Kevin Daly
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gingerhowley.bsky.social
Kevin Daly
@gingerhowley.bsky.social
Ad Astra-Assist. Prof at UCD. Young Academy Ireland. https://t.co/ZQ4XYYxM7H

Ancient DNA, goats, sheep (begrudgingly), pathogens, climate, MTG, Traitors.

I watch too many films: http://letterboxd.com/GingerHowley

He is openly gay (citation needed).
Pinned
Four angels to get to know me.
Reposted by Kevin Daly
We are excited to share our recent work on the surprising robustness of Ancestral Recombination Graph (ARG) inference tools to computational phasing errors, now available on BioRxiv: biorxiv.org/content/10.1....
This work is co-advised by @yundeng.bsky.social and Rasmus Nielsen.
1/7
Robustness of Ancestral Recombination Graph Inference Tools to Phasing Errors
Ancestral Recombination Graphs (ARGs) are fundamental population genetic structures that encode the genealogical history of a sample of haplotypes along the genome. They have recently received substan...
biorxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
Four months after it was promised, we finally have the government's transport investment plan between now and 2030. It's bad. Roads are in, public transport is out. A lot of public transport projects being put on the long-finger to make funding available for new roads.
November 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
Despite my insomnia, I'm very happy to share our preprint: a multi-disciplinary assessment of a sheep mass mortality event from ~18th century France. We report the first ancient sheeppox virus (think smallpox) and the Taenia hydatigena (nasty roundworm) genomes.
#aDNA
Evidence of sheeppox in 17th-19th century France: a multi-disciplinary investigation of a sheep mass mortality assemblage
Epizootic outbreaks posed major threats to food security, economic stability, and animal welfare in past communities. While these events and their impacts are well documented in historical records, ve...
www.biorxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Despite my insomnia, I'm very happy to share our preprint: a multi-disciplinary assessment of a sheep mass mortality event from ~18th century France. We report the first ancient sheeppox virus (think smallpox) and the Taenia hydatigena (nasty roundworm) genomes.
#aDNA
Evidence of sheeppox in 17th-19th century France: a multi-disciplinary investigation of a sheep mass mortality assemblage
Epizootic outbreaks posed major threats to food security, economic stability, and animal welfare in past communities. While these events and their impacts are well documented in historical records, ve...
www.biorxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
Our paper is out! Although wolves and dogs can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, hybridization between the two is rare. We found that most dogs today have low but detectable levels of post-domestication wolf ancestry that has shaped their evolution in human environments. tinyurl.com/yt4x4r7n
A legacy of genetic entanglement with wolves shapes modern dogs | PNAS
Dogs evolved through interactions between people and gray wolves during the Late Pleistocene and have been ubiquitous in human societies ever since...
www.pnas.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
We are recruiting!

If you like evolutionary biology, microbial genomics, and host-pathogen interactions we have a PhD opening at @ugiatucl.bsky.social using population-scale metagenomics to map global phage diversity and uncover evolutionary signatures that could point to new antimicrobials.
November 24, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Right after I finish this whiskey caramel latte, I am cutting off caffeine for the rest of the year 🤗
November 23, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Had a lovely time visiting Mulranny and the Old Irish Goat society this week.
November 21, 2025 at 9:49 AM
❗ Our RemAaRCs: on Mutualism - The Science of Interrelatedness has a new date and time ❗

3-5pm London time / 4-6pm CET / 10-12am ET

@aarc-community.bsky.social #aDNA
November 20, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
70 teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute & observed weekly over 5 months. 80% of spoons disappeared; spoon halflife~81 days. Communal room halflife lower than in specific labs. 250 spoons annually required to maintain 70 spoon population.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Setting Research institute ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 20, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
November 14, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
🚨 New paper alert 🚨

Our research, published today in Science, reveals remarkable concordance between human and dog genomes through time, highlighting how deeply intertwined our evolutionary histories have been over the past 11,000 years.

🔗 Read the full paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Genomic evidence for the Holocene codispersal of dogs and humans across Eastern Eurasia
As the first domestic species, dogs likely dispersed with different cultural groups during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed 73 ancient dog genomes, including 17 ...
www.science.org
November 13, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
Zhao Mengfu's round sheep and goat, 1300, Mongol Empire.

asia.si.edu/explore-art-...
November 11, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
An empirical approach to evaluating the prevalence of long-lived balancing selection in humans--and important limitations. Work by @hannahmm.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I'll be presenting at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social at the School of Biological Sciences, 2nd December, 1pm - please come along to hear about #aDNA, domestication, and disease!
November 10, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Our paper on imputation of ancient goat genomes is now available at GBE - congratulations to @jolijnerven.bsky.social #aDNA
Inferring Domestic Goat Demographic History Through Ancient Genome Imputation
Abstract. Goats were among the earliest managed animals, making them a natural model to explore the genetic consequences of domestication. However, a chall
academic.oup.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.
The Coming Out of a Transgender Scientist
"I know that I am making the right decision because whenever I think about changing my gender role, I am flooded with feelings of relief."
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
April 8, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Greatest achievement of my life. #framed

Framed #1337
🎥 🟩 ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ ⬛

framed.wtf
Framed - The daily movie guessing game
Guess the movie from 6 frames. Come back each day to see if you can guess the daily movie, or visit the archive to answer the days that you missed!
framed.wtf
November 7, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
And the registration is open for our next AaRCademy workshop! Join us on February 3rd to learn how to reconstruct the demographic history of a population with Pablo Librado. Registration through the QR code or following this link: tinyurl.com/2nysdwhv
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Dogs and technology conspiring to so no work can get done today.
November 4, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Thank you Coop for taking 90+ minutes of my day.
November 4, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
Centrism is the belief that society achieved perfection around the same time as you became a homeowner
November 3, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Kevin Daly
Every far-right riot and protest that was tolerated, every racist dog whistle from public reps, every bit of hate and misinformation allowed to spread by social media companies, all led to this moment in Drogheda last night where someone felt emboldened enough to try to burn children alive.
November 1, 2025 at 10:43 PM