"Jane Goodall showed us what a life in science could look like: rigorous discovery paired with fierce advocacy for what you study. She gave the world six decades of groundbreaking research on chimpanzees and their habitats, then turned that knowledge into a global movement for conservation." (1/2)

New from me and wonderful collabs!

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

Watch #BiologyLetters author Avery Maune talk about new research revealing that urbanization can reshape social behaviour in the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis): cassyni.com/events/3Hp2U... #AnimalBehaviour #ethology

How do insects respond to changing climates? Our new review and analysis in @annualreviews.bsky.social suggests that phenological adaptation trumps thermal adaptation. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

I'm not comparing myself to Darwin "But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything."

Here's an image that requires a second look. It looks like a creature with big dark eyes is peering at you: it's not. You're looking at a FROG'S BUTT (you pervert). Let's meet the Cuyaba dwarf frog (Physalaemus nattereri). Maybe we should start with seeing the front of it? (📷: George Grall)

Water anoles take a bubble of air down when they submerge, which they breathe like a tiny scuba tank, and now @lindseyswierk.bsky.social & co reveal that the reptiles may also be using the bubble like a gill, to breathe oxygen directly from the water journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

We are seeking an ornithologist/modeller for a 2-year POST-DOC in Turin. Using archaeological remains, we will reconstruct past avian communities to understand the impacts of climate change and human pressure on birds through time. For details see cutt.ly/irN76QDZ PLEASE RT. #ornithology #AviArch

This only happens to you once

ASAB @asab.org conference grants for the Winter meeting in Edinburgh, up to £500, close 1st October! @asab-meetings.bsky.social #ASABWinter2025 All the details needed are here: www.asab.org/conference-g... Don't forget I also need a referee statement emailed direct by the same deadline!

🚀 Calling early-career biologists! The @biologists.bsky.social Travel Grant gives you up to £800 to attend conferences, workshops, or lab visits. 🗓️ This round closes 30 September — don’t miss it! ✅ Apply here: www.sebiology.org/grants/grant... #ScienceFunding #TravelGrant #Biology

Looking for examples of a very simple mathematical model interactive exercise to help students understand reproductive trade offs, e.g. using offspring number vs survival, working through a basic equation. Has anyone done anything like this in a workshop that they'd be willing to share?

🌍🦋 Across 6 continents, 21 sites & 15,000 paper moths, we joined a worldwide experiment led by @wlallen.bsky.social & Iliana Medina, showing how ecological context shapes the evolution of animal colouration. Proud to be part of this global team effort: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

I have a job opening in my lab. If you are interested in bird behaviour and predator prey interactions please take a look! werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Looking for examples of a very simple mathematical model interactive exercise to help students understand reproductive trade offs, e.g. using offspring number vs survival, working through a basic equation. Has anyone done anything like this in a workshop that they'd be willing to share?

Very happy to see our new study on the evolution of eusociality come out in Evolution Letters! Our study is the first to experimentally manipulate the proportion of females that stay and help to simulate incipient sociality & assess fitness impact of helping. 🧵

**PhD POSITIONS** I am recruiting 1-2 PhD students to work on sociality and cognition in Monk Parakeets, starting Fall 2026. Full ad is here: hobsonresearch.com/index.php/20... (please help spread the word!)

This is a great seminar series - highly recommend following the programme!

Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

New out in Molecular Ecology! In which we show that small males try harder when it comes to seminal fluid proteins. w/ @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @becks-seascience.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

"Why do queen bumblebees emerge from hibernation during weekends?" I love this framing about bias in hobbyist-collected data.

If this happens, it will tear apart families, and destroy the UK. Immigration is fundamental to our existence, our universities, health care system, creative arts & more would be destroyed. Reform are the biggest danger this country has faced in my lifetime www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Nice write up of our paper on the Bangor Uni news website! @bangoruniversity.bsky.social @beps-bangor.bsky.social www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2025-09...

Listers is SO good

Come & work with us - fully funded 4 year PhD on Social Ageing: Social environment effects on senescence, using an epigenetic clock www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor... @rug.nl @david-s-richardson.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social photo: @charlisdavies.bsky.social

Nice write up of our paper on the Bangor Uni news website! @bangoruniversity.bsky.social @beps-bangor.bsky.social www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2025-09...

ORCAS!!! A few clips of the '65s' Northern Isles community Orcas - including 'Busta' the huge adult bull - hunting close inshore here in Shetland this summer. Enjoying life as nature intended - in the ocean and not in a swimming pool. #MarineLife #MarineMammals #CetaceansUK #UKWildlife

Women, non-native English speakers & those form low-income countries are disadvantaged in science but by how much? We found that women with non-English first languages from low-income countries publish up to 70% fewer in English than their counterparts. 1/5 doi.org/10.1371/jour... #languagebarriers

Fully funded PhD working on insectivorous bird declines with a broad range of stakeholders. Starting ASAP #ornithology #zoology #biodiversity #science #ecology www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.

Food for thought as we head into another semester...

New paper! Does associating with their mother in the early postnatal period buffer offspring from the consequences of prenatal stress (glucocorticoids) in a facultatively social lizard? No! Instead, maternal CORT altered offspring social phenotype: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🦗 New paper in Animal Behaviour! We tested if family life shields earwig juveniles from cadmium… spoiler: it doesn’t! 😅 But social interactions still shaped many juvenile traits. Fourth paper from @r-honorio.bsky.social's ATER project at @irbi-tours.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In honour of "Postdoc Appreciation Week", a plug for a paper I was involved in 5 years ago (w/ @bjmjarrett.bsky.social, @muriellealund.bsky.social and others) in which we highlighted how academia could better support postdocs. There is much here that remains relevant! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our latest #SORTEE-led paper is out now in #ProcB! We reviewed data/code-sharing policy clarity, strictness & timing across 275 EcoEvo journals We also worked with #ProcB & #EcologyLetters to assess initial compliance with sharing mandates. Huge team effort! 👉 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

How an academic betrayal led me to change my authorship practices | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Would you like some good news? A new vaccine has just been approved for protecting koalas from chlamydia, which is one of their leading causes of death.

🚨NEW paper🚨 out now in @ecol-evol.bsky.social from the brilliant #Masters of @laurenvane.bsky.social Hot temperature effects on behaviour & body mass. Aided by dream #mongoose team of @josharbon.bsky.social Amy Morris-Drake & @juliekern.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:

An exciting new study now out in which I played a small part - Wood Frog Testicular Microstructure Correlates with Plasma Hormone Concentrations During Late-Stage Spermatogenesis www.herpconbio.org/Volume_20/Is... Excited to see this out, and to add a new taxonomic group to my pub list!! 🐸❤️

ants 😅

The first of Jessie Foley’s work on the #evolution of #ageing in #Heliconius for your reading pleasure. Come for the 348 day old butterfly, stay for the evolved slower rate of ageing, species*diet effects, and weightlifting for elderly butterflies 💪🏻👵🏻 🧪

There's a good independent summary of the paper here. Of particular note is that the potential area for afforestation in Africa has been massively over-stated.

🧬🔬 Explore phylogenetic analysis from genome to tree! Basic workflow with #rstats #bioconductor. Learnt to work with large genomic data. Extract 16S rRNA from 10K+ E.coli strains using dataset dehydrate, barrnap for extraction, rapidNJ for tree building & FigTree for visualization. #microsky #idsky

Newborn babies are still arriving, and meanwhile some of the older babies are getting brave and exploring! This footage is sped up to show a nighttime slither-about. Watch live at RattleCam.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeYq...

Has anyone had any experience with working with GVI (at a glance looks similar to Operation Wallacea) in a research capacity? Have been contacted about working at one of their sites.

📰Published📰Hungry females deceptively attract males to exploit them as prey🪲 buff.ly/hUpfbP9 🧪🌍

There's less than a week left to submit your proposal for @jappliedecology.bsky.social, @journalofecology.bsky.social and @peopleandnature.bsky.social's cross-journal Special Feature! 🧪🌎