Brian Wood
@woodbrian.bsky.social
Evolutionary anthropologist, Assoc. Prof. of anthropology at UCLA. Interested in hunter-gatherers, foraging, spatial behavior, non-human primates, science, travel, music, the world out there. Director of the Hadza Fund.
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Female fertility and infant survivorship increase following lethal intergroup aggression and territorial expansion in wild chimpanzees | PNAS
Lethal coalitionary intergroup aggression is a conspicuous aspect of wild chimpanzee
behavior. Evidence indicates that such violence can lead to te...
www.pnas.org
November 18, 2025 at 4:20 AM
In 2008, after killing many of their neighbors, Ngogo chimpanzees expanded their territory. Female fertility then doubled, and infant mortality plummeted. Adaptive violence in our ape cousins, documented in this new paper. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
AI broke the college essay, and in-class writing is the new (old) way to go. Thus, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is key for grading student writing. I just compared the OCR output of the venerable Adobe Acrobat product to that of Gemini. Adobe is AWFUL. LLM problem, LLM solution.
October 22, 2025 at 3:35 AM
AI broke the college essay, and in-class writing is the new (old) way to go. Thus, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is key for grading student writing. I just compared the OCR output of the venerable Adobe Acrobat product to that of Gemini. Adobe is AWFUL. LLM problem, LLM solution.
RIP Jane Goodall. Two of the most inspirational books I've ever read are her works: "In the Shadow of Man" and "Chimpanzees of Gombe". Now teaching at UCLA, I honor her, her work, and what she stood for. Thank you Jane for a life so well lived, and for your example.
October 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM
RIP Jane Goodall. Two of the most inspirational books I've ever read are her works: "In the Shadow of Man" and "Chimpanzees of Gombe". Now teaching at UCLA, I honor her, her work, and what she stood for. Thank you Jane for a life so well lived, and for your example.
Day one traveling in Tanzania right now, finding my ability to small talk politics with taxi drivers much harder than usual. Swahili primer for 2025.
June 12, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Day one traveling in Tanzania right now, finding my ability to small talk politics with taxi drivers much harder than usual. Swahili primer for 2025.
Great casting! deadline.com/2025/05/matt...
Matthew Wood To Voice H.E.R.B.I.E. In Marvel’s ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’
One key character in The Fantastic Four: First Steps universe found its voice in sound editor and voice actor Matthew Wood.
deadline.com
May 29, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Great casting! deadline.com/2025/05/matt...
"Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths" Lloyd-Jones & Projecto Sego advance knowledge of honeyguides again: "To Bees or Not to Bees: Greater Honeyguides Sometimes Guide Humans to Animals Other Than Bees, but Likely Not as Punishment" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
To Bees or Not to Bees: Greater Honeyguides Sometimes Guide Humans to Animals Other Than Bees, but Likely Not as Punishment
We show that greater honeyguides guide humans to nonbee destinations (snakes and a dead mammal); yet this is a rare occurrence, happening in only 3.7% of human-honeyguide interactions in 1 year and 0...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
May 20, 2025 at 9:14 PM
"Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths" Lloyd-Jones & Projecto Sego advance knowledge of honeyguides again: "To Bees or Not to Bees: Greater Honeyguides Sometimes Guide Humans to Animals Other Than Bees, but Likely Not as Punishment" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Revealing how primatologists influence the endangered primates they observe is important science. An encouraging new NIA-funded study @Ngogo "Decreases in chimpanzee respiratory disease signs and enteric viral quantity following... " goo.gl/scholar/Lpxwur
goo.gl
May 19, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Revealing how primatologists influence the endangered primates they observe is important science. An encouraging new NIA-funded study @Ngogo "Decreases in chimpanzee respiratory disease signs and enteric viral quantity following... " goo.gl/scholar/Lpxwur
Consider how inaccurate this rendered illustration of the specific fossil KNM-ER 3733 is. It is an anatomical misrepresentation. The landmarks are completely bonkers-wrong. This kind of image is allowed by OpenAI policies, but photorealistic images of hypothetical human ancestors are not?
March 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Consider how inaccurate this rendered illustration of the specific fossil KNM-ER 3733 is. It is an anatomical misrepresentation. The landmarks are completely bonkers-wrong. This kind of image is allowed by OpenAI policies, but photorealistic images of hypothetical human ancestors are not?
OpenAI's restriction on generating depictions of human ancestors is based on a hodgepodge of weak arguments e.g. "Photorealism Suggests Certainty" and "Scientific Reconstructions Are Themselves Hypotheses" (no shit). By these same criteria, almost everything this tool generates should be verboten.
March 26, 2025 at 5:04 PM
OpenAI's restriction on generating depictions of human ancestors is based on a hodgepodge of weak arguments e.g. "Photorealism Suggests Certainty" and "Scientific Reconstructions Are Themselves Hypotheses" (no shit). By these same criteria, almost everything this tool generates should be verboten.
3/3 Then the image disappears and the error message "I wasn't able to generate the requested image, as it involves content that is currently restricted by our image generation policies--specifically, lifelike depictions of ancient human ancestors".
March 26, 2025 at 4:46 PM
3/3 Then the image disappears and the error message "I wasn't able to generate the requested image, as it involves content that is currently restricted by our image generation policies--specifically, lifelike depictions of ancient human ancestors".
2/3 A first glimpse of the partially rendered image is displayed, in truly stunning detail. Wow! What a great teaching tool this could be!
March 26, 2025 at 4:43 PM
2/3 A first glimpse of the partially rendered image is displayed, in truly stunning detail. Wow! What a great teaching tool this could be!
1/3 ChatGPT today released new capabilities to generate truly amazing photorealistic images. Sadly, depictions of human ancestors run afoul of their content policies. WHY???? The prompt "Make a photorealistic image of the ancient human ancestor homo ergaster using an achulean handaxe".
March 26, 2025 at 4:41 PM
1/3 ChatGPT today released new capabilities to generate truly amazing photorealistic images. Sadly, depictions of human ancestors run afoul of their content policies. WHY???? The prompt "Make a photorealistic image of the ancient human ancestor homo ergaster using an achulean handaxe".
Reposted by Brian Wood
This is probably the best paper I’ll ever be on 🤩
High-resolution tracking of large groups of ice-fishers combined with computational (+agent-based) movement and decision models, led by the incredibly talented @alexschakowski.bsky.social!
🎣🇫🇮
High-resolution tracking of large groups of ice-fishers combined with computational (+agent-based) movement and decision models, led by the incredibly talented @alexschakowski.bsky.social!
🎣🇫🇮
What is driving social foraging dynamics in the wild? In a new pre-print, we investigate decision-making mechanisms in large groups of Finnish ice-fishers competing for resources: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Big thanks to drone pilot Félicie Dhellemmes.
1/n
youtu.be/I_RH2diXcAk
Big thanks to drone pilot Félicie Dhellemmes.
1/n
youtu.be/I_RH2diXcAk
youtu.be
March 1, 2025 at 9:47 PM
This is probably the best paper I’ll ever be on 🤩
High-resolution tracking of large groups of ice-fishers combined with computational (+agent-based) movement and decision models, led by the incredibly talented @alexschakowski.bsky.social!
🎣🇫🇮
High-resolution tracking of large groups of ice-fishers combined with computational (+agent-based) movement and decision models, led by the incredibly talented @alexschakowski.bsky.social!
🎣🇫🇮
PSA: ChatGPT 4o can make simple maps like this. I first made a clean site map using rub-on Letraset, circa 1999 or so. I spent the 2000s fighting with evil ESRI software. Then, thankfully, came R in the 2010s. This map took 20 seconds, a 99% time saving from former tech.
February 27, 2025 at 11:47 PM
PSA: ChatGPT 4o can make simple maps like this. I first made a clean site map using rub-on Letraset, circa 1999 or so. I spent the 2000s fighting with evil ESRI software. Then, thankfully, came R in the 2010s. This map took 20 seconds, a 99% time saving from former tech.
The Dietary Life of the Hadzapi Tribe --Kozo Tomita 1966
February 22, 2025 at 5:59 AM
The Dietary Life of the Hadzapi Tribe --Kozo Tomita 1966
Seasonal availability of important Hadza plant foods, documented by Tomita in 1966
February 22, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Seasonal availability of important Hadza plant foods, documented by Tomita in 1966
An NSF-funded "young scholars" program in high school changed my life and literally made me a scientist. The NSF bloodbath today will have an immense negative impact upon American science and educational opportunities available to students from all backgrounds. www.wired.com/story/nation...
National Science Foundation Fires 168 Workers as Federal Purge Continues
Firings at the NSF included permanent employees who had already completed their one-year probationary period, as well as at-will workers.
www.wired.com
February 19, 2025 at 2:19 AM
An NSF-funded "young scholars" program in high school changed my life and literally made me a scientist. The NSF bloodbath today will have an immense negative impact upon American science and educational opportunities available to students from all backgrounds. www.wired.com/story/nation...
If you like 80s new wave bangers sung in alien languages (who doesn't?) this is definitely worth a listen. boingboing.net/2024/12/06/t...
This Huttese cover of an 80s new wave hit is perfection
Skeleton Crew is pure 80s Star Wars fun. The kids are a classic 80s crew who ride (speeder) bikes and go on an accidental adventure.
boingboing.net
December 6, 2024 at 5:09 PM
If you like 80s new wave bangers sung in alien languages (who doesn't?) this is definitely worth a listen. boingboing.net/2024/12/06/t...