Erika C. Freeman

Distinct differences of taste quality and metabolite profile between taste tomatoes and ordinary tomatoes revealed by HS-SPME-GC–MS flavoromics and LC–MS metabolomics This study integrated HS-SPME-GC–MS flavoromics, LC–MS metabolomics, and electronic tongue analysis to systematically dissect the metabolic and flavor…

Distinct differences of taste quality and metabolite profile between taste tomatoes and ordinary tomatoes revealed by HS-SPME-GC–MS flavoromics and LC–MS metabolomics #FoodChem www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

High-throughput reaction screening using acoustic ejection mass spectrometry - Nature Protocols A bottleneck in high-throughput chemical synthesis is analyzing reaction products. This protocol describes a direct mass spectrometry approach where the loss of a characteristic neutral fragment from ...

High-throughput reaction screening using acoustic ejection mass spectrometry #NatProtoc www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Lipids are a currency is parasitoid competition. Interesting chemo-eco-evolutionary case study.

Graphical abstract Lammers (2026)

New publication: #Lipids as currency in #parasitoid competition: #Interactions between two #lipidscavenging species.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ji...

We are excited to officially share GHG-Depths, a database of depth-resolved CO2 and CH4 concentrations in 522 lakes, ponds, and reservoirs worldwide.

Congrats to Joe Rabaey and a huge team of collaborators! @gleonetwork.bsky.social

Wow!

Very cool framing

@igb-berlin.de; some more great thought leadership from Janet Hering, good for IGB to consider :)

Could life have begun with simpler molecules than we once thought? A new paper in @science.org by @edogia.bsky.social shows that a tiny RNA catalyst can self-replicate itself, suggesting that life may have been easier to emerge than expected. Getting closer. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Bioaccumulation of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds from Treated Urban Wastewaters in Aquatic Insect Larvae and Aerial Adults The bioaccumulation of 80 pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) was examined in larvae, pupae, and (sub)adults of three groups of aquatic insects (caddisflies Oligotricha striata and Limnephilus s...

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/.... Transfer of pharmaceutically active compounds from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems.

A digital twin for real-time biodiversity forecasting with citizen science data - Nature Ecology & Evolution Citizen science data are increasingly used in biodiversity monitoring. This study applies a digital twin approach to biodiversity monitoring using a large citizen science dataset on birds from Finland...

A digital twin for real-time biodiversity forecasting with citizen science data 🌎🌐🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Glad to see this piece still circulating. A year later, I've just moved countries again, this time to Berlin to start my own research group. The joy of that milestone doesn't erase the overwhelming logistics that come with building a life in academia. This conversation is still so needed.

Turf algae redefine the chemical landscape of temperate reefs, limiting kelp forest recovery In temperate regions experiencing rapid ocean warming, kelp forests are being replaced by chemically rich turf algae. However, the extent to which these turf algae alter the surrounding chemical envir...

If you want to read more about how the changing reef exo-metabolome, driven by invasive red algae, affects kelp survival, you can find the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mapping of the viral shunt across widespread coccolithophore blooms using metabolic biomarkers | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Introduction to Freshwater Ecosystems and the One Health Framework | 1 Freshwater ecosystems – comprising rivers, lakes, wetlands, and groundwater systems – play a critical role in sustaining biodiversity, regulating biogeochemical

Managing freshwater threats demands a broader lens. By applying a One Health perspective, this chapter shows how ecosystem degradation connects to disease risk and food security, offering a systems-based foundation to guide policy, conservation, and public health action. 🌐🧪

oh yes, things are happening!

Functional motifs in food webs and networks | PNAS When studying a complex system, it is often useful to think of the system as a network of interacting units. One can then ask if some properties of...

New paper with @mhab.bsky.social @jdyeakel.bsky.social and @thilogross.bsky.social out now in @pnas.org! We show when and why you can know something about an entire network, just by knowing the behavior of it's building blocks: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Fun tool for UK-based researchers to assess the cost/benefit ratio of grant applications.

Point of no returns: researchers are crossing a threshold in the fight for funding With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.

"In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained"

The situation is rapidly becoming unsustainable: the current research funding scheme does not work.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

MSnLib: efficient generation of open multi-stage fragmentation mass spectral libraries - Nature Methods MSnLib is a large-scale, open MSn spectral library featuring >2.3 million MSn and >357,000 MS2 spectra for 30,008 unique small molecules.

MSnLib: a large-scale, open multi-stage fragmentation mass spectral library for 30,000 unique small molecules.
@robinschmid.bsky.social @pluskal-lab.org

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"The chemical scope of retrospective large-scale aquatic risk analyses is substantially limited by the availability of monitoring data, but not by the availability of toxicity data."
The bottleneck isn't knowing how toxic chemicals are—it's knowing whether they're present in the environment.

Limitations of chemical monitoring hinder aquatic risk evaluations on the macroscale Macroscale evaluations of chemical monitoring data require the integration of chemical, spatial, and temporal dimensions. Here, we linked 64 million US surface water monitoring records (1900 chemicals...

Limitations of chemical monitoring hinder aquatic risk evaluations on the macroscale | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The strain on scientific publishing Abstract. Scientists are increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of articles being published. The total number of articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science has grown exponentially in recent years; ...

Some really useful quantitative analysis of scientific publishing. Well worth reading…

The strain on scientific publishing direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Infographic explaining the importance of preserving small wetlands, highlighting cost-effective solutions, threats, and protection strategies with illustrations of wetlands and people.

Wetlands are rare and exceptional, even small ones.

Intrinsically valuable, they also:
🌱 Offer habitat for plants, insects, amphibians and birds
🌊 Absorb stormwater, buffering against floods
🌍 Filter and reduce pollutants, improving water quality

Learn more with the Convention on Wetlands 👇

🔥Wildfires are growing in frequency and intensity worldwide. How do they affect the flow of carbon from forests into downstream waters? 🌳🌊 Our new paper @jgrbiogeo.bsky.social with @waterik.bsky.social @ecfreewoman.bsky.social now online to read: dx.doi.org/10.1029/2025... 🧵1/n

Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time after record heat Previously the country was one of the world's only mosquito-free zones.

Proof that climate change is real and horrible:

www.bbc.com/news/article...

🔸Innovative finance is driving a wetland investment revolution.

🔸Breakthroughs such as blue bonds, carbon markets and biodiversity credits are scaling up action.

Learn more: www.global-wetland-outlook.ramsar.org

#WetlandsWednesday #GWO2025

🌐🌍🦑🍁💧🧬🔬🔎🌱📚

Researchers value null results, but struggle to publish them Survey finds that fear of reputational harm and a lack of support and publication platforms are among respondents’ key concerns.

Null results matter, but too often, they never see the light of day.

When journals only publish splashy findings, we lose valuable science.

That's why I'm excited about 2-pagers at @StacksJournal.bsky.social. Streamlined publishing for results that deserve to be shared.

🧪 #SciPub #AcademicSky

ggplot2 4.0.0 A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN.

It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package.

Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats