The Italian edition of 'The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire' is out now, from Einaudi Editore www.einaudi.it/catalogo-lib...

Apparently my book 'The Decline & Fall of the Human Empire' is trending on TikTok (thanks @stevebrusatte.bsky.social for the picture). Who knew? @picadorbooks.bsky.social @jillgrinberglit.bsky.social

Cell-type-targeted mitochondrial transplantation rescues cell degeneration - Nature MitoCatch is a cell-type-specific mitochondrion-targeting system that links mitochondria and the cell surface by protein binders and delivers mitochondria into the target cell.

A study in Nature describes a modular tool for targeted transfer of mitochondria to different cell types 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
and News & Views piece 👇https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00910-4

Peak retired academic moment.
1. One of those emails: Are you the R Watt who wrote xxxxxx?
2. Nope, but it sounds vaguely interesting. Wonder what they found.
3. Google - read it and discover that I did write it.

This is figure 4, which shows global hotspots of SWI susceptibility and changes in recharge and groundwater withdrawals.

Coastal groundwater is under growing threat. A paper in Nature Water reports an analysis of about 480,000 wells, which shows declining water levels in over 20% of coastal areas, increasing the risk of saltwater intrusion from rising seas. go.nature.com/4cwFIIE 🌊🌍🧪

Well, I can safely say that @trishughes21.bsky.social and I exploded the Cambrian #TheAncients #HistoryHit

Now I’m off to Bethnal Green to Explode the Cambrian with @trishughes21.bsky.social #HistoryHit

I remember reading this wonderful book in the last semester of my undergrad.

For me, it was a quasi-personal way to link with WWI experience: and author I'd read deeply, including letters and biography, and now I was following his experience of hell.

The air is full of DNA — here’s what scientists are using it for Airborne genetic material can be used to paint a picture of ecosystem health, watch for invasive species and even identify humans.

Scientists have long pulled DNA from water and soil, but they have only just started to see the air as a source of genetic information
go.nature.com/4suCiwd

We are recruiting 1-2 postdoctoral fellows to investigate the specificity of human anti-influenza virus antibodies, and to determine how these antibodies impact global antigenic drift of influenza viruses.

Join our lab at Penn in Philly. Reach out if you are interested in applying! Please repost!

Schrödinger’s cat just got bigger: quantum physicists create largest ever ‘superposition’ Record-breaking experiment shows that a cluster of thousands of atoms can act like a wave as well as a particle.

It's World Quantum Day, and physicists created the largest ever quantum state in which an object exists in a haze of possible locations at once
go.nature.com/4tHfl9W

The importance of competition and facilitation for global tree diversity - Nature Across 17 forest plots (2.7 million trees, 5,400 species), competition dominated overall, but facilitation was relatively stronger near the equator and declined towards higher latitudes, partly linked to temperature, legumes, mycorrhizal associations and canopy nursing effect.

Nature research paper: The importance of competition and facilitation for global tree diversity

go.nature.com/4ve0bul

Fish Worship - Is It Wrong? occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/2...

Position of interest for plant evolutionary biologists: two assistant professorships are now open in the System Earth Science (SES) department at Maastricht University!

Interested? See the details here, or visit the QR code: vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Venlo-As...

OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is searching for a Software Development Project Manager to support the Data Management Division: https://bit.ly/4tCw3qW

a cartoon fish is swimming in the ocean with its eyes closed . Alt: Scene from Finding Nemo, Dory the blue tang touches a jelly fish which stings her, causing her to retreat

While jellies are quite scary during stinger season, fishes that feed on these planktonic jellies contribute a whopping ~25% to the productivity of coral reef fishes 🪼🐟

Check out our new OA paper in @natecoevo.nature.com, led by PhD student James Gahan, here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌐
🦑🧪

Want to switch countries for a postdoc? Specifically, are you European, or are you non-European wanting to come to Europe? Now's the time to reach out to potential host labs!

(It's very normal to cold-email a PI about potentially hosting -- don't be shy!)

Roll up, roll up! Looking for a postdoc? Want somewhere that's academia adjacent? Interested in seabirds, plastics, and conservation? Come work with me and @adriftlab.bsky.social!

If you want to help develop an application, get in touch! #ornithology #seabirds #PhDjobs #PostdocJobs

Senegal bichir (Polypterus bichir)

‘Why don’t you go into Angel Aquatics and get some more Angel Fish?’ Mrs Gee- be careful what you wish for. I saw this Senegal bichir (Polypterus) and fell in love - the perfect pet for lovers of fossil fish. Which I am. The bichir is now called Steve.

After so many serious discussions about this paradox with physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers, I can’t help but find this cartoon absolutely hilarious.

‘I once built a gun out of leaves’ says Missy (Michelle Gomez) eternal adversity to the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) in Dr Who

A possibly threatening line from a rambling letter of appeal addressed to an editor from disgruntled serial submitter of unpublishable papers, in which the correspondent also compares themselves favorably with Galileo.

The Wonder of Life on Earth by Henry Gee Find out more about The Wonder of Life on Earth by Henry Gee

THE WONDER OF LIFE ON EARTH - a book for inquiring minds of very all ages www.panmacmillan.com/authors/henr...

A plunger? Or a Dalek?

#Artemis2 went off perfectly except for the Space Toilet, which was blocked. All they needed was a Space Plunger. Where is a Dalek when you need one?

This is figure 1, which shows M. cousteaui gen. et sp. nov. from the Cambrian (Drumian) Wheeler Formation of Utah.

A 500-million-year-old fossil of a very early relative of spiders, scorpions, and mites offers insights into how this group of arthropods, called chelicerates, evolved. The fossil, found in Utah in the US, has clear claws, according to a paper in Nature. go.nature.com/3NB3Npy #Paleosky 🧪

Our April issue is out now featuring...

🔬the impact of foundational, discovery-based microbiology
🪱a nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora
🏥climate change driving antibiotic resistance
👁️human eye disease linked to aquatic virus transmission

and more! 👇
www.nature.com/nmicrobiol/

Cambridge University Library, University Museum of Zoology and the University of Cambridge - Collections Connections Communities

Here's an awesome natural history humanities PhD opportunity, working with Cambridge University Library & our insect & archive collections here at @zoologymuseum.bsky.social, exploring the links between entomology, life writing & environmental change. Please share!
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...

People don’t learn from history. Philip II of Macedonia told Sparta ‘If I conquer Sparta, I’ll destroy it completely &c.’ Sparta replied in one word - ‘if’. His son Alexander conquered the known world- but left Sparta alone.