Stephen A. Smith

Thanks for the write-up and kind comments!

Our new commentary on @blackrim.bsky.social et al's fascinating work in @newphyt.bsky.social, using simulation and analysis of empirical data to scale microevolutionary process to macroevolutionary patterns. Punchline: death rate and max age are driving.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Sad to be finishing up as a postdoc in @blackrim.bsky.social 's lab. I've had such a great time there! Also excited to be about to start as an Assistant Professor/Lecturer at University College Dublin.

Which pet fits the tetrasomic allele frequencies best - Gus (a cat) vs Bruno (a German Shepherd)

When I built nQuack, I wanted to be able to capture both allopolyploids and autoployploids - which differ in expected proportions of heterozygotes. Specifically, we expected autopolyploids to look like cats or dogs (2/n)

The frequency and importance of polyploidy in tropical rainforest tree radiations The presence of two or more copies of the genome in an organism, termed ‘polyploidy’, is a crucial force in plant evolution, generating genetic, phenotypic and ecological diversity. The Amazonian tr...

New paper just posted with @rschley.bsky.social et al: doi.org/10.1111/nph.... (1/n)

Longevity in plants impacts phylogenetic and population dynamics Phylogenies of long-lived plants often exhibit short molecular branch lengths and high levels of gene-tree conflict. However, the biological mechanisms underlying these patterns remain unclear. We e.....

fun paper with a lot of great folks @tomacarruthers.bsky.social @willweaver.bsky.social @phylieu.bsky.social @jamesbpease.bsky.social @gbradburd.bsky.social and more nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Differential gene reactions reveal drought response strategies in African acacias We studied the genetic basis of drought response in two well-known and widespread species of African acacia by analyzing gene expression reactions across a water deprivation experiment using a newly ...

Congrats to (newly graduated) Dr. Ellen Weinheimer for her new publication in @theplantjournal.bsky.social on drought responses in the iconic umbrella acacia of the African savannas using a "differential gene reaction" analysis developed for this project onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/....

Longevity in plants impacts phylogenetic and population dynamics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.20.660758v1

This was great fun, and I wholeheartedly agree!

Highlighted text: During the Reformations of the 16th and 17th centuries, populist movements like the Reformation Iconoclasts attempted to strip away the superfluous elements of Christian worship to move closer to the truth (Fig. 1). We draw on this analogy to discuss divergence-times of angiosperms for two purposes.

Figure 1: Fig. 1 The destruction of Our Lady in Antwerp, part of the Beeldenstorm of 20 August 1566. Engraved by Frans Hogenberg (in the public domain).

In the grand tradition of Gould, I love when papers use analogies (and art!) to frame their questions. This first line (on the age of angiosperms) from @blackrim.bsky.social and @phylieu.bsky.social is a banger. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧪

Foreign Michigan Students Sue Over Revoked Immigration Status Four Michigan college students sued the Trump administration on Thursday over the abrupt termination of the federal government’s permission for them to study in the United States.

news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/f...

Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted

www.science.org/content/arti...

From the fednews community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the fednews community

NIH, CDC, and FDA getting RIFs this morning www.reddit.com/r/fednews/co...

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

thanks!

thanks! BTW, loved your new book!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thank you! I appreciate it!

13 U-M faculty named as 2024 AAAS fellows Thirteen University of Michigan faculty members earned election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2024.

I am honored to be elected an AAAS fellow! news.umich.edu/13-u-m-facul...

Exclusive: NIH to cut grants for COVID research, documents reveal Studies on climate change and South Africa are also on the latest list of grants to be terminated, according to updated documents obtained by Nature.

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

Okay, here is this week’s comic.
NEWS OF THE TIMES: LOCAL CRACKPOT TAKES TRUMP SERIOUSLY
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Brought to you by the Inner Hive, including longtime member Burkbark and new member Darren Bedwell
( bit.ly/theInnerHive )
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READ IT RIGHT HERE👇

Over 3 million applicants’ data leaked on NYU’s website - Washington Square News A hacker took over NYU’s website for at least two hours Saturday morning to expose over 3 million applicants’ names, test scores, majors and zip codes, as well as information related to family members...

NYU hacked and data leaked - politically motivated nyunews.com/news/2025/03... also here signalinthestorm.org/news.html

Decades Ago, Columbia Refused to Pay Trump $400 Million. Note That Number. A quarter century ago, the university was looking to expand. It considered, and rejected, property owned by Donald Trump. He did not forget it.

Well, this took my breath away a bit...

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/n...

🚨 Now on Bluesky! 🚨

We’re Signal in the Storm, a project dedicated to tracking federal policy changes and news re: academia - follow us here and at signalinthestorm.org/index.html

On Education, President Trump Knows We Can Do Better Since 1979, the U.S. Department of Education has spent over $3 trillion with virtually nothing to show for it. Despite per-pupil spending having increased

Executive order on Dept of Ed www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202...

summarized here at the top signalinthestorm.org/eos.html
TLDR: shifting from fed to states

Trump’s Battles With Colleges Could Change American Culture for a Generation Many in higher education worry Trump’s efforts to bend academia to his will could end American leadership in research and science. Universities are not finding many allies to defend them.

The Trump administration is exerting unprecedented pressure on American universities, demanding compliance with specific policies or facing substantial federal funding cuts. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/u...
signalinthestorm.org/news.html

D.H.S. Detains a Georgetown University Academic Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen teaching on a student visa, was deemed “deportable,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said.

Federal immigration detained an Indian national and postdoc at Georgetown University. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/u...
signalinthestorm.org/news.html