Very happy to share that I just published a new paper from my thesis! 🎉 We analysed 546 species of ant to understand how extreme specialisation into reproductive and non-reproductive roles evolved.  Key discoveries in thread🧵 👇 Full paper here: academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

In our new study we were the first to experimentally simulate the origin of sociality! By controlling how many wasp 🐝daughters could help their mom, we found that early helpers don't just add to colony success—they multiply it!

Elegant experiment-theory mix, showing increasing returns from helping in a cooperative wasp

Great video, covering a lot of non-trivial stuff very nicely!

Putting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social ASN President for announcements, please share widely!!! 3. The ASN Conceptual Unification of Biological Sciences award is for a late career investigator www.amnat.org/announcement...

Putting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social ASN President for announcements, please share widely!!! 3. The ASN Distinguished Naturalist award is for a mid career investigator (<= 20 years from PhD). Go here to nominate someone: nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Putting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social ASN President for announcements, please share widely!!! 2. ASN Early Career Investigator awards are now open for application. Self-nominations okay! Due Jan 5 nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Putting on my hat as @asn-amnat.bsky.social ASN President for a minute for a string of announcements, please share widely!!! 1. Student research awards are open for applications, to fund research expenses for 10 graduate students ($2000 each) nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Want to join us at Oxford? This is a great Royal Society fellowship scheme to bring early career researchers from abroad. royalsociety.org/grants/newto...

Out today! Innovations in Decolonising the Curriculum: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. I am happy (with @kztwyman.bsky.social & Jasmeen Kanwal) to have contributed a chapter – "Teaching the Science of Race and Racism" – to this important book that "moves beyond debate to action" Please do read.

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (11/11). Parasitoid population dynamics can be studied with modelling. Silwood Park, 1992.

The book has so many great contributors. To name a few: @amyboddy.bsky.social @martijnschenkel.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social @reallymccoy.bsky.social @tomwscott.bsky.social @ellenclarke.bsky.social @laurarossevo.bsky.social @philippehune.bsky.social Very excited that it's finally coming out!

@natecoevo.nature.com making this free to read in front of the paywall for a month. Thanks guys!

Brings back happy memories of ISBE 2024 where the conversation about this paper began.. great to see it out in @natecoevo.nature.com. Thanks to co-authors and to the organisers of that brilliant conference 🙏🏽. @bbmwong.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social, Suzanne Alonzo🫶, Sasha Dall, “Dr Cunningham”

I was interviewed by Newsweek about the backlash to my DPhil announcement. You can read it here: www.newsweek.com/gen-z-woman-...

Behavioural ecology in the 21st century..... www.nature.com/articles/s41... @asgriffin.bsky.social

Strong response to the pathetic trolling of Juliet. www.thepoke.com/2025/11/19/t...

New research shows that kissing evolved in the common ancestor of humans and other large apes around 21 million years ago, and Neanderthals likely engaged in kissing too 💋 New study from @matildabrindle.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social 👇

Kissing evolved at least 21 million years ago. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @matildabrindle.bsky.social

So cool to see ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada) -- my native language in @asn-amnat.bsky.social 😍

Congratulations Juliet! Very well deserved for a brilliant body of research. Thank you to Shigeto Dobata and @timbarra.bsky.social for their time and being a great examiner team. 🥂 @biology.ox.ac.uk @newcollegeoxf.bsky.social

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

I passed my viva! 🎊 I’m very happy to share that yesterday, after ~4 years of research, I successfully defended my DPhil thesis and will be awarded the title of doctor 😎 Thank you to my examiners, supervisors, and collaborators for all the advice and support given along the way.

Leaf? 🍃 Or katydid? 🦗 Our new @plosbiology.org paper sheds light on how these incredible mimics evolved their disguises, and what this reveals about how complex adaptations arise. We find that coordinated evolution between traits might be the answer… plos.io/4oUE741 1/n

Amazing leaf camouflage experiments paired up with phylogeny showing how they got there. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... @benitoexplains.bsky.social

LGBTQ+ Journal Club is turning 1! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈To celebrate, here's a bit about what we've been up to over the past year: a thread of interesting papers in queer biology (1/n) ⬇️🧵

The evolutionary and ecological consequences of cooperation -in American Naturalist by @stuwest.bsky.social, @annadewar.bsky.social, @ryosukeiritani.bsky.social, Laurence Belcher, and @asgriffin.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (10/11). Parasitoids can be studied in a parasitoid workshop. Silwood Park, 1992.

Join us! Oxford is advertising an Associate Professorship in Animal Behaviour. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Mike Ritchie emphasising the huge importance of supporting society journals like JEB in his ESEB presidential address, Barcelona. @eseb.bsky.social @eseb2025.bsky.social

Evidence that lifestyle drives genome fluidity from @annadewar.bsky.social today. Keeping everyone going on last day of @eseb2025.bsky.social! Great talk Anna!

When can replicating experiments lead to misleading conclusions? An example from human public goods games. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Exciting looking meeting at the Linnean Society London on organismal resilience. November 20th 2025 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hybrid-day...

what is environmental variability and how can you measure it? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @mingpapilio.bsky.social

Where are mycorrhizal fungi and are the protected? (spoiler alert - no, they aren't) www.nature.com/articles/s41... @tobykiers.bsky.social

Who lives underground? Find out now in our new paper published in @nature.com. Key finding: 90% of predicted mycorrhizal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas. Read here: buff.ly/WmDqAP3 🧵

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (9/11). Parasitoids may mediate competition between different host species (apparent competition). Silwood Park, 1992.

Thank you to everyone attending the "Writing and DEI Workshop" at RIKENS, organized by @ryosukeiritani.bsky.social. Gender equality in STEM is a global issue and we need to share our experiences and learn from one another. Thank you for sharing your stories and enthusiasm! 🙏 and @ITHEms, @JSPS 🇯🇵❤️

1/3 I was just lucky enough to get to do a couple of sessions on scientific writing in a DEI & Writing Workshop at Riken, Tokyo. Huge thank you to @ryosukeiritani.bsky.social for organising such an open and supportive workshop, and all the attendees for being so engaged and interactive.

@annadewar.bsky.social now giving the fourth @asn-amnat.bsky.social Early Career Scientist Award lectures at #Evol2025 about bacterial pangenomes, cooperation, and gene transfer

Anna Dewar @annadewar.bsky.social asks what types of genes get horizontally transferred in bacteria 🦠🧬➡️🧬🦠 Contrary to previous thinking, plasmids didn't carry more cooperation genes than the core genome. #Evol2025 #Evol25

Amazing comparative analysis using 163 ant genomes to look at many aspects of ant evolution www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Family field trip with Jun Abe 🫶to trap parasitoids and wolbachia-infected butterflies on Kyushu Island. Hard to imagine science being more fun. Big thank you to Kanagawa University and JSPS Kakenhai for supporting the trip; Ethan and Olive for doing most of the catching! 👐💛 @stuwest.bsky.social

Winners of the @asn-amnat.bsky.social Early Career Scientist Award this year. A great honor to get to talk with these four brilliant scientists over dinner tonight.

In his #ParentCarerScientist case study, Professor Ben Sheldon FRS talks about navigating crises at home and at work, and why it's important for leaders to set an example when it comes to balancing work with caring responsibilities: #CarersWeek #AndAScientist royalsociety.org/about-us/who...

🐠💥2 year postdoc in fish sensory ecology!! 💥🐟 If you’re into animal colour, collective behaviour, predator-prey interactions, enjoy behavioural experiments and fieldwork, please apply! Based in Oxford with fieldwork in northwest Thailand (and elsewhere). Please repost! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNM294/p...

Thank you to our host, Hisashi Ohtsuki at the Research Centre for Integrative Evolutionary Science, SOKENDAI, for hosting us this week. We felt so welcome and loved hearing about your work. (And learning to make okonomiyaki!) @stuwest.bsky.social

Always and in all ways ❤️

In relation to positive futures, I would add: ✅ Join learned societies ✅ Publish in their journals #SocietyJournals #SciPub

A pictorial guide to parasitoids (8/11). Some parasitoids are solitary with only wasp developing per host. Silwood Park, 1992.