A new group dedicated to evolutionary ecology! This is an opportunity to have a permanent community space for the field, as well as ensure regular conferences like #ExE2026. But it needs your help 👇

As someone brought up in awe of Swiss glaciers, it's alarming to see that all the winter's snow is expected to have melted away before the end of June www.theguardian.com/environment/...

And here's where I went for a solstice swim instead

It's the first year for about 15 years that I've not been able to lead a walk up Simonside for the solstice, so here's one I took in happier times

My department has funding for 2-year MByRes studentships (full tuition fees and research allowance) on ecosystem resilience, broadly defined. Apply to do a project with me modelling social-ecological networks. #culturalevolution #socialnetworks ecologyconservation.exeter.ac.uk/masteer-coho...

Awful www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

I have read and enjoyed The Paradox of the Organism by @arvidagren.bsky.social and Manus Patten. I had a lot of thoughts about it, and about selfish genes. Here they are, in a long blog post. homunculusmusic.wordpress.com/2026/05/30/i...

Congratulations to Yukino Watanabe, winner of the #HBES2026 Poster Award! 📌

As heard on Classic FM. Remarkable work. How did that get past a grant committee? ;-)

And yet the RSPB who published this report are still 'neutral' on bird shooting!..

Well said!

📢Out now in #ProcB our NEW paper on how #reward inequity can promote production of #publicgoods and #free-riding 👏Congratulations @beckypadget.bsky.social as lead author 👥With #AndyHigginson @royalsocietypublishing.org @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @crab-exeter.bsky.social doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Pheasants aren’t wild birds freely roaming the British countryside. They’re non-native animals, mass bred in factory farms, then released in huge numbers onto country estates just so they can be shot out of the sky for entertainment. It’s an industry built on suffering.

Wondering if I'm the only one to have just finished my poster for @ces2026.bsky.social and now actually read the instructions which say landscape not portrait. Back to the drawing board!

We have an *extremely* important announcement to make. From Wednesday, we will be launching our puffin live cam, coming to you from the Farne Islands. So you can watch puffins all day long. In celebration, please enjoy this clip of puffins being really busy for 39 seconds straight.

I can't believe they got this interview with the walrus

I'm sure there are more Dutch accents here in Glencoe than there were in Amsterdam recently

A fine day for a bike loop around Glenfinnan and Ardgour. (Bit of a different bike from the sit-up city bike i hired in leiden a week or so ago)

A bit of sun and snow in Glencoe

Home for the weekend

I am excited to be speaking at Pint of Science in Newcastle on May 20th! I will be giving a public talk on my recent work, looking at how changes in human culture over time have contributed to the loneliness epidemic. Details below. I'd love to see you there! pintofscience.co.uk/event/losing...

I don't recommend being punched - really struggling to hear properly 6 months on...

Remembering Gaza scholars. Honoring the lives and legacies of Palestinian academics whose voices have been silenced. 🇵🇸 rememberinggazascholars.org

After attending the 'AIvolution' meeting of @ehbea.bsky.social in Leiden last week, topical to see this paper on "evolvable AI" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Rounded off the CBEN & @ehbea.bsky.social conferences in Leiden with a bike ride to the coast, running into some fine floral displays on the way

In the Netherlands, Tesla owners go under cover

Great to be at @ehbea2026.bsky.social and to hear so many great talks. Not so clever was missing the abstract deadline so here's the poster I presented here at the CBEN preconference day

It may indeed be the death of a civilization - that of US society unless they remove Trump from office

My first swallows of the year and sand martins back - nice birthday present

To put things in perspective...

Meanwhile, on the moon...

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

It doesn't seem such a novelty spotting satellites go by these days.. www.theguardian.com/science/ng-i...

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Minhua Yan @minhuayan.bsky.social @iast.fr The persistence and adaptation of social norms: Theory and field evidence Date: March 27 Time: 15:00 UTC+1 (Vienna) / 10 am ET (NYC) Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

One of the weirdest thing in about academia is hearing people vent about how their department and/or university” is a shitshow, but then when their departments are hiring their like “come work with me, my department and university are the best place to work in the world!”

As someone who was recently punched while I was down (after being punched to the ground), I can't say I find this particularly clever

Three weeks ago I spent a few days in one of our global dark sky sanctuaries in Rakiura Stewart Island New Zealand. Never has deep time felt so real or so close. But every now and then one of Elon's dumbfuck satellites would interrupt the eternal rhythms of the stars. Let's not let it get worse.

1/ 🎮🌍 Shared Horizons Seminar Series We’re delighted to welcome Dr Patricia Kanngiesser (University of Plymouth) to Brunel Psychology for: “Games for the future: Using experimental games to study sustainable behaviour across ages and populations.” 🗓 25 Feb 2026 | 2-4pm open to all 🔓

Evolution is often framed as a cosmic struggle of all against all. Yet everything we observe about life is the product of cooperation. Understanding how cooperation is sustained is a key insight for thinking about how to organise society. www.optimallyirrational.com/p/cooperatio...

1. I’m quite happy with this popular piece that Lee Dugatkin and I wrote recently. For the next two weeks it’s free to read on the American Scientist website.

New @aeon.co essay just out! On how institutions let us scale trust and cooperation - and when things start to unravel. Big thanks to editor Sam Dresser. For the more technical version, see thread & paper below👇

We're excited to announce the Spring 2026 Cooperation Colloquia! With @yanchenl.bsky.social @minhuayan.bsky.social @saptarshi.bsky.social @aronszekely.bsky.social @shafenbraedl.bsky.social @shuxianjin.bsky.social @smconstantino.bsky.social and more Sign up here: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

The Norwegian government is staying fairly quiet for now, but as a sign of the shifting vibe here the former head of Norway’s armed forces has come out and called the US a “neo-fascist banana republic” and a “hostile great power without norms”. www.dn.no/politikk/tid...

A nice morning for a walk in the Cairngorms

Researcher looking for a desk / fieldwork. I'm currently without a job / home / commitments so if you know of a spare desk in a friendly lab, or fieldwork that needs doing then let me know. Evolutionary biology / behavioural sciences.