Anne Stone

GET IN, DORKS! It's time for round two!

@standupforscience.bsky.social

Skiing in the Alps at Flumserberg. I look happy because I have not yet fallen!

Current status:

Katherine Amato, 2026 Mid-Career Research Award. Dr. Amato combines primatological, physiological, and microbiome data to address questions about how the microbiome functions and interacts with different hosts and environments to affect fitness and health. She has also developed and assessed methods for obtaining data from non-invasive samples from wild primates.

Join us in congratulating our outstanding members who have received the prestigious AABA annual awards for 2026.

The 2026 Mid-Career Research award recipient is Katherine Amato from Northwestern University !

A 5500-year-old Treponema pallidum genome from Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia Treponematosis, a bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies and T. carateum (yaws, bejel, syphilis, pinta), has afflicted humans for millennia. Despite paleopathological evidence and...

A newly sequenced 5500-year-old genome of Treponema pallidum rewrites the origins of syphilis, according to a new study in Science.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/3Zpv2W2

spongebob squarepants is standing on a wooden floor next to patrick star and a fish . Alt: spongebob squarepants is wiping his forehead and saying whew while standing on a wooden floor next to patrick star and a fish.

But the abstracts are all in!

ernie from sesame street is sitting at a table with a plate of food in front of him . Alt: ernie from sesame street is sitting at a table with a plate of food in front of him and scratching his head

Looking forward to #SMBE2026! It’s that time of year when my trainees and collaborators all send me files called “SMBE 2026.docx “

A round brown rodent pops its head out of its burrow to look and listen for danger. Image Credit: Bernie CC 1.0 Source: Wikimedia Commons

As per always on this most holy of mammal holidays, Groundhog's Day, March Mammal Madness launches our annual tournament page! #2026MMM @mmmletsgo.bsky.social libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalM...

Anne and Erin with celebratory cake!!!

Yay Congratulations to Erin Rawls who passed his comprehensive exams today!!!! His dissertation looks at DNA recovery and downstream STR and genomic analysis of degraded and/or burnt samples.

A finished glass paperweight with blue and green colors. And bubbles!

The results are in!

A high-coverage genome from a 200,000-year-old Denisovan Denisovans, an extinct sister group of Neandertals who lived in Eastern Eurasia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, are known only from a handful of skeletal remains and limited genetic data, incl...

I actually couldn’t limit myself to one paper, but Origin Stories chose one. The other one is not yet out in a journal, but is on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Complete sequencing of ape genomes - Nature Complete sequences of chromosomes telomere-to-telomere from chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan and siamang provide a comprehensive and valuable resource for future evol...

I should note that I give my 2 cents on this podcast as well, discussing Yoo et al. (2025) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great end of year summary of some of the fascinating discoveries related to human origins on the Origin Stories podcast by the @leakeyfoundation.org! leakeyfoundation.org/learn/origin...

acstone.bsky.social's Bluesky Wrapped 2025 Check out acstone.bsky.social's year on Bluesky!

This year on Bluesky I wrote 77 posts and 46 replies. For some reason 🙄, I’m concerned about science funding and vaccination. I also talk about a strange word called MMM (more on that soon for #2026MMM)

www.madebyolof.com/bluesky-wrap...

a woman in a blue dress is holding a blue light saber Alt: a woman in a blue dress is holding a blue light saber

The energy I’m going into 2026 with

Anne using the jacks to make the neck where the paperweight will be broken off the punty

At the glory hole heating up the glass

My paperweight has three shades of blue and bubbles but I don’t get to see it until it comes out of the kiln tomorrow

Me and Steve with holding the punty after the first gather of glass from the furnace

Me poking the molten glass with long tweezers to swirl the color and air bubbles

A super fun way to unwind over the holidays = making paperweights with molten glass! Note: Steve at Inspired Fire glass studio in W. Lafayette was a terrific teacher!

As dangerous eugenic ideas spread, NIH falls silent Federal research agencies are pulling back from fostering public discussions about science after the hollowing out of government communications offices.

Federal research agencies are pulling back from fostering public discussions about science after the hollowing out of government communications offices. www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/t...

And there were balloons!!!!

Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts Nature Reviews Genetics - Ancient DNA techniques are being applied to study increasingly diverse pathogens of the past. The authors review the latest insights into pathogen–host coevolution,...

Review: Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts by @blevinske.bsky.social, @paleogenomics.bsky.social, Verena J. Schuenemann & @acstone.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eSVPN

Yay! It’s a great day to hood some newly minted PhDs! @asubeinghuman.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social @rebeccasiford.bsky.social #StoneLabVictory! #SciencePartyInTheDesert!

A flyer with a blue and white background. Text reads: AABA Webinar Series Tracing forgotten histories: identifying unprovenienced human skeletal remains and establishing best practices for their ethical treatment. 11 December, 2025 at 12:00pm EST. Many teaching and museum collections house human remains with little or no provenience, creating major challenges for ethical stewardship. This webinar, inspired by last year's AABA workshop, brings together experts who have successfully reconstructed documentation for unprovenienced remains. Panelists will share practical methods--archival research, handwriting analysis, osteology, taphonomy, and more--and discuss collaborative strategies for navigating these complex cases. Join us to connect, learn, and build community around this critical work. Speakers: Chris Dudor (National Museum of Natural History), Siân Halcrow (Durham University), Chip Colwell (Sapiens), Celisse Fricker-Chilcote (University of Kentucky). Organizers: Alyson Caine (James Madison University), Irene Hochgraf-Camerom (University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology), Karen Weinstein (Dickenson College).

Do you have unprovenienced human remains in your teaching or research collection? Do you want to learn how to reconstruct their histories, and how to be ethical stewards of them? We're holding a workshop on this on December 11th! More information here: burkinc.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

YouTube video by StoneLab Análisis del ADN antiguo: ¿Por qué estudiar enfermedades antiguas?

Para obtener una buena descripción general de lo que el ADN antiguo puede decirnos sobre los patógenos (¡producido por estudiantes de pregrado y posgrado en mi laboratorio!), consulte: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwQP...

YouTube video by StoneLab Ancient DNA Analysis: Why Study ancient Disease?

For a nice overview of what ancient DNA can tell us about pathogens (produced by undergraduate and graduate students in my lab!) see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxOE...

Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts Nature Reviews Genetics - Ancient DNA techniques are being applied to study increasingly diverse pathogens of the past. The authors review the latest insights into pathogen–host coevolution,...

Lovely to work with @blevinske.bsky.social, @paleogenomics.bsky.social & Verena Schuenemann on " Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts"! Read it at rdcu.be/eSVPN

Two scientists studying mosquitos in the effort to eradicate malaria as part of the vector-borne diseases research program in the Center for Evolution and Medicine.

On Giving Tuesday, we appreciate everyone who transforms our understanding of disease and achieves new approaches to improving human health.
Thank you researchers, funders, learners, & donors.
Learn more: evmed.asu.edu
Contribute: tinyurl.com/5td5vx6s

Square graphic with beige background with circles on it. AABA logo centered at the top. In the middle is a pink-ish square with this text overlain: "Giving Tuesday. Your donation supports: student travel awards, student presentation awards, AABA eat." At the bottom of the graphic is the link to donate: bioanth.org/donate. The graphic displays to hands exchanging a heart in the upper left and in the lower left, a drawing of a loris on a branch.

This #GivingTuesday, support the AABA community fund. Your donation supports student funding awards and other community initiatives. Even a small gift helps! bioanth.org/donate

Flyer with blue background and speaker and organizer images in circles: Chris Dudar, Sian Halcrow, Chip Colwell, Celise Fricker-Chilcote, Alyson Caine, Irene Hochgraf-Camerom, Karen Weinstein. AABA logo in top right corner. Text: AABA WEBINAR SERIES TRACING FORGOTTEN HISTORIES: IDENTIFYING UNPROVENIENCED HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS AND ESTABLISHING BEST PRACTICES FOR THEIR ETHICAL TREATMENT 11 DECEMBER, 2025 AT 12:00 PM EST Many teaching and museum collections house human remains with little or no provenience, creating major challenges for ethical stewardship. This webinar, inspired by last year’s AABA workshop, brings together experts who have successfully reconstructed documentation for unprovenienced remains. Panelists will share practical methods—archival research, handwriting analysis, osteology, taphonomy, and more—and discuss collaborative strategies for navigating these complex cases. Join us to connect, learn, and build community around this critical work.

Please join us on December 11 at 12pm EST for the AABA Webinar, "Tracing Forgotten Histories: Identifying Unprovenienced Human Skeletal Remains and Establishing Best Practices for their Ethical Treatment." Registration here: burkinc.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

📆 Reminder: The deadline for Pollitzer Student Travel Awards to attend #AABA2026 in Denver is December 5. Be sure to submit your application! bioanth.org/about/willia...

If you like milk science... <dusts off the ol’ blog> On Thanksgiving, a Facebook “human interest story pages” dropped an essay about mother’s milk and me as a milk rese...

<dusts off the ol' blog> to say something about "celebrating science" in the age of AI & current political context.

EVEN THOUGH I HAD OTHER THINGS I WANTED TO DO THIS HOLIDAY WEEKEND.

mammalssuck.blogspot.com/2025/11/if-y...

Alas no! I was there midday between downpours