Nate Upham
@n8upham.bsky.social
Evolutionary biologist & Mammalogist at Arizona State University
Rodents of the Sonoran Desert and Sky Islands
Connecting rodent evolution, genomics, & ecology to life's cosmic problems 🌒
\\ Views are my own // #BLM
Rodents of the Sonoran Desert and Sky Islands
Connecting rodent evolution, genomics, & ecology to life's cosmic problems 🌒
\\ Views are my own // #BLM
Reposted by Nate Upham
Halloween News: Meet a new vampire fly (Hippoboscidae) 🧛♂🪰 1 of 10 species found on citizen-reported bird carcasses in Singapore: Even dead birds can have productive afterlives! See host records, annotated images, pictorial keys & DNA diagnostics here: doi.org/10.1155/jzs/...
October 31, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Halloween News: Meet a new vampire fly (Hippoboscidae) 🧛♂🪰 1 of 10 species found on citizen-reported bird carcasses in Singapore: Even dead birds can have productive afterlives! See host records, annotated images, pictorial keys & DNA diagnostics here: doi.org/10.1155/jzs/...
Reposted by Nate Upham
Yet another example of the importance of natural history collections. Here, helping to address two questions:
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
Herbarium specimens reveal shifts in species' elevational ranges
Zu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/VB8MUG...
Zu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/VB8MUG...
October 30, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Yet another example of the importance of natural history collections. Here, helping to address two questions:
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
Reposted by Nate Upham
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
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.
Reposted by Nate Upham
Reminder, we’re hiring 2 PhD students for next year!! I’m extending the deadline to Nov 1, but please get your app in soon if you’re interested in joining us! More info is on our webpage. 🦠🦑
Please share with ECRs you know as well and check out our other open positio. (Postdoc!)
Please share with ECRs you know as well and check out our other open positio. (Postdoc!)
🚨🚨We’re hiring graduate students!🚨🚨
We are hiring 1-2 PhD students to start sometime in 2026 (Fall start dates preferred). Opportunities to work on a diversity of eco-evo-immuno and symbiosis projects!
Deadline Oct 15! Please share broadly!
Info here: tinyurl.com/y2abjsem
We are hiring 1-2 PhD students to start sometime in 2026 (Fall start dates preferred). Opportunities to work on a diversity of eco-evo-immuno and symbiosis projects!
Deadline Oct 15! Please share broadly!
Info here: tinyurl.com/y2abjsem
opportunities – Symbiommunity Lab
tinyurl.com
October 14, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reminder, we’re hiring 2 PhD students for next year!! I’m extending the deadline to Nov 1, but please get your app in soon if you’re interested in joining us! More info is on our webpage. 🦠🦑
Please share with ECRs you know as well and check out our other open positio. (Postdoc!)
Please share with ECRs you know as well and check out our other open positio. (Postdoc!)
Reposted by Nate Upham
Just finished a first draft of an ecological power analyzer app. Been watching students struggle to figure out sample sizes. Hope this helps. Fork it, steal it, use it. Mostly accurate. Work in progress. ufduttonlab.github.io/peep-power/
PEEP - Power Estimator for Ecological Planning | Statistical Power Calculator
PEEP: Your friendly companion for sample size calculations and power analysis in ecological research. Professional tools for field studies, experimental design, and grant proposals.
ufduttonlab.github.io
October 14, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Just finished a first draft of an ecological power analyzer app. Been watching students struggle to figure out sample sizes. Hope this helps. Fork it, steal it, use it. Mostly accurate. Work in progress. ufduttonlab.github.io/peep-power/
Reposted by Nate Upham
The global whaling industry experienced a boom c. 1840-1950 as technology allowed whalers to hunt the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.
Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.
Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.
Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.
Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.
Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.
Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.
October 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The global whaling industry experienced a boom c. 1840-1950 as technology allowed whalers to hunt the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.
Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.
Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.
Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.
Under standard models, we would have expected krill populations to have *exploded*.
Instead, they DROPPED exponentially.
Let's talk about the KRILL PARADOX.
Reposted by Nate Upham
A big win for one of California’s smallest native mammals 🎉
The CA Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to declare the Pacific pocket mouse a candidate species under the California ESA, granting protections for them as the state conducts a yearlong review.
Read on ➡️ bit.ly/474L4Iz
The CA Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to declare the Pacific pocket mouse a candidate species under the California ESA, granting protections for them as the state conducts a yearlong review.
Read on ➡️ bit.ly/474L4Iz
October 8, 2025 at 9:39 PM
A big win for one of California’s smallest native mammals 🎉
The CA Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to declare the Pacific pocket mouse a candidate species under the California ESA, granting protections for them as the state conducts a yearlong review.
Read on ➡️ bit.ly/474L4Iz
The CA Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to declare the Pacific pocket mouse a candidate species under the California ESA, granting protections for them as the state conducts a yearlong review.
Read on ➡️ bit.ly/474L4Iz
Reposted by Nate Upham
Goodall transcribes field notes by lamplight in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park c.1960
October 2, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Goodall transcribes field notes by lamplight in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park c.1960
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Great article linking Web origins w/ AI today:
"Hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like Cern allowed me to. That’s why we need a Cern-like not-for-profit body driving forward international AI research."
Great article linking Web origins w/ AI today:
"Hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like Cern allowed me to. That’s why we need a Cern-like not-for-profit body driving forward international AI research."
Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee
My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for
www.theguardian.com
September 28, 2025 at 8:19 PM
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Great article linking Web origins w/ AI today:
"Hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like Cern allowed me to. That’s why we need a Cern-like not-for-profit body driving forward international AI research."
Great article linking Web origins w/ AI today:
"Hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward like Cern allowed me to. That’s why we need a Cern-like not-for-profit body driving forward international AI research."
Reposted by Nate Upham
🐍🦎 We're all familiar with snakes, but have you heard of legless lizards?
Join Collections Manager Nefti Camacho behind the scenes in the Museum's Herpetology Collection and learn the similarities and differences between the two species!
Join Collections Manager Nefti Camacho behind the scenes in the Museum's Herpetology Collection and learn the similarities and differences between the two species!
September 26, 2025 at 11:38 PM
🐍🦎 We're all familiar with snakes, but have you heard of legless lizards?
Join Collections Manager Nefti Camacho behind the scenes in the Museum's Herpetology Collection and learn the similarities and differences between the two species!
Join Collections Manager Nefti Camacho behind the scenes in the Museum's Herpetology Collection and learn the similarities and differences between the two species!
Reposted by Nate Upham
The cutest!!! Sea snail larvae are just adorabubbles 🥹
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
September 23, 2025 at 7:35 PM
The cutest!!! Sea snail larvae are just adorabubbles 🥹
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
Reposted by Nate Upham
hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!
September 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM
hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!
Reposted by Nate Upham
![Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreigvmzverlrjgqp4mazbkhm43fpvv2hdbkd2t2646dhihozrwdcy24@jpeg)
September 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Nate Upham
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 8, 2025 at 6:23 PM
The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
When & where have species of bats, rodents, & shrews been collected across the 54 mountains of the Madrean Sky Islands?
Damien Rivera in our lab led this effort to find out!
New preprint "Uncovering historical small mammal biodiversity among the Madrean Sky Islands" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Damien Rivera in our lab led this effort to find out!
New preprint "Uncovering historical small mammal biodiversity among the Madrean Sky Islands" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
When & where have species of bats, rodents, & shrews been collected across the 54 mountains of the Madrean Sky Islands?
Damien Rivera in our lab led this effort to find out!
New preprint "Uncovering historical small mammal biodiversity among the Madrean Sky Islands" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Damien Rivera in our lab led this effort to find out!
New preprint "Uncovering historical small mammal biodiversity among the Madrean Sky Islands" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Beauty of a figure!!
Oh word? Birds-of-paradise are just fluorescing left and right now? Goddamn! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
September 3, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Beauty of a figure!!
Reposted by Nate Upham
September 2, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Nate Upham
'Here, we detail the biological, environmental and experimental factors that can affect circadian rhythms of mice and provide recommendations for designing and reporting experiments for in vivo metabolic studies.'
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
The time is now: accounting for time-of-day effects to improve reproducibility and translation of metabolism research - Nature Metabolism
This broad group of authors summarizes the impact of circadian factors on metabolic biology and offers recommendations on how to account for and report biological, environmental and experimental facto...
www.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 2:00 AM
'Here, we detail the biological, environmental and experimental factors that can affect circadian rhythms of mice and provide recommendations for designing and reporting experiments for in vivo metabolic studies.'
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Nate Upham
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"
Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
August 28, 2025 at 4:18 PM
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"
Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
Reposted by Nate Upham
At Cerro Pelon, the monarch sanctuary.
August 26, 2025 at 10:29 PM
At Cerro Pelon, the monarch sanctuary.
Stone fruits (aka drupes) are fruits with a single pit surrounded by juicy flesh—like plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines + cherries. 🍑
They’re packed with gut-friendly fiber + phytonutrients with wide-ranging health benefits.
Isn’t that just peachy?
They’re packed with gut-friendly fiber + phytonutrients with wide-ranging health benefits.
Isn’t that just peachy?
August 25, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Nate Upham
Thank you for the write-up @johnhawks.net in particular for dedicating space to explaining mucin structure and function.
The gene from Denisovan to Neanderthal to modern mucus
open.substack.com/pub/johnhawk...
The gene from Denisovan to Neanderthal to modern mucus
open.substack.com/pub/johnhawk...
The gene from Denisovan to Neanderthal to modern mucus
A “genetic sandwich” reveals how a block of DNA entered several populations successively and was affected by natural selection.
open.substack.com
August 24, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Thank you for the write-up @johnhawks.net in particular for dedicating space to explaining mucin structure and function.
The gene from Denisovan to Neanderthal to modern mucus
open.substack.com/pub/johnhawk...
The gene from Denisovan to Neanderthal to modern mucus
open.substack.com/pub/johnhawk...
Reposted by Nate Upham
🧵
Here is SS 433, the first identified microquasar.
It is about one of the most exotic star systems known, a binary star microquasar consisting of a stellar-mass black hole and its companion, a giant star.
The star is about 30 solar masses, ...
➡️ www.desy.de/news/news_se...
🔭 🧪 #cosmology
Here is SS 433, the first identified microquasar.
It is about one of the most exotic star systems known, a binary star microquasar consisting of a stellar-mass black hole and its companion, a giant star.
The star is about 30 solar masses, ...
➡️ www.desy.de/news/news_se...
🔭 🧪 #cosmology
August 18, 2025 at 7:09 PM
🧵
Here is SS 433, the first identified microquasar.
It is about one of the most exotic star systems known, a binary star microquasar consisting of a stellar-mass black hole and its companion, a giant star.
The star is about 30 solar masses, ...
➡️ www.desy.de/news/news_se...
🔭 🧪 #cosmology
Here is SS 433, the first identified microquasar.
It is about one of the most exotic star systems known, a binary star microquasar consisting of a stellar-mass black hole and its companion, a giant star.
The star is about 30 solar masses, ...
➡️ www.desy.de/news/news_se...
🔭 🧪 #cosmology
Reposted by Nate Upham
'In order for AI to be scientifically useful, it needs to be scrutinised to the same standard as other scientific findings. This requires that the scientific community can reproduce your AI model or, indeed, further develop it, leading to greater understanding and interoperability'
Ten simple rules for navigating AI in science
journals.plos.org
August 19, 2025 at 3:57 AM
'In order for AI to be scientifically useful, it needs to be scrutinised to the same standard as other scientific findings. This requires that the scientific community can reproduce your AI model or, indeed, further develop it, leading to greater understanding and interoperability'
Reposted by Nate Upham
1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said."
It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.
I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.
It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.
I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.
RFK Jr. in interview with Scripps News: ‘Trusting the experts is not science’
HHS Secretary RFK Jr. sat down with Scripps News for a wide-ranging interview, discussing mRNA vaccine funding policy changes and a recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
www.scrippsnews.com
August 12, 2025 at 4:48 AM
1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said."
It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.
I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.
It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.
I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.