Konow lab at UMass Lowell
@konowlab.bsky.social
How musculoskeletal mechanics let animals feed and avoid becoming food
Excellent article about Douglas R. Wilkie, FRS., trainee of AV Hill, and muscle/mechanics connoisseur par excellence. royalsociety.org/blog/2026/02...
royalsociety.org
The Royal Society@royalsociety.org · 5mo agoExplore the life and work of 'muscle man', physiologist Douglas Wilkie FRS, renowned for his work on the mechanics and thermodynamics of muscle contraction on our blog: #RSFellows https://royalsociety.org/blog/2026/02/muscle-man/
Attention musculoskeletal scientists! Only one week to go before the 8th annual student-organized UMOVE research symposium. An exciting day of muscle and movement science in animals including humans across molecular to organism scales @UMassLowell @KCSciences_UML
We are hiring a POSTDOC on an NIH award to measure inertial effects of (in)active muscle. Please share and re-post widely! Please send expressions of interest to my UML email.
Fish alter locomotor and feeding kinematics to capture aerial prey #ProcB #OpenAccess #Biomechanics royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
🚨🚨PhD position alert!🚨🚨 Do you like 🐢🐢? Or ecomorph evolution? I am offering a 36-month PhD position funded by the DFG about ecomorphology and neuroanatomy of turtles. Check out the ad here: www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc... Please share and if you have questions, send me a message 😉
A new theme issue of #PhilTransB looks at the impacts of #climatechange on #crops and how we can mitigate against these. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
New from #JRSocInterface: Automated analysis of bird head motion in unconstrained settings: a foundational study on semicircular canal evolution in #archosaurs. Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #biomechanics
We are staring down a mass extintion event for American science. If the 2026 budget is enacted, NSF will be slashed in half. Biology funding by ca 75%. The same percentage of species that died at the end-Cretaceous. For what reason? Nobody campaigned on this. And it's not law yet. So SPEAK UP NOW.
To mark the 360th anniversary of #PhilosophicalTransactions, we're spotlighting 20 landmark papers from the journal. Caroline Herschel's 1787 paper 'An Account of a New Comet' was the first scientific work by a woman to be fully credited in any scientific journal throughout the world buff.ly/RRsaLZ2
To mark the 360th anniversary of #PhilosophicalTransactions, we're spotlighting 20 landmark papers from the journal. Edward Stone's 1763 paper on willow bark laid the groundwork for aspirin and NSAIDs, revolutionising the treatment of pain and fever: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Cool paper. Designated Satutday morning coffee reed here.
Neil Shubin@neilshubin.bsky.social · last yr.New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team! Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05... Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Paper alert 🚨 Our 1rst paper with @vivienl.bsky.social and colleagues is out in Functional Ecology! In this paper, we investigated how complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata.Want to know more? Read this👇 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Complete metamorphosis promotes morphological and functional diversity in Caudata
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
New from the Near Lab, a super collaboration led by @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social Phylogenomics and evolutionary history of the iconic reef fish clade wrasses and parrotfishes (Labridae) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu6149
Phylogenomics establishes an Early Miocene reconstruction of reef vertebrate diversity
Phylogenomics reveals a younger-than-expected age of reef fish diversification.
science.org
A lifeline for researchers with cancelled grants: www.spencer.org/grant_types/...
Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program
In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...
spencer.org
Here is a great idea: Let's Establish a Dedicated Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Research Subgroup Within The Biophysical Society - Sign the Petition! chng.it/dy4dg7dJq2 via @Change
This campaign needs you now
Establish a Dedicated Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Research Subgroup Within The Biophysical Society
chng.it
I am looking for a PhD candidate to work on the morphological and functional evolution of the head shape of limbless squamates. The project will involve evolutionary biology, experimental and computational biomechanics, and a lot of scaly animals!!! More info here: adum.fr/as/ed/voirpr...
adum.fr
Behavioural biomechanics: leaf-cutter ant cutting behaviour depends on leaf edge geometry royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... | #ProcB #Behaviour #Biomechanics
🧪 Our Terminated NSF Grant Tracker is live 🧪 🔴 114 NSF grants listed so far 🔴 Cancelled grants focused on → Training scientists → Misinformation → AI → Climate change Credit to @noamross.net for all the work to build this & to all PIs who submitted their info. Link: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
🚨New publication alert!🚨 A big one! It might just be my *biggest* one: doi.org/10.1093/iob/... IMPORTANT THREAD! From the moment Dave Blackburn set me loose at the Florida Museum, I had a marvelous time using diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced CT (diceCT) to create anatomical datasets 🧪1/6
Only a few hours left to submit your abstract for the 2025 SEB Conference in Antwerp. www.sebiology.org/events/seb-a... If you work on muscle, and particularly if your work integrates across scales of biological organization, I encourage you to submit to session A1.
SEB Annual Conference Antwerp 2025
Abstract submissions will open from Monday 6th January until Friday 7th March 2025
sebiology.org
Abstract submission for @sebiology.bsky.social in Antwerp is open until Fri 7th March! #SEB2025 Plenty of #Biomechanics Special Sessions—pick your poison! 🦕 Bringing Fossils "Back to Life" 🏃♀️ Musculoskeletal Mechanics & Modelling 🤖 Kinematics & Robotics 🔧 Innovative Methods 🎖️ Tribute to Peter Aerts
SEB Annual Conference Antwerp 2025
Abstract submissions will open from Monday 6th January until Friday 7th March 2025
sebiology.org
This executive order: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... Has some very concerning language affecting universities: "(b) Review of Covered Contracts and Grants. Each Agency Head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, shall review all existing covered contracts and grants and, "... 1/3
Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Cost Efficiency Initiative
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.
whitehouse.gov
How do you measure what isn't there? Elska did a fantastic job leading this paper on how we can measure the volume of changing, 3D spaces inside XROMM skeletal animations. And, importantly, how good are those volume measurements? journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Reminder: abstracts for the '25 Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Antwerp BE (July 7th-11th) are due March 7th. t.co/VawfbYRCsu I'll run a session on Multiscale Musculoskeletal Mechanics and Modeling. Please DM me for information and submit to session A1 if your work fits our theme.
Excited to announce the beginning of my service on the editorial board for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb I am experienced with, and would be happy to discuss your ideas for guest-edited special issues in the journal
Home | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Continuing its long history of influential scientific publishing, Philosophical Transactions B publishes high quality theme issues on topics of current importance and general interest within the life sciences, guest-edited by leading authorities and comprising new research, reviews and opinions from prominent researchers.
royalsocietypublishing.org
I don't want my appliances to be connected to the internet. I don't want them to have blinky lights or touch screen controls or be accessible by phone. All I want is for them to do the one thing they are supposed to do, and to beep less. Hear that, manufacturers? Less beeping.
Great to see old pals and new results at #SICB2025, including Yara Haridy's deep dive into some of the earliest bony skeletons: www.science.org/content/arti...
Ancient fish fossil suggests ‘living skeletons’ evolved 460 million years ago
X-ray analysis of bony scale shows vertebrates developed ability to remodel and repair bone much earlier than thought
science.org
