This is interesting. Around minute 39 of this interview, Charlesworths say that re the study of speciation, while mechanistic work (molecular details) can be beautiful, insights gained don’t tell us anything fundamentally new about how evolution works. vimeo.com/312574773

In a perspective for Annual Reviews, Annabel Beichman, Luke Zhu, and I compare & contrast theories about mutation rate evolution rooted in population genetics vs gerontology: annualreviews.org/content/journa…

New fun paper: using ('classical') coexistence theory to predict how adaptive radiations unfold

cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/early/…

Shoot me an email for a pdf if you can't get past the paywall...

Researchers have observed a Sumatran #orangutan in the wild repeatedly treating its own wound with a plant with several known medicinal properties - the first scientific record of this behaviour in a wild animal mpg.de/21886982/0429-… Isabelle Laumer PhD caroline…

Isabel Serrano is working with California State University, Fullerton, to give back to their community and help other students find out about the nascent interdisciplinary field of computational biology (CC: CCB UC Berkeley)
cdss.berkeley.edu/news/isabel-se…

Random thought: are there good contingency plans were a science building ever to be occupied? The risk of potential losses is massive: tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, longterm experiments destroyed, grad work conducted over years gone.

Beautiful sunset over the cloud layer above Eugene today. It may surprise some of my followers, but I am in fact a huge nerd, so I was thrilled when our friendly United Airlines pilot let me peek into the cockpit of the A320. He’s flew A-10s and a dozen other aircraft! Very nice guy.

Congratulations to the new members of the National Academy of Sciences, elected in Evolutionary Biology for 2024!

Adriana Briscoe
David Queller
Ray Huey
Nick Barton, International Member