Current Biology

Current Anarchy has a nice ring to it...

New in @currentbiology.bsky.social with @scottvedwards.bsky.social! Long-read genomes show that songbird germline-restricted chromosomes (eliminated from body cells) are repeat-rich and packed with intact, expressed LTR-ERVs. Could these viral relics fuel bird diversification? 🐦🧬

How does sensory-induced arousal affect spatial navigation? A new study @currentbiology.bsky.social discovered that an alerting sound recruit head-direction cells in the thalamus which enhances the fidelity of head-direction coding. 🐀🧭 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Females shape hunting of vertebrates in wild bonobos: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

PFAs, PCBs, POPs are just a few of the "novel entities" (for want of a better term) humans are adding to the Earth system, with potentially detrimental consequences. 🌏🧪 Primer by @bcarneyalmroth.bsky.social @michaelgbertram.bsky.social & co from our Life&Earth special 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

and so do ichnologists... www.cell.com/current-biol...

How does manipulation of abiotic habitat by animals — known as #ecosystem engineering — affect their evolution and diversification: A wide-ranging deep-digging review by Simon Darroch & a large team! www.cell.com/current-biol...

1/ Two really fun reviews just landed back to back in Current Biology, both on a question I never get tired of: why did animals take over when they did? One argues animals engineered their own world. The other argues oxygen and temperature had to line up first.

Now out from our NSF RCN in ecosystem engineering: Ecosystem engineering, regime shifts and the rise of animals by Simon Darroch et al www.cell.com/current-biol... 🧪⚒️ #Evolution #evosky

That #fridayfeeling of a long boring weekend ahead of you? Be sure to browse and read our inspiring geobiology special issue on Life&Earth! (Most pieces are freely accessible!!!) 🌲🛘🌏🐠 👇👇👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

The Gaia hypothesis — the notion by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis that Earth and Life are best understood as one functional unit — has had a checkered history. But it also may have helped midwife Earth System Science. 🌍🌱🦠🛘 Florian Maderspacher on Gaia's many guises👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

In our newest issue, we interview Jiayang Li, who studies plant molecular genetics and crop breeding, particularly in rice, at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Find out more here: www.cell.com/current-biol...

The structure of Earth's surface structures and shapes the way life evolves. ⛰️⛰️⛰️ Check out the wide ranging (literally) Primer bi Loïc Pellissier, and @swillettgeo.bsky.social from our Life&Earth special 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Interbacterial competition triggers stress-induced CRISPR immunity against bacteriophages @currentbiology.bsky.social from Edze Westra www.cell.com/current-biol...

Nowhere is the notion of living Earth more evident than in the microbes that penetrate Earth's curst kilometers deep and whose abundance and diversity we are only beginning to grasp. Rachel Beaver & @joshdneufeld.bsky.social on The Deep (Dark) Microbial Biosphere🌍🦠 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Our cover rock shows a record of the earliest oxygenation of Earth. But how did oxygen (an temperature) shape the evolution of marine animal life in the last billion year? Check out the review by Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Erik Sperling and colleagues www.cell.com/current-biol...

Don't try this at home!

Increased signaling of the Neanderthal growth hormone receptor http://dlvr.it/TW0r3t Hugo Zeberg @i.se & others @currentbiology.bsky.social #ASHG26

This piece of land art is the burrow of a mud-shrimp. One example of animals as geological agents, burrowing through and mixing sediments. Such 'Bioturbation' is the focus of a primer in our Life&Earth special, from the doyen of the field, Jack Middelburg Dig in! 🪏 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

PAPER from @rootdevelopment.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social #PlantScience www.cell.com/current-biol...

How did Life shape Earth — feature by Michael Gross from our special issue! www.cell.com/current-biol...

It's a truth universally acknowledged that Current Biology rocks! So we thought, why not put a rock on the cover? True, not a super current rock, at 2.5 billion years old, but deeply connected to biology. To find out more, check out our special issue on Life & Earth! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Happy to share our Primer, 'Anthropogenic novel entities in the Earth system', in the new special issue on Life and Earth at @currentbiology.bsky.social! 👉 tinyurl.com/3psdc4v4 A big thanks to Lauren Zink, Elvis Genbo Xu, @smbrander.bsky.social, @alisonbain.bsky.social, @bcarneyalmroth.bsky.social

Want a quick intro to astrobiology? Here's my primer for the journal @currentbiology.bsky.social, free to read for the next 50 days, in which I echo Voltaire: "if astrobiology did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it." kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Are migratory birds born with a magnetic map, or do they learn it? In our @currentbiology.bsky.social study, Eurasian reed warblers caught in autumn/tested in spring did not compensate for a virtual displacement of over 1,000 km. Magnetic maps in songbirds may develop through migratory experience.

Our story about short-long cell leaf epidermal patterning is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social now! My highlight is the beautiful imaging and thorough analysis by the incredibly talented @ncyberwitch.bsky.social. Congrats to all involved 🌾 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ever see a snake do a barrel roll? Scientists disentangle the locomotor kinematics of this behavior in rolling snakes. Learn more in Current Biology: spkl.io/633287ntaA Yosuke Kojima & colleagues @currentbiology.bsky.social

broke: artificial intelligence woke: natural intelligence bespoke: woven intelligence

@currentbiology.bsky.social with another banger. Go to ~1:50 in the video

🌺 What happens when plants and pollinators team up for millions of years? 🧬 Genomes reveal their long-term interdependence: populations fluctuate in sync and hummingbird foraging shapes plant genetic diversity. 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... #ornithology #coevolution @currentbiology.bsky.social

Check out our newest issue where we interview @momedinamunoz.bsky.social, who studies the DNA, development, microbial diversity, and symbioses of cnidarians at the University of California Los Angeles. Read the full interview here: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Our new tool corpus makes biodiversity literature searchable by AI agents via MCP, with provenance to source text and figures. With @shchurch.bsky.social , Felipe Zapata, and Maciej Mańko. In @currentbiology.bsky.social - www.cell.com/current-biol... Code: github.com/caseywdunn/c...

Large declines in South Sandwich Island populations of Chinstrap penguins likely caused by reductions in krill availability associated with regional warming. Authors call for reconsideration of the IUCN Red List status for the species. @currentbiology.bsky.social

In our newest issue, we interview Jennifer Mather, whose work involves cephalopod behaviour and human–animal interactions at the University of Lethbridge. Read the Q&A to find out what drew Jennifer to cephalopods and more! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Landed in Current Biology! www.cell.com/current-biol...

A decade ago, a “weird” kitten was found on a road near a Bolivian forest. Too small to be a housecat, he had a scrunched-up face, short round ears, long whiskers, & a coat of leopard-like spots. DNA analysis now reveals him as the very first of a newly discovered species & I think I'm in love. 😻🧬🧪👇

The new Current Biology Cat is #1 on @bsky.app. The wonders of the natural world still triumph over man-made madness!😻🙏 www.cell.com/current-biol...

IN CB! www.cell.com/current-biol...

The new wild cat species is about the size of a domestic kitten and lives in Bolivia.

but are they Current Biologists?

Thankfully all of Sydney's pieces are still there (even though he sadly is not). www.cell.com/action/doSea...

In particular, reading www.cell.com/current-biol...

In our recent issue we interview Susana Coelho, who uses brown algae to study evolution, development, and life-cycle complexity at the Max Planck Institute for Biology. Read the Q&A to find out more about Susana’s most important scientific influences: www.cell.com/current-biol...