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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 10h

I've had complaints about using mathematical equations in talks ("nobody wants those"). But I never tried explaining them using rhyming couplets, so maybe that was the problem.

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 10h

One of the grant comments I am proudest of is someone's complaint that too many of my descriptions were written in prose. Yes, that is what I was trying for. Clarity, not muck (ie, not obfuscation, in more obfuscatory language)

Ellinor Alseth @ellinoralseth.bsky.social · 1d

Obsessed with this Journal of Immaterial Science article 🔥

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 12h

More complex, therefore more evolved. The new onion.

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Reposted by David Pollock

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · 17h

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_ar...

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 17h

Yes.

Reposted by David Pollock

Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 1d

We've made a related but different claim in bacteria:
elifesciences.org/articles/93146

Reversions mask the contribution of adaptive evolution in microbiomes

The timescale dependence of dN/dS in bacteria is better explained by adaptive than purifying dynamics, suggesting comparative genomics can underestimate past adaptation.

elifesciences.org

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 1d

Another paper to go over more thoroughly. Have you tried running your large population with frequency dependent selection? (apologies if already there in the paper and I just missed it)

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 1d

At top of reading list

David Enard @denard.bsky.social · 1d

We think this is definitely the case given what we see with virus-driven adaptation in host proteins that interact with viruses. The latter drive very strong selection. We do find signatures of compensatory protein stability evolution:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Stability evolution as a major mechanism of human protein adaptation in response to viruses

Pathogens were a major driver of genetic adaptation during human evolution. Viruses in particular were a dominant driver of adaptation in the thousands of proteins that physically interact with viruse...

www.biorxiv.org

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 1d

No, we will not release the Western Blot files, and please stop talking about them.

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 1d

On the other hand, strong adaptive is the best case for pairwise compensation through tight interaction. And that syncs with longstanding knowledge about tight compensatory relationships in eg core of proteins. They just don't happen without strong selection on first change.

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, this is interesting. I do think adaptive compensatory change is often achievable in multiple ways, making it much more difficult to detect. Detectable en masse when looking at intramolecular coevolution, clear evidence for it but not so much pairwise.

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Reposted by David Pollock

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 1d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 1d

I feel like someone with artistic talent should draw out an evolutionary progress cartoon going from orchids to mammoths to visually plan this out.

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 1d

keep talking...

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Reposted by David Pollock

Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 2d

Looking forward to this! A non-Elsevier alternative to Theoretical Population Biology / Journal of Theoretical Biology

Stanford University Press @stanfordpress.bsky.social · 8d

Population Biology Modeling & Theory (PBMT) is a peer-reviewed journal reporting advances in modeling and theory within population biology. Its scope spans demography, ecology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, population genetics, and phylogenetics. PBMT will be online soon.

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 2d

TPB needs some competition. It was always a problem that they didn't have modeling in their name.

Stanford University Press @stanfordpress.bsky.social · 8d

Population Biology Modeling & Theory (PBMT) is a peer-reviewed journal reporting advances in modeling and theory within population biology. Its scope spans demography, ecology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, population genetics, and phylogenetics. PBMT will be online soon.

Reposted by David Pollock

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · 2d

Rapid radiations outweigh reticulations during the evolution of a 750-million-year-old lineage of cyanobacteria academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... #jcampubs

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 5d

Is the disorder partly involved in P(not having the sense to leave this out of your medical records if you are under 18)? vs. P(almost everyone just going to the doctor age 18-21)?

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 6d

ouch

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 7d

If I got a letter about lizard flight initiation, I would be suspicious too.

Kinsey Brock @doc-brock.bsky.social · 8d

I keep getting this same paragraph in emails from prospective students asking for positions in my lab:

Like, word for word.

“I am very interested in working in your lab at SDSDU. I read your recent paper on the escape behaviors of urban and non-urban wall lizards (Brock and Bednekoff 2025), and I found it particularly interesting that the distance of flight initiation increased with substrate temperature increases instead of decreasing. I am especially interested in your lab’s research on the influence of urbanization on populations.”

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 10d

If my quick calculations are right, this is about a blue whale's worth of dead Synechococcus to offset your world average carbon production.

David Ho @davidho.mastodon.world.ap.brid.gy · Jun 30

They embedded Synechococcus in 3D-printable hydrogel, which could accumulate biomass via photosynthesis. The material could be made into building facades or wall panels, so you could get depressed when your wall dies because you forgot to feed it nutrients or water it […]

Original post on mastodon.world

mastodon.world

David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 10d

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Tim Berners-Lee
Why I gave the World Wide Web away for free

based on sharing, not exploitation

Reposted by David Pollock

David Ho @davidho.mastodon.world.ap.brid.gy · Jun 30

They embedded Synechococcus in 3D-printable hydrogel, which could accumulate biomass via photosynthesis. The material could be made into building facades or wall panels, so you could get depressed when your wall dies because you forgot to feed it nutrients or water it […]

Original post on mastodon.world

mastodon.world

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 10d

It's also so you can more easily kick them with your bare feet when you go out briefly in the middle of the night.

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David Pollock @genomesevolve.bsky.social · 10d

Even in synthetic communities, you still need to account for measurement error, I would think. Even in synthesis of mixed nucleotide sequences (we could be liberal and call that a synthetic community) you need to account for measurement errors.