Sign in

Ben de Bivort

@debivort.bsky.social
2K followers 776 following 945 posts

Drosophila neurobiologist. We study insect behavior and individuality using the tools of computational neuroethology. Harvard Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (co-chair) & Center for Brain Science debivortlab.org

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Michael Hendricks 🇨🇦 @michaelhendricks.bsky.social · 7h
We're nowhere near the bottom of how bad the US is going to get.
121
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
❤️🫀 momo (heartily good bad) 🫀❤️ @momo.thingsabout.xyz · 08/10/2026
786245
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
David Schoppik @schoppik.com · 07/10/2026
If you've ever wondered how the brain *really* keeps things in mind, come let Aaron, Nick & their colleagues in the Nagel lab tell you how the fly does it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A split attractor design for rapidly writing a navigational goal - Nature
The recurrent h∆K–PFG neural circuit generates persistent heading memories through slow excitation, fast inhibition and a disinhibitory gate, where disinhibition controls the functional...
58635
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Sarah Hird, PhD @sarahhird.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
That time I put almost all the chipmunk species in the western USA on one map. Did you know there’s 1 species of chipmunk in Asia, 1 in eastern USA & >20 in western USA? (I’m not the crazy one here. The chipmunks are the crazy ones.)
Map of the western USA with 20 overlapping chipmunk species distributions in different colors.
1221465
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Patrick De Oliveira @plso.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Academic freedom in the U.S. has arguably reached a new nadir—maybe worse than the 50s. This is not only due to the scale and range of the assault on higher ed, which is targeting everything (individuals' views on Gaza, DEI initiatives, the curriculum, collaborative research with other countries)...
46441
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
“The backlash against A.I. is a backlash against unchecked inequality”
281373448
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Elmo @tim-elmo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
...and you can go no contact with your boomer parents without danger of being an un-dialectical, (petty) bourgeois individualist! Came up in my office hours and I thought I'd share here. 6/6 Receipts: www.marxists.org/archive/marx... www.marxists.org/deutsch/arch... www.marxists.org/deutsch/arch...
111
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Kirsten Weld @kirstenweld.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Today, on appeal, the Trump administration will try once more to defend its blatantly illegal & unconstitutional campaign of retribution against Harvard. @aaup.org, AAUP-Harvard, and UAW first sued to stop it — and won in federal court. Here’s hoping the First Circuit upholds that decision.
1198
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
heck yes!
010
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 30/09/2026
#Glia are essential for proper nervous system #development and function, but a high-resolution view of glial development is lacking. This Resource analyses longitudinal single-cell RNA sequencing of the #Drosophila visual system as glial diversity arises. 🧪 #NeuroSky plos.io/4dcP8KJ
Annotation of optic lobe glia in the larval and adult single-cell datasets.
(A) A cross-section schematic representation of the larva (L3) optic lobe with the glial cell types depicted. (C) A cross-section schematic representation of the adult stage optic lobe with the glial cell types depicted.
032
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I hope people can look at the quality of your paleo work and do the simplest of extrapolations.
030
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
As scientists we don’t often consider or lean on how our humanity gives us skin in the game, and what value that provides to the public. We can face professional consequences for cheating or getting it wrong; it’s that skin in the game that breeds trust. LLM Prof Theseus doesn’t have that.
1145
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 29/09/2026
The late mathematician Ronald Graham was also a skilled juggler. Fifty-five years ago, he posed a question that may have stemmed from the hobby. This year, it was finally solved. www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicia…
1218
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
lucky to have had some minor correspondence with him!
011
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
🙄
081
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Tessa Montague @tessamontague.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm excited to share our new preprint: Generation of a transgenic cephalopod tinyurl.com/pc86jxz8 Cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus & squid) are crazy critters that dynamically camouflage to their surroundings by changing the color, pattern, & texture of their skin, which they control w their brain.
13336118
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Ammon Perkes @alltheperkes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🐟🚨 Fish paper alert! 🚨🐟 You might already know that individuals are unique, even when they’re genetically identical clones raised in identical environments. But what about groups? Groups of clones are distinct from birth, but (unlike individuals) those differences do not predict later behavior!
authors.elsevier.com
Group-level phenotypes are idiosyncratic yet unpredictable over development in a clonal fish
Behavioral differences among groups can have profound impacts on individual fitness,1 yet how group-level phenotypes arise and change during developme…
32720
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Signal boost to our tenure track faculty search in "AI in Life Sciences". Broadly construed, so PLEASE apply!!
mcb.harvard.edu
Tenure-Track Professor in Life Science and AI - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
The Life Sciences Departments in Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences seek to recruit a tenure-track professor whose research is at the interface of AI and life sciences, […]
1108
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Félicie Dhellemmes @felicie-dhellemmes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Proud to present our latest work "Tracking human foragers and their prey reveals adaptive predator-prey dynamics", now hosted on BioRxiv! 🧵 doi.org/10.64898/202... @ralfkurvers.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social @alexschakowski.bsky.social @dominikdeffner.bsky.social
26527
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Kate Laskowski @katelaskowski.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Okay this is just wildly cool - they tracked human ice-fishers *and* the fish they're hunting. Even though humans can't see the fish *at all* the humans are still surprising good at zero-ing on their prey. Probably the most complete picture of predator AND prey movement together. 🤯🎣
0259
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
interesting analogy!
010
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Reminder that in Canada upon becoming an engineer you get an iron ring made of a collapsed bridge, purposely designed to be uncomfortable, to remind you that your ethics demand you give a fuck even about the boring grudgework of such as double-checking your math. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring
en.wikipedia.org
Iron Ring - Wikipedia
2073722302
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Brittney Elizabeth Stoneburg @brittandbone.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I've worked for a natural history museum for 11 years at this point (man, yikes) and while it is sad, it isn't surprising to see two major institutions facing closure this year.
36833
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Portugues Lab @portugueslab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University is hiring! Come and do cutting edge research on the neural basis of natural behaviors at NBB (nbb.cornell.edu). No animal too small, no behavior too strange! Apply here: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32592
14835
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.
10381692845
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Would be curious to hear what you found to be "best practices" from the candidate perspective. We are expecting to communicate norms around asking questions of other candidates. And likely dinners will only have one candidate each.
110
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Yes, there was a lot conversation about this, with many (older) dept leaders skeptical, but younger folks reporting good experiences when it was done right. We were also thinking about how to have the widest audience present for as many of the research talks as possible.
110
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We are hoping that word of this search goes far and that we draw a wide and diverse pool of applicants. Please take a look and share if you're inclined. 5 departments involved! • Organismic & Evol Bio • Mol & Cell Bio • Stem Cells & Regen Bio • Earth & Planetary Sci • Human Evolutionary Bio
166
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Ann Clemens @annmclemens.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
if you're in Edinburgh and looking for research experience 👩‍🔬 🧑‍🔬 we're offering opportunities to join our work on **the sticky sense** in humans and rodents with potential for field research 🫎 🔭 get in touch 💻 📫 📞 @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social @edinunineuro.bsky.social
0125
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hello friends, the Harvard Life Science departments have banded together to hire a new colleague working at the intersection of Life Sciences and AI. Could be primarily an experimentalist, or could be primarily a compute/theorist. academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/16773
academicpositions.harvard.edu
Tenure-Track Professor in Life Science and AI
The Life Sciences Departments in Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences seek to recruit a tenure-track professor whose research is at the interface of AI and life sciences, from methodological developme...
34254
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A 1000 applications is unusual, but known to happen, for a wide biology search. We are expecting a large number.
010
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
bit weird given the play is written in early modern English but I'd pay to hear Ēalā Rōmēo, Rōmēo, for hwȳ eart þū Rōmēo? Wiðsace þīnum fæder and forsac þīnne naman; oþþe, gif þū nelt, swere mē þæt þū mīn lēofa sīe, and ne bēo iċ nā lenġ Capulēting.
26611128
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
cc @harvardmcb.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social @harvardoeb.bsky.social
010
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hello friends, the Harvard Life Science departments have banded together to hire a new colleague working at the intersection of Life Sciences and AI. Could be primarily an experimentalist, or could be primarily a compute/theorist. academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/16773
academicpositions.harvard.edu
Tenure-Track Professor in Life Science and AI
The Life Sciences Departments in Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences seek to recruit a tenure-track professor whose research is at the interface of AI and life sciences, from methodological developme...
34254
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Ann Kennedy @antihebbiann.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Preprint time! This is a cool one. Complex systems, be they neural nets, interacting genes, or power grids, can produce diverse dynamics-- things like point attractors, limit cycles, and chaos. The dynamic landscape you get depends on how elements interact. But those interactions can also change!
28125
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Bob Kopp @bobkopp.net · 22/09/2026
NEW PAPER: In a new paper, jointly published in @agu.org Earth's Future & @ametsoc.org BAMS, and co-led by Melissa Kenney, @costasamaras.com and me, 175 authors outline priorities to guide the future of scientific assessments of climate change in the United States. 🧵
doi.org
Research Priorities for Robust Climate Assessments in the United States
A network of climate assessments plays a critical role in synthesizing the state of science to support evidence-based decision-making To support future U.S. and sub-national climate assessments, ...
114884
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Kirsten Sheehy @ksheehy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
📣 New paper! 📣 ❓Do clonal fish and their sexually reproducing heterospecifics differ in parasite load? 🤒 We found that clonal Amazon mollies were more likely to be infected than Sailfin mollies, but parasite loads were largely the same. 🤔 Could behavior have something to do with this pattern? 1/3
doi.org
Differences in Parasite Infection Status and Behavior Between a Clonal Fish and Her Sexually Reproducing Heterospecifics
We found that Amazons and Sailfins differed in their qualitative, but not quantitative, resistance to parasites. Amazons had worse qualitative resistance (i.e., were more likely to be infected with a...
2167
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Chris Schnaitmann @cschnaitmann.eurosky.social · 20/09/2026
Exciting PhD and Postdoc positions at Straw Lab, UniFreiburg to study mushroom body function and how honey bees navigate: combine insect VR, reinforcement learning, and two-photon imaging! #Neuroscience #PhD #Postdoc
041
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Davi Bock @dddavi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This stuff may be fun, but sorry to say, it is thin soup, scientifically. See: www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur... for a readable description of the issue.
thetransmitter.org
‘Digital sphinx’ raises questions about connectome models
The sphinx, with a worm’s brain and a fly’s body, illustrates the potential pitfalls of using deep-learning techniques to model biological processes.
0134
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Sven Dorkenwald @sdorkenw.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Applications are now open for the San Juan Winter School 2027 on Connectomics and Brain Simulation! Join us to learn how to analyze and simulate connectomes. sjcabs.com
01921
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Elisabetta Versace @elisabettaversace.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"Enhancing dance learning by optimising instructional perspective: A preregistered study on the effect of dancers’ viewing perspective, cognitive load and expertise" journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... : our new study on dance larning and cognitive load, supported by www.wemovetogether.uk 1/n
1126
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Alex Schier @schierlab.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The first Danionella paper from the lab. Danionella cerebrum is transparent, so you can see all of the internal organs. But what sensory information are the organs sending to the brain? In our new preprint, Emily Bayer wanted to find out. 1/4 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
18135
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
💯
000
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Sweta Agrawal @hokuba.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Agrawal lab has published its first paper! "Sticking the landing: leg mechanosensory feedback coordinates the transition from flight to landing" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This project was led by a technician in the lab, Tse-Wei (Wayne) Kuo. Brief 🧵on what we found
agrawal-lab-workspace.slack.com
Slack
88228
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
ACLU @aclu.org · 16/09/2026
BREAKING: We're suing Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the National Institutes of Health Director for their ideologically-driven termination and censorship of biomedical research grants. Targeting views the government disagrees with for not aligning with a political agenda is unconstitutional.
151408367
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
my camera doesn't have a video preview (only the view finder)... Surely there has always been some way to do this though... I resort to having to find something big I can see in the view finder, like a tree or mountain and try to get that in focus. But it's not great.
010
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
SLR people — how do you set the focus of a lens to optical infinity at night for astro shots? I wish the focus rings would stop at inf.
101
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This strikes me as nonsense. Given their RL approach and the flexibility with which their model can change weights, I am confident any of the connectomes would work.
130
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
Corinna Gebehart @corinnagebehart.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This article is so frustrating to read. First, this is not just “google’s brain” - there has been so much effort made by scientists around the world to get these connectomes to where they are today, and none of that is recognized here, instead it’s all turned into “big tech company 👍🏻”. And second -
14017
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
flymuscles @flymuscles.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I am very happy to share our new preprint on #Drosophila muscles. @tiaramuld.bsky.social discovered flies have a tremendous ability to remodel their muscles after massive damage. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Evidence of complete myofibril remodeling after severe damage in adult Drosophila.
Muscle function depends on the ability of myofibrils to withstand and repair mechanical damage, yet how adult muscles remodel damaged myofibrils remains poorly understood. Here, we establish a Drosoph...
3116