Tom Booker

Excited to finally have the pre-print up for this work on evolutionary rescue from my PhD at UBC!

Previous theoretical work on the effects of negative density-dependent growth on evolutionary rescue has uncovered inconsistent results, leading to an incomplete understanding of its influence.

Building pangenomes for domesticated and wild tree species: genomic complexity and strategies https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.22.665893v1

Huge congrats to @rafaelcr.bsky.social for his excellent PhD defense yesterday! Rafa has made large contributions to our understanding of local adaptation to drought in Douglas-fir and the underlying genomic architecture of climate adaptive traits as part of the CoAdapTree project.

Congrats Jeff, this is great news!

Great news - we will be searching for a tree physiologist (tenure track) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, UBC Forestry, later this year. Stay tuned! (Please share.)

Just three more days to apply to this post-doc position (Deadline 8 May 2025). Not only is the subject matter stunning 🤯 but, you know, life in Montpellier is great too 😎.

Haplotype-Resolved Assembly and Structural Variation of Polyploid Genomes in Transmissible Cancers of the Blue Mussel

Alberta First Nations issue cease and desist order against Danielle Smith's attempt to create a national unity crisis. Alberta is on treaty lands.
Those treaties were signed 30 years before Alberta became a province.

Like over 7 million Canadians, I voted already last weekend. But if you are a Canadian and 18+ and you haven't voted yet, please go vote tomorrow. Elections matter, and your vote counts. We're lucky to live in 🇨🇦 where elections are free and fair, and our politicians will accept the results.

Absolutely incredible

Hearty congratulations to Anurag Agrawal, Amy Angert, and Graham Coop upon their election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, for their work illuminating the natural world around us. This recognition is very much deserved.

Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars | Defector Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic ac...

This guy, @albertburneko.bsky.social, is a genius. Please read his brilliant article on Elon Musk's deranged and morally repugnant Mars colonisation schtick. defector.com/neither-elon...

The idea of replacing environmental regulation under the ESA with gene editing is just fallacious. The reasons are not complicated. Brenna Forester, Tanya Lama, and me in Science in 2023:

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

[Please share] 📢‼️

I have 2️⃣ postdoc positions advertised at the Swedish Museum of Natural History:

Postdoc on "Theory of adaptive radiation"
recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

Postdoc on "Homoploid Hybrid Plant Genome Evolution"
recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

Biosciences Computing Manager Staff - Non Union Job Category M&P - AAPS Job Profile AAPS Salaried - Information Systems and Technology, Level D Job Title Biosciences Computing Manager Department Administrative Leadership | Dep...

We are looking for new manager for our computing unit! If you have experience in both biology and computers, this might be the perfect job for you! UBC is a lovely place, and Zoology is a fantastic, collaborative and kind department. Apply by May 4th at ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcstaffjobs...

Science benefits humanity in countless ways. CSEE condemns the current U.S. administration’s efforts to dismantle science. Read our full statement in support of U.S. scientists and science here: csee-scee.ca/current-bull...

Early Bird ends April 15!
Join us in Sherbrooke, QC for CSEE's 2025 Annual Conference (July 6–9)!

Register now & apply for travel bursaries!

Travel Awards:
csee-scee.ca/awards/stude...
Registration: event.fourwaves.com/scee2025/reg...

#CSEE2025 #Ecology #Evolution

Demographic history, genetic load, and the efficacy of selection in the globally invasive mosquito Aedes aegypti Abstract. Aedes aegypti is the main vector species of yellow fever, dengue, Zika and chikungunya. The species is originally from Africa but has experienced

Excited to see the final version of this paper with @samurscicop.bsky.social and Daniel Matute out in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social!

We took a dive into the complicated demographic history of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and its impact on the distribution of genetic diversity
doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

Accessible, realistic genome simulation with selection using stdpopsim https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.23.644823v1

Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) - Transdisciplinary Wildfire Sciences Academic Job Category Faculty Bargaining Job Title Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) - Transdisciplinary Wildfire Sciences Department Dept Forest & Conservation Sciences | Faculty of Forestry (Ri...

Exciting Job Opportunity! UBC is hiring an Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in Transdisciplinary Wildfire Sciences. Accepting applications until April 30.

ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/ubcfac...

Jordan Lasker, AKA ‘Cremieux’ One of the speakers at the conference is billed under a social media alias, Cremieux, but the Guardian has corroborated that the account is apparently run by Jordan Lasker, a long-time proponent of eugenics. The @cremieuxrecueil X account has been boosted or engaged with dozens of times by that platform’s proprietor, Elon Musk, often on the topic of falling birthrates. On 27 November, Musk reposted a Cremieux comment on falling birthrates, adding: “With rare exception, all countries are trending towards population collapse.” On 29 April, Cremieux posted: “Only about a third of the world even meets replacement rate fertility. This is the biggest problem of our time.” Musk responded: “Yes.” Musk has also boosted or responded favorably to Cremieux posts on other rightwing hobby horses such as crime in Portland, Oregon, and allegations that Democrats had created loopholes in the asylum system.

Worth highlighting as folks occasionally repost "data science" factoids by "Cremieux", unaware that he's also trying to mainstream racist & eugenics views (as Lasker in real life) based on a laughably poor understanding of genetics
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Watching a member of Parliament tell a Putin loving fascist to fuck off is the greatest thing ever

Screenshot of the "Download and Install Julia" page of the JuliaProgrammingForBiologists website. This is an example page, which describes how to download and install the Julia Programming Language. In the left column, there is a menu of page titles showing the topics covered on the website.

I recently developed & taught a 1-credit graduate course titled Computer Programming for Biologists. The students produced some fantastic projects!

For the course & for you, I developed tutorials in the Julia programming language. I share these here:

darreni.github.io/JuliaProgram...

#julialang

Sex redefined - Nature The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.

This excellent Nature paper from 2015 discussed multiple ways that sex is not binary, and why the idea of two sexes is simplistic. Required reading right now - please share! www.nature.com/articles/518... 🧪👨‍🔬🧬🖥️

Nominations open for the 2025 Molecular Ecology Prize From the Molecular Ecology Prize Committee: We are soliciting nominations for the annual Molecular Ecology Prize. The field of molecular ecology is young and inherently interdisciplinary. As a cons…

Nominations are open for the 2025 Molecular Ecology Prize!

Nominate scientists who have made significant contributions to the field of molecular ecology with a 250-word statement & candidate CV sent to committee chair Kay Hodgins by April 11

Details: www.molecularecologist.com/2025/02/11/n...

Sign the Pledge for Canada This petition is intended as an invitation to Canadians to reflect on the current challenges Canada faces and what we can all do to respond to the risks and to contribute to building a more resilient ...

Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell has signed the pledge for Canada.
She joins thousands of leaders, artists, activists, Canadians who will resist the gangster in Washington.
Have you signed the pledge to stand up for our values?
True.North. Strong. Free.
actionnetwork.org/petitions/pl...

Musk's Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government Imagining how we'd cover overseas what's happening to the U.S. right now

Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at how the US media would cover this story if it was happening in a foreign country. Here’s that story that should be written this weekend: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-jun...

Add one more to the "GenAI is a net social negative" list.

GenAI chatbots show systemic bias in what kinds of responses they give to prompts about environmental challenges.

Short piece below by my colleague @profhvdv.bsky.social based on his published research.

Climate change extinctions Climate change is expected to cause irreversible changes to biodiversity, but predicting those risks remains uncertain. I synthesized 485 studies and more than 5 million projections to produce a quant...

Must read out in @science.org "Climate change extinctions"
by @MarkCUrban (on X)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Big take home:
"extinctions will accelerate rapidly if global temperatures exceed 1.5°C. The highest-emission scenario would threaten approximately one-third of species, globally."

hi i'm new here but here's a poster i made featuring research by yuying lin and @judithmank.bsky.social!! i presented it at @evolmtg.bsky.social last year and the goal was journal cover meets back-of-napkin scribble meets "you know every science poster ever, yeah not that"

Experimental validation of genome-environment associations in Arabidopsis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.08.631904v1