Rob Denton
LightNews LightNews
banner
rddenton.bsky.social
Rob Denton
@rddenton.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.7K following 150 posts
Bio Professor | scientist (genomics, evolution, conservation), educator, perpetual student | he/him | posts don't represent employer
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Rob Denton
molbioevol.bsky.social
The February cover of Molecular Biology and Evolution features the work of Ward et al. on the evolution of SERPINA snake venom inhibitors in rodents.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf290

🖌️ Rajani Arora

#evobio #molbio
Molecular Biology and Evolution | February 2026
February 2, 2026 at 11:22 AM
rddenton.bsky.social
If you recruit great, creative students, this kind of stuff just appears on whiteboards and makes everyone happy.
January 30, 2026 at 2:30 AM
rddenton.bsky.social
Shaggy from Scooby Doo looks disgusted at the camera with the text "EW THIS AGAIN"
January 27, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
mariolanzas.bsky.social
Some TEMNOSPONDYLI, from the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YULv... I recently dedicated to this lineage of tetrapods 🐸 This poster is now also available at mariolanzas.redbubble. com for prints and other items 🐸 #temnospondyli #paleoart #amphibians #beastoflesotho #prehistoricanimals
January 21, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
davetoews.bsky.social
I could give you a great summary of our new warbler diet paper… but if a picture says a thousand words, this awesome graphical abstract by @rushstudio.bsky.social tells the whole story. 🦉🧪
academic.oup.com/auk/article/...
A comic graphical abstract by illustrator Rush Dhillon showing two wood warblers and their spider prey. The graphs illustrate the read abundance of these spiders in the warbler's fecal samples.
January 21, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
ljrissler.bsky.social
The National Science Foundation sign on our Eisenhower Av building is now gone.

The NSF mural in the foyer is removed and torn off in sheets.

We were supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the agency in May 2025. That never happened.
NSF building on Eisenhower Av. HUD now owns. Destroying the NSF mural in the foyer. Of the Eisenhower building.
January 18, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Rob Denton
ctmurphy1.bsky.social
The Murphy Lab did our annual retreat this week. This year's theme was using AI (what it's good and bad for). I wanted to be open-minded to make sure we are not missing something we should be using it for, so we did a few exercises to test, and had presentations.
January 15, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
superelastic.bsky.social
and the winner of the "2025 best thing on Internet" has just arrived
neal.fun/size-of-life/

@carlbergstrom.com
Size of Life
From an amoeba to a blue whale
neal.fun
December 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
drk-lo.bsky.social
New special issue in Molecular Ecology on Conservation Genomics #popGen #evolution 🧪🧬🖥️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1365294x...
Special Issue: CONSERVATION GENOMICS ‐ MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Molecular Ecology: Vol 34, No 23
Molecular Ecology is an international journal for research using molecular genetic techniques to address questions in ecology, evolution, behavior and conservation.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
wrightam.bsky.social
I’ll miss the dog park the most. My pictures don’t do justice to how nice this view is.
December 18, 2025 at 8:55 PM
rddenton.bsky.social
Happy "teaching evaluations reveal" to those that celebrate. I think it is important to talk to students honestly about evals and break down some of the numerous studies that show that teaching evals A) don't actually measure achievement of learning outcomes and B) are largely discriminatory (1/2)
list of peer-reviewed papers that can be extracted list of peer-reviewed papers that can be extracted
December 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
rddenton.bsky.social
A meme of shaggy from the cartoon Scooby Doo. His eyes are skeptical. Text reads "EW THIS AGAIN"
December 17, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
3rdreviewer.bsky.social
Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA?

Well, wonder no more!

(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)

"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes
Muller's ratchet predicts that non-recombining genomes can accumulate deleterious mutations, though molecular evidence for it is rare. Previous studies have tried to detect ratchet-like behavior in mi...
www.biorxiv.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
ljrissler.bsky.social
NSF

- Forced reorg

- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)

- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)

I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
Boxing up the NSF at Eisenhower Av for the forced relocation. Boxes have “Details Matter” signage.
December 11, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Rob Denton
emilytaylorscience.com
Funded Master's position in Rattlesnake Biology at Cal Poly SLO

jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id...

Please share!
December 9, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
sbranco.bsky.social
NSF policy changes - some updates that PIs should be aware of.

www.nsf.gov/policies/doc...
Policy Notice: Implementation of Policy Changes to Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) 24-1, Supplement 1
This notice implements several revisions to NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) 24-1.
www.nsf.gov
December 9, 2025 at 2:37 PM
rddenton.bsky.social
Neat!
tedmorgan.bsky.social Ted Morgan @tedmorgan.bsky.social · Dec 8
The new Enabling Discovery through GEnomics (EDGE) Program page is posted. Please contact us at BIOEDGE@nsf.gov if you have questions. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Enabling Discovery Through Genomics (EDGE)
www.nsf.gov
December 8, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
peiferlabunc.bsky.social
I taught Genetics again this year. We need to include discussion of the problematic history of our field, especially as the claims of eugenics are once again centered in our political discourse. Last year I wrote this piece, explaining my reasoning and approach 🧪 1/n
www.cell.com/trends/genet...
Trends in Genetics Science & Society We must not ignore eugenics in our genetics curriculum Mark Peifer1,2,* Eugenics, that promoted planned breeding to ensure 'racial improve- ment', was central to the develop- ment of genetics and led to horrifying policies. However, eugen- ics is not dead and continues to influence science and policy today. Thus, we should include eugenics in our undergraduate classes to remind students that scientists must speak out when others lie about science and use it to further their political views.
December 8, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
tomhollenstein.bsky.social
So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers.

Here's what happened:

scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis | Scientia Psychiatrica
Introduction: The proliferation of social media has raised significant concerns about its potential effects on the mental health of adolescents. This meta-analysis aims to provide a comprehensive asse...
scientiapsychiatrica.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
colincarlson.bsky.social
Yesterday, we sent this message to the @viralemergence.org team, bringing a (hopefully temporary) end to our project three years into what started as a decade of planned work. /1
Hi everyone, I wanted to share some sad news about the future of the Verena program. As you know, in September, NSF delayed our annual payment indefinitely, and asked us to keep spending closer and closer to zero until they could “justify” another payment. We began to run out of funds at some universities this month, and will be fully spent out by late spring, so the goal was to get paid in December. We’ve been working with our program officer to make this happen, but sadly, we’ve learned we’re not getting an increment again, and there’s no clarity on when or how much we will be paid in the remainder of the grant (through September 1, 2027). Because of this, the Executive Committee has made the difficult decision to essentially shut the BII down until / unless something changes. What that means is an indefinite end to all programs (e.g., seminar), training activities (integration workshops, trainee corner), and evaluation. On research, what’s able to continue will have to be navigated by each investigator; our goal is to work together to push out all the impactful science we’ve spent three years collecting and analyzing data for, but we also know that priorities may shift around to keep people employed. If we’re lucky, Congress will pass a budget that lets us continue doing something like what we planned, and we’ll pick that back up when Zoe and Collin are back in April. Until then, Verena will continue to exist as a community where we can collaborate (and give and receive support!), and we’re working to find funding sources that can pick up from where the BII left off. On a personal note: it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work with all of you, and an unbelievably lucky thing to get to run an NSF center in my 20s. I’ve loved this project, and I hope it’s made as much of a difference in your lives as it has in mine. In case I don’t see you later: happy holidays, be well, and so long and thanks for all the viruses. Best, Colin
December 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM
rddenton.bsky.social
Done with my lucky number 13th semester university teaching.

-Love this generation of students. Funny, supportive, honest, advocative
-Being transparent is undefeated
-Explaining the "why" is more important than ever
-Small things said/done matter (negatively and positively). Gotta be on every day.
December 5, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
evolletters.bsky.social
Check out our cover article by @timjanicke.bsky.social and colleagues about the role of sexual selection in animal speciation. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic.... The beautiful illustration is by Katharina Bóth.
December 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Rob Denton
lukemusher.bsky.social
I have a new preprint demonstrating a genome-architecture-aware approach to inferring species trees and introgression landscapes from a small number of genomes. If you are interested in phylogenomics, birds, or hybridization, this is for you! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 1, 2025 at 7:35 PM
rddenton.bsky.social
"A Long December" is a Christmas standard.
December 1, 2025 at 8:02 PM
rddenton.bsky.social
One month later and those 30 billion base pairs are crammed into just about 14 chromosomes. HOT DANG! This seemed impossible 4-5 years ago.
rddenton.bsky.social Rob Denton @rddenton.bsky.social · Oct 27
Genome assembly fresh of the supercomputer, total size = 29,892,519,935 base pairs 🦎🧬
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM