A new publication from the TWCF-funded “Rationality and Reason Beyond the Individual Project” found evidence that chimpanzees may be able to reason about mutually exclusive future possibilities.

Read more below. 👇

Opportunity: A fully funded PhD position for statisticians passionate about epidemiology. University of Leeds, start in September 2026.
phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2470...

Final version of record here: elifesciences.org/articles/107... Enjoy tracking

Can chimpanzees prepare for mutually exclusive possibilities individually or collectively?

Check out our new paper in Phil Trans @royalsociety.org, led by @drelizabethwarren.bsky.social, and funded by @templetonworld.bsky.social!

And stay tuned for the next paper, clarifying the mechanism!

Chimpanzees spontaneously prepare for mutually exclusive possibilities, and collective context strengthens this behaviour Abstract. In both humans and non-human animals, collectives can sometimes overcome individual cognitive biases or shortcomings to execute more rational beh

New paper alert! 📢 Out now, fully #openaccess, in a special issue of Phil Trans on the evolution of collective intelligence (1/4) royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteri...

Huge Numbers tackles mathematics at its most incomprehensibly large Mathematician Richard Elwes surveys googology, the study of enormous numbers, in a new book.

In a new book, mathematician Richard Elwes shares how mathematical boundaries have been broken time and time again, thanks to the creative explorers of the biggest numbers known.
www.sciencenews.org/article/huge-numbers-boo...

Richard Elwes holding a copy of his book “Huge Numbers”. PS Also available as an audiobook!

A special moment when something which has been buzzing around your brain and computer for ages finally achieves a physical form!

A recording of the lecture (the camera on the speaker seems to have failed, but the slides and audio seem alright): mymedia.leeds.ac.uk/Mediasite/Sh...

Intelligent agents can still take irrational actions and, sometimes, groups of animals are better at making good decisions than their constituent individuals.

Read the latest article from the TWCF-funded project, “Rationality and Reason beyond the Individual“ project below.

Does being in a collective buffer against individual forgetting, when it comes to navigation?

New paper by Joe Morford: we find that collectives of homing pigeons remember their routes better than individuals

@dorabiro.bsky.social @richardpmann.bsky.social

Thanks to @templetonworld.bsky.social !

Despite knowing there was an easy mistake to make I made the easy mistake

Collective route memories emerge through differential forgetting of navigational information in homing pigeons - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Collective route memories emerge through differential forgetting of navigational information in homing pigeons

Collective wisdom emerges in pigeons through forgetting randomly-different information over time doi.org/10.1038/s415...

I’m looking for a post doc (up to five years) interested in phylogenetics and earth systems - please spread the word!

SyS@IMT School - Complex Systems and Networks (CN) Complex Systems and Networks (CN)

Call for fully funded PhD positions at our Lab. All positions are open worldwide. Students develop their own project within any area of complex systems (for our PhD track).
Please share with potential applicants and, if relevant to you, visit the link or DM for info.
sys.imtlucca.it/program-over...

Thank you, Shane! There will eventually be a video I think, though if you’ve read the paper there won’t be too many surprises!

Inaugural Lecture: Professor Richard Mann, School of Mathematics Join us on 24 March for the upcoming Inaugural Lecture of Richard Mann, Professor of Mathematical Ecology and Evolution in the School of Mathematics.

Inviting anyone who is interested to come to my inaugural lecture, 'Why the Cambrian Explosion happened', on March 24 at the University of Leeds eps.leeds.ac.uk/faculty-engi...

I wonder how the value of the smallest undiscovered number changes over time

The curious life of a clever slime mold In its quest to feed, avoid nasty substances and just generally live its life, the brainless, one-celled Physarum polycephalum performs some impressive tricks of learning and memory

From Knowable Magazine: The curious life of a clever slime mold | Knowable Magazine knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

Ediacaran fossil surface on the coastline of Newfoundland, Canada

This #FossilFriday I am delighted to share a postdoctoral position that we @deeptimeecology.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social are advertising on early animal evolution in the #Ediacaran.

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...

www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds...

It’s actually a really good paper but the music doesn’t speak to me

I assume you’re familiar with this one

A speeding clock could solve Darwin’s mystery of gaps in animal fossil records Scientists have long been confused about ‘missing’ animal fossils.

I’ve written something for The Conversation on a fascinating recent paper by @grahbudd.bsky.social and @richardpmann.bsky.social on problems with molecular clocks. academic.oup.com/sysbio/artic...

theconversation.com/a-speeding-c...

course schedule as a table. Available at the link in the post.

I'm teaching Statistical Rethinking again starting Jan 2026. This time with live lectures, divided into Beginner and Experienced sections. Will be a lot more work for me, but I hope much better for students.

I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...

Too Many Numbers? Abstract. A somewhat personal account of the development and acceptance of numerical taxonomic methods during the early years of the journal Systematic Zoo

I'm really enjoying this memoir on the history of numerical methods in phylogenetics by F. James Rohlf: academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Yeah; Meh; Eeh; Urgh

Call is out for Champalimaud International Neuroscience Doctoral Programme 2026! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

CITP Seminar: Scientific Barriers to Evidence-Based Tech Policy | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Twenty years after Facebook spread across college campuses, its effects on society remain heavily studied and poorly understood. Little consensus exists over whether it promotes or degrades mental hea...

I recently gave a seminar at CITP on the barriers to evidence based tech policy. It’s online to watch now!

H/t @princetoncitp.bsky.social

spia.princeton.edu/events/citp-...

PhD position available in evolutionary genomics/bioinformatics (hoehnalab.github.io/job_adverts/...). Topic: analyzing gene expression evolution across several firefly species and linking expression changes to genomic architecture. The position is jointly supervised with @anaevolcatalan.bsky.social