Are innovators born that way, or does solving problems come from experience?🐭 In our recent(ish) paper in @asab.org with @valmazza.bsky.social & Anja Guenther, we show innovation may be inherent in wild house mice and experience makes innovators better! paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123441

How incredible: “The full delivery took about 30 minutes. For hours afterward, pairs of whales held the baby above the water until it was able to swim… What struck the researchers was how many mother, sister and daughter whales united to support the new calf, even ones that weren’t related.”

So, about those Eid prayers in London... "What's the highest thing in Trafalgar Square?" "Nelson's column, innit?" "And the highest thing on the column?" "Nelson." "And on Nelson?" "His hat." "And the highest thing on his hat?" "That bit that sticks up." 1/8

Sprung! Twice in the year, around the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the sunrise shines right along Ingram Street, turning the Iron Duke, his steed, Copenhagen, and even his traffic cone hat into a shadowy work of art against the great doors of GoMA. Picture: u/Hoyerman68

I watched Sinners last weekend and am currently watching One Battle After Another. I’m not a horror movie fan but Sinners was much better. #Oscars

No-one’s asking you to change your spots when you’re this good looking… 😍 #leopard #mbchimps #bigkitty #fieldwork #Guinea 🧪

I am happy to share this article, entitled "The importance of Biological Theory". It is my inaugural editorial as the new Editor-in-Chief of @biologicaltheory.bsky.social . In these complex and challenging times, theory is more important now than ever. Enjoy! doi.org/10.1007/s137...

A beautiful sight - so many different shades of green on the western slopes of the Long Mynd. I was on Adstone Hill for this shot, enjoying the peace and quiet in the morning sunshine. I had set out hoping for long shadows stretching across the fields - and that’s exactly what I got. #Shropshire

Today is St David’s Day: patron saint of Wales, of course, but also of vegetarians and poets. He was reputed to have helped introduce bees to Ireland. He is famously quoted as saying “Gwnewch y pethau bychain”, meaning “Do the little things”. Small changes and good choices matter, especially now.

This is a very cool story, about how art historians, curators, mathematicians, and palaeographers work together to restore masterpieces: www.quantamagazine.org/using-mathem...

I know I keep banging on about my designs but it’s not easy being a small business at the moment. Take a look at my wares and please repost. gailmyerscough.co.uk Thanks!

Why don’t airports have gyms?

UCL to close its Institute of Advanced Studies this summer, stating the interdisciplinary research centre is no longer financially sustainable www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ucl-axe... via @jgro-the.bsky.social

Apparently it's #WorldHippoDay! 🦛🦛 Let's celebrate with this #Egyptian carving of a Hippo, made 5.000 years ago from calcite. Hippopotami were associated with life, regeneration, and rebirth. On display at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 📷 me 🏺

Latest drop in UK student visa applications ‘deeply concerning’. There were 19,800 applications last month—a 31 per cent decrease on January 2025, when there were 28,700. It is the fourth month in a row that monthly visa applications have been at a four year low.

I spent several hours with Gisele Pelicot in Paris She is remarkable This Sunday her only UK TV interview airs across the BBC

I changed the audio

This teenager saved his neighbor's dog from drowning in a freezing pond. This is Bernard. His family contacted emergency services right away, but high school senior Hugh Pinneo got to Bernard first. Hugh said he's "just glad I acted that day and saved the dog's life." We are too. 12/10 for all

I'd watch a muppet show movie where the muppets infiltrate an academic conference.

Imagination in bonobos! I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Other work of the Ladybird artists. A February Day Artist: Rowland Hilder

New wadertales blog on how quickly juvenile godwits learn to feed efficiently through their first winter: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/l... From new @asab.org paper led by Josh Nightingale: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #ornithology

Last week, RPN broke a string of stories on significant changes to funding across a number of research councils (see thread below) This morning, UKRI chief executive is appearing at the Commons science committee, where he is being asked about them by MPs Here are some key moments so far 🧵

Can't resist revisiting this Art Nouveau winding staircase decorated with metal flowers and vines, designed by architect Ede Magyar, at Reök Palace in Szeged, Hungary (1907)

“Ambitious” plans to use research funding to attract industry investment of £25 billion by the end of the decade are likely to prove “extremely challenging” given falling levels of university-business spending, experts have warned. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky https://ow.ly/CKxs50XTrmp

I caught this beautiful sunset today. #London #HousesofParliament

"University fees and migration numbers threaten Brexit reset youth deal"

🚨Roll up, roll up, fully-funded #PhD deadlines approaching... 6th Jan: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6 8th Jan: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp Social monitoring & manipulation #meerkats #mongooses #macaques #fieldwork #long-termdata @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social @ljnbrent.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

‘You sit on a throne of lies’ - Christmas has officially begun.

Georgia O'Keeffe, You Are The Sun, 1977 #Womensart #Solstice

How should universities work with combined authorities and business to support inclusive growth in our city-regions? Some reflections on my five years in Greater Manchester, to mark the year of my retirement from the University of Manchester. softmachines.org?p=3213

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 21 Artist: CF Tunnicliffe (What to Look for in Winter, 1959)

'Bananas.' (1956) Throughout his career Lucian Freud was fascinated with plants and approached the painting of them without smothering them with symbolic meaning much the same as his mentor Cedric Morris, himself an evocative and unsentimental flower painter.

Books I have read and enjoyed on my holiday: The Original by Nell Stevens, the second of the ‘On the Calculation of Volume’ by Solvej Balle, and The List of Suspicious Things by Janine Godfrey.

Many plausible candidates contributing to this dismal performance, from the factors leading up to the 2008 crisis, post-crisis policies that made the situation worse, and the shocks of the last decade My blogpost: The UK's continuing economic growth crisis softmachines.org?p=3206

Looks excellent!

This new issue of #PhilTransB expands the field of cultural #evolution and shows why it matters for today’s biggest challenges. It highlights research funded by the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social's Transformation Fund, which focused on #DEI: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

At the packed launch of the OfS 5-year strategy. Chair Edward Peck is opening: “We want to create strong, robust, two-way dialogue”. Based on recent years, many in the sector will recognise that as more of a strategic change than it may sound.

In #winter 2018, Icelandic photographer Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir wanted to show her partner, who was away in the capital, how much it had snowed overnight at their home and posted a photo of herself on FB #womensart

My recent morning runs have both been very beautiful but also quite different.

The true pleasure of Bluesky. "When I look around, I see people who often took a big professional risk because they would not comply. In many cases, they had profiles they had built up for years. They let it go. They did this because they refused to extinguish their moral character."

European Research Council’s new €7m Plus Grants open to researchers at any career stage, but not to holders of ongoing ERC grants, funder reveals www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

These posters for the South Korean stage production of Macbeth are the greatest thing ever? #art

Not a bad day in London, the National Portrait Gallery, and then Nouvelle Vague in Camden Town.

Since we are once again dealing with "the only silent era comedians of note were men" I feel I need to stand up for the ladies. Marion Davies!

It is always painful to drag yourself out of bed for a morning run especially when it is cold; but it is always worth it. #morningrun #leamingtonspa #morninglight

Affective science has lost an extraordinary member of our community: Dr. Paul Ekman, who passed peacefully at home at the age of 91 on Monday. Dr. Ekman's pioneering cross-cultural research on the interpretation of facial expressions in emotional terms...(1)