Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
@xgrau.bsky.social
630 followers 940 following 120 posts
Evolutionary biologist. Postdoctoral Fellow & LCF Junior Leader at CRG (Barcelona). «Han prohibit el vent / perquè no s’alci la pols que hi ha pertot, / i l’aire no esdevingui—diuen—irrespirable» xgrau.github.io & ecoevo.social/@xgrau
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Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
ianakim.bsky.social
Really grateful to see our work featured by @quantamagazine.bsky.social in this piece on the evolution of genome regulation. Huge thanks to @philipcball.bsky.social for such a beautifully written article.
philipcball.bsky.social
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
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
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 🧵
xgrau.bsky.social
[...]

des dels familiars i amics de Franco i la Falange fins a ministres i governadors civils, passant per l’Església Catòlica, els militars, la policia i els funcionaris de presons i camps de concentració i, evidentment, els grans, mitjans i petits empresaris afins.»
xgrau.bsky.social
«El ciment per a construir aquest sistema que per a milers i milers de persones va ser mortal –principalment, a les regions del sud: Múrcia, Andalusia i Extremadura– fou la immensa corrupció del règim, el robatori i l’estraperlo a gran escala dels rics i càrrecs polítics:

[...]
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
leguinbot.bsky.social
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
biodiversitypix.bsky.social
🌊 Andrew Garrett's Fische der Südsee
Hamburg: L. Friederichsen & Co., 1873-1910.

[Source]
Illustration from Andrew Garrett's "Fische der Südsee," depicting two Antennarius commersonii anglerfish from the Pacific. The top fish is yellowish with numerous black spots, a broad body, distinctive fins, and a lure extending from its head. The bottom fish is darker with similar black spots and irregular lighter markings. Both fish display a textured, rough skin and prominent spiny fins. The detailed, scientific style captures the unique morphology and coloration variations of this species in the South Pacific.
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
biologists.bsky.social
Calling early-career developmental biologists!

Apply for a funded place at our #Workshop, Novelty, Co-option and Divergence During Gene Network Evolution.

Application deadline: 5 December

www.biologists.com/workshops/ju...

#DevBio #BiologistsWorkshops #Collaboration #Networking
Workshop: Novelty, Co-option and Divergence During Gene Network Evolution. Organisers: James Hombría and Antónia Monteiro. 14-17 June 2026, Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK. Early-career researchers apply for funded places.
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
higiniaroig.bsky.social
Avui fa 50 anys Jon Paredes 'Txiki' era afusellat a Collserola per un escamot de guàrdies civils voluntaris. Ahir nit, al pati de la presó Model, on Txiki esperava les darreres hores, passava això. Amb la veu de l'actor Sergi López posant veu a la darrera carta d'en Txiki directa.cat/50-anys-de-c...
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
varshamathur.bsky.social
woweee 🤩
arnausebe.bsky.social
Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
aelek.bsky.social
BCA is a project to look out for — charting the diversity of cell type transcriptomes across the tree of life. Not only will it empower evolutionary studies, but also drive advances in biotechnology, biomedicine, and ecology. Kudos to the relentless, meticulous, and persistent team doing this work!
arnausebe.bsky.social
Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
xgrau.bsky.social
Gold of amber,
red of ember,
brown of umber,
all September.

(Autumn, Six Quatrains, @ursulakleguin.com)
xgrau.bsky.social
Can we catalogue all the diversity of cell behaviours across the whole tree of life?

Well, modern single-cell 'omics' certainly give us the chance to try!
arnausebe.bsky.social
Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
xgrau.bsky.social
Ah, that makes much more sense! :_)

If nothing else, having the SM makes it so much easier to try to guess where the paper's being submitted, based on how they arrange it… (cf NPG's "Extended data figures", etc.)
xgrau.bsky.social
What's wrong with releasing preprints with SM? I wasn't expecting that one.
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
irbio-ub.bsky.social
#NotíciaIRBio
🐉✨ El drac blau arriba a la costa catalana!

S’ha confirmat la presència del Glaucus atlanticus a la costa del Tarragonès.

🔬 Els exemplars seran estudiats pel grup de recerca del Dr. Ballesteros de l’IRBio i @biologiaub.bsky.social

🔗https://shorturl.at/7bYau

📷AgentsRurals
xgrau.bsky.social
… painting gentleness as weakness, the truth as “fake news,” violence in word and deed as markers of masculinity. I hope some of these kids […] were watching Patel’s speech and could see it for what it was: getting the job and playing the part doesn’t mean you’re the man.»

2/2
xgrau.bsky.social
«One of Trumpism’s worst characteristics is its open warfare on the malleable psyches of young men. It tells them to act big, talk bigger, take out their aggression on anybody who seems softer or more thoughtful than themselves. [It] perverts moral categories…

1/2

www.newyorker.com/culture/on-t...
Kash Patel Plays a G-Man on TV
In his press conference announcing the capture of Charlie Kirk’s killer, the F.B.I. director revealed himself.
www.newyorker.com
Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾
xgrau.bsky.social
Nice! And sort of soothing, in a sense.
jomcinerney.bsky.social
New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards.
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Genomic constraints shape the evolution of alternative routes to drug resistance in prokaryotes
Background Variation within the prokaryotic pangenome is not random, and natural selection that favours particular combinations of genes appears to dominate over random drift. What is less clear is wh...
www.biorxiv.org
xgrau.bsky.social
I'm not sure who exactly needed to be reminded that if you hit somebody with a hammer and not your fist, you are still liable for the assault, but apparently such people exist.
xgrau.bsky.social
«In light of the possibility that a reviewer might use an LLM to write a review from scratch, some authors have explored the use of hidden “prompt injections” [to ensure positive reviews]. We consider this a form of collusion».
timnitgebru.bsky.social
What a wild thing to read.

"If such a prompt injection is included in a submission and it consequently results in a positive LLM-generated review, we consider this a form of collusion...that both the paper authors and the reviewer would be held accountable for,

blog.iclr.cc/2025/08/26/p...
Policies on Large Language Model Usage at ICLR 2026 – ICLR Blog
blog.iclr.cc