Two people wearing NASA visitor lanyards are standing outdoors. The person in front is smiling, wearing a pink NASA shirt, while the person behind is wearing glasses and a wide-brimmed hat. The background features a grassy area near a body of water, with other people and chairs in the distance.

A rocket launches into the sky with a bright flame and trail of smoke, set against a clear blue sky. It appears to be taking off from a launch site near a body of water.

The image depicts the Moon in the foreground with its craters and surface details visible. Behind it, partially obscured, is the Earth, showing a portion of its blue and white surface against the blackness of space.

Since the Artemis II launch, every breath onboard Orion is carefully monitored by a compact device called the laser air monitoring system. At the heart of this system is a laser spectroscopy instrument created by Jeff Pilgrim, a UGA alumnus!

Read more: https://t.uga.edu/4t29GeL

"Ozone hole" in grant descriptions by year, with two regression lines over a scatter plot

Bergogram plot: line plot of money awarded by year by NSF. 2025 and 2026 trail other years

Table of grants by US academic semester by state. In Spring 2026, New York has received 37 grants in total, Florida only 24

Word cloud of words in "formicidae" grants at NSF. "Ants" is most promient, also "species," "specimens," "project," and "collections."

Inspired by @jeremymberg.bsky.social & grant-witness.us, I've updated my rnsf #rstats package to include:

• Cache of public data on every #NSF grant (>500K)
• Info on every #GRFP

Tools for viz, examples of use, etc.

Blog post: brianomeara.info/posts/rnsf/

Pkg: bomeara.github.io/rnsf/index.h...

How can scent molecules identify stressed plants and offer clues about human and animal health? YouTube video by Cornell University

My first podcast 😅 on how decoding the smell of organisms could help us to find solutions to protect crops in agriculture, and improve plant, animal, and human health by detecting diseases before symptoms appear!

@Cornell @CornellEnto @CornellAgriTech

youtu.be/szTAWwYC5bc

The International Society of Chemical Ecology Conference will be hosted by Cornell (Ithaca, NY) this June 21-26! 🐛🧪🥀🦠🦇

Early Bird registration until April 7! Please spread the word!

Lots of great talks and sessions! Post-conference Metabolomics Workshop!

events.ces.scl.cornell.edu/event/ISCE20...

Mystery of quinine biosynthesis solved For centuries, the process by which the cinchona tree produces its valuable alkaloids, including the life-saving quinine used to treat malaria, was shrouded in mystery. Now, a research team from the M...

The process by which the cinchona tree produces quinine has been elucidated. In a new study published in @nature.com, researchers from the @oconnorlab.bsky.social and the @universityofga.bsky.social unveil the biosynthetic pathway behind this 400-year-old secret.
www.ice.mpg.de/548102/PR_Ki...

Image of Piper Cole, Shayla Salzman, and Jade Stryker

Woohoo! Two big grants/fellowships in the lab this month! Piper Cole (left) received a fellowship from the Wormsloe Foundation for her work on Magnolia pollination and Jade Stryker (right) received a Science Foundation What If grant for her work on Cycad pollination. These ladies are on fire!

Image of New York Times spelling bee game not accepting the word Monocot

Unacceptable @nytimes.com Unacceptable

CAES scientist studies Earth’s oldest pollination systems | CAES Field Report A University of Georgia entomologist studies cycads — the world’s most endangered plant order — to uncover how ancient beetles and weevils shaped the earliest insect pollination systems through heat, ...

My college wrote a lovely piece about my research. And the photos of me and my babies 😍 So happy to be here @universityofga.bsky.social Thanks! 🌿🪲🔬

fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/news/caes-sc...

Spittlebug (Philaneus spumaruis) foam on tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima).

In our #VirtualIssue on #Herbivore-derived elicitors of plant responses we bring together New Phytologist articles that highlight recent developments in the study of how plants respond to herbivores 👇

📚 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

#PlantScience

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

Ever wanted to know how the visual system of a long distance migratory moth looks like? Then you'll find your answers in our new paper. Finally out, after about a decade of collecting data by a group af amazing co-authors. Find it here, open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Effects of tree diversity on oak litter VOC emissions - Chemoecology Leaf metabolites are important drivers of biotic interactions. Leaf metabolic profiles are changing over ontogeny and in response to biotic and abiotic conditions. Additionally, plant species diversit...

Escaliante et al. Effects of tree diversity on oak litter VOC emissions link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Herbarium spectral digitization workflow from specimen collection to global integration, and challenges.

Next-generation specimen #digitization: capturing #reflectance spectra from the world's #herbaria for modeling plant biology across time, space, and taxa

#TansleyReview by Jeannine Cavender-Bares, et al.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#PlantScience

Assistant Professor without Tenure (WOT), Marine Invertebrate Organismal Biology University of Washington: Academic Personnel & Faculty: College of the Environment: Aquatic and Fishery Sciences Location Friday Harbor Labs, WA Open Date Dec 12, 2025 Description The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) and Friday Harbor Labs (FHL) at the University of Washington (UW) invite applications for the Riddiford – Truman Endowed faculty Chair, a position in the Without Tenure (WOT) track at the Assistant rank with specialization in marine invertebrate organismal biology. The successful candidate is expected to develop a collaborative, extramurally-funded and nationally recognized research program based at FHL that leverages FHL’s unique marine research infrastructure and natural setting. We especially welcome candidates whose scholarship in natural systems advances fundamental knowledge and contributes to environmental stewardship. All University of Washington faculty engage in teaching, research, and service.

Looking for a faculty job at one of the world's great research stations?

We're looking for a marine invertebrate biologist at UW's Friday Harbor Labs.

apply.interfolio.com/178804

Cycad plants use thermogenesis to warm their reproductive cones. A beetle dusted with pollen and fluorescent dyes lands on the warm cone of a cycad. High concentrations of dye have been deposited on the cone’s hottest regions during previous visits by other labeled beetles. Beetle pollinators use these thermal infrared patterns as a guide to locate host pollen and ovulate cones.

Long before flowers dazzled pollinators with brilliant colors and sweet scents, ancient plants used another feature to signal insects: heat. The findings in Science offer insights into what shaped the earliest eras of plant-animal coevolution.

Read more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/4rVtArQ

A Hot Plant’s Irresistible Signal Makes Beetles Pollinate It

Cycads making the news! Loved this project, love this group of researchers, love these plants!

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/s...

Infrared radiation is an ancient pollination signal Color and scent are well-known pollinator cues. Some plants also produce heat, but its role remains unclear. Here, we report that plant-generated thermal infrared radiation serves as a pollination sig...

More evidence Knut Norstog was right when he said “cycads should be considered the Rosetta Stone for our understanding of plant biology.” New work out today further investigating cycad thermogenesis! 😍

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Evolution of Flower Beetles as Visitors and Pollinators An estimated 20% of about 400,000 species of beetles (Coleoptera) are flower visitors. Despite this huge taxonomic and natural history diversity, beetle–flower interactions have historically been over...

🚨New publication🚨
Beetles are not only neglected pollinators!
The Evolution of Flower Beetles as Visitors and Pollinators - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
#LabPaleoecology @ibb-botanic.bsky.social

Assistant Professor - Row Crop Entomologist - Athens, Georgia, United States job with University of Georgia | 37918339 Position Summary The Department of Entomology (https://ent.uga.edu) at the University of Georgia ( UGA ) invites applications for a tenure-track...

🚨 UGA is hiring a row-crop entomologist! Share widely, this is a GREAT place to work!
jobs.chronicle.com/job/37918339...

Non-seed plant diversity! 😍

Evolution of the olfactory system during the radiation of Heliconiini butterflies Abstract. Sensory system evolution plays a crucial role in shaping species’ interactions with their environment, yet the extent to which olfactory system d

New paper out! A nice collaboration.
We explore how olfactory brain structures and receptors evolved across this remarkable group, Heliconiini butterflies.

UMass Amherst Biology is recruiting a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of Plant Physiology. Deadline Nov 1. Please spread the word and apply!

careers.massachusetts.edu/mob/en-us/jo...

Drawing your attention to an effort to convince NSF to re-open this year's GRFP competition to second year PhD students. Please consider signing or sharing the petition asking NSF to broaden the application eligibility to what it has been previously. laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

What a nightmare. These poor kids. First the pandemic years and now this mess. My heart breaks for them.

New today: We're petitioning NSF to revert GRFP eligibility criteria to last year's terms, to avoid pulling the rug out from under the earliest of early-career scientists who had every reason to think they'd be able to apply this year. Sign and spread the word!

laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

I am currently teaching a GRFP writing course. Today’s solicitation is a real blow. Especially after weeks of uncertainty for these poor students. Now only ONE student in my entire class can apply. They’ve all been working so hard, had been planning on this application for over a year now. 💔

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

NSF today released instructions for the next round of applicants to its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. A key group—second-year Ph.D. students—is no longer eligible, and students who are still able to apply will face an unusually narrow timeframe. https://scim.ag/3KlQkQk

An open letter in support of the GRFP, which still has not opened the submission portal or provided a solicitation.

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Please share — Michigan State Plant Biology is searching for an Herbarium Director! Tenure stream, open rank faculty position balancing research, teaching, service, and admin responsibilities. Join us! Reach out to me or @emjo.bsky.social with questions!

plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...