Revathe

West Asia absolutely needs, and can create, a regional security framework that removes and prohibits any US military bases going forward. This is a *minimal* condition for regional peace and stability.

Ontogenetic evidence of socially learned call sequences in Western Australian magpies Abstract. Combinatoriality is the capacity to combine discrete vocal elements into larger structures. Previously thought unique to human language, combinat

Young magpies learn to combine calls into "sentences" much like human toddlers: through listening to family and friends!

Now available to read at @royalsocietypublishing.org
@mandyridley.bsky.social @stephanielking.bsky.social @ceb-uwa.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

🚨 ACE Seminar
We’re excited to host Dr. VPS Ritwika in our upcoming ACE Seminar!

🗓 Tuesday, Mar 17, 2026
🕖 7:00 PM JST (UTC+9)
💻 Online via Zoom

🔗 To receive the Zoom link, please send a blank email to ace-seminar+subscribe@googlegroups.com

The same technological pinpoint accuracy that was used to slaughter children in Gaza now being used to slaughter children in Iran.

Leipzig U and the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) have an open faculty position (W2) in evolutionary population genetics! This position is tenured and comes with generous core funding. We are eager to welcome a new colleague! Deadline March 11.
www.uni-leipzig.de/en/newsdetai...

Anyone who is an expert in #gutmicrobiome research is interested in collaborating with us to study #free-rangingdogs in India? Please get in touch!

Is the UK's intervention in Iran war legal? Starmer said Britain would intercept Iranian missiles and allow US to use its bases in defensive action. Does that make the UK complicit in an illegal war?

British PM Starmer says that U.K. bases will only be used for ’defensive’ operations and not ‘offensive’ ops. But how can that be so when they are being used by the aggressor?
Great discussion here with Milanovic, @adhaque.bsky.social @janinadill.bsky.social
www.middleeasteye.net/explainers/u...

“India’s silence on the blatantly illegal assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not the foreign policy volte-face that it seems to be at first sight. It is the natural and predictable outcome of the path that Indian foreign policy has been on for the last decade.”

m.thewire.in/article/dipl...

Side-by-side image of Will Ferrell and Chad Smith sitting on a talk show set, both wearing backward blue baseball caps and black leather jackets, with nearly identical serious expressions. The background shows a nighttime city skyline from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon set. Overlaid text on the left image reads “2001 Iraq War propaganda,” and on the right image reads “2025 Iran War propaganda,” framing the two similar images as a comparison meme.

The Davos speech was redundant for those of us in the 'Third World', a world that was built on non-aligned principles. Now it's evidently clear that the speech was also just words without real intent. Unfortunately, pointing out Western hypocrisies has also become redundant

Western hypocrisy remains strong even while the West crumbles under the weight of its own hypocrisy

The US and Israel have, in fact, begun an illegal war with Iran. The US lured Iran into talks and seemingly reached an agreement that Iran would end its uranium enrichment. As of 8:00 AM, Israel and the US launched a surprise attack on Iran with the intent of assassinating its leadership

Are AI-generated summaries suitable for studying and research? Despite didactic, ethical, and environmental concerns, the use of GenAI is on the rise in academia. For most applications, the jury is still out on whether and how they will benefit education and rese...

Tired of AI hype posts? You might like my sober assessment of whether AI-generated summaries are suitable for studying and research. Spoiler alert, they are not.

The text is primarily aimed at students and researchers, but has much broader relevance. So share freely!: www.tue.nl/en/our-unive...

Biomedical and life science articles by female researchers spend longer under review Women are underrepresented in academia, especially in STEMM fields, at top institutions, and in senior positions. This study analyzes millions of biomedical and life science articles, revealing that f...

Median amount of time spent under review is 7.4–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles and the differences remain significant after controlling for several factors - analysis of >36.5 million articles in >36,000 journals
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

“The diversity of life arose not through some catastrophic process far in the distant pass, but rather through the gradual action of the very same process is that we observe on ongoing today” Because of links restrictions on alt text, please see the link in the previous post for the full text of this article. This is an image of the final page, beginning with the section “a final puzzle”.

2. For me, the final section is the most provocative and interesting.

We address how it can be that our minds are capable of apprehending the very processes of evolution by which they came to be. It need not be so, but it is.

Humbled by Evolution Understanding the history and diversity of life inspires awe and wonder.

1. I’m quite happy with this popular piece that Lee Dugatkin and I wrote recently. For the next two weeks it’s free to read on the American Scientist website.

🚨 The application deadline has been extended to 27 Feb 2026.
Apply at this link: forms.gle/wbUG5WfTRSvh...

Many are appropriately outraged by Altman’s comments here implying that raising a human child is akin to “training” an AI model.

This is part of a broader pattern where AI industry leaders use language that collapses the boundary between human and machine.

🧵/

Who gets to tell the world’s most urgent environmental stories?

Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship is expanding in 2026. 🌍

✨ Deadline extended to Feb 14.

Paid, remote. 11 fellows. Six published stories.

Apply NOW: buff.ly/pTCVXXB

Learn more: buff.ly/ZZCG7M2.

Elefantenbabys knüpfen früh soziale Bindungen! 🐘💞
Revathe & Vidya zeigen, dass asiatische Elefantenkälber bereits früh differenzierte Beziehungen aufbauen: Sie interagieren eng mit Mutter und „Begleitkühen“, die allomaternale Fürsorge leisten, meiden jedoch meist andere Weibchen. #Sozialverhalten

Young Asian Elephant Calves Show Differentiated Social Relationships With Conspecifics We studied spatial and behavioural interactions between young calves (< 6 months old) and conspecific females to understand social ontogeny in a wild Asian elephant population. We found differentiate...

🧪 ETHOLOGY: Baby elephants build social bonds early! 🐘💞
Revathe & Vidya show that Asian elephant calves form differentiated relationships early on: they interact closely with mothers and “escorts” who provide allomaternal care, while largely avoiding other females. Read: doi.org/10.1111/eth....

The 12th season of FINE starts the 24th of February with an exciting program.
To register for weekly reminders and the video link
email social.evolution.seminar@gmail.com

what makes something "vulnerable to AI" is not the capacity of machines but the credulity of management.

CES will give out at least seven travel awards of up to $4000 per person for researchers from low-and-middle income countries to attend the upcoming @ces2026.bsky.social CES 2026 Rabat conference. Applications must be submitted via this form by 20 February 2026, 9:00 AM AoE, to be considered.

two men standing next to each other with the words " i 'm writing this down this is good stuff " above them ALT: two men standing next to each other with the words " i 'm writing this down this is good stuff " above them

But importantly, how do we disseminate these results? Well, you send them to Behavioral Ecology! We are building a new section of the journal devoted solely to publishing close replications! These will be short-format so another great training opportunity for ECRs. 4/

a woman says a great investment in front of a bottle of garbanzo beans ALT: a woman says a great investment in front of a bottle of garbanzo beans

Incorporating replications into research training puts up useful guardrails for the trainee and focuses on developing good research skills and takes the focus away from novelty or a need to find a 'positive' result. Plus you work out all the kinks before you invest in a more intensive experiment 3/

Funding rates are consistently low since 2022, and for the first time below 10%. In my view, any proposal evaluated with >90-85% will be excellent and it will come down to details that the candidates do not control: If the reviewer had a good day, a good breakfast, etc. Pure and arbitrary luck.