iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Earth BioGenome Project 🌍 @ebpgenome.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

🎥🧬 Every living thing has a story. Every genome helps us read it. The Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project is building high-quality reference genomes for the biodiversity of the Catalan-speaking territories. Cada ésser viu conté una història. Watch the video ⬇️ lnkd.in/gcfWsMDS

English Alt Text:
A great cormorant stands on the ground in a natural habitat, facing left with its long bill extended. The background is softly blurred, while bilingual English and Catalan text overlays introduce the message that every living thing has a story and highlight the Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project.

Català (Text alternatiu):
Un corb marí gros dret en un entorn natural, mirant cap a l'esquerra amb el bec llarg estès. El fons és desenfocat i la imatge inclou text superposat en anglès i català que transmet que cada ésser viu té una història i presenta la Iniciativa Catalana per a l'Earth BioGenome Project.

Photo 2 (Bearded Vulture)

English Alt Text:
A bearded vulture perches on a rocky outcrop with its wings partially spread, showing its striking black, cream, and rust-colored plumage. Bilingual English and Catalan text explains that every genome tells a story and that every species carries millions of years of evolutionary history in its DNA.

Català (Text alternatiu):
Un trencalòs està posat sobre una roca amb les ales parcialment obertes, mostrant el seu característic plomatge negre, crema i ataronjat. La imatge inclou text en anglès i català que explica que cada genoma explica una història i que cada espècie conserva milions d'anys d'història evolutiva en el seu ADN.

32013

Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

«We demonstrate how little information is contributed by depauperate lineages to ancestral state reconstructions at the root node of major clades». «[accuracy] is determined primarily by the species-rich clade and, specifically, by the distance separating that clade from the root».

100

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Andrew Roger @andrewjroger.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

So you are using IQ-TREE to estimate a tree for "deep time" phylogenetics using amino acid alignments. There is a lot of confusion about how to test model fit. Here are some suggestions.

27541

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo @multicellgenome.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We have a new branch in the family tree of animals: Atreyea- a previously unrecognized lineage among the closest unicell relatives of animals. Led by @konsmitsi.bsky.social & @freejakoba.bsky.social together with a fantastic team of collaborators. 🔗 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... #protistsOnSky

111545

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Judith Mank @judithmank.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

So very, very happy to see this out @plosbiology.org : Ancient inversion polymorphisms associate with sexually selected traits across natural guppy populations. Beautiful work by two very clever and talented coauthors, Yuying Lin and @vdbijl.bsky.social . journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... 1/

journals.plos.org

Ancient inversion polymorphisms associate with sexually selected traits across natural guppy populations

Genomic inversions spanning many genes can persist for millions of years. This study of Trinidadian guppy populations reveals how both ecological conditions and mate choice help maintain this hidden l...

17536

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

A little late on this, but finally got around to reading this review on genome assembly. Found it both comprehensive and accessible. Made it recommended reading for members of the lab and the genomics grad students I am teaching. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Genome assembly in the telomere-to-telomere era - Nature Reviews Genetics

In this Review, Li and Durbin discuss how to generate telomere-to-telomere assemblies for large haploid or diploid genomes using currently available data types and algorithms, and outline remaining ch...

1145

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG) @crg.eu · 21/09/2026

The CRG's 2027 PhD call is now open! We have multiple, fully-funded positions across fifteen different research groups. Successful candidates will spend four years pursuing cutting-edge questions at our labs in Barcelona. Deadline is 22 November. www.crg.eu/en/content/t...

01012

Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Furgant per les llivanyes i juntures d’aquesta paret seca, entre mac i mac d’oblit, entre les pedres dures de cega desmemòria que endures, et sé. I em sé, en el mirall fidel

100

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

“Frustules of Diatoms”, a cyanotype from 1870 by Austrian botany professor Julius Wiesner. Diatoms are a microalgae found in oceans, waterways, and soils, and generate about 20 to 50% of the planet's oxygen. Available as a print in our online shop: publicdomainreview.org/product/f...

09720

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Alexis Stamatakis @stamatak.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The RAxML-NG v2.0 preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... v2.0 features integrated model testing, fast branch support metrics, automatic parallelization, phylogenetic difficulty prediction, genotype evolution models, to name but the most important features. And it is A LOT FASTER of course

biorxiv.org

RAxML-NG 2: Automatic model selection, novel tree search heuristics, and fast branch support metrics

RAxML-NG is a widely used tool for maximum likelihood based phylogenetic inference. In the seven years since the last RAxML-NG publication, we have continuously improved and extended the code. Here, w...

111556

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Shikhara Bhat @shikharabhat.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Precisely my fear for eco-evo. People often delude themselves into thinking they understand a theoretical result in eco-evo without delving into the maths because they understand the statement and think conceptual intuition is enough. Theorists are forced to do HW, AI tools encourage sidestepping it

141

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

David Maddison @bembidion.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The Tree of Life Web Project is back online! tolweb.org Thanks to Travis Wheeler (@wheelerlab.org), Danny Mandel, and Andrew Lenards, the original programmers for ToLWeb, for retooling the code to work on a modern OS! It is hard for me to believe it lives again.

tolweb.org

Tree of Life Web Project

39744

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Charlotte Wright @charlottewright.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Delighted this huge team effort is out! By surveying >20,000 people from >100 countries, we used to butterflies to show that aesthetic biases distort scientific research & environmental policy. Understanding this bias is a key step towards more balanced decision-making 🦋 www.doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

47828

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

ICRS International Coral Reef Society @icrs.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025 report is out! 📊🪸 Peer-reviewed by ICRS, it tracks global hard coral & macroalgae cover over 44 years. ➡️ Swipe for key takeaways! 💬 What’s happening on your local reefs? Share what you see below!

1149

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Javier del Campo @fonamental.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Coral bleaching looks like a reef-scale catastrophe. But it starts as a breakdown between single cells. Published in @microbiomej.bsky.social, led by @ambonacolta.bsky.social we watched it at that scale for the first time: the first single-cell transcriptomics of a bleaching coral 🪸 #CoralReefs

23212

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

"Practical computing for biologists" is one of the clearest textbooks I read as a student. A phylogenetic textbook by the same author is an instant must-read!

1113

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

🦤 Dodo-studiën Amsterdam, J. Müller, 1917. [Source]

Historical illustration titled "Dodo-studiën" from Amsterdam, 1917, depicting two dodo bird studies side by side. The left image is a detailed line drawing showing a plump dodo with a large curved beak, small wings, stout legs, and a tufted tail, standing on a decorative ledge. The right image is a darker, less detailed silhouette of a dodo with similar posture and features, emphasizing the bird’s rounded body and distinctive head shape. Both images highlight the extinct dodo’s unique physical traits as understood in early 20th-century ornithological studies.

0166

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

An abrupt glacier collapse triggered the Nepal floods. In a warming climate, the "Himalayas are especially vulnerable, because the steep slopes of many of these very tall mountains are made of permafrost", writes Levan Tielidze @monashuniversity.bsky.social theconversation.com/tsunami-of-d...

theconversation.com

Tsunami of dirt: what caused Nepal’s deadly glacial flood?

The glaciers of the Himalayas aren’t safe from climate change. The sudden collapse of a glacier looks to have triggered disaster in Nepal.

0118

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Andy Baxevanis @baxevanislab.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

New in Cell: Corals didn't invent a new way to house their algal symbionts — they co-opted an old one. The symbiosome turns out to be built from repurposed lysosomal machinery, with one transporter (SLC26A11) essential for symbiosis. 🪸 @pcleves.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

cell.com

Co-option of lysosomal machinery shapes the evolution of the intracellular photosymbiosis supporting coral reefs

Corals harbor intracellular algal symbionts in specialized organelles that enable them to build diverse reef ecosystems. Corals and other cnidarians have repeatedly evolved this symbiosis through the ...

12410

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Janina Rinke @jannelrinke.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Excited to share that our paper on Horizontal Gene Transfer is now out in its final form in @gigascience.bsky.social! 🥳 By analysing 163 high-quality ant genomes, we show that HGT from bacteria is widespread across the ants and likely has adaptive functions! doi.org/10.1093/giga... 🐜📸: Alex Wild

214151

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Daan van den Broek @daanvandenbroek.com · 19/08/2026

The worst of Europe’s extreme atmospheric heat is gone, but it certainly left a signature in the ocean. A new attribution study finds: - the current event in the Mediterranean ~2°C warmer due to antropogenic global warming. - seas off western Europe 1.3–1.4°C than without AGW.

Data visualisation of sea surface temperature anomalies from Copernicus, based on Copernicus Marine Service data for 13 August 2026. (dark) red tones indicate areas where sea surface temperatures were above the long-term average. The largest anomalies, reaching approximately 6°C above average, were recorded in the western Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the Gulf of Lion off the coast of southern France. Values above 5°C were also recorded in the Atlantic off the Iberian Peninsula. Cooler-than-average waters are visible in parts of the Aegean Sea. Source: eu-space.europa.eu.

166

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“AI adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months”

314448

Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

«[The] left never has political power, and so its energies become trapped in the realm of culture […]. When a political movement is deprived of executive means […] it becomes trapped outside policy and exercises its power in the only venues it can. It is a feature of weakness, not strength.»

theguardian.com

Here is the news from the US: Woke 1.0 is over. But what did progressives do wrong? | Nesrine Malik

A movement with safety, dignity and equality at its heart has been blamed for the rightwing backlash. But within it were principles worth carrying forwards, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

100

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Gen Wojcik @genandgenes.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

I wrote about how we must stand and fight against the threat of eugenics. Fueled by white nationalism and scientific racism, these beliefs are factually wrong and ethically abhorrent. This fight includes supporting efforts to diversify our workforce & science. To stop now would be a deep betrayal.

nature.com

Eugenics is on the rise again: human geneticists must take a stand

Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics.

8324176

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Roope Kaaronen @roopekaaronen.net · 25/03/2026

Throwback to a year ago. 🪢 We asked a simple question that nonetheless had never been answered: what kinds of knots have humans tied across cultures? (How) have knots evolved over millennia? We used some fun maths (knot theory) to provide an unambiguous answer. Thread:

1144

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Sailing in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social ready for summer, our study on the iconic Portuguese man o' war 🪼 is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... We use (epi)genomics to understand a critter that fascinates me since childhood. Massive team effort with @obog.bsky.social, Cummins and Neely groups. 🧵

the indo-pacific bluebottle (Physalia utriculus)

810355

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Sean Montgomery @seanamontgomery.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Glad to see this out at last! Check out Arnau's summary below for all the highlights

0278

Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

«La violència era, per al franquisme, i és, avui, una funció: la que encareix el preu d’eixir al carrer per als ciutadans. Qui va rebre a Palma i qui ho va veure per la televisió aprenen la mateixa cosa, que és exactament el que s’havia d’aprendre: no t’hi fiques.» www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/per...

vilaweb.cat

Per què pega, la policia?

Diumenge, a Palma, setanta mil persones es van manifestar contra la saturació turística. Ni un sol incident en tot el recorregut: ho admet la policia mateixa en el seu atestat. La de diumenge va ser u...

000

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Peter du Toit @peterdutoit.com · 26/07/2026

You see everything is connected. The marine heatwaves off the coasts of Europe make heatwaves on land more intense, which in turn dries out vegetation, which then creates perfect fire weather conditions. Brought to you by the world's refusal to drastically reduce the burning of fossil fuels.

eu-space.europa.eu

Ongoing marine heatwave in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea | EU Space Support Office

In late May 2026, several countries in Western Europe faced above-average temperatures. During the same period, large areas of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea also recorded above-average ...

8532611664

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 20/07/2026

Organisms known as “extremophiles” thrive in the most brutal corners of the planet, enduring blistering temperatures, crushing pressures, and even corrosive acid. They also offer a window into life’s deep origins — and a hypothetical peek at alien biology. www.quantamagazine.org/the-organism...

quantamagazine.org

The Organisms That Make Earth’s Harshest Places Home | Quanta Magazine

Extremophiles that thrive in the most unforgiving environments aren’t just biological curiosities. Understanding their resilience has many implications for us.

0249

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

CGUE 2026 @cgue2026.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Excellent preprint combining single-cell transcriptomics, symbiosis biology and evolutionary perspectives to understand coral responses to heat stress. A great example of how single-cell approaches are transforming eukaryotic biology.

151

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Arnau Sebé-Pedrós @arnausebe.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The third chapter in our coral single-cell trilogy is here. After mapping cell type diversity in Stylophora (Levy 2021) and exploring facultative symbiosis in Oculina (Levy 2025), we now uncover cell type-specific responses to heat stress. Find out more in @xgrau.bsky.social's thread below.

biorxiv.org

Cell-resolved transcriptional responses during heat-induced coral bleaching and recovery

Coral reefs depend on an intracellular symbiosis between cnidarian hosts and photosynthetic dinoflagellates that is disrupted by ocean warming, causing coral bleaching. Yet how these responses are dis...

14818

Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I'm happy to share our latest on #coral single-cell biology: a transcriptomic timecourse of heat stress in Stylophora pistillata, from bleaching to recovery 🪸🌊 This project was spearheaded by Shani Levy and carried through in @arnausebe.bsky.social's lab at @crg.eu. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Stylophora pistillata colony from the Red Sea. Picture by Hagai Nativ.

23411

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Phoebe Cohen @phoebefossil.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Super excited that our paper led by @sandinmm.eurosky.social in PNAS is out! We show that crown-group eukaryotes were already taxonomically and ecologically diverse throughout the Mesoproterozoic, revealing complex communities well before the Neoproterozoic radiation. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.org

Environmental phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown eukaryotes starting from the mid-Proterozoic | PNAS

Molecular clock and preservation of early microfossil assemblages suggest that eukaryotes were present and already diverse more than ~1600 million ...

29034

Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

As necessary as it is to put faces and voices to the victims of Fascism, this is too little, too late, and too partial. It comes with neither reparations nor a true reckoning with the murderous ideology that brought this about, and the very real people behind it. www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Spain’s largest research organization confronts its dark past

Spanish National Research Council, established under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, has published the stories of some 500 researchers and support staff purged after civil war

073

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 10/07/2026

Hidden within the rings of ancient trees is an archive stretching back thousands of years. Today’s Essay explores the exciting discoveries dendrochronologists have made through decoding these rings. buff.ly/rmzOhXq

0163

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Danny Kingsley @dannykay68.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

GOOD ARGUMENT: Have a read of this article considering whether OA has run its course - most work is published OA now, at a huge cost. "Should we re-orient our efforts towards the scholarly commons and the promise it holds for non-commercial, community-led publishing? I think so."

035

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Here is some weekend reading for you 👉 www.cell.com/current-biol... Our special green issue, chokeful of reviews and short-format introductory pieces on plant #evolution! 🌱🌿🌵🍃 #Plants

12910

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Dr Vicki Yorke-Edwards @vickiye.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

"I could no longer stop the system from auto-inviting "reviewers" with zero relevant expertise. Even worse - the AI began actively revoking the invitations I manually sent out to actual, qualified experts." More reasons not to publish in Frontiers journals 🧪 #AcademicSky

0198

Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

“In 1979, Douglas Hofstadter speculated that a computer able to beat humans at chess would be so sophisticated that it would sometimes get bored of playing chess and prefer to discuss poetry; […] he was positing that playing chess would require a computer program to have subjective experience. …

theatlantic.com

No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious

Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurd—and damning.

130

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Arvid Ågren @arvidagren.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Much has been written about The Selfish Gene, and few books have been both as influential and as persistently contested. To commemorate its 50th anniversary, here are some brief thoughts in the latest issue of @science.org. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

A provocative view of evolution turns 50

The Selfish Gene continues to challenge readers half a century later

27227

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

nature.com

Gene body methylation suppresses intragenic transcription and permits epigenetic inheritance in a cnidarian - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...

611058

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Matthew Hahn @3rdreviewer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Very happy to announce a big new paper from the lab, led by grad students @smishra677.bsky.social and Laia Pomar-Pallarès (in collaboration with @roblanfear.bsky.social). We introduce a new way to study introgression, with accompanying software (DAFT) 1/n 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

49467

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

“Where do you get your ideas from, Ms Le Guin?” From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading road signs backwards, naturally. Where else?

116641

Reposted by Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾

Laurie Belcher @lauriebelch.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

We’re hiring for OrthoFinder! Great role for someone who enjoys scientific software development: Python, data analysis, workflows, Git, scalability, and making tools nicer to use. Comparative genomics or open-source bioinformatics experience would be a lovely bonus. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

my.corehr.com

Job Details

23147