Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

An ice cream/ice lolly held up against the background of a German train station.

The “my train is delayed”-treat in the sunshine.
Life could be worse 🤷‍♂️☀️

Registrations are open for PADiBa2026!

New preprint 🌱
Segment plants in time-series images using foundation model SAM2 - without training a model 🪩. Magician Alex Abbey!
💡SAP works across species, scales, and even z-stacks.
From single cells to whole plants→ quantitative growth & dynamics .

tinyurl.com/3raedtvm

@biosofttau.bsky.social

A new chapter for open science 🧬
Plasmidsaurus is excited to announce a four-year strategic partnership with @addgene.bsky.social
Open science runs on verified materials.
Learn more: plasmidsaurus.com/news/a-new-c...

The Origins of Agar First introduced into laboratories in 1881, agar remains indispensable as a culture medium.

Another really interesting #SciHis Story by @asimovpress.bsky.social.

Goes to show that there are interesting and curious stories and facts in everything - even little things like Agar that seem simple and straightforward.
www.asimov.press/p/agar

#ScienceHistory #MolecularBiology #Agarose #Seaweed

RNA splicing generates a functionally specialized Rep protein isoform in geminiviruses — enabling timely control of the viral cycle. Strikingly, similar strategies might have evolved in DNA viruses infecting different kingdoms: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Spearheaded by @delphinem-p.bsky.social!

A yeast based dough that has risen well in a big metal bowl.

Lots of small balls of dough placed on baking sheets.

“Doughnuts” without holes. Called Berliner/Krapfen in German.

Celebrating Karneval/Fasching by making Berliner/Krapfen at home. 🧑‍🍳🎉

Open for registration now! 🌱

The new working group on Plant Biotechnology within the German Society for Plant Breeding will held its first workshop in March 2026.

I'm looking forward to an amazing meeting!

Please share!
PhD position (4 years) available in my group @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social. We look for candidates with solid aptitude in computer science to cross disciplines and use cutting edge imaging to understand host infection by destructive plant pathogens.
uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

Registration is now open! The 4th edition of the Mendel Early Career Symposium will take place on 21-22 May at the GMI, part of the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social. This two-day event brings together researchers across career stages to discuss the latest research in all areas of plant science.

So what you are saying is, that if a meeting could have been an email, and an email could have been a GIF, then a meeting could be replaced by a GIF? 🤔

*Me teaching the dark arts*
Showing a co-worker how to insert functional GIFs into an email. ✨

FBI frame-up of Indiana University postdoc Youhuang Xiang: Anti-China witch-hunt escalates The arrest and prosecution of Chinese researcher Youhuang Xiang, announced December 19 by FBI Director Kash Patel, is the latest episode in an FBI/Department of Justice campaign to criminalize scienti...

FBI frame-up of Indiana University postdoc Youhuang Xiang: Anti-China witch-hunt escalates
www.wsws.org/en/articles/...
I'd heard whispers of these arrests for carrying plasmids and bio materials across borders before, but someone just shared this detailed news report with me.
Please be careful.

Someone got Cas9-Turbo to work. It's like basically Y1H but with proteomics. It however requires transgenic plant expressing Cas9-Turbo and gRNAs, which is still cumbersome for many plants that are not Arabidopsis. #PlantSciences

Postdoc or Research Assistant in Fluorescent Biosensor Design - Vacancy at Aarhus University Vacancy at Department of Forensic Medicine - Retskemisk, Aarhus University

✨ Job Opportunity ✨
Postdoc or Research Assistant in Fluorescent Biosensor Design at Aarhus University - The project aims to develop a genetically encoded biosensor for the neurotransmitter serotonin with fluorescence lifetime as the read-out.
Details:
international.au.dk/about/profil...

Poster announcing the 3rd Early Career Plant Researchers Network Meeting, held 20–21 April 2026 in Halle (Saale), Germany. The event targets experienced PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in plant science and features scientific talks, career development and grant-writing workshops, and networking. Travel and accommodation are covered, and participants are registered for the 11th Leibniz Plant Biochemistry Symposium (22–24 April 2026). Application deadline: 23 January 2026. Website: plant-ecr-networking.eu.

Are you an experienced PhD student or postdoc in plant science looking to connect, present your work, and discuss career paths?
Join us at the 3rd Early Career Plant Researchers Network Meeting, Halle (Saale), 20–21 April 2026
Deadline: 23 January 2026
plant-ecr-networking.eu

Photo of the interior of award-winning Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University building. Glass walls look into the research labs and naturally lit staircase and walkway with study boxes looking into the Botanic Garden

Launch your own independent research group!

2x David Sainsbury Career Development Fellowships at @slcuplants.bsky.social

📆 Apply by 30 Jan 2026

More info:
👉 www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/careers/grou...
Job details:
👉 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/david-s...

Please share this post #PlantSciJobs #PlantSciJob

Happy New Year!! 🎉

We're pleased to be back with some exciting new opportunities which we will be sharing in the coming weeks.

We are again inviting host labs to share their projects for our 2026 BiPS Summer Studentships.

Head to our website for more details: buff.ly/g6vAJmM

Check out this exciting online and FREE mini symposium on roots, featuring not one but two Freiburg-based @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @dompsfr.bsky.social talks by @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social and @kevindaniel.bsky.social 🌱

Der "Genome Editing - WieWasWozu?"-Podcast startet eine neue Staffel.
Kompakt, präzise und unaufgeregt erläutern Fachleute im Gespräch mit Sabine Schuh verschiedene Aspekte zum Thema.
Die zwei ersten der neuen Folgen sind schon online: genomeediting.podcaster.de

Postdoctoral Researcher (Faulkner Group) | John Innes Centre An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Faulkner Group at the John Innes Centre, working on cutting-edge science in the field of Cell & Developmental Biology.

We're looking for a postdoc to join us in trying to map the routes by which different signals travel through plants and identify what information they carry. Link👇or get in touch! @johninnescentre.bsky.social

#PlantSciJobs

www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

A gel electrophoresis picture. It shows DNA of different sizes.

Happy New Year!
May all your PCRs give you only specific bands of the appropriate sizes. May your gel extraction and miniprep yields be high.
May your cloning always give you at least one correct colony, and your genotyping identify the mutants you are after. ✨

I’m only keeping the ones with lots of my own drawings or high emotional attachment. 😅

Piles of binders with lots of paper on a floor.

In preparation for the new year, today’s task is to sort all the notes from my undergrad and Master’s degrees for the proper recycling bins. 🙃

a group of people are holding hands in a circle with a purple light coming out of the middle . Alt: a group of people are holding hands in a circle with a purple light coming out of the middle .

Due to the combined powers of multiple elderly church ladies from my home village, I have a really good baked cheese cake recipe.

I’d happily translate it for that subaim from my recipe book, once I’m back in my apartment next week.

Are you going for baked or no-bake cheesecakes?

Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies an ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, pollination occurs via a synchronized rhythm of floral sex timing between two hermaphroditic flowering types. A-type plants present female-phase flo...

Did you know there are 2 types of avocado varieties? A-types switch from female to male, B-types male to female, within a single day. This reciprocal sex alternation promotes cross-pollination and has a simple genetic basis. Read more in this recent preprint from the final chapter of my PhD thesis 🥑

Pint jar filled with blue dry beans.

A few years ago, through luck and vibes, I managed to produce this blue colored bean variety.

This was an early step in trying to answer the question, [paraphrased] "Why isn't blue as common as red in beans, even though they're both anthocyanins and the plant has the genes for both?"

And yes, I spent two hours shovelling snow today. 😂

And yes, my family goes all out when making Christmas cookies. ✨