Dr Alexander J. Hetherington, Plant evolutionary biologist, @InstMolPlantSci @SBSatEd @EdinburghUni #UKRIFLF. Lab group @MPEG_Edinburgh Views my own
Joined February 2017
- Tweets 3,045
- Following 2,227
- Followers 2,410
- Likes 5,822
256 Photos and videos
Sandy Hetherington retweeted
8 Aug 2025
Today was my last visit to @InstMolPlantSci as staff. It's been a pleasure working 3½ years with @Sandy_Heth and such a great team @MPEG_Edinburgh! I learnt so much and hopefully we will keep collaborating on many pending ideas about plant evolution! I will miss Edinburgh! 🏴✈️🇧🇷
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21 Mar 2025
1/2 An exciting #FossilFossil as our new preprint @biorxivpreprint about the enigmatic Prototaxites has been picked up by @newscientist 👇👇👇
You can read the preprint biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
21 Mar 2025
A bizarre ancient organism previously thought to be a giant fungus may actually belong to an undiscovered branch on the tree of life that mysteriously went extinct. newscientist.com/article/247…
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21 Mar 2025
2/2 As we say in the article - we declined to be interviewed about the preprint as it hasn’t been fully peer reviewed yet but we are really excited to see this much interest in the study already!
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
17 Mar 2025
🚨 Looking for a postdoc researcher to apply for a #MSCA fellowship in 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐲! 🚨 The material is incredible—exceptionally well-preserved 𝐟𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬. If you have experience and are interested, send us a DM! Please RT 🌱🔬#Posdoc #ResearchOpportunity
ALT Watercolour painting of a fossil plant. Generated with ChatGPT.
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
12 Feb 2025
🚀 Every day is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science!
As a PhD researcher working with CRISPR & microalgae at @EdinburghUni, I see the impact of women pushing the boundaries of knowledge every single day.
🔭🔬Let’s keep shaping the future together🥼👩🔬
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
10 Feb 2025
New paper alert! The labs of Liam Dolan (@DolanLab) and Frédéric Berger combined global climate data with a new population genomics database to identify genetic variants related to climate adaptation in Marchantia polymorpha. Read more: bit.ly/4i4reBd
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7 Feb 2025
It’s been a pleasure hosting Haru Nishida, Aya Kubota, Nao Kawagoe and Andrew Scott this week @MPEG_Edinburgh @InstMolPlantSci @SBSatEd.
Topped off with a great #FossilFriday trip to see the Early Carboniferous rocks by Oxroad Bay!
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
17 Jan 2025
Would you like to work with me on #MesozoicMammals from #Scotland? We're seeking a Research Assistant for an amazing @LeverhulmeTrust project, based in Birmingham with Prof Richard Butler. You'd join our team gaining new insights into mammal evolution! jobs.ac.uk/job/DLK473/resear…
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
6 Feb 2025
On the cover of our #LatestIssue: Ptychostomum demissum, an acrocarpous #moss with strongly asymmetrical capsules in #arctic or #alpine areas. Image courtesy of Rui-Liang Zhu.
📖 See Shen et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/…
@WileyPlantSci
ALT Cover of New Phytologist 245:5 (March 2025). Ptychostomum demissum, an acrocarpous moss with strongly asymmetrical capsules in arctic or alpine areas. Image courtesy of Rui-Liang Zhu.
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
'Dino Birds' airs on @novapbs in N. America tomorrow (9pm). Follow research from our lab and colleagues revealing the origin of birds. Hope you enjoy it!
pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/dino…
@SteveBrusatte @Paleontologista @palaeo_prof @KsepkaLab @LizzySteell @GNavalon @J_BenitoMoreno
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
3 Feb 2025
Interested in the latest advances developed to bring fossils back to life? 🦴 Join us for the A2 - Experimental Palaeobiology session at the #SEBconference in Antwerp, 8-11 July 2025 🇧🇪🦾
🚨 Registration is OPEN
📅 Abstract deadline: March 7
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1 Feb 2025
Something is coming to Antwerp this summer 👀🇧🇪 Stay tuned!
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
Fine-tuning gibberellin improves rice alkali–thermal tolerance and yield nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
29 Jan 2025
The January issue is now fully online:
nature.com/nplants/volumes/1…
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
28 Jan 2025
🌱 We’re kicking off the search for seed projects in Programmable Plants 👀 We’re offering between £10k and £500k to researchers entrepreneurs with bold ideas for programming plants to secure our future on Earth. (1/5)
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
20 Jan 2025
How do fungi explore a root system over time?
Spatial and temporal tracking of the Nicotiana root symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi using MycoRed.
Videos and images and optimised Rhizotrons by @Nick_GarciaH
Science behind this: journals.plos.org/plosbiolog…
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
13 Jan 2025
New paper out today led by @SMughal315!
We revisit the famous 790-million-year-old Svanbergfjellet Formation for @GeolSoc's Lagerstätten Series.
Open access at:
lyellcollection.org/doi/full…
@royalsociety | @UniofOxford | @morethanadodo | @OxUniEarthSci
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
8 Jan 2025
New Phytologist next generation scientists 2025 takes place on 4–7 August at the University of Birmingham!
Don't miss your opportunity to join this unique meeting of early career plant scientists! Apply to attend by 27 January:
newphytologist.org/nextgenev…
@wileyplantsci #npnextgen
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Sandy Hetherington retweeted
7 Jan 2025
Check out this amazing thread by @KatieA_Long on our latest work using spatial transcriptomics in wheat alongside fabulous colleagues @EarlhamInst @AshleighSLister @whatchamacaulay.
6 Jan 2025
1/9 I am excited to share our pre-print on spatial transcriptomics in wheat spikes in collaboration with @AshleighSLister. Using MERFISH, we resolved the expression of 200 genes to cellular resolution. Check out the pre-print 👉tinyurl.com/c7t3kncf
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6 Jan 2025
Fun to read some palaeontology @TheEconomist Christmas special!
One palaeobotanical addition is to add that the Triassic holds the first fossil evidence of Ginkgo-like plants which have remained an iconic part of our terrestrial flora.
Well worth a read!
economist.com/christmas-spec…
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