Elinor Karlsson
@elinork.bsky.social
Scientist & artist. Prof at UMass Chan Med School & Broad Institute. Rice U alum. Founder of Zoonomia & DarwinsArk.org. Wants your dog’s DNA. And your cat’s! 🇸🇪🇳🇿🇺🇸
We had a go at assessing domestication status of some bacteria in our paper and it made my brain hurt.
September 6, 2025 at 2:45 AM
We had a go at assessing domestication status of some bacteria in our paper and it made my brain hurt.
We define domestication on the level of populations, not species, although we propose a way extend that to classify species.
We decided to leave the argument about whether dogs are actually a species to someone else, since we’d already spend 4 years on the paper.
We decided to leave the argument about whether dogs are actually a species to someone else, since we’d already spend 4 years on the paper.
September 5, 2025 at 11:33 PM
We define domestication on the level of populations, not species, although we propose a way extend that to classify species.
We decided to leave the argument about whether dogs are actually a species to someone else, since we’d already spend 4 years on the paper.
We decided to leave the argument about whether dogs are actually a species to someone else, since we’d already spend 4 years on the paper.
It’s probably still an impossible question to answer, of course, bc of all the absolutely fascinating gray areas. If the ancestral wolf population that was the origin of dogs is no longer around, but a possibly very phenotypically distinct population of grey wolves is, is that a yes or a no?
September 5, 2025 at 11:08 PM
It’s probably still an impossible question to answer, of course, bc of all the absolutely fascinating gray areas. If the ancestral wolf population that was the origin of dogs is no longer around, but a possibly very phenotypically distinct population of grey wolves is, is that a yes or a no?
This is an impossible question to answer without first coming up with a way to consistently define what you mean by a domestic species. So we did! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A universally applicable definition for domestication | PNAS
The process of domestication is commonly perceived as a human achievement, and domestic
species are typically assumed to be those under human contr...
www.pnas.org
September 5, 2025 at 11:04 PM
This is an impossible question to answer without first coming up with a way to consistently define what you mean by a domestic species. So we did! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Elinor Karlsson
Jay's "support" for early career researchers is breathtaking. It's worth taking a quick look at the list of NIH training grants/fellowships that have been terminated. Thanks to @noamross.net, @scott-delaney.bsky.social, and others for compiling these lists.
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June 20, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Jay's "support" for early career researchers is breathtaking. It's worth taking a quick look at the list of NIH training grants/fellowships that have been terminated. Thanks to @noamross.net, @scott-delaney.bsky.social, and others for compiling these lists.