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Elizabeth Ostrowski

@elizostrow.bsky.social
1.2K followers 752 following 234 posts

Evolutionary genomics, genetic conflict, (micro)chimerism. Long-read sequencing proselytiser. 🇺🇸→ 🇳🇿 →🇺🇸 (sigh). Personal account. ecoevo.social/@elizostrow

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Reposted by Elizabeth Ostrowski
samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 28/07/2026
the current NZ govt is so anti-science that they've changed eligibility for the Prime Minister's Science Prizes to rule out awards to people doing basic science eg from 2026 the MacDiarmid is for work with "potential to generate econ, health, social, or env benefits for New Zealand" #nzpol
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Dan Quintana @dsquintana.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
I just rebuilt my website using Quarto 🎉 My publication list generates itself from my Zotero library, and papers include links to materials and OA versions. The website's first post is on how to build your own, featuring an app that does all the coding for you: dsquintana.com/posts/quarto...
Screenshot of Daniel S. Quintana's academic homepage. A circular profile photo of me sits above my name, title "Professor of Psychology · University of Oslo," and buttons for Email, Scholar, ORCID, OSF, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and YouTube. To the right, a bio describes him as a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oslo leading a lab on biological systems linking psychological and social factors to health, focused on neuroendocrine systems and the autonomic nervous system. Below are "Research interests" (oxytocin system in health and wellbeing, cardiac psychophysiology, evidence synthesis, meta-science) and "Featured papers" listing two publications with titles, authors, journals, and brief descriptions.Screenshot of the Publications page, introducing the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Lab and noting that preprints and materials are linked where available. Under a "2026" heading, five publication entries are listed with full citations (authors, year, title, journal, DOI links), each tagged with badges like "Data & code," "Preprint," or "Open access article."Screenshot of the Talks page, noting that slides are posted on OSF. Under "2026," two talks are listed: "Recalibrating human oxytocin research: from methods to function to theory" (Harvard Interdisciplinary Oxytocin Research Initiative, online) and "Social media for academics" (NMBU, in-person), each with a "Slides" link. Under "2025," three more talks are listed: "Open science intro for psychology master students," "Start-up scholar workshop," and "Synthetic data workshop," all at the University of Oslo, in-person, each with a "Slides" link.Screenshot of a blog post titled "How to create a simple academic website," tagged "Website" and "Quarto," authored by Daniel S. Quintana and published July 25, 2026. The text explains that the site was built using the Quarto publishing system, describes advantages over his previous R-based approach (easier Zotero-based publication updates, links to open data/code, and open-access versions of paywalled papers), and introduces two methods for readers to build a similar site: cloning the GitHub repo or using a Shiny web app that generates the code with the user's own info.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 04/07/2026
1. A bit of evolutionary biology. I'm really intrigued by a new perspective piece from Steve Frank that explores connections between how natural selection creates systems that generalize and recent work in machine learning about the surprising capabilities of massively overparameterized systems.
academic.oup.com
Generalization as the great leap in evolvability: insights from machine learning
Abstract. Natural selection encodes learned information in the genome. Learned solutions may be tuned specifically to past challenges, failing in altered e
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
NZ science funding is starting to feel like some sort of shell game. Scramble things so many times, no one notices science being robbed b2bnews.co.nz/news/marsden...
b2bnews.co.nz
Marsden Fund cut 29% as NZ kills blue-sky research funding
New Zealand's flagship discovery research fund is running its final round before being absorbed into a government-directed system. The 29% funding cut lands on a country that already spends half the O...
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Reposted by Elizabeth Ostrowski
G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 14/03/2026
I realize that to people outside the PNW this is just an interesting news item, but if you're in the PNW, where tracking orca pods is a local religion, this is basically like being visited by alien gods
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
View from the lab today ❄️🌲😯
Big window with evergreen trees covered in snow.
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
I am looking for wide-ranging mammalian DNA samples for a class I am developing. Especially sought-after would be parent-offspring paired samples. Please retweet (re-skeet?), thank you!
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
I am looking for wide-ranging mammalian DNA samples for a class I am developing. Especially sought-after would be parent-offspring paired samples. Please retweet (re-skeet?), thank you!
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Rookie mistake, returning to the US: signed up for an FSA and forgot about it. In other (not unrelated) news, I am the proud new owner of a fancy foot massager 🙃
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Reposted by Elizabeth Ostrowski
Tom Wenseleers @twenseleers.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
In our new study we were the first to experimentally simulate the origin of sociality! By controlling how many wasp 🐝daughters could help their mom, we found that early helpers don't just add to colony success—they multiply it!
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Here is a video that I think might be the best I’ve seen to give students an idea of what is involved in transfers and competitions. I’d like something less detailed/ specific to LTEE, though, while still covering logistics www.jove.com/v/65342/dail...
jove.com
Video: Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli
4.1K Views. The University of Texas at Austin. In 1988, Richard Lenski began an evolution experiment. He filled 12 Erlenmeyer flasks with a glucose-limited defined growth medium known as DM25. He ino...
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Hypothesis Fund @hypothesisfund.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
4/ #DYK during pregnancy🤰, cells are exchanged between mothers + offspring, & even twins? Awardee @elizostrow.bsky.social will study how microchimerism mediates genetic conflict and drive resource competition. 🍾 Congrats Dr. Ostrowski! @uwbothell.bsky.social 🙏 #HFScout @paulturnerlab.bsky.social
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Hypothesis Fund @hypothesisfund.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
3/ Awardee @mixotrophe.bsky.social aims to uncover how mixotrophs (marine microbes that harness energy from the 🌞 & organic matter) strategize their metabolisms. Her project may be key to understanding our changing ocean. 🎉 Congrats Dr. Moeller! @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social 🙏 #HFScout Ginger Armbrust
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Hypothesis Fund @hypothesisfund.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
2/ Awardee @megbehri.bsky.social will study how chaotic dynamics arise in microbial🦠 populations. Her research could transform how we predict microbiome dysbiosis across human health and beyond. 🥳 Congrats Dr. Behringer! @vuartsci.bsky.social 🙏 #HFScout @paulturnerlab.bsky.social
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Hypothesis Fund @hypothesisfund.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
✨Announcing our newest awardees, who are taking scientific leaps to uncover new knowledge across microbial ecology, marine microbiology, and mammalian genetics. Learn about their projects: bit.ly/HFAwardees Meet our awardees and hear from their #HFScouts in our 🧵/1
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Mark O. Martin @markowenmartin.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
I’m watching this! I could use the resources too.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
"are you enjoying duo mobile" does a hamburger enjoy being made of quarks. does a fish enjoy linear time. does the mountain enjoy the first taste of a cup of hot chocolate when you get back to the ski lodge. your question means nothing to me. i couldn't enjoy duo mobile even if i tried
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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Amazing example of influenza cheat/cooperator cycles in this recent paper - the repeatability of the oscillatory cycles is so striking Congrats to @alnajifg.bsky.social , @christopherbrooke.bsky.social , @vignuzzilab.bsky.social & friends www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧪 #socialviruses
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Does anyone have a favorite experimental evolution overview for undergraduates? Ideally one that goes into the details of fitness assays, marking strains, etc. Everything I’ve found doesn’t dig into the details sufficiently.
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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 24/11/2025
Treating emergent traits of the microbiome like quantitative genetic traits of the host reveals how environmentally acquired symbionts can contribute to hosts' adaptation
buff.ly
Quantitative genetics of microbiome-mediated traits
Microbiomes, the complex communities of microorganisms associated with multicellular hosts, play a vital role in shaping host traits and fitness. But how d
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Te Ara Paerangi Com - Research Advocacy Capability @te-ara-paerangi.community · 06/11/2025
David became a freelance bioinformatician due to the situation he describes 👇. Freelance workers are typically looking for the next contract. That's how it is. Maybe we could boost this signal so that people who appreciate David's experience and principles can find him?
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Frank Ashwood @frankashwood.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
These are the beautiful spore-producing structures of plasmodial slime molds. Which is your favourite colour? Originally considered Fungi, they are now classed as Ameobozoans - single celled organisms with thousands of nuclei... not animals or fungi but something else entirely! #SoilBiodiversity 🧪
A photograph of a slime mold fruiting body on a log. The slime mold is a round orange blob on a transparent stalk.A photograph of slime mold fruiting bodies on a log. The slime molds are a round white blobs on transparent stalks.A photograph of slime mold fruiting bodies on a log. The slime molds are a round black blobs on red stalks.
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James McInerney @jomcinerney.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Here in the uk, the government has found that £1 of spending on R&D results in £8 of benefit: www.gov.uk/government/p...
gov.uk
The value of public R&D
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Will I ever stop having that dream where I’ve forgotten that I signed up for a class, and today is the final? 😰
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 28/10/2025
I appear to have spoken to a reporter who took seriously the gravity of NZ's science crisis does anybody have a newsroom pro subscription so that I can learn what other choice phrases I used on the record? newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/29/w...
newsroom.co.nz
Winner of top science prize blames ‘batshit’ Budget for brain drain
Dr Samuel Mehr says the Government values science, but their ‘idiotic’ approach to funding it will cost them their best and brightest.
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Why can’t I have more content like this?
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
OMG
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Heng Li @lh3lh3.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Do you know ~60% of human SVs fall in ~1% of GRCh38? See our new preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2509.23057 and the companion blog post on how we started this project and longdust: lh3.github.io/2025/09/29/o.... Work with Alvin Qin
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Reposted by Elizabeth Ostrowski
Puget Sound Whale Sightings @pugetsoundwhales.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
☔💦 Sun, Sep 21 A sublime summery 8 days it's been w/J pod inland Puget Sound. Especially wild their South Sound foray, their first in decades. Orcas reported this morn in Admiralty Inlet. Is it Js leaving? 📸 J pod Double spyhop! Taken from atop Tacoma Narrows Bridge. By Jolena Tagg 9/20. #psws
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Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
There's always something new to see. This absolutely wild little thing is the insect-egg slime mould (Leocarpus fragilis). Each fruiting body is about 1.5 mm long. Bob Orr Pond Trail, Caughey-Taylor Preserve (Nature Trust NB), near St. Andrews, New Brunswick.
Closeup of a slime mold on a small log. The slime mold is fruiting, with  hundreds of small oblong red-orange fruits. Each is about the shape of a Tic-Tac, but only about 1.5 mm long. They are coming from the remnants of a silvery-grey reticulated plasmodium.
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José R Penadés @jrpenades.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species. @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
Chimeric infective particles expand species boundaries in phage-inducible chromosomal island mobilization
Capsid-forming PICIs (cf-PICIs) produce their own capsids and exploit phage tails from unrelated species to transfer their DNA across bacterial hosts. This tail piracy enables broad dissemination and ...
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
I love old Dicty papers. Look at this one (from 1987) depicting the morphological changes as Dicty slugs migrate. Apparently their heads (“tips”) bob up and down. Adorable
Graph of tip height (0-300 microns) vs time in minutes (0-50 min) of Dictyostelium slugs, with cartoons of the slugs at the top. The graph oscillates, indicating the front tip of the slug bobs up and down as they move
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Paul Gardner @ppgardne.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Are you looking for a lectureship in biochemistry, molecular genetics, or bioinformatics? Come and enjoy the greatest place for kayak fishing and a fun research+teaching career. *there are other fun things to do here too.
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Kia ora Aotearoa, it’s so good to be back! ☕️
Flat white with a perfect latte art flower
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Maria Rebolleda-Gomez @mrebolleda.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
We organized this one: academic.oup.com/femsle/artic... in 2024. It is coming back in 2026 with 2 hubs in the US (Michigan and SoCal). It was a great experience
academic.oup.com
MEEhubs2024: A hub-based conference on microbial ecology and evolution fostering sustainability
This paper presents a multi-hub conference on microbial ecology and evolution, analyzing participant and organizer feedback to provide a template and recom
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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Groups of people self-organized in other locations. Some may have driven an hour to get to the other locations but it wasn't a cross-country plane ride. One person in each location was a point person to lead the activities in that locations. "Activities" were things like think-pair-shares, 🧵
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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
So many important things are discussed at conferences. When international travel is dangerous & science is under threat & research funding is being slashed & we know how bad flying is for the climate & we have technology to make it happen, the fact that all conferences aren't hybrid is wild. 🧪
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Apparently NZ’ers are just as obsessed with Costco’s NZ butter as the rest of us. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
rnz.co.nz
Demand for $10 a kg Costco butter sends queues out the door
Shoppers at Costco say they're saving hundreds by queuing for slabs of the $10/kg butter.
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
And this population has definitely been overtaken by the so-called “wrinkly spreaders”. I don’t know about the more gnarled looking one, which I’ve seen more than once
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
First peek at our class evolution experiment this quarter — diverse Pseudomonas fluorescens colony morphologies in response to predation by amoebae.
Four distinct colonies morphologies of Pseudomonas fluorescens in a single field of view under the microscope. Smooth and dark, smooth and light, fuzzy, and wrinkly
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
A little joyful practice in Seattle (in common with New Zealand) is that riders shout out a thank you to the bus driver ☺️
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Marta Álvarez-Presas @martaalvarez.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
The website for our EMBO workshop is live now. Don't miss this opportunity to join us in a meeting that aims gathering all experts working on multicellularity. We will welcome you in the nice Barcelona in October! @multicellgenome.bsky.social @prbb.org @embo.org meetings.embo.org/event/25-mul...
meetings.embo.org
Evolution and origins of multicellularity across the tree of life
The study of the origins and evolution of multicellularity in different lineages has recently captured the attention of many research groups and is fueling the generation of numerous innovative resea…
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Wolf’s milk slime mold, Discovery Park, Seattle. Kid made me SO proud… (1/4)
Fruiting bodies of Lycogala epidendrum (wolf’s milk) slime mold on a dead tree. These are older and therefore brown, but one blob is less old and bright orange. This species can vary from bubble gum pink to bright orange in color and becomes brownish as the fruiting structures mature.
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
So, how much is everyone being charged for IDT custom oligos these days? I got a fresh quote for 2X what I paid a few months ago in NZ, and 4X what I paid at the Univ of Houston. (At UH, we also got free shipping.)
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Also wondering if people have maybe used flatbed scanners? I do need to ensure a consistent distance to the plate, as we need to compare sizes of plaques across different plates
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
#MicroSky can anyone recommend a *low-tech* method to take images of agar plates with good contrast and little glare? My undergrads need to measure the sizes of amoebae plaques in bacterial lawns.
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
In my experience, we have not explicitly valued these skills and competencies in the larger scientific community and we may want to think about and discuss what valuing them would look like, for example during training.
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Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 08/04/2025
I'm delighted to share a useful FREE web-based app portal of powerful bioinformatics tools for microbial genomes and shotgun microbiome sequences! It's called Micromics and is built by Middle Author Bioinformatics, led by co-founder @ironark.bsky.social omix.midauthorbio.com
omix.midauthorbio.com
Microbial Omics
A suite of bioinformatics tools for microbial genome and metagenome analysis.
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
DOGE’s the place and then leaves 🙄. Entirely predictable. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3606...
thepost.co.nz
Massey vice-chancellor Jan Thomas resigns
She has given a year’s notice to ensure stability while a replacement is found.
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Elizabeth Ostrowski @elizostrow.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Oh wow! When we moved back to US, youngest mourned that US didn’t have Te Reo Māori and netball 🥲. Maybe she’ll want to go to Yale 🙂 www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu...
rnz.co.nz
'A win for all Indigenous languages': Te reo Māori enters the Ivy League
In what's being hailed 'a win for all Indigenous languages', Yale is offering a course in te reo Māori - a first for any Ivy League university.
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