This week @ProfBrianCox & Robin Ince bring together a mash made in heaven! @SusanCalman @SandyKnapp & Glenn Bryan peel back the surprising science of the mighty spud 🥔 they uncover genomes, wild species..plus a potato keyboard finale you never knew you needed!!

Lots of new grad students starting in research labs this month, including many who have been taught (in subtle or overt ways) that they need to fight to prove they belong. It’s an exhausting way to spend your career. So I’m re-upping this for anyone who needs to hear it today:

Huge thanks to top environmental journalist @horton_official for covering the #GhostOrchid story in today's @guardian theguardian.com/environment/… Congrats to @thenewgalaxy on refinding this most elusive of orchids & to @BSBIscience who visited the (secret) site to verify the find.

We are thrilled to announce a significant milestone for our lab published in Science. A massive interdisciplinary collaboration with incredibly brilliant researchers. Thanks to all the participants and our past and present lab members who have contributed to this breakthrough 🍆

Jack Satterlee is presenting the joint work by Zach Lippman lab from @CHSL and @SOLbreedCOMAV (among other labs like @SandyKnapp) where they revealed, starting with 🍆, that development of prickles is a case of convergent evolution in plants. Keep tuned for the paper! #IBC2024