Michael Matschiner

Figure 1 from a paper published in Nature (linked in post). The figure purports to be an infographic depiction of the "Overall working of the framework" for 'explainably' diagnosing autism spectrum disorder. The infographic is plainly nonsense, containing many spelling errors, nonsense words, meaningless images and graphs. Clearly created using generative AI and (crucially) NEVER CHECKED AT ANY STEP OF THE WRITING OR PUBLICATION PROCESS.

Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Credit card fraud Black neon tetras committed credit card fraud during a 2023 livestream by "Mutekimaru Channel" on YouTube. The owner was using motion-tracking software to turn the fish's movements into Nintendo Switch inputs, letting them "play" video games. 8 In 2020, the fish beat Pokemon Sapphire after 3,195 hours, a feat that takes about 30 hours for a typical human. 9/ 181 On January 14, 2023, Pokémon Violet crashed at 1,144 hours, giving the fish free access to the main menu. They entered inputs that opened Nintendo eShop, added 500 yen ($3.85 USD) to their owner's account, and exposed his credit card details on the livestream. 10) 11) Mutekimaru later requested a refund of the 500 yen from Nintendo. l12) "Fish eagerly read the terms and conditions. Many of us humans don't read the terms of service, but fish are smarter than we are" - caption from Mutekimaru in a video about the incident 12) The fish also downloaded an N64 emulator, set up PayPal, used reward points to buy an avatar, and changed Mutekimaru's Nintendo account name to "ROWAWAWA*". 13, After about seven hours, their movements shut down the Switch. 14)

Fish have committed credit card fraud

Open position at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics:
We are looking for a Director of the Center of Pathogen Bioinformatics
apply.refline.ch/499599/0346/...
I am in the Center's steering board together with fantastic colleagues (Emma Hodcroft @firefoxx66.bsky.social, Richard Neher @neher.io, and

Picture of MEME students on the beach

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

MBE | Temperature and Pressure Shaped the Evolution of Antifreeze Proteins in Polar and Deep Sea Zoarcoid Fishes A graphic visualizing the finding by Bogan et al. that antifreeze protein (AFP) genes increased in copy number among shallow-water, polar species of Zoarcoidei fishes. Top left: Pholis gunnellus photographed by Chris Isaacs (CC-BY-NC). Top right: Cebidichthys violaceus photographed by Alex Heyman (CC0 1.0). Bottom left: Lycenchelys sp. photographed by Julien Savoie (CC BY 4.0). Bottom right: Lycodes sp. photographed by Julien Savoie (CC BY 4.0).

@snbogan.bsky.social @notothentoma.bsky.social @scotthotaling.bsky.social @paulbfrandsen.bsky.social et al. explore the evolution of type III antifreeze proteins in deep sea zoarcoid fishes.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf219

#evobio #molbio

GBE | Hemoglobin-Gene Cluster Deletions in Antarctic White-Blooded Icefishes Facilitated by Transposable Elements Analyzing numerous genome assemblies of notothenioid fishes, Desvignes et al. demonstrated that in Antarctic white-blooded icefishes, the only vertebrates living without hemoglobin, the two hemoglobin gene clusters were lost independently from one another by different genomic mechanisms, although both mechanisms incriminate transposable and repeat-like elements.

@notothentoma.bsky.social @arcolon14.bsky.social & @jpostlethwait.bsky.social show how Antarctic white-blooded icefishes, the only vertebrates without hemoglobin, independently lost hemoglobin cluster genes, driven by TEs and repeats.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf184

#genome #evolution #TEsky

A mosaic of modular variation at a single gene underpins convergent plumage coloration The reshuffling of genomic variation from multiple origins is an important contributor to phenotypic diversification, yet insights into the evolutionary trajectories of this combinatorial process and ...

1/9 New in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8005
How does genetic architecture constrain evolutionary trajectories? To address this question, we inferred the genetic architecture of convergent plumage coloration and its evolutionary history in wheatears.

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉

A fixed mutation in the respiratory complex I impairs mitochondrial bioenergetics in the endangered Apennine brown bear | PNAS Effective conservation genomics of endangered species requires realistic understanding of the fitness consequences caused by the accumulation of de...

Happy to share the latest publication from our labs on the Apennine brown bear, a relict population not far from Rome, Italy. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2504409122
Thanks to great co-auths, we moved beyond our "genomic" comfort zone incl. cellular experiments and molecular dynamics simulations.

New in @science.org, meet Acronichthys maccagnoi, a new species from Late Creatacous Canada that changes what we know about the origins and evolution of one of the most successful fish groups on Earth.

Congrats CD on your well-earned achievement!

(This is _actually_ on the "journal" website)

＼(〇_ｏ)／

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

The 2026 Workshop on Phylogenomics will take place between the 25th of January and 7th of February, in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia. 🧬🌳 Applications are now open! Deadline: 15th of November, 2025. Do not miss the chance to attend! Spread the word among colleagues! 🤗 evomics.org/apply-worksh...

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

Multicolored CT model of a fossil cichlid skeleton. Image credit: Austin Babut (project technician).

Do you like cichlids? Fossils? Fossil cichlids? Would you like to study them as part of a graduate degree at the University of Michigan, joining an NSF-funded project? Get in touch.

I hope so, too!

I'm hiring a postdoc... By combining samples that are more than a million years old with the short generation time of small rodents, we hope to gain a unique window into evolution unfolding across millions of generations!

Sex Differentiation and Long‐Distance Gene Flow in the Elusive Antarctic Fish Aethotaxis mitopteryx This genetic study of a rare Antarctic fish, the longfin icedevil (Aethotaxis mitopteryx) investigates population connectivity across the Weddel Sea, revealing little to no differentiation even over ...

While trying to see if two populations of the Antarctic longfin icedevil fish Aethotaxis mitopteryx were genetically differentiated, we uncovered a clear sex signal demonstrating that in this rarely encountered species males are the heterogametic sex!
🧪🐟🌎🐧🧊🧬

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Hi-reComb: constructing recombination maps from bulk gamete Hi-C sequencing Abstract. Recombination is central to genetics and to evolution of sexually reproducing organisms. However, obtaining accurate estimates of recombination r

Want to make recombination maps from sperm/pollen/gametes? There is an easy way, based on Hi-C sequencing.

Full details in the Hi-reComb paper now in Genetics:
doi.org/10.1093/gene...

Thanks to Richard Durbin and Ed Green and a great group of co-authors for contributions.

'Ancient stickleback genomes reveal the early stages of parallel adaptation' - now published online in Evolution @journal-evo.bsky.social‬

PhD student in Evolution of Indo-Pacific birds The Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics is offering a four-year PhD position focused on analyzing population-level genomic data from museum bird samples. The project will employ cutting-edge gen...

*PhD position* 🦉

Would you like to do a PhD with Indo-Pacific birds and evolutionary genomics? Join us in Stockholm:

<deadline>
05 September 2025, 23:59

PhD student in Evolution of Indo-Pacific birds
recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

Postdoctoral Researcher All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...

Fun news: I'm hiring a postdoc in ichthyology!

Please spread the word #TeamFish, and message me if you have questions.

(Job requisition id is R00107333 if LSU link below takes you elsewhere.)

lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/de...

1/16 🚨🚨 New paper!! I am thrilled to share our study that uses fossils, genomes, and a bit of geology to investigate how many times cavefishes evolved, and how they can help us figure out the ages of caves themselves! Link: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology in the "news" again 🤣

W. Nuss vo Bümpliz! 🇨🇭

A new time tree of birds reveals the interplay between dispersal, geographic range size, and diversification Flight may affect the dispersal and evolution of birds. Using a new evolutionary tree, Claramunt et al. find that efficient fliers have broader geographic ranges, and speciation reduces range size, bu...

Happy to share our latest paper in which we use a new big phylogeny of birds to analyze the relationships between dispersal, geographic range size and diversification rates across all birds. See also post by
‪@sheardcat.bsky.social‬ and @josephtobias.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Despite the rearrangements, we find evidence of past hybridisation throughout the evolutionary history of these radiations. Multiple species show strongly admixed ancestries, indicating that hybridisation may have facilitated their evolution. This is something we are currently investigating more.

Excited to share that I will be a co-director for the upcoming Workshop on Phylogenomics @evomics.bsky.social, alongside the amazing main team lead @rosafernandez.bsky.social and Erin K. Molloy

We are putting together an amazing workshop with details to come - can't wait to share it with everyone!🥳

Research Assistant (m/f/d) - Population Genomics/Evolutionary Genomics

Job alert! I am looking for someone who would like to join my lab as a senior researcher, permanent, with teaching included. My lab is new, I still have startup money, just sayin. DM or email me with questions. Deadline Aug. 11th, interviews in september.
Ad here: jobs.uni-rostock.de/jobposting/c...

Anyone got a video of a hare having the shit scared out of it by a curlew — ah, don’t worry, got one anyway!