Benjamin Vernot
@benvernot.bsky.social
Scientist living in Germany. Two^H^H^H Three loud kids, population genetics, sediment DNA, Neandertals, beer, whiskey, non-German food. Group leader @ MPI EVA
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
So proud of this work—out today in Cell! 🦊 (and only the beginning of lots of exciting fox work to come!)
Now published in Cell! We found that ~15% of SNPs from divergent refs did not liftover as SNPs in the gray fox ref—half mapped to monomorphic sites, half failed to map. Co-authored with Matthew Genchev, @elliecat.bsky.social, and @jazlynmooney.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 22, 2025 at 8:50 PM
So proud of this work—out today in Cell! 🦊 (and only the beginning of lots of exciting fox work to come!)
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
Only 1 person in the whole study went from identifying as trans to not identifying as trans. The 1/5 number came from youth going between the binary and non-binary spectrum.
This headline and post are misleading on purpose to fit the economist's editorial bent on the political issue.
This headline and post are misleading on purpose to fit the economist's editorial bent on the political issue.
A recent study found that children who transitioned young retained stable gender identities over time. But the fact that nearly a fifth of those in the group did not ought to give advocates of irreversible medical interventions pause
How stable are the gender identities of younger children?
A study finds that one in five who switch gender change their mind
econ.st
September 22, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Only 1 person in the whole study went from identifying as trans to not identifying as trans. The 1/5 number came from youth going between the binary and non-binary spectrum.
This headline and post are misleading on purpose to fit the economist's editorial bent on the political issue.
This headline and post are misleading on purpose to fit the economist's editorial bent on the political issue.
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!
September 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM
hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class.
This is Kirk's legacy.
You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.
This is Kirk's legacy.
You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.
September 12, 2025 at 7:14 PM
A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class.
This is Kirk's legacy.
You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.
This is Kirk's legacy.
You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
Great job opportunity here in Vienna at the Natural History Museum. @nhmwien.bsky.social
jobs.nhm.at/Curator-for-...
jobs.nhm.at/Curator-for-...
Stellenangebot Curator for the osteological collection of human remains (m/f/d) bei Naturhistorisches Museum Wien
Forschung, wissenschaftliche Tätigkeit in Wien
jobs.nhm.at
September 8, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Great job opportunity here in Vienna at the Natural History Museum. @nhmwien.bsky.social
jobs.nhm.at/Curator-for-...
jobs.nhm.at/Curator-for-...
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
We are excited for the interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Ghana starting next week! Supported by the Bridging Minds Program @maxplanck.de, organized by researchers from MPI-EVA, including @hannahrausch.bsky.social and @mariepadberg.bsky.social. More info:
www.eva.mpg.de/events/2025-...
www.eva.mpg.de/events/2025-...
2025-Bridging Minds - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
www.eva.mpg.de
September 8, 2025 at 9:12 AM
We are excited for the interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Ghana starting next week! Supported by the Bridging Minds Program @maxplanck.de, organized by researchers from MPI-EVA, including @hannahrausch.bsky.social and @mariepadberg.bsky.social. More info:
www.eva.mpg.de/events/2025-...
www.eva.mpg.de/events/2025-...
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
Very excited to receive an ERC Starting Grant to study the earliest archaeological and biomolecular evidence of Homo sapiens in NW Europe
Watch this space for new positions in Bristol in 2026! 🎉
#HorizonEurope #ERCStG
Watch this space for new positions in Bristol in 2026! 🎉
#HorizonEurope #ERCStG
📣 The ERC Starting Grant call results are out!
Find out which early-career researchers will receive funding this year, what they will be investigating, where they will be based... plus lots of other #ERCStG facts & figures for 2025!
➡️ buff.ly/IsafuFh
#FrontierResearch 🇪🇺#EUfunded #HorizonEurope
Find out which early-career researchers will receive funding this year, what they will be investigating, where they will be based... plus lots of other #ERCStG facts & figures for 2025!
➡️ buff.ly/IsafuFh
#FrontierResearch 🇪🇺#EUfunded #HorizonEurope
September 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Very excited to receive an ERC Starting Grant to study the earliest archaeological and biomolecular evidence of Homo sapiens in NW Europe
Watch this space for new positions in Bristol in 2026! 🎉
#HorizonEurope #ERCStG
Watch this space for new positions in Bristol in 2026! 🎉
#HorizonEurope #ERCStG
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
Thanks to @isbarchaeology.bsky.social and @isba11.bsky.social for a great conference.
I mentioned the legacy of Henk Kars of VU who established ISBA
Geoarchaeology closed. Here is the link to the petition to save Earth Sciences @vuamsterdam.bsky.social
www.change.org/p/red-aardwe...
I mentioned the legacy of Henk Kars of VU who established ISBA
Geoarchaeology closed. Here is the link to the petition to save Earth Sciences @vuamsterdam.bsky.social
www.change.org/p/red-aardwe...
September 1, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Thanks to @isbarchaeology.bsky.social and @isba11.bsky.social for a great conference.
I mentioned the legacy of Henk Kars of VU who established ISBA
Geoarchaeology closed. Here is the link to the petition to save Earth Sciences @vuamsterdam.bsky.social
www.change.org/p/red-aardwe...
I mentioned the legacy of Henk Kars of VU who established ISBA
Geoarchaeology closed. Here is the link to the petition to save Earth Sciences @vuamsterdam.bsky.social
www.change.org/p/red-aardwe...
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
'Ancient stickleback genomes reveal the early stages of parallel adaptation' - now published online in Evolution @journal-evo.bsky.social
August 15, 2025 at 5:12 AM
'Ancient stickleback genomes reveal the early stages of parallel adaptation' - now published online in Evolution @journal-evo.bsky.social
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
The last piece associated with the brilliant team effort to rethink aDNA results and social relations in Neolithic Ireland is in this month’s Current Archaeology magazine with an absolutely gorgeous cover image of Newgrange (credit: Ken Williams) archaeology.co.uk
Current Archaeology
Britain's favourite archaeology magazine
archaeology.co.uk
August 14, 2025 at 7:33 AM
The last piece associated with the brilliant team effort to rethink aDNA results and social relations in Neolithic Ireland is in this month’s Current Archaeology magazine with an absolutely gorgeous cover image of Newgrange (credit: Ken Williams) archaeology.co.uk
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
The @scilifelab.se ancient DNA unit is looking for an bioinformatician placed at Uppsala University. This is a great way to be part of diverse #aDNA research projects as a staff scientist with permanent (!!) employment:
www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
Bioinformatician - Uppsala University
Bioinformatician, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University
www.uu.se
August 12, 2025 at 7:10 AM
The @scilifelab.se ancient DNA unit is looking for an bioinformatician placed at Uppsala University. This is a great way to be part of diverse #aDNA research projects as a staff scientist with permanent (!!) employment:
www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
July 21, 2025 at 8:55 PM
🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
The entire life sciences community needs to be fighting these misogynistic, transphobic, unscientific claims
Literally begging cis biologists and societies to speak up
Literally begging cis biologists and societies to speak up
Genuinely how is this constitutional?
July 10, 2025 at 10:14 PM
The entire life sciences community needs to be fighting these misogynistic, transphobic, unscientific claims
Literally begging cis biologists and societies to speak up
Literally begging cis biologists and societies to speak up
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
"Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from." This is analogous to life in a sundown town.
Every American should read this ACLU lawsuit about what is happening in Los Angeles and California. It is the stuff of dystopian nightmares. This is not immigration enforcement. It is positively stuffed with videos and articles documenting racial profiling on a scale unseen since Jim Crow.
July 10, 2025 at 2:27 AM
"Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from." This is analogous to life in a sundown town.
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
You want to collect insects (and maybe other arthropods) for reference genome sequencing, but don't want to spend a fortune on dry ice shipping!
All you gotta do is SQUISH. THAT. BUG!
More details in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
All you gotta do is SQUISH. THAT. BUG!
More details in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
July 7, 2025 at 9:00 AM
You want to collect insects (and maybe other arthropods) for reference genome sequencing, but don't want to spend a fortune on dry ice shipping!
All you gotta do is SQUISH. THAT. BUG!
More details in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
All you gotta do is SQUISH. THAT. BUG!
More details in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
July 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
July 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
After many years this is out now, many congratulations to everybody!
Female lineages and changing kinship patterns in Neolithic Çatalhöyük
Combining 131 paleogenomes with bioarchaeological and archaeological data, we studied social organization and gendered practices in Çatalhöyük East Mound (7100 to 5950 BCE), a major Neolithic settleme...
www.science.org
June 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
After many years this is out now, many congratulations to everybody!
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
🧬In Neolithic Çatalhöyük, family was built on social relations rather than blood ties.
Genetic analysis shows that over time, co-residents were no longer genetic relatives. Female subadults were buried with 5x more grave goods.
🔍A surprising story of Neolithic social life.
Genetic analysis shows that over time, co-residents were no longer genetic relatives. Female subadults were buried with 5x more grave goods.
🔍A surprising story of Neolithic social life.
June 27, 2025 at 3:38 PM
🧬In Neolithic Çatalhöyük, family was built on social relations rather than blood ties.
Genetic analysis shows that over time, co-residents were no longer genetic relatives. Female subadults were buried with 5x more grave goods.
🔍A surprising story of Neolithic social life.
Genetic analysis shows that over time, co-residents were no longer genetic relatives. Female subadults were buried with 5x more grave goods.
🔍A surprising story of Neolithic social life.
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
🌾 Agriculture didn’t always spread with mobility of people.
New ancient DNA research shows that in western Anatolia, while communities stayed put, farming and village life spread through the movement of ideas and practices.
New ancient DNA research shows that in western Anatolia, while communities stayed put, farming and village life spread through the movement of ideas and practices.
June 28, 2025 at 7:33 PM
🌾 Agriculture didn’t always spread with mobility of people.
New ancient DNA research shows that in western Anatolia, while communities stayed put, farming and village life spread through the movement of ideas and practices.
New ancient DNA research shows that in western Anatolia, while communities stayed put, farming and village life spread through the movement of ideas and practices.
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
Postdoc position in my group in Tokyo!
Please get in touch if you are interested.
And happy to discuss projects - these would range from developing new methods to analysis of new genomes that we are now sequencing in the lab.
Job Ad: www.riken.jp/en/careers/r...
Lab page: speidellab.github.io
Please get in touch if you are interested.
And happy to discuss projects - these would range from developing new methods to analysis of new genomes that we are now sequencing in the lab.
Job Ad: www.riken.jp/en/careers/r...
Lab page: speidellab.github.io
Seeking a few Postdoctoral Researchers at Mathematical Genomics RIKEN ECL Research Unit (25-695)
www.riken.jp
June 25, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Postdoc position in my group in Tokyo!
Please get in touch if you are interested.
And happy to discuss projects - these would range from developing new methods to analysis of new genomes that we are now sequencing in the lab.
Job Ad: www.riken.jp/en/careers/r...
Lab page: speidellab.github.io
Please get in touch if you are interested.
And happy to discuss projects - these would range from developing new methods to analysis of new genomes that we are now sequencing in the lab.
Job Ad: www.riken.jp/en/careers/r...
Lab page: speidellab.github.io
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
Ancient #DNA reveals #Papua New Guinea's genetic past. Study @natecoevo.nature.com by an intl. team led by Kathrin Nägele @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social shows the significance of regional dispersals & local interactions in coastal Papua New Guinea. tinyurl.com/2s3sc6ad & www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Papua New Guinea's Genetic Past Through Ancient DNA Analysis
A new study reveals the significance of regional dispersals and local interactions in coastal Papua New Guinea
tinyurl.com
June 4, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Ancient #DNA reveals #Papua New Guinea's genetic past. Study @natecoevo.nature.com by an intl. team led by Kathrin Nägele @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social shows the significance of regional dispersals & local interactions in coastal Papua New Guinea. tinyurl.com/2s3sc6ad & www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
🚨 FINAL REMINDER about the DEADLINE for the upcoming virtual summer school "INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT METAGENOMICS" (4-8 Aug 2025).
DEADLINE: May 30th 2025
To apply visit: spaam-community.org/wss-summer-s...
❓ Contact: J Fellows Yates (@jfy133) or Prof. C Warinner (@WarinnerGroup)
DEADLINE: May 30th 2025
To apply visit: spaam-community.org/wss-summer-s...
❓ Contact: J Fellows Yates (@jfy133) or Prof. C Warinner (@WarinnerGroup)
Document
Description
spaam-community.org
May 29, 2025 at 10:01 AM
🚨 FINAL REMINDER about the DEADLINE for the upcoming virtual summer school "INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT METAGENOMICS" (4-8 Aug 2025).
DEADLINE: May 30th 2025
To apply visit: spaam-community.org/wss-summer-s...
❓ Contact: J Fellows Yates (@jfy133) or Prof. C Warinner (@WarinnerGroup)
DEADLINE: May 30th 2025
To apply visit: spaam-community.org/wss-summer-s...
❓ Contact: J Fellows Yates (@jfy133) or Prof. C Warinner (@WarinnerGroup)
Reposted by Benjamin Vernot
"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants.
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
Another scoop from Jeff Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social): NSF's ~1400 grant terminations have disproportionately affected PIs from groups underrepresented in science: women, racial & ethnic minorities, & those with disabilities. 1/3
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Trump officials take steps toward a radically different NSF
Efforts to shrink staff, budget, and focus have alarmed members of Congress
www.science.org
May 13, 2025 at 10:09 PM
"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants.
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."