Exciting PhD project with me and @vorontsovams.bsky.social RBG Kew on Grass Diversity, developing a phylogeny using morphology and genomics for the tropical forage grass genus Urochloa. Applications at centa.ac.uk/students... but contacts Bat or me to discuss

2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in
@uniexecec.bsky.social
- Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
Pls share!

Looking forward greatly to the meeting and talking about The grammar of genomes: From sequences, phenotypes, digital twins and foundational LLMs, to conservation, biodiversity, and breeding. Hoping to develop new collaborations, ideas, and opportunities

Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment He and a colleague proved a theory advanced by the Nobel Prize winners James Watson and Francis Crick, who discovered DNA’s helical structure.

One of the best dinners and then seminar I've had was with Frank Stahl. He sat down with overhead projector and all the 200 in the audience felt they had a personal tutorial on DNA replication and his super-elegant research. RIP age 95. www.nytimes.com/2025...

Phylogenomic analysis reveals five independently evolved African forage grass clades in the genus Urochloa AbstractBackground and Aims. The grass genus Urochloa (Brachiaria) sensu lato includes forage crops that are important for beef and dairy industries in tro

Interested in co designing a fully funded PhD project with ‪@vorontsovams.bsky.social‬ and me on Urochloa plant biodiversity, evolution, morphology and genomics? Please contact us. Building on exciting work on the forage grass by @LizoMasters academic.oup.com/aob/article/...

Grrr. My appeal every 5 years or so, as frustration boils over. Why doesn't any web browser print out roughly what you see on your screen? I see nice versions of the webpage - full screen, landscape, portrait, mobile phone - but no major browser can print anything like them.

I'm finding LLM / AI models like Grok, Deepseek, ChatGPT, Google search lab useful to explain things at suitable level. Notable they don't just rehash Wikipedia or unhelpful Microsoft manuals. Today's examples: GANTT charts; IF/TRUE/FALSE in Excel; Harvard referencing

For #internationalbiodiversityday I'm happy to post a program The Call of Plants www.bilibili.com/vid... about our interests by https://www.pta.eco/ Plant Technology Alliance & Dency Cheng, Guangdong & Hong Kong. A great organization bringing nature back to us ... more later!

Many opportunities to exploit rhizosphere microbiome for crops. No longer only consider plant genome/GWAS for traits: look at fungi/bacteria. New multisite field trial complexity we can analyse @TrendsPlantSci Rodomiro Ortiz, Sangam Dwivedi, @plgepts EtAl
www.sciencedirect.co...

Are others getting 'verify' boxes when wanting to access published papers (even open access)? Is this major publishers trying to stop Deep Learning / Generative AI / ChatGPT accessing refereed work? I want my papers used by AI models easily, not push them to Reddit or Facebook

FAIR is so important. We've just had a manuscript rejected because the journal (anon, but OUP published) said we should compare with work they'd published without any FAIR data. Ours does not support the other's text but without the data, we can't compare.

Academic climate: It's no longer ‘publish or perish’; It’s ‘Be visible or vanish’ - Businessday NG Though in the academic world, publication signifies validation and survival in most universities for promotion and relevance; in fact...

Academic climate: It’s no longer ‘publish or perish’; It’s ‘Be visible or vanish’ says @drtimiolubiyi “It is not just what you publish; it is who sees it, talks about it, and shares it that matters." businessday.ng/opini... Hs analysis has a lot of sense; I don't agree all

Has anyone tried this in submission cover letter:"We tick required ‘check/tick boxes’ randomly where there is no appropriate answer. Our answer has no validity. We include early career/retired authors where academic e-mails are deleted; and OA fees are covered by agreements."

I'm reading PhD applications which have a question about time management. Every one I read thinks they apply for something where every hour is planned in advance and accounted for (and presumably billed!). Not one had time for getting ideas, reading, following up crazy thoughts

This image shows the hourglass shape of the nights shortening and lengthening from winter to summer and from summer to winter, passing clouds, the Moon passing through the night sky every month (diagonal bands) and the Sun climbing higher in the sky during summer.

For the 4th year in a row, my all-sky camera has been taking an image of the sky above the Netherlands every 15 seconds. Combining these images reveal the length of the night changing throughout the year, the passage of clouds and the motion of the Moon and the Sun through the sky. #astrophotography

It's early 2025, but I think I've found product-of-the-year: a USB Tester / Power Meter. Shows what is charging, measures voltage, battery mAh or Wh, tests batteries, adaptors, whether "PD" on a USB C means "power delivery" or "display port", graphs transfers etc. for c 10£$€

RNA control of reverse transcription in a diversity-generating retroelement
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Google search with AI generated summary as an answer to my query

Immediate action point/question for me is: 'How do I get my material used for AI training/answers?' I'm impressed by Google "Search Labs AI Overview" accurately summarizing, in context, our paper from Sept 2024, when I use "flavonoids musaceae chromosomal location" as search keywords.

Tech Trends 2025 - Confirmation - Silverchair Silverchair Thanks for downloading our AI whitepaper.

Who guessed Search would change in 2024: 'People now expect answers to questions, not just a stack of links. Perplexity, OpenAI, & Google raced to create “answer engines”, combining web results with generative AI models' says @silverchairnews & @hum_works www.silverchair.com/...

Biodiversity and Agriculture: Education and Nature at Dinghu National Reserve My job has three parts: 1) Research in biodiversity and agricultural genetics; 2) Critical evaluation of other research through journals and reviews; and, perhaps most imprtantly, 3) Telling people about the value, interest and importance of the natural and agricultural environment. I was delighted to visit Dinghu, the first Chinese National Nature Reserve, founded in 1956, and part of the South China National Botanical Garden (SCBG or SCNBG) of the CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) in Guangzhou, south China, to present a science lecture on Biodiversity, Conservation and Agriculture.

My lecture on Biodiversity, Conservation and Agriculture to a large public audience at Dinghu, 1st national nature reserve in China. Discussin success of agriculture feeding people but at cost of sustainability: we can solve now population is static

RLK genes in oats - genes, synteny, sub cellular localization and expression in salt stress

Genome-Wide Identification of Lectin Receptor-like Kinase Gene Family in Avena sativa and Role in Salt Stress Tolerance with Xiong Gui & Qing Liu: genomics, localization and expression shows the value of these genes www.mdpi.com/3062188 #mdpiijms @IJMS_MDPI @MDPIOpenAccess

UK university professor: COP29 provided an opportunity to discuss ways to protect biodiversity

Thanks a lot for letting me know - very helpful. azertag.az/en/xeber/uk_... maybe works ...

UK university professor: COP29 provided an opportunity to discuss ways to protect biodiversity

azertag.az/en/xeber/uk_...

#COP29 showed ways to protect biodiversity: azertag.az/en/xeber/uk_... Great opportunities to discuss how agricultural genetics can help both mitigate GHG and adapt to climate change while enhancing agriculture can preserve areas with biodiversity. And tertiary education is critical!

The expression of flavonoid biosynthetic genes in Musella lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa (circles labelled Y) and M. lasiocarpa var. rubribracteata (labelled R); 15 °C-treated groups labelled with ‘cold’, and control groups marked with ‘normal’. The flavonoid biosynthetic gene expression levels were calculated as transcripts per million (TPM) values. Different log2(TPM + 1) values labelled with different colours, red to blue colours indicate expression levels from high to low. A colour version of this figure appears in the online version of this article.

🧬 New article in @aobp.bsky.social analyzing the diversity and duplication of flavonoid biosynthetic genes in Musaceae species, highlighting their potential for enhancing cold stress resistance in bananas through breeding.

Full #openaccess
👉 https://buff.ly/4eqyy7X

#PlantScience

Allopolyploidy expanded gene content but not pangenomic variation in the hexaploid oilseed Camelina sativa Abstract. Ancient whole-genome duplications (WGDs) are believed to facilitate novelty and adaptation by providing the raw fuel for new genes. However, it i

My work on a pangenome for the hexaploid oilseed crop Camelina sativa is now out early access in Genetics! This young polyploid genome has a small pangenome to match it's low SNP diversity, but regained lost diversity by packing in all the unique genes from its 3 diploid progenitors.

People are quite literally going bananas for bananas. In 2022, the total global production of bananas reached 140 million tons.

The next time you eat one, consider the genes responsible for their taste, texture and high fruit yield allowing them to remain a global daily staple in most households.

Looking forward to discussions, reviewing progress (or lack of) & target setting for UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference le.ac.uk/news/2024/n... Great to have day dedicated to Food, Agriculture & Water. How can research & genetics deliver food sustainabiltiy?

Second issue of "Biological Diversity" journal now online onlinelibrary.wiley.... @BD_SCBG Diversity of content nicely reflects the title: birds, farmland and rewilding, plant reproduction, fungal pathogens, new species and population biology. #PlantSci #Science #Biology

U.S. Coordinated Framework for Biotechnology unified website for approvals & regulations from the 3 US agencies, @USDA @US_FDA @EPA usbiotechnologyregul... helping to show which agency and which rules are applicable. Need to then to agencies to see what is in line for approval