The final research chapter of my PhD is published! 🥳🥳🥳🥳 It shows how the ability of spider venom to paralyse prey scales isometrically with its ability to cause prey mortality! It is published with open access in Toxicon: X. You can check it out via the following link - doi.org/10.1016/j.to....

New paper led by @keithlnotions.bsky.social showing that the ability of a venom to paralysis prey scales isometrically with its ability to kill prey in spiders www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congratulations to our very own University of Galway zoologist, founder of the Venom Lab and creator of The Bug Doctor series, Dr Michel M. Dugon who has been named Galway Science Person of the Year!

Big W for habitat management and spider fans! Rediscovering such a cool UK spider after 40 years of absence on the Isle of Wight! Well done @graemelyons.bsky.social and Mark! #spider #IsleofWight #rediscovery t.co/FSD1nv2ina

Word of the day is ‘swullocking’, from 19th-century East Anglian dialect: sultry, sweltering, and sudiferous (sweat-inducing).

#BiologyLetters Spiders use different traits to capture prey, including webs or fangs to restrain prey before delivering their paralytic venom. But is there a trade off between venom potency and body size or silk use in prey capture? royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #ecology #evolution

Watch Keith Lyons' seminar about his recent #BiologyLetters paper 'Spider venom potency exhibits phylogenetic prey specificity but does not trade-off with body size or silk use in prey capture': cassyni.com/events/Jcwo8... #ecology #evolution

Big thanks to all media outlets that have covered our recently published work on spider venom potency thus far! I have been blow away by the interest and support everyone has showed. Grateful to @drivetime.bsky.social @wlrfm.bsky.social and Galway Bay FM for having me on their shows on Thursday.

Relative size matters: eyespots on large insect prey deter small #arthropod predators #ProcB royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #Behaviour #Cognition

#Spider venom potency exhibits phylogenetic prey specificity but does not trade-off with body size or silk use in prey capture royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

As the US government slashes Harvard’s funding, Nature has learnt that researchers at the university have lost nearly 1,000 grants worth more than US$2.4 billion. https://go.nature.com/4jg8Sxa

Absolutely fascinating stuff!!!!

Along with our research on spider venom potency published in Biology Letters, we were kindly asked to prepare a seminar discussing the manuscript for @royalsocietypublishing.org/@cassyni.bsky.social's "Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series" doi.org/10.52843/cassyni.slp5xv. It's free to watch! Enjoy!

Are you looking for a distraction? Do you love natural history and museum specimens? Join @joshlukedavis.com and I for "The 'Perfect' Specimen" - an irreverent look at the natural world through via some of the @nhm-london.bsky.social's 80 million specimens, and increasingly random adjectives...

Our latest research on the factors influencing spider venom potency has been published in Biology Letters! doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... Big thank you to my supervisors Dr @healyke.bsky.social and Dr Michel Dugon along with the media team @uniofgalway.bsky.social for spreading the word!

Delighted to see our latest paper on the macroecology of spider venoms led by @keithlnotions.bsky.social published today in Biology letters. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....

Innovation takes time US scientists who received renewals from the NIH over the past four decades produced more novel research than those who didn’t https://go.nature.com/44s6cc5

The pointy edges of petals rely on a type of geometric feedback never before seen in nature. https://go.nature.com/3GuL0bw

🚨 Worm tube hermit, people 🦀 🚨

I've finally made the move to Bluesky! Will likely work off both Bluesky and Twitter(X) for now but if you want to see my previous posts (going as far back as Nov 2019!) here is my Twitter(X) account: x.com/KeithLNotions, also with the @KeithLNotions handle. #movetobluesky #betterlatethannever