Don't forget to register for Friday's Darwin Day talk at St. Mary's University, featuring yours truly:
www.eventbrite.ca/e/darwin-day...
Come join me on Friday the 13th at St. Mary's University for a special Darwin Day special lecture:
stmu.ca/event/darwin...
The Carpenter's Son has 31% on RT. I assumed it was the Christian right bemoaning a gnostic take on Jesus, but then saw the movie and was surprised by how strangely Catholic and moving it is. Reviewers didnt find it sacrilegious enough! 8/10 but would love a take from a scholar of gnosticism
High River did a little writeup on tomorrow's Star of Bethlehem party at Ambrose:
highriveronline.com/articles/exp...
I am excited to try out the planetarium at this year's Star of Bethlehem party at Ambrose University. Free family friendly fun! Register at ambrose.edu/event/8073
Protist not protest. I wish my phone was smart enough to recognize I am a scientist.
An entirely new phylum of protest was published today. It is rare that higher taxa like this are discovered - but it is all the more exciting for providing more insights into the evolution of the mitochondrial from alphaproteobacteria. www.msstate.edu/newsroom/art...
Black crappie (and possibly white) have been found in huge numbers in Cardiff Trout Pond north of Edmonton. This is a new record for the province, and was almost certainly released illegally. Don't let it loose! Photo credit: N. McNelly
🧵Remember the preprint claiming SARS-CoV-2 has a "synthetic fingerprint"?
It said a restriction map was "extremely unlikely to have arisen by random evolution.”
I took its claims seriously.
The "synthetic fingerprint" hypothesis collapses. My new preprint explains why.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.23833
I wrote an angry scree about the Albertan government and my local paper posted it.
www.westernwheel.ca/opinion/lett...
Over 456 000 signatures!
So they actually used the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back without a contract. First reading approved. Unsurprising in the sense that I am not sure anything this government does will surprise me any more.
The Apalochicola redhorse finally has a name - Moxostoma antelunare
mapress.com/zt/article/v...
It is fascinating to see a pro-UCP Facebook chat accuse the ATA of being both Marxist and fascist. I'm no political scholar but...
Rick Bell in the Calgary Herald is more palatable if you read him while doing a Captain Kirk impression
15th report of the Alberta Bird Record Committee dropped. I was surprised to find how few glossy ibis records have been accepted; no reason was provided but I could imagine they are easily mistaken for white-faced ibis. Document any interesting bird finds on iNaturalist opus.uleth.ca/server/api/c...
Out with the family doing the fish rescue on this Christmasy Thanksgiving!
Forever Canada petition has nearly met their goal. They are over 80% there but have until Oct 28. You have to sign in person, go to www.forever-canadian.ca to find a location near you. It might seem absurd to sign a petition to say that Alberta should remain a province, but it is strategic.
Shit is so bad that the best American news of the week is that Dolly Parton didn't die.
Our new study modeling selection for (behavioral) variability has been covered in a lovely @genetics-gsa.bsky.social podcast featuring first author Shraddha Lall and @ecoevogal.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...
I received an unusual self-published book on science and faith. It was unusual because (a) the author acknowledged at the start that he fed his ideas to AI and then edited the 600 page output, and (b) it opens with an AI-written prelude that both praises and critiques the book. Points for honesty?
A nice little write up on the Ambrose main page today featuring alum Nathan Yeung and our work on suckers: ambrose.edu/news/ambrose...
🦇The fungus behind white-nose syndrome continues to spread across Alberta. Our latest detection, near Fort McKay, marks the northernmost detection yet. Thank you to our partners at the Wood Buffalo Wildlife Research Institute for collecting this sample. See maps at www.cwhc-rcsf.ca/white_nose_s...
Check out my latest paper, co-authored by Ambrose alum Nathan Yeung. He did some great work on juvenile suckers in the Peace River drainage of Alberta! Final version (rather than pre-print) dropped today:
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...
Live from the field: rosy red young of the year strongly suggest they are reproducing in Alberta waters. Country Hills, Calgary.
23andMe's recent bankruptcy and resulting sale of genetic information has led to some important conversations about genetic privacy. Canada's laws are, predictably for a rapidly changing sector, insufficient. www.queensjournal.ca/genetic-priv... www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Too a closer look at the netful of fathead minnows I scooped up when catching the rosy reds in Fish Creek the other day. Two of the minnows were not like the others...longnose dace (top and third) compared to fatheads.
It was a beautiful day for hunting for rosys. It seems like they might be breeding in Fish Creek Park
