I love this new study on the use of jokes during biology conferences. Jokes make talks more engaging and memorable, and often help deliver important points. But they appear underused. Let's joke more! 🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Exciting opportunity!

Cool study showing just how common it is for capuchins to anoint themselves and each other with the antimicrobial toxins produced by millipedes. 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Hartelijk dank, Evelien!

Beautiful new paper showing a latitudinal migratory divide in Painted Ladies. Longitudinal divides in migratory species are quite common, but seeing a latitudinal gradient, as well as the chromosomal inversion causing it, is exciting! 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new study suggests that crab-eating foxes may use insects such as crickets and cockroaches as medication. More studies are needed, but very interesting observations! 🧪 rsdjournal.org/rsd/article/...

Listen to this great podcast recorded at this year's @newscientist.com Live! @rigb.org's Ri Science podcast talks to @ciaragreene.bsky.social and @gillian-murphy.bsky.social, co-authors of Memory Lane, as well as @jaapderoode.bsky.social, author of Doctors by Nature: buff.ly/dSvgt0o #NSL2025

So much fun to talk with Marty Martin and @jdrakephd.bsky.social at the @bigbiology.bsky.social podcast about how animals use medicine, what we can learn from them, and my @princetonupress.bsky.social book #DoctorsbyNature on this very topic. Thank you, Marty and John!

It was long thought that domestication leads to reductions in brain size. But as we understand dog brains better, the truth is proving more complicated—and more interesting. Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...

Great opportunity!

Another great story on fANTastic biology.

New paper showing how immigration alters the ecological processes structuring the assembly and variation in #Monarch caterpillar gut #microbiomes. w/ @jaapderoode.bsky.social, @gabe-dubose.bsky.social, Joselyne Chavez, Lydia Fuller-Hall Ecology Letters onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Caterpillar guts are like grasslands: immigration and selection determine gut microbial communities. Thanks @chriscatano.bsky.social for leading this exciting project, and for showing that niche selection is important in caterpillar microbial ecology! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

What a wonderful overview of how basic science leads the way. World-changing innovation comes from curiosity-driven research. Basic research always leads to applications, we may just not be smart enough to know what those will be. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Wow, nature is too cool! Structures on stinkbug hind legs that used to be interpreted as ears are actually chambers with fungi. The bugs coat their eggs in those fungi to protect them against parasitoid wasps. 🧪 Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Ants - and the researchers studying them - just keep on amazing! 🧪 Architectural immunity: Ants alter their nest networks to prevent epidemics | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Just finished an amazing trip to Paris to promote my Les Liens Qui Liberent book #nos_grands_medecins, translated from my @princetonupress.bsky.social book #doctorsbynature. My first time doing radio interviews with live interpretation: a great and fun experience. @emorybiology.bsky.social

Next week, Oct 21 at 5:30 pm BST, @newcastleuni.bsky.social hosts @jaapderoode.bsky.social for a discussion of his book, Doctors by Nature, exploring how animals use medicine and what it can teach us about healing ourselves. This event is free and open to the public. Save your spot: buff.ly/vjs1oVE

Next week, on Oct 18, go to @newscientist.com Live to see @jaapderoode.bsky.social discuss his book, Doctors by Nature, and the fascinating ways in which animals practice medicine. Among many excellent speakers, be sure to see Jaap at 2:35pm BST! Explore the lineup and book tickets: buff.ly/4YBFj1U

🌿 Nature lifts mood all day Surveying over 2,000 adults, researchers found that visiting parks or watersides boosts happiness for everyone, including those with depression or anxiety. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1743... #MentalHealth #SciComm 🧪

We live in divided times. But most of us agree that we dislike mosquitoes. In the latest episode of the Virulent Vortex, I talk with Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec. As he explains, going back to basic mozzie biology could go a long way in controlling mosquito-borne diseases.🧪 youtu.be/sm5iz48-faA?...

Our MARC T34 got a new NOA today- also reinstated the IMSD T32 and a summer program- INSPIRE R25- we were reinstated due to involvement with ACLU lawsuit filed on behalf of the American Public Health Association-

Our latest research, with @iragonese.bsky.social, @saltidog.bsky.social and @richardlovesbirds.bsky.social, shows that elevated temperature can increase monarch butterfly susceptibility to parasitism by reducing the medicinal properties of milkweed. #plant-insect #plant-herbivore 🧪

“De ware dierendokters: hoe dieren elkaar medisch behandelen. Chimpansees die verbanden aanleggen, muizen die EHBO verlenen: ook dieren verzorgen elkaar, blijkt uit groeiend stapel studies.” #wetenschap #biologie #diergedrag #boek Dokters van nature van @jaapderoode.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4b8eua9h

In many cases, crowding results in greater disease transmission. However, in monarch butterflies high host density can reduce per capita infection risk. This happens when caterpillars gobble up parasites on milkweed, removing them from the environment.🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

From a grant rejection: "I would recommend finding a more cost effective way to conduct the study, such as using labor of a graduate student, which could reduce the overall cost by 80%." To clarify: that would leave $9,856 for 2 years. Shocking! Graduate students are NOT free and forced labor! 🧪

Mijn @knnvuitgeverij.bsky.social boek ‘Dokters van nature’ is genomineerd voor de shortlist van de Natuurboekenprijs 2025! Hiernaast is er dit jaar een publieksprijs. Mocht je het leuk vinden op mijn boek te stemmen, dan kan dat hier: meedoen.bnnvara.nl/.../publieks.... 🧪

Wound care in chimpanzees! Like chimpanzees in Central Africa, scientists have now shown that East African chimpanzees also apply flying insects to their own and each other's wounds. This is likely some form of medication, which is more widespread than we thought. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

So excited and honored that my @knnvuitgeverij.bsky.social book #doktersvannature, translated from my @princetonupress.bsky.social book #doctorsbynature made it to the shortlist for best Netherlands nature book of 2025. Fantastic how many people appreciate nature. 🧪 www.bnnvara.nl/vroegevogels...

De shortlist voor de Natuurboekenprijs 2025 is bekend, met de boeken van Eva Meijer, Nikki Dekker, Jeroen Helmer, @jaapderoode.bsky.social en Geert-Jan Roebers & Merlijne Marell. Bekijk de hele lijst, lees meer, bestel: athenaeumscheltema.n...

Could not agree more. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The only way back to normalcy is through, and that means getting these people out of power. I'm not going to get an NIH grant to do the work I care about until RFK and Jay are out anyway. So I hope you'll read and share our piece. www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/c...

Great opportunity!

Shocking but perhaps unsurprising finding by @findingnature.bsky.social that human connection to nature has declined precipitously. This is bad for our health and for the preservation of nature. The solution? Regreen, and take your kids outside. 🧪 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Good week for our understanding of manipulative parasites. A fungal pathogen of silk moths produces a host-like trehalose gene that reduces trehalose in the caterpillar's hemolymph. The larva perceives starvation, and fattens up to provide more resources for the fungus. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Wow, this new study used a form of the "rubber hand illusion" to show that an octopus experiences body ownership of its own arms. Body ownership is an important feature of self-consciousness, and had previously only been demonstrated in mammals. 🧪 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Another summer; another wonderful undergraduate research project. Congratulations to Marlyne Gonzalez for a fascinating project and beautiful poster. Monarch caterpillars sometimes hardly have any gut microbes! Supported by the INSPIRE program at Emory University and @emorycollege.bsky.social 🧪

@jaapderoode.bsky.social (author of Doctors by Nature, available now) spoke with @wired.com about the original wellness influencers: animals. Check it out:

It was great talking to @cjgiaimo.bsky.social for @wired.com about how animals use medicine on a sketchy phone connection on a moving rain in Germany :-). Bears, caterpillars, ants, and many other animals are health experts, as described in my @princetonupress.bsky.social book #doctorsbynature. 🧪

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Seattle Friends: I will be at Ada's Technical Books & Cafe on Friday July 25th to talk about how animals use medicine, and what we can learn from them. 🧪 @princetonupress.bsky.social adasbooks.com/event/2025-0...

'Van vlinders tot vogels, van apen tot insecten: het dierenrijk zit vol met slimme strategieen om ziekten te voorkomen of te bestrijden.’ @jaapderoode.bsky.social Marloes Stemerdink @newscientistnl.bsky.social @knnvuitgeverij.bsky.social www.newscientist.nl/recensie/dok...

Very grateful for this wonderful review of my @knnvuitgeverij.bsky.social and @princetonupress.bsky.social book on animal medication in @newscientistnl.bsky.social www.newscientist.nl/recensie/dok...

Very interesting observations on orcas "kelping" each other. They manipulate the kelp and groom each other with it, perhaps for skin maintenance. Most work on tools, allogrooming and culture focuses on terrestrial animals. So cool to see this study on a marine mammal! 🧪 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Portland friends: I will be giving a #scienceontap public lecture on my book Doctors by Nature at the Alberta Rose Theatre on July 23rd. Beer, books and science! Good combo. 🧪 @princetonupress.bsky.social www.scienceontaporwa.org/events/alber...

Work from our lab shows that non-native milkweed can allow monarch development into the winter, creating butterflies during a season where they can no longer migrate or breed. If you want to help monarchs, plant native milkweed only. 🧪 #plant-insect #nativeplants academic.oup.com/jinsectscien...

Thank you!

If you were at #evol2025, *this* is why every conversation you found yourself in had someone from LSU! We roll deep. Join us in Baton Rouge in January for the @systbiol.bsky.social breakout meeting! Equally good science conversation, just add gumbo and king cake.

Very exciting to present this idea at #Evol2025. The toxins and pigments of aposematic animals often act against infections, providing animals with individual fitness benefits.

Great get-together with @princetonupress.bsky.social at #Evol2025 to discuss the process of writing a science book. Check out the booth in the Grand Hall to learn more. You can also enter a raffle to win a copy of my book.