Ben Stone

Great to see all the wonderful people in the comments crapping on Mississippi which, while far from perfect, actually has dramatically improved its education system in recent years. But go ahead and keep laughing at the poorest state with the largest % black population if it makes you feel better

And if you're a letter writer, note that the letters have specific formatting requirements (fonts, etc) which were not around last time I wrote these.

Authors!🚨 While you scramble for scarce $ 🤔 “Springer Nature reports revenue growth of 6.2%..and adjusted operating profit growth of 7.7%. They reported even more stunning submission growth of 30% and published article growth of 13%.” Publishing in society journals helps YOU not them👇🏻. Pass it on.

My lab is hiring a postdoc for an NSF-funded project on machine learning, model misspecification, and population genetics! Flexible start-date! Learn more about the lab: smithlabbio.github.io Job Ad: explore.msujobs.msstate.edu/cw/en-us/job... Please reach out if you have any questions!

New paper in Systematic Biology! We show how micro-synteny can help resolve a tricky fish #phylogenetic problem where traditional sequence-based analyses fall short. Genomes archive evolutionary history in more than just their basepairs. doi.org/10.1093/sysb... #fish #genomics #evolution

A disgusting waste of taxpayer dollars and resources that could otherwise go towards doing more science and paying more scientists. Instead we blow it on for-profit publishers and convince ourselves it’s the only way it could work.

I am currently searching for a postdoc to work on the evolution of adaptations, cold acclimation, and freezing tolerance in switchgrass. The position entails lab, growth facility, bioinformatics, and fieldwork. careers.msu.edu/jobs/postdoc...

Got me a haul (muscadines)

Getting very close to flowers! #Physostegia

Hello world! You bored? My research group is documenting flower color variation and you can help! check out tribblelab.org/flower_color... and dm me with any technical difficulties or issues. Share with your friends! The more players the better.

Don’t rot your brain, kids

Write physical letters if you can. Seriously. I’d love to correspond over snail mail stonelabmsu.com/contact.html

New NSF BIO solicitation is live.... this replaces the previous IOS, MCB, DEB solicitation www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

I am excited to announce a job for an Asst Prof in Plant Evolution in the dept. of Evolution and Ecology at @ucdavis.bsky.social. We're looking broadly, from macro (speciation, comparative genomics, evo-devo) to micro (pop biology, adaptive evolution, evo-eco). recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07777

Got the new lab website up and running! Still a few things to iron out but not too shabby stonelabmsu.com

I'm recruiting a PhD student to work on an NSF-funded project developing new models of trait evolution for phylogenetic comparative methods! Info about the lab here: mhibbins.github.io Applications to our grad program are due December 1. Please share!

The influence of incompatibilities and heterosis on hybrid population genetics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.04.742766v1

Leonie is an awesome mentor and an amazing scientist!!

I can't make it to #Botany2026 this year, but I don't want to miss out on all the cool plant science being presented. I've made a starter pack to follow along from home (and to find more great botanists to follow year-round). Reply here to be added! go.bsky.app/HdDpDrW

We had to show you some more presentations from last night's poster session, but we're still sad we can't highlight them all! Be sure to stop by the #Botany2026 Exhibit Hall to check them out. Follow along all week for updates from the conference 🌿 #plantpeopleFTW

Penstemon lunch at #Botany2026 @aidanwshort.bsky.social @botanist-brooke.bsky.social Liz Mays @trinitydepatie.bsky.social @t-shy.bsky.social Josh Stevens @botanicalbecks.bsky.social

Big #Botany2026 Monday for the lab: great posters by @botanicalbecks.bsky.social and Maria Aguilar (her 1st!) and awesome talk by new Burpee postdoc @devanijolman.bsky.social on her PhD work at ODU. #plantpeopleFTW

Hey #Botany2026 check out Stone Lab PhD student Sara Wuerstl’s talk this morning in the Reproductive Processes section! 9:15 Tucson C-D

Hey Botany! Come see my talk investigating whether polyploids have different patterns of flower evolution than diploids on Weds at 8:15am in San Xavier. Over 100 undergrads participated in this research! :) #PUIFTW #Botany2026 #PlantPeopleFTW

Major #Botany2026 FOMO, but the drive MA->OR starts this week. So, sharing from afar: I’m recruiting grad students for my new lab at OSU! Info: www.mckenzie-lab.org . We're going to have FUN with systematics, speciation genomics, methods, natural history, and more in North Am angiosperms. Reach out!

Wohoo! Yes, postdocs at #Botany2026, please come to the Postdocs in Botany affinity group on Monday from noon to 1:30pm. Arizona Grand Ballroom… @botanist-brooke.bsky.social and I will see you all there! :)

SO PUMPED for #Botany2026 !! We will be a little late to the party (not arriving until this evening) but very much looking forward to an amazing conference with all my plant buddies More on lab presentations soon!

As you're making your itinerary on the #Botany2026 app, check out some of these lab presentations!!!

At #Botany2026, I was hoping to start recruiting for my lab group. If you are interested in polyploidy and population genetics, please reach out.

On June 23 of this year, I presented my first in person presentation at a conference (#Evol2026)!

Had to move this guy the other day as it was in the line of fire for lawn care. Eastern box turtle (genus Terrapene)

It's as official as it can be: The Yoder Lab has been very lucky to receive NSF funding to develop our TARDIS method of modeling plants' flowering activity in varying environments. Watch for grad (MSci) opportunities in Fall 2027, and a postdoc position sooner than that 🌿 buff.ly/OHpbfB0

Penstemon whippleanus, our Whipple’s Penstemon, blooming yesterday in Dry Gulch #nativeplants 🌿

Yesterday marked the last day of my first year as a professor! Whew, what a whirlwind. But it’s been so rewarding! This is my Plant ID final—100 plant species for the students to identify. They did so well! I’m so grateful for such an amazing botany class 🌿 #iamabotanist #botanyprofessor

#Evol2026 I’m launching a new research group at UNC Charlotte in January 2027. Prospective students, postdocs, and collaborators are welcome to get in touch: jacob.berv@charlotte.edu More at jakeberv.com, lab website coming soon.

BIG NEWS! A new $6,000 award from the Botanical Society of America. Thanks to our generous donors from the Girolami family for establishing an endowed award to honor established researchers. #Botany #IamaBotanist #Botany2026 #Botany2027

Probably a bit late, but if anyone in Cleveland for #Evol2026 has some free time, the Cleveland museum of art (open until 9PM tonight; 10am-5PM tomorrow) is FREE and has a ton of exquisite and culturally significant works of art! Here’s just one example. There were 4 Van Goghs on the other wall

I'm very excited and so grateful to receive an NSF CAREER award - we'll be testing ideas about how CAM evolves using C3+CAM intermediate species and teaching students how plant physiology and genomics can simultaneously inform our understanding of plant biodiversity. www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/... 1/2

I’m recruiting a PhD student to join our lab in the fall of 2027. If you’re excited about phylogenetics, comp bio, paleobiology, stats theory, macroevolution, etc. please get in touch! Folks at #Evol2026, you can talk to @brpetrucci.bsky.social & @sigournie.bsky.social to learn more about our lab

ADA leaders were forcibly removed from their own meeting for sharing copies of an ADA OpEd critical of Jay Bhattacharya. Thanks to you it's now got >125,000 views. As CDC interim director, Jay also blocked publication of this paper because it showed that COVID vaccines work. You know what to do.

The academic hiring system is simply not designed for candidates like me. It privileges a kind of performative intellectualism—the ability to stand at a whiteboard and extemporize about science as if you were some kind of 19th-century naturalist 😂 😂 😂 open.substack.com/pub/inprepar...

If you’re in Cleveland for #Evolution26 RUN don’t walk to @jillmlove.bsky.social ‘s talk on the genomic basis of local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in Mimulus laciniatius!!!! Tomorrow at 5:15pm!!! #Mimuluspropaganda

Having a nice time hanging out at the #Evol2026 meeting in Cleveland Strange sense of calm being just an attendee… get to focus more on all the great talks!

The lab is en route to #Evol2026! We’ve got several talks:

Minibwa is a hybrid of bwa-mem and minimap2 and the successor of bwa-mem for short-read mapping. ~4X/2.5X as fast as bwa-mem/bwa-mem2 for WGS reads at comparable accuracy. Native support of directional bisulfite-seq. Applicable to long reads. Preprint at arxiv.org/abs/2606.15357

Scientific journal editor here: If you're invited to peer review an article and you can't do it, please just click "no." That tells me "this person can't do it, I should invite someone else." Otherwise the system waits 3 weeks to tell me that you didn't respond and I should invite someone else.

The article is good because it points out may of the ways in which the Trump administration is destroying science in the USA But it doesn’t go far enough. We need to do MORE than call our representatives. What we need is to organize together to further amplify this message to the world

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...

postdoc alert 🚨! NIH-funded postdoc in my lab to work on Ancestral Recombination Graphs in space. Please spread the word widely in your networks, and please reach out if you're interested! (2-3yr position, start date flexible, pay/benefits good!). details here: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...