Just discovered the wonderful covers of 'Genes to Cells', the journal of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan @mbsj-official.bsky.social – absolutely beautiful!

here some examples inspired by mitosis, CRISPR, the DNA helix, and plant pigments

We've got ISSUES. Literally.

We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?

arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563

A 🧵 1/n

Adaptive spread of a sexually selected syndrome eliminates an ancient color polymorphism in wall lizards Genetically determined color morphs are found in many animals. Polymorphism can be maintained by social selection if competitive interactions allow each morph to increase in frequency when rare. This ...

Great new study about the loss of a colour morph in Common Wall Lizards (Podarcis muralis)

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

A European common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) on a piece of wood. Photo credit: Montaine Delmotte, INRAE.

Human long-distance runners struggle with dehydration after losing 2% body mass, but common lizards still run well after losing 30% of their body mass. However, cold (20C) lizards are only half as fast as 35C lizards, so temperature impacts them more

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Rediscovery of the greater chestnut weevil highlights the power of digital platforms in biodiversity research and conservation Charles et al. rediscover the presumed-extinct greater chestnut weevil (Curculio caryatrypes) in the eastern US via iNaturalist, and genomic data and field surveys confirm identity and active reproduc...

How iNaturalist, a citizen-science platform, led to the rediscovery of a species thought to be extinct. These platforms are powerful tools for the monitoring of biodiversity.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:

Single antivenom protects against 17 different snakebites Researchers immunized an alpaca and a llama with snake venoms, and combined some of the antibodies produced into a potent cocktail.

Researchers immunized an alpaca and a llama with snake venoms, and combined some of the antibodies produced into a potent cocktail

go.nature.com/47LQB8d

How these aquatic insects skate across the surface with ease YouTube video by Science Magazine

Nice video clip about one of our amazing study species. Those locomotory abilities are incredible!

youtu.be/CrXqqX-ta5I

Akis lusitanica

Ergates faber

Two large Beetles (Coleoptera) that can be found in Portugal. Always an impressive sight!

These stinkbugs coat their eggs in fungi to protect them from parasitic wasps An unusual relationship could shed light on how insects choose their partners

This stinkbug makes an alliance with a fungus to fight its enemy, a parasitic wasp. An evolutionary arms race taken to the next level.

www.science.org/content/arti...

A Museum specimen of now extinct Madeiran Large White, Pieris wollastoni (Photo: Sam Ellis)

We are also deeply saddened that the Madeiran Large White, Pieris wollastoni, is now officially extinct: it was last seen in 1986. The full report can be downloaded here www.bc-europe.eu/documents/68...

Safe to say that this cricket (Sphingonotus imitans) is right in its habitat. The precision of camouflage will never cease to amaze me.

These insects are masters of disguise—even before hatching At every stage in their lives, from egg to adult, leaf and stick insects prove to be prey that can trick their predators.

This article is a couple of years old but still worth sharing given the spectacular diversity of phasmid eggs. Impressive!

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Recent extinctions of plant and animal genera are rare, localized, and decelerated Recent research claims that extinctions of tetrapod genera are rapidly accelerating and threaten human survival. This study shows, through an analysis of recent extinctions, across plant and animal ge...

Quite interesting!

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

We’re offering a fully funded 4 yr PhD position to work on Sexual selection in complex environments at the @uv.es. Co-supervised by @dbergerbiol.bsky.social. Find details below 👇

The vibrant colours of a house-hunting crab — August’s best science image The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.

Beautiful photos and short videos here!

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Frilly bug feet inspire a water-striding robot Ripple bugs’ nimble movements on the surface of water inspired a robot with automatically unfurling fans on its feet.

If you want to walk on water, it helps to have fancy feet.

Brightfield image of an adult zebrafish caudal fin displaying a “truncate” shape and aberrant pigment pattern. This individual was exposed to transient overexpression of transgenic sonic hedgehog a at 2 days post fertilization, resulting in increased growth of rays at the center of the fin and disruption of the normally horizontal pigment stripes. Credit: Eric Surette and Stephanie Robinson.

Caudal fins show great variation in shape between diverse fish species. New research reveals that #developmental cues in embryonic tissues involving the Sonic hedgehog pathway imprint fin #morphology, highlighting a critical window for modulating appendage morphology. 🧪
plos.io/4mydLnA

An ancient enhancer rapidly evolving in the human lineage promotes neural development and cognitive flexibility HAR123 is a conserved enhancer rapidly evolving in the human lineage that exerts neural functions.

"While present in all mammals, the HAR123 enhancer rapidly evolved since humans diverged from chimpanzees. Human HAR123 uniquely regulates many genes involved in neural differentiation. HAR123-knockout mice exhibit impaired cognitive flexibility & shifts in neural-glia ratios in the hippocampus." 👇🧪

The SORTEE Guidelines for Data and Code Quality Control in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

Introducing "The SORTEE Guidelines for Data and Code Quality Control in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology"

The first standardised set of data editor guidelines. Led by SORTEE with input from numerous data editors across ecology and evolution.

🔗 doi.org/10.32942/X24...

Delving into LLM-assisted writing in biomedical publications through excess vocabulary Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can generate and revise text with human-level performance. These models come with clear limitations, can produce inaccurate information, and reinforce existing biases.

The appearance of large language models caused a drastic shift in the vocabulary of academic writing, according to an analysis in #ScienceAdvances of more than 15 million biomedical abstracts published from 2010 to 2024.

Learn more:

How easy is it to fudge your scientific rank? Meet Larry, the world’s most cited cat “Exercise in absurdity” reveals flaws in Google Scholar’s productivity metrics

Larry Richardson appeared to be an early-career mathematician with potential, racking up more than 130 citations in 4 years.

It would all be rather remarkable—if the studies weren’t complete gibberish. And if Larry wasn’t a cat. #InternationalCatDay scim.ag/4lg3wTp

Latest paper elifesciences.org/articles/107... closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6

"Behavior drives morphological change during human evolution"

Our new article is out in @science.org today

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

Podcast intéressant sur le deuil chez les animaux

Evolution of the Nonvisual and Visual Opsin Gene Repertoire in Ray-Finned Fishes Abstract. Photoreception—the detection of light for image formation (vision) as well as for nonimage-forming purposes (circadian regulation and DNA repair)

Policarpo et al. analyse 535 genomes to study opsin evolution across ray-finned fishes. Visual opsins are more prone to duplications and losses than nonvisual opsins; fish that rely on electroreception show a reduction in both opsin types.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf129

#genome #evolution #opsins

Hidden white and black feather layers enhance plumage coloration in tanagers and other songbirds Colorful songbirds use hidden white or black feather layers to enhance plumage color, an optical trick well known to artists.

Very nice study shows that hidden achromatic colours play a big role in plumage colour variation! #colsci

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

The optimistic brain: scans reveal thought patterns shared by positive thinkers Insights from brain imaging could have implications for mental-health research.

A brain signature for optimism but not for pessimism

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Electroreception in treehoppers: How extreme morphologies can increase electrical sensitivity | PNAS The link between form and function of an organism’s morphology is usually apparent or intuitive. However, some clades of organisms show remarkable ...

Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

This book is a mix of science and history as it relates how British naturalists from the XIX century witnessed the extinction of the Great Auk, which largely contributed to the realisation that humans could drive species towards extinction.