How does the probability of survival and fertility change with age and early-life experience? In a rare field test Will Morgan Hayley Cameron and @djmmeeg.bsky.social found that adult bryozoans that experienced greater early-life stress had lower fitness overall academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Early-life stress reduces senescence in the field for an indeterminately growing ectotherm

Abstract. Theory predicts that aged-related declines in performance (senescence) depend on experiences during early life. Experimental field tests of this

academic.oup.com

What if your own theory was tricking you? What if the theory your research was based on was just a “Clever Hans”? Out today in TREE, we explore this problem and more. In this 🧵 I will elaborate the Clever Hans problem in biological theory.

Dustin Marshall@djmmeeg.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Out today in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social our paper “Second Thoughts about First Principles in Biology.” www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... . We are in favour of first principles approaches in biology but we think that we need to do better in how we use them.

What if your own theory was tricking you? What if the theory your research was based on was just a “Clever Hans”? Out today in TREE, we explore this problem and more. In this 🧵 I will elaborate the Clever Hans problem in biological theory.

Dustin Marshall@djmmeeg.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Out today in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social our paper “Second Thoughts about First Principles in Biology.” www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... . We are in favour of first principles approaches in biology but we think that we need to do better in how we use them.

When cells are in more realistic regimes, resource fluxes actually scale with radius rather surface area. And things get even more complicated when cells swim….the point here is that all three scalings are ”first principles approaches” but they are not all equally applicable

For example, how do resource fluxes scale with cell size? most people would guess 2/3’s because of simple intuition about surface volume ratios but that only works under unrealistic conditions of stationary cells and saturating resources.

Princess Bride: Classic Blunders!

ALT: Princess Bride: Classic Blunders!

static.klipy.com

Out today in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social our paper “Second Thoughts about First Principles in Biology.” www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... . We are in favour of first principles approaches in biology but we think that we need to do better in how we use them.

Second thoughts about first principles in biology

First-principles approaches, based on physics or chemistry, are key pillars of biological theory. Despite their value, there are recurrent problems with many first-principles approaches in biology: th...

cell.com

Out today in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social our paper “Second Thoughts about First Principles in Biology.” www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... . We are in favour of first principles approaches in biology but we think that we need to do better in how we use them.

Second thoughts about first principles in biology

First-principles approaches, based on physics or chemistry, are key pillars of biological theory. Despite their value, there are recurrent problems with many first-principles approaches in biology: th...

cell.com

Does it matter if single celled organisms are getting smaller as the world gets hotter? @djmmeeg.bsky.social and colleagues found that size-function relationships have been mis-estimated with worrying consequences for global carbon pumps. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42087558/

Nothing in the Budget last night for the ARC. Despite review after review recommending ARC funding be increased, nothing. Year on year, the same thing, no matter who's in Government.

Metabolic scaling is thought to scale very steeply with size in unicells but what if that steepness is simply an artefact? Out today in Ecology Letters, we show that metabolic scaling is not superlinear in unicells but instead scales at ~0.86 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

”Metabolic scaling is thought to scale steeply”….? Maybe I shouldn’t write these things before I’ve had coffee. it should be “Metabolism is though to scale steeply…..”

Dustin Marshall@djmmeeg.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Metabolic scaling is thought to scale very steeply with size in unicells but what if that steepness is simply an artefact? Out today in Ecology Letters, we show that metabolic scaling is not superlinear in unicells but instead scales at ~0.86 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Metabolic scaling is thought to scale very steeply with size in unicells but what if that steepness is simply an artefact? Out today in Ecology Letters, we show that metabolic scaling is not superlinear in unicells but instead scales at ~0.86 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

I recently re-read Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life and now every time a Silicon Valley billionaire opens his mouth, I think about it. So I wrote about it for The Nation: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Anti-Intellectualism of the Silicon Valley Elite

How the self-styled know-it-alls atop the knowledge economy want to dismantle the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake

thenation.com

How will evolution affect survival and yields of common fisheries species? A recent study by Jan Kozlowski, @djmmeeg.bsky.social @craig-white.bsky.social found that fish will evolve to survive warmer temperatures AND smaller sizes, reducing fisheries yields by ~50% www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Fish will have to adapt to a warming world, what will that adaptation do to fisheries yields? We answer that question today in Science. I’ll summarise our findings very briefly in this thread www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

Evolutionary adaptation to global change reduces sustainable fisheries yields

Global warming is altering the fisheries that underpin food security, but projections of these impacts generally exclude evolutionary processes. We describe a model that forecasts how fish will adapt ...

science.org

Out today in @science.org our paper on how evolutionary adaptation to warming will reduce fisheries yields. Please let me know if you need me to send you a copy. Summary of the paper coming soon. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Evolutionary adaptation to global change reduces sustainable fisheries yields

Global warming is altering the fisheries that underpin food security, but projections of these impacts generally exclude evolutionary processes. We describe a model that forecasts how fish will adapt ...

science.org

Fish will have to adapt to a warming world, what will that adaptation do to fisheries yields? We answer that question today in Science. I’ll summarise our findings very briefly in this thread www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

Evolutionary adaptation to global change reduces sustainable fisheries yields

Global warming is altering the fisheries that underpin food security, but projections of these impacts generally exclude evolutionary processes. We describe a model that forecasts how fish will adapt ...

science.org

Out today in @science.org our paper on how evolutionary adaptation to warming will reduce fisheries yields. Please let me know if you need me to send you a copy. Summary of the paper coming soon. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Evolutionary adaptation to global change reduces sustainable fisheries yields

Global warming is altering the fisheries that underpin food security, but projections of these impacts generally exclude evolutionary processes. We describe a model that forecasts how fish will adapt ...

science.org

The principles of experimental design in ecology and evolution has 20k downloads, but unfortunately I still have to reject ~20% of papers without review because they lack replication at the right level. More discussion among mentors and mentees please. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Principles of experimental design for ecology and evolution

Here I argue that we do not discuss experimental design, often until it is too late. This editorial seeks to begin a conversation about how and where to replicate appropriately.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

The principles of experimental design in ecology and evolution has 20k downloads, but unfortunately I still have to reject ~20% of papers without review because they lack replication at the right level. More discussion among mentors and mentees please. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Principles of experimental design for ecology and evolution

Here I argue that we do not discuss experimental design, often until it is too late. This editorial seeks to begin a conversation about how and where to replicate appropriately.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Just noting that ARC is still on X/Twitter. Despite it now being clear that that platform produces child exploitation materials, they remain active there. If you interact with ARC staff, I really think they need to answer this question. It's moved being simply "disconnected from researchers" to … 🤢

Is hermaphrodism less common in animals because it is energetically more costly? George Jarvis and @djmmeeg.bsky.social have analysed 536 species of marine invertebrates and found that hermaphrodites require approximately 27% less energy than gonochores on average. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

❗New paper alert❗ The 2nd publication from Poppy Romera's Masters is just out in @natcomms.nature.com We find that adherence of 180 soil food webs to the energy equivalence rule strongly depends on the measure of energy use, trophic level, and food web structure. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our study testing competing theories on the energy dynamics of hermaphroditism! Grateful to @djmmeeg.bsky.social for guidance, to Thomas Brey for metabolic rate data, and to Deborah Charlesworth for feedback. Thanks also to the editors and reviewers at Proc B. @royalsociety.org

Dustin Marshall@djmmeeg.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Darwin speculated that it was energetically costly to be an hermaphrodite. He thought that might explain why they were relatively rare in animals. Our paper out today tested this conjecture for the first time. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Re-upping for a different timezone

Dustin Marshall@djmmeeg.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Darwin speculated that it was energetically costly to be an hermaphrodite. He thought that might explain why they were relatively rare in animals. Our paper out today tested this conjecture for the first time. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Darwin speculated that it was energetically costly to be an hermaphrodite. He thought that might explain why they were relatively rare in animals. Our paper out today tested this conjecture for the first time. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Hermaphrodites have lower metabolic rates than gonochores

Abstract. Hermaphroditism, where an individual can reproduce as both male and female, offers some clear reproductive advantages. Simultaneous hermaphroditi

royalsocietypublishing.org

Darwin speculated that it was energetically costly to be an hermaphrodite. He thought that might explain why they were relatively rare in animals. Our paper out today tested this conjecture for the first time. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Hermaphrodites have lower metabolic rates than gonochores

Abstract. Hermaphroditism, where an individual can reproduce as both male and female, offers some clear reproductive advantages. Simultaneous hermaphroditi

royalsocietypublishing.org

Anyone looking for a Australia-based postdoc? Like animal behaviour / coding / birds? My fantastic collaborator, Iliana Medina, is advertising a position researching bird nests: unimelb.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/UoM_Ex...

Apply and come be my colleague!

Jon Puritz@jonpuritz.marineevoeco.com · 9mo ago

Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island. jobs.uri.edu/postings/15960

Opportunity! Anybody knows of young marine ecologists (within 7 years from earned PhD) that would like to come to Gothenburg, Sweden, for a nationally funded Assistant Professorship? It is highly competitive but well funded. (1) of (3)