Metaphors offer a colorful window into how we're thinking about AI. But metaphors aren't just idle rhetoricโ they also shape how we respond to and regulate new technologies.
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @melaniemitchell.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/seven-metaph...
Ceratiomyxa sphaerosperma from Mera, Pastaza, Ecuador. This tiny slime mold makes its spores on little stalks, giving it a distinctive appearance. My favorite feature of these are the glass-like stems.
Olympus OM-1 / 90mm macro lens / MC20 2x teleconverter
Will humans and animals ever be able to converse? Hereโs what I say...
www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
@sarahpapworth.bsky.social
The late philosopher Daniel Dennett had a notable penchant for metaphorโbut he rarely used just one. Instead, he often engaged in what @sflusberg.bsky.social calls "metaphorical triangulation."
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode!
Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...
We can all agree that metaphors are nice. But are they also sometimes necessary? Could there be ideas we simply can't approach literally, thoughts we can't think without metaphors?
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @sflusberg.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/the-aura-of-...
๐จNew animal linguistics paper๐จ
Together with @geoffreymesbahi.bsky.social and @maelmleroux.bsky.social, we tried to finally answer this question: Do titi monkeys have complex syntactic skills?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
New paper out๐๐ข๐! We highlight the remarkable expertise of local field assistants at BCFS (Uganda) in interpreting chimpanzee pant-hoot callsโidentifying who is calling, their age, sex, and contextโrevealing scientific knowledge built through years of experience. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
Decoding behavior with minimal and interpretable agent models https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700580v1
Many thanks, Claudia! I will have a lookโบ๏ธ
Hi Elisa, yes grants are offered by @asab.org and @ethoges.bsky.social (and potentially others). For more information visit: www.aru.ac.uk/science-and-...
Will there be grants for students to help with the costs of attending?
BBS article on mechanisms of group cohesion in primates (Robin Dunbar), with our commentary proposing facial expression as one of those key mechanisms! @eithnekavanagh.bsky.social @jamiewhitehouse.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
"misinformation is widespread in biological systems spanning levels of organization, and [...] is probably an inevitable property that inherits from fundamental constraints on biological communication systems, rather than a pathology"
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
1/ In a recent @britishacademy.bsky.social video @rebeccasear.bsky.social from @brunelpsy.bsky.social takes a clear-eyed look at the 21stโcentury rise of eugenics - an ideology that should have been left behind, yet is now reโemerging in a number of troubling ways โ ๏ธ๐งฌ ๐งช
Watch the full talk here ๐ฅ๐
This is going to be so much fun!! Apply and come hang out in Madrid!
Behavioral data can be very detailed but are usually aggregated and normalized in ways that smother the dynamics. Ben wrote a continuous-time Markov model to improve on this, and also wrote simulations for exploring and validating pipelines. All the code is here: github.com/BenKawam/ASN...
Jolie, an adult female chimpanzee of the Ngogo community in Kibale National Park, Uganda, with sleeping infant son, Zawinul. CREDIT: Kevin Langergraber
After the Ngogo chimpanzee group killed 21 members of neighboring groups and expanded their territory by 22%, female birth rates more than doubled and infant survival increased sharplyโshowing clear fitness benefits from intergroup killing. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/TKmf50XuPjY
Cuts to humanities, arts and social science courses at universities are leaving students unable to study close to home - which particularly impacts students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Read more ๐ www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/univers...
UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Are you studying animal sociality? Confused about the "non-independence" of social network data: what on earth are they? are they threatening your results? should you attempt to get rid of them?
A thread summarising a part of our new paper (ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...).
Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. ยฃ10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...
#Behaviour2025 plenary talk
Dr. Toshitaka Suzuki is giving the plenary talk on the topic "Animal linguistics: syntax and semantics in the communication system of a wild passerine" at hall 1 (level 4), on the concluding day of the conference
#plenarytalk
#conference
Image from the blog showing 5 solutions to countering scientific racism 1. Introduce students to the complexities of developmental processes 2. Introduce students to the complexities of inheritance processes 3. Explain that variation between racialised groups in behavioural and cultural traits is not caused by genetic differences 4. Debunk scientific racism in school and university level science curricula 5. Acknowledge and contextualised the racist histories of academic fields
Race Isnโt Biological โ So Why Do So Many Still Think It Is?
@kevinlala.bsky.social and @kztwyman.bsky.social blog about their recent paper in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying!
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Brain Surfaces of 70 primate species
1
To predict the behaviour of a primate, would you rather base your guess on a closely related species or one with a similar brain shape? We looked at brains & behaviours of 70 species, youโll be surprised!
๐งตThread on our new preprint with @r3rt0.bsky.social , doi.org/10.1101/2025...
2019. #DEI - Unpaid work and access to science professions dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
"such [unpaid] positions undoubtedly provide valuable work experience, but only for those who can afford them, and this can prevent scientists from less-well-off backgrounds from entering the field"
We need your help to raise money for our Field Skills Workshop! ๐ค Our workshop provides critical training for emerging primatologists who otherwise would not have opportunities to gain field experience. Consider donating to support this goal via the ๐: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...
@benkawam.bsky.social
