Over the last days we participated in two Israeli meetings. These were online meetings, obviously, so unfortunately no photos. But it quite was an experience!

The second meeting of the Israeli Society for Evolutionary Biology, which was co-organized by Eyal again (check out the new website!). Many members of our Institute and Department presented in this meeting, including three talks(!) of our lab members: Pnina presented her GWAS results, including the first evidence for genetic loci that affect variability in curricular hydrocarbons (CHCs) among ant colonies (Cataglyphis niger). Aparna presented her study of the genomic architecture of social polymorphism in C. niger. Volans (who is about to join the lab as a postdoc) presented his PhD study on population genomics of the yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes).

We also participated in the meeting of the Israel Zoological Society, which was hosted by the University of Haifa and organized by Eran Tauber (Eyal helped a little). It was a unique experience especially because of the use the online platform Remo that creates a virtual conference center with virtual auditoria, and people sitting together around virtual tables. It was very nice although technically challenging…