Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026🚨🚨 1. New preprint! We examine whether the diversity of transcontinental freshwater fish radiations, such as killifishes and cichlids, might be driven by marine ancestry in the aftermath of an asteroid impact! Retained salinity tolerance explains their biogeography and diversity! 13111
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinJohn P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026In the face of escalating White House attacks about how museums present American history, Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart. ☹️nytimes.comSmithsonian’s Secretary to Resign as Trump Tries to Rule the InstitutionIn the face of escalating White House attacks about how museums present American history, Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart. 074
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinLiam U. Taylor @liamtaylor.bsky.social · 08/09/2026The world's best mathematicians constantly trying to explain to the world's greediest computer scientists that solving the problem wasn't the actual point is almost, almost, almost funny 162
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 29/06/20261/12 🚨🚨 I am so excited to share chapter 1 of my dissertation, now preprinted here: biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We ask if are their fundamental, shared mechanisms that stop us from inferring the relationship of species and their timescale of divergence #biology #science 15122
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Please join me next Tuesday at 3:15 PM (Room 21) at #Evol2026 to learn about the complex history of complex trait loss, extinction, and evolutionary radiation in extreme ecosystems in a clade of thousands of fishes! 0279
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 22/04/20261/10 🚨🚨🚨 New paper on dinosaur evolution! Chris Griffin and I look at why we can't seem to figure out how the major groups are related! It might be a hint about how dinosaurs came to be! Photo: Anchisaurus @yalepeabodymuseum royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... 12814
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 13/03/2026Glad to see our work @tjnear.bsky.social being covered in Nature! I look forward to both preprints being published, and I want to add that it appears genomes AGREE with morphology, and REFUTE the mtDNA-based hypothesis that was controversial when it first appeared! www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comNo such thing as a shark? Genomes shake up ocean predator’s family treeSharks might not be a natural biological group, with most species potentially closer kin to rays than to an oddball group of sharks. 072
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 11/03/2026 40-44 (GOP combined) in MTG's seat. Republicans are COOKED in November god DAYUM 000
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 15/02/20261/10 ⏰⏰ New stuff from me & @tjnear.bsky.social ! We show that sharks themselves might not be a natural group ... it depends on what spots in the genome you analyze! Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 25521
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 09/08/20251/16 🚨🚨 New paper!! I am thrilled to share our study that uses fossils, genomes, and a bit of geology to investigate how many times cavefishes evolved, and how they can help us figure out the ages of caves themselves! Link: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... 22311
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinLife Science Studios - Scientific Illustration @lifesciencestudios.bsky.social · 03/06/2025Anytime a fish has stripes or spots, they all have to be painted on at the end, after I’ve nearly completed the painting. It always makes me nervous! This is Percina caprodes, the common logperch. #teamfish #sciart 616023
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 03/06/2025thebulwark.comRFK Jr. May Have Just Ruined Our Best Weapon Against Bird FluHe just made two bad decisions on vaccines, and he made them in the worst way possible. 621653
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinJacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 22/05/2025A large proportion of these canceled awards are focused on broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM, which NSF was mandated to do by Congress. At what point does Congress plan to act to restore the balance of power? 59237
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinMatt Lesser @mattlesser.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Connecticut has long been a cash cow for the federal government. But now the federal administration is threatening to withhold funds we are legally entitled to - in defiance of court orders. If they do, we should return the favor and stop collecting money for the feds. 1020448
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 16/05/2025Awesome new paper from @prosanta.bsky.social, Melanie Stiassny, et al! academic.oup.com/sysbio/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sysbio/syaf032/8129685?login=trueacademic.oup.comPhylogenomic and Population Genomic Analyses of Ultraconserved Elements Reveal Deep Coalescence and Introgression Shaped Diversification Patterns in Lamprologine Cichlids of the Congo RiverAbstract. Understanding the drivers of diversification is a central goal in evolutionary biology but can be challenging when lineages radiate quickly and/o 050
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinSteve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 13/05/2025Immigration policy in my two countries, 2025: 🇺🇸No longer give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, only white people who didn’t like that apartheid ended 🇬🇧Stay away all of you squalid strangers 3284
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 12/05/2025Even the Trojans weren't stupid enough to get IN the horse. 281309255
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinDr Rasu Shrestha @rasushrestha.bsky.social · 10/05/2025Diary of Anne Frank, January 13, 1943 These words, though written during one of the darkest chapters in human history, echo eerily in our modern world. 💔A timeless reminder of the consequences of indifference and the necessity of standing up for humanity. 613157
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinRebecca Wynter @rebeccawynter.bsky.social · 10/05/2025So weird that they're just letting everything fall into the sea - the NHS, universities, people with disabilities, civil rights. They've locked in their own failure. There absolutely was coming back from 2010, 16, 19. Then they got elected and nailed shut their own coffin from the inside. 18115
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinGovernor Phil Murphy @govmurphy.bsky.social · 09/05/2025I am outraged by the unjust arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka earlier this afternoon outside of Delaney Hall in Newark. I am calling for his immediate release by federal law enforcement. 1051212905915
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinAbu Aardvark @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 09/05/202585% of political scientists say antisemitism not a major problem in their campus - in line with the results of our MESB survey - and over 90% see pressure on universities over it as a threat to democracy abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/antisemitism...abuaardvarkghost.ghost.ioAntisemitism crisis on campus? 85% of political scientists say no.Plus, a rich new weekly roundup of scholarship on the Middle East. As regular readers know, Shibley Telhami and I have for several years been tracking the views of Middle East academic experts about ... 816535
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinLife Science Studios - Scientific Illustration @lifesciencestudios.bsky.social · 09/05/2025These #fish paintings were created for a research paper led by @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social and published this week in Science Advances. It's always a pleasure painting fish for Chase and his co-authors! Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgPhylogenomics establishes an Early Miocene reconstruction of reef vertebrate diversityPhylogenomics reveals a younger-than-expected age of reef fish diversification. 1164
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinJacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 07/05/2025This is how I feel, too. I think a large part of how we got here is that test-based K-12 education is so deeply flawed. There is almost no reading or writing compared to when I was in school. Then, when students hit college they've never practiced those skills, so of course turn to LLM's. 2448093
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinTaniel @taniel.bsky.social · 04/05/2025RESULT: Voters in Mansfield, Texas, have ousted three conservative members of their local school board tonight. This is a school board that has been at the frontlines of book-banning in Texas, as you can see here: fortworthreport.org/2025/03/19/m... 455036972
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinProsanta Chakrabarty @prosanta.bsky.social · 03/05/2025Coelacanths illuminate deep-time evolution of cranial musculature in jawed vertebrates. By Aléssio Datovo & G. David Johnson Sci. Adv. 2025 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgCoelacanths illuminate deep-time evolution of cranial musculature in jawed vertebratesRevised coelacanth cranial muscle anatomy reveals previously unknown evolutionary innovations and redefines gnathostome muscle evolution. 05920
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinDr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 03/05/2025This is a good time to talk about what an absolute beast the measles virus is. Remember the R0 score during the pandemic and how we tried to push it below 1 in order to curb the spread? Measle’s R0 goes up to 18. You can catch measles by stepping into an empty elevator. That vaccine was a godsend. 17727
Reposted by Chase Brownsteinc0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 01/05/2025Just to be clear, this is a violation of the fundamental ethical principle in clinical trial design called "equipoise." Equipoise means that no-one is exposed to excess risk just to test the therapy. That's specifically *why* vaccine trials don't use placebo arms. Ethical violation as POLICY.reuters.comRobert F. Kennedy Jr will require all new vaccines to undergo placebo testing, WaPo reportsU.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr intends to shift the way vaccines are tested, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a spokesperson from the HHS. 524121394490
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinSteve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Freezing *ALL* science funding? What a way to make a country great. This seems a precursor to something bigger. Total elimination of the NSF and public funding of science? Like with international aid (USAID)? 🚨Speak up, we can't allow this to happen. 13010
Reposted by Chase Brownsteinjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/05/2025i will say again that given the trajectory of the white house so far, strident opposition a la 2017 would have absolutely been the most prudent and effective decision and the absence of that opposition in the first two months made things demonstrably worse. 243172452157
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 01/05/2025Something uplifting: yes, I had an NSF grant cancelled yesterday, but I spent today at (via zoom) a @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop where a dozen brilliant colleagues discussed how biological systems acquire, process, store, and transmit information in order to deal with environmental uncertainty.santafe.eduMeeting SynopsisRecent years have seen significant theoretical and methodological advances in understanding how environmental information is encoded within genetic, sensory, and immune systems. However, much of this ... 532226
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 30/04/2025Not just an inverse correlation, a direct inverse correlation! 134102196
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinEmily St. John Mandel @emilymandel.bsky.social · 30/04/2025“And I’m like, what do you mean, you ‘do your own research’? You running a double-blind study in your living room, dawg?” - A guy walking ahead of me with his friends on a NYC sidewalk in 2021, also my favorite overheard dialogue of the entire pandemic 740270806670
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinAmerican Fisheries Society @amfisheriessoc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025Under Trump, US retreats from global #fisheries and oceans leadership: news.mongabay.com/2025/04/unde...news.mongabay.comUnder Trump, US retreats from global fisheries and oceans leadershipThis is Part 2 of a two-part series on fisheries management and oceans governance under the second Trump administration, which took office Jan. 20. Part 1 looks at the potential impacts that cuts and ... 089
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinIan Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 29/04/2025Please highlight this story. ICE stormed into the wrong house, trashed the place, and made women/girls stand outside in the rain in their underwear. ICE also stole phones, laptops, and cash savings from the family, who moved to OKC two weeks ago. kfor.com/news/local/w...kfor.com'We're citizens!': Oklahoma City family traumatized after ICE raids home, but they weren't suspectsA woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops, and life savings – even though they were … 12702178013593
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinBen Wikler @benwikler.bsky.social · 25/04/2025NEW: Statement from attorney for Judge Dugan. "Hannah C. Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge. Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously, and looks forward to being exonerated."jsonline.comMilwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan charged with 2 felonies in ICE caseBrady McCarron, spokesman for U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C., confirmed Dugan was arrested at about 8 a.m. at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and is in federal custody. 564222945908
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/04/2025Just to be clear, we reached the arresting-judges-and-deporting-US-citizens-without-due-process stage of the slide into authoritarianism today. And the citizens in question included a toddler and a child with cancer who needs treatment in the US.aclu.orgICE Deports 3 U.S. Citizen Children Held Incommunicado Prior to the Deportation | American Civil Liberties UnionFamilies disappeared and isolated without legal access; one child with cancer deported without medication and pregnant mother deported as well 11810333
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/04/2025"Ed Martin accuses [wikipedia] of allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda." Wait, this Ed Martin? "[Ed Martin], Trump's DC US attorney pick appeared on Russian state media over 150 times" 835979
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinAnthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 26/04/2025Quote: "Land and sea use change was the most prevalent threat to US imperiled species (82%), followed by climate change (72%), invasive species (52%), pollution (34%), and overexploitation (32%)" academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...academic.oup.comUS Imperiled species and the five drivers of biodiversity lossAbstract. We synthesized reported threats to US imperiled species to identify which of the five predominant drivers of biodiversity loss—climate change, in 084
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 25/04/20251/10 🚨🚨 New paper with @tjnear.bsky.social! Here, we revise the systematics of sturgeons using a phylogenetic approach! We confirm an Early Cretaceous origin for the sturgeon total clade and resurrect several genera for living species! 22711
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinTaniel @taniel.bsky.social · 25/04/2025DOGE's firings, and the ways they did it, will cost the federal government $135 billion this fiscal year, www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/u...nytimes.comElon Musk and DOGE’s Savings May Be Erased by New CostsAn expert on the federal work force estimates that the speed and chaos of Mr. Musk’s cuts to the bureaucracy will cost taxpayers $135 billion this fiscal year. 32740331
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinTaniel @taniel.bsky.social · 25/04/2025The FBI has *ARRESTED* a sitting judge in Milwaukee, over allegations it obstructed immigration enforcement. abcnews.go.com/US/judge-han...abcnews.go.comJudge Hannah Dugan arrested by FBI for allegedly helping undocumented immigrant 'evade arrest'A Milwaukee County circuit judge has been arrested by the FBI over allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant "evade arrest," according to FBI Director Kash Patel. 1231796712
Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 23/04/2025New paper with Michael Caldwell, Mike Lee, Tiago Simoes, Dalton Meyer, and Simon Scarpetta! In it, we respond to claims that †Cryptovaranoides is a squamate, and show that they are indefensible. t.co/MLjFcy5ivx 132
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinTom Near @tjnear.bsky.social · 23/04/20251/10 Excited to introduce two new species of darters, the beautiful Gurley Darter and Birmingham Darter in a #NearLab paper led by @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social and made possible by the fish collections at Yale Peabody Museum royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... 13011
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinJean V. Adams @jvacreate.bsky.social · 20/04/2025Ugh. This is my former agency, where I spent much of my career on Great Lakes fish research. www.science.org/content/arti...science.orgTrump swings budget ax at USGS biology researchPlan to eliminate $307 million ecosystem program could face obstacles in Congress 011
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinTimothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 19/04/2025"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work. snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...snyder.substack.comTwenty Lessons, read by John LithgowKey selections from On Tyranny, for viewing and sharing 487204335307
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinJacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Let this sink in: the Trump Administration has characterized fighting misinformation/disinformation as "not a priority" for our taxpayer-funded research agency. 1118250
Reposted by Chase BrownsteinJeanne Timmons @mostlymammoths.bsky.social · 20/04/2025At the protest in #Concord, NH today. Larger crowd than the last one! (Wasn't able to get a lot of pictures today.) 🧵 #NoKings #HandsOff #DueProcessForAll 2123