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Matthias H. Weissensteiner

@mweissensteiner.bsky.social
553 followers 644 following 15 posts

Bioinformatician and Researcher at the Institute of Avian Research | evolution | birds | genomics | structural variation | non-B DNA | repeats ifv-vogelwarte.de/en/institute/staf…

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Reposted by Matthias H. Weissensteiner
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 16/09/2026
There's lots of reasons to believe AI "hyperscalers" can never be profitable, and not just the gigantic expenditures and negative unit economics (the companies lose money on new customers and every use, and they lose more with each generation of their products): pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...
Tenniel's 'Red Queen's Race' engraving from Carroll's 'Through the Looking Glass.' It has been altered so that the Red Queen and Alice now have the heads of 1940s pulp robots. The image has been hand-tinted.
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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Millennium math problem solved by OpenAI may have "regurgitated" competitors unpublished work... also they spent more than $22 million in computing power in one week to scoop them. techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/o...
techcrunch.com
OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU mathematician | TechCrunch
There is a $1 million bounty for the first person providing a solution to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/09/2026
This is one of the objections I have when people talk about how useful LLMs can be for literature searches or for any kind of search, really. Even beyond the biases that inevitably (and, in some cases, intentionally) show up, part of a good literature search is seeing information *in context.*
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Common Tern Project @commonternproject.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Question: do I know anyone near Nantes who would be willing to pick up a dead gull-billed tern and its logger? L49 has sadly been killed near a road. I’d be very grateful for a picture and the logger and would of course reimburse postage.
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Jun Ishigohoka @junishigohoka.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Paper alert!🧬🐦💻 Divergent selection is the textbook explanation for narrow inversion clines. Our blackcap inversion cline doesn't fit: it is wide, and the inversion is always the rarer arrangement. We show that negative frequency-dependent selection shifting between populations underlies this!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Shifting Balancing Selection Underlies an Inversion Cline in Eurasian Blackcap
We investigated what factor contributes to a cline of a chromosomal inversion of the Eurasian blackcap, which differs from typical inversion clines maintained by divergent selection. Using a simulati...
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I know this is hopelessly naive but I genuinely never thought so many people would be comfortable using a website designed to help coordinate fascist activity.
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Martin Bulla @martinbulla.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
This is bibliographic erasure. By framing a forced correction as internal discovery, journals turn critics into "invisible correctors", scrubbing their labor from the record. It might protect a brand, but kills scientific rigour. We need a system that cites its critics, not one that buries them.
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Wieland Heim @wielandheim.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
New #ornithology paper 🚨 Migration patterns and hybridization within the Asian stonechat complex in response to a major geographical barrier doi.org/10.1093/evle... Led by PhD candidate Tianhao Zhao, we studied #birdmigration routes & #genetics of individuals migrating E, W & across Qinghai-Tibet
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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 15/04/2026
OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse Media and universities: AI is here to stay
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 16/02/2026
and this is the slot machine logic at work
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Germán Orizaola @gorizaola.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
OTD 217 year ago, Charles #Darwin was born. Not only one of the most brilliant scientists and thinkers, but an inspiration on the power of knowledge and intellectual bravery. Values that are now more important to cherish than ever. Happy #DarwinDay!!!
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MPI for Evolutionary Biology @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Today is the #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience ✨ To celebrate, we’re opening registration for our workshop "Women in Evolutionary Biology II" — keynotes, research, networking, and discussions on equality & inclusion in science. 📍 Plön (Germany) | 🔗 workshops.evolbio.mpg.de/event/144/ov...
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
A richly rewarding two days reviewing @ifv-whv.bsky.social: thriving under the brilliant leadership of Sandra Bouwhuis & Miriam Liedvogel. An exciting programme of research into avian migration & life histories with many future stars. Outstanding @commonternproject.bsky.social museum by frozen sea!
Common Tern Museum at the BanterseeCommon Tern Museum at the BanterseeView of the ice-bound Waddensee Profs Miriam Liedvogel & Prof Sandra Bouwhuis - brilliant leaders of the Institute of Avian Research (with some old German ornithological leaders in the background)
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Birds of the World | The Cornell Lab @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
MAJOR NEWS! We just launched an awesome new tool! The illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer lets users trace any bird’s lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button. SHARE and EXPLORE! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/news/phy...
IMAGE SHOWS GRAPHIC OF CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY PHYLOGENY EXPLORER TOOL.
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Mrs Dr Syd @mrsdrsyd.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Delicious to me
Headline from PC Gamer, from the writer Tyler Wilde:
Microsoft CEO warns that we must "do something useful" with AI or they'll lose "social permission" to burn electricity on it. 

Works should learn AI skills and companies should use it because it's a "cognitive amplifier," claims Satya Nadella
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Matthias H. Weissensteiner @mweissensteiner.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Pick up the nearest book. Open to page 42 and post your second sentence. Add #page42 and include this rule as a reply. In a similar way, by discretizing time, we can use a binomial distribution to represent the number of events that occur over some period of time t.
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Aaron Vogan @fungage-lab.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Just a few days left to apply to the PhD position in our group. It focuses on selfish genes in #fungi and how they might affect the spread of giant #TEs called Starships.
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Prof Julia Steinberger 🌹🌱🌍 #ClimateAction #Fightfascism @jksteinberger.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
AI makes everything worse, and science and all of us stupid. Authored by AI, reviewed by AI, edited by AI, published by AI. Next? cited by AI.
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Sebastian Höhna @hoehna.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Deadline soon (end of Nov) for this PhD position in evolutionary genomics/bioinformatics in my group.
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apricity @suschi.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
"Wissenschaftliche Ausbildung zielt nicht auf Effizienz ab, sondern darauf, die Fähigkeit zu entwickeln, Probleme und Fragestellungen selbst zu erkennen und zu lösen." Dieser Satz! Dass diese Selbstverständlichkeit hier überhaupt betont werden muss, zeigt um was es geht.
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Common Tern Project @commonternproject.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
There’s one month left to apply for the PhD position on interactions between contaminants and parasites in common terns, co-supervised by @alicecarravieri.bsky.social, Bernd Sures from @unidue.bsky.social and myself. You can do so here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/380142
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
👀👀👀👀
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Justin Merondun @merondun.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Our new @science.org paper is out! Cuckoos and hosts are locked in a coevolutionary arms race over egg mimicry. But how are these egg types inherited, and could this drive speciation? We sequenced hundreds of genomes to find out! doi.org/10.1126/scie... 🧵1/6
doi.org
Genomic architecture of egg mimicry and its consequences for speciation in parasitic cuckoos
Host-parasite arms races facilitate rapid evolution and can fuel speciation. Cuculus cuckoos are deceptive egg mimics that exhibit a broad diversity of counterfeit egg phenotypes, representing host-ad...
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man with a mirror @thorstn.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
“When someone says we can’t miss the boat, I ask: where is the boat going? What exactly will this technology improve? That’s rarely discussed. Since when did we become Big Tech's free PR department?” — says Nicky DRIES, Future of Work Lab at the Catholic University of Leuven
apache.be
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
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Matthias H. Weissensteiner @mweissensteiner.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
I personally have donated to Wikipedia before and will, even without the very good reason explained below, do so again.
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Guy Leonard @guyleonard.eurosky.social · 14/10/2025
"‘Am I redundant?’: how AI changed my career in bioinformatics" www.nature.com/articles/d41... @nature.com No. Also pls tell me that guy isn't uploading patient data to the internet. JFC. tl;dr "Consult a pro." But really - teach people fundamentals. AI is the last thing you should consult.
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POPGROUP59 @popgroup2026.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Exciting news! The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris. This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics. More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk See you there !
populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk
Population Genetics group 59
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Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Looks like a useful reference piece.
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Common Tern Project @commonternproject.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
When we hypothesised female terns to have lower mercury levels than males due to egg laying, @matteobeccardi.bsky.social et al designed an elegant experiment to prove the effectiveness of this pathway. That proof just got published & the open access paper can be found here: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...
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James Bonfield @jbonfield.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change. Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned
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Matthias H. Weissensteiner @mweissensteiner.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Congratulations Anna! What a fantastic PhD with tremendous amounts of work and exciting results! All the best for your future trajectory!
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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Oh well. I am making my claim and every author should.
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Martin Stervander 🏳️‍🌈🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏛️🦉🦤🪶 @stervander.com · 22/08/2025
#EOU2025 #ornithology folks and friends liking #birds and #mammals, this is the position I just highlighted. Join us! Cool collection and very active continuous preparation of new specimens. Deadline soon... Happy to chat with anyone curious today!
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Jaime Muriel @jaime-muriel.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
📌 I really enjoyed @pablosalmon.bsky.social’s talk at #EOU2025! 🐦 Exploring how #mitochondria may shape avian #migration — lessons from Eurasian #blackbirds with different strategies. Great insights into the energetic basis of life-history strategies!
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Torsten Günther @trstngnthr.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
The @scilifelab.se ancient DNA unit is looking for an bioinformatician placed at Uppsala University. This is a great way to be part of diverse #aDNA research projects as a staff scientist with permanent (!!) employment: www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
uu.se
Bioinformatician - Uppsala University
Bioinformatician, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University
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Luisa F. Pallares @luisapallares.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Rant of the day: why are people still submitting manuscripts for review without line numbers? We all review papers, we all know that referring to line numbers makes easier to write the review. So, why do people keep doing this!?
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liedvogel lab @genmig.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Congratulations, Dr. Andrea. What a very special day. Happy, proud and honoured to see you fledge 🐦‍⬛🧬🏝️🧪 - fly on @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social
Andrea wearing her PhD hat after successfully defending her thesis.
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on. slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
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Anne-Marie Dion-Côté @amdioncote.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
New preprint from the lab led by former masters student AJ Roussel in collaboration with Alexander Suh and @fjruizruano.bsky.social. We found a ~4-fold accumulation of a Neptune #transposon in asexually reproducing "F1" fish hybrids. An unexpected and fascinating finding! #TEsky
biorxiv.org
Accumulation of a biparentally-inherited Neptune transposable element in natural Killifish hybrids (Fundulus diaphanus X F. heteroclitus)
Transposable elements (TEs) are abundant selfish genetic elements that can mobilize in their host genome, causing DNA damage, mutations and chromosome rearrangements. TE silencing is thus critical, an...
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Mozes Blom @moosblom.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
🚨 Wanted: PhD student excited about population genomics, Natural History Collections and birds! 📍 Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany 🕒 3 Years, fully funded by the Leibniz Junior Researchgroup program Details and Application portal 👇 jobs.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/jobposting/8...
jobs.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin
14/2025 PhD student (f/m/d)
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liedvogel lab @genmig.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
over the moon happy and grateful! on my way to @lundvision.bsky.social I followd the announcement of #ClustersOfExcellence by the @dfg.de on the floor of a crowded train. #NaviSense 🦋🧭🧬🧪🧠🐝🪲🔬 in all its beauty flew high! such a fantastic team, amazing spirit and wonderful vision - ready for take off!
navisense.org
Home - NaviSense
NaviSense - International Cluster of Excellence Proposal for the Sensory Basis, Mechanisms, and Impacts of Animal Navigation.
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Verena Kutschera @vekutschera.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
The next GenErode version is available (0.6.3)! 🎉 github.com/NBISweden/Ge...
github.com
GitHub - NBISweden/GenErode at 0.6.3
GitHub repository for GenErode, a Snakemake pipeline for the analysis of whole-genome sequencing data from historical and modern samples to study patterns of genome erosion. - GitHub - NBISweden/Ge...
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Richard Merrill @dickmerrill.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Interested in a PhD connecting sensory ecology and evolutionary genetics? Applications are now open for a project on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size Variation in Heliconius Butterflies in our lab at LMU Munich: www.evol.bio.lmu.de/research/mer... Please repost!
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Richard Merrill @dickmerrill.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Really excited that our DFG grant on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size variation in *Heliconius* has been funded :) In the next weeks, I will post an advert for a PhD, but if you know of good students, please suggest they get in touch. Please repost.
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Matteo Beccardi @matteobeccardi.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
I'm very happy to announce our new pubblication out now in @animalecology.bsky.social🥳 Many thanks to @oscarvedder.bsky.social and @ifv-whv.bsky.social. Read the full text if you want to know more about this work👇 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Poor developmental conditions decrease adult body size and egg size, but not egg laying rate and survival throughout adulthood: A long‐term experiment in a precocial bird
You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.
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Institute of Avian Research 'Vogelwarte Helgoland' @ifv-whv.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
New publication in @animalecology.bsky.social by @oscarvedder.bsky.social & @matteobeccardi.bsky.social 'Poor developmental conditions decrease adult body size and egg size, but not egg laying rate and survival throughout adulthood: A long-term experiment in a precocial bird' doi.org/10.1111/1365...
doi.org
Poor developmental conditions decrease adult body size and egg size, but not egg laying rate and survival throughout adulthood: A long‐term experiment in a precocial bird
This research experimentally manipulated the quality of early-life conditions in Japanese quail, and monitored individual performance over the complete adult lifespan under standardized conditions. I...
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Rike Stelkens @stelkens.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Two more weeks to apply for a PhD position in our yeast genomics and evolution lab at Stockholm University! Please share widely. 🧪🧬🌳🍄
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Encephalophatass (Any pronouns) @encephalophatass.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
It’s always “We launched these tardigrades into space!” “We froze them to absolute zero!” “We threw them into an erupting volcano!” Never “We took these tardigrades on a holiday. They’re getting tiny massages and sipping little umbrella drinks on the beach.”
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