Mary Williams @PlantTeaching

“We can continue accelerating toward an AI-powered future that amplifies existing inequities, or we can deliberately steer toward one that increases prospects for shared global prosperity,” writes Chinasa T. Okolo in a new #ScienceExpertVoices article. https://scim.ag/46JkNka

Congrats, Joe Ecker @salkinstitute.bsky.social, to receiving the McClintock Prize! Joe has been a visionary leader of the field of genetics and genomics – not only for plants – for decades
www.salk.edu/news-release...

Dear Madam Secretary, I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters. I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education. As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples: • MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%. • We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law. The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone. In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation. Sincerely, Sally Kornbluth CC Ms. May Mailman Mr. Vincent Haley

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

BHL has retrospectively assigned DOIs to 50,000+ historic journal articles These articles, which include the first scientific description of the Platypus (1799), are now part of the great linked network of scholarly research: doi.org/10.5962/p.30... #ILoveBHL #RetroPIDs 🧪
@crossref.bsky.social

HBCU TCU Research4Life Did you know that access to the “world’s most valued plant database” (Nature, 2009) is free for all teachers, historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), tribal colleges and universities (TCU...

Did you know...TAIR offers no-cost access for teachers, and for HBCU, TCU and institutions based in Research4Life countries. Contact us to get TAIR access for your institution!

READ MORE ▶️ bit.ly/4ob0xxs

#Research4Life #plantscience #plantbiology #Arabidopsis #scisky #HBCU #TCU

27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture.

Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture. "27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs"
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

KATANIN promotes cell elongation and division to generate proper cell numbers in maize organs Microtubule severing is essential for proper eukaryotic cell elongation and division. Here we show that the microtubule severing protein, KATANIN, is encoded by two genes in Zea mays (maize) called Di...

Excited to share this preprint on the microtubule severing protein Katanin, and its role in cell elongation and division in maize. First author Stephanie Martinez worked collaboratively with many folks to bring you this preprint. Check it out! 🔬🌽 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The graphic features a background image of roots over a green gradient. The title says "Chris Topp Puts Down Roots at MSU PRI." There is a headshot of Chris Topp on the righthand side with the following text on the left, "Christopher N. Topp, Ph.D., Professor, Plant Resilience Institute, Department of Plant Biology, Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University” and the MSU PRI logo underneath.

We're excited to welcome Christopher Topp to the Plant Resilience Institute! Dr. Topp uses powerful imaging tools to envision the future of sustainable agriculture, and he will soon bring his expertise in root biology to MSU. Read the full story: plantresilience.msu.edu/pri-news/202...

Announcing the Jane Silverthorne Postdoctoral Fellowship Program | Plantae A message from Silvia Restrepo, President, Boyce Thompson Institute As the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) embarks on our second century of plant science innovation, I’m deeply honored to announce the…

plantae.org/announcing-t...

In honor of my post-doc supervisor, Ian Sussex. I learned so much from him!

🌿 Calling All Plant Enthusiasts! 🌺

Join us at the Sussex Symposium this Friday for a day dedicated to plant biology! 🌳

🎙️ Don't miss the keynote by Dr. Ken Birnbaum!

🗓️ 9 AM - 5 PM 📍 Jones Auditorium, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

I was a member of a scientific society for many years before joining the staff nearly 20 years ago, and I endorse this position!
I encourage everyone to find and join a relevant scientific society (or several). You can engage with their programs and benefit directly, or just support their mission.

Why do scientific societies matter now more than ever?

Scientists board explore how societies support researchers, foster global collaboration, & shape the future of science. A must-read for all career stages 👍

🔗 buff.ly/YW2XUN3

#plantscience #science

Delighted to see our work on the evolution of roses during the 19th century featured on this month’s Genetics cover! 😍

Feel free to let your curiosity guide you to our recent article!
academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
🌹🧬

Online Flipbook Created with the Heyzine flipbook maker

Find out what the UK #chronobiology community has been up to and how we're working to bring science out of the lab in our newsletter:
heyzine.com/flip-book/a3...

International Master in Plant Sciences will soon be launching (September 2026). F International Master in Plant Sciences track of the Biology AgroSciences master degree https://www.master-sciences-du-vegetal.fr/eng We are delighted to share that the International Master in Plant Sciences track of the Biology AgroSciences Master degree will soon be launching (September 2026). Fully taught in English (First and second year) and embedded in the Saclay Plant Sciences Excellence Network, this program will train a new generation of talented students to tackle the most pressing challenges in plant research — from climate resilience to sustainable agriculture.

International Master in Plant Sciences will soon be launching (September 2026).

It's interesting that everyone knows about the finches but nobody knows about the canary grass!? What's with these people 😂. #PlantAwarenessDisparity

Bringing Darwin’s Botanical Work Into the Spotlight Surveying visitors at a major botanical garden reveals a surprising gap in plant evolution knowledge, and a clear opportunity to close it.

Bringing Darwin’s Botanical Work Into the Spotlight share.google/pmabhSuaMRZ1...

Beautiful and delicious mutants: The origins, fates, and benefits of molecular sequence variation in plant evolution and breeding Genetic mutations that result from spontaneous errors, random induction, or localized genome editing can produce functionally equivalent outcomes that are

Beautiful and delicious mutants: The origins, fates, and benefits of molecular sequence variation in plant evolution and breeding (Thomas L Slewinski, Sarah Turner-Hissong, Tomasz Paciorek, Brent Brower-Toland, Christine Shyu) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience

Super excited to share that our most recent work in the Davies Lab (@camplantsci.bsky.social) has been published in @newphyt.bsky.social... check it out 👉 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/ZNKWEJ... #plantscience #plantresearch #calcium

Very pleasant, mostly dry, high 18/17, low 8/9. Beautiful leaf colours coming in, it's perfectly autumnal 🍁🍂.

A boot-wearing leg resting on a car dashboard.

My new boots arrived whilst I was in Norwich, I had worn a hole in the sole of the last pair.
Hooray, no more wet feet 😁

Using AI in student assessment, marking, and feedback Nigel Francis and Jordon Millward will discuss their work on AI in student assessment, marking, and feedback, followed by an open floor for audience discussion. The first webinar in our new Outreach E...

Curious how AI can transform student feedback and assessment?

Join us in one week to hear from experts Nigel Francis and Jordon Millward + open discussion.

Free webinar on 15 October 2025, 13:00-14:00 BST.

Sign up now:
www.sebiology.org/events/ems-e...

#Education #AI #Webinar

Dr Raysa Rocha standing in a lecture theatre in front of a slide titled "Neurodivergent workers and wellbeing".

Dr Raysa Rocha delivered a lightning talk on generating actionable insights to support neurodivergent workers and their wellbeing. We at Leeds are having conversations on how to support neurodivergent people in the research community, so this is exciting!

Delighted to be able to support two early career group leaders with this award - and look forward to seeing exciting work coming from their labs!

Rooting for function: community‐level fine‐root traits relate to many ecosystem functions Humans are driving biodiversity change, which also alters community functional traits. However, how changes in the functional traits of the community alter ecosystem functions—especially belowground...

Super excited to see that the last chapter of my PhD on root trait - ecosystem functioning relationships is now published in @newphyt.bsky.social!
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Thanks for inviting me, it's such a pleasure to spend time with so many exciting and excited plant biologists 💚

Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution Directed evolution can rapidly generate genetic variants with new and enhanced properties, yet efficient platforms for performing such evolution directly in plant cells have been lacking. We developed...

Out First Release in @science.org this week:
The development of a directed evolution strategy with proof of concept in plant immune protein engineering.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Great opportunity! Applications are open for @theplantjournal.bsky.social Fellowship scheme - provides support and mentorship for early-year PIs establishing themselves as independent group leaders.

Also great chance to learn about the editorial side of #JournalPublishing #PlantScience #PeerReview

I love traveling and bringing home souvenirs from my travels to remind me of places I've visited.
If aliens came across the universe to visit Earth, what do you think they would take home to remember our wonderful planet?
I know what I think they'd take home!
🌱