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jefowlerjr.bsky.social
John Fowler (he/him)
@jefowlerjr.bsky.social
830 followers 360 following 77 posts
At heart, still mostly a geneticist; admittedly over-enthusiastic about maize; in 2025, reminding everyone that the @TheB52s should be in the @rockhall !
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Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
baym.lol
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/...
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
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
seanmichaletz.bsky.social
#UBC Botany is hiring an Assistant Professor in Non-Seed Plant Diversity - come work with us in beautiful #Vancouver, BC! Please repost!

academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31140
University of British Columbia, Botany
Job #AJO31140, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN NON-SEED PLANT DIVERSITY (BRYOPHYTES, FERNS, LYCOPHYTES), Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
academicjobsonline.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
naascarabidopsis.bsky.social
NAASC is happy to share the newly elected:
1- faculty: Anna Dobritsa, Ohio State University, Tomo Kawashima, University of Kentucky, USA
2- early career scholars: Maria Gómez Méndez, UC Riverside, USA Daniela DeLa Mora, CINVESTAV Mexico, Julia Zheku, UBC, Canada!
Thanks to all on the ballot! 💚
November 20, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
davidlowry.bsky.social
I am currently searching for a new postdoctoral researcher to study the evolution, genetics, and physiology of cold acclimation and freezing tolerance in switchgrass at Michigan State University. This work will be funded by a newly funded five-year DOE grant. careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc...
Research Associate-Fixed Term - East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Position Summary The Lowry Lab at Michigan State University is searching for a postdoctoral research associate to conduct molecular and physiological experiments to understand the causes of genetic va...
careers.msu.edu
November 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
jacobphd.bsky.social
I ignore fashion trends. I’m only interested in fashion that’s statistically significant.
November 20, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
aribidopsis.bsky.social
I was fortunate to listen a great talk by Sherry Flint-Garcia this morning in the Zeavolution seminar series.

The pigmentation imaging of maize kernel at cellular level is gorgeous! 🌽🔬
November 19, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
jghodge.bsky.social
Happy to say that with the US govt now chugging along again we’ll have Sherry Flint-Garcia presenting at #Zeavolution tomorrow!
November 19, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
ahancock.bsky.social
Applications due by Dec. 1
ahancock.bsky.social Angela Hancock @ahancock.bsky.social · 14d
I recently moved my lab to Purdue University and am looking for graduate students. We are working at the interface of population genomics, quantitative genetics and functional genomics to understand how plants adapt to extreme environments. Reach out if you would like to discuss potential projects.
PhD advert
November 8, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🍇 From Genome Biology: Grapevine clones show stable, inherited methylation across centuries. A phased genome framework reveals long-term epigenetic patterns in Cabernet lineages. (Noé Cochetel, Amanda M. Vondras, Rosa Figueroa-Balderas, Dario Cantu)
▶️ link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#PlantScience
Phased epigenomics and methylation inheritance in a historical Vitis vinifera hybrid - Genome Biology
Background Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, regulate transcription and influence key biological traits. While many efforts were made to understand their stability in annual crops, th...
link.springer.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
volcanojw.bsky.social
Science People: We at NSF are still recovering/catching up/getting our lives together. But the agency posted these FAQs about post-shutdown resumption of operations which might answer a lot of Qs for you: www.nsf.gov/resumption-o...
Resumption of Operations at NSF
Information for NSF staff and the research community regarding the agency's resumption of operations after a lapse in appropriations.
www.nsf.gov
November 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
davidho.bsky.social
Academia is a really racist and sexist place. Larry Summers, as the president of Harvard, epitomized that racism and sexism but he is not unique. That's why we needed DEI.
November 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
plantteaching.bsky.social
Ancient fossil reveals how plants & fungi first developed on land www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Summary of An arbuscular mycorrhiza from 407-million-year-old Windyfield Chert identified through advanced fluorescence and Raman imaging @newphyt.bsky.social
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Ancient fossil reveals how plants and fungi first developed on land | Natural History Museum
A new fossil fungus discovered in Scotland shows evidence of plants and fungi sharing nutrients to survive on land.
www.nhm.ac.uk
November 16, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
paularamiro.bsky.social
Curious about plasmid biology? Our latest paper is out now in Nature Communications! 🚨

doi.org/10.1038/s414...

We analyzed thousands of diverse bacterial plasmids to shed light for the first time on a key aspect of plasmid biology: plasmid copy number. 1/7 👇
Universal rules govern plasmid copy number - Nature Communications
Plasmids exhibit a broad range of sizes and copies per cell, and these two parameters appear to be negatively correlated. Here, Ramiro-Martínez et al. analyse the copy number of thousands of diverse b...
doi.org
July 2, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
harmitmalik.bsky.social
So many prominent Chinese-American scientists whose lives and careers were turned upside down in the first Trump administration.

The 5 year retroactive punishment is like penalizing something for an ‘infraction’ which was not even an infraction when the action occurred. How does this make sense?
environmicrobio.bsky.social Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 9d
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
jacquelyngill.bsky.social
Because international student enrollment is so often used as a cudgel in discussions about immigration, this is a good time to remind people that international students aren't taking up spaces for US students at state schools, they are paying full tuition that FUNDS SCHOLARSHIPS FOR US STUDENTS.
November 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
plantaeofficial.bsky.social
📣ASPB is happy to announce the 2026 Plantae Fellows, an impressive group ready to bring their best to this resource for the global plant science community!🌱

Read more: buff.ly/CDI47lq

#PlantScience
Image text: 2026 Plantae Fellows. www.plantae.org | www.aspb.org. Features ASPB & Plantae Logos, and Plantae Fellows' names and headshot photos.
November 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
alissaazar.bsky.social
I am currently in Newport, OR for a public hearing at city hall to listen to resident concerns on a potential ICE facility that officials are considering putting in town. The room is completely packed, the hallways are packed, there and tons of people protesting ICE outside and
Protesters outside of city hall in Newport Protest Signs
November 13, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
jghodge.bsky.social
For #Zeavolution this week we’ll have Ty Thomas from the Gage lab presenting “Dissecting the Genetic and Regulatory Basis of GxE”, see everyone tomorrow!
November 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
drannisr.bsky.social
Are you looking for a PhD in Plant Science? Check our our project on barley canopy architecture. Combine genetics and physics to understand how awns influence barley grain development. Find out more here: lnkd.in/eWhWammJ Apply by 14th December. #PhDPosition
#PlantSci @instmolplantsci.bsky.social
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
November 10, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
hochholdingerf.bsky.social
The 2026 maize genetics meeting will be at the Maritim Hotel in downtown Cologne. #MGM2025 > #MGM2026.
Photos of the Cologne Maritim hotel.
March 9, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
hochholdingerf.bsky.social
The 2026 maize genetics meeting in Cologne (Feb 26 to Mar 1) is easily accessible from all US locations. #MGM2025 > #MGM2026.
March 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
hochholdingerf.bsky.social
Registration for the 68th Maize Genetics Meeting from February 26 to March 1, 2026 in Cologne, Germany is now open! #MGM2026
www.mgcmeeting.com
Maize Genetics Cooperation, Inc Meeting
www.mgcmeeting.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
nicolecrust.bsky.social
'Tis the season of flooded inboxes & time to reamplify this brilliant tip from @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social.
hannahrsnyder.bsky.social Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · Aug 27
As semesters start and you find yourself repeatedly answering emails with the same questions from students, this is my annual reminder that you can make all your frequent responses email signatures and just select them from your signature list to respond. You're welcome. #academicsky
Screen shot of the signature menu in Apple Mail showing signatures with frequently needed responses to student emails.
November 9, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by John Fowler (he/him)
brianvan.bsky.social
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM