Oxygen supply through the tracheolar–muscle system does not constrain insect gigantism - Nature New evidence suggests that diffusive oxygen transport through the tracheolar–muscle system is not the limiting factor on insect body size.

Contrary to popular belief, the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere does not constrain the size of insects - paper in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How does the piRNA pathway solve the self vs. non-self problem? 🧬

Since piRNAs come from single-stranded RNA, how does the cell choose the right ones? For years, "piRNA clusters" were seen as THE privileged source. But are they really special and earmarked for biogenesis? (1/19)

The Importance of Biological Theory - Biological Theory Biological Theory -

I am happy to share this article, entitled "The importance of Biological Theory". It is my inaugural editorial as the new Editor-in-Chief of @biologicaltheory.bsky.social . In these complex and challenging times, theory is more important now than ever. Enjoy!

doi.org/10.1007/s137...

Odd-skipped family members have conserved roles in segmentation, appendage, excretory system and gut development in bilaterian animals The odd-skipped related family of proteins are evolutionarily conserved zinc finger transcription factors in bilaterian animals with essential roles i…

Very happy to have contributed to this review on the evolution of the Odd protein family, now out in Differentiation! This was a fun project to work on with @abouheif.bsky.social, Vasikar Murugapoopathy & Indra Gupta
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#EvoDevo

The fitness costs of reproductive specialization scale inversely with organismal size The evolution of reproductive specialization represents a fundamental innovation in multicellular life, yet the conditions favoring its evolution remain poorly understood. Here, we develop a populatio...

1/28 New preprint up, which I think is the best theoretical idea I've ever had. We asked a simple question: what are the costs of investment into non-reproductive somatic cells? Turns out these costs decrease with the *logarithm* of organism size!

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

Our Almost-Apocalyptic Climate Future By shooting for 3 degrees Celsius of warming, the world could slide toward a more cataclysmic 4 degrees.

Gift link www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...