The Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026!

This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution.

To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca

@sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky

Sign up for one (or both) of our NEW Micro-certificate courses: Introduction to the Sustainable Blue Economy and Communicating Ocean Science. Both start in May. Not sure? Attend our online Info Session on April 8 @ 12 noon. https://oceans.ubc.ca/non-credit-courses/extended-learning/

Sign up for one (or both) of our NEW Micro-certificate courses: Introduction to the Sustainable Blue Economy and Communicating Ocean Science. Both start in May. Not sure? Attend our online Info Session on April 8 @ 12 noon.
oceans.ubc.ca/non-credit-c...

UCLA's Most Decorated Ecologist Just Got Fired : Here's the sequence In January of 2025, at the ICTP ICTS winter school at NCBS, Priyanga Amarasekare offered to take me and a few other students out for my birthday. She didn't have to do that.

Insightful summary of an extraordinary person being extraordinarily fired: "you don't silence a woman of color who raised concerns about racism by silencing her...The fingerprints are distributed perfectly across the system." www.linkedin.com/pulse/uclas-...

Vancouver is ranked as the happiest city in North America happy-city-index.com/institute. OK, only 39th in the World, but happier than our grumpy neighbours to the South. Maybe we are happy because of Kits Pool?

UBC alumna and astronaut Jessica Meir to speak live from the space station UBC alumna and NASA astronaut Dr. Jessica Meir will connect live from the ISS to answer student questions in a special event at UBC on March 26. Media are invited to attend the session in person.

Live from the ISS: UBC alumna and NASA astronaut Dr. Jessica Meir will answer student questions in a special on-campus event March 26. Media are invited to attend.

Read more: news.ubc.ca/advisory/ubc...

Welcome Ramon!

I learned the very sad news today that Markus Weinbauer passed away. Markus shaped our views of marine viral ecology. The pic shows the lab in the early days @utmsi.bsky.social. Full marks if you recognize Markus, Steve Wilhelm @tn-marine-micro.bsky.social, Amy Chan, Feng Chen, Steve Short & me.

Thanks for the shout out and congrats to my colleagues! Torella & Morita first recognized the abundance of viruses in seawater journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/..., and work led by @jedfuhrman.bsky.social and Gunnar Bratbak at Bergen primed the modern era.

#ProtistsOnSky
no 'swimming' by 𝘝𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢, definitively no 'staying still'. just a relaxed walk towards the lunch...

Glowing bacterial sensors detect gut illness in mice before symptoms emerge UBC researchers have engineered gut bacteria that dim their fluorescent glow in the presence of illness.

Excited to share our latest publication, led by Dr. Ellie McCallum and Juan Burckhardt!
bit.ly/4kfzQaf
You can access the article for free here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mWb4L7PXu... And more information is available on the updated preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

To Grasp the Power of Carney’s Davos Speech, Let’s Break It Down | The Tyee The full text, annotated for meaning and impact.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s message is this unspoken antithesis of Carney as the future and Trump as the past.

Trump surely went to Davos to remind the world who controls the puck. But his notorious lack of attention span keeps him unable to see that the game is changing, writes Chris Cannon.

Alert! Alert!

Dean of Science and UBC chemist Dr. Mark MacLachlan has a science themed crossword in the New York Times. "This puzzle’s theme idea came to me when I got one of those pesky error messages on my computer," Dr. MacLachlan said. @chem.ubc.ca

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/c...

Are you hiring in academia, healthcare, biotech, or industry? Share your open role on the Science in Vancouver Job Board!

🧪 Free to post
🥼 Built for the Vancouver life science community

We help great science find great people. Submit your job today: https://bit.ly/49FdATy

Great Speech - well worth taking the time to read

"Seasonal enhancement of the viral shunt catalyzes a subsurface oxygen maximum in the Sargasso Sea" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-67002-1

Viruses transform microbes, populations, & ecosystems.

In new work jointly led w/@tn-marine-micro.bsky.social + more, we find a link between enhanced viral infection and productivity 50 meters below the surface in the otherwise nutrient limited Sargasso Sea.

a 🧵

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

NIOZ - Postdoc position: Mortality and virus-host interactions of phytoplankton in Arctic winters under warming The Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry (MMB) of NIOZ is looking for a talented and dedicated Postdoctoral scientist to join our research on marine virus ecology. You will be part of

Postdoc position available, on Arctic phytoplankton mortality and viral ecology -- Check it out!

workingat.nioz.nl/o/postdoc-po...

Canada’s Healthcare Infusions | Notion Across Canada, communities are struggling to keep their hospitals and clinics fully staffed.

Are you a healthcare worker potentially interested in relocating to Canada? Check out the Healthcare infusion, a volunteer-driven national movement connecting doctors, nurses, and allied healthcare professionals with the people and places that need them most engageq.notion.site/infusionhosts

15 January is the deadline to file a brief Expression of Interest to be nominated for a Canada Impact Chair @UBC. Only candidates working and residing outside of Canada are eligible to apply, including expatriate Canadians. More info and the EOI portal are at research.ubc.ca/federal-rese...

The Canada Impact Chair program has been announced for research leaders www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl.... The Chairs provide up to $12M in funding. If you think UBC might be the place to continue your career, please let us know by submitting an expression of interest at research.ubc.ca/federal-rese...

Promotional image for PLOS Ecosystems featuring a clear river bordered by lush foliage, inviting submissions to become part of a global community of scholars. The text emphasizes the commitment to accessible and widely disseminated rigorous research.

Now open for submissions: PLOS Ecosystems is a multidisciplinary, open access journal bringing together research relevant to addressing the challenges facing our terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and nature's contributions to people.

Submit and learn more: plos.io/4oYuRvR

The Department of Physics & Astronomy invites young scientists and their families to our free science show on Sunday November 30, 2025 on UBC campus! Come explore science with us as we 'Expand our Senses and movements with Tech!' phas.ubc.ca/2025-faraday... @triumflab.bsky.social @science.ubc.ca

Applications are now open for two two-year UBC Biodiversity Postdoc Fellowships biodiversity.ubc.ca/training-and.... $77,000 /y + benefits and $7000 /y research funds.

When you peak inside an oyster, it's remarkable what one finds. Rather than "The world is my oyster" sensu William Shakespeare, it should be changed to "The world is an oyster", as a metaphor of the vast diversity of life residing within these humble molluscs; there are magnificent microbes within.

Marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent with global warming, but could they in turn exacerbate climate change? In a new study, Steven Hallam's team reports that spurts of intense ocean warming can impact microbial community structure and carbon cycling: mbim.ubc.ca/news/marine-...

The social lives of viruses | Asher Leeks | TEDxNewEngland YouTube video by TEDx Talks

I gave a talk last year at TEDxNewEngland aimed at introducing the idea of viral sociality to a general audience, including implications for evolution & virology. Video now available online below.

#socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪

Come join us at UBC!

ARCUS Final ARCUS Community Call YouTube video by Arctic Research Consortium of the United States

Another casualty of the time, after nearly four decades, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) is shutting down www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDtm....

Opinion: DFO’s flawed science leaves wild salmon vulnerable to disease As government finalizes plan to transition away from open-net pen salmon farming in B.C., decision-makers must receive robust science advice

As the government finalizes its plan to transition away from open-net pen #salmon farming in B.C., it is crucial that decision-makers have a clear pathway to receive robust #science advice - Dr. Gideon Mordecai vancouversun.com/opinion/op-e... via @vancouversun.bsky.social @science.ubc.ca

Some viruses like to cheat – and that may be good for our health Mutations can result in viruses that infect cells, but can't copy themselves without help from other viruses - now it seems these cheats may outnumber normal viruses in a third of influenza cases, red...

In as much as a third of flu infections, parasitic "cheating" viruses 🦠 come to outnumber normal viruses - which helps limit the severity of infections 🧪

That's what @asherleeks.bsky.social and co have found by analysing sequencing data

www.newscientist.com/article/2496...

Are you a recent PhD interested in a postdoc in Canada? Up to 20% of NSERC Postdoc Fellowships (70k/y for 2y) will be awarded to International applicants, who did their PhD outside of Canada. Deadline is 17 October. See: www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etu...