Joshua B. Plotkin
@jplotkin.bsky.social
Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences, University of Pennsylvania http://evolution.sas.upenn.edu/
Port Richmond Station, Philadelphia, 1925. Coal unloaded from Delaware barges. Firemen watched twelve stoker fires through peepholes. Oilers judged bearings by bare palm, every pipe clad in asbestos. Turbines ran 24/7 under the 125-vaulted ceiling; for 60 years.
Have ideas for your own, independent research program in Theoretical Biology? Then come and join us as a Group Leader at the @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social in Plön, Germany!
Group Leader in Theoretical Biology (m/f/d)
Experience in Theoretical Biology, Applied Mathematics, Theoretical Physics
mpg.de
Mathematicians: Do a breakthrough. ChatGPT: (does a breakthrough in 88m) Every day now.
Why do societies rely on rigid moral rules? Don't lie. Keep your promises. Don't steal. We all recognize there are good reasons to make exceptions. So why are moral rules so often categorical? Our new paper proposes an answer. 🧵
Amazon and eBay give star ratings for seller trustworthiness — but should we trust eBay? Institutions that publicize reputations, from e-commerce to religious authorities, benefit from user participation. Hiro Okabe studied how such institutions will behave. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
And, here, in much more detail. This is an absolutely critical read for all federally funded scientists and institutions. Now is not the time to sit in the corner, hoping you won't be noticed - now is the time for action. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Russell Vought is going destroy American Science
elizabethginexi.substack.com
From diminishing returns to entrenchment: a unifying theory of epistasis along adaptive walks revealed by Fisher's geometric model https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.07.723117v1
Applications now open for the UNIL Summer School on Modelling for Evolutionary Biology (31 Aug–5 Sep 2026, Lausanne)! For PhD & postdocs interested in formal approaches to evolutionary ecology (incl. social evo, life-history, species interactions). Scholarships available, Pls RP! shorturl.at/fo1GA
🧵 New paper w/ Guillaume Cheikbossian: "Evolutionary branching of social preferences in a public good provision game" (ideas.repec.org/p/tse/wpaper...). Can behavioural heterogeneity in cooperation be an adaptive outcome? We think the answer is yes.
Evolutionary branching of social preferences in a public goo
We study the evolution of other-regarding preferences in a public goods game where the production function exhibits varying degrees of complementarity between individual efforts. Individuals are ratio
ideas.repec.org
Do animals have a favored tempo for communicating with each other? This study reveals a hotspot of 0.5-4 Hz for #communication across distinct species & modalities, hypothesizing that this may driven by biophysical commonalities of the receivers' #neurons @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4ccWuhh
We are recruiting 1-2 postdoctoral fellows to investigate the specificity of human anti-influenza virus antibodies, and to determine how these antibodies impact global antigenic drift of influenza viruses. Join our lab at Penn in Philly. Reach out if you are interested in applying! Please repost!
The last time I tried to engage with Jay Bhattacharya in dialogue I ended up on administrative leave. 🤷♀️
Katy Milkman@katymilkman.bsky.social · 4mo agoTo everyone responding with vitriol: please come! Our goal in choosing speakers was to platform both popular and unpopular figures advocating for scientific reforms to spark productive conversations across divides! If this makes you angry, come engage in dialogue — that’s how we improve.
The preliminary programme for @ces2026.bsky.social is now out. What a fabulous line up! airess.fgses-um6p.ma/CES2026?__cf...
Cultural Evolution Society 2026 Conference | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique - FGSES
airess.fgses-um6p.ma
How many teachers are enough? Zero? Hirotaka Goto and I analyze the optimal allocation of dedicated teachers in a population. @carlbergstrom.com www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Fascinating.. McChristal on when wars are necessary; what diversity means in combat; what leadership is valuable, what toxic. @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/o...
Opinion | ‘Everything After This Will Be Harder’: Gen. Stanley McChrystal on Iran
nytimes.com
China increases science funding again (by at least 7-% over the next 5 years) as it pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
China pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science
Funding for national laboratories and important research projects would increase under the government’s plans.
nature.com
