Neil Banas
@neilbanas.bsky.social
Real and imagined oceans in equations, paper, and code. Strathclyde Uni + Wasps Studios, Glasgow | neilbanas.com/projects
Scotoplanes globosa. The #sea #pig. That is all.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2004126...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopl...
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2004126...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopl...
November 23, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Scotoplanes globosa. The #sea #pig. That is all.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2004126...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopl...
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2004126...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopl...
Reposted by Neil Banas
“Zugunruhe: the term for the innate restlessness that birds feel which eventually spurs on migration”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugunruhe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugunruhe
November 5, 2025 at 5:44 PM
“Zugunruhe: the term for the innate restlessness that birds feel which eventually spurs on migration”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugunruhe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugunruhe
Reposted by Neil Banas
Ernst Haeckel (left) and his assistant Miclucho-Maclay (right) in 1866.
November 4, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Ernst Haeckel (left) and his assistant Miclucho-Maclay (right) in 1866.
Really pleased to be a collaborator/data portal/cheerleader on this @iapetusdtp.bsky.social #PhD project, wistful that I don't get to chuck the rest of my commitments and do this PhD myself!
How are movement patterns affected by energy expenditure & gain, and what does it mean for fitness? This @iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD opportunity will use data on movement & demography of kittiwakes & spatio-temporal food abundance across their range
iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
#ornithology
iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
#ornithology
November 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Really pleased to be a collaborator/data portal/cheerleader on this @iapetusdtp.bsky.social #PhD project, wistful that I don't get to chuck the rest of my commitments and do this PhD myself!
Reposted by Neil Banas
Very cool paper for all the #diatom nerds and primary productivity folks out there!
Diatom phytochromes integrate the underwater light spectrum to sense depth www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Diatom phytochromes integrate the underwater light spectrum to sense depth - Nature
This study demonstrates that diatoms with phytochrome photoreceptors can detect and functionally respond to the entire visible light spectrum through these sensors, enabling them to sense depth a...
www.nature.com
December 18, 2024 at 11:38 PM
Very cool paper for all the #diatom nerds and primary productivity folks out there!
Happy #SeaSlugDay! Here are some of the #origami #nudibranchs that I have on display at the #Glasgow Art Club through 22 Nov.
On the wall is the unfolded crease pattern for one of the designs I make on repeat (foreground of the other image, copper and tan).
Working on new designs for sacoglossans!
On the wall is the unfolded crease pattern for one of the designs I make on repeat (foreground of the other image, copper and tan).
Working on new designs for sacoglossans!
October 29, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Happy #SeaSlugDay! Here are some of the #origami #nudibranchs that I have on display at the #Glasgow Art Club through 22 Nov.
On the wall is the unfolded crease pattern for one of the designs I make on repeat (foreground of the other image, copper and tan).
Working on new designs for sacoglossans!
On the wall is the unfolded crease pattern for one of the designs I make on repeat (foreground of the other image, copper and tan).
Working on new designs for sacoglossans!
Reposted by Neil Banas
Great PhD linking kittiwake tracking, energetics and changing oceans. Based @ukceh.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social collaborating with oceanographers at @unistrathclyde.bsky.social 🌊 Includes fieldwork, stats training and some very cool open-ended research questions. iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Understanding how a threatened seabird moves across complex ocean energyscapes
iapetus.ac.uk
October 28, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Great PhD linking kittiwake tracking, energetics and changing oceans. Based @ukceh.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social collaborating with oceanographers at @unistrathclyde.bsky.social 🌊 Includes fieldwork, stats training and some very cool open-ended research questions. iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Reposted by Neil Banas
October 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM
inspired (haunted?) by a recent post by anavaldi.bsky.social, here is the 📉 #UKRI award rate (%) by research council over the last decade. Data from www.ukri.org/publications...
Unfortunately this dataset doesn't let you distinguish individual funding schemes from each other.
Unfortunately this dataset doesn't let you distinguish individual funding schemes from each other.
October 24, 2025 at 12:59 PM
inspired (haunted?) by a recent post by anavaldi.bsky.social, here is the 📉 #UKRI award rate (%) by research council over the last decade. Data from www.ukri.org/publications...
Unfortunately this dataset doesn't let you distinguish individual funding schemes from each other.
Unfortunately this dataset doesn't let you distinguish individual funding schemes from each other.
If you need some #origami #nudibranchs and tangled marine connectivities in your life, Waterways Collective and I have an exhibition at Glasgow Art Club through 22 Nov. It's an offshoot of a beautiful Wasps Studios group show--details at glasgowartclub.co.uk/.../23rd-oct...
October 23, 2025 at 4:25 PM
If you need some #origami #nudibranchs and tangled marine connectivities in your life, Waterways Collective and I have an exhibition at Glasgow Art Club through 22 Nov. It's an offshoot of a beautiful Wasps Studios group show--details at glasgowartclub.co.uk/.../23rd-oct...
Reposted by Neil Banas
Allan Grant, Fire Resistant House, 1949
October 4, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Allan Grant, Fire Resistant House, 1949
Reposted by Neil Banas
Which whale species did I see? Leatherwood et al. (1982, p. 10) is hard to beat...
October 3, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Which whale species did I see? Leatherwood et al. (1982, p. 10) is hard to beat...
Don't we all initially mistake for potatoes the fine 12th Dynasty heads we dig up while, as part of the punishment exercise, digging up potatoes.
One might say this mistaking _is_ the punishment exercise.
One might say this mistaking _is_ the punishment exercise.
September 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Don't we all initially mistake for potatoes the fine 12th Dynasty heads we dig up while, as part of the punishment exercise, digging up potatoes.
One might say this mistaking _is_ the punishment exercise.
One might say this mistaking _is_ the punishment exercise.
Reposted by Neil Banas
Tcikets. Tcikets for the Steam Fair.
September 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Tcikets. Tcikets for the Steam Fair.
"According to our expert assessment, none of these #geoengineering ideas pass scrutiny regarding their use in the coming decades. Instead, we find that the proposed concepts would be environmentally dangerous."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...
Frontiers | Safeguarding the polar regions from dangerous geoengineering: a critical assessment of proposed concepts and future prospects
Fossil-fuel burning is heating the planet with catastrophic consequences for its habitability and for the natural world on which our existence depends. Halti...
www.frontiersin.org
September 11, 2025 at 1:25 PM
"According to our expert assessment, none of these #geoengineering ideas pass scrutiny regarding their use in the coming decades. Instead, we find that the proposed concepts would be environmentally dangerous."
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...
www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...
There is a broken metaphor here. Institutions are not multitasking individuals. When a university "does fewer things really well", this doesn't mean individual researchers find their focus and manage their commitments differently; it means layoffs and department closures. "Do" is a euphemism here.
'The new chief executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has warned university leaders that their institutions might need to start doing “fewer things but doing them really well”, stating he is wary of a “crumbs for everyone” approach to funding.' 1/2
UKRI chief: ‘Do fewer things in research but do them really well’
Ian Chapman backs ministers’ calls for more research specialisation by universities in first public comments since taking over at £9 billion-a-year research funder
www.timeshighereducation.com
September 5, 2025 at 6:02 PM
There is a broken metaphor here. Institutions are not multitasking individuals. When a university "does fewer things really well", this doesn't mean individual researchers find their focus and manage their commitments differently; it means layoffs and department closures. "Do" is a euphemism here.
Reposted by Neil Banas
this term in university teaching ive experimented with a return to engaging with groups only through figurative painting on the walls of underground caverns,
the results have been ASTOUNDING. never going back to writing systems again
the results have been ASTOUNDING. never going back to writing systems again
September 5, 2025 at 8:45 AM
this term in university teaching ive experimented with a return to engaging with groups only through figurative painting on the walls of underground caverns,
the results have been ASTOUNDING. never going back to writing systems again
the results have been ASTOUNDING. never going back to writing systems again
grant proposal submitted.
August 30, 2025 at 8:03 AM
grant proposal submitted.
Reposted by Neil Banas
Look! A planet! It is hiding from us. A yak-like thing lives there and dreams of the horrors.
August 24, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Look! A planet! It is hiding from us. A yak-like thing lives there and dreams of the horrors.
In a head-on view the feathery antennae of male Gipsy Moth look like bat ears. From today's Grosvenor & Hilbert Park moth morning
August 18, 2025 at 8:25 AM
I used to live on a continent where "canal" meant "joined-up rivers and lakes" but now live in a place where they are built and operated by Wile E Coyote. See below.
(It's the same feeling when you start out on a walk along a leafy if manicured river, and then the river goes over a bridge.)
(It's the same feeling when you start out on a walk along a leafy if manicured river, and then the river goes over a bridge.)
Today is the 47th anniversary of this clearly unimprovable photo, from a story so absurd that it shouldn’t be true, but is: the day a team of workers from British Waterways pulled the plug out of the Chesterfield Canal, and all the water emptied out
August 11, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I used to live on a continent where "canal" meant "joined-up rivers and lakes" but now live in a place where they are built and operated by Wile E Coyote. See below.
(It's the same feeling when you start out on a walk along a leafy if manicured river, and then the river goes over a bridge.)
(It's the same feeling when you start out on a walk along a leafy if manicured river, and then the river goes over a bridge.)
Reposted by Neil Banas
Reposted by Neil Banas
These delicate models were created by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Czech artists who specialised in glasswork and ran a business spanning 300 years and nine generations.
August 4, 2025 at 11:00 PM
These delicate models were created by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Czech artists who specialised in glasswork and ran a business spanning 300 years and nine generations.
Reposted by Neil Banas
And I, you, and he; and we, ye, and they, are all bats; and I’m a crow
August 3, 2025 at 4:47 PM
And I, you, and he; and we, ye, and they, are all bats; and I’m a crow
microthread: eels beyond the "fish event horizon", which TIL there was one of.
Starting around 1000 CE, the English began building lots of mill dams, and this blocked the migration pathways of lots of fish! Oh no!
But eels can live out of water for a while, & travel overland if need be. So they could migrate around or over medieval dams.
Eels FTW! 1/2
🗃️🧪
But eels can live out of water for a while, & travel overland if need be. So they could migrate around or over medieval dams.
Eels FTW! 1/2
🗃️🧪
July 31, 2025 at 4:23 PM
microthread: eels beyond the "fish event horizon", which TIL there was one of.