Forever Canada petition has nearly met their goal. They are over 80% there but have until Oct 28. You have to sign in person, go to www.forever-canadian.ca to find a location near you. It might seem absurd to sign a petition to say that Alberta should remain a province, but it is strategic.

Shit is so bad that the best American news of the week is that Dolly Parton didn't die.

Our new study modeling selection for (behavioral) variability has been covered in a lovely @genetics-gsa.bsky.social podcast featuring first author Shraddha Lall and @ecoevogal.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

I received an unusual self-published book on science and faith. It was unusual because (a) the author acknowledged at the start that he fed his ideas to AI and then edited the 600 page output, and (b) it opens with an AI-written prelude that both praises and critiques the book. Points for honesty?

A nice little write up on the Ambrose main page today featuring alum Nathan Yeung and our work on suckers: ambrose.edu/news/ambrose...

🦇The fungus behind white-nose syndrome continues to spread across Alberta. Our latest detection, near Fort McKay, marks the northernmost detection yet. Thank you to our partners at the Wood Buffalo Wildlife Research Institute for collecting this sample. See maps at www.cwhc-rcsf.ca/white_nose_s...

Check out my latest paper, co-authored by Ambrose alum Nathan Yeung. He did some great work on juvenile suckers in the Peace River drainage of Alberta! Final version (rather than pre-print) dropped today:
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...

Live from the field: rosy red young of the year strongly suggest they are reproducing in Alberta waters. Country Hills, Calgary.

The origin of the love bite: www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...

23andMe's recent bankruptcy and resulting sale of genetic information has led to some important conversations about genetic privacy. Canada's laws are, predictably for a rapidly changing sector, insufficient. www.queensjournal.ca/genetic-priv... www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Too a closer look at the netful of fathead minnows I scooped up when catching the rosy reds in Fish Creek the other day. Two of the minnows were not like the others...longnose dace (top and third) compared to fatheads.

It was a beautiful day for hunting for rosys. It seems like they might be breeding in Fish Creek Park

One of the difficult things about studying rosy reds in Alberta is that the fathead minnow naturally occurs here but has the same species name as the rosy red. Invasive species reporting tools like iNaturalist and EDDMaps cannot distinguish between then.

My plan on here is to shout into the void, so that I don't scream these things into my pillow at night. For instance:

The lake sturgeon is now 👏👏Huso fulvescens👏👏 and NOT 👏👏Acipenser fulvescens👏👏

The Alberta government has promised to hire 3000 new teachers over the next three years, as if this somehow answers the big problems of classroom complexity and underfunding. I have heard through ATA connections that over 1000 AB teachers are expected to retire next year - so still a net loss.

The “problem” with vaccines? They so effective at preventing deaths that they create generations of people that question whether disease was a problem in the first place because they have never experienced the horrors of a world without vaccines.

You can see the preprint for Nathan Yeung's undergraduate project on juvenile suckers of the Peace River drainage, Alberta! This project used preserved museum specimens from the Royal Alberta Museum - just one reason why funding museum collections matters.
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

My second year students had their first genetics lab yesterday - basic lab rules, introduction to chi-squared tests, a demo on cilantro disgust and olfactory receptor genes. I was thrilled by their active participation and comprehension. It's going to be a good year!

Micropterus pucpuggy - the Bartram's bass has a scientific name! This is so important for its protection as a distinct member of the redeye bass clade. Native to NC, SC, GA. Epithet means "flower hunter" - a name bestowed on Bartram by Seminole-Creek Chief of Cuscowilla. See doi.org/10.11646/zoo...