During covid my nephew metamorphosed into a phenomenal guitarist and songwriter. Here's the first single from the band he fronts (guitar/vocals: Evyn Smith, drums: Rhidd Smith, bass: Croc Smith, yes they're a talented family). Best consumed LOUD.

open.spotify.com/track/7nrj2C...

🗞️📜Fresh from the press! Our new paper shows that the Cape Verde date palm actually evolved from the date palm crop🧬 with interesting implications for conservation and breeding of drought resistant varieties 🌴🏝️
Read more: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

We’re recruiting for a #PhD opportunity funded by NERC Envision DTP, investigating the impact of climate change on chytrid disease dynamics in Appalachian salamanders.
Full details here: findaphd.com?pj=182328

Photographic evidence that it has also colonised a galaxy far, far away...Silene uniflora growing on Luke Skywalker's island retreat (aka Skellig Michael)!

Years of work by a tremendous group, lead by Gabriel Marais.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Gabriele's paper is out in PNAS! He found a large number of genes with repeated sweeps in multiple plant species. Most interestingly: they tend to be peripheral in co-expression networks (low pleiotropy), consistent with mig-sel theory!! @gabnocgenomics.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Thanks to all involved! @michaelffay.bsky.social @aaronc-research.bsky.social @profsicreer.bsky.social @owengosborne.bsky.social, and Daniel Wood and Sarah Coates!

Our findings have implications for the capacity and predictability of species to persist in the face of anthropogenic change, as organisms with high levels of plasticity may also be much better equipped to deal with rapid environmental change.

We exposed the mine and coastal plants to both salt and zinc, measured changes in the expression of genes in the plant’s roots, and investigated whether the responses fit the patterns we would expect if plasticity has aided adaptation.

It turns out that plasticity to salt has strongly influenced recent adaptation to heavy-metal pollution during parallel colonisation of industrial-era mines by the generally coastal plant species, Silene uniflora.

Our new paper shows that plasticity that has evolved to deal with one stressful situation, can help plants to adapt rapidly to new stressful situations. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... @meebangor.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social @ukri.org @pnas.org

Senior Editor position!!! Please feel free to get in touch with me via DM or email if this is of potential interest to you, even if you don't think you're 'ready' (I didn't!). Serving on a
@britishecolsoc.bsky.social
journal is for me a joy and a privilege.

Looking to build your CV by doing a Masters project? Lots available at Bangor University in zoology-related fields and more:

Science takes time - a lot of time. Time that is more and more difficult to make available because of increased workloads. Time that exceeds the temporary contracts of postdocs and PhDs.

I'll illustrate this using our paper published in Nature yesterday. 🧵 (1/x)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Are you interested in evolution in the Anthropocene?... in evolved resistance to pollution?... in the genetic architecture of rapidly evolving traits?... You are in luck! I have something for you to read...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

PhD opportunity in my group at UiO on adaptation to shifting temperatures in house sparrows. Looking for candidates interested in combining evolutionary genomics and ecological approaches! Please share! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Thrilled to finally see this out. Work led by former postdocs in the lab, @leegwonjin.bsky.social and Brian Sanderson. A large-effect fitness trade-off across environments is explained by a single mutation affecting cold acclimation | PNAS

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...