Kathleen Kay
@kathleenmkay.bsky.social
📤 793
📥 485
📝 86
Scientist, professor, mom, trail runner, plant lover. UC Santa Cruz.
pinned post!
Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...
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Beyond the Grant–Stebbins model: floral adaptive landscapes and plant speciation
AbstractBackground. Floral diversity, a striking feature of angiosperm evolution, provides the impetus and rationale for linking pollinator-driven selectio
https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf096
5 months ago
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A caveat: this survey was done by Frontiers, a garbage company with a pro-AI stance, recruiting respondents by email. I'm sure there is some self-selection of who actually opens emails from Frontiers.
add a skeleton here at some point
10 days ago
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Carl T. Bergstrom
11 days ago
Nature would do well to publish more content like this thoughtful piece from
@kevinbaker.bsky.social
and fewer Buzzfeed listicles gussied up as career advice "Five productivity hacks for using AI in your scientific workflow"
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Context Widows
or, of GPUs, LPUs, and Goal Displacement
https://artificialbureaucracy.substack.com/p/context-widows
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Kathleen Kay
Jeremy "abiding in the fields" Yoder 🌲⭐️🐑🌙🌟🌲
22 days ago
Nice demonstration of different pollinator species "pulling" floral morphology in different directions for optimal pollen deposition, in two South African wildflower species 🌿
buff.ly/m0f1Fp2
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Our economy is a big circle jerk
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Kathleen Kay
Brad Johnson
about 1 month ago
Short version: Trump: I'm dismantling the Constitution, building a paramilitary fascist army loyal only to me, blowing up the US economy for my billionaire cronies, and destroying the planet. Schumer: Okay, but you have to extend subsidies for corporate health care Trump: No Schumer: Okay
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How Chuck Schumer Planned the Shutdown Capitulation to Trump
In brief. And then in excruciating detail
https://hillheat.news/p/how-chuck-schumer-planned-the-shutdown-capitulation-to-trump
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proof that evolutionary biologists can be good parents 😂
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Kathleen Kay
Jeremy "abiding in the fields" Yoder 🌲⭐️🐑🌙🌟🌲
3 months ago
This profile is pretty much proof that Seattle stands a very good chance of soon having its most Seattle (laudatory) mayor ever And there's a bonus surprise for the evolutionary biologists in the audience
www.thestranger.com/news/2025/10...
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The Making of Katie Wilson
She’s coming for the mayor’s office.
https://www.thestranger.com/news/2025/10/02/80265661/the-making-of-katie-wilson
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Kathleen Kay
Sado
about 2 months ago
lol lmao
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Kathleen Kay
Seema Sheth
about 2 months ago
Amy Angert and I are recruiting a
#postdoc
to participate in a collaborative NSF-funded study of demographic responses to climate across the geographic range of the scarlet monkeyflower. Please repost!
jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/224...
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Spooky treat from my kid’s Halloween bag 😱@jrossibarra.bsky.social
about 2 months ago
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Kathleen Kay
Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️
about 2 months ago
What was the hardest part of grad school for you? Was it having a kid, the thesis defense? I told them nope, it was being the only & the first. The only Inupiaq at UW Madison for most of my years there, one of 250 Natives on a campus of over 40K, the first Native to earn a PhD in my program🧵
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Aide Macias-Muñoz
about 2 months ago
I heard rumors about this but devastating to see it happening.. “the PPFP faculty hiring incentive is sunsetting as of fall 2025” 💔
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
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UC to Stop Funding Systemwide Postdoc Program
Established in 1984 to encourage women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academia, the program has attracted right-wing criticism for prioritizing diverse candidates.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/career-development/2025/11/05/uc-stop-funding-systemwide-postdoc-program
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Kathleen Kay
Tessa Hill
about 2 months ago
A devastating set of decisions on the part of UC leadership to withdraw support from our nationally recognized postdoc program that prioritizes research excellence combined with addressing our university public service mission.
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
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UC to Stop Funding Systemwide Postdoc Program
Established in 1984 to encourage women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academia, the program has attracted right-wing criticism for prioritizing diverse candidates.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/career-development/2025/11/05/uc-stop-funding-systemwide-postdoc-program
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Brooke Kern, PhD
about 2 months ago
My amazing colleague Shelley Sianta (not on bsky) is looking for a tech to join her new lab at UT Austin. The position will involve lab, greenhouse, and field work to study local adaptation and speciation in plants. Please share!
utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/...
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Research Engineering/Scientist Associate I
Job Posting Title: Research Engineering/Scientist Associate I ---- Hiring Department: Department of Integrative Biology ---- Position Open To: All Applicants ---- Weekly Scheduled Hours: 40 ---- FLSA ...
https://utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/UT-MAIN-CAMPUS/Research-Engineering-Scientist-Associate-I_R_00042901
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Kathleen Kay
Emily Josephs
2 months ago
Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live
ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/
. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here:
github.com/ybrandvain/b...
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Applied Biostatistics
https://ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/
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Kathleen Kay
2 months ago
Proud of the latest edition of my free intro biostats book. gitrepo:
github.com/ybrandvain/b...
book:
ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/
Not complete but at a good point to take a break, and I think its quite usable dm me with comments , ideas etc
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Applied Biostatistics
https://ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/
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Kathleen Kay
José Aguilar-Rodríguez
2 months ago
One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Massively parallel interrogation of the fitness of natural variants in ancient signaling pathways reveals pervasive local adaptation
The nature of standing genetic variation remains a central debate in population genetics, with differing perspectives on whether common variants are almost always neutral as suggested by neutral and n...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.30.621178
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Graham Coop
2 months ago
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
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Priscila Chaverri
2 months ago
When women researchers publish, media attention doesn’t always follow | Science | AAAS
www.science.org/content/arti...
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When women researchers publish, media attention doesn’t always follow
Men-led papers receive more media coverage than women’s, new study finds
https://www.science.org/content/article/when-women-researchers-publish-media-attention-doesn-t-always-follow?fbclid=IwdGRleANZLrVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHkH1JmUrp47q8fRVKUgtHLRf-4RZqWLDuo528zhGUmc2DHkZa5wJbDpTZpf4_aem_Fy4MM1bPb9sjo2SsoAYm_w
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Kathleen Kay
David Lowry
2 months ago
Excited by this breakthrough work led by Dr. Lauren Stanley (now Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University). Lauren was able to develop for the first time floral dip/spray transformation methods in the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus).
bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Just add water: A simple floral bud injection method for stable Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation in two ecotypes of Mimulus guttatus
Premise Stable transformation is the biggest barrier to studying gene function in plants. In most species, transformation requires tissue culture and regeneration methods that may be arduous and cau...
https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aps3.70025
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Kathleen Kay
Mike Grillo
3 months ago
I am hiring a postdoc to examine the genomic and evolutionary basis of plant microbiome variation in legumes. There are opportunities to gain teaching experience. Chicago is a great city to live in! Please help spread the word.
share.google/gukbzS1zdIx6...
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Postdoctoral Researcher in Plant Evolutionary Genomics
The postdoctoral researcher will work in Dr. Michael Grillo’s plant evolutionary genetics lab. The goal of this research project is to understand the genomic basis of plant-microbiome variation in leg...
https://share.google/gukbzS1zdIx6Ds46H
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Kathleen Kay
Cathy Hernandez
3 months ago
Very happy to share that I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina in January! My group will be working on environmental phage ecology and evolution, and I am recruiting for the upcoming year (more info below).
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Emily Josephs
3 months ago
Application review begins in one week for the MSU herbarium director position!!!! More info here:
plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...
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Kathleen Kay
HL Eisthen, defective human product
3 months ago
I'll add here that MSU's Plant Biology Dept is world class, has a great chair, and is full of excellent scientists.
#scijobs
add a skeleton here at some point
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Kathleen Kay
Rene Bernard
3 months ago
Publication bias continues to skew academic literature. In our new
@plosbiology.org
article, we outline actionable steps for journals, funders & researchers to ensure all results—not only “positive” ones—are valued. A roadmap for more reliable science:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
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Ending publication bias: A values-based approach to surface null and negative results
Sharing knowledge is a fundamental principle within the scientific community, yet null and negative results are still being underreported. This Consensus View discusses the problem of such publication...
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003368
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Congratulations,
@needhibhalla.bsky.social
!!!!!
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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Kathleen Kay
Harmit Singh Malik
3 months ago
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
A host organelle (in sea slugs) integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
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A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.
https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00637-3?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867425006373%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
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Kathleen Kay
OK Doomer ☮️🏳️🌈🤷♂️🙈🙉🙊💙
3 months ago
Sadly timely from
@mcsweeneys.net
:
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/who...
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Who Radicalized You: An Elite University or a Discord Server?
“The Utah man being held in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk used the social media platform Discord to send messages about the ri...
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/who-radicalized-you-an-elite-university-or-a-discord-server
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Also: "The advent of AI slop means that instructors (and TAs) must either endure the slings and arrows of em-dashes or take arms against a sea of cheaters—a battle enormously costly in time and effort." 😂
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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Kathleen Kay
Mueller, She Wrote
3 months ago
Everyone is focusing on “Catch this, fascist”, and Ciao Bella being an anti-fascist song and reading that as literal. But these are both used in the video game Helldivers2 - which is a parody of authoritarianism. “Catch this, fascist” is satirical anti-fascism. 1/
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Camille Roux
4 months ago
Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
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Albert Ch. Soewongsono
4 months ago
Today at WashU’s EEB seminar, I presented a new species diversification model that incorporates regional species diversity into rates of evolution through time (a joint work w/
@landismj.bsky.social
). Slides here:
sites.google.com/view/albert-...
Preprint hopefully will be here this month
#evobio
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Kathleen Kay
Josef Uyeda
7 months ago
Unsolicited listicle: My list of the most criminally underused/underappreciated phylogenetic comparative methods. Note, I am not involved in ANY of these methods; but I see them as things people are often asking of comparative data but have been surprised at how infrequently they have been cited.
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Amazing opportunity to work with a brilliant, creative, and kind mentor!
add a skeleton here at some point
4 months ago
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Jeremy Berg
4 months ago
So... I did some analysis of grants that did receive noncompetitive renewals. In particular, I looked a those award where the title of the grant changed. Warning: The results are just what I expected, but oooph... 1/4
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Jesús Martínez-Gómez
4 months ago
Almost 10 years ago Smith and Baum's textbook introduced me to Phylogenetic Comparative Methods. We now have our own review on PCM! Come for history, traits and spicy takes! We welcome any comments/ concerns/ jokes!
@tribblelab.bsky.social
@crothfels.bsky.social
and MRM!
doi.org/10.32942/X28...
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https://doi.org/10.32942/
[email protected]
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Kathleen Kay
Evolution
4 months ago
Considering submitting to Evolution? The EELS program offers free, light-touch English language editing for prospective authors. Learn more:
www.evolutionsociety.org/publications...
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Kathleen Kay
Stephen I Wright
4 months ago
Please share broadly: I am looking for a postdoctoral fellow to work on a collaborative project on the temporal population genomics of invasive Capeweed (using contemporary and herbarium genomics), with @shaky-dingo.bsky.social and colleagues
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Graham Coop
4 months ago
A nice profile of the wonderful Annie Schmitt
www.ucdavis.edu/news/among-a...
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Among the Academies: Studying How Plants Adapt
How can plants adapt to their environment, and how will they be able to adapt to climate change? Those are among the biggest questions Johanna Schmitt has sought to answer during her career as a plant...
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/among-academies-studying-how-plants-adapt?utm_source=datelinehtml&utm_medium=datelinenewsletter&utm_campaign=dateline_20250826
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Terry McGlynn
4 months ago
How I’m thinking about students having AI do their assigned work. I think we need to ask why they make this choice. Those answers can help us be more effective instructors.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Kathleen Kay
Carrie Wessinger
5 months ago
Please repost and amplify ! We are hiring a faculty position in Evolutionary Genetics in the Biology Department at U of South Carolina! Check us out and come be our colleague!
sc.edu/study/colleg...
Deadline for applications is Oct 1
#AcademicJobs
#EvoBio
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Assistant Professor position in Evolutionary Genetics - Department of Biological Sciences | University of South Carolina
https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/biological_sciences/about/faculty_search_evolutonary_genetics.php
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Stacey D. Smith
5 months ago
Big news! We are recruiting a postdoc to work on tomatillo evolution:
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...
. The clade containing tomatillos and its allies (ca 300 spp) has evolved lantern fruits at least 25 times - we want to know why! Join us
@rociodeanna.bsky.social
&
@caschenck-bio.bsky.social
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Postdoctoral Fellow in Tomatillo Evolution
https://jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDetail/?jobId=66504
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Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra
5 months ago
Our paper showing that variation in transcription factor binding sites underlies the majority of additive genetic variance for phenotypic variation in maize is finally out! Sadly they didn't use our suggested cover image below (made by the inimitable Andi Kur).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️
5 months ago
I am really excited to be a part of this team. We took our time writing this, putting a lot of thought into how our journeys as
#NativesInSTEM
were affected by different aspects of Universities and looking for commonalities across the world. I hope folks in academia appreciate this work.
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Exciting news for MSU and evolutionary biology!
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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Michalis Averof
5 months ago
Latest paper
elifesciences.org/articles/107...
closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6
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Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...
loading . . .
Beyond the Grant–Stebbins model: floral adaptive landscapes and plant speciation
AbstractBackground. Floral diversity, a striking feature of angiosperm evolution, provides the impetus and rationale for linking pollinator-driven selectio
https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf096
5 months ago
1
23
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reposted by
Kathleen Kay
Amy McP
6 months ago
A New
#AJBSynthesis
paper is
#OpenAccess
in
#AJB
!
#SocietyJournal
add a skeleton here at some point
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Kathleen Kay
PLOS Biology
6 months ago
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
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Kathleen Kay
Society for the Study of Evolution
6 months ago
Attending
#Evol2025
this week? Don’t miss the SSE Education and Outreach Symposium on Teaching Sex and Gender. Join us on Tuesday, June 24 starting at 9:30 AM.
@evolmtg.bsky.social
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