Caught a bunch of birds to show to my Vertebrate Natural History class this weekend, including this gremlin

Our latest paper is out: Sean Wilcox measured the 3D kinematics of Black-chinned Hummingbirds performing one of their courtship displays. Lots of evidence of flight performance tradeoffs! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Dear student, please do not put broken supplies stuff onto the shelf alongside working stuff. Sincerely, your PI

Quite possibly the easiest thing I’ve ever skinned, and now our teaching collection has a new genus of mammal

RIP to the incomparable Jane Goodall, who embodied the best of humanity. Her rich legacy included becoming friends with Gary Larson after he drew this cartoon. (She was delighted by it, even though many at the time thought it was terribly offensive to her.)

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

Spent hours being spellbound by Convolvulus Hawk Moths last night as they nectared on Nicotiana plants in my highland garden!. Up to 3 feeding at a time, their entire abdomens glowing red hot in the thermal from flight muscle use!! #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Postdoc advertisement! Hi all, I'm looking to hire a Postdoc in BIOACOUSTICS for work on Owls. Your job would be to collect & analyze bioacoustics data, and write papers. 🦉🦉🦅🐦🦜🦉🦉

🚨 Hiring! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in computational fluid dynamics and structural simulations to investigate biomechanics and mechanosensory feedback in insect flight. Extreme agility ✔️ Morphological computing ✔️ Meshes! ✔️ jobs.rvc.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Per the #AOS quiz bowl last night: the bird with the longest tail is the Onagadori, a chicken breed from Japan

Pick an idiom: "more than meets the eye", "beauty more than skin [feather] deep" etc. In work led by Rosalyn Price-Waldman, we describe a hidden (and ignored!) black or white layer found below the visible surface of bird feathers which helps make bird colours so striking! 🧪 🪶 #colsci

The NIH says that mRNA shows promise as a vaccine against multiple cancers. Is this part of the $500M research that RFK Jr canceled? 🧪 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39798545/

*Sigh*. Caught a grad student using AI to generate fake citations today. Need to figure out the best strategy to make this a teachable moment. Maybe "gentle teasing"? "Strict warning"? Unclear which will work best in this case.

Presentation for CDC advisers appears to cite nonexistent study to support claims about risk of vaccine preservative www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/h...

Job alert! Sam Noble Museum (OU) seeks a Collection Manager for the Recent Invertebrates collection (insects, mollusks, arachnids & more). You’ll team up with the incoming Curator (👋 me). Apply via jobs.ou.edu, Job # 251244. DM questions. #museumjobs #arthropods #collections

#writerwednesday #madmagazine

Awesome as always, ‪@zefrank.bsky.social is back to making True Facts videos! www.youtube.com/watch?v=spuO...

The potential deletion of 100 years of bird banding, breeding bird survey, and various other survey data would cripple bird conservation efforts not only in the US, but in the entire hemisphere.

This article doesn't say it, but clearly this report was written with use of AI such as ChatGPT. There's a reason legit journals have policies against use of AI in writing scientific paper. Hat tip to good reporting from notus.org www.notus.org/health-scien...

They came for everyone else very quickly www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Further, it allows a political appointee (usually not a scientist) to take disciplinary action against those seen as sharing misinformation— based on their political determination. Basically, this is threat to scientists to draw conclusions consistent with the Administration’s position.

Science and research should be objective. This Exec Order is a rant on science the Administration does not like. Following that it seems to promote good research practices (Sec.3, part a)- but alas… The EO gives a political appointee the power to decide when findings need to be “corrected.”

Well payed, Harvard, well played. Harvard offers FREE American Government course.

The Pope has "Florida Man" for an older brother!! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/u...

New True Facts! Insect Waterbenders! youtu.be/H5bZ4Vk2u7M?...

🤨

Hegseth deleted all mention of the Holocaust from Pentagon websites. Here is why we need more investigations into antisemitism at American universities.

This letter appeared in the Bloomsburg PA Press Enterprise this morning. I am assured the writer is who he purports to be, an Air Force veteran.

If you're an REI member, you can vote to toss out the board that's endorsed Trump's candidate for Dept. of Interior and has worked to stop REI unions. Vote runs until May 2nd. Spread the word. vote.escvote.com/REI/

Great gray owls are abundant in Manitoba this winter

Some federal employees who accepted Trump’s buyout offer are now being notified that their buyout has been denied, and they are being terminated instead.

We are calling for a nationwide and international boycott of all Elon Musk-related products and services. Sell your Tesla shares, avoid buying Tesla vehicles, cancel Starlink, and delete your X accounts.

Get in dorks, we're going protesting! STAND UP FOR SCIENCE WITH US ON MARCH 7TH, 2025 WASHINGTON DC AND EVERY STATE CAPITOL Because science is for everyone! Find us at www.standupforscience2025.org #standupforscience2025 #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

@aoc.bsky.social We’d like your help organizing a March on Washington to ensure protester safety and secure permits. We’re aiming for a Saturday at least two weeks out to allow for travel planning.

TAKE ME LAWD

- What happens when a small country decides to play Monopoly... with an ENTIRE US state? 🤯 Buckle up:" - Breaking: One nation's billion-dollar fever dream about to shock the world 💥 Imagine buying a state like it's a garage sale item. This is NOT a fake news." denmarkification.com?utm=.share.b...

Someone at the American Bar Association ate their Wheaties this morning.

The Chiefs can still be named Super Bowl champions if Mike Pence has the courage.

I LOVE Colombia. 10 days in country, 290 species, 151 of which were lifers. Highlights included Great Potoo, Hoatzin, White-tailed Nightjar (including videos of it producing its wing sounds -- research target), Gorgetted Woodstar (the other research target), and double-striped Thick-knees!

It will be my honor to remake US passenger aviation in the image of SpaceX, which hasn’t had a rocket explode in over three weeks. by Elon Musk

Maybe we’re just bad at math. Seems like this whole “DOGE saving America money” thing is a hoax. Facts matter.

Yet, you’re proposing $350 billion for immigrant detention facilities, deportation raids, and national security priorities, plus another $175 billion for Trump’s wall. Looks like we’re heading even deeper into debt. Care to explain?

Woo woo woo! So, we’re talking about saving taxpayers’ money, Congress? Federal employee compensation costs $271 billion—so even if you fired all of us, that’s all you’d save.

⚠️ Effective Monday 2/10/25, NIH indirect rate capped at 15%. Applies to existing & future grants. —> Deep budget cuts & program closures coming to a university near you. Is this the break the glass moment for university administrators who have been silent so far about the attack on science?

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Hummingbird www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/s...

I just received a lengthy email from an undergrad, clearly written using ChatGPT (fake references to my work) asking if I have a research position. Do I use ChatGPT to write a lengthy reply saying no?

New paper by an undergrad in my lab, Lori Liu! Owls have a fuzzy surface to their feathers (top) that most other birds don't have (bottom) doi.org/10.1242/jeb....