Will Booker
@wbooker.bsky.social
I used to study frog genetics, now I work on other genetics to help make gooder plants. Got a soft spot for things with doubled genomes, mutts, and fish eating dry flies.
Reposted by Will Booker
Now in Evolution: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
This paper started when @3rdreviewer.bsky.social, Mike, and I had a lunch at which there was a lot of, "What do you mean when you say X?" Fun to spend time thinking about when terms get too muddy, and great work by Drew to pull it all together!
This paper started when @3rdreviewer.bsky.social, Mike, and I had a lunch at which there was a lot of, "What do you mean when you say X?" Fun to spend time thinking about when terms get too muddy, and great work by Drew to pull it all together!
November 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Now in Evolution: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
This paper started when @3rdreviewer.bsky.social, Mike, and I had a lunch at which there was a lot of, "What do you mean when you say X?" Fun to spend time thinking about when terms get too muddy, and great work by Drew to pull it all together!
This paper started when @3rdreviewer.bsky.social, Mike, and I had a lunch at which there was a lot of, "What do you mean when you say X?" Fun to spend time thinking about when terms get too muddy, and great work by Drew to pull it all together!
Reposted by Will Booker
it's me, unnamed critter from bosch's triptych of the temptation of anthony!
November 1, 2025 at 12:16 AM
it's me, unnamed critter from bosch's triptych of the temptation of anthony!
Reposted by Will Booker
I buy this argument and you all know I'm very critical about studies about the effect of using AI but this one makes a ton of sense. The design of total ease and agreeableness has always been bad for our rigorous thinking. It is bad when it comes from people too!
Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.
Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence
Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...
arxiv.org
October 24, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I buy this argument and you all know I'm very critical about studies about the effect of using AI but this one makes a ton of sense. The design of total ease and agreeableness has always been bad for our rigorous thinking. It is bad when it comes from people too!
Reposted by Will Booker
Why do complex traits differ in their genetic architecture?
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Simple scaling laws control the genetic architectures of human complex traits
Genome-wide association studies have revealed that the genetic architectures of complex traits vary widely. This study shows that differences in architectures of highly polygenic traits arise mainly f...
journals.plos.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Why do complex traits differ in their genetic architecture?
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.
Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Will Booker
Arthropod Photo of the Week: October 22, 2025
Jagged ambush bug
Phymata sp.
Hemiptera: Reduviidae
By Tom Astle (@tjalamont.bsky.social), Montana, USA
#arthropodPOTW
Jagged ambush bug
Phymata sp.
Hemiptera: Reduviidae
By Tom Astle (@tjalamont.bsky.social), Montana, USA
#arthropodPOTW
October 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Arthropod Photo of the Week: October 22, 2025
Jagged ambush bug
Phymata sp.
Hemiptera: Reduviidae
By Tom Astle (@tjalamont.bsky.social), Montana, USA
#arthropodPOTW
Jagged ambush bug
Phymata sp.
Hemiptera: Reduviidae
By Tom Astle (@tjalamont.bsky.social), Montana, USA
#arthropodPOTW
Reposted by Will Booker
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
October 15, 2025 at 3:53 PM
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
very much enjoying this new greet death song about greeting death
Greet Death "Emptiness Is Everywhere"
YouTube video by Deathwishinc
www.youtube.com
October 7, 2025 at 5:41 PM
very much enjoying this new greet death song about greeting death
Reposted by Will Booker
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
Reposted by Will Booker
"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review
Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.
www.bostonreview.net
September 23, 2025 at 5:09 PM
"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually
www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
Reposted by Will Booker
Friends: I'm recruiting at least one PhD student to join our lab in Atlanta in the Fall of 2026. Information about our research can be found at the link below. Please pass along to any students interested in the quantitative study of speciation, secondary contact, and the build-up of biodiversity!
The Anderson Lab at Georgia Tech
my academic website
seanasanderson.github.io
September 22, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Friends: I'm recruiting at least one PhD student to join our lab in Atlanta in the Fall of 2026. Information about our research can be found at the link below. Please pass along to any students interested in the quantitative study of speciation, secondary contact, and the build-up of biodiversity!
Reposted by Will Booker
This is truly an incredible breakthrough IMO. Really exemplifies what you get when deep domain expertise (popgen/evolution/disease genetics in this case) fuses with cleverly crafted ML. What u get r sleek, well thought out architectures that absolutely destroy the behemoths. Wow!! 1/
We are excited to share GPN-Star, a cost-effective, biologically grounded genomic language modeling framework that achieves state-of-the-art performance across a wide range of variant effect prediction tasks relevant to human genetics.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
(1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
(1/n)
September 22, 2025 at 8:34 AM
This is truly an incredible breakthrough IMO. Really exemplifies what you get when deep domain expertise (popgen/evolution/disease genetics in this case) fuses with cleverly crafted ML. What u get r sleek, well thought out architectures that absolutely destroy the behemoths. Wow!! 1/
Reposted by Will Booker
Reposted by Will Booker
truly one of the most unintentionally funny things i've ever seen someone post online about themself
September 16, 2025 at 3:27 PM
truly one of the most unintentionally funny things i've ever seen someone post online about themself
Oh goddamn hell yea they got the dome-a-dillo
Prehistoric Planet Ice Age out later this year... such a thrill to put this series together, oh my goodness are you in for a treat :) Hopefully news on events and publicity coming soon! Sloths, cats, rhinos, glyptodonts AND SOOOO MUCH MORE!!
September 10, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Oh goddamn hell yea they got the dome-a-dillo
Not technically what the post is discussing but using this opportunity to bring up the end credits song for Deep Blue Sea, a rap from the perspective of the mutant shark that goes incredibly hard youtu.be/6cYcdBVQ8NM?...
September 10, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Not technically what the post is discussing but using this opportunity to bring up the end credits song for Deep Blue Sea, a rap from the perspective of the mutant shark that goes incredibly hard youtu.be/6cYcdBVQ8NM?...
Reposted by Will Booker
First pop gen paper from our lab! We find repeated evolutionary turn over of sex chromosomes in darters contributes to reproductive isolation. Turnover may be an escape hatch to resolve mitonuclear conflict & neo sex chromosomes evolved via a rare recessive mutation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 4, 2025 at 5:32 PM
First pop gen paper from our lab! We find repeated evolutionary turn over of sex chromosomes in darters contributes to reproductive isolation. Turnover may be an escape hatch to resolve mitonuclear conflict & neo sex chromosomes evolved via a rare recessive mutation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Will Booker
Just catching up – good grief. This man is unfit for office, as he has been since Cassidy voted to put him into it.
Please call your congresspeople about this – this kind of nonsensical waffling on life and death matters, with no attention whatsoever to facts, will cause needless death & suffering.
Please call your congresspeople about this – this kind of nonsensical waffling on life and death matters, with no attention whatsoever to facts, will cause needless death & suffering.
Sen. Bill Cassidy: "Do you agree with me that President Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed?"
RFK: "Absolutely."
Sen. Bill Cassidy: "But you just told Sen. Bennet that the Covid vaccine killed more people than Covid?"
RFK: "Absolutely."
Sen. Bill Cassidy: "But you just told Sen. Bennet that the Covid vaccine killed more people than Covid?"
September 4, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Just catching up – good grief. This man is unfit for office, as he has been since Cassidy voted to put him into it.
Please call your congresspeople about this – this kind of nonsensical waffling on life and death matters, with no attention whatsoever to facts, will cause needless death & suffering.
Please call your congresspeople about this – this kind of nonsensical waffling on life and death matters, with no attention whatsoever to facts, will cause needless death & suffering.
Reposted by Will Booker
New Preprint! This one led by Sam Gibbon, an outstanding undergrad I've worked with for the past year. We take a look at whether segregation patterns in tetraploids (disomic v polysomic) affects mut-sel dynamics. We found some surprising results, and some subtleties: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Bistable Mutation-Selection Equilibria and Violations of Fisher's Theorem in Tetraploids: Insights from Nonlinear Dynamics
Polyploidy and whole genome duplication (WGD) are widespread biological phenomena with substantial cellular, meiotic, and genetic effects. Despite their prevalence and significance across the tree of ...
www.biorxiv.org
September 2, 2025 at 6:32 PM
New Preprint! This one led by Sam Gibbon, an outstanding undergrad I've worked with for the past year. We take a look at whether segregation patterns in tetraploids (disomic v polysomic) affects mut-sel dynamics. We found some surprising results, and some subtleties: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Will Booker
I wrote about gene-gene interactions (epistasis) and the implications for heritability, trait definitions, natural selection, and therapeutic interventions. Biology is clearly full of causal interactions, so why don't we see them in the data? A 🧵:
Beneath the surface of the sum
When genetic interactions matter and when they don't
open.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I wrote about gene-gene interactions (epistasis) and the implications for heritability, trait definitions, natural selection, and therapeutic interventions. Biology is clearly full of causal interactions, so why don't we see them in the data? A 🧵:
Reposted by Will Booker
My very first post on here.
I am stoked to share lab's latest paper led by @ethantolman.bsky.social. Ethan developed a highly scalable pipeline to differentiate between various gene flow models, including ghost introgression in phylogenomic datasets. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I am stoked to share lab's latest paper led by @ethantolman.bsky.social. Ethan developed a highly scalable pipeline to differentiate between various gene flow models, including ghost introgression in phylogenomic datasets. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
GhostParser: A highly scalable phylogenomic approach for the identification of ghost introgression
A growing body of empirical research shows that interspecific gene flow is a widespread biological force that shapes evolutionary histories across the Tree of Life. Computational approaches designed t...
www.biorxiv.org
August 23, 2025 at 11:52 PM
My very first post on here.
I am stoked to share lab's latest paper led by @ethantolman.bsky.social. Ethan developed a highly scalable pipeline to differentiate between various gene flow models, including ghost introgression in phylogenomic datasets. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I am stoked to share lab's latest paper led by @ethantolman.bsky.social. Ethan developed a highly scalable pipeline to differentiate between various gene flow models, including ghost introgression in phylogenomic datasets. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Will Booker
Thank Zenithar it's Fredas
November 8, 2024 at 7:48 AM
Thank Zenithar it's Fredas
Reposted by Will Booker
Excited to share our new preprint for the tskit_arg_visualizer Python package! ARGs can sometimes feel like a black box, so
@yanwong.bsky.social and I have been developing a method to programmatically drawing these graphs.
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2508.03958
1/6
@yanwong.bsky.social and I have been developing a method to programmatically drawing these graphs.
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2508.03958
1/6
tskit_arg_visualizer: interactive plotting of ancestral recombination graphs
Summary: Ancestral recombination graphs (ARGs) are a complete representation of the genetic relationships between recombining lineages and are of central importance in population genetics. Recent brea...
arxiv.org
August 19, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Excited to share our new preprint for the tskit_arg_visualizer Python package! ARGs can sometimes feel like a black box, so
@yanwong.bsky.social and I have been developing a method to programmatically drawing these graphs.
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2508.03958
1/6
@yanwong.bsky.social and I have been developing a method to programmatically drawing these graphs.
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2508.03958
1/6
My company is hiring a computational biologist! This role is the same position as mine, and will involve building genomic prediction models, some bioinformatics, and a lot of independent research on developing new methods to improve our crop development initiatives. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...
Avalo, Inc hiring Computational Biologist in North Carolina, United States | LinkedIn
Posted 10:54:33 PM. Location: On-site in Durham, NC (RTP area)Company: AvaloCompensation: Commensurate with experience…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
www.linkedin.com
August 15, 2025 at 6:22 PM
My company is hiring a computational biologist! This role is the same position as mine, and will involve building genomic prediction models, some bioinformatics, and a lot of independent research on developing new methods to improve our crop development initiatives. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...
Reposted by Will Booker
NEW 🚨 The violence is the point. Elected Dems must call for widespread resignations (RFK, Bhattacharya, Prasad) in response to the CDC shooting. Public health must demand this of them, and the public must demand that of us. With @publichealthguy1.bsky.social in STAT: www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/c...
The CDC shooting was public health’s Jan. 6
“In RFK Jr.’s America, it will never be safe to practice public health or medicine," write an epidemiologist and a former CDC staffer.
www.statnews.com
August 15, 2025 at 3:58 PM
NEW 🚨 The violence is the point. Elected Dems must call for widespread resignations (RFK, Bhattacharya, Prasad) in response to the CDC shooting. Public health must demand this of them, and the public must demand that of us. With @publichealthguy1.bsky.social in STAT: www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/c...