Andrew Wesley Legan

Functional Characterization of Luciferase in a Brittle Star Indicates Parallel Evolution Influenced by Genomic Availability of Haloalkane Dehalogenase Abstract. Determining why convergent traits use distinct versus shared genetic components is crucial for understanding how evolutionary processes generate

@emilylau.bsky.social @ostratodd.bsky.social et al. show that bioluminescent luciferases in brittle stars and octocorals evolved in parallel from haloalkane dehalogenases, highlighting how gene function and genomic availability shape convergent evolution.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb...

#evolbio #molbio

Median read quality 36 👀
Revioooo

Macro photo taken across a crowd of angry black ants, their eyeless heads raised towards the sky with scythe-shaped jaws open.

Thinking of starting a new religion

👆👆 none of this has anything to do with taxpayer money

“The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my fucking firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”

Sweeping cuts hit recent federal hires as Trump administration slashes workforce Employees across several agencies including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the General Services Administration have all been affecte...

www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...

Education Department employees on probation were abruptly dismissed without cause across the department this morning. Staff have been warned that more layoffs are coming.

Really appreciate Jonathan Lambert pointing out that NSF grants are congressionally mandated to weigh how grants broaden participation in science, putting the administration's executive order against DEIA in conflict with, and potentially undermining, congressional legislation

#Tarantula #hawk #wasp

At Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium on University of Arizona campus 🦕

We discovered 277 new species of wasp:

National Science Foundation freezes grant review in response to Trump executive orders The National Science Foundation has cancelled all grant review panels this week. It's unclear how long the pause could last.

The National Science Foundation cancelled over 60 grant review panels today, effectively grinding funding of new projects to a halt.

The so-far indefinite pause comes as NSF grapples with the impact Trump's executive orders will have on their grantmaking process.
www.npr.org/sections/sho...

If you're a scientist that serves on an NSF panel that got cancelled today, I'd love to talk to you about it for an NPR story. DM, email or reach out on signal.

A hand holding an insect pin with three golden-colored ants mounted on it. The label below indicates that they were identified as "Zacryptocerus clypeatus".

Always a bit in awe at how beautiful these Cephalotes clypeatus are (so much so that they inspired my lab's logo!).

Sneak peek of a figure I’m working on. Some micro-CT scans of three Aussie bees (Tetragonula carbonaria, Austroplebia australis and Amegilla pulchra), comparing the different parts of their brains.

#entomology #phd #bees #science #science🧪 #neurobiology

NATURE program for Indigenous college students in the Four Corners region. Applications due Feb 28 5pm. www.natribesrestore.com #conservation #internship #undergrad

If you are an undergraduate science major who is interested in pursuing a career in STEM, there is an exciting opportunity to develop your skills while studying the interface between microbes and bees. BeeMORE is a USDA-funded Research and Extension Experience for Undergraduates

Text: SICB 2026 Symposium Sex across origins: Questioning animal-centric assumptions and developing integrative frameworks. Talk to us if you're interested in any way! There's a QR code to a link to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEndqEYOf-J3m2ZkO6qkv0ithWGHUJVsUnvDzYqusxF0KmIQ/viewform

#SICB2025! Have you been sad about an animal-centric view of sex in your daily life? Well!

Next year, at #SICB2026! Aramati Casper, Karen Warkentin, and I are excited to be hosting the symposium ✨Sex across origins: Questioning animal-centric assumptions and developing integrative frameworks✨

✈️🌵Until next year #SICB2025 I learned so much this week and was impressed by every talk I saw. Feeling inspired by new perspectives, thank you!

Edit: #SICB2025

🌵🪰 Extracted some RNA on Thursday! I wonder if I'll receive data in time for my talk tomorrow in the "transcriptional responses" session at #SICB2024 XD Sunday 3pm in InternationalSalon8 🪰🌵

Donate to help students attend the 2026 IUSSI conference in Freiburg, Germany Who We AreThe International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI) is dedicated to advancing the study of social organisms and their impact on our environment. From essential pollination to res...

Donate to help students attend the 2026 IUSSI (International Union for the Study of Social Insects) conference in Freiburg, Germany www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundra...
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Great result from the departmental dirty Santa (aka white elephant) 🎄🌵

Four panels portray (1) Nelly Furtado with bright green eyes leaning down to examine a beetle, (2) a beetle crawling on a mossy log has a brilliant green-colored cuticle matching Furtado's eyes, (3) Furtado's eyes have changed to purple while she sings to the beetle, (4) the same beetle has now also changed color to purple, illustrating the cross-species synchrony between Nelly and beetle

🪲🕊️ Fascinating beetle-human dialogue in the September 2000 music video "I'm Like a Bird," Nelly Furtado does a forward-Nosferatu to examine a beetle, & uses insect magic to change the beetle's color to match her eyes, changing to green and then purple. Very cool & puzzling interspecies connection 🕊️🪲

Oviposition and mate guarding in Odontoloxozus longicornis, the longhorn cactus fly, at a rotting Saguaro cactus

#cactus #fly #insect #saguaro #arizona #entomology #diptera