Will Ratcliff @wc_ratcliff Twitter profile

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Will Ratcliff

1 year

I’m delighted that our paper on the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment (MuLTEE) has, at long last, been published. This paper establishes the foundations of what I’d like to work on for the rest of my career. 1/25 Free, full access link:

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

I teach a class on how to give a great scientific talk. The core idea is that humans absorb information effortlessly if it is delivered as a compelling story. I call it the 'David Attenborough' method, in honor of the master. Attached is my style guide. #scicomm @Attenboroughs_D

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

5 years

I just got tenure, and dropping the 'don't rock the boat' mentality has taken some getting used to. Anyway, I got an email from a textbook salesperson today, and told them why I don't use textbooks in my classes.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

Well, this has been a long-awaited day- the first paper on our multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE) is on the BioRxiv. Ever wonder how simple multicellular organisms evolve to become larger and more complex over thousands of gens? 1/35

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

17 days

Time to ditch @BioRender ? I had no idea they were claiming copyright to the figures we make with it, even after we pay for use of the service.

Michael Baym

@baym

19 days

@DaniBeckman @dava_keavney @nquinoneso Like, come tf on @BioRender

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

10 months

Several years ago, I wrote a 2-page guide on how to give a killer narratively-driven scientific talk. I called it "The David Attenborough Method", in homage to the master storyteller. I recently expanded upon it in a short essay:

Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

I teach a class on how to give a great scientific talk. The core idea is that humans absorb information effortlessly if it is delivered as a compelling story. I call it the 'David Attenborough' method, in honor of the master. Attached is my style guide. #scicomm @Attenboroughs_D

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

@Attenboroughs_D Link to the PDF version of the D.A. style guide. Please feel free to use however you see fit!

David Attenborough talk technique 2018.pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

A new paper in eLife describes a novel multicellular bacterium discovered in a Japanese cave. It has a unique multicellular cycle (forming ordered colonies that eject unicellular propagules when submerged), and helps us understand how the environment shapes MC evolution.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

Hey folks, we have a new preprint out. How hard is it to give a eukaryote a supplemental biological solar panel (aka, become facultatively phototrophic)? We stuck a rhodopsin, which pumps protons when hit by green light, into yeast to find out. 1/24

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

I am teaching a 5-class piece of a course entitled "Frontiers in Molecular and Cellular Biology". It's a reading course for new grad students. My section will be about mutualism and major evolutionary transitions. But you know, MCB flavored. Here are the 5 papers I chose.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

Lab movie night in the front yard! Amazing what a $200 projector can do nowadays.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

The longer I've been a professor, the more I feel like grades are bullshit. I just want students to engage with the material, apply themselves, think hard, and collaborate. I am infinitely happier when they make unique connections than check a box, but grading favors the latter

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

8 months

I've completed a draft picture book on the origin of complex life. I could use a few people with kids in the 6-10 range to give it a read and let me know if it was cool and understandable. DM or email me if interested, and I'll send it to you. Thanks!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 months

We have a new preprint up. This one is a hypothesis paper, addressing one of the bigger unanswered questions that people have been asking me for the last 15 years: why has complex multicellularity only evolved in eukaryotes, never in prokaryotes? 1/33

A non-adaptive explanation for macroevolutionary patterns in the evolution of complex multicellul...

“Complex multicellularity”, conventionally defined as large organisms with many specialized cell types, has evolved five times independently in eukaryotes, but never within prokaryotes. A number...

www.biorxiv.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 months

Hey, we have a new paper out proposing a new hypothesis to explain why bacteria and archaea have never evolved "complex" multicellularity.

A nonadaptive explanation for macroevolutionary patterns in the evolution of complex multicellula...

“Complex multicellularity,” conventionally defined as large organisms with many specialized cell types, has evolved five times independently in euk...

www.pnas.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

We’ve got a new preprint addressing a basic question: how much does it cost a bacterium to constantly fire a T6SS? We’ve always assumed it’s expensive, as it’s huge (the width of a cell!), ballistic, and tightly regulated. 1/18

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 days

Hey, I've been promoted to Full Professor. Guess I need to sew elbow patches onto my flannel shirt? Looking back at my ~20 years in science, I've been fortunate to work with incredibly kind, creative, collaborative folks. Looking forward to continuing the fun in the next 20!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 months

Had a student ask in class and I didn't know the answer: Why hasn't the mitochondrial genome deteriorated to the point of uselessness due to Muller's ratchet?

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

Nobody told me that the best part of this job is seeing one's students mature into independent colleagues. The feeling of pride and joy you get from their accomplishments outstrips any other emotional reward in science.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

9 days

1/42 New preprint: turns out MuLTEE is not only the longest running multicellularity evolution experiment (1000 days and counting), but also the longest running polyploidy evolution experiment! It reveals how whole-genome duplication (WGD) arises and impacts long-term evolution.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

One of the sustained rays of light over the last two years has been editing a book on the evolution of multicellularity with @peterlconlin and @xprinceps . Our goal with here is to provide a broad overview of the topic- a one stop shop for those entering the field. 1/32

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

5 years

I feel awkward tooting my own horn, but so much great stuff has happened recently its time for a batch update. 1- I got tenure at @GeorgiaTech ! 2- I got an NSF CAREER award! 3- @YunkerLab and I got a @SigmaXiSociety best paper award for our work on multicellular biophysics.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

It has come to my attention that a paper showing that cannabis gives C. elegans the munchies (and explaining why!) was published in @CurrentBiology on 4/20. There's no way this was coincidence.

The conserved endocannabinoid anandamide modulates olfactory sensitivity to induce hedonic feeding...

The ability of cannabis to stimulate appetite for highly palatable food in humans has been known for centuries. Levichev et al. show that exposure of the nematode C. elegans to an endogenous cannab...

www.cell.com

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

Just submitted one of my favorite papers. If you’re interested in learning about how a small difference in the life cycle of early multicellular organisms can have massive implications for the long-term evolution of multicellular complexity, read on. 1/37

Clonal development, not aggregation, drives the transition to multicellularity in an isogenic model...

During the evolution of multicellularity, cells undergo an evolutionary transition in individuality, such that groups become the subject of Darwinian evolution. Comparative work, supported by theory,...

www.biorxiv.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

What's the German word for "I just reviewed a paper so good I wish I'd written it myself?" Rare to drop an "accept" on the first submission, but had to do it just now.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

13 days

My lab put this up on the door to the student office. Not gonna lie, I teared up a bit when I first saw it.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

I am going to call out this thread as an example of behavior we should avoid. First, a bit of background. My first experience with science twitter was having my postdoc work savaged. To the point where Carl Zimmer wrote a follow-up piece to his NYT story to get my take on it

Professor Booty PhD

@ProfBootyPhD

2 years

This is absolutely fucking ridiculous. Everyone involved should be embarrassed.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

5 months

Was just informed that virtually any discussion of a grad student's research without their written consent is a FERPA violation. This is because they register for thesis hours, and their research is thus a class.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

11 months

Hi folks, we have a new preprint out on the #MuLTEE , examining the molecular basis of multicellular evolution. We found that an ancient protein folding system, Hsp90, can be tuned to drive rapid convergent multicellular evolution. 1/24

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

New review "Selective drivers of simple multicellularity", led by @kai_tong_mc25 and @ozan_g_b . This paper is quite straightforward- you want to know why simple multicellularity has evolved? Then this is the paper for you!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

4 years

The focus on 'hypothesis-driven' science holds science back. It limits our questions to those that we've already formulated an answer to, and (usually) limits us to first-order effects when nature is often multivariate and nonlinear.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

11 months

Good video. If I could add one thing: academia rewards closers, not starters. It’s easy to be enthusiastic about new projects, and lose steam for old ones. But you gotta get those papers submitted, and revisions completed. This is often years after you started the project!

James McInerney

@jomcinerney

11 months

OK, so I did another video. I'm being a bit forthright in this one. But, hey...if it's what you think, it's what you think, right? It's entitled: "Why Your Enthusiasm Isn't Getting You Anywhere!" Clicky linky here 👇

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

New preprint up with @ozan_g_b and @kai_tong_mc25 , examining the selective drivers of simple multicellularity. As might be expected, there are many reasons to be multicellular. This figure does a pretty good job of summarizing what we know!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

@ndkirschmann Once when I was a grad student someone walked down the aisles saying “50 bucks for anyone who wants to trade aisle for middle seat”. I jumped on it no questions asked. We were mutually happy.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

Over 4.5 years and 20 undergrads, I've noticed an almost perfect correlation between engagement at lab meeting and ultimate success in our lab. Students who try to understand papers and care about what's happening in the lab are a joy to work with!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 months

Well, one of my favorite papers (3rd fav!) of my career was just published at @eLife . Here, we do what we do best: generate new understanding of the factors shaping multicellular evolution through a combo of synthetic biology, exptl evolution and theory.

Evolutionary consequences of nascent multicellular life cycles

Clonal development, but not aggregation, promotes the transition of Darwinian individuality from cells to groups, emphasizing the fundamental role of initial multicellular life cycles in the evolut...

elifesciences.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

4 years

Woah, bacteria under stressful conditions express tons of filamentous phage that cover the cell in a liquid crystal shield, protecting them from antibiotics? How freaking cool is that?! Nature is so cool. Thanks @TonyBurnetti for the ref.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

Hey, we got a new paper out describing how cell-cell bonds are formed in multicellular organisms and why that matters for physiology and evolution.

Varied solutions to multicellularity: The biophysical and evolutionary consequences of diverse...

The diversity of multicellular organisms is, in large part, due to the fact that multicellularity has independently evolved many times. Nonetheless, multic

pubs.aip.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

Hey folks, if you are interested in reading our new book on the evolution of multicellularity, but you don't have a spare $200- this is for you! We collected the unformatted chapters (copyright belongs to the authors) in the link below. SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

Great write up about our experiments making yeast facutatively phototrophic by @epennisi at @ScienceMagazine .

Scientists engineer the first light-powered yeast

Experiments show ease by which organisms can evolve the ability to harness sunlight for energy

www.science.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

12 days

We have mentored 33 undergrads in our lab at GT. 11 have gone on to PhD programs. I consider this among the most impactful things I’ve ever done! Plus, undergrads are awesome. They’re great lab citizens. They also provide key mentoring training for grad students and postdocs.

Dalal Hamad

@DalalSci

12 days

Why do PIs take on undergraduates in their lab? Why would someone who has ongoing big projects decide, 'I’m going to take someone who is inexperienced in research and has a high chance of messing up, to help me with it'? Genuinely interested

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

We have a new experimental evolution preprint. This time, with bacteria. Stay tuned to learn how E. coli evolve to better survive night raids of poison spear-wielding cholera. This is a story of parallel evolution, epistasis, and fitness tradeoffs. 1/25

Trade-offs constrain adaptive pathways to T6 survival

Many microbial communities are characterized by intense competition for nutrients and space. One way for an organism to gain control of these resources is by eliminating nearby competitors. The Type...

www.biorxiv.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 months

As always with AI, the issue is not that someone used a generative tool (we do this all the time already, w/ code-based plotting, grammar correction, etc), but that the authors irresponsibly published garbage. Publishing garbage is misconduct, regardless of the tool used.

Michael Baym

@baym

3 months

The authors may think they aren't being dishonest by citing Midjourney for these figures, but they are implicitly lying to the readers. One assumes in a paper (even a review) that the figures are made with thought, to convey an idea or argument. Whatever the prompt, this doesn't

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

Just had a lab meeting on the use of LLMs in science, covering pitfalls as well as use cases. I think the cat is out of the bag, and we need to start developing frameworks for responsible use, rather than pretending people won't use LLMs extensively. Our framework, v 1.0:

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

11 months

We have a new preprint, showing that living systems can entangle in ways non-living systems can’t. In non-living systems, entanglement only occurs under specific geometric regimes. Not so for growing systems! Given time, most geometries can entangle.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 months

New paper from the MuLTEE in @NatureEcoEvo , this one on emergent eco-evolutionary dynamics. Led by @PineauRozenn and @SFI_elibby , we explore how the evolution of multicellularity creates opportunities for ecological niche expansion and coexistence.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

5 months

Hi folks, I’m excited to share a whale of a tale (sorry, bad pun), where we engineer snowflake yeast to express sperm whale myoglobin, and explore how oxygen-binding proteins may have helped overcome anatomical limitations to early multicellularity.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

My youngest is a true badass

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

8 days

Being departmental chair has to be the worst job in academia, right? Everyone wants you to fix their problems, but you have extremely limited resources/power. Faculty are also super entitled. PS: I love our Chair, he does a great job. I just can't see how the job is any fun.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

5 years

Wow- know what makes me feel good? My Intro to Evolution class filled up, so they moved it to a larger room, and then it filled up again! Hope these students are ready to get their minds blown by the coolest topic in academia!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

Saturday night, maximum mammal diversity on the couch.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

If you'd like to see the D.A. in practice, here's a 5 minute talk I gave at the 2016 @PhiBetaKappa 'EnLightning Talks'. It's for a general audience. One caveat: the video editors didn't get my animations to work when they full-screened my slides.

Will Ratcliff: The Rise of Multicellular Life

Evolutionary Biologist Will Ratcliff speaking at (En)Lightning Talks Atlanta on April 6, 2017 at the Woodruff Arts Center.

www.youtube.com

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

11 months

Check out this beautiful gif of a snowflake yeast growing on the TomoCube taken by Andrea Herman. Dot in the upper left is a 10um bead, used to make a thin chamber. @tomocubeinc @MBLScience #Physio23

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

10 months

I'm encouraged by the fact that science twitter seems to be a reasonably robust ecosystem. Scientists wanna talk shop, share ideas, and joke around. If this place dies, this science twitter will probably just reassemble elsewhere. IMO Mastodon failed because twitter survived

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

4 months

Hey, our phototrophic yeast paper is now out in @CurrentBiology . This work was led by grad student @autpeterson and research scientist Tony Burnetti, and we had help from @GaTechMicrobes ' Carina Baskett.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 months

High quality scientific shitposting. Man, I love it when students do this stuff. This is 90% of why I have a Discord in each of my classes.

Adam MacLean @adamlmaclean.xyz

@adamlmaclean

2 months

Apparently, while studying for the midterm, my students memed my class. 💀 credit: @wrboohar

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

New paper out in @eLife today, led by grad student @thomas_day_ and @YunkerLab , in collaboration with Ray Goldstein, Stephanie Hohn, and a number of others from our three groups.

Cellular organization in lab-evolved and extant multicellular species obeys a maximum entropy law

The distributions of cellular neighborhood volumes in two very different multicellular species - snowflake yeast and Volvox carteri - are found to obey a common functional form arising from maximum...

elifesciences.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

I know a lot of people are stressed out with a grant deadline tomorrow, but if it makes you feel any better, here's a picture of our goat Nutmeg wearing a diaper. Yes, she sleeps in bed with us. Nutmeg is very bonded to my daughter and doesn't want to be alone at night.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

The @Yokogawa spinning disk SORA w/ @HamamatsuPhoton cam at @MBLPhys is, hands down, the best microscope I have ever used. We are getting incredible images, and can do hour-scale time lapses without photobleaching. I am truly blown away. Image by @theironark and @tony_burnetti .

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

5 years

Anyone know of predator avoidance behavior in bees? @DougEmlen 's friend took this super cool video of a bee doing a barrel roll! I've never seen a bee do anything like this.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

22 days

University bureaucrats get annoyed when faculty don't understand their systems. But truth be told, you don't WANT us to become fluent in them. We shouldn't be spending our time learning byzantine online managerial systems. We should be doing research, teaching, and service.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

Cheers to a major transitions in our life / careers! @xprinceps , @peterlconlin and I just submitted the draft of our book "The Evolution of Multicellularity". This is an impressive body of work. Huge thanks to all of our contributors- I cannot wait to hold this thing in my hands!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

An Experiment Repeated 600 Times Finds Hints to Evolution’s Secrets

Snowflakes of yeast in a lab offer insights into how life on Earth transitioned from single-celled into multicellular organisms.

www.nytimes.com

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 months

Pretty funny, the new Mac I got is required by GT to lock screen after 15 minutes. It's unfortunate, as this breaks running code, which is why I got this machine in the first place. IT recommends writing my own mouse giggling script to circumvent their own (arbitrary) rule.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

@SteveStuWill Hey hey, if you like this, you should hear about our ongoing MuLTEE (Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment). We’re at generation ~7,500, and our yeast have undergone sustained MC adaptation, figuring out new multicellular biophysics, simple cell differentiation, etc.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

9 months

We're excited to announce that abstract submission and registration are now open for MEEhubs2024, which takes place Jan 9 – 11, 2024! @MEEhubs is a grassroots, innovative global conference in microbial ecology and evolution. It is also free! 1/10

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

Two years ago we rescued two old hens, who never integrated into our main flock (chickens are territorial). So we built them their own coop in the front yard. One died a month ago. Ever since then, the other hen has kept really close to us and the bunnies. Chickens are so social!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

New article on the evolution of multicellularity by @epennisi at @sciencemagazine . I think this is the best general-audience overview of the field yet.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

4 years

New paper out in @CurrentBiology today, examining ecological and evolutionary effects of basic developmental mode (aggregation vs. clonal growth). Led by the fearless @jt_pentz , w/ @PedroM_Z , @SFI_elibby , @YunkerLab , @Ozan_g_b & @TonyBurnetti 1/15

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

New MuLTEE preprint! Led by @QBioS grad student @PineauRozenn , we study emergent eco-evolutionary dynamics in our ongoing multicellularity experiment. Snowflake yeast niche partition along a growth/survival trade-off, driving long-term coexistence. 1/34

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

OK, enough background. Over 600 rounds of selection (~3,000 generations), snowflake yeast evolved to become macroscopic. We’re talking mm scale- bigger than a fruit fly. They go from ~100 cells per cluster (left tube) to nearly half a million cells per cluster (right tube)! 12/35

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

New paper out today, “Oxygen suppression of macroscopic multicellularity”. This work was led by @Ozan_g_b , in collaboration with Chris Reinhard, @SFI_elibby , and @PineauRozenn . Support by @NSF , @NASAAstrobio , and @PackardFdn . A thread.

Oxygen suppression of macroscopic multicellularity

Nature Communications - The evolution of multicellular life is hypothesized to have been promoted by rising oxygen levels. Through experimental evolution and modeling, Bozdag et al. demonstrate...

www.nature.com

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 month

After 10 years of being a professor, I’ve realized that I am happiest and most productive when I have 3-5h a day to think hard and write. More than 8h of writing starts to hit diminishing returns. Less than 3 and I just feel frustrated and hemmed in by lack of progress.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

My favorite course review so far: "Please erase my memory from this last semester just so that I experience again the joy of taking this class for the first time."

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

Good way to work on paper revisions, or GOAT way to work on paper revisions?

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

8 months

That was super fun! I don't think I have ever tried covering so much material in so little time. I love the tradition of promotion talks. It's so wonderful seeing colleagues and students (some from years back!), and it's great having an opportunity to reflect.

Streelman Lab

@StreelmanLab

8 months

packed house for @wc_ratcliff promotion seminar @GTBiology !

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

11 months

One of the projects our team at @MBLScience #physio23 is studying is the evolution of wound healing in snowflake yeast. This is a t1000 cluster, grown as a toroid and torn, over 12h of additional growth. ~500um in diameter. Shocked at this movement! Hopefully we can explain it.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

We recently put up some images of snowflake yeast (funded by our @NIGMS MIRA) on the NIH Image and Video Gallery. These are under a CC license that allows free reign when not used commercially.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

7 months

Is proofreading the methods section the 'eating your vegetables' of scientific writing?

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

We ( @dahaj1897 , @xprinceps , @YunkerLab , @TonyBurnetti and @thomas_day_ ) have a new preprint up, examining how multicellular groups become units of selection. Here’s a brief thread. 1/14

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

4 years

First lecture in Evolution is tomorrow and I want to test out breakout rooms. I think I came up with a pretty good icebreaker question to stimulate introductions: Animals can now compete in the Olympics. What animal would you bet on, and in what event?

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

8 months

I’m writing a children’s book on the origin of complex life, and my editor is going over it right now with a fine toothed comb.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

Excellent story on multicellularity (and our recent work, co-led by @ozan_g_b and @YunkerLab ) by @vero_greenwood in @QuantaMagazine . Seriously good writing* and art! @PackardFdn @NIH @NSF *Still a bit blown away, TBH. Very thoughtful and well-explained

Single Cells Evolve Large Multicellular Forms in Just Two Years | Quanta Magazine

Researchers have discovered that environments favoring clumpy growth are all that’s needed to quickly transform single-celled yeast into complex multicellular organisms.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

One of my favorite photos from Woods Hole @MBLScience . That's my daughter at the end of the sand spit.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 years

One year after inoculation, my shiitake logs are fruiting.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

Our family dog Pippin was hit by a car and killed tonight. She was the first addition to our ( @thehanpham and I) family 12 years ago. She was the laziest, fartiest, snuggliest little soul- all she wanted to do was be touching you. My kids helped bury her. She was very loved.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

7 years

Our paper on how neighbor-killing structures microbial communities, supporting cooperation. From physics to genomes!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

TLDR: Over 3,000 generations, snowflake yeast evolved macroscopic size, increasing from ~100 to ~450,000 cells / group. This required sustained biophysical adaptation: individual snowflake yeast went from being weaker than gelatin to as strong and tough as wood. 2/35

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

10 months

What if we just made a 'science twitter' Usenet group and hung out there?

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

Wonderful story on the MuLTEE by @edyong209 for the @TheAtlantic .

Ed Yong is not here

@edyong209

1 year

I wrote about an incredible experiment in which microscopic, single-celled yeast evolved to become multicellular organisms visible to the naked eye, recreating one of evolution’s most pivotal transitions in a lab, in just one year.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

This is blowing my mind. Microbial community traits emerge *additively* from the component traits of their members?! Know what that means? Community level heritability is straightforward, and community-level traits should respond well to selection.

Seppe Kuehn Lab

@SeppeKuehnLab

1 year

What this means is that we use *only knowledge of which strains are in the community* to predict function. No dynamics necessary. Oddly, we've been making exactly this crude assumption in genetics for >100 years, but now we see how useful it can be to understand communities.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

And now with a more accurate title! Also a gift link, so it should not be behind a paywall.

An Experiment Repeated 600 Times Finds Hints to Evolution’s Secrets (Gift Article)

Snowflakes of yeast in a lab offer insights into how life on Earth transitioned from single-celled into multicellular organisms.

www.nytimes.com

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

8 months

OK, I'm calling it. Le Bleu Sky science twitter is functionally on par with X science twitter. I made the same post an hour ago on both platforms, and got very similar engagement at both places (even though I have 50x the followers on X!).

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

10 months

We had a "who can find the roundest rock" contest today. Han's rock won- but we had to crank out an image analysis pipeline. Han's had a roundness of 0.964, and Lila's was just 0.960! Can you guess which is the winner?

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

3 years

Check out this giant Polyphemus moth I saw on campus today!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

2 years

Hey, check it out: I got to be a guest on one of my favorite podcasts- @seanmcarroll 's Mindscape. I had so much fun that it made me want to host my own podcast (fortunately I've come to my senses- we already have Sean and he does all the work for us!).

Sean Carroll

@seanmcarroll

2 years

Mindscape 175 | William Ratcliff @wc_ratcliff on Multicellularity, Physics, and Evolution. We talk about how life became multicellular, and how we can reproduce the process in the lab. #MindscapePodcast

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

In addition to learning how snowflake yeast evolve in our experiment, I think we learn something profound about how groups of cells become Darwinian units capable of open-ended evolution. This is the last paragraph of the discussion:

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

1 year

Hey @MBLScience , photos we took during our Physiology course last year are are in the NYTimes today. @HamamatsuPhoton - this was done on your incredible equipment. Thanks again for letting us use it at MBL!

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

6 months

An undergrad came up to me after my keynote talk last night and deadpanned “great talk, but only animals are multicellular”. Then broke out laughing. I found it legitimately hilarious. It takes chutzpah to troll a professor that hard.

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Will Ratcliff

@wc_ratcliff

7 months

I'll be honest, I feel kind of sick after the last few days of drama here. People are just so uncharitable in their interpretations of what others say and do. It's not good for us, or our community, to pile on in such a toxic way rather than trying to understand each other.

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