1. I’m quite happy with this popular piece that Lee Dugatkin and I wrote recently. For the next two weeks it’s free to read on the American Scientist website.
This is crazy
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
This is what the US has descended to, openly bombing universities.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/w...
Understanding the history and diversity of life inspires awe and wonder.
Determining whether sponges or ctenophores root the animal tree has important implications for understanding early animal evolution. Here, we examined support for these competing hypotheses by constru...
I appreciate someone took the time to write this. I profoundly disagree with their view, but if I take the spirit of what they're saying as a good faith attempt to raise a mental issue, there's at least a conversation to be had.
Let's have it 1/🧵
www.science.org/content/arti...
#AcademicChatter
Nikos Vakirlis
Nikos Vakirlis
Nikos Vakirlis
Carl T. Bergstrom
www.science.org
“It can competently perform a lot of the work I need immediately,” this professor writes
Are there biases in how novel functions emerge in evolution at the promoter, enhancer and protein-coding DNA level? In this perspective piece we argue that yes!
Led by @timothyfuqua.bsky.social
Nikos Vakirlis
New work on using transformers (using gene order) for tasks in genomic epidemiology:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We trained BART models (w/ extended context windows) on E.coli and S.pneumo from AllTheBacteria and tested if the model could find new strains, insertions (blaCTX-M) and co-selection
Drivers of cold adaptation and genome evolution in Antarctic fish, and a haplotype resolved assembly for an important model notothenioid species 🐟 🧬
Our new paper available on BioRxiv
#BiodiversityGenomics #ColdAdaptation
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
John Lees
Dear friends and fans of evolutionary biology & medicine (#EvMed), deadlines for the 2026 meeting in Kiel Germany are coming up. Looks to be excellent!
March 1, 2026: Abstract submission deadline and travel award decisions
April 1, 2026: Abstract decisions
open.substack.com/pub/evmedrev...
Two (or more) PhD student positions are open with me in protein structure evolution (using AI). Please apply/spread the word.
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Early discounted registration is also open
open.substack.com
The Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics SciLifeLab ( SciLifeLab ) is a national center for molecular biosciences with a focus on health and environmental research. The center combines frontl
