NASA just dropped this image of Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch looking back at us. The first woman to ever see our planet in its entirety. I’m not crying you’re crying 🥹🔭🧪 📸: NASA
"We found that cumulative improvement occurred across generations even in the absence of causal structure, demonstrating that cultural transmission alone *can* drive technological improvement."
Beautiful study. No notes. Highly recommended.
📣 Out now in @pnasnexus.org our *NEW PAPER* revamping a long-standing debate: to what extent does causal reasoning aid the cultural evolution of technology?
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ad...
Thanks to @vdscobene.bsky.social for inviting me to give a keynote talk at the last PhD Academy Conference @univie.ac.at. I felt so honoured to be surrounded by so many bright young minds in this marvellous historic venue ✨
📣 NEW! I’ve just released the BIGGEST and perhaps most creative project I’ve ever worked on!
“Searching for Birds” searchingforbirds.visualcinnamon.com 🐤
A project, an article, an exploration that dives into the data that connects humans with birds, by looking at how we search for birds.
Median amount of time spent under review is 7.4–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles and the differences remain significant after controlling for several factors - analysis of >36.5 million articles in >36,000 journals
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
A group of enthusiastic young scientists hugging evolutionary biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant
Groupie highlight moment meeting my academic heroes, the iconic Peter and Rosemary Grant!
What an immense pleasure to listen to their fieldwork stories and trailblazing discoveries with the Darwin's finches in my beloved Galápagos 💚
🚨New Paper on Bonobo and Chimpanzee tool flexibility. As so often performance is leveraged by the captivity effect yet the two species differ in explorative behavior and how readily they switch between tool types. For more 👇🏼 royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article... @rachelaharrison.bsky.social
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
A Robin is perched on a weathered wooden surface, its bright orange-red breast puffed up and beak wide open in full song. The blurred background creates a soft gradient of earthy tones, making the Robin stand out. With its legs firmly planted and feathers fluffed, it looks as if it’s passionately delivering an important message to the world.
"Everybody - wake up! It's the #BigGardenBirdwatch!"
Will you be taking part today? 👀🌳
🟢 Científicos denuncian en Science el uso de la ciencia como pretexto legal para capturar aves en España.
Tras la suspensión de los permisos de caza, se han otorgado cientos de autorizaciones para capturar aves bajo permisos "científicos" sin los estándares legales, científicos y éticos esenciales.
Cow Tools!
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
Our new paper (with @biotay.bsky.social) is out and on the cover story of @currentbiology.bsky.social !!!! Veronika, a Carinthian mountain cow flexibly uses a “multi-purpose tool” to scratch herself. A video and more information will follow in the comments.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
1/4 Cockatoos are winning the trash can war against Australians
Human motivation to protect them falls five times faster than cockatoos' motivation to open them, and increasing protections makes cockatoos better at it.
(paper) royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
NEW – COP30: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Belém
Read here ➡️ buff.ly/3isyGpX
#COP30
🚀Are you ready to shape the future of environmental and social research? ICTA-UAB is opening six fully funded PhD positions, covering topics from climate justice and urban mobility to human nutrition and sustainability data.
#EnvironmentalResearch #PhDPositions
www.uab.cat/web/sala-de-...
Top panel: kissing across the animal kingdom (clockwise): Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta; credit: Paula Bronstein, Getty Images); Galapagos albatross (Phoebastria irrorata; credit: Vladimir Jurek, Shutterstock); Polar bears (Ursus maritimus; credit: Smiler99, Shutterstock); Wolves (Canis lupus, credit: Soren Wolf, Flickr); Prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus, credit: Brocken Inaglory, Wikimedia Commons). Bottom panel: non-kissing mouth-to-mouth behaviours (left to right): premastication in orangutans (Pongo sp., credit: Sunsetman, Shutterstock); trophallaxis in ants (Camponotus compressus, credit: Rakeshkdogra, Wikimedia Commons); and kiss-fighting in French grunts (Haemulon flavolineatum, credit: Luiz A. Rocha, Shutterstock).
💋 Kissing is unhygienic and has no obvious reproductive benefits - but it evolved ~21 million years ago, and stuck with most great apes until today.
🧪 In fact, paper by @matildabrindle.bsky.social shows that Neanderthals and humans probably kissed each other.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Turns out gulls don't like being shouted at (or stared at!) New paper led by excellent masters students @uniexecec.bsky.social with @neeltjeboogert.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
New amazing open Postdoc position, w/t opportunities to 1) get closely involved in our next @themanybirds.bsky.social study on innovation and problem-solving; 2) work with @ecobird.bsky.social on avian innovation, cognition & invasiveness. Advert: www.ugent.be/en/work/scie...
I am recruting a #postdoc for a project investigating the evolution of avian heat tolerance in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Fieldwork over broad latitudinal gradients, common-garden experiments, and more. Read more and apply👇
shorturl.at/WA1Qa
Would appreciate a re-post!
@evoldir.bsky.social
Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
Left: Examples of novel objects used. Each black/white bar is 5 cm long. The objects ranged in size from a third to half the size of the subjects: (a) Southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius, (b) Moluccan eclectus, Eclectus roratus, (c) Rüppell’s vulture, Gyps rueppelli, (d) gray-winged trumpeter, Psophia crepitans, (e) common waxbill, Estrilda astrild. Right: Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) at Adlerwarte Berlebeck, Germany, interacting with a novel object. Image credit Kai Caspar.
Fear of novelty varies across species & individuals, impacting adaptability & survival. @themanybirds.bsky.social @drrmiller.bsky.social &co assess #neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 #bird species, identifying phylogenetic influences & broad ecological drivers @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4haLEsN
⚠️ PAPER ALERT!
Stoked to be part of @themanybirds.bsky.social 1st paper on the evolutionary correlates of #neophobia in #birds on @plosbiology.org
Contributing to this BTS project has been a truly enriching experience!
🦜🦉🐥🐧🦚🦅🦩🦆🪿
Kudos to @drrmiller.bsky.social for leading this titanic effort 💪🏻
🐦 Exciting news! Our new paper is out in PLOS Biology:
“A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia.”
Led by the #ManyBirds Project - 129 researchers, 82 institutions, 24 countries 🌍
🔗 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
@themanybirds.bsky.social
Here I am. Once again. I'm out of archaeologists.
We matched 576 groups w/archaeologists, leaving 13 groups unmatched. This brings me pain! We've never run out of scientists like this before. 598 requests for one category is A LOT. But still.
Archaeologists 🥺
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
An image of Jane Goodall and a chimpanzee, from 1965. Photo courtesy CBS Photo Archive / Getty.
The naturalist Jane Goodall died today at 91. Hope, she argued, is not merely “passive wishful thinking” but a “crucial survival trait.” Revisit a conversation with Goodall, from 2021: nyer.cm/F55JtsS
This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important
New episode!! 🎉🎙️
A chat w/ @evoneuro.bsky.social & Georg Striedter about their new book, 'Bird Brains and Behavior.'
Birds do some astonishing things. They sing, fly, migrate, cache food, and hunt in total darkness. How do their brains make all this possible?
Listen: disi.org/brains-of-a-...
A new academic year is ramping up. Have you considered adding us to your syllabus?
Podcasts episodes are a great way to add variety & boost engagement, and they offer a launchpad for exploration. A number of instructors have used our episodes to good effect!
(Let us know if you're among them!)
