their support throughout this! Can’t wait to see the formal version!

Finally got time to look into this cool work. The overall pattern that convergent expression evolution among divergent lineages is limited to a rather small set of genes appears similar to what I found in a different case (of independently evolved monogamy). www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

A model for distinguishing between adaptive and non-adaptive explanations for multiple isoforms of a gene ➡️ www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

$500 million is… less than 1.25% of the NIH’s 2024 budget. When I say there is no capacity to absorb the shock, I mean it.

Loud enough to wake me up. What a Golden Week…