Izzy Baker
@izzyrbaker.bsky.social
Studying eco-evolution through the lens of microbes, minerals, and molecules.
Agouron Geobiology Fellow @JohnsHopkins.
Enjoys long walks on the (ferruginous) beach.
🦠🔄🌎
Agouron Geobiology Fellow @JohnsHopkins.
Enjoys long walks on the (ferruginous) beach.
🦠🔄🌎
Reposted by Izzy Baker
The Very Hungry Microbes That Could, Just Maybe, Cool the Planet
www.nytimes.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Reposted by Izzy Baker
Lost in the many news of last week was this press release about the dissolution of the DOE Office of Science advisory committees and replacement with a new, integrated, single Office of Science Advisory Committee (SCAC): www.energy.gov/science/arti...
DOE Establishes the Office of Science Advisory Committee
The Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the establishment of the Office of Science Advisory Committee (SCAC).
www.energy.gov
October 7, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Lost in the many news of last week was this press release about the dissolution of the DOE Office of Science advisory committees and replacement with a new, integrated, single Office of Science Advisory Committee (SCAC): www.energy.gov/science/arti...
Reposted by Izzy Baker
Interested in life’s co-evolution with planetary environments?
🌎🦠🧪
I'm looking for a postdoc to join my group at #McGill and happy to sponsor applicants for the TSI fellowship.
Please reach out if interested!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30777
🌎🦠🧪
I'm looking for a postdoc to join my group at #McGill and happy to sponsor applicants for the TSI fellowship.
Please reach out if interested!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30777
McGill University, Trottier Space Institute
Job #AJO30777, Trottier Space Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Trottier Space Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, CA
academicjobsonline.org
October 7, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Interested in life’s co-evolution with planetary environments?
🌎🦠🧪
I'm looking for a postdoc to join my group at #McGill and happy to sponsor applicants for the TSI fellowship.
Please reach out if interested!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30777
🌎🦠🧪
I'm looking for a postdoc to join my group at #McGill and happy to sponsor applicants for the TSI fellowship.
Please reach out if interested!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30777
Reposted by Izzy Baker
🚨New preprint from our lab!🚨
We trace the evolution of microbial exoenzymes and uncover their role in Earth’s oxygenation. By recycling nutrients, exoenzymes helped fuel cyanobacteria and set off feedbacks that sustained the long-term rise of O₂.
#MicroSky 🧪 🦠 🌎
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We trace the evolution of microbial exoenzymes and uncover their role in Earth’s oxygenation. By recycling nutrients, exoenzymes helped fuel cyanobacteria and set off feedbacks that sustained the long-term rise of O₂.
#MicroSky 🧪 🦠 🌎
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Microbial exoenzymes catalyzed the transition to an oxygenated Earth
Microbial exoenzymes, extracellular enzymes secreted to degrade complex organic polymers, are essential for recycling carbon and nutrients, thus sustaining primary productivity in todays oceans. Yet, ...
www.biorxiv.org
September 12, 2025 at 1:02 PM
🚨New preprint from our lab!🚨
We trace the evolution of microbial exoenzymes and uncover their role in Earth’s oxygenation. By recycling nutrients, exoenzymes helped fuel cyanobacteria and set off feedbacks that sustained the long-term rise of O₂.
#MicroSky 🧪 🦠 🌎
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We trace the evolution of microbial exoenzymes and uncover their role in Earth’s oxygenation. By recycling nutrients, exoenzymes helped fuel cyanobacteria and set off feedbacks that sustained the long-term rise of O₂.
#MicroSky 🧪 🦠 🌎
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
More dead fish this morning #Chesapeake #Anoxia
August 28, 2025 at 12:25 PM
More dead fish this morning #Chesapeake #Anoxia
We interrupt your regularly scheduled doom-scrolling with some science pics from our fieldwork on the Chesapeake Bay!
June 5, 2025 at 5:54 PM
We interrupt your regularly scheduled doom-scrolling with some science pics from our fieldwork on the Chesapeake Bay!
Reposted by Izzy Baker
I talked to Nature about the latest development at NSF, which is a five-alarm fire for American science. The scale of immediate impact is massive. We narrowly escaped this affecting @viralemergence.org for now, but will have to shut down in a few months if this stays.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.
www.nature.com
May 1, 2025 at 11:06 PM
I talked to Nature about the latest development at NSF, which is a five-alarm fire for American science. The scale of immediate impact is massive. We narrowly escaped this affecting @viralemergence.org for now, but will have to shut down in a few months if this stays.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Izzy Baker
⚒️🧪 Even more sobering to me is that by removing the nodules, which take millions of years to form, the very slow ecosystem recovery will be to a very different state than what was there before.
A signal of our thoughtlessness that could last until the ocean floor itself is subducted.
A signal of our thoughtlessness that could last until the ocean floor itself is subducted.
There is something horribly sobering about this.
The deep sea abyssal plains of the Pacific have existed basically unchanged for roughly 80 million years. Over a period of just a couple of weeks in 1979, we changed it during an experimental mining operation.
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
The deep sea abyssal plains of the Pacific have existed basically unchanged for roughly 80 million years. Over a period of just a couple of weeks in 1979, we changed it during an experimental mining operation.
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Evidence of deep-sea mining still visible over four decades later | Natural History Museum
The impact it has had on the life living down there has been more mixed.
www.nhm.ac.uk
April 2, 2025 at 11:07 AM
⚒️🧪 Even more sobering to me is that by removing the nodules, which take millions of years to form, the very slow ecosystem recovery will be to a very different state than what was there before.
A signal of our thoughtlessness that could last until the ocean floor itself is subducted.
A signal of our thoughtlessness that could last until the ocean floor itself is subducted.
Reposted by Izzy Baker
I absolutely love this work❗️
Isolation of two strains belonging to the order proposed as FECA’s closest relative, ‘Hodarchaeales’, as members of a pure co- and tri-culture with methanogenic partners.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Isolation of two strains belonging to the order proposed as FECA’s closest relative, ‘Hodarchaeales’, as members of a pure co- and tri-culture with methanogenic partners.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Eukaryotes’ closest relatives are internally simple syntrophic archaea
Eukaryotes are theorized to have originated from an archaeal phylum Promethearchaeota (formerly ‘Asgard’ archaea)[1][1],[2][2]. The first cultured representatives revealed valuable insight[3][3],[4][4...
www.biorxiv.org
March 6, 2025 at 9:43 AM
I absolutely love this work❗️
Isolation of two strains belonging to the order proposed as FECA’s closest relative, ‘Hodarchaeales’, as members of a pure co- and tri-culture with methanogenic partners.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Isolation of two strains belonging to the order proposed as FECA’s closest relative, ‘Hodarchaeales’, as members of a pure co- and tri-culture with methanogenic partners.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Today, we stand up for science.
March 7, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Today, we stand up for science.
What 2 days of sampling looks like 😅
March 4, 2025 at 7:09 PM
What 2 days of sampling looks like 😅
Reposted by Izzy Baker
Legitmately thrilled to share our latest work, in which @fernpizza.bsky.social solved an experimental challenge in plasmid biology as old as the field: measuring how plasmids compete and evolve within individual cells!
February 21, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Legitmately thrilled to share our latest work, in which @fernpizza.bsky.social solved an experimental challenge in plasmid biology as old as the field: measuring how plasmids compete and evolve within individual cells!
Reposted by Izzy Baker
Firings happening right now at the NSF.
February 18, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Firings happening right now at the NSF.
Reposted by Izzy Baker
reposting from 𝕏 bc you know...
@KensukeTadome (not on 🔵bsky) on Aug 10, 2023:
"Cross section of 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘢 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘴 🧐 As you can see, lichens are a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. The algae sparkle and are beautiful ☺️✨"
#SymbioSky #Lichen
@KensukeTadome (not on 🔵bsky) on Aug 10, 2023:
"Cross section of 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘢 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘴 🧐 As you can see, lichens are a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. The algae sparkle and are beautiful ☺️✨"
#SymbioSky #Lichen
February 7, 2025 at 10:55 AM
reposting from 𝕏 bc you know...
@KensukeTadome (not on 🔵bsky) on Aug 10, 2023:
"Cross section of 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘢 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘴 🧐 As you can see, lichens are a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. The algae sparkle and are beautiful ☺️✨"
#SymbioSky #Lichen
@KensukeTadome (not on 🔵bsky) on Aug 10, 2023:
"Cross section of 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘢 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘴 🧐 As you can see, lichens are a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. The algae sparkle and are beautiful ☺️✨"
#SymbioSky #Lichen
Reposted by Izzy Baker
Studies only making reads available may satisfy journal requirements but do not serve the larger community.
If you work with any form of metagenomics/genomics data, and are for open access and FAIR data policies...Please consider making ALL your data public (genomes, proteins, reads, metadata).
If you work with any form of metagenomics/genomics data, and are for open access and FAIR data policies...Please consider making ALL your data public (genomes, proteins, reads, metadata).
February 2, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Studies only making reads available may satisfy journal requirements but do not serve the larger community.
If you work with any form of metagenomics/genomics data, and are for open access and FAIR data policies...Please consider making ALL your data public (genomes, proteins, reads, metadata).
If you work with any form of metagenomics/genomics data, and are for open access and FAIR data policies...Please consider making ALL your data public (genomes, proteins, reads, metadata).
Check out the official logo for Mid-Atlantic #Geobiology 2025! Featuring North America’s largest estuary—the Chesapeake Bay!
January 15, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Check out the official logo for Mid-Atlantic #Geobiology 2025! Featuring North America’s largest estuary—the Chesapeake Bay!
Reposted by Izzy Baker
NEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold.
We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940.
2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.
We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940.
2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.
January 10, 2025 at 8:04 AM
NEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold.
We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940.
2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.
We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940.
2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.
Reposted by Izzy Baker
Resurrection of a diatom after 7000 years from anoxic Baltic Sea sediment academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #jcampubs
January 3, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Resurrection of a diatom after 7000 years from anoxic Baltic Sea sediment academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #jcampubs
Reposted by Izzy Baker
After 24 years of work, I’m thrilled to announce the TYMEFLIES dataset, which comprises metagenomes from Lake Mendota (Madison, WI), collected roughly every 10 days (471 samples) for 20 years! @quendi.bsky.social @robinrohwer.bsky.social
rdcu.be/d5put
A thread…
rdcu.be/d5put
A thread…
Two decades of bacterial ecology and evolution in a freshwater lake
Nature Microbiology - A 471-metagenome time series from Lake Mendota in Wisconsin, USA, reveals seasonal and decadal shifts in bacterial functional and ecological dynamics, especially in response...
rdcu.be
January 3, 2025 at 11:44 AM
After 24 years of work, I’m thrilled to announce the TYMEFLIES dataset, which comprises metagenomes from Lake Mendota (Madison, WI), collected roughly every 10 days (471 samples) for 20 years! @quendi.bsky.social @robinrohwer.bsky.social
rdcu.be/d5put
A thread…
rdcu.be/d5put
A thread…
Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate, and to my fellow MOT, have a bright first night of Chanukah!
December 25, 2024 at 3:56 PM
Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate, and to my fellow MOT, have a bright first night of Chanukah!
Reposted by Izzy Baker
Reposting this again - We are looking for a postdoc to study the physiology, evolution, and cell biology of anaerobic ciliate-methanogen symbioses using 'omics, experiments, and/or microscopy. Still accepting inquiries, and I would love to hear from interested candidates.
We are searching for a postdoc to join our team, focused on anaerobic ciliate-methanogen symbiosis. Please share widely!
December 2, 2024 at 2:19 AM
Reposting this again - We are looking for a postdoc to study the physiology, evolution, and cell biology of anaerobic ciliate-methanogen symbioses using 'omics, experiments, and/or microscopy. Still accepting inquiries, and I would love to hear from interested candidates.
Mid-Atlanticans, save the date and please share!
The Mid-Atlantic #Geobiology Symposium will be Friday, February 28, 2025 at Johns Hopkins. See you then! 🧪🦠🌎🪱 www.midatlanticgeobiologysymposium.org
The Mid-Atlantic #Geobiology Symposium will be Friday, February 28, 2025 at Johns Hopkins. See you then! 🧪🦠🌎🪱 www.midatlanticgeobiologysymposium.org
Home - Mid-Atlantic Geobiology Symposium
We are excited to announce the 2025 Mid-Atlantic Geobiology Symposium! The symposium will be held on Friday, February 28, 2025 at Johns Hopkins University. We welcome attendees from any career stage a...
www.midatlanticgeobiologysymposium.org
December 8, 2024 at 4:02 PM
Mid-Atlanticans, save the date and please share!
The Mid-Atlantic #Geobiology Symposium will be Friday, February 28, 2025 at Johns Hopkins. See you then! 🧪🦠🌎🪱 www.midatlanticgeobiologysymposium.org
The Mid-Atlantic #Geobiology Symposium will be Friday, February 28, 2025 at Johns Hopkins. See you then! 🧪🦠🌎🪱 www.midatlanticgeobiologysymposium.org