iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The genome is being held between two requirements: 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕; 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒆.

Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The real measure of a university’s research culture is not what policies say—it is what happens when accountability becomes uncomfortable. Academic bullying thrives when power outweighs principle, and when protecting reputations becomes easier than protecting people www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞, 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲—𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐬? This is the question behind PopGenLM Bench v0.3.0. Explore the project: tahirali-biomics.github.io/popgenlm.html 1/8

tahirali-biomics.github.io

PopGenLM Bench | Tahir Ali

PopGenLM Bench — reproducible evaluation of genomic language-model variant scores with population-genetic and evolutionary evidence.

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Two tRNA sites may each vary, yet change together to preserve a base pair. The relationship reveals what either site alone cannot. My Genomes to AI note explores what this means for genomic AI. tahirali-biomics.github.io/posts/2026-0... #Genomics #LLM #BiologicalInformation #ScientificAI

tahirali-biomics.github.io

Meaning Lives Between Things – Dr. Tahir Ali

A personal reading note on joint and conditional probability, sequence context and predictive relationships in DNA.

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Mendel never saw a gene or DNA. From patterns in peas, he inferred something hidden. My Genomes to AI note traces inheritance’s journey into information—and explores why AI scores need observation and validation. tahirali-biomics.github.io/posts/2026-0...

tahirali-biomics.github.io

When Life Became Legible – Dr. Tahir Ali

My first reading note on how inheritance became a measurable problem of biological information.

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐈: Using AI is not the same as knowing how to build and test it for science. I’m documenting my journey from evolutionary genomics toward evidence-grounded AI engineering—carefully, openly and honestly. tahirali-biomics.github.io/genomes-to-a... #ScientificAI #Genomics

tahirali-biomics.github.io

Genomes to AI | Tahir Ali

Genomes to AI - Dr Tahir Ali’s working journal of becoming a scientific AI engineer.

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Xavier Picó @xavierpico.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The 4th AoB Plants issue is out @aobp.bsky.social You’ll find papers on plant diversification, flower morphology evolution, seed dormancy and ecology, root ecology, embolism, and more #PlantScience #PlantResearch #PlantBiology #Botany Check it out at academic.oup.com/aobpla/issue...

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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Advice for new PhD students: choose a mentor who is committed to your training, not just your project. The most important product of your PhD - even more important than the science - is YOU, a newly trained scientist.

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I’m thrilled to share that our search for a tenure-track colleague in my *truly wonderful and collegial* Genetics, Genomics, Evolution and Development Division in the MCB Department at Berkeley @berkeleymcb.bsky.social is live! Please share this broad search widely: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05481

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

Assistant Professor -Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development - Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

In every quiet bloom, the universe leans closer — reminding us how small wonders keep the world alive.

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

What if lectures didn't end when class finished? Meet Population Genetics Coach(Beta)—an AI-supported learning companion built from university teaching. Interested in using it or creating one for your course? Let's connect. Try it: tahirali-biomics.github.io/teaching/cou... #EdTech #BiologyEducation

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Petra Michaela @petramichaela.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Every silent hive is a warning for our future. Bees pollinate the crops that feed the world, support biodiversity and keep ecosystems alive. If their buzz disappears, nature's balance begins to fade. Protect bees today—because saving them means protecting our food, our planet and future generations.

static.klipy.com

Flying Bee Dusting Flower for Pollen

ALT: Flying Bee Dusting Flower for Pollen

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Science Magazine @science.org · 12/07/2026

Frozen, fossilized squirrel poop uncovered from Arctic ground squirrel burrows—some of it hundreds of thousands of years old—is shedding light on ice age ecosystems, thanks to its DNA. scim.ag/4fdoxxo

scim.ag

Frozen squirrel poop rewrites rodent evolution, reveals new details about mammoths

DNA from ground squirrel coprolites offers an unusually detailed record of ice age ecosystems

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Science Magazine @science.org · 11/07/2026

In the absence of ambient light–dark cycles, fruit flies use their behavior to create artificial cycles, restoring clock function in the brain and the normal organization of sleep and locomotor activity, according to new research. Learn more in a new #SciencePerspective: scim.ag/4flVxo7

A fruit fly. PHOTO: STEPHEN DALTON/SCIENCE SOURCE

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

This illustration captures a simple truth: when we remove complexity from our ecosystems, we also remove life. Protecting biodiversity starts with how we manage our land.

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Graham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Californian #BloomScrolling ~7k feet in Sierras.

Torrey's Monkeyflower (Diplacus torreyi)

Sparse-flowered Bog Orchid (Platanthera sparsiflora)

White Bog Orchid (Platanthera dilatata, as usual scientific names from inat, as I'm terrible at remembering/spelling)

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Tuuli Lappalainen @tuuliel.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

We're recruiting! An open functional genomics postdoc position at @scilifelab-ngi.bsky.social / my lab / Robert Månsson lab. Top notch environment for technology and applications development in lovely Stockholm. Please spread the word or apply if interested: www.kth.se/lediga-jobb/...

kth.se

KTH | Postdoc in genomics

KTH jobs is where you search for jobs at www.kth.se.

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New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

#Viewpoint: Using herbarium collections to study genetic responses to global change Eckert et al 👇 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #LatestIssue #PlantScience @lucaseckert.bsky.social @cameronso.bsky.social

Fig. 1 Using herbarium specimens to estimate historical metrics of genetic variation.

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Nandita Garud @nanditagarud.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

We are very excited to share our latest. We thought that soft sweeps would be the only type of sweep spreading across human gut microbiomes. Turns out many are hard! Reach @peterlaurin.bsky.social 's thread on why! And tomorrow at #SMBE2026 I will share this work and more!

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Regina Fairbanks @reginafairbanks.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Pleased to share that my first, first-author publication was published yesterday in @pnas.org ! We (me + @jrossibarra.bsky.social) did a little bit of detective work to better understand the age and origin of a mutation that played a key role in maize domestication. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... (1/n)

Scattered teosinte kernels in their fruitcases, which are triangular in shape and a mottled brown in color

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Science Magazine @science.org · 08/07/2026

An artificial neural network built into a computer memory chip reconstructs the human cortex with high accuracy in real time. Learn more in a new #SciencePerspective: scim.ag/4wkiVrK

scim.ag

Computing in a memory with physics

An artificial neural network built into a computer memory chip reconstructs the human cortex with high accuracy in real time

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

A butterfly on a flower feels like pure poetry, yet it is also an evolutionary negotiation — colour signals, nectar rewards, co‑adaptation. When we observe nature closely, wonder and mechanism meet. The beauty is never accidental — it is shaped by pressures, histories, and ecological relationships.

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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

As a scientist who is frustrated by poor reasoning in the literature and who teaches biology as well as philosophy of science, I can tell you that science training definitely needs to include more philosophy and history. The people who always pit STEM vs. the humanities would like to destroy both.

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Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Quote: "Invasions are not just about which species arrive, but about how multiple newcomers interact with one another once they do. Co-invasions can affect ecological communities far beyond what single-species approaches predict." #bioinvasions #invasivespecies www.anoleannals.org/2026/06/14/i...

anoleannals.org

Invaders Don’t Come Alone: Rethinking Biological Invasions Through Co-invasion

Species invasions are usually studied one at a time, but ecosystems rarely have that luxury. This project began with a simple frustration: while reading about invasive predators, invasive competito…

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Cate Macinnis-Ng @loraxcate.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Warmer winters may not be as damaging as summer heatwave but they still influence natural and agricultural systems, often in hidden ways. Here's the print version -

Photo of newspaper piece about warming winters under climate change

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Open Science Before It Had a Name Steven Henikoff showed what openness can do long before it became a movement — sharing tools from Erase‑a‑Base to CUT&Tag that reshaped genomics and empowered researchers everywhere. Open science isn’t a slogan; it’s what drives discovery.🔗 lnkd.in/eZxTECy3

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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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Moi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Was a pleasure to talk with Emma MacKenzie from Innovative Genomics Institute about "Behind the Scenes" featured article on how I got into science, evolution, Arabidopsis, climate adaptation, and California! Article: innovativegenomics.org/news/behind-...

innovativegenomics.org

Behind the Science: Moi Expósito-Alonso

Behind the Science: Moi Expósito-Alonso - Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI)

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

SMBE 2026 — A wake‑up call Genetic diversity is collapsing, and global policy is still treating it as optional. Spp have already lost >10% of their genetic variation — the very engine of adaptation & survival. Scientists are raising the alarm. 🔗 genetic-diversity-scientists-warning.github.io

moisesexpositoalonso.org

M O I L A B

M O I L A B rapid evolutionary genetics in a changing world

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Moi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Had a great time in the plenary! Here a partial view from the stage when the room did a live voting on understanding genetic diversity! #smbe2026

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Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Day 4 comes, day 4 goes.... An intense week is coming to an end. See you tomorrow for the last sets of talks and the closing ceremony of #SMBE2026!

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Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

It's the last day of #SMBE2026, and after last night's party, some groggy eyes are spotted in the crowd... Thankfully, we have @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social to reinvigorate ourselves with an inspiring plenary talk on adaptation in the Anthropocene.

SMBE 2026 | Moises Exposito-Alonso plenary talk

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

#SMBE2026 — A wake‑up call Moisés Expósito‑Alonso showed the hard truth: genetic diversity is collapsing, and global policy is still treating it as optional. Species have already lost >10% of their genetic variation — the very engine of adaptation and survival.

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Great to present our latest work at #SMBE2026 in Copenhagen! Using temporal genomics in natural populations of Arabidopsis lyrata, we asked whether standing genetic variation can support rapid adaptation under contemporary climate change.

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Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Nandita Garud... takes us to day 4 with her plenary talk on microbiome evolution! @nanditagarud.bsky.social #SMBE2026

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

PlantCAD2 is emerging as a new‑generation DNA model that pushes genome‑wide effect‑size prediction far beyond what first‑generation DNA language models ever reached. #SMBE26

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Aaditya Narasimhan @aaditya320.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Lots of interest (understandably so) in balancing selection/graph based methods in popgen (S07) #SMBE2026

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Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The Graduate Student Excellence Symposium started the afternoon of #SMBE2026 day2 We are honoured to have welcomed eight excellent communications from Wei-Han Lin, Nadia Haghani, Ira Zibbu, Anjali Gupta, Jialin Wei, Oya Inanli, François Frejacques, and Arthur Matte! Thank you! #society

SMBE 2026 | Graduate Student Excellence Symposium

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Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

We're excited to announce the second edition of the SMBE Fellows Program! ✍️ 🔗 smbe.org/smbe-fellows-program The SMBE Fellows Program provides mentorship to early-career researchers in scientific writing for evolutionary and molecular biology by writing Highlight articles for MBE and GBE. #society

SMBE Fellows Program

Apply before August 15

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

A wonderful start to #SMBE26 Sharing moments from the talk and celebrating the leadership of Juliette de Meaux. Standing genetic variation reminds us that diversity is strength—in genomes and in people. Resilience begins with many voices, many alleles, many possibilities. @official-smbe.bsky.social

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

A wonderful start to #SMBE26. Sharing moments from the talk and celebrating the leadership of Juliette de Meaux. Standing genetic variation reminds us that diversity is strength — in genomes and in people. Resilience begins with many voices, many alleles, many possibilities.

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

🚆✨ #NoFlySMBE After a very long and honestly exhausting 16‑hour train journey from Cologne — including a 6‑hour wait in Hamburg — I finally made it to Copenhagen. Tired, but really happy to arrive. 🌍💚Slow travel isn’t always easy, but it feels meaningful. Excited to see you all at #SMBE2026 — 🚆✨

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

🚆✨ #NoFlySMBE I’m heading to #SMBE2026 Copenhagen by train this evening — a long 16‑hour trip with a 5‑hour pause in Hamburg, but fully worth it for a lower‑carbon journey. 🌍💚 Let’s make #NoFlySMBE and #NoFlyAcademics visible. Slow travel can still be meaningful. See you in Copenhagen, by rail. 🚆✨

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Tony Allen-Mills @taminf.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

When I first spotted this butterfly a couple of hours ago, the first thing I had to do was stop my hands shaking. It's one of the rarest butterflies in France, a vanishing species in much of Europe. It's the mountain Apollo (Parnassius Apollo). Just in time for #InsectThursday #lepidoptera

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Jeff Spence @jeffspence.github.io · 22/06/2026

Excited to see @jonj-udd.bsky.social's fantastic work out @genetics-gsa.bsky.social. Selection in _heterozygotes_ is the primary force shaping allele frequencies of loss-of-function mutations in humans, even in genes only associated with purely recessive diseases. 🧪🧬 doi.org/10.1093/gene...

doi.org

Allele Frequencies at Recessive Disease Genes are Mainly Determined by Pleiotropic Effects in Heterozygotes

Abstract. The classic theory of mutation-selection balance predicts the equilibrium frequency of genetic variation under negative selection. The model pred

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Working at the intersection of AI, LLMs, genomics, and evolution, I agree: AI accelerates, but expertise drives. The real question is no longer “Can you use AI” but “Do you know when it’s right—and when it only looks right?” Excellent read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Tahir Ali @tahirali-biomics.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Excited to present at SMBE 2026 in Copenhagen! I’ll be sharing new work using LLM‑based genome prediction to detect selection and rapid climate‑driven adaptation. #smbe2026 #Genomics #AITools #ClimateAdaptation #populationgenetics #AIinScience #evolutionarybiology #climatechange #aiscience

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