I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
Çağlar Akçay
@caglarakcay.bsky.social
Animal social behaviour and cognition. https://caglarakcay.wordpress.com/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sZ4qvtwAAAAJ&hl=en
13. Hence our dismal conclusion: rather than finding that LLMs free us to do a better job of what we were doing before they came along, they shift scientific incentives (and the playing field of academic competition) in ways that compel us to do more and more, faster and faster, less and less well.
New paper out today led by @gallinaciega.bsky.social We show that seed-eating songbirds have enlarged a somatosensory nucleus, especially the part associated with the tongue, suggesting that seed-cracking is dependent on a fine sense of touch. #ornithology #neuroethology doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
Y'all remember how they were going to put an AI teacher robot into a high school serving the Seneca Nation of Indians? OF COURSE it was built by a sexbot company. Gift link.
Sally the Robot Was Coming to a New York School. Then the Plug Was Pulled. (Gift Article)
Students helped design the A.I.-powered creation as a young female with dark hair and an upbeat personality. Then came the outrage.
nytimes.com
How do birds cope with bright and noisy nights?🐦🌃 In our study, after just one night of experimental light or noise, common mynas slept ~50% less and sang ~20% fewer songs, yet their contact calls remained unchanged. doi.org/10.1016/j.an... 🌏🧪 @asab.org @ecostanley.bsky.social @kecain.bsky.social
This is an absolutely devastating story, told expertly by Reaction Watch's Brendan Borrell. Proud of my @science.org colleagues for their work collaborating with Reaction Watch to bring this story to the world.
Exclusive: A cutting-edge gene-editing trial in China went disastrously wrong. A family wants accountability. https://scim.ag/3RuHuDB
1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.
The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science
As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...
arxiv.org
Ever wondered what the bizarre dances of male birds of paradise look like to females? Check out our new preprint! @izziehb.bsky.social @fusanilab.bsky.social “The geometry of visual signaling in a bird-of-paradise” ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Our new paper is out in @nature.com! We uncovered how a naked mole-rat queen 👑 controls an entire colony: a natural contraceptive scent that suppresses reproduction in other females! A remarkable mammalian parallel to bees and ants! 🐝🐜 @garyrlewin.bsky.social youtu.be/enfv3zJrWKM?...
Naked mole-rats are ruled by a queen: this chemical puts her in power
YouTube video by nature video
youtu.be
New preprint from our Galápagos Yellow Warbler project! Functions of duet answering seem to be sex specific in this species. doi.org/10.64898/202... @caglarakcay.bsky.social @klf-univienna.bsky.social
2nd European Bird Song Network Meeting Austria 2026, Nov 2-4 More info here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
It's out now! Please send me pics of my book (Up - a scientist's guide to the magic above us) out in the wild (be imaginative if you've got it on audio book or e-reader!) If you hadn't yet got it, it's available at all good bookstores (UK). uk.bookshop.org/shop/DrLucyR...
absolute classic "I am 50 years old and have run large chunks of government and the boss has told us we have to listen this child on an away day" look
Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10
Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Citizen science platforms must mitigate against the threat of generative AI
rdcu.be
We are excited to announce that #Behaviour2027 (XXXIX International Ethological Congress) will be taking place in Vienna, Austria! We are looking forward to having you all join us next year from August 23-27. Please follow and share!
Do you have a background in behavioural ecology and are you interested in doing a PhD in Australia? I’m looking for new grad students so check out our website (BobWongLab.org) or come find me in Torino at #ISBE2026. 🐟🐠
Please share! I have two positions for graduate students in my lab, starting Fall 2027. Details on the position s and application process can be found here: kjmathot.wordpress.com/opportunities/
Opportunities
********************************************************************************************************* ***Two graduate student positions in the Mathot Lab**** I am recruiting two new graduate st…
kjmathot.wordpress.com
Male brains and female brains are all just human brains.
Brain’s sex differences are subtle and contradictory, large MRI study finds
Sex-based behavioral differences do not match with variations in brain activation or structure in a study of almost 1,000 people.
thetransmitter.org
Interested in joining a growing lab in LA? We’re hiring a postdoc!! Please spread the word to folks in your network and feel free to get in touch with any questions recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF11142
Interested in a postdoc position? Olfaction in poison frog tadpoles! Based in Germany with some field work in Costa Rica (bilateral funding, 3 years). Please share with your froggie and neuro/behavior contacts 🐸 www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
New research! 📚 We built the largest database to date of cephalopod species - octopuses, squids and cuttlefish - and their brains, habitats and behaviors 🐙🧠📈 What did we find?👇 Press release: www.lse.ac.uk/news/ecologi... Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Join us in Vienna! We are looking for a PhD student and a Postdoc to investigate innovation in corvids within the “Comparative ecological innovation styles” project funded by @fwf-at.bsky.social. More info: barbaraklump.com Application deadline July 24th. Please share widely!
#eNeuro: Riekers et al. developed Moove (Marking Online using only the Onsets of Vocal Elements), an open-source, machine learning based tool, for real-time segmentation and classification of birdsong. https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0023-26.2026
The University of Exeter is not in budget deficit. Yet are proposing to cut 150 academic jobs. This include my job. Please sign and share the petition, write our Vice Chancellor, to your MP, and get the word out about the act of self harm this university is about to commit. c.org/yKcx6Zr29H
This campaign needs you now
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
c.org
Happy to announce a postdoc position with me and Jakob Strand, to work on data from the revamped Danish beached bird survey organised by DOF BirdLife Denmark. How many seabirds end up on Danish beached, where do they come from, and why did they die? #seabirds ecos.au.dk/en/about-us/...
Postdoc in seabird ecology - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at Department of Ecoscience - Arctic Ecosystem Ecology, Aarhus University
ecos.au.dk
New postdoc alert! 👀🧪🏖️
Happy to announce a postdoc position with me and Jakob Strand, to work on data from the revamped Danish beached bird survey organised by DOF BirdLife Denmark. How many seabirds end up on Danish beached, where do they come from, and why did they die? #seabirds ecos.au.dk/en/about-us/...
3 research positions available at ERI - please get in touch if you are interested
The original paper was published in Nature yesterday: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genetic diversity of late Neanderthals in northwestern Europe - Nature
Genetic sequencing of multiple late Neanderthals living less than 52,500 years ago provides an overview of genetic diversity and demonstrates that even low-coverage nuclear genome data can increase re...
nature.com
🚨NEW PAPER🚨 out now in TREE @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social "Constraint and convergence in the evolution of vertebrate sound production". Thanks to Christian Herbst, Coen Elemans, and @tecumsehfitch.bsky.social for a great collaboration. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...