Stu West

Global hotspots of mycorrhizal fungal richness are poorly protected - Nature Machine-learning algorithms trained on 25,000 geolocated soil samples are used to create high-resolution global maps of mycorrhizal fungi, revealing that less than 10% of their biodiversity hotspots a...

Where are mycorrhizal fungi and are the protected? (spoiler alert - no, they aren't) www.nature.com/articles/s41... @tobykiers.bsky.social

Who lives underground?

Find out now in our new paper published in @nature.com.

Key finding: 90% of predicted mycorrhizal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas.

Read here: buff.ly/WmDqAP3 🧵

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (9/11). Parasitoids may mediate competition between different host species (apparent competition). Silwood Park, 1992.

Thank you to everyone attending the "Writing and DEI Workshop" at RIKENS, organized by @ryosukeiritani.bsky.social. Gender equality in STEM is a global issue and we need to share our experiences and learn from one another. Thank you for sharing your stories and enthusiasm! 🙏 and @ITHEms, @JSPS 🇯🇵❤️

3/3 Funding for the workshop provided by iTHEMS & JSPS. @asgriffin.bsky.social and I used the exercises from 'Scientific Papers Made Easy' with @queensoxbiology.bsky.social: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

YouTube video by Linnean Society One-Way Mirror in the Room: How Language Barriers Impede Conservation | Tatsuya Amano

2/3 Some great science posters by attendees, plus a superb online lecture by @tatsuya-amano.bsky.social‬ on language barriers in scientific communication - both the challenges and the solutions. Link for a previous talk he gave at ‪@linneansociety.bsky.social‬: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS08...

Group Photo

Discussion in groups

1/3 I was just lucky enough to get to do a couple of sessions on scientific writing in a DEI & Writing Workshop at Riken, Tokyo. Huge thank you to @ryosukeiritani.bsky.social for organising such an open and supportive workshop, and all the attendees for being so engaged and interactive.

@annadewar.bsky.social now giving the fourth @asn-amnat.bsky.social Early Career Scientist Award lectures at #Evol2025 about bacterial pangenomes, cooperation, and gene transfer

Anna Dewar @annadewar.bsky.social asks what types of genes get horizontally transferred in bacteria 🦠🧬➡️🧬🦠

Contrary to previous thinking, plasmids didn't carry more cooperation genes than the core genome.

#Evol2025 #Evol25

Adaptive radiation and social evolution of the ants Comparative analyses of 163 ant genomes reveal extensive genome rearrangements, context-specific gene family expansion patterns, and selection on conserved pathways that together underpin the evolutio...

Amazing comparative analysis using 163 ant genomes to look at many aspects of ant evolution www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Family field trip with Jun Abe 🫶to trap parasitoids and wolbachia-infected butterflies on Kyushu Island. Hard to imagine science being more fun. Big thank you to Kanagawa University and JSPS Kakenhai for supporting the trip; Ethan and Olive for doing most of the catching! 👐💛 @stuwest.bsky.social

Winners of the @asn-amnat.bsky.social Early Career Scientist Award this year. A great honor to get to talk with these four brilliant scientists over dinner tonight.

In his #ParentCarerScientist case study, Professor Ben Sheldon FRS talks about navigating crises at home and at work, and why it's important for leaders to set an example when it comes to balancing work with caring responsibilities: #CarersWeek #AndAScientist royalsociety.org/about-us/who...

🐠💥2 year postdoc in fish sensory ecology!! 💥🐟
If you’re into animal colour, collective behaviour, predator-prey interactions, enjoy behavioural experiments and fieldwork, please apply! Based in Oxford with fieldwork in northwest Thailand (and elsewhere). Please repost! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNM294/p...

Cooking lesson!

Ryosuke Iritani, Stuart West, Ashleigh Griffin, Hisashi Ohtsuki

Thank you to our host, Hisashi Ohtsuki at the Research Centre for Integrative Evolutionary Science, SOKENDAI, for hosting us this week. We felt so welcome and loved hearing about your work. (And learning to make okonomiyaki!) @stuwest.bsky.social

Always and in all ways ❤️

In relation to positive futures, I would add:
✅ Join learned societies
✅ Publish in their journals

#SocietyJournals #SciPub

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (8/11). Some parasitoids are solitary with only wasp developing per host. Silwood Park, 1992.

Great paper on the misappropriation of evolutionary theory. The first paragraph in the "Interdisciplinary Science" section reminded me a lot about things you see written about inclusive fitness. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Using inclusive fitness and eco-evolutionary theory to model cultural evolution Baumard and André (2025) have suggested that cultural dynamics can be studied as a form of ecology. This provides a simpler unified approach to explai…

And a commentary on the Baumard & André cultural evolution paper with Ryo! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The ecological approach to culture The prevailing view in the literature treats cultural dynamics as fundamentally distinct from other ecological processes—governed by a second system o…

Superb paper that clears up the confusion around cultural evolution with a single clear framework (and the help of Notre Dame) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
‪@jbaptistandre.bsky.social‬

📍 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲.

Get ready for #ESEB2025 in Barcelona: a city of innovation, culture, and Mediterranean charm. 

🔗 Check more info here: https://eseb2025.com/welco

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (7/11). There are many types of parasitoid. Some parasitoids lay male and female eggs in different types of host (autoparasitism). Silwood Park, 1992.

Editorial favoritism in the field of laboratory experimental economics We examine scientific quality and editorial favoritism in the field of experimental economics. We use a novel data set containing all original researc…

Nice evidence from a study across 569 papers that links to editors help you publish lower quality papers (in experimental economics; by @hannesrusch.bsky.social) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📢 ONE WEEK LEFT for abstract submission!

Don’t miss the chance to tell #Barcelona and the field of #EvolutionaryBiology all about your amazing work! 

📝 Select from 51 approved symposia to submit your #Abstract: https://eseb2025.com/call-for-abstracts/

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (6/11). There are many types of parasitoid. Some parasitoids attack leaf miners. Silwood Park, 1992.

🚨Interested in the origins of life and experimental evolutionary biology interface?🚨

Join us! Our lab is leading the ESEB 2025 symposium: "The future meets the beginning: Synthetic biology, evolution and the origins of life". 🧬

Submit abstracts by April 25. See you in Barcelona!
@eseb.bsky.social

Some parasitoids attack mealy bugs on potatoes

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (5/11). There are many types of parasitoid. Some parasitoids attack mealy bugs on potatoes. Silwood Park, 1992.

😂😂😂

Really honoured to be among the recipients of the ASN Early Career Investigator Award!

Thank you so much @asn-amnat.bsky.social!