Ben Longdon
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blongdon.bsky.social
Ben Longdon
@blongdon.bsky.social
2K followers 750 following 190 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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Reposted by Ben Longdon
germusthermophilus.bsky.social
🧪🔬🦠🧫💊🧬🖥
And so it begins... I expect to see many cool studies like this one, showing that the AI methos we use for predictiom are as biased as the datasets we already new were biased.

The scary part is the dataset biases we are not aware of

#MicroSky #Microbiome #Bacteria #AMR #antimicrobial
December 17, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
evolletters.bsky.social
We are continuously reviewing our AI policy as tools and capabilities evolve. This editorial outlines broad guidelines: accountability for content, preserving author voice, and maintaining trust in peer review. We welcome questions from authors, reviewers and readers academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
kermit the frog is typing on a typewriter .
ALT: kermit the frog is typing on a typewriter .
media.tenor.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
clocksevolution.bsky.social
What a cool way to get people engaged with #population #genomics!

But why is there no episode on parentage analysis ... ?

#Conservation #EvoBio #R
#MayTheForceBeWithYou #StarWars #LukeSkywalker
@lauradbertola.bsky.social @drobledoruiz.bsky.social @seaprof.bsky.social @robynshaw.bsky.social
December 10, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
benoitevol.bsky.social
The CNRS is breaking free from the Web of Science

www.cnrs.fr/en/update/cn...
The CNRS is breaking free from the Web of Science
From January 1st 2026, the CNRS will cut access to one of the largest commercial bibliometric databases, Clarivate Analytics'
www.cnrs.fr
December 4, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
xavh.bsky.social
New preprint to round off 2025, wrapping up work I did @zslscience.bsky.social and continued @uniexecec.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We studied skin bacterial community diversity in Palmate Newts from the Isle of Rum.

Pic: dramatic AI newt emerging from (hovering on?) a pond
December 2, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
xavh.bsky.social
Next up in our WAME Seminar series this Thursday 4th December we have 2 exciting talks on Wild Animal Mycobiomes

11am GMT / 12pm CET. Zoom link below
December 1, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
plosbiology.org
Capsule diversity limits #phage host range by affecting receptor-binding protein (RBP) interactions in capsulated #bacteria. @pilardomingoc.bsky.social &co show that generalist phages evolve host range via RBP mutation & recombination, but specialists remain stable @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48nvOqY
Graphic representation of the recombination events in the Sugarlandvirus I and J variants. Top left: Representation of the variants isolates in the different strains in the three lines. Genome fragments of each parent are represented in a different color. Regions with the most abundant recombination events are marked and associated with a schematic representation of the functional annotation and intergenomic similarity between the two parental phages. Bottom left: 3D folding of the RBPγ. The consensus recombinant region, which is associated with the infection of the K-type 47, is represented in light orange. Variable positions detected in the protein sequence alignment of the variants are represented as hot pink spheres. The table indicates the percentage of identity of the parental protein sequences in three protein regions limited by the amino acids indicated. Right: Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of Klebsiella myoviruses artificially coloured, showing their characteristic contractile tails and icosahedral capsids. Image acquired by the Environmental and Biomedical Virology group (Institute for Integrative Systems Biology, Universitat de València-CSIC).
November 28, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
samjwilsonphd.bsky.social
How does fever work?

Our new Science paper shows how elevated body temperature can protect against severe influenza and that avian-origin viruses escape this defence.

This is likely one reason why bird flus and some pandemic influenzas can be so severe.🧵

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Avian-origin influenza A viruses tolerate elevated pyrexic temperatures in mammals
Host body temperature can define a virus’s replicative profile—influenza A viruses (IAVs) adapted to 40° to 42°C in birds are less temperature sensitive in vitro compared with human isolates adapted t...
www.science.org
November 27, 2025 at 7:55 PM
blongdon.bsky.social
Just came across this neat looking pre-print by @maxfarrell.bsky.social et al "Experimental infections reveal unexceptional viral tolerance in bats" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... - meta analysis across 54 viruses, 85 host species, >5600 individuals
www.biorxiv.org
November 24, 2025 at 10:32 AM
blongdon.bsky.social
Viva prep: drinks, snacks, pinata, bat!
pinata "congratulations Dr Hongbo", bat and bag of snacks
November 24, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
erikpostma.bsky.social
If our official URL doesn't work, use sites.exeter.ac.uk/exe/ instead.
Welcome
ExE 2026 is a 3-day conference aimed at evolutionary ecologists from around the world, hosted by the University of Exeter in beautiful Cornwall. It provides a friendly and inclusive platform for all c...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
November 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
erikpostma.bsky.social
A lot has happened since our first announcement of #ExE2026, an evolutionary ecology conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in #Cornwall from June 29 to July 3 2026.

Have a look at our new website to see our confirmed plenary speakers, the mid-conference excursions, and more.

👉 evoxeco.uk 👈
The logo of the Evolution x Ecology 2026 conference in Cornwall, UK.
November 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Ben Longdon
cornwall.exeter.ac.uk
Curious about what a whale skull might look like? We recently dug one up.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

@exetermarine.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social @uniofexeteresi.bsky.social
Ten-hour mission to excavate huge whale head in Cornwall - BBC News
The head of a fin whale that stranded in Cornwall is dug up on university grounds.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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 · Nov 3
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