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Rob Lanfear

@roblanfear.bsky.social
3.7K followers 1.3K following 349 posts

phylogenetics, molecular evolution, some genomes, kids, dogs, and eclectic hobbies none of which I am much good at but I think for me that's the point

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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Confirming two pairs of two. couldn’t find any others in any other formations at all (including solo). Definitely not dead - will sometimes wave a leg if touched. but both pairs remained in exactly that formation all day.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Is it? That’s the best thing ever.
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
In answer to the question of how you should write a philosophy essay one of my teachers - Malcom Budd - said ‘Answer the question clearly and simply.’ Superb answer and an example of itself. I’ve tried to follow in all I do.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
@americanbeetles.bsky.social any ideas?
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
My first thought too. But the pairing seems so interesting. we saw two pairs really close together. Will look for more tomorrow.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Anyone know what’s going on with these ( maybe dead?) pairs of leafcutter bees in Australia?
Two bees, attached to a grass stalk, face to face.Two bees attached to a grass stalk, gave to face. Another pair similarly arranged are blurred in the background.
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 17/11/2025
I recently discovered Conventional Comments (conventionalcomments.org) for providing a pseudo-standard set of labels for feedback and just tried it for an article review and it was really helpful to specify issues vs. thoughts vs. suggestions, etc. Hopefully it's helpful for the authors too!
We strongly suggest using the following labels:

praise:	Praises highlight something positive. Try to leave at least one of these comments per review. Do not leave false praise (which can actually be damaging). Do look for something to sincerely praise.
nitpick:	Nitpicks are trivial preference-based requests. These should be non-blocking by nature.
suggestion:	Suggestions propose improvements to the current subject. It’s important to be explicit and clear on what is being suggested and why it is an improvement. Consider using patches and the blocking or non-blocking decorations to further communicate your intent.
issue:	Issues highlight specific problems with the subject under review. These problems can be user-facing or behind the scenes. It is strongly recommended to pair this comment with a suggestion. If you are not sure if a problem exists or not, consider leaving a question.
todo:	TODO’s are small, trivial, but necessary changes. Distinguishing todo comments from issues: or suggestions: helps direct the reader’s attention to comments requiring more involvement.
question:	Questions are appropriate if you have a potential concern but are not quite sure if it’s relevant or not. Asking the author for clarification or investigation can lead to a quick resolution.
thought:	Thoughts represent an idea that popped up from reviewing. These comments are non-blocking by nature, but they are extremely valuable and can lead to more focused initiatives and mentoring opportunities.
chore:	Chores are simple tasks that must be done before the subject can be “officially” accepted. Usually, these comments reference some common process. Try to leave a link to the process description so that the reader knows how to resolve the chore.
note:	Notes are always non-blocking and simply highlight something the reader should take note of.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Nice to be a philosopher.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
A lot of similarities to Oaks as far as I can tell so far. Possibly with more hybridisation and introgression. Also some really cool F1 hybrids like the Meelup mallee. As far as we know it's a single individual, thousands of years old, and infertile. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyp...
en.wikipedia.org
Eucalyptus × phylacis - Wikipedia
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Had a read through. So interesting! I'm just starting to get into similar questions (though from a position of great ignorance...) in Eucalypts. I'd love to chat some time when i've had a chance to read a whole bunch more...
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
What a great lecture! Such a broad overview of the entire system. Wonderful to see the breadth all tied together like that!
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
I remember really enjoying this paper on individuality. Some time since I read it though, and I see there's a bunch of new stuff I haven't read yet... link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Plant individuality: a solution to the demographer’s dilemma - Biology & Philosophy
The problem of plant individuality is something which has vexed botanists throughout the ages, with fashion swinging back and forth from treating plants as communities of individuals (Darwin 1800; Bra...
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Cool! Do you happen to also have a recording of the Biology Dept seminar flagged at the beginning - on the nature of Oak species?
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
What the actual fuck.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
I remember reading the study this is based on somewhere (preprint, maybe), and worrying a lot that it was perhaps very overparameterised. Honestly can't recall details, but would be interested to know others' thoughts. Will re-add the primary study to my reading list.
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Anna-Liisa Laine @annaliisalaine.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
We are recruiting‼️A permanent university lecturer position in BIOSTATISTICS is available at @helsinki.fi Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences. Great colleagues, excellent infrastructures and startup support 🙌🏻 DL 14 September jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...
jobs.helsinki.fi
University Lecturer in Biostatistics
University Lecturer in Biostatistics
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Janelia Research Campus @hhmijanelia.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
📢We're #hiring Group Leaders! Apply to lead a lab at Janelia & advance biology using theory, computational modeling & machine learning. 🔹5-year renewable appointment 🔹Pioneer new tools & approaches 🔹Collaborate across disciplines Apply by Nov. 4👉 janelia.link/groupleader
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Let's find leaders for ANU who act as if higher ed actually matters. www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/pe...
megaphone.org.au
Petition to ANU Council
In support of our petition, we observe that:  • ANU Council has the entire control and management of the University and is required to act in all matters concerning the ANU in the way it thinks w...
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
I just love this paper. If you are interested in germlines, go read it. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Early germline sequestration in a basidiomycete fungus
In sexual organisms, inheritance of new mutations is highly dependent on the timing of germline definition. Here, we used the fairy ring–forming fungus Marasmius oreades to challenge the general assum...
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
It's so bad. Obviously impossible to know for sure, but one develops a decent radar after years of looking at undergrad work. And parts of the review are just so 'off' in that tricky to nail down way.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Right now I'm responding to grant comments, and one of the reviewers appears to have mostly relied on AI to generate their (sometimes hilariously off-base) critiques. I am not enjoying this.
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Andrew Rambaut (🐏🎀) @arambaut.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
BEAST X v10.5.0 finally released – you can't just do beta releases forever. github.com/beast-dev/be... Details and instructions for installing on the BEAST website: beast.community
The BEAST X logo - an octopus wrapping its noodley appendages round the letter X.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Same in Science. And the VC won't even be there. It's a joke.
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Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Mesquite 4.0 released! A major update — many new features, small and large (phylogenomics, visualizations, workflow management, &c). Check out the trailer video: www.mesquiteproject.org. Come discuss in our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-project). @bembidion.bsky.social ‬🧪 #evolbio
The two Mesquite logos. At left, a mesquite tree leaf is against a black background. At right, a leaf is against a blue sky and sun.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Would be very interesting to work in the Perth office for a bit. Maybe you’d get hired to write a speech or two!
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
I get it. The absolute state of #ourANU. It's a mess.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Charge that right back to ANU. They should bear the cost, not you.
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Marnie Blewitt @marnieblewitt.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
www.wehi.edu.au/careers/make... WEHI is looking for new lab heads! New and experienced lab heads welcome. Check out the ad, consider applying and share. We’re a collaborative bunch, in Australia, with fabulous technology, great colleagues at a values-driven organisation. @wehi-research.bsky.social
wehi.edu.au
Make your future Melbourne | WEHI
Lead the next wave of biomedical discovery
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Love it! I still use "ham", "cheese", "egg" etc. because of a programming book I read maybe in the last century.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
I do hope you are working from the very nice and recently refurbished ANU office there!
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Mike the Mad Biologist and Trump's Press Corps Approver @mikethemadbiol.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
look at how they're geared up to arrest unarmed civilians. Fucking absurd. And hats off to the people who backed them down.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
so much this. My experience of current grading is that even when the citations are real the information is often made up. One student acknowledged they didn’t read stuff, just got AI to (drastically incorrectly) summarise papers.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
This is why productivity is declining.
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Our ANU @ouranu.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
We will send the open letter to ANU executive and Council today at 3pm. At 7.30am, we have 434 signatures. How high can we get before 3pm? Tell your colleagues, spread the word!
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Is this related to why announcements for Linkage Projects & Laureate Fellowships are delayed? Maybe RMS couldn’t handle new grants being awarded when the other changes were being made? Why doesn’t the ARC tell anyone what’s going on? Simple transparency & expectations management would be nice.
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Our ANU @ouranu.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Time to speak up again. Here’s our latest open letter against unnecessary and damaging cuts and redundancies: forms.gle/SmuBaMz6PPGT...
forms.gle
Open letter: Staff call on the ANU executive to stop these unnecessary cuts
Fact sheet on 'Renew ANU so far': https://shorturl.at/iYVjc Open Letter PDF for print with QR codes to sign: https://shorturl.at/5KYs3 __________________________________________________ Letter to AN...
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
I liked this one a lot. I'd love to grab a coffee and chat about strategies for HE inspired by this.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Same for me. IT seems very unstable at the moment, presumably because of understaffing thanks to precisely the subject of the document none of us can read.
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Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
In 1987 I took Stephen Jay Gould’s “Science B16 course” that helped convince me to be major in Biology w/ a focus on Evolution. But it was my TA Wayne Madison showing us early versions of MacClade that really did the trick.
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boehninglab @boehninglab.com · 23/05/2025
youtu.be/KBmdxv29tog?...
youtu.be
A message from MIT President Sally Kornbluth
YouTube video by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Mesquite 4 beta released! Many new features, esp. phylogenomic. Check out the trailer and longer video on the home page: www.mesquiteproject.org, and use the download link there to get a copy. Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).
The Mesquite icon shown, as a Mesquite leaf against a black background, and as a leave against the sun and a blue sky.
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Alex Skeels @alexskeels.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
ANU colleagues, stand up and protect your workplace and each other. Let's stop the reputational and psycho-social damage being done by the disproportionately heavy-handed response of the executive. Please sign and share widely in your networks. #ourANU
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
If you're part of #ourANU, please read this open letter to the ANU executive, and consider signing it. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Open letter: Staff call on the ANU executive to stop these unnecessary cuts
Fact sheet on 'Renew ANU so far': https://shorturl.at/iYVjc Open Letter PDF for print with QR codes to sign: https://shorturl.at/5KYs3 __________________________________________________ Letter to AN...
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
ANU website is SUPER super helpful. Always good to have FAQs so we know what they want us to do... Everything's going great at #ourANU !
A list of FAQs where the answer to each question is "Answer for question 1" etc.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Like a free loan? That's so generous. Would you like to rent my dog? 2 month downpayment, must be returned in the same condition as you received it, bills and food not included.
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
That's the same as about 57,000 individual pro subscriptions over the same time period, right? ($20/month for pro = $360 for 18 months). Seems like a large bill...
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
I'm in the same boat. I have that lingering (and now months long) anxiety that I *know* there are important things in there. One more week of semester to go and I can spend a day writing a string of apologies.
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Rick Morton @squigglyrick.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
The cybernetics school is a very curious beast, formerly led by the now VC Bell. A protected species?
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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Hi, do you have examples in your field for 20th century scientists who said something crazy that has been ignored since, but YOU think that maybe, just maybe, there's something there that's worth re-visiting?
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Rob Lanfear @roblanfear.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Thanks! And yeah, I expect that for most folks things will improve one way or another over the next few years. But there always remains the question of how much bullshit you're willing to put up with.
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