Dustin Rubenstein
@dustinrubenstein.com
Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Conservation Biology • Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology • Columbia University • New York City | Animal Behavior | Integrative Organismal Biology | Evolutionary Ecology
A short book review that I wrote for @currentbiology.bsky.social on @joanstrassmann.bsky.social’s new book, The Social Lives of Birds. The book is well worth a read if you like birds, behavioral ecology, and/or social evolution. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Birds of a feather flock together | The Social Lives of Birds: Flocks, Communes, and Families Joan E. Strassmann (Tarcher, New York, NY; 2025) ISBN: 978-0-593853-061
sciencedirect.com
Finally sighted one of Mpala's black panthers (leopards).
My favorite view @mpalalive.bsky.social River Camp, where I sneak away from the students to grade their papers, write, and enjoy the bird sounds over the babbling of the river.
Great opportunity for prospective PhD students: Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution: www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...
Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution
The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...
simonsfoundation.org
NSF to ONLY fund research in five areas: artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology, nuclear energy, and translational science. Can this be happening? www.science.org/content/arti...
NSF slashes number of ‘rotators’ and well-paid managers as part of restructuring
Smaller future budgets will require fewer people, NSF official tells staff
science.org
@gerrycarter.bsky.social and I wrote a Research Briefing on our lastest @Nature paper looking at reciprocity in superb starlings. You can access the summary of our work here (and the paper itself is OA): www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Superb starlings swap helper and breeder roles with kin and non-kin | Nature
A 20-year field study of the African superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus) found striking evidence that birds often switch breeding roles from year to year by taking turns as ‘breeders’ or each other’s ‘helpers’. This reciprocal assistance was not explained by genetic relatedness (kinship) and required decades of observation to be detected. A 20-year study uncovered a cryptic form of reciprocity between birds over their lifetime.
nature.com
That sure is one way to get out from under the glare of what is going on at Columbia these days: "Prof Dustin Rubenstein, a co-author of the study from the University of Colombia…”. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Starlings form ‘friendships’ to help each other with breeding, study finds
Superb starlings seen to build reciprocal relations in which they return favours when a ‘helper’ has offspring of its own
theguardian.com
Our latest superb starling work in @nature.com. We observe long-term reciprocal helping relationships, and suggest reciprocity is an underappreciated mechanism promoting the stability of cooperatively breeding societies. Led by Alexis Earl and @gerrycarter.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A cryptic role for reciprocal helping in a cooperatively breeding bird - Nature
A study of the cooperative breeding behaviour of superb starlings during 40 consecutive breeding seasons over 20 years reveals long-term reciprocal helping between both related and unrelated individua...
nature.com
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the superb starling project!
“At a time of uncertainty in the science community, [the #VAST Task Force] report offers a vision for the importance of #science and technology in the nation’s future and suggests implementable strategies.” — Simons Foundation President David Spergel. www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/02/25/l...
Leaders across Science, Industry, Academia, Philanthropy and Public Sector Release Vision for American Science and Technology
Leaders across Science, Industry, Academia, Philanthropy and Public Sector Release Vision for American Science and Technology on Simons Foundation
simonsfoundation.org
Last day in Kenya for the 2025 Columbia field course.
Fitness drivers of division of labor in vertebrates https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.10.627807v1
I’d like to be the second user to reach 1M followers. I only need about 999,900 more followers. Let’s go!
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the first Bluesky user with a million followers
The Bronx and Queens Congresswoman has been active on Bluesky since early 2023. Users have been flocking to the decentralized platform since the US election.
flip.it
Since the science community seems to be flocking to Bluesky from X, you can find me here.
