Our newest paper, led by Ania Majewska, shows that high-cardenolide milkweed provides medicinal effects to monarch butterflies regardless of their own genetic background. Thus, toxic milkweed can provide benefits across monarchs of many different genotypes. 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Environment and Host Genetics Drive Infection Outcomes in a Butterfly Host, but Do Not Interact With Each Other

This study examined how host genetics and larval food plant environment influence parasite infection outcomes in monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) infected with the protozoan Ophryocystis elektr...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Our new paper, using agent-based modeling, led by Mitchell Kendzel, shows that monarch butterflies do not need true navigation to reach their overwintering sites. Simple behavioural rules can explain the complex migration patterns of monarch butterflies royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

Simple behavioural rules can explain the complex migration patterns of monarch butterflies

Abstract. Many animals undertake seasonal migrations, yet the mechanisms by which they navigate remain poorly understood. For example, North American monar

royalsocietypublishing.org

Delighted to share my latest TED-Ed video, explaining how scientists discovered that cats use the chemicals from silvervine and catnip to protect themselves against mosquitoes. This discovery may open the way to the development of new mosquito repellents for human use. ed.ted.com/lessons/why-...

Why does catnip make cats go crazy? - Jaap de Roode

Of the many bewildering behaviors cats display, one of the strangest is their obsession with a specific species of plant. After just one whiff, even the most stoic cat can start pawing, drooling, biti...

ed.ted.com

Very interesting new study, suggesting that Barbary macaques eat soil to deal with the negative effects of eating junk food left behind by tourists. So many lessons here: animals: inventive; junk food: bad. www.cam.ac.uk/stories/monk...

Monkeys learn to eat soil so they can tolerate high-calorie junk food

Gibraltar’s famous macaques have started eating soil, a behaviour linked to their access to tourist snacks, according to a new study.

cam.ac.uk

Congratulations to @jaapderoode.bsky.social, whose book Doctors by Nature has won the American Botanical Council's James A. Duke Botanical Literature Award! His work examines the fascinating ways animals use medicine and what that can teach us about healing ourselves. Learn more: hubs.ly/Q048H5-Y0

I love this new study on the use of jokes during biology conferences. Jokes make talks more engaging and memorable, and often help deliver important points. But they appear underused. Let's joke more! 🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Statistically significant chuckles: who is using humour at scientific conferences?

Abstract. We’ve all been there: 11.47, swamped by a long stretch of dense scientific talks at a conference. Six slides into a hyper-technical presentation,

royalsocietypublishing.org

Exciting opportunity!

Christina Hansen Wheat@chansenwheat.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🚨 JOB ALERT 🚨 2-year postdoc in canine behaviour at Linköping University, Sweden. #AcademicSky #ScienceJobs liu.se/en/work-at-l...

Cool study showing just how common it is for capuchins to anoint themselves and each other with the antimicrobial toxins produced by millipedes. 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Contexts of Anointing Behavior in a Group of Blond Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus flavius) Inhabiting an Atlantic Forest Fragment

Wild blond capuchin anoints with millipede species that secrete a chemical capable of repelling ectoparasites, suggesting a self-medicative function. Social and solitary anointing bouts occurred at s...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Hartelijk dank, Evelien!

Evelien@e-ve-lien.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Warm en confronterend tegelijk. Voor een leek als ik helder en verdiepend, zonder ooit saai te worden. Na afloop een hoofd vol gedachten. Precies wat een goed boek hoort te doen! Bedankt @jaapderoode.bsky.social

Beautiful new paper showing a latitudinal migratory divide in Painted Ladies. Longitudinal divides in migratory species are quite common, but seeing a latitudinal gradient, as well as the chromosomal inversion causing it, is exciting! 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A north-south hemispheric migratory divide in the butterfly Vanessa cardui - Nature Communications

Here authors find a latitudinal migratory divide in a butterfly across Earth’s hemispheres, highlighting how hemisphere-specific seasonality and navigational cues shape migratory strategies. They find...

nature.com

A new study suggests that crab-eating foxes may use insects such as crickets and cockroaches as medication. More studies are needed, but very interesting observations! 🧪 rsdjournal.org/rsd/article/...

Listen to this great podcast recorded at this year's @newscientist.com Live! @rigb.org's Ri Science podcast talks to @ciaragreene.bsky.social and @gillian-murphy.bsky.social, co-authors of Memory Lane, as well as @jaapderoode.bsky.social, author of Doctors by Nature: buff.ly/dSvgt0o #NSL2025

From the Excel: Upcoming science in 2026 from New Scientist Live

Podcast Episode · Ri Science Podcast · 12/11/2025 · 23m

buff.ly

So much fun to talk with Marty Martin and @jdrakephd.bsky.social at the @bigbiology.bsky.social podcast about how animals use medicine, what we can learn from them, and my @princetonupress.bsky.social book #DoctorsbyNature on this very topic. Thank you, Marty and John!

Big Biology | A Science Podcast@bigbiology.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Episode 142 “Doctors by Nature” is out now! 🩺🦋🐻🐵 In this episode, we talk with Dr. Jaap de Roode @jaapderoode.bsky.social, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University and author of the book "Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves".

It was long thought that domestication leads to reductions in brain size. But as we understand dog brains better, the truth is proving more complicated—and more interesting. Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...

Great opportunity!

Alex Fraik@akfraik.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Neat opportunity at George Mason University for #consbio #consgen undergrads. Paid NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. smconservation.gmu.edu/nsf-reu/

Another great story on fANTastic biology.

Mindy Weisberger@laminda.bsky.social · 9mo ago

You're a parasitic ant queen eyeing the colony of another species. You have a simple plan: 1. Hide your scent by rubbing workers on your body 2. Infiltrate the nest 3. Spray the queen with chemicals that goad her daughters into tearing her to bits 4. All hail the usurper! (my latest for CNN) 🧪

New paper showing how immigration alters the ecological processes structuring the assembly and variation in #Monarch caterpillar gut #microbiomes. w/ @jaapderoode.bsky.social, @gabe-dubose.bsky.social, Joselyne Chavez, Lydia Fuller-Hall Ecology Letters onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Experimental Immigration Mediates Ecological Selection and Drift in Monarch Microbiome Assembly

The distribution of biodiversity depends on processes operating across scales, yet multiscale paradigms have struggled to permeate host-microbiome research. By integrating multi-scale ecological theo...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Caterpillar guts are like grasslands: immigration and selection determine gut microbial communities. Thanks @chriscatano.bsky.social for leading this exciting project, and for showing that niche selection is important in caterpillar microbial ecology! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Experimental Immigration Mediates Ecological Selection and Drift in Monarch Microbiome Assembly

The distribution of biodiversity depends on processes operating across scales, yet multiscale paradigms have struggled to permeate host-microbiome research. By integrating multi-scale ecological theo...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

What a wonderful overview of how basic science leads the way. World-changing innovation comes from curiosity-driven research. Basic research always leads to applications, we may just not be smart enough to know what those will be. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

7 basic science discoveries that changed the world

Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government.

nature.com

Wow, nature is too cool! Structures on stinkbug hind legs that used to be interpreted as ears are actually chambers with fungi. The bugs coat their eggs in those fungi to protect them against parasitoid wasps. 🧪 Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs

Dinidorid stinkbugs were reported to possess a conspicuous tympanal organ on female hindlegs. In this study, we show that this organ is specialized to retain microbial symbionts rather than to perceiv...

science.org

Ants - and the researchers studying them - just keep on amazing! 🧪 Architectural immunity: Ants alter their nest networks to prevent epidemics | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Architectural immunity: Ants alter their nest networks to prevent epidemics

In animal groups, spatial structure shapes social interaction patterns, thereby influencing the transmission of infectious diseases. Active modifications to the spatial environment could therefore be ...

science.org

Just finished an amazing trip to Paris to promote my Les Liens Qui Liberent book #nos_grands_medecins, translated from my @princetonupress.bsky.social book #doctorsbynature. My first time doing radio interviews with live interpretation: a great and fun experience. @emorybiology.bsky.social

Next week, Oct 21 at 5:30 pm BST, @newcastleuni.bsky.social hosts @jaapderoode.bsky.social for a discussion of his book, Doctors by Nature, exploring how animals use medicine and what it can teach us about healing ourselves. This event is free and open to the public. Save your spot: buff.ly/vjs1oVE

Next week, on Oct 18, go to @newscientist.com Live to see @jaapderoode.bsky.social discuss his book, Doctors by Nature, and the fascinating ways in which animals practice medicine. Among many excellent speakers, be sure to see Jaap at 2:35pm BST! Explore the lineup and book tickets: buff.ly/4YBFj1U

🌿 Nature lifts mood all day Surveying over 2,000 adults, researchers found that visiting parks or watersides boosts happiness for everyone, including those with depression or anxiety. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1743... #MentalHealth #SciComm 🧪

Happy days are nature days: visiting nature has positive spill-over effects for the entire day among people with and without common mental health disorders

Recreational time in nature is linked to greater positive and fewer negative emotions than time in built settings, but it is unclear whether benefits: a) are short-lived or ‘spill-over’ across the ...

doi.org

We live in divided times. But most of us agree that we dislike mosquitoes. In the latest episode of the Virulent Vortex, I talk with Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec. As he explains, going back to basic mozzie biology could go a long way in controlling mosquito-borne diseases.🧪 youtu.be/sm5iz48-faA?...

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec

YouTube video by The MP3 Initiative & IDASTP

youtu.be

Our MARC T34 got a new NOA today- also reinstated the IMSD T32 and a summer program- INSPIRE R25- we were reinstated due to involvement with ACLU lawsuit filed on behalf of the American Public Health Association-

Our latest research, with @iragonese.bsky.social, @saltidog.bsky.social and @richardlovesbirds.bsky.social, shows that elevated temperature can increase monarch butterfly susceptibility to parasitism by reducing the medicinal properties of milkweed. #plant-insect #plant-herbivore 🧪

RES Publications@respublications.bsky.social · 11mo ago

New #OpenAccess research in #RESEcolEnt reports on how host plants & experimental #warming impact fitness and infection outcomes in a migratory butterfly doi.org/10.1111/een.70010 #Danaus #MonarchButterfly Photo credits: Isabella Ragonese

“De ware dierendokters: hoe dieren elkaar medisch behandelen. Chimpansees die verbanden aanleggen, muizen die EHBO verlenen: ook dieren verzorgen elkaar, blijkt uit groeiend stapel studies.” #wetenschap #biologie #diergedrag #boek Dokters van nature van @jaapderoode.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4b8eua9h

De ware dierendokters: hoe dieren elkaar ‘medisch’ behandelen

Chimpansees die verbanden aanleggen, muizen die EHBO verlenen: ook dieren verzorgen elkaar, blijkt uit een groeiende stapel studies. Vier opmerkelijke voorbeelden.

tinyurl.com

In many cases, crowding results in greater disease transmission. However, in monarch butterflies high host density can reduce per capita infection risk. This happens when caterpillars gobble up parasites on milkweed, removing them from the environment.🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

Crowding reduces per-capita parasite infection risk in a butterfly host | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Crowding can result in greater disease transmission, yet crowded hosts may also remove infectious propagules from the environment, thereby lowering the encounter rate and infectious dose received by c...

royalsocietypublishing.org