Peregrine falcon hunting bats (very successfully) in Houston tonight!

My buddy and bat scientist @arummel.bsky.social is studying how bat wings move in flight. Scientists often look at the 2d shapes of bat wings but her work shows it’s critical to consider the 3d shape while in flight. #SICB2026

IOB is gearing up for #BatWeek Oct 24-31st by featuring our co-author @arummel.bsky.social See Rice University's " #Bats, poaching and the pulse of the forest: Rice #researchers lead #biodiversity study in Tanzania" news.rice.edu/news/2025/ba... & read doi.org/10.1093/iob/... #science

Come join us at Rice!

Wing pelage is suggested to have a functional role in bats — and it’s not just to make them cuter. Check out the publication below to learn more! #academia #academicSky #PhDSky #bats #science

Super proud to share the first first-author paper from @ashockney24.bsky.social and our first official Rummel lab publication! Check it out here: nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Loved this write-up of our fieldwork in Tanzania this summer, led by grad student Annie Finneran and undergrad Caroline Pollan. I felt very lucky to join them to catch some bats there! news.rice.edu/news/2025/ba...

Possum in my trash can I REPEAT! Possum in my trash can.

Another active night at Buffalo Bayou watching the bat emergence. The bats come out before sunset, and so do the predators, with hawks catching them mid-air and herons plucking them from their roosts

Really nice write-up of our collaboration with San Jacinto College! We are working together to listen to 🦇🦇🦇around Houston. Shout out to @ashockney24.bsky.social for getting this project off the ground!

We had a truly spectacular emergence at Waugh Bridge last night! 🦇

Battle of the wings at Buffalo Bayou (the bat got away 😮‍💨🦇)

We got the cover of Nature Eco Evo for our anglerfish study!! Shoutout to our graduate student HoWan Chan for the slick image. Read to study here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nice bat emergence in Houston the other night, with a red-shouldered hawk on the hunt.

“We believe this rush to comply is a sign that universities are willing to become an institutional wing of the new segregationists.” www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Grad student Kate checking out some bats in a local colony. Glamorous fieldwork!

Last week, a video of a rare black seadevil anglerfish spotted near the ocean surface made headlines because anglerfish typically live in very deep waters. Dr. @sternarchella.bsky.social joins us to discuss the video and recent research on anglerfish evolution.

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

The Rummel Lab is almost ready for move-in! What a view 🥹

Army Blackhawk helicopters are crashing into passenger planes at DCA while the Secretary of Defense is on Fox News ranting about DEI

This isn't mine at all, but the Magic School Bus TV cartoon, which inspired untold millennials including myself, originated as an NSF grant 🧪 www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

Helloooo? Horseshoe crab is that you?

NSF PRFB POSTDOCS: Pull the remainder of this funding cycle’s stipend, all remaining research funds, and all remaining travel funds (if you have them). Do it before 5PM today. Per instructions from multiple NSF POs. If you’re not already on the PRFB slack, DM me and I’ll send you an invite

I’m an NSF panel reviewer that was scheduled to meet today. Just got notice that all NSF panels were canceled today. I reviewed some innovative proposals in support of students. Devastating if these scholars don’t get to do this work. For the love of science & students I hope this is just a delay.💔

Looks like the following programs in #NSF BIO have been 'archived': BRC-BIO - new.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... BIO-LEAPS - new.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... PRFB - new.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

The world is not fun right now. But! we are finally scanning the fishes that we caught in Okinawa last month and added a particularly special one to the dataset today. This is a rainbow runner. Its a common pelagic fish that has eluded us for years somehow. Its really pretty in life and as a scan.

Houston showing up to the snow day with the most creative sleds:

BONKERS to me that Elon's double nazi salute isn't the leading news story today. What in the fuck kind of world

Seeing my biggest platform destroyed, then watching many younger women in SciComm have *their* biggest platforms destroyed is weighing on me. I’ve rebuilt here. I know they can rebuild too. Having our delicate careers subject to billionaire whims has me wishing for a stability I don’t think exists.

Hi! I'm new to blue sky, and I have a new preprint out! 🥳🥳 This work is the first chapter of my dissertation: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... The study was completed with the @viralemergence.org with support from @danjbecker.bsky.social, @colincarlson.bsky.social, and Amanda Vicente-Santos ☺️🦇⚕️🦠👩‍🔬 (1/5)

Check out this absolutely amazing glittery #brachiopod with structures of the #lophophore preserved

Super proud of my grad students @ashockney24.bsky.social and Kate Manges Douglas. They gave stellar presentations at #SICB2025 after just one semester of grad school!

Did a low key draw what you learned this week with @arummel.bsky.social. We are too sleepy to go out partying 😅 I learned that lizards assume “skydiving position” when falling. Andrea learned that bats are cool (she already knew that lol). #SICB2025 #DrawWhatYouLearned

I actually think Houston has LA and NYC beat on affordable ethnic food. Cheap housing and fast permitting means you attract a lot of niche options. (And much more so than LA or NYC, Houston has extremely good regional US cuisine—BBQ, Southern food, TexMex.) bsky.app/profile/jame...

@arummel.bsky.social learned about parrots have weird tongues that help them drink #SICB2025 #DrawWhatYouLearned

@princetonvaughn.bsky.social’s awesome research!

Hey #SICB2025, join us on that balcony on the atrium level to draw something you learned this week (or whatever you want honestly). I brought art supplies 🫡

Are you interested in cute, fluffy mammals? 👀 Me too! Come learn why some bats are fluffier than others at my #SICB2025 oral presentation Monday at 1:45pm in International 5 📸 Traer Scott

Are you at #SICB2025 and interested in bats? Check out @ashockney24.bsky.social’s talk on how furry bat wings are (Monday at 1:45PM in International 5), and Kate Manges Douglas’s poster on how hot bat wings are (Monday, P3-121)! Sneak peaks below:

Hi 👋 I’m a new assistant prof at Rice studying bats and what makes them so cool. Here I am with what quite possibly may be the ugliest bat in the world, my fav Centurio senex (handled with proper permits and experience)

Do you need a squid fact? The squid facts hotline can help. Simply text "Squid" to 1-833-SCI-TEXT. That's 1-833-724-8398. Over 70,000 people served with fresh hot squid facts so far 🫡

Hi folks! I’m Andrea and I’m a postdoc at Princeton studying thermal and muscle physiology in bats and lizards. Bats are my true love - they’re the coolest mammals ever