Just watched Nolan's Odyssey and was disappointed despite the visual spectacle. But piggybacking off this, if you haven't read it already, do check out A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. A small review of that book by me here: pminasandra.github.io/reviews/2024...

'A Thousand Ships' by Natalie Haynes

Wrath! Sing, Goddess, of the wrath of Achilles, Peleus’ Son, whose wrath brought on the Achaians innumerable woes, hurled down into Hades countless brave men’s souls while leaving their bodies to dogs...

pminasandra.github.io

I'm speaking at #ISBE this afternoon at 13:00 (session 2F), come say hi!

Slightly out of date, but Melanie Mitchell is one of the most thoughtful people in the ai/cogsci space: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...

LLMs and World Models, Part 1

How do Large Language Models Make Sense of Their “Worlds”?

aiguide.substack.com

Yesterday the European Parliament gave the green light to #ChatControl, here are some very useful tools to go against their mass surveillance: @signal.org , Posteo, @nextcloud.bsky.social , Linux or @grapheneos.org are very good options, in my opinion. exitchatcontrol.org

Exit Chat Control · Become Ungovernable

A practical field guide to escape Chat Control and reclaim your digital privacy: encrypted messaging, email, VPN, DNS, passwords, Linux, GrapheneOS, self-hosting. Free, open source, no tracking.

exitchatcontrol.org

I’m beyond excited to share I’ve been awarded a Minerva Fast Track Fellowship by @maxplanck.de to start my research group “Culture and Social Behavior” at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social! Keep your eyes peeled for a PhD position advertisement coming later this year 🐒 www.ab.mpg.de/1442914/zoe-...

Zoë Goldsborough named Minerva Fast Track Fellow

ab.mpg.de

Does anyone have any idea how to get in touch with editorial staff at *Animal Biotelemetry*? I've agreed to review a paper for them, but need a small extension. There is absolutely no point of contact or e-mail ID anywhere, and all contact was from do-not-reply IDs. Help is welcome!

Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken

taken.

A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.

sinceyouarrived.world

the amazing @mayankchugh.bsky.social once again powerfully captures the lived realities of inequality in academic mobility by sharing his experiences. this artwork "weighing" Indian and American passports hits really hard -- goes much beyond mobility privileges.

I was set to lead an undergraduate research trip abroad. Then my visa was denied

Through flexibility, problem-solving and the generosity of colleagues, I shepherded students through fieldwork remotely.

nature.com

"The real threat is a slow, comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing. Not a dramatic collapse. Not Skynet. Just a generation of researchers who can produce results but can't produce understanding."

Minas Karamanis@minaskar.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

If you have ever thought 'I wish I could track individuals in real-time' or 'this tracker runs too slow on my laptop' or 'I want to remove observer bias in my study' or 'how could I automatise my setup?', then you'd like this project 👇 @asab.org @ceiussi.bsky.social @iussi-nwes.bsky.social

Dom Roche@domroche.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Such a fun project led by really talented and passionate people! If you want a free, user-friendly tracking option (live and post-hoc) check out TracktorLive! doi.org/10.64898/202... @rasmusern.bsky.social @jutfelt.bsky.social @tnorin.bsky.social @shaunkillen.bsky.social @zegnitriki.bsky.social

Such a fun project led by really talented and passionate people! If you want a free, user-friendly tracking option (live and post-hoc) check out TracktorLive! doi.org/10.64898/202... @rasmusern.bsky.social @jutfelt.bsky.social @tnorin.bsky.social @shaunkillen.bsky.social @zegnitriki.bsky.social

Pranav Minasandra@pminasandra.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Interested in automating lab experiments or tasks with camera-trackable animals? We (@vivekhsridhar.bsky.social, @domroche.bsky.social, @iplanass.bsky.social) are launching TracktorLive, a real-time #python package for tracking and response. Video below by @iplanass.bsky.social [1/4]

Interested in automating lab experiments or tasks with camera-trackable animals? We (@vivekhsridhar.bsky.social, @domroche.bsky.social, @iplanass.bsky.social) are launching TracktorLive, a real-time #python package for tracking and response. Video below by @iplanass.bsky.social [1/4]

Interested in automating lab experiments or tasks with camera-trackable animals? We (@vivekhsridhar.bsky.social, @domroche.bsky.social, @iplanass.bsky.social) are launching TracktorLive, a real-time #python package for tracking and response. Video below by @iplanass.bsky.social [1/4]

🚨REPOST PLEASE! 🙏🏻 Calling all South African 🇿🇦 zoology students! You have ONE more week to apply to our Collective Behaviour Field Course 📍Two weeks at the Kalahari Research Centre 🗓️ June 2026 💸 Fully funded Application details are at www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/cbfc DM for any questions

Some of us put together a cool real-time tracking+ response system as a python package. Super accessible for those without much computer vision expertise. More when the paper is published. See the pre-print below! 👇

bioRxiv Animal Behavior and Cognition@biorxiv-behav.bsky.social · 5mo ago

TracktorLive: an integrated real-time object tracking and response system https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711471v1

Resharing this timely and important piece from the most recent #ISBE newsletter

One issue is, what happens when the big AI companies start charging the actual costs of running these models? I predict that future AI-agent use may be restricted to big companies and universities. Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/m...

Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It

nytimes.com

✨New Perspective out w/ Wenning Deng and @fearbrain.bsky.social in @cp-iscience.bsky.social ! We argue that social foraging gives us a unifying, and ecologically grounded way to study how decisions unfold across levels — from individuals and dyads to collectives. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

This is really interesting!

Colin Gorrie@colingorrie.bsky.social · 6mo ago

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

New entry on my webcomic! The poem "HE TELLS HER" by Wendy Cope pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

pyecoacc: A python package for supervised learning of behavioural modes from accelerometer data

Supervised learning of behavioural modes from body-worn sensor data, especially accelerometers, has become a transformative research tool in behavioural ecology over the past years. Due to the pop...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🧪Before the day begins, meerkats share a unique ritual. After emerging from their burrows, they spend up to an hour "sunning" to warm up for the day. During this quiet time, they produce soft, tonal "sunning calls". Just standing, sunbathing, and calling. But why❓ #bioacoustics #meerkats #kalahari

Sometimes, when I really like (or really dislike) something I read, I write a small review about it on my website. Sharing a more recent one: pminasandra.github.io/reviews/2026...

'The Idea of the Brain' by Matthew Cobb

What are minds? How well do we understand them? This book is the history of how people have thought about minds, brains, cognition, and the like. Covering the past, present, and predicted future of wh...

pminasandra.github.io

After a trip to the ER for an extremely avoidable silly accident, I started wondering about the neuroscience behind being clumsy. Sounds interesting? Have a look at my post on Substack!

The science behind clumsiness

How a snowy trip to the ER made me wonder about brains and being clumsy.

open.substack.com

How are sound elements combined to make calls in this Pūkeko population in NZ? How do calls change based on where they're made in the call sequence? Read our paper to find out!

Cini Gall@cinig.bsky.social · 7mo ago

My latest article is finally published: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... we examine how Australasian swamphen (Pukeko) combine different sounds into all the different calls. We also examine call sequences and find that calls become longer along some calling sequences

Our group is looking for two MSc students to conduct a one-year research project on meerkat navigation and vocal activity at the University of Zurich and the Kalahari Research Center. Please share around!

New paper! We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Periodic reminder to check out my new webcomic, Remarkable Doodles! Title: If Isaac Newton has seen further Permalink: pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...

I have some brilliant news to share! I recently received a DFG-funded Emmy Noether 6-year grant to establish my own group in Germany. I will soon be looking for a PhD student and a research assistant to join the team and investigate how the balance of power is maintained in animal societies.