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blongdon.bsky.social
Ben Longdon
@blongdon.bsky.social
2K followers 740 following 180 posts
Virus evolution, ecology and host shifts. Fly zookeeper. Insect rhabdovirus geek. Tea Junkie. Like music, food, bikes. Lab website: www.benlongdon.com
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blongdon.bsky.social
Ben Longdon @blongdon.bsky.social · Sep 25
2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in
@uniexecec.bsky.social
- Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
Pls share!
blongdon.bsky.social
Nice looking review by @ben-parker.bsky.social Paul Rozo-Lopez "Heritable Viruses as Hidden Drivers of Insect Phenotypes and Evolution" doi.org/10.1146/annu...
November 14, 2025 at 8:02 AM
blongdon.bsky.social
Nice looking Jacques Monod conferences next year #1: Ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions in a changing world (chaired by Oliver Kaltz and @bkoskella.bsky.social) cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...
Ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions in a changing world | CNRS - Conférences Jacques Monod (CJM)
cjm.sb-roscoff.fr
November 13, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
blongdon.bsky.social
Any #Drosophila folk have a Zaprionus davidi stock they'd be able to send myself and @ewachrostek.bsky.social ? Please share - thanks!
November 4, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
alainkohlvirology.bsky.social
Check this out! Thanks for including Akira Alexander (not on Bluesky) and myself. Well done Yonca, Clive and colleagues.
clive-mckimmie.bsky.social Clive McKimmie @clive-mckimmie.bsky.social · 11d
New paper out in iScience @cellpress.bsky.social
We show that #sand_fly biting reprograms skin fibroblasts, making them more permissive to virus infection
=> #fibroblasts aren’t bystanders, they help define severity/clinical outcome to infection AND #vector biting is key
👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
Diagram showing how sand fly saliva changes fibroblast state to promote arbovirus infection.
November 3, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
thekatybrown.bsky.social
My paper is out! Uncovering hundreds of exogenous and endogenous RNA viral RdRp sequences amongst uncharacterised sequences in public protein databases. doi.org/10.1093/ve/v... 💻🧬 1/5 🧵
October 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
blongdon.bsky.social
Chinese Scholarship Council studentships 中国国家留学基金委和英国埃克塞特大学合作奖学金（博士生项目)
at @uniexecec.bsky.social (www.exeter.ac.uk/study/pg-res... click '+ Ecology and Conservation' ) see ⬇️ for project with me!
October 28, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
hannahthomasy.bsky.social
...or maybe the standard tool is like $600 for little piece of plastic. So I want to know - what's the weirdest or most unexpected thing you've used for your science experiments? 🧪🧬🦠
October 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
hannahthomasy.bsky.social
Recently came across Lisa Taylor's amazing work on coloration in jumping spiders, including using eyeliner to give them teenytiny makeovers to see whether these colors helped them attract mates/avoid sexual cannibalism. Sometimes in science, there aren't standard tools for the thing you want to do🧪
Magnified image of a jumping spider with a red face and a liquid eyeliner applicator
October 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
rmcelreath.bsky.social
Monty Python understood p-hacking
October 23, 2025 at 8:43 AM
blongdon.bsky.social
Looking for some undergrad friendly papers on speciation (key papers, reviews, or other resources) anyone have any good suggestions? @dickmerrill.bsky.social @darrenjparker.bsky.social ? Thanks in advance!
October 21, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
dbergerbiol.bsky.social
How do insects respond to changing climates? Our new review and analysis in @annualreviews.bsky.social suggests that phenological adaptation trumps thermal adaptation.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Life-History Evolution of Insects in Response to Climate Variation: Seasonal Timing Versus Thermal Physiology | Annual Reviews
Climate adaptation in insects can proceed via responses in life-history traits and their thermal plasticity and through phenological shifts mediated by responses to photoperiodic cues (photoperiodism)...
www.annualreviews.org
September 30, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
blongdon.bsky.social
Research assistant + postdoc position on a NERC funded project working w @darrenobbard.bsky.social and collaborating with @savebutterflies.bsky.social on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of the virome of UK moths @uniexecec.bsky.social. Descriptions below and links here benlongdon.com/join/
RA job description postdoc job description Our local beach - blue waters and white sand Elephant hawk moth
October 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
virolicious.bsky.social
🥳🎉Our brand-new review on species-specific differences in interferon response effectors and the resulting barriers to interspecies transmission of viruses is out, go read it!🥳🎉
Viral interferon antagonism shapes host tropism
Outbreaks of zoonotic viruses in human populations highlight the need to understand the molecular factors that influence viral host tropism and interspecies transmission. A virus’s host range is deter...
journals.plos.org
October 8, 2025 at 7:40 AM
blongdon.bsky.social
Research assistant + postdoc position on a NERC funded project working w @darrenobbard.bsky.social and collaborating with @savebutterflies.bsky.social on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of the virome of UK moths @uniexecec.bsky.social. Descriptions below and links here benlongdon.com/join/
RA job description postdoc job description Our local beach - blue waters and white sand Elephant hawk moth
October 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
blongdon.bsky.social
'Alien mammal introductions can reshape global viral sharing networks' by Toneli et al -> www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...
Alien mammal introductions can reshape global viral sharing networks
Alien mammals introduced beyond their native distribution ranges can bring novel pathogens into the colonised communities and alter pathogen transmission dynamics. Past studies identified immunologica...
www.researchsquare.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
blongdon.bsky.social
2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in
@uniexecec.bsky.social
- Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
Pls share!
September 25, 2025 at 3:55 PM
blongdon.bsky.social
Good overview of scientific publishing, and some current issues, by Guardian podcast featuring @hansonmark.bsky.social
October 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
thentrythis.social.thentrythis.org.ap.brid.gy
Pre-pre-pre-announcement that around the end of the year/early spring we'll be announcing some new funded residencies, based at our new studio in Cornwall to run around Aug/Sept 2026.

The theme this time is moths and their viruses - as part of a bigger research grant on how viruses and their […]
Original post on social.thentrythis.org
social.thentrythis.org
October 2, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
jbyoder.org
So this came online over the weekend: My dive into the "definition" of coevolution is online ahead of publication in @journal-evo.bsky.social!

Don’t ask "when is it coevolution?" — ask "how?"

doi.org/10.1093/evol...
Don’t ask “when is it coevolution?” — ask “how?”
Abstract. Coevolution has come to be widely understood as specific, simultaneous, reciprocal adaptation by pairs of interacting species. This strict-sense
doi.org
September 30, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
craigmaclean.bsky.social
New pre-print
Competition between phage constrains adaptation to thermal fluctuating temperatures.
More work led by Sam Greenrod in collaboration with @kayla-king.bsky.social lab.
#Phagesky#Microsky

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
September 30, 2025 at 3:16 PM
blongdon.bsky.social
This was work today - about 15k walked for geocaching and wildlife spotting trip with new @uniexecec.bsky.social undergraduates. Glorious weather in beautiful Cornwall with plenty of tuna, choughs and butteflies plus the odd lizard.
September 25, 2025 at 4:58 PM
blongdon.bsky.social
2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in
@uniexecec.bsky.social
- Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
Pls share!
September 25, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
colincarlson.bsky.social
New preprint! 🥳🎉 We looked at viral coinfection patterns at the largest scale ever in wildlife. We found a strong association among CoVs, PMVs, and influenza A, and higher coinfection rates in wildlife trade; plus, evidence that bats accumulate persistent infections. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Figure 3 of our paper, which shows viral coinfection networks at the virus level
September 10, 2025 at 12:36 PM