Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Paddy Tkaczynski

ManyBirds Project @themanybirds.bsky.social · 18h

🐦 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

A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia

Neophobia (the aversive response to novelty) varies considerably across species and individuals, and can impact adaptability and survival. This study assesses neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 bird ...

journals.plos.org

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Jordan S. Martin @jsmartin.bsky.social · 2d

New paper out now in Evolution, co-led with Dave Westneat!

Using long-term data on house sparrows, we find that quantity-quality tradeoffs near a local fitness ridge favor more or less canalized clutch size distributions in response to environmental variability.

academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Measuring selection on reaction norms: Lack’s principle and plasticity in clutch size

We applied a novel multivariate analysis to measure linear and nonlinear selection on components of a complex reaction norm that was expected to be shaped

academic.oup.com

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Communications Psychology @commspsychol.nature.com · 2d

A survey across 90 societies reveals that variation and change in everyday norms are explained by a single value dimension: the priority societies place on individualizing versus binding moral concerns.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Everyday norms have become more permissive over time and vary across cultures - Communications Psychology

A survey across 90 societies reveals that variation and change in everyday norms are explained by a single value dimension: the priority societies place on individualizing versus binding moral concerns.

www.nature.com

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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 5d

The EHBEA2026 conference website is now live 👇 Deadline for abstract submission: 15 December

EHBEA 2026 @ehbea2026.bsky.social · 5d

🚨𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀!
www.ehbea2026.com is now live for our 2026 European Human Behaviour & Evolution Association (EHBEA) conference in Leiden (NL🇳🇱) Check for 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, first 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 & the [𝗔𝗜]𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸!
🗓️ 14–17 Apr 2026 | CBEN pre-conf 14 Apr
📍Pesthuis
#EHBEA2026

Overview | EHBEA2026

www.ehbea2026.com

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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d

“Ageing is not just about numbers. It is about lived experiences, social structures, and the values that define how we care for one another.”

menarah.org/beyond-demog...

Beyond Demography: Understanding the Complex Realities of Ageing in the MENA Region - Menarah

Keynote presented at the British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, Swansea University, September 2025 The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is undergoing one of the world’s fa...

menarah.org

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21 Group @21group.bsky.social · 2d

Cambridge don Nathan Cofnas cleared of racism

Dr Cofnas stated that in a meritocracy ‘number of black professors would approach 0 per cent’

Lawful ... but also lacking substantiation or evidence, revealing absence of any sound research methodology

varsity.co.uk/news/30360

Uni clears don accused of ‘abhorrent racism’

The University's internal investigation launched last year has dismissed all complaints against Nathan Cofnas, and found his ideas 'represented lawful free speech'

varsity.co.uk

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EHBEA 2026 @ehbea2026.bsky.social · 5d

🚨𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀!
www.ehbea2026.com is now live for our 2026 European Human Behaviour & Evolution Association (EHBEA) conference in Leiden (NL🇳🇱) Check for 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, first 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 & the [𝗔𝗜]𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸!
🗓️ 14–17 Apr 2026 | CBEN pre-conf 14 Apr
📍Pesthuis
#EHBEA2026

Overview | EHBEA2026

www.ehbea2026.com

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Sonja Wild @sonjawild.bsky.social · 5d

Out today in @plosbiology.org (1/5)

Siblings and non-parental adults provide alternative pathways to cultural inheritance in juvenile great tits 🐦🧩

Link to study:
10.0.5.91/journal.pbio...

Co-authors:
@lucymaplin.bsky.social
@galarconnieto.bsky.social

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Animal Behavior Society @animbehsociety.bsky.social · 5d

Hey grad students studying animal behavior! Need a little extra research $$? (Don't we all?)

Apply for an ABS Student Research Grant! We award grants up to $2,000 to grad students & give feedback on the proposals. Deadline Dec 15.

More info here: www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/awards-s...

ABS Student Research and Developing Nations Grants! ABS offers the following grants to support graduate student research: Student Research Grants, ABS Conservation Award and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Awards. The ABS also offers an Early Career Grant in Conservation Behavior and Developing Nations Grant to support students and other researchers from developing nations.

Applicants for student grants must be enrolled in a graduate program and must be active members of ABS (student membership fees cost $17-$34). Research grants range from $500-$2,000 USD, depending on the category of the grant and evaluations. Individuals may receive only one ABS research grant during their lifetime. More details on how the grants and how to apply in the link in the post.

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Nat Clarke @natclarke.bsky.social · 6d

🚨 My lab is hiring at all levels!

Interested in animal origins & evolutionary cell biology?

I'm recruiting a postdoc, PhD students & a research assistant to study the molecular evolution of cell adhesion using marine invertebrates + comparative genomics.

🔗: clarkelab.com/join/

Please repost!

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Claudia Wascher @wascherclaudia.bsky.social · 6d

Job alert: want to be my boss? 😁 The School of Life Sciences @ARU is looking for a new Head of School. It’s a great place to work with brilliant colleagues, students, and partners. Please share widely! #AcademicJobs #Leadership #LifeSciences #HigherEducation jobs.aru.ac.uk/vacancy/head...

Head of School of Life Sciences - ARU

jobs.aru.ac.uk

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Corrie Moreau @corriemoreau.bsky.social · 25d

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

docs.google.com

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Ari Strandburg-Peshkin @arispeshkin.bsky.social · 12d

⭐PhD position available!⭐
Come join us @imprs-qbee.bsky.social to study communication and collective behavior in animal groups! We're looking for someone excited to use computational approaches to tackle biological questions, using our full-group tracking datasets
imprs-qbee.mpg.de/121465/analy...

Analysis of communication and collective behavior in animal groups

imprs-qbee.mpg.de

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UoL EvoAnth Seminar Series @liverpoolevoanth.bsky.social · 12d

Please join us next week, 9th October 2025, at 13:00 BST, for our next seminar of the semester. We will be joined by @professorlacy.bsky.social, University of Delaware - more details 👇

If you'd like to join, please register here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

We hope to see you there!

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MPI-EVA Leipzig @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social · 13d

Why women live longer than men. A new study #ScienceAdvances by an intl. research team led by Johanna Stärk and Fernando Colchero @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social traces the evolutionary roots of the #lifespan gap between women and men. tinyurl.com/yrt4ju9u & www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Why women live longer than men

Study traces the evolutionary roots of the lifespan gap between women and men

tinyurl.com

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 13d

New preprint alert! We DNA barcoded 95 thousand Ghanaian arthropods, more than doubling the number of BINs (a species proxy) available online from West Africa. In doing so we’ve released a huge amount of new data to scientists studying the region 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Characterising a species-rich and understudied tropical insect fauna using DNA barcoding

Background: West Africa has high biodiversity that is relatively understudied, especially for insects. Studies of West African arthropod diversity can therefore help address important questions regard...

www.biorxiv.org

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Adam Hasik @hasikadam.bsky.social · 13d

New paper alert! In my second first-author paper from my work on the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social we show, for only the second time in a wild population, that parasites mediate inbreeding depression.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

Heredity - Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

www.nature.com

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Danai Papageorgiou @danaipapageorgiou.bsky.social · 13d

This list can really assist peers in avoiding predatory publishers:

www.predatoryjournals.org @predatoryjournals.org

I have been receiving plenty of generic emails to join editorial boards in MDPI and Frontiers. At exactly the same time, friends receive the same generic emails..

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

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drewtoothpaste @drewtoothpaste.bsky.social · 13d

sound on

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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 13d

Deeply disappointing. Once again the @royalsociety.org has avoided explaining how *actions* by Elon Musk that clearly repudiate the Society's values are consistent with the code of conduct that Fellows must adhere to. royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...

A statement from the President of the Royal Society | Royal Society

A statement from Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, regarding threats to the values that allow science to flourish.

royalsociety.org

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ASAB @asab.org · 13d

Sad news. We know Jane Goodall was an inspiration to many of our members. She brought real change not only to animal behaviour, but to the world 🌍

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 13d

BREAKING: Jane Goodall, the conservationist renowned for chimpanzee research and environmental advocacy, has died.

Jane Goodall, conservationist renowned for chimpanzee research and environmental advocacy, has died

Jane Goodall, the conservationist renowned for her groundbreaking chimpanzee field research and globe-spanning environmental advocacy, has died. She was 91.

bit.ly

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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · 13d

New from me and wonderful collabs!

Journal of Animal Ecology @animalecology.bsky.social · 16d

🦎 Maternal glucocorticoids have persistent effects on offspring social phenotype irrespective of opportunity for social buffering ➡️ buff.ly/i2B2Fkw

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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 14d

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 15d

⚠️ Chinese researchers have invented bone glue that mimics how oysters stick to surfaces underwater.

The adhesive can reportedly repair orthopedic fractures in 2-3 minutes, even in blood-rich environments, and is bioabsorbable.

interestingengineering.com/science/chin...

China's oyster-inspired 'bone glue' bonds fractures in minutes

A new oyster-inspired Bone-02 adhesive can revolutionize bone repair without metal fasteners.

interestingengineering.com

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Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 14d

Can't disagree with Gavin Barwell. It's high time the right in this country cleaned house.

They won't though, because this is what the right have become. The likes of Barwell are very much a minority.

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iulia bădescu @iuliabadescu.bsky.social · 14d

Study to help explain very rare and violent (horrifying for me to see) intracommunity split among Ngogo chimpanzees. Changes in female # and residence patterns affected male grooming networks, which likely negatively affected male affiliative bonds.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Changes in Grooming Networks Among Male Chimpanzees Preceding a Permanent Community Fission at Ngogo

Chimpanzees form social communities with memberships that change only with births, deaths, and female emigrations or immigrations and that are characterized by high fission-fusion dynamics. Relations...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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