David Pollock

Evolution of bioluminescence in Anthozoa with emphasis on Octocorallia Abstract. Bioluminescence is a widespread phenomenon that has evolved multiple times across the tree of life, converging among diverse fauna and habitat ty

Bioluminescence, phylogenetic analysis, ancestral reconstruction. This looks like a fun paper for my reading list. (credit to @evolutionsoup.bsky.social for bringing to my attention).
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Good advice to beginning graduate students (and others, maybe everybody):

"good writing is downstream of clear thinking and a strong understanding of the subject matter at hand."

--Jamelle Bouie @jamellebouie.net

This is an interesting distraction driven by @jessicacalarco.com. The comment below misses the point that human-support (and art) wage rises are a lagging effect. It seems that what needs to happen is to accelerate the effect to counteract inequality. UBI perhaps? Decrease educational costs?

Putting aside comment on anything else, this claim about tautological definitions is definitively wrong. Certain processes can lead to predictable equilibria, and observation of those equilibria, esp. if otherwise rare, is evidence for the process. Puddles are predictive of past rain.

If you can end with "this is a good world" you are doing something right.

also liked the idea of upping "to the moon and back again". Ha! Only to the moon? to the end of the universe and back again more like it!

Very sorry that you thought I was annoyed in any way. As a rule if I am actually annoyed at something I try not to write it in a forum like this, but please believe me when I say I was just playing with the concepts. I'll review why it came off as annoyed.

a) many from fields who thought they were v smart found biology difficult to conquer, let alone evolution
b) you snuck "measurable" in there, changes things
c) is length of universe really measurable? Why do units have to exist as things in themselves?
d) to the end of the universe, and back again

These two have made a difference. This prize will help them make even more of a difference.

I think reality is constrained by math, but I don't know that math is constrained by reality, even if it was initially inspired by reality.

The digestive systems of carnivorous plants A comparison of the forms and functions of digestive and absorptive glands in carnivorous plants sheds light on their convergent evolution.

"The digestive systems of carnivorous plants"

This looks really cool. 👌 Work from Matthias Freund, Dorothea Graus, Rainer Hedrich & Kenji Fukushima et al.

academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...

#PlantScience

Language models reveal a complex sequence basis for adaptive convergent evolution of protein functions | PNAS Convergent evolution, or convergence, refers to repeated, independent emergences of the same trait in two or more lineages of species during evolut...

recent protein language models can extract embeddings from protein sequences reflecting high-order features, developed statistical tests to evaluate the adaptive convergence of such features.

Interested to see how people will use this (I edited it, not an author).

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

Maybe could put together for a Vanillerie Research Institute?

"I'm not the bubble, you're the bubble"

My own mother used to say "come home with your shield or on it", but I don't think I could have put up with that level of snark from a teddy bear.

But can you evidence that for me?

I may be going to hell in a bucket, babe
But at least I'm enjoying the ride

Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island. The Department of Biological Sciences in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS) at the University of Rhode Island (URI) invites applications for an academic year (9 month), tenure-track Assistant Professor position specializing in Marine Ecology. URI, the top public university in New England, is a land and sea grant research university located in Kingston, Rhode Island, a beautiful seaside community that is well connected by car, bus, and rail about 40 min from Providence, an hour from Boston and 3 hours from New York City.

Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island.

jobs.uri.edu/postings/15960

My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547

Congratulations Joe!

Happy to share Jialin's first publication. She did a great job exploring the transition to land in animals. Co-supervised by the great Jordi Paps and me and in collaboration with Davide Pisani and @phil-donoghue.bsky.social

This is truly inconceivable. In future, let's restrict to lively debate in Scandinavian journals.

Super piece.

Open position at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics:
We are looking for a Director of the Center of Pathogen Bioinformatics
apply.refline.ch/499599/0346/...
I am in the Center's steering board together with fantastic colleagues (Emma Hodcroft @firefoxx66.bsky.social, Richard Neher @neher.io, and

we are almost there with doughnation (the giving of baked products) to donation, so...

📢 Open Call! The Max Perutz Labs invite applications for a Tenure-Track Professorship in Genome Biology. We are particularly interested in researchers investigating the molecular and biophysical mechanisms underlying genome function and regulation. More details ➡️ tinyurl.com/3t7vvdct

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution Small Grants for Local and Regional Outreach, Deadline: March 2.

Now accepting proposals for the Small Grants for Local and Regional Outreach, which provide up to $1000 USD for a variety of evolution education & outreach projects, workshops, and events. Submit your proposal by March 2, 2026! shorturl.at/I8HqO

Interessant, hier würde man Sie zuerst Vyvgaart ausprobieren lassen. Ganz im Gegenteil: Komplementinhibitoren sind das Einzige, was nachweislich wirklich hilft. (Ich hoffe, die Übersetzung ist nicht allzu schlecht.)

Viel Glück und ich hoffe, dass es nicht zu schnell nachlässt.

I'm super stoked that Colorado voted to fund free meals for kids for schools.

(I've been saying lunches, but the program includes breakfasts, too.)