Evolutionary geneticist working with microbes. Absorbed by the curiosity of science and ideas. Department of Microbial Population Biology, MPI for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany & ESPCI, Paris, France.
Paul Rainey
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As a physicist transitioning to microbial ecology and evolution, The Gene, an intimate history, by Siddhartha Mukherjee was an amazing read - informative and unputdownable!
My review here: kaumudiprabhakara.github.io/book%20revie...
ETIs are usually framed as mergers among already-existing Darwinian entities. I suggest another route: lineages that generate, from within, a component that becomes part of a higher-level individual. Transmissible cancers reveal the boundary. Human–AI systems may test it.
doi.org/10.5802/crbi...
Bureaucracy is necessary. Unnecessary bureaucracy is not. It wastes time, erodes morale, damages wellbeing and smothers the creativity on which science depends. We need responsible governance, not administrative burden.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
New in Science Advances: A bacteriophage stayed genetically stable for months, then evolved rapidly in a new microbial community.
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3884217/viru...
@jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @paulbrainey.bsky.social @uni-jena.de @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social
I’ve started Academic Renewal, a Substack on research culture, scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge.
The first post asks how private concerns about academic life might become an open conversation about incentives, assessment and responsibility.
academicrenewal.substack.com/p/why-academ...
Pleased to see this beautiful paper out. Kudos to @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social who took @stevenquistad.bsky.social data and dug deep, revealing a new phage that erupts to astonishing abundance. As theory predicts, the life of SGEs is fuelled by encounters with new hosts
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Our piece about academic renewal is now out in the Times Higher Education. It deals with a familiar topic on which there have been multiple high-level declarations. We need to move beyond the symbolic. Early career researchers, pls read + ask questions!
www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/academ...
Major Evolutionary Transitions - humans & AI? A new paper argues, as we, that lessons from biology should not be ignored; shifts in the units of evolution are arguably closer than we think.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org/10.1098/rstb...
philsci-archive.pitt.edu/29301/
Does unnecessary bureaucracy cause you frustration, affect your work? This paper outlines some root causes and actions needed to address them. If you wish to contribute to the solution, disseminate and engage:
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Our paper "Gene ancestries reveal diverse microbial associations during eukaryogenesis.” is finally out in Nature.
Eukaryogenesis was likely a gradual process shaped by multiple microbial partners and virus-mediated gene transfer, rather than a single binary symbiosis.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Unnecessary bureaucracy is a global impediment to progress and productivity that increases stress and lowers workplace morale and motivation. In research it smothers creativity and innovation that ar...
High-level declarations pledging not to misuse metrics in research assessment are important, but they are far from enough. Senior academics, in particular, must use their influence to ensure instituti...
