This is the idealized model of an animal. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

🎢⚛️🧪

How to find Evolutionary Conserved Enhancers in 2025? 🐣-🐭
Check out our paper - fresh off the press!!!
We find widespread functional conservation of enhancers in absence of sequence homology
Including: a bioinformatic tool to map sequence-diverged enhancers!
rdcu.be/enVDN
github.com/tobiaszehnde...

(4/4) More here: www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
And here: apnews.com/article/supr...

Advice needed: A former student now in industry is asking about pros/cons of doing an industry-sponsored PhD, given the current climate and not getting in anywhere this cycle. I remember there was chatter about this a couple years ago but it's a good time to revive this chat. Please RT.

🐌✨ Become a snail detective! 🕵️🐚🔍

Join our WinkleWatcher Luisa Kumpitsch on shore 🌊 and help scientists crack the case of snail shell colors 🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣 with WinkleWatchers.
Who knew science could be this fun?

ℹ️ www.gu.se/en/news/beco...

#CitizenScience #MarineBiology

Zancolli, @marcrr.bsky.social @agneeshbarua.bsky.social et al. show that venom glands in marine predatory snails evolved via functional divergence from digestive organs, involving gene expression shifts and enhanced secretory machinery.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf095

#evobio #venom #mollusca

ohhh it is Not Good how many people think "just buy organic" is the answer to food safety infrastructure being dismantled in the U.S.

"The core strategy is to slow NIH spending to generate surpluses...then use surpluses as justification for slashing the budget...unspent [$] won’t be because NIH doesn’t have good science to spend on [but] because the administration has blocked spending" donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...

Shell formation is happening right here, right now!
If you look carefully, you can see the shape of the next chamber emerging faintly in the cytoplasm, a blueprint
From here it gradually calcifies
Behind the scenes of live observation research

#foraminifera #shell formation #biomineralization

Some more Zammara smaragdina cicada from @casabentbill.bsky.social

#invertefest #bugsky #cicadas #nature

My painting TROUT WATER

🚨Today the entire staff of the Institute of Museum and Library services were cut by DOGE!

Inside me there are two wolves. One of them has a 15 genome edits the other 20 genome edits. Neither of them is a dire wolf.

I am thrilled to announce I'll be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at New Mexico State University this Fall!

I can't wait to work with some amazing colleagues and students amidst the sky islands of the SW! Woooo more ecophysiology, evolution, and snails!

Blackfeet tribal members are suing the federal government, saying that Trump's tariffs on Canada violate the Constitution and tribal treaty rights. It's the latest example of tribes flexing their sovereign status to oppose new federal policy. montanafreepress.org/2025/04/07/b...

Interested in calculating complexity metrics for 3D surfaces? Please check out our new package 'habtools' and associated paper @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social !
- Paper: doi.org/10.1111/2041...
- R package: jmadinlab.github.io/habtools/

NSF GRFP Awards by the Year:
2021 - 2074
2022 - 2193
2023 - 2555
2024 - 2036
2025 - 1000

Again, these funding cuts will have drastic longterm effects on the scientific future of the US.......

@jeremymberg.bsky.social @altnih4science.bsky.social

The deadline for the @systbiol.bsky.social Early Career Travel Funds to attend the #Evolution2025 meetings is coming up! (Mar 31). Get your application in soon!!

A recent Executive Order would gut the only federal agency dedicated to America’s museums. The Institute of Museum & Library Services makes up only 0.0046% of the federal budget. Take action now: www.congressweb.com/aam/95/

This is super cool! My alma mater was the top pick and by a wide margin.

Exclusive: Navajo Code Talkers disappear from military websites after Trump DEI order

Lungfish xkcd.com/3064