iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

Tracking the movement of wild dogs shows that for their conservation, "the glass is half empty and the glass is half full" www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy459y5y9… + able to move across large distances - risk of poaching Study: doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70504

Figure from the article showing the outline of the country of Zambia, with its seven national parks highlighted. Coloured dots indicate the movement of individual wild dogs, showing that they can move across large distances connecting the national parks. The background of the figure is in a colour gradient that indicates the degree of human disturbance, to show that while wild dogs can move through urban areas quickly, they spend more time in less disturbed areas. Figure legend from the article: Movements by African wild dogs dispersing from Zambia's South Luangwa National Park (SLNP) along a protected corridor have connected with North Luangwa (NLNP), Luambe (LuNP), Lukusuzi (LkNP), and Lower Zambezi (LZNP) National Parks. Recently, three males left Kafue National Park (KNP) and moved >2600 km through unprotected areas in the center of the country to connect with four females from SLNP who had moved more than 1500 km, linking the stronghold populations of the Greater Kafue and Luangwa Valley Ecosystems. An unknown wild dog recently immigrated into Liuwa Plains National Park (LPNP) at a time when all individuals (a single pack) were well known. Thus all of the wild dog populations in Zambia remain connected to other populations. Black outline with crosshatch: National Parks. Gray: Game Management Areas, with lower protection than National Parks. The 2020 Human Impact Index (Sanderson et al., 2022) is mapped from low (blues) to high (yellows): Dispersing wild dogs maneuver effectively around areas with high human activity. Wild dog illustration by Bridger Creel, used with permission.

054

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

congrats to the "inaugural winners of the Ctrl-Z Award for courage in retracting their own work" centerforscientificintegrity.org/20… links with this recent xkcd comic xkcd.com/3275

A single panel comic strip showing two people walking towards a podium while the announcer declares that "This year's Nobel Prize in calibrating your equipment carefully and not embararrsing yourself by publishing spurious results goes to Dr. Adams and Dr. Smith, who did not announce the discovery of microbes on Titan".

001

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

In spotted hyenas, "social inheritance of privilege is a powerful driver of reproductive inequality" paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.… press release […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A figure from the scientific paper showing that the more offspring individual hyenas have, the more grand-offspring they have. This correlation though is a lot steeper in females than in males, meaning that over generations successful female lineages spread much faster than successful male lineages.

082

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 03/12/2025

Do you like cities? The Global Building Atlas has the locations and 3D models of 2.8 billion buildings from around the world tubvsig-so2sat-vm1.srv.mwn.de "1.22 of the 2.75 billion buildings are located in Asia" […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Screenshot from the linked website, zoomed all the way out to show a map of the whole world with color codings indicating the density of buildings. South-east Asia, Europe, and North America have the highest density, with large parts of the world still relatively free of high clusters of buildings.

010

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/11/2025

"Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships" royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1… interesting new study by bsky.app/profile/elizabethhobson.bs… et al. J. Manson once reminded me that not […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A cover for the journal Biology Letters of the Royal Society, displaying a photo of two monk parakeets (birds) preening each other

053

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2025

Wettbewerb für Kreative in #Leipzig zur Gestaltung von #Science #Comics auf Werbeflächen: lauramayer.space/Science-Streets-OP… Open call for creatives in Leipzig to submit comics for Science Streets (the link has details also in English)

Poster advertising the open call to design science comics for Science Streets in Leipzig. Deadline is the 30 November 2025. The background shows an an example a connection between the heart and the brain.

032

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2025

Fieldwork simplifies bird identification: the bird on the left is "not a grackle", the bird in the middle is "not a grackle", as is the bird on the right #TheGrackleProject For actual ID's see alt text.

Photo of a small bird, a yellow-rumped warbler. Credit Dieter Lukas

Photo of a bird, a acorn woodpecker. Credit Dieter Lukas

Photo of a bird, a California scrub-jay. Credit Dieter Lukas

120

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2025

Bird migration season: last week, radar "captured about 10% of the (North American) continent’s birds in flight at the same time" www.birds.cornell.edu/home/record-b…

A map showing the outline of the continental USA. Overlaid in colour is a graphic depicting where, on 25 September 2025, many birds were detected in flight at night. The map shows the large migration of birds from Canada and the Northern US down the eastern central parts of the US (along the Mississipi confluence).

010

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2025

"Overall, the message from this survey is positive– #evolutionary #biologists are readily employable outside of #academia, generally well-prepared for those jobs, and report high levels of satisfaction in their non-academic #careers" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…

A scientific figure from the linked paper by Betancourt et al. It shows on the left, that most (70%) evolutionary biologists who switched to a career outside of academia felt prepared. The right panel is a graph showing what training individuals would like to have received more of during their academic career, with the top points being related to management skills.

044

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2025

The highly commended entries in this year's #Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition: bbc.com/news/articles/c70r7plrdndo The photo below by Lakshitha Karunarathna documents a lone Asian elephant navigating a waste disposal site.

An aerial photo showing an Asian elephant from above as she walks through a field of plastic garbage. Photo taken by Lakshitha Karunarathna, one of the highly commended entries in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

045

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2025

Another fun one from xkcd: "Various experts answer the question: where do babies come from?" xkcd.com/3127

A drawing showing several stick figures representing experts answering the question: where do babies come from? The geneticist says "recent admixture event, roughly 0.001kya". The astronomer "low-impulse ejection from a parent body". The software engineer "off-by-one error in the population calculations". The geologist "the area was originally a uniform plane, but the non-baby parts eroded at higher rates". The meteorologist "moist ground-level turbulent mixing" .The alt-text for the image adds historians "Contemporaneous documentation of the initial events is often sparse, and in fact people often get testy and uncooperative when we urge better documentation for the historical record".

020

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2025

„behavioral flexibility, while helpful in allowing birds to adapt to new environments, is not the primary facilitator for range expansion“ news.ucsb.edu/2025/021980/both-flex… #TheGrackleProject

A great tailed grackle, a black slender bird with a long tail, is eating fast food cheese sauce in a parking lot. Photo credit C. Logan

062

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2025

Our #study finds that #male #dominance isn't the norm among #primates, and starts to unravel what shapes flexibility in intersexual power paper (OA) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.25004… press release www.mpg.de/24986976/0630-evan-beyon…

37550

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2025

New report from the WHO "From #loneliness to #social connection: charting a path to healthier societies" www.who.int/groups/commission-on-so… Looks like it can be relevant for those of us doing research in related field because […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Figure from the report showing that the global prevalence of loneliness is 15.8% in all people who responded. The percentages is highest among the youngest individuals of 13-7 years of age, and lowest among the oldest individuals of more than 60 years of age.

123

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/06/2025

Want to explore the expected relatedness in different social groups - and how this can affect competition? Check out the neat app L. White did for our paper: bsky.app/profile/drlozwhite.bsky.so… paper: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1…

Screenshot of the online app, showing the sliders for the settings of different social parameters on the left and the result relatedness and competition patterns on the right. The settings reflect the case we found for chimpanzees.

073

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/06/2025

We have a new paper: "intergenerational conflict among females may play a role in the evolution of #chimpanzee #menopause" royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1…

Two of the scientific graphs from the linked paper. The left side shows that as female chimpanzees get older, their relatedness to the males in their community increases because they now include their sons. The relatedness to other females however stays low, because new unrelated females constantly join the community. The graph on the right shows that these age-related changes in relatedness mean that females are expected to act selfish when they are young, but care about others in the group when they are older.

01710

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 19/05/2025

Observations from a seminar series in Biology shows that "Female speakers had smaller audiences, especially among professors, even with comparable productivity metrics." ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/7175 recommended @PeerCommunityIn Ecology […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A figure from the linked article showing that across productivity levels, female professors have smalller audiences than male professors when they give a seminar talk

0911

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2025

"Immediate and longer-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific productivity in ecology and evolution...We show that although submission rates spiked when the pandemic began, they have been plummeting since." royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full…

Figure showing the change in the average number of articles submitted to ecology and evolution journals over time. The plot starts in 2012 with around 55 submissions per month, this increase to around 60 sbubmissions right before the start of the Covid pandemic, at which point there is an immediate jump to about 70 submissions. Since then, the number of submissions has drastically declined to around 45 submissions per month in 2024.

020

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/04/2025

New from #TheGrackleProject: "using multiple different methods for measuring boldness and exploration...our findings improve our understanding of the traits that are linked with flexibility in a highly adaptable species" […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Figure 1 from the linked scientific paper showing the 6 different behavioral experiments the grackles participated in. They first had to perform a color reversal learning task, before checking how much they explore a novel environment, how afraid they are of a purple halloween cat / a stuffed pigeon / a stuffed hawk, and how well they are able to access food in two puzzle boxes.

011

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/03/2025

Try to explain scientific journal publishing fees to non-academics... xkcd.com/2085

xkcd comic showing a discussion between two women. In the first panel, one woman says "wait, all the papers in your field are posted as free pdfs on arxiv? That must be killing big scientific journals since they charge such huge subscription/publishing fees." The other woman replies "Nah, we have been doing it since the 90s, and nobody seems to care". The first woman gets agitated and says "That makes no sense at all", when the other woman shushes her "shh, you'll jinx it".

004

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/03/2025

Interesting new study looks at how ice fishermen integrate personal and social information to decide where to forage osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/qbvp9_v1 thread by first author: bsky.app/profile/alexschakowski.bsk…

Figure from the linked scientific article. The top shows an aerial view of the movement of a fisherman. It shows that they did not fish randomly, but focused on specific locations, where they are usually successful in about 3 of their 10 tries. The bottom shows how many fish they caught over time depending on whether they stayed in one place or moved to a new location.

034

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 24/02/2025

Siphoning money out of academia... "Last year, Elsevier's publishing business had an operating profit of £1.17bn, growth of 5%, on a revenue of £3.05bn, giving it an operating margin of 38.4%...article submissions growing very strongly, particularly in […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A figure from the linked paper by Logan. It compares the exploitative publishing route with a more ethical one. In the exploitative, currently common route, publishers take huge profits while excluding many people from either reading or contributing articles. In the ethical route, academics remain in charge of the system, only paying what is needed to maintain the infrastructure, providing access to all.

052

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 22/02/2025

"Leistet passiven Widerstand – wo immer Ihr auch seid!" - 'Put up passive resistance, wherever you are' Three members of the "Weiße Rose" were executed #otd 22 Feb 1943 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose 'Die "Weiße Rose" und die Geschwister […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

"Freiheit" / "Freedom“, written by Sophie
Scholl on the back of her
indictment paper.

020

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/02/2025

Mice react to unresponsive conspecifics similar to what we get taught as first aid - and their interventions speed up recovery. Described in two new articles: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science… www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science…

Figure from the scientific paper by Sun et al describing the different emergency responses mice show towards unconscious conspecifics. They will first approach and sniff, then start to groom. If that isn't sufficient, they will bite the mouth and pull out the tongue to clear the airways. Sedated mice who receive this support from a partner recover much quicker.

183

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2025

New #survey on "#European citizens’ knowledge and attitudes towards #science and technology" europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/det… Some key findings: - 83% think that the influence of science/technology is positive - 80% think that results […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A scientific figure, with one vertical bar for each European country to summarize the answer to the statement "The results of publicly funded research, such as scientific articles and data, should be made available online free of charge." In all countries the vast majority of answers was "strongly agree" or "tend to agree".

034

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/01/2025

Catching up on #fieldwork #research with #TheGrackleProject: the great-tailed grackles in California often foraged in the shade, however limited the shade was. Not sure whether they don't want to stare into the sun, are better hidden from predators, prefer the lower temperature,...?

Photo of a grackle, a black bird, standing inside the head of my shadow on an otherwise sunny patch of grass. The bird has some food in his beak, looking back at me, but making sure that his whole body remains in the shade.

020

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/01/2025

Catching up on #fieldwork #research with #TheGrackleProject: this female great-tailed grackle in California wanted to make sure that we collect the correct data...

A photo showing a brown bird, a female grackle, looking at a white board on the ground. She is right next to our feet, walking under a camera tripod, to get to the board.

050

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 27/01/2025

Catching up on #fieldwork #research with #TheGrackleProject: grackles mostly ignore each other, but these two juvenile male boat-tailed grackles in Florida got into a disagreement....

Photo of two male boat-tailed grackles fighting. They are backlight, so only the silhouettes are visible. One male is pulling the wing of the other with his leg.

Photo of two male boat-tailed grackles fighting. One male is jumping, wings open, with his feet pointing toward the other male, who is turning with his beak opened.

030

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 24/01/2025

Was passiert eigentlich beim #recycling der 'Wertstoffe'? Gute Infographik des @ZDF zeigt das nur 35% wirklich wiederverwertet wird: zdfheute-stories-scroll.zdf.de/gelb… Also: Plastik vermeiden wenn möglich

Grafik die zeigt dass von den jährlich 2508 kt Wertstoffabfällen in Deutschland 35% tatsächlich recyclet werden, 7% als Verlust gelten, und 58% verbrannt werden.

011

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

Part 5) of #pressrelease #blog: how to check the reaction to your press release? It can be interesting to see how others react to your findings. But it is impossible to control the reactions.

An image showing individuals behind their computers connected in a social network.

000

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

Part 4) of #pressrelease #blog: what to expect after your press release is out? Often nothing happens, but it is still worth thinking about your study in a different way. If journalists do contact you, be prepared for the new things you are going to learn.

Example of a graphical press release I made, that did not get any traction, but was still useful to illustrate the message on social media and in presentations. It focuses on what benefits female mammals might gain from killing others' offspring: they might get access to breeding space, milk for their offspring, care for their offspring, or improved social status for their offspring.

100

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

Part 3) of #pressrelease #blog: how to structure your press release? Press releases have a very standardised format. This is your message to the public.

A graphic showing that press releases are structured in the opposite way than scientific papers. For a press release, star with your specific result, say why it matters, before expanding on the background of this research.

100

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

Part 2) of #pressrelease #blog: how to distill the complexity of our research into a message that’s meaningful for who we want to reach? Consider your audience when writing your press release. There are helpful tools to help you approach this, such as the […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A figure illustrating the concept of the message box to derive a statement to an audience. It asks you to focus on the issue, the problems, the solution, the benefits, and the so what. More information in the link in the text.

110

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

Part 1) of #pressrelease #blog: what is the purpose of the medium of the press release? A press release can help you to share your findings with a much wider audience. Adapting your message to a different medium can also give different insights into what what it means.

A photo showing two baboons fighting, It illustrates the intense conflict that occurs in this species, and that other individuals can suffer from it too. Image credit: Elise Huchard

110

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

Revised #blog post: Why you should write a #pressrelease for your #scientific manuscript, and how to approach this: dieterlukas.github.io/press.html In five parts, I share my view on:

Writing that looks like chalk on a blackboard, stating I've got news for you.

241

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/12/2024

25 photographs submitted to the NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition are up for vote in the 'People's Choice Award' www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/peoples-choice

Photograph by Ian Wood submitted to the competition. It shows a badger in a city in England walking past a wall at night, illuminated by the street lights. On the wall, there is a sign saying "keep access clear at all times" and a black and white graffiti of a badger standing on their hind legs, holding a weapon in each of their front paws. The badger appears to study the graffiti.

012

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/11/2024

Historical view of academic nepotism "Between 1088 and 1543, about one in two scholars’ sons benefited from their fathers’ connections to get jobs at their fathers’ university" link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s… The authors point […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A scientific figure showing how in Germany individuals whose parents are academics are three times more likely to also become academics than individuals whose parents are not academics. This bias occurs at all steps of the academic career: of 100 children, 79 in academic families will go to university but only 27 in other families; 64 will obtain their degree while only 20 in other families; and 6 will obtain a PhD while only 2 in other families.

022

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/11/2024

Review of "Global patterns of gender disparities in STEM and explanations for their persistence" www.nature.com/articles/s44159-024-… "we describe four key factors that help explain the continued underrepresentation of women in STEM: access […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The authors use an illustration to highlight how rules, perceptions, and culture changes can contribute to a bias in who participates in a given activity. The following is their legend "Considering a STEM field as a swimming pool illuminates how access, masculine cultures and positive experiences come together to shape outcomes for women. a, A person who is not allowed in the pool will not be able to enter (lack of access). b, A person who is allowed in the pool but has been socialized to not like cold water and perceives the pool as cold might be reluctant to jump in (effect of masculine cultures). If they are required to jump in and the water is as cold as expected, they might jump back out and be even more reluctant to jump in again next time (experience that reinforces masculine cultures). c, If a person is required to jump in and finds that the water is warmer than expected, they might enjoy themselves and continue to swim (effect of positive experience). d, Perceiving warm water from the outset might encourage a person to swim on their own accord (absence of perceived masculine cultures)."

000

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/11/2024

Research by @mchimento et al shows that wild great tits use social learning flexibly when most required journals.plos.org/plosbiology/artic… "great tits assess the payoffs others receive and are more influenced by […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Scientific figure from the research article showing that when immigrants move into a new environment, they change their behavior quickly to match that of the residents when the environment is different and there are benefits to change behavior. They change more slowly when the environment is more similar, and not at all if there is no benefit in changing the behavior.

010

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/11/2024

[xkcd on how to deal with uncertainty] xkcd on how to deal with uncertainty: "One popular strategy is to enter an emotional spiral. Could that be the right approach? We contacted several researchers who are experts in emotional spirals to ask them, but none […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Cartoon describing strategies for how to deal when an outcome is uncertain. If the good outcome is more likely, be aware of the bad outcome but be reassured that the odds are in your favour. If the bad outcome is more likely, prepare for the bad outcome while remembering that the future isn't certain but hope is justified. If both the good and the bad outcome are equally likely, we have no clue how to handle this situation.

000

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 24/10/2024

"Cancer prevalence across vertebrate species decreases with gestation time, may increase with adult mass" medicalxpress.com/news/2024-10-canc… Detailed exploration of cancer occurrence based on a study […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Figure from the scientific article showing which percentage of necropsies indicated cancer among more than 16000 zoo animals. Overall, both benign and malignant cancer growths are most common in mammals (average of 15% across species), followed by reptiles and birds, and relatively rare among amphibians.

000

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/06/2024

Public release of the "Wytham Great Tit Song Dataset": doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.02.0… huge database of bird vocalisations available. The article describing the dataset has stunning graphics describing data collection and potential analyses

A scientific graphic visualising the timing of when great tit males sing. The days when they sing matches when the birds build their nests and prepare to lay eggs. In this population near Oxford, that is between April 1st and May 10th. During those days, their singing starts about 25 mins before sunrise, and has a peak just before the sunrise.

000

Dieter Lukas @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2024

'Is the audience gender-blind? Smaller audience in female talks highlights prestige differences in academia' "Using long-term data (2008-2019) on talks (n=344) from a seminar series in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology" this preprint finds that "female speakers had smaller audiences…

Scientific figure from the linked article. It shows on the top that the female academic speakers attracted a smaller audience at talks than male speakers. This holds independent of the level of seniority of the speaker. Another plot at the bottom shows that female speakers do not differ from male speakers in their research interests and levels of expertise. A third plot shows that the gender difference in attendance holds independent of how productive the speaker is perceived to be.

040