Another remarkable example of tool use in ants: fire ants “paving” sticky surfaces. I’ve seen signs of this behavior, but I didn’t expect it to be so robust until my friend told me about it (Wang et al., 2021 Insect Science).

I'm happy for feedback on my first solo review! Microbes can be useful tools for predator-prey biologists; this is meant to be an intro primer on the major system.

Successfully defended my PhD! 🥳 In the same week, learned that my last round of fellowship applications all failed 😅 If you know of any cool funded postdocs in microbial eco-eco, predator-prey, adaptation to changing env, please send them my way 🤗

Successfully defended my thesis on "Ecology and Evolution in Microbial Food Webs" 🥳🥳

Check out our new preprint about how antagonistic pleiotropy isn't the only type of pleiotropy relevant for microbial cheaters! Antagonistic, synergistic, and social pleiotropy in microbial cheaters biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

🆕 I’m recruiting a postdoc! This is for a new Medical Research Council project with UK Health Security Agency and Jean-Yves Maillard, looking at Pseudomonas evolution, ecology, and horizontal gene transfer in the hospital sink drain microbiome. Deadline 28th October. 🧵 my.corehr.com/pls/ulivrecrui…

We are looking for a motivated PostDoc to study with us how the metabolic and physiological states of bacteria influence their susceptibility to chemical compounds jobs.unibas.ch/offene-stellen…

Verifying myself: I am kaschaal on Keybase.io. lnXS-A9iUdxF1c82MZgQDocabOfqBlCY_ZFt / keybase.io/kaschaal/sigs/…

Now Kaitlin Schaal

I hate it so much. What are "tweets" supposed to be called now? Please help.

Great micro eco-evo meeting in Cork! #MENI2023 @Siderophile Pauline Scanlan

Lovely trip to Nohoval Cove after #MENI2023 I will definitely be coming back to Ireland!

What I see vs what my bacteria see 🧫

Registration is now open for the 2024 Predator-Prey Interactions Gordon Research Conference and Seminar! If you are an early-career researcher, make sure to apply for both meetings (GRC + GRS, which is specifically for ECRs). Links in the following tweet:

Check out my new preprint on how resource history impacts cheating and facultative exploitation in Myxococcus xanthus! Ecological histories determine the success of social exploitation biorxiv.org/content/10.110… with an AI summary: sciencecast.org/casts/paevzn7t…

Enjoying the first day of talks MEEhubs 24 virtual! So grateful I don't have to travel 🙏

Why is microbial ecology the worst of all scales? Microbiologists don't have to ask how trophic chains influence community structure. Ecologists don't have to ask how sensory signal cascades influence single-cell gene regulatory changes. (And why do I still love it so much?)

This is fascinating- same paper sent out to huge pool of reviewers under different names. 23% recommended “reject” when a prominent researcher was the only author shown, 48% when the paper was anonymized, and 65% when a little-known author was the only author shown

Excited to announce our lovely new website showcasing the experimental evolution work with Myxococcus xanthus, a social and predatory soil bacterium. It's a great resource for anyone interested in microbial ecology/evolution or social evolution: myxoee.org