Luís M. Silva

At ~$1 billion/day, the US has spent as much on the war in Iran in ten days as the entire FY25 budget for the National Science Foundation ($10 billion).

Trump's FY26 budget request for the agency declined to $3.9 billion, due to a "realignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment."

Scientists, more than ever, have a responsibility to bridge the gap between science and the public, for more reasons than I could ever list.

Very grateful for the chance to give back to my hometown, Porto, last week — and hopefully inspire and educate a new generation of young minds 🫶

#AcademicSky

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

Did you know we offer free English language editing for authors submitting to Evolution and Evolution Letters? Simply send an email to our EELS program coordinator to get started!
www.evolutionsociety.org/publications...
@journal-evo.bsky.social @evolletters.bsky.social

📣 JOBS!!! We're looking for new colleagues in the School of Biology @bioscienceleeds.bsky.social - two associate profs (plant sci and animal biology) and a lecturer (ecology/zoology)...

jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Flyer for symposium: https://ctrlepiedit.sciencesconf.org/

Very excited to announce the FIRST symposium on epigenome editing! These tools are becoming widely used in mol bio, ag & therapy. It's time to bring leaders together to discuss this rapidly growing and exciting field. And why not in Paris! Please register & share! (1/2) ctrlepiedit.sciencesconf.org

U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies

The U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office.

A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies. Read more: https://scim.ag/4boPkq8

Lilian Vaughan Morgan was an incredible #WomenInSTEM that ought to be a household name.

The fly community still uses tools she discovered a century ago. 🪰🤯

Her findings seeded "Bridges' theory" of sex determination by genic balance.🧬❤️

Lilian Vaughan Morgan 👏👏

#InternationalWomensDay #Drosophila

2027 SSE Council Nominations The SSE Nominating Committee invites nominations for five Council positions beginning January 2027: President Elect, North American Vice President, and three Councilors. Nominations are…

Want to get more involved in SSE? Consider nominating yourself for SSE Council! On the ballot this year: President Elect, North American VP, and 3 Council seats. Nominations are due April 1 for full consideration! www.evolutionsociety.org/news/display...

People have always been captivated by crystals. Turns out we’re not the only apes to find them fascinating. That and more of the best in @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Join @berasymbionts.bsky.social , @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social and us for a postdoc on the remarkable developmental biology of symbiosis!

Applications are due March 25th 🪲🦠

@johninnescentre.bsky.social @thesainsburylab.bsky.social

New paper showing that bacteria with more genes for cooperation can live in a broader range of habitats and that genes for cooperation are more more likely to be in the accessory genome www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @lauriebelch.bsky.social

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

So cool!

Practical guide to ensure your supervisor is a catch, not a clash. Last week, we talked about the importance of choosing a good supervisor to oversee your work, whether it’s for your bachelor’s /master’s thesis or your PhD. That piece of advice sounds wonderful just ...

In a culture with permanent urgency, burnout is inevitable.

Read the post by María Botía Sánchez, and subscribe if you like what you read.

#AcademicSky #SciPub #PeerReview #PhDSky #AcademicChatter #OpenScience 🧪

Baby-to-baby strain transmission shapes the developing gut microbiome - Nature A metagenomic survey of babies attending the first year of nursery detected extensive baby-to-baby microbial strain transmission, pointing to social interactions in infancy as crucial drivers of infan...

Babies sharing microbes is a leading factor in gut development! A study across infants, educators, and families finds extensive transmission between babies during the first nursery year - early social interactions greatly shape their microbiome!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪🦠 #microbiomesky

The scandal of women handcuffed while in labour: ‘I was so shocked when the restraints weren’t removed’ Pregnant women prisoners are being handcuffed to prison officers – often male – during intimate vaginal examinations and long, agonising births. Will this dehumanising treatment be stopped?

The scandal of women handcuffed while in labour: ‘I was so shocked when the restraints weren’t removed’

The international boycott of ChatGPT has absolutely exploded.

2.5M people have already joined, and this is just the beginning.

Go to quitgpt.org.
Cancel your subscription, delete your account.
And tell at least one person why.

My op-ed: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The disappearing quasi-biennial oscillation under sustained global warming - Nature Communications Under sustained high greenhouse-gas emissions, the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) may weaken and eventually disappear, potentially reducing short-term climate predictability, highlight...

New study shows that under sustained #GlobalWarming, the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (#QBO) may weaken and eventually disappear, potentially reducing short-term #climate #predictability. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#ProcB in @nytimes.com | Cities as evolutionary incubators for the global spread of the spotted lanternfly: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/s...

Integrating the Microbiome Into Infection Ecology and Evolution in Wild Animals Parasites are a ubiquitous force in nature threatening wildlife populations and ecosystems. Interactions between hosts and their parasites are impacted by host-associated microbiomes, which are essen...

A nice collaboration from post-docs in my lab 😊 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @jingdi.bsky.social @luismsilva.bsky.social @paradyseb.bsky.social @molecularecolup.bsky.social

iDiv and @uni-jena.de are recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/d) in Trait-Based Community Ecology and Modelling.

Highlights:
🔺Full-time (100%, 40 h/week) with the option to reduce to 80%
🔺Fixed-term for 2 years
🔺Salary up to E13 TV‑L

📆 Apply by: 29 March 2026

www.idiv.de/career/job-o...

What privacy? Meta's smart glasses are filming unwitting naked people Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are a privacy nightmare, with footage of naked people, sensitive information, and violent acts captured and seen by Meta's AI and an army of employees.

Buried lede: Meta sends all your nudes to Kenya where humans annotate it and feed it to AI

Demonstrations of reproducibility are not reproducibility - Nature Ecology & Evolution Nature Ecology & Evolution - Demonstrations of reproducibility are not reproducibility

Correspondence ✍️

"Demonstrations of reproducibility are not reproducibility" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Gómez-Llano & De Lisle argue that many recent measures adopted to address replicability and reproducibility in science
may actually undermine these efforts.

Free to read: rdcu.be/e6A99

Good article, but the framing is wrong. There is not a dearth of interest in taxonomy. There is a scarcity of funding and positions, which is a deliberate choice by funding agencies and institutions. The youth love taxonomy! It's the olds that are failing to meet their passion!

Integrating the Microbiome Into Infection Ecology and Evolution in Wild Animals Parasites are a ubiquitous force in nature threatening wildlife populations and ecosystems. Interactions between hosts and their parasites are impacted by host-associated microbiomes, which are essen...

Unfortunately the doi is taking a bit to kick in. But in the meantime: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Check this FRESH REVIEW about how the #wildlife #microbiome can shape infection ecology and #parasite #evolution led by @jingdi.bsky.social - which I got to contribute for! 🕺

NOW OUT in Molecular Ecology 🦋🐸🐝🐻🦠

#MicroSky #SymbioSky
@ubcbiodiversity.bsky.social
@science.ubc.ca

Formalizing our commitment to code sharing In support of open science, PLOS Biology routinely asks authors to openly share their research code before publication. We are now formalizing this practice with a mandatory code sharing policy and…

In support of #OpenScience, we routinely ask authors to openly share their #research #code before publication.

We are now formalizing this practice with a mandatory #CodeSharing policy and clarifying what we mean by code sharing.

Job alert: open position for a Professor or Associate Professor of Computational Genomics in Health and Disease at University College London.

Based in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment of UCL, and UGI, and funded by the UCL Health Strategy.

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... 🧪

We already have more than 💯 participants for #ExE2026, but there are still places available.

Once you have registered, you have until April 1 to submit an abstract, so don’t miss out and register now at sites.exeter.ac.uk/exe/registra...

Everything you need to know is 👇 and at evoxeco.uk!

84% of the time, “ChatGPT Health” killed a customer using their paid service as advertised