Birds of a feather flock together | The Social Lives of Birds: Flocks, Communes, and Families Joan E. Strassmann (Tarcher, New York, NY; 2025) ISBN: 978-0-593853-061

A short book review that I wrote for @currentbiology.bsky.social on @joanstrassmann.bsky.social’s new book, The Social Lives of Birds. The book is well worth a read if you like birds, behavioral ecology, and/or social evolution.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Finally sighted one of Mpala's black panthers (leopards).

My favorite view @mpalalive.bsky.social River Camp, where I sneak away from the students to grade their papers, write, and enjoy the bird sounds over the babbling of the river.

Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...

Great opportunity for prospective PhD students: Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution:
www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

NSF slashes number of ‘rotators’ and well-paid managers as part of restructuring Smaller future budgets will require fewer people, NSF official tells staff

NSF to ONLY fund research in five areas: artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology, nuclear energy, and translational science. Can this be happening?

www.science.org/content/arti...

@gerrycarter.bsky.social and I wrote a Research Briefing on our lastest @Nature paper looking at reciprocity in superb starlings. You can access the summary of our work here (and the paper itself is OA):
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Starlings form ‘friendships’ to help each other with breeding, study finds Superb starlings seen to build reciprocal relations in which they return favours when a ‘helper’ has offspring of its own

That sure is one way to get out from under the glare of what is going on at Columbia these days: "Prof Dustin Rubenstein, a co-author of the study from the University of Colombia…”.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A cryptic role for reciprocal helping in a cooperatively breeding bird - Nature A study of the cooperative breeding behaviour of superb starlings during 40 consecutive breeding seasons over 20 years reveals long-term reciprocal helping between both related and unrelated individua...

Our latest superb starling work in @nature.com. We observe long-term reciprocal helping relationships, and suggest reciprocity is an underappreciated mechanism promoting the stability of cooperatively breeding societies. Led by Alexis Earl and @gerrycarter.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the superb starling project!

Why we study shrimp on treadmills: The case for curiosity-driven research “If we cut or limit funding for curiosity-driven research, we risk shutting down the pipeline of future innovation,” writes Carole LaBonne of Northwestern.

www.statnews.com/2025/04/03/b...

Leaders across Science, Industry, Academia, Philanthropy and Public Sector Release Vision for American Science and Technology Leaders across Science, Industry, Academia, Philanthropy and Public Sector Release Vision for American Science and Technology on Simons Foundation

“At a time of uncertainty in the science community, [the #VAST Task Force] report offers a vision for the importance of #science and technology in the nation’s future and suggests implementable strategies.” — Simons Foundation President David Spergel. www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/02/25/l...

Last day in Kenya for the 2025 Columbia field course.

Fitness drivers of division of labor in vertebrates www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12....

US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the first Bluesky user with a million followers The Bronx and Queens Congresswoman has been active on Bluesky since early 2023. Users have been flocking to the decentralized platform since the US election.

I’d like to be the second user to reach 1M followers. I only need about 999,900 more followers. Let’s go!

Since the science community seems to be flocking to Bluesky from X, you can find me here.