We’re thrilled to announce “FFWD-Plants”, a hands-on #seasonal #school on #agrobiodiversity and #quantitative #genetics organized by our group!

🌍 Pisa, Italy
📅 April 13–17, 2026
🎓 FREE (20 student)
🧬 Internationally experts in the field

Application details:
www.santannapisa.it/it/formazion...

We had a lot of fun yesterday at #BrightNight2025 playing the game 'Bean Predators: An Evolution Game', designed to explain #evolutionary processes to kids 🫘🌱🐛

I’m a climate scientist. Trump’s U.N. address is a fire hose of misinformation OPINION: “What Trump is really doing is advancing a plan laid down years ago by plutocrats and polluters. And making a mockery of our country as he does so,” Michael E. Mann writes.

I’m a climate scientist. Trump’s U.N. address is a fire hose of misinformation by @michaelemann.bsky.social

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

✨ Exciting week with researchers from #Kenya, #Ethiopia & #Palestine at our workshop “Breedtech”🌱
We’re diving into #genetics and #genomics tool, #agrobiodiversity & #environmental #DNA, learning and sharing ideas — and also enjoying the beauty of Pisa together! 🧬🌍

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) landraces in Mozambique and neighbouring Southern African countries harbour genetic loci with potential for climate adaptation - Communications Biology Smallholder-maintained cowpea varieties in Southern Africa hold valuable genetic traits for adapting to a changing climate, offering key insights for breeding resilient crops and strengthening future ...

Smallholder-maintained #cowpea varieties in Southern Africa hold valuable genetic traits for adapting to a changing climate, offering key insights for breeding resilient #crops and strengthening future food security.🌍 @mdellacq.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

The Ultimate "Leopards Ate My Face" Rendition! YouTube video by Franchesca Ramsey

Greatly enjoying the Musk - Trump meltdown 🍿

A deficient CP24 allele defines variation for dynamic non-photochemical quenching and photosystem II efficiency in maize (John N Ferguson, Leonardo Caproni, Julia Walter, Katie Shaw, Lucia Arce-Cubas, et. al.) academic.oup.com/plcell/advan... #PlantScience

I lost my job, my kids have measles, and I had to drive my parents 200 miles to a Social Security office, but at least I know that immigrants are getting sent to torture prisons in El Salvador.

Potato leaves: sampled ✔️
New album cover: dropped ✔️

Science sure is a blessed job. Enjoying a cerveza in #Cusco before heading to Paucartambo to chase #native potatoes

Does the past shape who you’ll become? It does for Marine microbes! 🌊🔥 Our new paper on @naturecomms.bsky.social shows how past warming influences stability to future extremes. @lbenedetti-cecchi.bsky.social
Teaming up with @mdellacq.bsky.social to integrate ecology & genomics!

🔗 rdcu.be/ec8xv

The good news is that the Chinese and Russian governments are deterrable.

The real problem is still the fanatical monomaniacal billionaire, just like the James Bond franchise taught us.

And to @lbenedetti-cecchi.bsky.social of course 🐟

Legacies of temperature fluctuations promote stability in marine biofilm communities - Nature Communications The effects of warming legacies on ecosystem stability to future climate extremes remain unclear. By tracking the dynamics of rocky intertidal biofilm communities, this study shows that relatively con...

Very fun and fulfilling foray into the environmental sciences domain. Does past stress history shape the resilience of communities? (TL;DR: it does) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thanks to @lucaecomar.bsky.social for having us on board!

Gene-edited non-browning banana could cut food waste, scientists say Fruit variety developed in Norwich remains fresh for up to 12 hours after being peeled

Gene-edited non-browning banana could cut food waste, scientists say www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A direct threat to a NATO ally.

Vance leans hard into Trump's foreign policy — and sparks an extraordinary Oval Office skirmish Vance's comments marked the moment Zelenskyy's White House meeting took a tense turn. It's the latest example of his role in a confrontational foreign-policy tag team with Trump.

Vance is so awful that he (almost) manages the feat of making Trump look like a statesman. Not a relaxing time for Europeans

www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Gonna tell the kids this was Elon Musk.

Amount of money spent by researchers by year to publish in open access journals

A wild statistic: Authors of peer-reviewed journal articles paid $8.968 billion in open-access fees in the last five years. This is clearly the wrong way of doing open access, and as academics, we should figure out a better way. #AcademicSky arxiv.org/abs/2407.16551

Richiedente asilo muore di freddo mentre è in fila per un documento fuori dall’ufficio immigrazione E’ successo in via Patini a Roma dove ogni giorno e ogni notte si accalcano persone che necessitano di permessi

Here’s where we are in Italy. Asylum seeker dies from cold while waiting in line for documents in front of Immigration Office

www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025...

Soil microbiomes show consistent and predictable responses to extreme events - Nature Soils from 30 grasslands across Europe were subjected to 4 contrasting extreme climatic events under drought, flood, freezing and heat conditions, with the results suggesting that soil microbiomes fro...

Science takes time - a lot of time. Time that is more and more difficult to make available because of increased workloads. Time that exceeds the temporary contracts of postdocs and PhDs.

I'll illustrate this using our paper published in Nature yesterday. 🧵 (1/x)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Keeping in shape for the departmental meetings 🇪🇹

Phenomenal recombination amounts, itty bitty living space! The 20 parents teff NAM on its way in Debre Zeyt 🇪🇹 expecting RILs and plenty QTL mapping in 2026

Zooniverse The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research.

Gli scienziati chiedono aiuto per digitalizzare dati meteo italiani dal 1879 al 1940. Chi vuole dare una mano a comprendere l'evoluzione del clima può trovare tutte le informazioni a questo link
www.zooniverse.org/projects/met...

#AcademicChatter #AcademicSky

Goodbye #PAG31 and thanks for all the science. Goodbye California and thanks for the giant roadside dinosaurs (among other things) 💚

At the #PAG31 session on paleogenomics. It doesn't get any cooler than this!

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