Daniel Brady Mills
@danbmills.bsky.social
Geo- & astrobiologist at the University of Düsseldorf // co-evolution of #eukaryotes and the #Proterozoic biosphere // unrepentant Gaian and Margulis devotee
www.danielbradymills.com
www.danielbradymills.com
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Please apply if you are interested in marine biogeochemistry and microbial dark oxygen production. Deadline: November 17th.
📣Postdoc opportunity @nordcee.bsky.social , University of Southern Denmark! 📣
Join us and work with Bo Thamdrup and me on microbial dark oxygen production in marine oxygen minimum zones!
Please share widely!
Deadline: 17 November
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/2vuur3wh
Join us and work with Bo Thamdrup and me on microbial dark oxygen production in marine oxygen minimum zones!
Please share widely!
Deadline: 17 November
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/2vuur3wh
Postdoc on microbial oxygen production in marine oxygen minimum zones
Application deadline: 17 November 2025 at 23:59 hours local Danish time
fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Please apply if you are interested in marine biogeochemistry and microbial dark oxygen production. Deadline: November 17th.
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
New in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: 'Earth system engineers' and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time 🔓 #ecoevo #openaccess
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A thread 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A thread 🧵:
‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time
Understanding the role of humans as ‘ecosystem engineers’ requires a deep-time perspective rooted in evolutionary history and the fossil record. Howev…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 24, 2025 at 8:55 AM
New in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: 'Earth system engineers' and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time 🔓 #ecoevo #openaccess
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A thread 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A thread 🧵:
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Human-driven extinction event not yet the "sixth mass extinction", but is very likely the largest extinction event of the last 66 million yrs. 🌏 🧪
Read about it in our new paper led by @jackhhatfield.bsky.social
and Katie Davis @anthropocenebio.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
Read about it in our new paper led by @jackhhatfield.bsky.social
and Katie Davis @anthropocenebio.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
The Greatest Extinction Event in 66 Million Years? Contextualising Anthropogenic Extinctions
Species and ecosystems are changing rapidly in response to human actions, but how does this compare with the deeper past? We review and compare the current extinction event to those over the last 66 ....
doi.org
September 4, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Human-driven extinction event not yet the "sixth mass extinction", but is very likely the largest extinction event of the last 66 million yrs. 🌏 🧪
Read about it in our new paper led by @jackhhatfield.bsky.social
and Katie Davis @anthropocenebio.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
Read about it in our new paper led by @jackhhatfield.bsky.social
and Katie Davis @anthropocenebio.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Andrea Halling, a grad student at University of Colorado Boulder, recently led experiments with living algae to test how the physical conditions of ancient seawater might have impacted ancient single-celled organisms. quantamagazine.org/the-physics-...
September 2, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Andrea Halling, a grad student at University of Colorado Boulder, recently led experiments with living algae to test how the physical conditions of ancient seawater might have impacted ancient single-celled organisms. quantamagazine.org/the-physics-...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Very happy to share this new paper we've recently published. Do biospheres use information in the same way organisms do? Can we think of biospheres as agents?
"Exo-Daisy World: Revisiting Gaia Theory through an Informational Architecture Perspective"
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
"Exo-Daisy World: Revisiting Gaia Theory through an Informational Architecture Perspective"
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
August 28, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Very happy to share this new paper we've recently published. Do biospheres use information in the same way organisms do? Can we think of biospheres as agents?
"Exo-Daisy World: Revisiting Gaia Theory through an Informational Architecture Perspective"
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
"Exo-Daisy World: Revisiting Gaia Theory through an Informational Architecture Perspective"
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
In one week my book about carbon comes out, and here's some nice things some nice people have said about it. If you feel moved to do so, the link below provides a means of purchase. Thank you, that is all. www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
August 19, 2025 at 2:43 PM
In one week my book about carbon comes out, and here's some nice things some nice people have said about it. If you feel moved to do so, the link below provides a means of purchase. Thank you, that is all. www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
🚨 Paper alert! 🚨 After >1 year in review and six (6!) reviewers, I'm thrilled that this paper is finally out! Here, we provide the first data-based record of marine dissolved organic carbon in the geologic past.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The geologic history of marine dissolved organic carbon from iron oxides - Nature
A direct proxy for past dissolved organic carbon signatures using co-precipitated organic carbon in iron ooids enables reconstruction of marine dissolved organic carbon signals dating back to the Pala...
www.nature.com
August 13, 2025 at 4:11 PM
🚨 Paper alert! 🚨 After >1 year in review and six (6!) reviewers, I'm thrilled that this paper is finally out! Here, we provide the first data-based record of marine dissolved organic carbon in the geologic past.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
The proceedings volume from our Nov24 meeting on the evolution of biospheres is just in PhilTransB @royalsocietypublishing.org delivering insights into how our biosphere evolved - and how other biospheres may evolve
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1931
royalsocietypublishing.org
August 11, 2025 at 9:43 AM
The proceedings volume from our Nov24 meeting on the evolution of biospheres is just in PhilTransB @royalsocietypublishing.org delivering insights into how our biosphere evolved - and how other biospheres may evolve
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
So pleased to be part of this special issue following a wonderful meeting at @royalsociety.org on Chance and Purpose in the Biosphere last year. Do check it out
Planetary system evolution and the extended biosphere: we humans are products of Earth’s biosphere; we have become its co-creators; can we be its regulators? | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The energy balance of a planet is set by the sunlight entering and the heat radiating back from it. Earth’s biosphere adds new complexity as energy flows through global marine and terrestrial ecosystems altering physical and chemical systems, including ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
August 8, 2025 at 10:11 AM
So pleased to be part of this special issue following a wonderful meeting at @royalsociety.org on Chance and Purpose in the Biosphere last year. Do check it out
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
A red algal polysaccharide influences the multicellular development of the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta
in @currentbiology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
in @currentbiology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
A red algal polysaccharide influences the multicellular development of the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta
Perotti et al. find that polysaccharides from algae promote multicellular development
in the choanoflagellate S. rosetta. Because algal polysaccharides are abundant in
the aquatic environments where S...
www.cell.com
July 22, 2025 at 7:09 AM
A red algal polysaccharide influences the multicellular development of the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta
in @currentbiology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
in @currentbiology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
At @goldschmidt-confer.bsky.social last week, scientists reported the first biomarkers from a Snowball Earth event(!!!!)
It’s a first glimpse of life under the ice at a time when glaciers blanketed the world from pole to equator.
New from me for @science.org 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
It’s a first glimpse of life under the ice at a time when glaciers blanketed the world from pole to equator.
New from me for @science.org 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
Molecular fossils offer first glimpse of how life survived Snowball Earth
Overlooked rock samples from 640 million years ago record microbes hanging on beneath frozen oceans
www.science.org
July 16, 2025 at 8:36 AM
At @goldschmidt-confer.bsky.social last week, scientists reported the first biomarkers from a Snowball Earth event(!!!!)
It’s a first glimpse of life under the ice at a time when glaciers blanketed the world from pole to equator.
New from me for @science.org 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
It’s a first glimpse of life under the ice at a time when glaciers blanketed the world from pole to equator.
New from me for @science.org 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Please apply if you are interested in environmental microbiology topics such as microbial dark oxygen production and methane cycling under oxygen depletion.
Two Postdoc Opportunities in Environmental Microbiology!
Join us and work on microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion.
Please share widely!
Deadline: 25 July
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/4kwzzt6p
Join us and work on microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion.
Please share widely!
Deadline: 25 July
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/4kwzzt6p
Two postdoc positions on the ecology and physiology of microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion
Application deadline: 25 July 2025 at 23:59 hours local Danish time
tinyurl.com
July 8, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Please apply if you are interested in environmental microbiology topics such as microbial dark oxygen production and methane cycling under oxygen depletion.
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
‼️I'm looking for a postdoc‼️ Come join effort in using metagenomes to quantify microbial catabolic potential and carbon substrate availability at the ecosystem level. We seek to understand evolutionary forces shaping the carbon cycle. Part of ccomp-stc.org
careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
Postdoctoral Associate
MIT - Postdoctoral Associate - Cambridge MA 02139
careers.peopleclick.com
June 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
‼️I'm looking for a postdoc‼️ Come join effort in using metagenomes to quantify microbial catabolic potential and carbon substrate availability at the ecosystem level. We seek to understand evolutionary forces shaping the carbon cycle. Part of ccomp-stc.org
careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Two Postdoc Opportunities in Environmental Microbiology!
Join us and work on microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion.
Please share widely!
Deadline: 25 July
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/4kwzzt6p
Join us and work on microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion.
Please share widely!
Deadline: 25 July
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/4kwzzt6p
Two postdoc positions on the ecology and physiology of microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion
Application deadline: 25 July 2025 at 23:59 hours local Danish time
tinyurl.com
June 16, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Two Postdoc Opportunities in Environmental Microbiology!
Join us and work on microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion.
Please share widely!
Deadline: 25 July
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/4kwzzt6p
Join us and work on microbial key players exposed to oxygen depletion.
Please share widely!
Deadline: 25 July
More information can be found here:
tinyurl.com/4kwzzt6p
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Wrote a long book that comes out August. It covers from the origins of life at alkaline hydrothermal vents some 4 billion years ago through the Volcker Shock. I'm told pre-orders help, so if that sounds like your thing, buy one, won't you? www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything
How carbon dioxide made planet Earth, shaped human history, and now holds our future in the balance.
Every year, we are dangerously warping the climate by ...
www.harpercollins.com
May 21, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Wrote a long book that comes out August. It covers from the origins of life at alkaline hydrothermal vents some 4 billion years ago through the Volcker Shock. I'm told pre-orders help, so if that sounds like your thing, buy one, won't you? www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
So proud of my lab mates!
"We demonstrate that H2 from iron-sulfide precipitation under simulated early Earth hydrothermal geochemistry fuels a H2-dependent primordial metabolism."
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
"We demonstrate that H2 from iron-sulfide precipitation under simulated early Earth hydrothermal geochemistry fuels a H2-dependent primordial metabolism."
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Simulated early Earth geochemistry fuels a hydrogen-dependent primordial metabolism - Nature Ecology & Evolution
In an iron-sulfide chemical garden experiment that mimics the kind of hydrothermal vents that might have occurred in the early Archaean, mackinawite and greigite are precipitated and abiotic H2 is pro...
www.nature.com
April 30, 2025 at 11:16 AM
So proud of my lab mates!
"We demonstrate that H2 from iron-sulfide precipitation under simulated early Earth hydrothermal geochemistry fuels a H2-dependent primordial metabolism."
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
"We demonstrate that H2 from iron-sulfide precipitation under simulated early Earth hydrothermal geochemistry fuels a H2-dependent primordial metabolism."
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Next #SETILive: Is Intelligent Life Easy?
TODAY, Thursday, Apr 24, 11:00 AM PDT
Join @allplanets.bsky.social in an in-depth discussion with Dr. Dan Mills about why intelligent life may be common and how this could affect our search for life beyond Earth. 🧪
WATCH LIVE: youtube.com/live/hEQJfyW...
TODAY, Thursday, Apr 24, 11:00 AM PDT
Join @allplanets.bsky.social in an in-depth discussion with Dr. Dan Mills about why intelligent life may be common and how this could affect our search for life beyond Earth. 🧪
WATCH LIVE: youtube.com/live/hEQJfyW...
April 24, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Next #SETILive: Is Intelligent Life Easy?
TODAY, Thursday, Apr 24, 11:00 AM PDT
Join @allplanets.bsky.social in an in-depth discussion with Dr. Dan Mills about why intelligent life may be common and how this could affect our search for life beyond Earth. 🧪
WATCH LIVE: youtube.com/live/hEQJfyW...
TODAY, Thursday, Apr 24, 11:00 AM PDT
Join @allplanets.bsky.social in an in-depth discussion with Dr. Dan Mills about why intelligent life may be common and how this could affect our search for life beyond Earth. 🧪
WATCH LIVE: youtube.com/live/hEQJfyW...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨
🗓️24th April 2025, 16:00 UTC🗓️
Next week’s talk is from Dr Richard Stockey @richardstockey.bsky.social from University of Southampton, on “Modelling ancient animal habitats in space and time: linking fossils and Earth system models”
Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
🗓️24th April 2025, 16:00 UTC🗓️
Next week’s talk is from Dr Richard Stockey @richardstockey.bsky.social from University of Southampton, on “Modelling ancient animal habitats in space and time: linking fossils and Earth system models”
Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
April 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM
🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨
🗓️24th April 2025, 16:00 UTC🗓️
Next week’s talk is from Dr Richard Stockey @richardstockey.bsky.social from University of Southampton, on “Modelling ancient animal habitats in space and time: linking fossils and Earth system models”
Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
🗓️24th April 2025, 16:00 UTC🗓️
Next week’s talk is from Dr Richard Stockey @richardstockey.bsky.social from University of Southampton, on “Modelling ancient animal habitats in space and time: linking fossils and Earth system models”
Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
The last bit of Frankie Dunn's PhD is finally published! @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Morphogenesis of Fractofusus andersoni and the nature of early animal development - Nature Communications
Rangeomorphs are some of the oldest complex macroscopic fossil organisms. Here, the authors describe a population of rangeomorphs with two, spindle-shaped fronds from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, mod...
www.nature.com
April 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM
The last bit of Frankie Dunn's PhD is finally published! @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Does a universal law govern how thing evolve over time to create ever more complexity? And does this mean the future is unpredictable, even in principle, from the present? I explore these ideas in my latest piece for Quanta.
www.quantamagazine.org/why-everythi...
www.quantamagazine.org/why-everythi...
Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex | Quanta Magazine
A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.
www.quantamagazine.org
April 3, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Does a universal law govern how thing evolve over time to create ever more complexity? And does this mean the future is unpredictable, even in principle, from the present? I explore these ideas in my latest piece for Quanta.
www.quantamagazine.org/why-everythi...
www.quantamagazine.org/why-everythi...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Excited for Life and Planet 2025 in London this July - please don't forget to submit your (free) abstracts!
lifeandplanet.com
lifeandplanet.com
April 4, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Excited for Life and Planet 2025 in London this July - please don't forget to submit your (free) abstracts!
lifeandplanet.com
lifeandplanet.com
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Really pleased to be part of this project which shows that aerobic bacteria arose in the Archaean, long before the GOE - after which aerobes proliferated through HGT. Fun @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social collab including @tweethinking.bsky.social @sabifo4.bsky.social @emoody.bsky.social Davide Pisani
Dating Bacteria is hard due to the lack of maxima. Assuming aerobes likely postdated the GOE gave us better resolved ages, but also surprised us, but not Dr Dayhoff, showing O2 use predated its atmospheric rise by 900 Mys and helped oxygenic photosynthesis to evolve. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
April 4, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Really pleased to be part of this project which shows that aerobic bacteria arose in the Archaean, long before the GOE - after which aerobes proliferated through HGT. Fun @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social collab including @tweethinking.bsky.social @sabifo4.bsky.social @emoody.bsky.social Davide Pisani
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Super cool new paper by @sshekhr.bsky.social and @wallaceucsf.bsky.social showing that there are collective benefits to simple multicellularity in the *very* charismatic Stentor.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great write up in the NYT by @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great write up in the NYT by @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...
Eating ‘Family Style’ May Have Set the Stage for Life as We Know It (Gift Article)
Under microscopes, scientists found that giant single-cell organisms were able to vacuum up more food when they are stuck together.
www.nytimes.com
April 1, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Super cool new paper by @sshekhr.bsky.social and @wallaceucsf.bsky.social showing that there are collective benefits to simple multicellularity in the *very* charismatic Stentor.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great write up in the NYT by @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great write up in the NYT by @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...
Reposted by Daniel Brady Mills
Common cause vs sampling intensity variation in the earliest eukaryote diversity dynamics in the Proterozoic Eon:
"...we favor the explanation that the pattern of early eukaryote diversity is driven by variations in paleontological sampling."
doi.org/10.1017/pab....
🧪 #Paleobio ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio
"...we favor the explanation that the pattern of early eukaryote diversity is driven by variations in paleontological sampling."
doi.org/10.1017/pab....
🧪 #Paleobio ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio
March 31, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Common cause vs sampling intensity variation in the earliest eukaryote diversity dynamics in the Proterozoic Eon:
"...we favor the explanation that the pattern of early eukaryote diversity is driven by variations in paleontological sampling."
doi.org/10.1017/pab....
🧪 #Paleobio ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio
"...we favor the explanation that the pattern of early eukaryote diversity is driven by variations in paleontological sampling."
doi.org/10.1017/pab....
🧪 #Paleobio ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio
"The total amount of intracellular phosphate stored in the benthic foraminifer Ammonia confertitesta in the Wadden Sea during a bloom is as high as around 5% of the annual consumption of phosphorus (P) fertilizer in Germany."
February 27, 2025 at 11:47 AM
"The total amount of intracellular phosphate stored in the benthic foraminifer Ammonia confertitesta in the Wadden Sea during a bloom is as high as around 5% of the annual consumption of phosphorus (P) fertilizer in Germany."