David Toews
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davetoews.bsky.social
David Toews
@davetoews.bsky.social
1.1K followers 270 following 170 posts
Associate Professor, Pennsylvania State University. Studies evolutionary genomics, mostly in birds. https://www.davetoews.com.
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davetoews.bsky.social
LAKE EFFECT?! AT THIS TIME OF YEAR, AT THIS TIME OF DAY, IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY, LOCALIZED ENTIRELY WITHIN CENTRAL PA!?
November 11, 2025 at 3:00 AM
davetoews.bsky.social
Super excited to release this virtual field / lab experience called "VRmivora":
davetoews.com/vrmivora/

It's free to download via SideQuest for a Meta VR headset:
sidequestvr.com/app/44760/vr...

Thanks to all involved, especially the Center for Immersive Experiences: immersive.psu.edu
🦉🧪
VRmivora
This VR experience—created by Penn State and the National Science Foundation—drops you into a young forest to find wood-warblers. Explore the landscape as you find and identify wood-warblers, which…
davetoews.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
davetoews.bsky.social
Was literally just talking about this in my evolution class this morning. Very cool!
jbyoder.org Jeremy B. Yoder 🧬📊🌿🏳️‍🌈🖖🏻 @jbyoder.org · 8d
Cuckoo eggs match the eggs of their adoptive hosts thanks to (mostly) loci inherited from their mothers, who put them there — impressive multifaceted genomic study buff.ly/r8xpxaR
Fig 2 from the linked paper, captioned: Fig. 2. Matrilineal variation is associated with egg diversification in C. canorus. (A) Matrilineal W chromosome phylogeny (n = 60 canorus, 27 optatus), with corresponding autosomal groups (A), geographic groups (G), and egg morphs indicated below each tip, each representing an unrelated female with known egg morph. Diamonds indicate node support exceeding 95% (SHaLRT). (B) Phenotypic variation within canorus (ECC) and optatus (ECO) egg morphs. (C) Variation explained (pseudo-­ R2) by continuous pairwise distance matrices of matrilineal, geographic, or autosomal variation estimated with a distance-­ based redundancy analysis (compare figs. S13 and S14 for replicated analyses with mtDNA variation). (D) Egg phenotype matching among varying degrees of related canorus. (E) Egg morph predicted with machine learning using either autosomal ancestry cluster (A) and geographic group (G) alone (left) or with the addition of haplogroup (M) (right). Confusion matrix of predictive modeling shows the proportion of correct classifications across 100 bootstrapped replicates. The area under the curve (AUC) 95% confidence interval across replicates is indicated below each label. (F) Confusion matrix for optatus.
November 6, 2025 at 6:40 PM
davetoews.bsky.social
By law, fire alarms have to chirp between 2-5AM when they are low on batteries
November 6, 2025 at 12:46 PM
davetoews.bsky.social
Hell yes—nearly photorealistic!

Go Jays!
tommysiegel.bsky.social Tommy Siegel @tommysiegel.bsky.social · 13d
as a bird artist, in honor of tonight’s game i have attempted to draw the gorgeous blue jay as accurately as possible. as always please let me know if you have any constructive criticism
October 31, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by David Toews
tommysiegel.bsky.social
What do you think of the latest podcast episode artwork? lol

This week’s episode is about the Osprey… An absolute honor to have @thebirdist.bsky.social Nick Lund as the expert judge for this edition of Extremely Accurate Bird Songs! Join the ride — only 11,136 species to go! lnk.to/extremelyacc...
October 30, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by David Toews
theathletic.com
A big night for Trey Yesavage 🔥

The Blue Jays pitcher broke the rookie World Series record with 12 strikeouts.
October 30, 2025 at 2:32 AM
davetoews.bsky.social
If Coca-Cola wants to make a gagillion dollars off nostalgic millennials, they'd better recreate these spots for the Blue Jays asap
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQlv...
1993 Toronto Blue Jays - Coca-Cola Commercials (Three Spots)
YouTube video by Retro Television Airwaves
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by David Toews
slangsonsports.bsky.social
Vladimir Guerrero Jr now has 7 home runs this postseason, passing Joe Carter and Jose Bautista for most in the postseason in a career in Blue Jays history
October 29, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by David Toews
pixelatedboat.bsky.social
I should’ve learned this by now but DO NOT use FedEx. The diseased monkeys I ordered haven’t arrived and I can’t get a straight answer on what happened to them
October 29, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by David Toews
bensteiner00.bsky.social
The Blue Jays score four big runs in the seventh at Dodgers Stadium.

Still plenty of baseball to be played, but the Jays absolutely needed an inning like that.

Now finish the job. Tie the series.
October 29, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Reposted by David Toews
tommysiegel.bsky.social
finally: a comic so niche that only birders will understand
October 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by David Toews
carlbergstrom.com
The dark truth behind FormatMyPaper.com
Beware giving this site your unpublished data
Users noticed the website had fake testimonials and a domain name registered seemingly overnight.
https://ubadah.substack.com/p/beware-giving-this-site-your-unpublished\
October 24, 2025 at 12:11 AM
davetoews.bsky.social
Tis a good day
icdave.bsky.social Dave Minuk @icdave.bsky.social · 24d
First the Jays head to the World Series and now Jonathan Toews has his first goal in the NHL since April 13, 2023.
October 21, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by David Toews
sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Wow! A paper on Wheatear plumage evolution in @science.org - unforeseen collision of interests here

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A mosaic of modular variation at a single gene underpins convergent plumage coloration
The reshuffling of genomic variation from multiple origins is an important contributor to phenotypic diversification, yet insights into the evolutionary trajectories of this combinatorial process and ...
www.science.org
October 17, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Reposted by David Toews
jlwilliamson.bsky.social
My lab is hiring a 2-yr hummingbird evolution and genomics postdoc and a 1-yr salaried research and lab tech. Both with full U. Wyoming benefits. Please spread the word! Info below. Best consideration date Nov 1, start dates early Spring 2026.
October 14, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by David Toews
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
I'm very excited to announce that UNC Biology has 6 faculty positions open this year! The first is for an Asst Professor who studies organismal resilience using an integrative approach 1/n
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...
Poster with QR code linking to the position
October 12, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by David Toews
darrigomelanie.bsky.social
I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.
October 7, 2025 at 11:29 PM
davetoews.bsky.social
Had the lab over last night. Tricked 'em—they made us dinner! Fresh pasta with smoked salmon 😋
@psubiodept.bsky.social
Group photo of Toews lab standing in front of trees Five lab members rolling out fresh pasta dough
September 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by David Toews
davidcorn.bsky.social
This ought to be engraved somewhere.
September 23, 2025 at 2:56 AM
davetoews.bsky.social
Arthur Caplan, N.Y.U. Medicine QOTD: “The announcement on autism was the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recyling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies and dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority in the world claiming to know anything about science.”
September 22, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by David Toews
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
NEW: Hours before a new entry ban is supposed to go into effect, the federal government officially acknowledges for the first time that the restrictions do NOT apply to people who currently have H-1B visas.

Link: www.uscis.gov/sites/defaul...
J.S. Citizenshit and Immigratior Services September 20, 2025 Memorandum TO: Associate Directors, Deputy Associate Directors, Program Office Chiefs FROM: JOSEPH B Digitaly signed by JOSEPH B EDLOW Joseph B. Edlow EDLOW Date: 2025.09.20 Director, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services **00 SUBJECT: Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, H-IB On September 19, 2025, the President issued a Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, to address systemic abuse of H-1B nonimmigrant visas. Pursuant to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), the entry into the United States of aliens as nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), is restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000. This guidance applies to H-IB employment-based petitions filed after 12:01 AM ET on September 21, 2025.| This proclamation only applies prospectively to petitions that have not yet been filed. The proclamation does not apply to aliens who: are the beneficiaries of petitions that were filed prior to the effective date of the proclamation, are the beneficiaries of currently approved petitions, or are in possession of validly issued H-1B non-immigrant visas. All officers of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services shall ensure that their decisions are consistent with this guidance. The proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to or rom the United States. cc: David V. Roy, Chief Counsel (A) FOUO, For Official Use Only
September 20, 2025 at 9:57 PM
davetoews.bsky.social
The promotion and tenure celebration tradition at Penn State includes profs choosing an important book that has a deep, personal and professional meaning. I chose ‘The Beak of the Finch’ by Jonathan Weiner. Definitely check it out if you haven’t yet!
@psubiodept.bsky.social
David Toews standing in front of a table with a book displayed.
September 15, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by David Toews
bou.org.uk
An Intergeneric Hybrid Between Historically Isolated Temperate and Tropical Jays Following Recent Range Expansion | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🪶
September 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by David Toews
gorizaola.bsky.social
Nice interview to Katie Peichel @currentbiology.bsky.social

I completely agree with her claims for more funding for curiosity-driven research, basic Science... Science.

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Catherine Peichel
Interview with Katie Peichel, who studies the evolutionary genetics of sticklebacks at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
www.cell.com
September 9, 2025 at 2:36 PM