Busy prep today for the open house @mpinb.mpg.de tomorrow! The 🪱 station is ready! Discover how a fluorescence microscope works, pick some (gummi) worms, and play with an entire worm brain! Plus we have a selfie-station to step into the shoes/coat of a scientist! #worms

📢Apply now! Join our IMPRS for Brain&Behavior to pursue a #PhD in #neuroethology. Learn how brain circuits are linked to interesting animal behaviors! 📅 Deadline: October 31, 2025 🔗 imprs-brain-behavior.mpg.de #neuroscience #Neuroskyence #neurojobs #sciencejobs #PhDsky #PhDOffers #FundedPhD

Cleaning up I just found an ancient thumbdrive with talks and a guest lecture from 10 years ago. It's like a little time capsule from the 'dark years'.(post physical photos, pre-smart phone the artefacts remaining are minimal.

This is good!

Neuroscience students asked us to teach a PRACTICAL course on experimental methods, and it is now on YouTube! Please like and repost to help us get the word out! www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... Lecture 1: Signals and data acquisition Focusing on hardware, digital/analog I/O, synchronization 🧵

Laudable trend! But the linked graphic showing the % drop from Walter Benjamin (PD) - Emmy Noether (group leader) - Heisenberg (Prof) highlights the remaining systemic problems in the German academic career path.

Very promising news on the next seven-year EU budget, with a proposed substantial increase for Horizon Europe including the ERC. We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail. @Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...

🚀 Big news from our @monikakscholz.bsky.social lab! We’re part of DynOrg, a new @dfg.de-funded Research Unit exploring how #GPCR signaling coordinates organ function & animal behavior — from heartbeat to foraging. 🧠💓 #FOR #neurotransmitters

Lovely article! If I could I'd add a paragraph about nematodes 🪱! Mechanistic access, ease of imaging, genetics and comparative connectomics make them a perfect model for evo-neuro. There's a lot of fantastic recent work at many levels of description.

new contacts after 20 years of not bothering: now I know what a well-aligned microscope feels like!

The lab is quiet for the summer so I get to play around without disturbing the smooth machinery of planned experiments.

Agree! This development will result in false claims that will be very hard to undo (as it's buried in lines of code with verbose single line comments...). How to deal with this distilled from informal chats at the GRC: implement unit tests, sanity checks and do intense code reviews with new folks.

Special thanks to this year's organizer of the Neuroethology GRC, Julie Simpson & @genmig.bsky.social. We had a fantastic week of great science, met colleagues or started collaborations. We are looking forward to the next GRC in 2 years. 2027 Co-Vice chairs: Jessica Fox & @scottjuntti.bsky.social

Greatest challenge for US scientist at GRC Neuroethology so far is figuring out the European-style attached bottlecaps. :-)

Kids are very excited that I'm flying in a real plane and I ❤️ that I get to share that excitement!

I am excited (as usual) about attending #Worm25. But I am also sad that so many friends and colleagues can't be there. Because you know....insane policies and war and such. Hoping the science will provide at least a temporary distraction from the unending chaos.

🤔 Equal treatment... Perhaps reconsider extension rules for eligibility for applying to ERC @erc.europa.eu grants? LGBTIQ (non-biological) parents get 0 months extension (compared 18-months for biological mothers) FYI: the Dutch Research Council (NWO) gives 6 months to all non-biological parents

Very excited to attend the Neuroethology GRC next week! Less excited about the heat wave about to hit Europe. Maybe we should have poolside talks...

✊ International students

Had a fun chat with Julia about science, collaborations and our #BaBots project! #horizoneu

We identified evolutionary patterns. E.g. over short evolutionary distances neuron types and numbers remain conserved, but how they connect changes. See schematic for other key points!

The average width of a groove in an LP or a 45 is 40-80um, kind of perfect for an adult hermaphrodite, right? Cast around the outside and your grooves will more parallel. No perfect record. Have used Lionel Richie LP and Frank Zappa 45, both work well.

Why do user interfaces insist on periodically changing the appearance of all icons. It makes me very grumpy to have to continually override my visual feedback that screams 'wrooong' while motor memory wants to tap on the correct app.

Total chaos on my bench #sciart #invertebrate #heaven

I hope you are attending Worm2025 in June. Please consider submitting to our awesome Worm Art Show. It is as good as the science. Submissions accepted till June 27, 2025. Started by Ahna Skop @ahnaskop.bsky.social the event continues to enrich our community. genetics-gsa.org/worm-2025/wo...

My next-door neighbor and dear colleague will speak at pint of science! Enjoy some gruesome videos of killer worms and some awesome findings!

I wrote this in a week where it felt like professoring while parenting (and equally, parenting while professoring) was impossible. This feeling ebbs and flows. Seems like Mothers Day is as good a time as any to share, maybe it will help someone else feel less alone. The More Paradox 1/8

Another way to read these numbers is that the ERC is massively under-funded. The EU could double the ERC budget three times, and even if the average return on grants halved each time you expanded, you'd still be making a profit.

Love worms, molecular genetics, and big questions? We’re hiring a postdoc to build a CRISPRa toolkit to identify new aging mechanisms in C. elegans. Email or DM me to find out more. Please share & repost!

Science crew in Bonn and Cologne - please spread the word! Very happy to welcome @senguptalab.bsky.social to Bonn on May 13! She's going to talk about salt sensing receptors in the pharynx, i.e. how do you make sure you don't overeat on salty snacks (if you're a worm). mpinb.mpg.de/en/events/ev...

Deadline: May 8!! Sign up to get matched with a 🪱 mentor and benefit from our nice community! Maybe you'd like to discuss lab struggles, have questions about starting a postdoc or a new lab, brainstorm science... mentoring is very diverse and personal! #celegans blog.wormbase.org/2025/04/24/m...

Heard from a former (undergrad) student who just defended her PhD. Students: tell your old profs about your successes and achievements. It's not bragging, and we love to hear about it. It's one of the best parts of being an educator. #academicsky

So great to see this in print! Congratulations to Johannes and team!

First attempt with Poposaurus gracilis predictive simulation of walking reveals The Truth: pentapedal locomotion. Facepalm-- how could I not have guessed? 🙃

Worm people! There's still time to sign up for the C. elegans Mentor Match Program ✨🪱 ➡️ Get a mentor who's been there ➡️ Team up with peers at your stage ➡️ Or do both—why not? Build your support network. Sign up now!

"It's more of a comment than a question"

I've been noticing more LLM use in peer review and I'm not a fan. I get that summarizing the paper is sometimes a lot of work, but I'd rather have a wonky, typoed real opinion than some LLM critique that is generic and unhelpful

Nonlinear integration of sensory and motor inputs by a single neuron in C. elegans. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.05.647390v1

The International Society for Neuroethology has a grant for disadvantaged scientists investigating the mechanisms of animal behaviour. Apply for funds to help overcome any barriers you face! Membership fees can be included in your application. Details here: www.neuroethology.org/diversity-aw...

I have tariffed the penguins that are on Heard Island and which you were probably assuming did not export goods forgive me they were taking advantage of us so cunning and so cold

A modular multi-color fluorescence microscope for simultaneous tracking of cellular activity and behavior https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646316v1

Germany...the place where we write pages for equal opportunitt concepts and ultimately the only place to pump milk is in a meditation room. @neurowissg.bsky.social the staff was very helpful though and came up with this option!

Curious about how the cannibalistic nematode Pristionchus pacificus hunts its prey? Check out our preprint on BioRxiv, where we explore the roles of mechanosensation and chemosensation, using behaviour tracking among other methods! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hey Göttingen Meeting attendees! Don’t miss the inspiring talks from our group leaders and faculty members of our IMPRS for Brain and Behavior graduate program. Enjoy! 🧠✨

Super-interesting example of the importance of funding a broad base of “curiosity-led” research, alongside clinical

Mentees: Time to sign up for 🪱 mentor match! We have so many excellent mentors with diverse expertise and at many stages of development. Sign up using the survey, let us know what you want out of the mentoring relationship and we'll find a match!

Two weeks to go until @jameslightfoot.bsky.social lab and I will host some excellent colleagues from around the world at the NWG meeting in Göttingen for Symposium [email protected]! Be ready for a diverse line up with 🐸 🕷️ 🪱 🪰 under the common umbrella of 'evolution of behavior'!

#standupforscience2025 @ascbiology.bsky.social Hoping to see folks Standing Up for Science in Boston today! 👩‍🔬🔬🧪 If I don't see you in person, I'd love to see your photos!

Was die #Wissenschaft jetzt braucht – 10 Punkte für die neue Bundesregierung. #Forschung kann Wege aus vielen Krisen aufzeigen. Was sie dafür braucht? Richtige Rahmenbedingungen: weniger Bürokratie, mehr #Investitionen & eine starke #Wissenschaftspolitik. www.mpg.de/24266790/fue...

Great idea! @maxplanck.de is in the process of creating a program for US researchers, should open soon.