Regina Fairbanks

march mammal madness bracket with cicada killer wasp as the predicted champion

The cicada killer wasp will never be defeated.

🌿 Postdoc opportunity in plant evolutionary ecology/genetics!

My lab in the Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to start Fall 2026.

We study plant adaptation, using weeds as model systems.

#Postdoc #EcoEvo

Pls RT!

The @scilifelab.se Ancient DNA Unit is recruiting a (permanent) Research Engineer for planning user projects and generating #aDNA 🧬 data:

Application deadline: March 25th 🧪🏺

www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Come work with me on the William & Mary Anthropology Collections! We're looking for a postdoc in North American archaeology, preferably with experience on collections. Apply by April 2 for full consideration. 🏺🗃️ #academicsky

Excited to share our new preprint! 🍇🧬

We analyzed 639 genomes across 48 grape species to understand how hybridization drives adaptation.

• ~14% of average Vitis genome is introgressed

• Most parallel adaptations are shared via gene flow

• Two "hybrid species" are actually hybrid swarms

Growth form and lifespan of herbaceous species mediate the role of traits in short-term drought response - Nature Ecology & Evolution Using 63 globally distributed grassland and shrubland sites from the International Drought Experiment, this study identified plant traits linked to drought resistance after 1 year of extreme drought a...

Fun project that stems from a special topics class I was part of during my PhD at @ucdavis.bsky.social as a population biology grad student! Was very fun to be part of the early discussion, data cleaning, and stats conversations. Glad it's out now!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

So excited to share this manuscript led by the inimitable Cara Brand, who discovered that Topoisomerase II evolution causes hybrid female lethality in Drosophila.

Congrats to Cara, @nickbr0wn.bsky.social, Anirban, and
@buszczaklab.bsky.social!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to hear all about it when you return to 🐄town!

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Looted them from a Native reservation, too, which is the kicker. I would *love* to know who acted as a guide.

Forrest and Sam (and more) have done some really fantastic work - well worth a read!

If you know anyone who might have a few dozen North or South American squash genome assemblies lying around I’d love to get in touch for a fun collaboration on American domesticates. We have chile, maize, beans, sunflower, amaranth, cotton, tomato, and maybe even strawberry!

I'm sure AI will solve all of the ARG problems, right? 🙃

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

Wow. This is devastating.

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

"A republic, if you can keep it."

We are in the second part of that sentence, right now.

More than 400 years of history and a decade of advocacy were torn down Thursday afternoon when National Park Service employees removed every single display at the President’s House.

🔗 What's next? We explain: www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...

During the Bicentennial Celebration at Independence Hall on July 4, 1976, President Gerald Ford sat symbolically behind Marian Anderson as she read the text of the Declaration aloud. On this 250th anniversary, the President is ordering factual information about slavery to be removed from that site.

Park Service removes slavery exhibit at Independence Park in Philadelphia Park staff dismantled an exhibit about George Washington’s slave ownership amid a wider push to remove information on racism, sexism and climate change.

Breaking news: The National Park Service took down an exhibit on slavery where George Washington lived as president in Philadelphia. The informational panels discussed Washington’s ownership of enslaved people, as well as the broader history of slavery.

Absolutely unacceptable. As much as I love Philadelphia, I hope everyone boycotts the 250th celebration.

A taxidermied raven perched in a log-lined glass case

And just in case you forgot that Philadelphia is the greatest city in the world, THE eponymous raven of Poe fame and Dickens's menagerie hangs out in our Free Library and is available for parties

always a good time with the zoo pals 🦬

​Newport co-ed cheerleading team is at center of Trump transgender athlete crackdown​Trump admin focuses on swimming, cheerleading in Maine transgender athlete probes The U.S. Department of Education announced a slew of Title IX-related investigations this week that include 2 school districts in Maine.

If anyone was still pretending this isn’t just about excluding trans kids from public life, the Trump administration just opened a Title IX investigation into a Maine school district because a trans student is on a *co-ed* cheerleading squad.

Leafcutter ant holds up a large piece of leaf that says "Call for Scientists."

Seeking scientist volunteers for the 2026 spring semester! Want to practice science communication and help author a 🌟comic🌟 about your research? Apply by 1/25. Please share widely. bit.ly/comicscollabspring2026

Take Nature’s poll: do you have a side hustle alongside your PhD studies? More than half of Gen Z now have a side gig. Are researchers among those seeking a second income?

We want to know if you have, or had, a side hustle during your PhD studies. Take our survey here:

go.nature.com/49SpY2t

SMBE Caregiver Award

The Caregiver Award is open to members with expenses for the care of children or dependent adults (including adult children with a disability or elderly relatives) during their attendance at SMBE2026.

📨 Award applications
smbe2026.org/abstracts

#SMBE2026

Come work with the vertebrate paleontology team at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC this summer!

REU Students will have the opportunity to study and reconstruct the skulls of Permian and Triassic reptiles 😃

Reach out to me if you have any questions (: Apply by the 31st!!

🚨New paper from our team on our favorite sex locus ANTSR! 🚨New collaboration with @hugodarras.bsky.social , led by our talented @chuanxinyu.bsky.social, we show that ants, bees and stinging wasps share an ancient sex locus, a suspicion we had when we first found the locus in the Argentine ants!

Science History Institute Fellowships The Institute is home to the largest private fellowship program in the historical study of science, medicine, and technology in the United States.

Applications for 2026-27 fellowships at @sciencehistory.org are still open until Jan 15, with recommendations due Jan 31! ⏰📚

Could your research benefit from time in our archives, rare books, instruments, and other collections? Find info about our fellowships and our guide for applicants here!

NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts

“The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else.”

New Job opportunity at the University of Georgia Department of Entomology! Come work a dream job in beautiful Athens!
www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/463...