New blog post:

"Higher orders need higher standards"

skewed.de/lab/posts/hi...

I discuss our current work disentangling misconceptions around "higher-order" networks: arxiv.org/abs/2602.16937

Explainer thread for the paper here: bsky.app/profile/tiag...

Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions We demonstrate that graph-based models are fully capable of representing higher-order interactions, and have a long history of being used for precisely this purpose. This stands in contrast to a commo...

New on the arxiv:

“Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions”

arxiv.org/abs/2602.16937

We clarify central misconceptions in the recent literature on "higher-order networks".

w/ @piratepeel.bsky.social , @manlius.bsky.social, and @thilogross.bsky.social

Explainer 🧵: 1/N

Which Kind of Science Reform What hope is there for science reform, if we can't agree on what to reform? Right now, principles are more important than practices.

How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...

Congrats, Conny!

Congratulations, Kyle! All the happiness to you both!

Soils rock, obviously. And microbes too!

Professorship opening @ter-cemess.bsky.social. Fantastic team and world-class research environment!
Join us at @cemess.bsky.social, @univie.ac.at

Working on microscale microbial functions and/or scaling up?

Submit to our Elementa special feature!

🔗 lnkd.in/gChyjaiM
📝 Rolling publication
📅 Final deadline: Sept 20, 2025
🌍 Contributions welcome from soil, ocean & human systems.

Looking for Master's thesis projects?

Join us in Vienna to study :

- bacterial ecology
- fungal-bacterial interactions
- microbial modeling

📣 Our special feature highlighting cutting-edge microbial eco-evolutionary research is now live and open for submissions! online.ucpress.edu/elementa/pag.... Submission deadline: September 20, 2025 (but accepted papers will be published on a rolling basis starting immediately).

TER - We had our annual Science Retreat yesterday. Great science, discussions, and fun!
#TerrestrialEcosystemResearch
@cemess.bsky.social

Ksenia Guseva is a new senior scientist at TER We are thrilled to announce that Ksenia Guseva has joined our team as a senior scientist.

Congratulations to @kseniaguseva.bsky.social for becoming Senior Scientist at @ter-cemess.bsky.social, @cemess.bsky.social,
@univie.ac.at
Wonderful to have you on board!

ter.univie.ac.at/news-talks/n...

High time for #EGU25 submissions. Consider contributing to our interdisciplinary session on the spatial heterogeneity of soils influencing biogeochemical matter cycles and C dynamics.

meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

@edithhammer.bsky.social, @mud-maik.bsky.social, S.König, N.Meyer

#EGU25 abstract submission deadline is approaching (Jan 15)--so many great sessions to choose! See 3 re-posts below, and for modelers: meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio... chaired by @moritzmohrlok.bsky.social, @albertbrangari.bsky.social, @kseniaguseva.bsky.social, Hassan Karjoun

Less than 24 hours left to submit an abstract to #EGU25! Please consider our session on microbial models in SSS4.8 if you are #modelling #microbes to explain what's going on in #soil :)
Featuring a keynote talk by @manzonilab.bsky.social!

@kseniaguseva.bsky.social
@albertbrangari.bsky.social

If you loved (or missed!) our AGU24 session, don’t miss our
#EGU25 session, "Advancing Soil Carbon Predictions"! 🥁 Invited speaker: Elena Shevliakova (Princeton), a leader in integrating microbes into land surface models. Submit abstracts by Jan 15 🗓️: meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

If you have the feeling that @bsky.app is different, maybe you are right.

The current migration is breaking the typical rich-get-richer effect wrt other platforms #scaling

Data:

Twitter: 10.9M users
BlueSky (Mar 2024): 4.1M users, 🙏 @andreajpg.bsky.social
Mastodon: 3.8M users, 🙏 @tiago.skewed.de

1st anniversary of our #FWF Cluster of Excellence "Microbiomes Drive Planetary Health"! Inspiring meeting with groundbreaking ideas, especially from our diverse group of international early career researchers. Exciting research is on the horizon - stay tuned for more updates!

Just a clarification: I meant extracellular degradation of polysaccharides, not specifically of eps. Sorry about that.

Special thanks to all the co-autors: Christina Kaiser @christinakaiser.bsky.social, Moritz Mohrlok @moritzmohrlok.bsky.social, Lauren Alteio, Shaul Polak and Hannes Schmidt !

We reveal how substrate concentration and complexity shape microbial growth and interactions.
We also find data to support our model: we performed a systematic literature search, which shows that generalists (producing both enzymes) dominate among chitin-degrading microbes. 5/6

Finally, we explored whether microbes can divide labor in the production of these two enzymes within consortia.
Our analysis paints a fascinating picture: interactions between endo- and exo-enzyme producers can flip from positive to negative depending on substrate levels! 4/6

We have found that producers:

1. Of exo-enzymes thrive when many polymer chains are around.

2. Of endo-enzymes unexpectedly excel only when fewer chains are present.

3. Of both enzymes together expand their niche and may benefit from enzyme synergy. 3/6

We mainly focus on two enzyme types:

1. “Exo”-enzymes snip small units from the ends of polymer chains.

2. “Endo”-enzymes break polymers at random, creating varied-sized fragments.

Using a theoretical model, we simulated polymer degradation and microbial growth. 2/6

Excited to share our latest paper in PLOSCompBiol @plos.bsky.social !

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Our study dives into the comparison of possible extracellular polysaccharide degradation strategies and their impact on microbial growth and community dynamics. 1/6
#Microbialecology