Joan Strassmann
@joanstrassmann.bsky.social
Wrote Slow Birding; Evolutionary biologist at Wash U in St. Louis, social behavior and evolution, wasps and microbes, love social amoebae, Lake Michigan
sociobiology.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/p...
Poster learning by taking apart another poster
A poster should be a kind of tease to your research, an appetizer, not the whole meal. After all, people looking at posters do not want to spend more than about 4 minutes looking at your work. So p…
sociobiology.wordpress.com
Sorry to hear Paul Ehrlich has passed on. He was so important.
Microbial Predation Conference Monte Verità, Switzerland 🇨🇭 July 27-31, 2026 👇 Lutz Becks Yen-Ping Hsueh Andrew Lovering @andrewtlovering.bsky.social David Queller Renske van Raaphorst @vrrenske.bsky.social Joan Strassmann @joanstrassmann.bsky.social
Marie Vasse@marievasse.bsky.social · 5mo agoInterested in microbial predation? Join us in Ticino Switzerland on July 27-31, 2026! More info at microbialpredation.ethz.ch #predation #ecology #evolution #microbes
Thrilled to welcome an outstanding group of speakers: Lutz Becks Yen-Ping Hsueh Andrew Lovering Joan Strassmann @joanstrassmann.bsky.social David Queller Renske van Raaphorst @vrrenske.bsky.social An exciting mix of evolutionary biology, microbiology and ecology! More speakers coming soon :)
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
slowbirding.wordpress.com/2026/02/08/c...
Chasing the Rough-legged Hawk at Columbia Bottomlands
I cannot remember ever chasing down a bird just because someone else saw it and eBird told me about it, but it was a chilly Sunday with little else outdoors to do. So my husband, little dog Zeus, a…
slowbirding.wordpress.com
Feeling happy to have given up my office phone, saving the department some money. There are better ways to reach me.
@scienceofthetimes.bsky.social is back after the summer break! We talk to @joanstrassmann.bsky.social about her fabulous new book "The Social Life of Birds". If you like the podcast: subscribe, like, share! We enjoy making it but have no idea how many folk listen! scienceofthetimes.transistor.fm
Science Of The Times
Do you want to learn a little more about topical science findings? Do many of the science stories you hear leave you with unanswered questions? Syma and Tim will discuss in non-technical language and ...
scienceofthetimes.transistor.fm
Apply online by November 1st! Wiko Early Career Call for fellowships 2026/27 in the #NaturalSciences and #LifeSciences. Gain time to think during a 3–5 month #fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin – Institute for Advanced Study: wiko-berlin.de/fellow-werde... #cfa
I got the hard copies of my new book findable anywhere books are sold on September 23!
Up here in lovely Leelanau County Michigan we have a problem. A fancy resort community deals with its sewage by spraying so it drifts onto our landmark Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Their permit to do this is up for renewal and we are fighting it. Homesteadsewage.org Help would be great!
The Homestead Resort Sewage System within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
homesteadsewage.org
Do you have a bird you saw behaving unusually recently?
Why sing so late in the morning, Tufted Titmouse?
If I am not already awake, I will awaken enough to hear the dawn chorus out my open window here in Leland, Michigan. It begins with the American Robins and their familiar song and then Northern Car…
slowbirding.wordpress.com
Use AI to find referees? Sociobiology.Wordpress.com/2025/07/08/referee-finding-a-role-for-ai
Referee finding: a role for AI?
I had to ask ten people just to find two willing to review a paper I serve as editor for. I wanted three people but decided to go with two. Everyone knows how hard it is these days to get referees.…
sociobiology.wordpress.com
Social Lives of Birds is coming in September and here is an anticipatory post on the dawn chorus!
Recording the dawn chorus
I woke at 5 in the morning, earlier than the 6 AM I am aiming for, so I decided to sit outside under the birch tree and listen to the dawn chorus. It began just as I awakened with a lone American R…
slowbirding.wordpress.com
Heck out my series on recommendations
Recommendation letters: be careful about bias
Friends in the business world tell me that they do not write letters of recommendation any more. The most they will do is verify that a person worked in their company and give the dates. The reason…
nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
Have you tried any of the activities in the Slow Birding Journal? Here is one I did slowbirding.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/l...
Listen to Northern Cardinals and write in the Slow Birding Journal
Sometimes nature overwhelms. I wake up to a chorus of mostly robins but then the other birds join in, Song Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, Black-capped Chickadees, and then the one I wait for, the Northe…
slowbirding.wordpress.com
I'm so excited to share the cover for my book, The Social Lives of Birds, available for preorder now! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768621...
The Social Lives of Birds by Joan E. Strassmann: 9780593853061 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
An exploration of all the ways in which birds are social creatures—from breeding to nesting to babysitting In The Social Lives of Birds, evolutionary biologist and author of Slow Birding Joan Strassm...
penguinrandomhouse.com
"A report by economists at American University in Washington DC estimates that a 50% reduction in federal science funding would reduce the US gross domestic product by approximately 7.6%." Science is an amazing engine of economic activity and progress for the US ... or at least it was.
Nature@nature.com · last yr.Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature. https://go.nature.com/44Ugf9V
Anyone actually using Slow Birding Journal for observations? #addbirder
Applications now open for the 2025 International Travel Stipends to attend #Evol2025! Funds cover registration, travel, food, and lodging. Can also be used to attend #ESEB2025! Apply by January 31: https://buff.ly/3ZEWUqe @evolmtg.bsky.social
The hidden cost of aggregation lies in the incompatibilities between cells with different genetic dialects doi.org/10.1093/evle... Now in @evolletters.bsky.social by @jahanisrat.bsky.social, @treyjscott.bsky.social, @joanstrassmann.bsky.social, and David C Queller
Signing copies of Slow Birding and Slow Birding Journal at my local bookstore, Left Bank Books.
Just in time learning advantages Do you feel vaguely guilty when you get emails from your institution exhorting you to attend learning sessions for some new software? Right now I'm getting them often. They want me to… https://sociobiology.wordpress.com/2024/11/07/just-in-time-learning-advantages/
Where are people sending RNAseq samples, eukaryotic samples
Love the Black-throated Blue Warbler we banded today!
Nothing is more fun than bird banding in the height of migration, especially in the fall when molt limits are the challenge of the day!