Konow lab at UMass Lowell

🚨🚨PhD position alert!🚨🚨
Do you like 🐢🐢? Or ecomorph evolution? I am offering a 36-month PhD position funded by the DFG about ecomorphology and neuroanatomy of turtles. Check out the ad here: www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

Please share and if you have questions, send me a message 😉

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB looks at the impacts of #climatechange on #crops and how we can mitigate against these. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

New from #JRSocInterface: Automated analysis of bird head motion in unconstrained settings: a foundational study on semicircular canal evolution in #archosaurs. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #biomechanics

We are staring down a mass extintion event for American science.

If the 2026 budget is enacted, NSF will be slashed in half. Biology funding by ca 75%. The same percentage of species that died at the end-Cretaceous.

For what reason? Nobody campaigned on this. And it's not law yet. So SPEAK UP NOW.

To mark the 360th anniversary of #PhilosophicalTransactions, we're spotlighting 20 landmark papers from the journal. Caroline Herschel's 1787 paper 'An Account of a New Comet' was the first scientific work by a woman to be fully credited in any scientific journal throughout the world buff.ly/RRsaLZ2

Dear editors, your publication delays are damaging our careers Chia-Hsuan Hsu waited 18 months before chasing an editor for a decision on a paper. The answer surprised him.

Apparently not: Dear editors, your publication delays are damaging our careers www.nature.com/articles/d41...

To mark the 360th anniversary of #PhilosophicalTransactions, we're spotlighting 20 landmark papers from the journal. Edward Stone's 1763 paper on willow bark laid the groundwork for aspirin and NSAIDs, revolutionising the treatment of pain and fever: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Am I alone in being put off by monster-long editorial "desk" rejection times at @ScienceAdvances (@HoldenThorpe [51 days]) and @pnas.org‬ (@MaryBerenbaum [61 days]). #DoBetter

Cool paper. Designated Satutday morning coffee reed here.

Complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Paper alert 🚨
Our 1rst paper with @vivienl.bsky.social and colleagues is out in Functional Ecology! In this paper, we investigated how complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata.Want to know more? Read this👇
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Phylogenomics establishes an Early Miocene reconstruction of reef vertebrate diversity Phylogenomics reveals a younger-than-expected age of reef fish diversification.

New from the Near Lab, a super collaboration led by @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social

Phylogenomics and evolutionary history of the iconic reef fish clade wrasses and parrotfishes (Labridae)

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu6149

I like pie charts that reach beyond 360, coz you can never have too much pie (quote: E. L. Brainerd).

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

A lifeline for researchers with cancelled grants: www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

This campaign needs you now Establish a Dedicated Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Research Subgroup Within The Biophysical Society

Here is a great idea: Let's Establish a Dedicated Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Research Subgroup Within The Biophysical Society - Sign the Petition! chng.it/dy4dg7dJq2 via @Change

This is devastating. @nature.com why is this piece behind payroll?

I am looking for a PhD candidate to work on the morphological and functional evolution of the head shape of limbless squamates. The project will involve evolutionary biology, experimental and computational biomechanics, and a lot of scaly animals!!! More info here:
adum.fr/as/ed/voirpr...

Behavioural biomechanics: leaf-cutter ant cutting behaviour depends on leaf edge geometry royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... | #ProcB #Behaviour #Biomechanics

🧪 Our Terminated NSF Grant Tracker is live 🧪

🔴 114 NSF grants listed so far

🔴 Cancelled grants focused on

→ Training scientists
→ Misinformation
→ AI
→ Climate change

Credit to @noamross.net for all the work to build this & to all PIs who submitted their info.

Link: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

Graphical abstract for "The Diffusion Diaries: Diffusible Iodine-Based Contrast-Enhanced CT for Vertebrate Natural History Specimens", showing the number of scans : "252 scans of 205 specimens from 7 natural history collections" a plot showing how staining time increases with mass, log-transformed (bottom left), a pie chart showing the Tissue Condition scores (TCS) recorded for all specimens (bottom middle), and a screenshot of a lab protocol for diceCT'ing museum specimens (bottom right)

Cover image for Integrative Organismal Biology, showing cross sections through a fish, a tenrec, a frog, and a lizard at the bottom of the image, and a 3D rendering of each animal at the top of the image (colored in teal, grey, yellow, and pink, respectively)

🚨New publication alert!🚨 A big one! It might just be my *biggest* one: doi.org/10.1093/iob/... IMPORTANT THREAD! From the moment Dave Blackburn set me loose at the Florida Museum, I had a marvelous time using diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced CT (diceCT) to create anatomical datasets 🧪1/6

Agreed. Stunning movie!

Mmm...

Real #Sharnado evidence, right there.

SEB Annual Conference Antwerp 2025 Abstract submissions will open from Monday 6th January until Friday 7th March 2025

Only a few hours left to submit your abstract for the 2025 SEB Conference in Antwerp.
www.sebiology.org/events/seb-a...
If you work on muscle, and particularly if your work integrates across scales of biological organization, I encourage you to submit to session A1.

SEB Annual Conference Antwerp 2025 Abstract submissions will open from Monday 6th January until Friday 7th March 2025

Abstract submission for @sebiology.bsky.social in Antwerp is open until Fri 7th March! #SEB2025

Plenty of #Biomechanics Special Sessions—pick your poison!

🦕 Bringing Fossils "Back to Life"
🏃‍♀️ Musculoskeletal Mechanics & Modelling
🤖 Kinematics & Robotics
🔧 Innovative Methods
🎖️ Tribute to Peter Aerts

Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Cost Efficiency Initiative By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.

This executive order:
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Has some very concerning language affecting universities:

"(b) Review of Covered Contracts and Grants. Each Agency Head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, shall review all existing covered contracts and grants and, "...
1/3

Another paper straight to the top of the to-read pile!

How do you measure what isn't there?

Elska did a fantastic job leading this paper on how we can measure the volume of changing, 3D spaces inside XROMM skeletal animations. And, importantly, how good are those volume measurements?
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Reminder: abstracts for the '25 Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Antwerp BE (July 7th-11th) are due March 7th.
t.co/VawfbYRCsu
I'll run a session on Multiscale Musculoskeletal Mechanics and Modeling. Please DM me for information and submit to session A1 if your work fits our theme.

Excited to announce the beginning of my service on the editorial board for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb I am experienced with, and would be happy to discuss your ideas for guest-edited special issues in the journal