Malcolm McFarland
@saltystranger.bsky.social
Phytoplankton ecology, biological oceanography, bio-optics, and in situ holographic microscopy
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Hello my friend, good to see you again. You are right on time (according to my ~4 years of monitoring data). #protistsonsky #radiolaria
August 9, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Hello my friend, good to see you again. You are right on time (according to my ~4 years of monitoring data). #protistsonsky #radiolaria
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
A selection of diatoms I found in net tows this week...
June 27, 2025 at 11:32 PM
A selection of diatoms I found in net tows this week...
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM
From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...
journals.plos.org
June 24, 2025 at 6:09 PM
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Meet the carrier crab, an animal that brings its defence wherever it goes. Its back legs are specially adapted to hold anything it can wedge between itself and danger: a bit of dead coral, seaweed, a broken shell. Sometimes, though, that shield is alive – like this jellyfish! 🛡️🪼👇
🎥: Jacob Guy
🎥: Jacob Guy
April 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Meet the carrier crab, an animal that brings its defence wherever it goes. Its back legs are specially adapted to hold anything it can wedge between itself and danger: a bit of dead coral, seaweed, a broken shell. Sometimes, though, that shield is alive – like this jellyfish! 🛡️🪼👇
🎥: Jacob Guy
🎥: Jacob Guy
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Wearing diatoms is a popular fashion choice among some groups
January 26, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Wearing diatoms is a popular fashion choice among some groups
Lots of these washing up on the beaches around these parts lately.
January 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Lots of these washing up on the beaches around these parts lately.
floating potatoes
January 26, 2025 at 6:36 PM
floating potatoes
Interesting stuff to think about in this paper.
A new paper of Saskia Wilmsen and me on
"Defining organismality"
just came out in Biological Theory
.
Open access: rdcu.be/d6but
🧵👇
"Defining organismality"
just came out in Biological Theory
.
Open access: rdcu.be/d6but
🧵👇
January 26, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Interesting stuff to think about in this paper.
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Phylogeography of Labyrinthula species and strains shows high connectivity and low genetic variation across seagrass hosts and geographic locations in North America #protists #protisonsky
Frontiers | Phylogeography of Labyrinthula species and strains shows high connectivity and low genetic variation across seagrass hosts and geographic locations in North America
Seagrass wasting disease, caused by parasitic slime nets in the genus Labyrinthula, affects seagrasses globally with outbreaks occurring at local to regional scales. Though prior research showed…
www.frontiersin.org
January 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Phylogeography of Labyrinthula species and strains shows high connectivity and low genetic variation across seagrass hosts and geographic locations in North America #protists #protisonsky
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Today's #EarthOptimism #OceanOptimism story is threatened sea turtles got cold-stunned in the winter storm off Florida, but have been rescued. They'll be rehabbed and released and have a good chance of full recovery and a long sea turtle life. 🧪🦑🌎
www.wesh.com/article/flor...
www.wesh.com/article/flor...
30 cold-stunned sea turtles rescued amid historic winter storm in Florida
FWC says temperatures below 50 can cause sea turtles to become "cold-stunned," making them weak and unable to swim
www.wesh.com
January 24, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Today's #EarthOptimism #OceanOptimism story is threatened sea turtles got cold-stunned in the winter storm off Florida, but have been rescued. They'll be rehabbed and released and have a good chance of full recovery and a long sea turtle life. 🧪🦑🌎
www.wesh.com/article/flor...
www.wesh.com/article/flor...
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Imagine our profession was built so that you could advance your career without moving all the time. Isn't this a huge piece of the equity and access problem? Yes, it is.
Needing to move is a huge barrier to broadening representation in the sciences
Science will be more inclusive and equitable when we stop expecting people to uproot their lives every few years
open.substack.com
December 12, 2023 at 1:10 AM
Imagine our profession was built so that you could advance your career without moving all the time. Isn't this a huge piece of the equity and access problem? Yes, it is.
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Friends and foes: symbiotic and Algicidal bacterial influence on Karenia brevis blooms academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a... #jcampubs
December 19, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Friends and foes: symbiotic and Algicidal bacterial influence on Karenia brevis blooms academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a... #jcampubs
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Predicting optimal mixotrophic metabolic strategies in the global ocean www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs
Predicting optimal mixotrophic metabolic strategies in the global ocean
Mixotrophic nanoflagellates maximize growth by balancing C and N acquisition via photosynthetic and phagotrophic investments.
www.science.org
December 16, 2024 at 4:04 PM
Predicting optimal mixotrophic metabolic strategies in the global ocean www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
I am looking for a PhD student to start in fall of 2025 at MSU. Potential topics include trait-based approaches to plankton community resilience, temperature effects on communities, harmful algal blooms and many others. Please get in touch if interested. More info: www.kl-lab.group.
Klausmeier-Litchman Lab
Welcome to the Klausmeier-Litchman lab! We study empirical and theoretical community ecology, biodiversity and climate change, focusing on phytoplankton, other microbes and general theory. We use obse...
www.kl-lab.group
November 26, 2024 at 6:48 PM
I am looking for a PhD student to start in fall of 2025 at MSU. Potential topics include trait-based approaches to plankton community resilience, temperature effects on communities, harmful algal blooms and many others. Please get in touch if interested. More info: www.kl-lab.group.
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
We've got a new paper out! Our team shows that #Mesodinium rubrum can (temporarily) make a living on blue-green prey, something that surprised my science-big-brother Matt Johnson so much that he made me run the central experiment 5 times. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Retention of blue‐green cryptophyte organelles by Mesodinium rubrum and their effects on photophysiology and growth
As chloroplast-stealing or “kleptoplastidic” lineages become more reliant on stolen machinery, they also tend to become more specialized on the prey from which they acquire this machinery. For exampl...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 26, 2024 at 12:02 AM
We've got a new paper out! Our team shows that #Mesodinium rubrum can (temporarily) make a living on blue-green prey, something that surprised my science-big-brother Matt Johnson so much that he made me run the central experiment 5 times. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Coffinfishes (Family Chaunacidae), from the deep-sea, have two enormous gill chambers on either side of the head that can hold a huge volume of water. The fish inflates by ~30% body volume, and then it holds its breath until it is ready to exhale. #marinelife www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBGt...
Facts: The Sea Toad (Coffinfish)
YouTube video by Deep Marine Scenes
www.youtube.com
December 2, 2024 at 3:36 PM
Coffinfishes (Family Chaunacidae), from the deep-sea, have two enormous gill chambers on either side of the head that can hold a huge volume of water. The fish inflates by ~30% body volume, and then it holds its breath until it is ready to exhale. #marinelife www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBGt...
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
A video we made at @mbarinews.bsky.social explaining some functions of #fluorescence in the ocean, and how #bioluminescence is different… but related.
🦑🧪🌊
m.youtube.com/watch?v=whbe...
🦑🧪🌊
m.youtube.com/watch?v=whbe...
The allure of fluorescence in the ocean
YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
m.youtube.com
December 2, 2024 at 3:07 PM
A video we made at @mbarinews.bsky.social explaining some functions of #fluorescence in the ocean, and how #bioluminescence is different… but related.
🦑🧪🌊
m.youtube.com/watch?v=whbe...
🦑🧪🌊
m.youtube.com/watch?v=whbe...
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
🥧 Pumpkin pie, apple pie… lava cake, anyone?
Recipe for creating a peperite, courtesy of URI's Marine Geological Samples Laboratory ⬇️
Recipe for creating a peperite, courtesy of URI's Marine Geological Samples Laboratory ⬇️
November 27, 2024 at 3:56 PM
🥧 Pumpkin pie, apple pie… lava cake, anyone?
Recipe for creating a peperite, courtesy of URI's Marine Geological Samples Laboratory ⬇️
Recipe for creating a peperite, courtesy of URI's Marine Geological Samples Laboratory ⬇️
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Heart cockles have transparent shell "windows" that act like fiber optic cables, focusing sunlight for photosynthesis while blocking harmful UV rays. These biophotonic adaptations make them masters of light transmission and symbiosis! #marinelife #science www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Heart cockle shells transmit sunlight to photosymbiotic algae using bundled fiber optic cables and condensing lenses - Nature Communications
Some bivalves have evolved photosynthetic symbioses. Here, the authors show that heart cockles transmit light through their upper shell to internal photosynthetic symbionts, using mineral fiber optic ...
www.nature.com
November 22, 2024 at 4:14 PM
Heart cockles have transparent shell "windows" that act like fiber optic cables, focusing sunlight for photosynthesis while blocking harmful UV rays. These biophotonic adaptations make them masters of light transmission and symbiosis! #marinelife #science www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Malcolm McFarland
Bacteria latch onto #aerosols (e.g. dust) and travel between continents. But also, a lot of bacteria up are produced and produce while over the ocean. Diversity and env conditions that modulate different types of bacteria emitted are reported in this study.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪🌊
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪🌊
Selective transmission of airborne bacterial communities from the ocean to the atmosphere over the Northern Pacific Ocean
This study simultaneously measured the taxonomic diversity of bacterial communities in both seawater and PM2.5 aerosol samples collected from the Nort…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 15, 2024 at 8:02 PM
Bacteria latch onto #aerosols (e.g. dust) and travel between continents. But also, a lot of bacteria up are produced and produce while over the ocean. Diversity and env conditions that modulate different types of bacteria emitted are reported in this study.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪🌊
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪🌊