Daniel Brady Mills

Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy - npj Complexity npj Complexity - Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy

New paper out! Here's a puzzle: phototrophy, the ability to use light for energy, is one of life's great innovations. It evolved early and transformed the biosphere. But it evolved 2x. Why not just once, why not more? Our work suggests the answer is priority effects.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Even better!

Please do this!

Congrats Jason!

Bivalves usurped brachiopods as the dominant benthic filter-feeders—the reasons why have been debated. new #Geology paper by Kemi Ashing-Giwa and colleagues support the hypothesis that sulfide played a significant role in the extinction’s selectivity.

Read article: geosociety.co/Ashing-Giwa_et_al

Not soon enough!

I love it too! In the classic sense, in that you have previously free-living organisms (human beings) becoming units in a higher-level organism (the hive mind). Joined humans are to mitochondria what the hive mind is to the eukaryotic cell.

I was wondering what you thought of this show! Also whether the joining could qualify as a major transition in evolution or individuality. Not sure if that works on a planetary level, or if this hive mind reproduces at all (are they now transmitting a signal like the one they received?).

Close up photo of a pale green lichen with brown apothecia. The lichen looks like a musical instrument from a Dr. Seuss book.

Cladonia lichen. #Newfoundland, Canada.
#fungifriends #fungi #hiking #lichen

No worries at all, very happy to see it out!

Grateful to Philip Ball for this thoughtful piece on our recent hard-steps paper! @jmacalad.bsky.social @adamfrank4.bsky.social @astrowright.bsky.social

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵

A portrait of a smiling Lynn Margulis.

14 years since we lost Lynn Margulis (November 22, 2011). Still can’t believe she’s gone.
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪

Please apply if you are interested in marine biogeochemistry and microbial dark oxygen production. Deadline: November 17th.

And then some tech bros think to themselves, "What if *I* could be that asshole??"

Preordered! Can't wait!

N2 fixation is a great candidate hard step! Not sure if anyone has proposed it as one before.

Nooo! Wonder how long it's been there...

‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time Understanding the role of humans as ‘ecosystem engineers’ requires a deep-time perspective rooted in evolutionary history and the fossil record. Howev…

New in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: 'Earth system engineers' and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time 🔓 #ecoevo #openaccess

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A thread 🧵:

Was just thinking about this after watching the original The Thing from Another World for the first time. I was surprised that the alien wasn't a shape-shifter like in the remake or novella, but an "intellectual carrot" as one of the characters put it.

Mesmerizing!

Symbiotic Earth - Hummingbird Films The film, Symbiotic Earth, is about Lynn Margulis, a scientific rebel who challenged entrenched theories of evolution to present a new narrative.

Show them Symbiotic Earth! hummingbirdfilms.com/symbioticear...

The Greatest Extinction Event in 66 Million Years? Contextualising Anthropogenic Extinctions Species and ecosystems are changing rapidly in response to human actions, but how does this compare with the deeper past? We review and compare the current extinction event to those over the last 66 ....

Human-driven extinction event not yet the "sixth mass extinction", but is very likely the largest extinction event of the last 66 million yrs. 🌏 🧪

Read about it in our new paper led by @jackhhatfield.bsky.social
and Katie Davis @anthropocenebio.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Andrea Halling, a grad student at University of Colorado Boulder, recently led experiments with living algae to test how the physical conditions of ancient seawater might have impacted ancient single-celled organisms. quantamagazine.org/the-physics-...

Very happy to share this new paper we've recently published. Do biospheres use information in the same way organisms do? Can we think of biospheres as agents?

"Exo-Daisy World: Revisiting Gaia Theory through an Informational Architecture Perspective"

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

Sounds great -- excited to check it out!

In one week my book about carbon comes out, and here's some nice things some nice people have said about it. If you feel moved to do so, the link below provides a means of purchase. Thank you, that is all. www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

I've been looking forward to this! Saw Nir present this at Goldschmidt back in 2023.

The geologic history of marine dissolved organic carbon from iron oxides - Nature A direct proxy for past dissolved organic carbon signatures using co-precipitated organic carbon in iron ooids enables reconstruction of marine dissolved organic carbon signals dating back to the Pala...

🚨 Paper alert! 🚨 After >1 year in review and six (6!) reviewers, I'm thrilled that this paper is finally out! Here, we provide the first data-based record of marine dissolved organic carbon in the geologic past.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fantastic!!