Amartya Tashi Mitra
@binturong98.bsky.social
Buschbeck Lab PhD candidate | University of Cincinnati | Studying how weird eyes evolve & develop in arthropods 🐛🪲 | Artist | UCL MRes BEC Alumn | NHM London | St Xavier’s Bombay
https://amartyamitra.wixsite.com/my-site-4
https://amartyamitra.wixsite.com/my-site-4
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!
November 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Researchers say they have found RNA molecules within woolly mammoths mummified for millennia in Siberian permafrost. https://scim.ag/3LMfet4
Mammoth mummies up to 50,000 years old yield oldest RNA yet found
Ancient RNA promises to shed light on how genes functioned in extinct animals
scim.ag
November 20, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Researchers say they have found RNA molecules within woolly mammoths mummified for millennia in Siberian permafrost. https://scim.ag/3LMfet4
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Fun fact: Apache jumping spiders (Phidippus apacheanus) are completely harmless, but evolved to mimic velvet ants from the genus Dasymutilla so predators wouldn't mess with them.
November 18, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Fun fact: Apache jumping spiders (Phidippus apacheanus) are completely harmless, but evolved to mimic velvet ants from the genus Dasymutilla so predators wouldn't mess with them.
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Our new paper is out in Royal Society Open Science! The metamorphic transition of the frog mouth: from tadpole keratinized mouthparts to adult teeth doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
September 2, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Our new paper is out in Royal Society Open Science! The metamorphic transition of the frog mouth: from tadpole keratinized mouthparts to adult teeth doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Axonal pathfinding of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells forms the optic nerve. Credit to Dr. Matthew Bostock @houartlab.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪
November 16, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Axonal pathfinding of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells forms the optic nerve. Credit to Dr. Matthew Bostock @houartlab.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Want a cool visualization of your eBird lifelist? 🪶
Or your 2025 year list?
It's easy.
1. Go to ebird.org/downloadMyData and request your data. This can take a few minutes to arrive in your e-mail. It'll be a .zip file. Unzip it.
2. Go to ofafeather.binstobins.com
...
🧵
Or your 2025 year list?
It's easy.
1. Go to ebird.org/downloadMyData and request your data. This can take a few minutes to arrive in your e-mail. It'll be a .zip file. Unzip it.
2. Go to ofafeather.binstobins.com
...
🧵
November 16, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Want a cool visualization of your eBird lifelist? 🪶
Or your 2025 year list?
It's easy.
1. Go to ebird.org/downloadMyData and request your data. This can take a few minutes to arrive in your e-mail. It'll be a .zip file. Unzip it.
2. Go to ofafeather.binstobins.com
...
🧵
Or your 2025 year list?
It's easy.
1. Go to ebird.org/downloadMyData and request your data. This can take a few minutes to arrive in your e-mail. It'll be a .zip file. Unzip it.
2. Go to ofafeather.binstobins.com
...
🧵
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
It's out, Minos transgenesis in the pantry moth by
@donyaniyaz.bsky.social
@lucalivraghi.bsky.social
High efficient, glowing eye and silk gland markers
peerj.com/articles/202...
@peerj.bsky.social
@donyaniyaz.bsky.social
@lucalivraghi.bsky.social
High efficient, glowing eye and silk gland markers
peerj.com/articles/202...
@peerj.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
It's out, Minos transgenesis in the pantry moth by
@donyaniyaz.bsky.social
@lucalivraghi.bsky.social
High efficient, glowing eye and silk gland markers
peerj.com/articles/202...
@peerj.bsky.social
@donyaniyaz.bsky.social
@lucalivraghi.bsky.social
High efficient, glowing eye and silk gland markers
peerj.com/articles/202...
@peerj.bsky.social
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
In an increasingly divided world, how do strangers become friends? Parakeets might have something to teach us! New paper on formation of affiliative relationships, led by Dr. Claire O’Connell doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
November 12, 2025 at 1:39 PM
In an increasingly divided world, how do strangers become friends? Parakeets might have something to teach us! New paper on formation of affiliative relationships, led by Dr. Claire O’Connell doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
In our last thread, we left the jelly-enjoyers of Bluesky with a cliff hanger ending, in what one eager onlooker described as soap opera science 😜 ... wait no more, we are back! Grab your popcorn shrimp and come with us on a journey spanning more than...
bsky.app/profile/iwan...
bsky.app/profile/iwan...
Kailua Beach, Hawai’i: The first time I laid eyes on a By-the-wind sailor, I stopped dead in my tracks, dusted the sand off my hands, grabbed my iphone and...
November 10, 2025 at 10:13 PM
In our last thread, we left the jelly-enjoyers of Bluesky with a cliff hanger ending, in what one eager onlooker described as soap opera science 😜 ... wait no more, we are back! Grab your popcorn shrimp and come with us on a journey spanning more than...
bsky.app/profile/iwan...
bsky.app/profile/iwan...
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up 🐛 doi.org/10.1007/s003...
The sensory ecology of caterpillars - Journal of Comparative Physiology A
Caterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily significant taxa on Earth. As both feeders and food, they shape the dynamics of enumerate ecosystems on land. Key ...
doi.org
November 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up 🐛 doi.org/10.1007/s003...
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
We must debunk this crap.
Preimplantation diagnosis is much safer than germline editing & w/o slippery-slope ethics in 99.9% of hered. disease cases.
Only exceptions are dominant genet conditions where 1 parent is homozygous, with extremely rare occurences for Huntington's, some AD and BRCA
Preimplantation diagnosis is much safer than germline editing & w/o slippery-slope ethics in 99.9% of hered. disease cases.
Only exceptions are dominant genet conditions where 1 parent is homozygous, with extremely rare occurences for Huntington's, some AD and BRCA
Tie, who has called herself Biotech Barbie, focuses her entrepreneurial ambitions on a controversial goal: altering the genome of human embryos to prevent genetic disorders
go.nature.com/4qOm5SO
go.nature.com/4qOm5SO
‘Biotech Barbie’ says the time has come to consider CRISPR babies. Do scientists agree?
Nature - A company’s plan to edit the genomes of human embryos worries some researchers — but it might reflect the changing attitudes towards the controversial approach.
go.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:53 PM
We must debunk this crap.
Preimplantation diagnosis is much safer than germline editing & w/o slippery-slope ethics in 99.9% of hered. disease cases.
Only exceptions are dominant genet conditions where 1 parent is homozygous, with extremely rare occurences for Huntington's, some AD and BRCA
Preimplantation diagnosis is much safer than germline editing & w/o slippery-slope ethics in 99.9% of hered. disease cases.
Only exceptions are dominant genet conditions where 1 parent is homozygous, with extremely rare occurences for Huntington's, some AD and BRCA
My hardworking Nerite
November 9, 2025 at 3:12 PM
My hardworking Nerite
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
#FossilFriday
Here are 3 beautiful Pentremites sp. Blastoids I collected from the Upper Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous, Serpukhovian) Lower Bangor Limestone in Russellville, Alabama.
Here are 3 beautiful Pentremites sp. Blastoids I collected from the Upper Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous, Serpukhovian) Lower Bangor Limestone in Russellville, Alabama.
November 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
#FossilFriday
Here are 3 beautiful Pentremites sp. Blastoids I collected from the Upper Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous, Serpukhovian) Lower Bangor Limestone in Russellville, Alabama.
Here are 3 beautiful Pentremites sp. Blastoids I collected from the Upper Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous, Serpukhovian) Lower Bangor Limestone in Russellville, Alabama.
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
This is fascinating because this is such a new field and somehow they are going to hire 100 tenure-track faculty in the next 5 years who specialize in it. And yet when asked to fill spots with faculty of color/women/marginalized groups, administrators often cry about how the pipelines don't exist.
November 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
This is fascinating because this is such a new field and somehow they are going to hire 100 tenure-track faculty in the next 5 years who specialize in it. And yet when asked to fill spots with faculty of color/women/marginalized groups, administrators often cry about how the pipelines don't exist.
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
www.vox.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
When DNA’s structure was in doubt & suspecting his competitor Rosalind Franklin knew more, James Watson goaded her, and Watson’s own memoir describes this in unbelievable condescension (he called her “Rosy” “Medusa” “Loathely Lady” “Wicked Witch of the West”, criticized her clothes as unattractive)
November 7, 2025 at 8:20 PM
When DNA’s structure was in doubt & suspecting his competitor Rosalind Franklin knew more, James Watson goaded her, and Watson’s own memoir describes this in unbelievable condescension (he called her “Rosy” “Medusa” “Loathely Lady” “Wicked Witch of the West”, criticized her clothes as unattractive)
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Ok, I got very curious about this tool, and tried it on a paper we already published. But I uploaded the first version of the paper we originally submitted (not the published version). I am VERY IMPRESSED. But based on this one paper, I don't think the tool replaces human peer-reviewers. Thread 👇
Excited to launch an openRxiv partnership with the scientist-run AI review service qed (@qedscience.bsky.social), the brainchild of @odedrechavi.bsky.social 1/n
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
openrxiv.org/enabling-rev...
Enabling options for review: from training and transparency to author-centered AI tools - openRxiv
Peer review is widely viewed as a critical aspect of biomedical communication. Ideally, it provides authors with feedback so they can improve manuscripts and gives readers, particularly nonspecialists...
openrxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Ok, I got very curious about this tool, and tried it on a paper we already published. But I uploaded the first version of the paper we originally submitted (not the published version). I am VERY IMPRESSED. But based on this one paper, I don't think the tool replaces human peer-reviewers. Thread 👇
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
I talked with the @scifri.bsky.social peeps the other day for an episode on resolution and vision.
After you cram lots of pixels into a small space, does it matter if you cram in some more? What are the limits of our vision?
Today's SciFri podcast is "Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Resolution On A TV?" with Dr. Maliha Ashraf, U of Cambridge, and Dr. Bryan W. Jones, U of Pittsburgh
Today's SciFri podcast is "Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Resolution On A TV?" with Dr. Maliha Ashraf, U of Cambridge, and Dr. Bryan W. Jones, U of Pittsburgh
With Black Friday approaching, you might be looking for a deal on a super-high-res television. But a new study questions whether you’ll see a difference—literally. 👀
November 7, 2025 at 1:05 PM
I talked with the @scifri.bsky.social peeps the other day for an episode on resolution and vision.
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Imagine a drop of ancient resin. Inside is an insect, trapped for 53 million years, so well preserved it looks like it might twitch back into life. These amber fossils offer us a breath-taking glimpse into long vanished ecosystems.
But there’s a catch
But there’s a catch
November 6, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Imagine a drop of ancient resin. Inside is an insect, trapped for 53 million years, so well preserved it looks like it might twitch back into life. These amber fossils offer us a breath-taking glimpse into long vanished ecosystems.
But there’s a catch
But there’s a catch
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
Parental care, and more complex cooperative systems of care, have independently evolved in hundreds of animal lineages. In an article published today, we explore how these behaviors evolve 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭l shorturl.at/g5OPw /1
Convergent evolution of a conserved molecular network underlies parenting and sociality - Nature Reviews Genetics
Kay et al. review evidence that parental care, and more complex social behaviour based on parental care, evolved in multiple species through the repeated co-option of members of a pleiotropic molecula...
shorturl.at
November 4, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Parental care, and more complex cooperative systems of care, have independently evolved in hundreds of animal lineages. In an article published today, we explore how these behaviors evolve 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭l shorturl.at/g5OPw /1
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
#Evolution of complex adaptations can involve changes in multiple traits that lack standalone function. @benitoexplains.bsky.social &co show that leaf masquerade in #katydids evolved via concurrent modification in wing colour & shape, driven by evolutionary synergy @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4oUE741
November 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
#Evolution of complex adaptations can involve changes in multiple traits that lack standalone function. @benitoexplains.bsky.social &co show that leaf masquerade in #katydids evolved via concurrent modification in wing colour & shape, driven by evolutionary synergy @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4oUE741
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
I've unlocked a new science badge!! 🎉🛡️🎉
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
At the edge of darkness: A framework for the evolution of visual systems in dim light
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:40 PM
I've unlocked a new science badge!! 🎉🛡️🎉
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
This thoughtful piece by @meganlinnay.bsky.social expands beautifully on a short review I wrote, citing 'the Sumner-Rooney cost-benefit model' of eye loss 🥲 honoured!
For anyone interested in evolution in low light, have a read! 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Excellent seminar today on the ups and downs of a scientific career and how to do research fairly and ethically by @drkatieg1.bsky.social
November 3, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Excellent seminar today on the ups and downs of a scientific career and how to do research fairly and ethically by @drkatieg1.bsky.social
Reposted by Amartya Tashi Mitra
What looked like a hearing organ on a tiny stinkbug’s leg turned out to be something far stranger: a fungal nursery that mother bugs use to coat their newly laid eggs in protective symbiotic hyphae, shielding their offspring from parasitic wasps.
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm
![(A) An adult female in the field on Sicyos angulatus. (B) Back view of an adult female reared on cucumber, whose hindleg organs are covered with fungal hyphae (arrowheads). (C) Magnified image of the hindleg organ. (D to L) Morphology of hind tibia of adult male [(D) to (F)], immature adult female [(G) to (I)], and mature adult female [(J) to (L)]. [(D), (G), and (I)] Brightfield images. [(E), (H), and (K)] Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. [(F), (I), and (L)] Magnified SEM images. (M to O) Peculiar behavior of egg-laying adult female. After laying each egg (M), the female rhythmically scratches the hyphae-covered hindleg organ with tarsal claws of the opposite hindleg (N) and then rubs the egg surface with the claws in a skillful manner (O). Also see movie S1. (P to R) Egg mass covered with fungal hyphae at 0-day (P), 3-day (Q), and 10-day (R) intervals after oviposition. Reddish color of 10-day eggs reflects the body color of developing nymphs inside.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vqgovau5gkirnk3ss5qwjdmz/bafkreiatozcclrv3q5pr2susooiojtvkwr6kwnd22hwxh3ijzh7lpi276q@jpeg)
November 1, 2025 at 9:14 PM
What looked like a hearing organ on a tiny stinkbug’s leg turned out to be something far stranger: a fungal nursery that mother bugs use to coat their newly laid eggs in protective symbiotic hyphae, shielding their offspring from parasitic wasps.
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm