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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 7h

I adored writing this piece. It brings together several of the things preoccupying me right now, like chromatin organization and gene regulation. There's so much more to be said on that. Also, these marine critters look gorgeous.
www.quantamagazine.org/loops-of-dna...

Loops of DNA Equipped Ancient Life To Become Complex | Quanta Magazine

New work shows that physical folding of the genome to control genes located far away may have been an early evolutionary development.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 1d

This looks to be a fundamental theoretical advance by @jpodwyer.bsky.social et al. Using linkage disequlibrium-based Ne to back out σ² and then predict fluctuation sizes from a single temporal snapshot is a real advance for broad application 🧪🌐https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu6396

Genomic demography predicts community dynamics in a temperate montane forest

Species population sizes fluctuate over time, and these temporal dynamics play a key role in governing the maintenance of biodiversity. Although modeling approaches have been developed to characterize...

www.science.org

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Wallace Marshall @wallaceucsf.bsky.social · 1d

Are you in/near the SF Bay Area? Do you like Science? What about Festivals? Then you might want to check out the Bay Area Science Festival Oct 25. I’ll be there showing how single cells can learn!

www.bayareasciencefestival.org

Home - Bay Area Science Festival

Bring the whole family to experience 100+ jaw-dropping demonstrations, hands-on experiments, astounding games, behind the scenes lab tours, film screenings

www.bayareasciencefestival.org

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Chris Mah @echinoblog.bsky.social · 2d

oh wow! A stunning Porpita shot from @natalipaqpa on the other site

A blue bottle jelly with many tentacles emerging from it

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Katrina Velle @katrinavelle.bsky.social · 3d

PhD or Master's position available for Fall 2026!

Interested in how actin drives cell crawling, eating, dividing, or osmoregulation? What about pathogenesis of a brain-eating amoeba? Or eukaryotic evolution? If so, apply through my website: katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science/cont...
Please share!

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Jelena Godrijan 🫧❾🌊🦋 @godi.bsky.social · 3d

⚠️New paper ➡️ isolating >600 freshwater microbes using dilution-to-extinction and low-nutrient, lake-mimicking media.

🤯Expands cultured diversity to ~70 % of detected genera and enables physiological studies of streamlined oligotrophs.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#protistsonsky

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture - Nature Communications

A large fraction of aquatic bacteria remains uncultured. Here, the authors cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 European lakes, thus generating a collection that includes many previously uncultured, oligotrophic bacteria that may serve as model organisms.

www.nature.com

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Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 3d

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

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Erin Green @erinrgreen.bsky.social · 4d

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

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EvolDir @evoldir.bsky.social · 4d

UMass Boston seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor in microbial ecology, starting September 1, 2026. Apply by December 1, 2025. Details: http://www.umb.edu/academics/csm/biology #job

Biology - UMass Boston

www.umb.edu

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でんか @k-hermit.com · 4d

I caught a shooting star💫

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 4d

Conventional wisdom says motherhood should wait for tenure as before you land a permanent post, #academia is just not that family friendly🙁

@carersinstemm.bsky.social are calling for change and to celebrate their new report, a Saturday🧵on parenting & academia! 1/9 👩‍🔬🧪🔭⚛️

ℹ️: carersinstemm.co.uk

From 2006. A younger and shell-shocked looking Catherine on a balcony holding a very tiny baby with the mountains of Vancouver in the background. The baby is so new, Catherine still has the pregnant bump.

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 4d

So today I celebrate the work of @carersinstemm.bsky.social who are calling for systemic changes to funding, policy & culture to support carers in STEM. Funders & employers must listen if they recognise and value the importance of a diverse workforce.👩‍🔬🧪

Read their report 👉 carersinstemm.co.uk 8/9🧵

A Carers Guide for Institutions
1
Ensure institutional expense policy allows for the reimbursement of care-related costs including dependant and co-carer travel expenses.
2
Update and align institutional financial reimbursement policy with funder T&C’s relating to care-giving costs.
3
Establish institutional policy and disseminate to line managers and expense approvers to avoid inconsistent implementation and support.
4
Provide flexible carers grants for all staff and students with minimal administrative burden to flexibly support ad-hoc care and do not mandate online attendance.
5
Consider the competing demands of meeting sustainability goals and the requirement to support carers (e.g. trains, flight times on weekends).
6
Decouple measures of research impact and esteem from travel opportunities with updated academic guidance.
7
Allow for family-friendly travel accommodation options including booking outside of approved institutional travel providers.
8
Provide a per-diem (a daily allowance) option for complex trips to reduce
administrative burden on carers.
9
When hosting an event, ensure risk assessments and insurance policy align to allow access to those under the age of 18.

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John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 5d

#thisismylife

John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 5d

Where's Waldo (the radiolarian) spiky fall diatom bloom edition! Can you find the radiolarian in this image? Remarkably... I can! Over a decade of training here for that 😅. Good luck! #protistsonsky 🦑

Microscope image of a plankton sample with a diatom bloom (maybe Asterionellopsis?) and a single radiolarian somewhere in there.

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John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 5d

Haha! Well, these cells are considered the stars of the sea. The mineral that makes those spiky arms is called "celestite". From Wiki: "Celestine derives its name from the Latin word caelestis... which in turn is derived from the Latin word caelum meaning sky, air, weather, atmosphere and heaven"

A(n inverted) micsocope image of isolated acantharian cells: the stars of the sea

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regular slime guy @regularslimeguy.bsky.social · 5d

These critters make their houses out of strontium sulfate, and I don't think any other organism does this. They are rhizarian amoebas that are more closely related to kelp & then to plants than to animals & fungi.

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John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 5d

Marvelous! Indeed. I know of *one* other microbe that seems to make a strontium sulfate endoskeleton: A dinoflagellate! Still up there in SAR, but presumably the SrSO4 mineralization is convergent. Completely remarkable.

www.researchgate.net/figure/A-H-A...

Figs 1A-H. Achradina pulchra. A-B.-Light micrographs of the isolated...

Download scientific diagram | A-H. Achradina pulchra. A-B.-Light micrographs of the isolated cells of Achradina pulchra for PCR analysis from the SW Atlantic (São Sebastião Channel). C-D-Other cells f...

www.researchgate.net

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STCmicrobeblog @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 11d

#ProtistsOnSky
the elephant in the (protist)room...

American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · 19d

From MBoC: Wallace F. Marshall (UCSF) and team profile the giant ciliate Stentor pyriformis—symbiotic algae in microtubule baskets, symbiont-dependent phototaxis, and a standard genetic code. Paper: www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/... #CellBiology

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Ada Behncké Serra @adabehncke.bsky.social · 9d

Curious about #protists and #anaerobic metabolism? 🦠🔬Well, it's out!
It is such a privilege to have taken part of this amazing work by Julie @protistsforthewin.bsky.social and Karla at @cstairs.bsky.social lab during my MSc. Thank you!😄

Julie Boisard @protistsforthewin.bsky.social · 11d

Now completely published :)
Really proud of this paper led with Karla at @cstairs.bsky.social lab.
doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Anaerobic breviate protist survival in microcosms depends on microbiome metabolic function

Abstract. Anoxic and hypoxic environments serve as habitats for diverse microorganisms, including unicellular eukaryotes (protists) and prokaryotes. To thr

doi.org

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Julia Van Etten @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 5d

Rutgers Newark is hiring multiple new profs who work in microbial pathogenesis, structural bio, human/microbial genetics, genomics, biochemistry, or computational biophysics. I loved doing my PhD at Rutgers and I LOVE New Jersey. Reach out if you’re applying and have questions about the school/area.

Open Rank Faculty Position on the Tenure Track - Newark, New Jersey (US) job with Rutgers | 12844885

MULTIPLE TENURE-TRACK FACULTY POSITIONS AVAILABLE The Dept. of Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

www.nature.com

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 7d

Lacrymaria olor means "swan tear" in Latin, referring to their tear-shape & swan-like neck that can extend 30 times the length of the cell.

They're eukaryotes, like us, but single-celled & ciliated.

They live in pond water, where they're predators of... just about *everything*.

(🔬: Charles Krebs)

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John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 6d

I've seen this several times: when Acantharians get big enough they like to eat tintinnids. And they always orient with the lorica opening pointed in: like they are slurping up a little jello shot. That glass house can't protect you from these weird predators little ciliate! 🦑 #protistsonsky

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 6d

New preprint alert! We DNA barcoded 95 thousand Ghanaian arthropods, more than doubling the number of BINs (a species proxy) available online from West Africa. In doing so we’ve released a huge amount of new data to scientists studying the region 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Characterising a species-rich and understudied tropical insect fauna using DNA barcoding

Background: West Africa has high biodiversity that is relatively understudied, especially for insects. Studies of West African arthropod diversity can therefore help address important questions regard...

www.biorxiv.org

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 7d

What a lovely find! I adore that I’m always seeing new things, even after 3 years of looking at plankton. This is a ciliate from the family Folliculinidae (thanks for the ID @microbe_guru !). I adore its colour!
#marineplankton 🦑

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Javier del Campo @fonamental.bsky.social · 7d

A New Age of Advanced Volume Microscopy for Protists onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #protists #protistsonsky

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