Audubon Day yesterday at the @lsulibraries.bsky.social was an incredible chance for the public to see all four folios of Audubon’s The Birds of North America and their newly acquired Quadrupeds of North America 😍🦜🦆🦅🦢🦃🦉🦩🐦‍⬛🪿🐿️🐻🦝🐅🦌🦨🦫

I had a great time at the @hhmi-science.bsky.social Gilliam Mentorship workshop last week! My mentee @marquisehenry.bsky.social was with me in spirit and in latte 😂☕️

LSU Discover Day 2026 was an awesome chance for lab members (and one of our CURE lab students!) to present research from the lab! Thanks to @lsudiscover.bsky.social for organizing! @lsuscience.bsky.social @lsubiosci.bsky.social 🧪🧫🦎

Post-doc opportunity on comparative cognition and movement dynamics in corvids with the brilliant Prof Debbie Kelly at the University of Manitoba

It’s wild azalea season in Louisiana 😍

The first Louisiana iris of spring! 🤩

I worked with several @lsu.bsky.social undergraduate researchers to redesign technical posters to make them accessible for a broader audience, & they did a fabulous job presenting their findings to lawmakers this past Monday @lailluminator.com: lailluminator.com/2026/03/13/c...

Sparrows that avoided novelty also performed more repetitive beak-wiping behavior, suggesting these birds may be more anxious. This project was the @lsubiosci.bsky.social honors thesis of @lsuscience.bsky.social undergrad Danna Masri, who is also first author! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Lattin and @juheehaam.bsky.social lab members teaching local 4th-6th graders about neurobiology at the @lsumns.bsky.social annual Kids' Day at the Museum event! @lsuscience.bsky.social @lsulagniappe.bsky.social 🧪

New paper alert! Our collaboration with @jacanamama.bsky.social & Alex Bentz found Eurasian tree sparrows, a less-successful invasive cousin of house sparrows, had distinct patterns of gene expression associated with novelty avoidance that differed by sex: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

Today I learned that Charles Darwin delayed publishing On the Origin of Species because he was too busy writing FOUR VOLUMES on the barnacles of the world (shout out to @lucycooke.bsky.social and her awesome book Bitch for that fun fact) 📚🧪

These orb-weaver spiders build FAKE SPIDER DECOYS in their webs, potentially to deter predators 🤯 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Roseate spoonbills on the @lsu.bsky.social lake!

Congratulations to Rebekah Rashford and team, it’s finally out! We tagged early life stress-activated neurons in VTA and found that chromatin those cells was much more open, even into adulthood, and that open CREs predicted greater gene expression in response to stress later in life rdcu.be/eLa9z

Bird-safe glass on the new @lsuscience.bsky.social Interdisciplinary Science Building! The repeated 2 inch vertical pattern should help minimize window collisions 🥰🐦‍⬛🪟

It was thrilling to be involved in this multi-site, multi-bird @themanybirds.bsky.social project out today in @plosbiology.org! We examined why some bird species show more novelty avoidance than others; 2 big predictors were a specialist diet & migratory behavior: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

I’m loving the @lsumns.bsky.social new “Art After Dark” series! Last night I learned how @lsu.bsky.social Art & Design Professor Leslie Koptcho is making paper out of invasive plants, and using them as inspiration for her printmaking 😍🌱📃🖼️🧪

Current list of funded programs in EPSCoR states: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Enter the 2026 @sicb-spdac.bsky.social sticker contest! Stickers will be available at the SPDAC booth at the #SICB2026 meeting. Enter submissions by November 3 as PDF or PNG files (>600 dpi; no AI designs). 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place will receive Visa gift card prizes: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The lab’s research on house sparrows & Eurasian tree sparrows is featured in Chapter 2 of David Stipp’s new non-fiction book, “Why Rats Laugh and Jellyfish Sleep: And Other Enchanting Stories of Evolution," available September 23: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david... 🤩🐦📖🧪

"Once you get to the top, you get to ski all the way back down the mountain!" Read @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student @jacobcarignan.bsky.social's interview with Quantitative Ecologist Michelle Stantial about her ski mountaineering hobby: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...

A very nice article from @lsuscience.bsky.social about @marquisehenry.bsky.social and his @hhmi.org Gilliam Fellowship! Geaux Marquise!! 💜💛 www.lsu.edu/science/news...

I’m so so proud of rockstar PhD student @marquisehenry.bsky.social who is one of this year’s class of @hhmi.org Gilliam Fellows! @lsubiosci.bsky.social @lsuscience.bsky.social @lsu.bsky.social

"I got all my friends and family to come out and see me being Anne of Cleves! That was great." @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student @ezekielbmartin.bsky.social interviews @westernu.ca Biology Professor @bethmacshack.bsky.social about her show choir hobby: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...

"This campaign wasn't written by biologists...I have to come up on the fly with a reason why it makes sense to somebody who knows about genetics." @lsumns.bsky.social PhD student @harveyyamanda.bsky.social interviews Quinn McCallum about his RPG & miniatures hobbies: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...

"I've snapped tendons in my hands, which meant long recovery periods...those moments taught me patience." @urigso.bsky.social Oceanographer Kelton McMahon talking about his rock climbing hobby with @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student Yasodha Gamage on our class blog: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...

I had an awesome morning at the #postersatcapitolLA25 event today! I really enjoyed chatting with Louisiana’s best and brightest undergrad researchers @lsu.bsky.social & 11 other LaURA organizations on how their important work helps their local communities, our state, country & world 🥹🧪

"I had the choice of getting a driver’s license for a moped or a sailboat, and of course I went for the boat." Read more about @lsubiosci.bsky.social PhD student Jackson Ferber's interview with @katharinahoff.bsky.social about her sailing hobby here: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...

I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding. It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

As I know from when my students try to do it, using ChatGPT to write your scientific reports is not the best idea www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

The lab was recognized for outstanding research & teaching at this year's @lsuscience.bsky.social awards! Danna Masri won the Undergraduate Research Award from @lsubiosci.bsky.social, former PhD student Melanie Kimball the Distinguished Dissertation Award, & I received a Graduate Teaching Award ❤️

"Everybody who has a voice can sing. One of the big takeaways is that anyone can do it; we are all born with this natural ability to sing." Read @lsuvetmed.bsky.social PhD student Kimia Nourozi's interview with @prolactingrl.bsky.social‬ about her hobbies here: thelattinlab.com/beyond-the-b...

Our new collaborative paper (led by former undergrad Kenedi Lynch) found very high avian malaria rates in Louisiana wild turkeys, suggesting the parasites may be one reason turkeys have declined locally @lsubiosci.bsky.social: meridian.allenpress.com/avian-diseas... 🦟🦃🔬🧪

A new paper from the lab led by Blake Dusang & @marquisehenry.bsky.social builds on past work & finds not all "neophobia" tests measure the same trait. Specifically, responses to novel objects & novel environments were not consistent within individuals: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Three lab members presented their research on physiology and behavior at the LSU Discover Day conference a few weeks ago, and they all did a fabulous job! @lsudiscover.bsky.social @lsubiosci.bsky.social 👩🏻‍🔬🐦🦎🧫🧪

Congratulations to Sara Wang, who just defended her PhD dissertation in Oceanography on how ocean temperature variation affects foraging & physiology in 2 Peruvian seabirds! Sara ran feather corticosterone assays in my lab & I really enjoyed being on her committee @lsu.bsky.social 🥰🪶🧪

Science Writing Tip of the Day: “and/or” reads very awkwardly. It’s almost always better to just pick one and go with that instead! ✍️💻🧪

73% of mothers with kids under 18 are in the workforce. More than flowers or brunch, working moms need: -Paid family leave -Equal pay -Universal childcare (But get your mom flowers, too)

For example: “The goal of this study was to elucidate the role of host immunity in parasite evolution” ❌👎 “The goal of this study was to clarify the role of host immunity in parasite evolution” ✅👍 It’s just so much better! ✍️💻🧪

Science Writing Tip of the Day: “Clarify” is almost always better than “elucidate” ✍️💻🧪

Make your voice heard – join the tri-society Week of Action for NSF! Call and write congress, and tell colleagues, friends, and family about the importance of NSF funding. Find how to get started in our Media Tool: shorturl.at/i7WfU

Three amazing @lsubiosci.bsky.social undergraduate researchers, Ilea Kuo, Hermione Lam, and Danna Masri, defended Senior Honors Theses from the lab this year! They will all be going on to medical school, and I know their research experiences will make them excellent evidence-based physicians 🥹🩺🥼🧪

The winners of this year’s “Dance Your PhD” contest from @science.org @aaas.org are extremely fun: www.science.org/content/arti...

Spotted on a recent walk around the LSU lakes 🐢

We previously showed corticosterone is involved in neophobia (novelty avoidance) in house sparrows; my students @marquisehenry.bsky.social & Melanie Kimball's new paper found this effect does not appear to be mediated via low-affinity glucocorticoid receptors: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/NMYI9B...

Congratulations to all the NSF GRFP awardees, though I was very sad to see the numbers of fellowships this year reduced by >50%

Did you know there is a leaf cutter ant native to the southeastern US? Atta texana, the Texas leaf cutter ant, is found from Louisiana to Mexico, and can form massive colonies of millions of ants! Like tropical leaf cutter ants, they use plant material to “farm” a fungus that they eat 🍄‍🟫 🍃 🐜

Baby longleaf pines are so cute and silly! I was happy to see these lil’ guys on our hike as I’m also reading Janisse Ray’s excellent “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” (which features them prominently) 💚

Another highlight from yesterday’s hike in the Kisatchie National Forest: dwarf sundew carnivorous plants! (This one has captured a teeny tiny beetle.)