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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

In situ videos -> animal movements -> encounter rates -> predation rates 🐟

Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Two new papers out in JGLR linking the perception and naturalistic behavior of animals (here, the charming slimy sculpin) to trophic interaction strength. Fish videos to food webs! 2D, 3D, and tactile encounter rates: doi.org/10.1016/j.jg... Sculpin behavior to pred rates: doi.org/10.1016/j.jg...

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Ann-Sophie Barwich @smellosopher.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

It is out and OPEN ACCESS: "The Senses: Perception and Experience" (Cambridge University Press, Elements: Philosophy of Mind, ed. by @keithfrankish.com) #PhilSky #booksky #HPBio #philosophy #cogsci www.cambridge.org/core/element...

cambridge.org

The Senses

Cambridge Core - Philosophy: General Interest - The Senses

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Connor McShaffrey @cmcshaff.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Very excited to announce that the final version of our paper, "Matters of Life and Death in Computational Cell Biology," is now published through npj Systems Biology and Applications! www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Biology #CellBiology #ComputationalBiology #DynamicalSystems

nature.com

Matters of life and death in computational cell biology - npj Systems Biology and Applications

npj Systems Biology and Applications - Matters of life and death in computational cell biology

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Lana Sinapayen @sinalana.eurosky.social · 21/05/2026

Have you seen this awesome website by Sam Arbesman? microcosm.industries

microcosm.industries

Microcosm Industries

Simulation toys and software microcosms

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Ann-Sophie Barwich @smellosopher.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Honestly needed a pick-me-up: mail said the paper w my kind if frighteningly sharp colleague Randy Beer & my brilliant grad @gjseverino.bsky.social (on ze market *hint*) is among the most read in the European Journal of Neurosci It's...the graphical abstract? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Milking a spherical cow: Toy models in neuroscience

Highly idealised models have long played a role in physics, valued not for their empirical accuracy but for their ability to clarify conceptual puzzles, foster tool development, and suggest new direc...

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

First paper out from my postdoc with @dvm-uvm.bsky.social!! "The role of edible habitat complexity in food webs" demonstrates the consequences of species that generate habitat complexity and can themselves be eaten for aquatic communities. 🧪🕸️🐟 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/lol2... 1/N

doi.org

The role of edible habitat complexity in food webs

Habitat complexity (HC) in part determines the diversity, stability, and behavior of food webs and can influence predation according to a wide variety of functional relationships. Many aquatic specie....

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Given the prevalence of EHC species in aquatic systems (e.g., macrophytes, corals, mussels), our models demonstrate the importance of maintaining EHC species in aquatic systems for stable food webs. 6/6

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Furthermore, we examined the exact stabilizing mechanisms by dissecting feedback loops underlying the stability of model equilibria. Generally, the self-effect of the base resource (in this case, invertebrates) was the primary driver of stability changes for the entire community. 5/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

While habitat complexity that inhibits predation efficiency alone is somewhat stabilizing (a known result), edible habitat complexity conferred greater stability across a wide variety of potential functions relating habitat complexity to predation risk. 4/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

In this paper, we demonstrate how habitat complexity and prey switching interact to alter the population dynamics and stability of simple aquatic food webs. We used a freshwater benthic model (invertebrates, dreissenid mussels (EHC), and sculpin/goby) as motivation. 3/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Habitat complexity (HC) plays a critical role in trophic interactions, population dynamics, and food web stability. However, little theory exists to describe edible habitat complexity (EHC), where a species is both consumed and confers habitat complexity for other species. 2/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

doi.org

The role of edible habitat complexity in food webs

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Writing an MS analyzing naturalistic slimy sculpin behavior using @deeplabcut.bsky.social. You can see sculpin pursuit governed by perception via the lateral line!! (it's dark down there - view lit by red light) Have had a lot of fun working with these videos and wanted to share a couple 🐟.

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Bianca Possamai @bia-possamai.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Publication alert! 📣🌊 Happy to share this new work in collaboration with @dvm-uvm.bsky.social: Distinct Food Web Responses to Environmental Gradients Suggest Different Effects of Invasive Species in a Large, Fragmented Lake 🐟🐚🌿 Check it here: rdcu.be/eYVky doi: doi.org/10.1007/s100...

doi.org

Client Challenge

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

I hope these models serve as inspiration for laboratory/field work focused on animal pursuit. Additionally, I hope to demonstrate some of the power of BBE models and EAs, which have a rich history in artificial life and cognitive science, to biologists and ecologists. 9/9

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

CTRNNs are amenable to dynamical systems analysis. Three mechanisms generated saltatory movement during pursuit, either the excitation/inhibition of movement by target signal or repeated sampling by tactile foragers. The period of saltatory movement changed according to distance to the target. 8/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

EAs provide synthetic datasets to explore populations of solutions to a given task. In this case, saltatory (stop-and-go) movement frequently mediated pursuit behavior. Saltatory movement is one of the most common movement strategies in search, but less commonly discussed outside search. 7/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

I employed evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to generate a variety of possible solutions in each pursuit task. I allowed the EA to access small neural networks (CTRNNs) in each forager. This approach is often used in models of brain-body-environment (BBE) systems. 6/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

I wanted to know how different perceptual modalities and prey behaviors could shape pursuit behavior. As such, I modeled movement strategies in pursuit of stationary targets, varying both forager perceptual modality (continuous ‘visual’ v. movement-based ‘tactile’) and target reliability (+/-). 5/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Additionally, almost all prey animals are cryptic in some way. Many exhibit behavioral crypsis, which may limit a forager’s ability to pursue that prey animal. This is true of mobile and sessile prey animals alike, the latter especially well represented by embryonic behavior in eggs. 4/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

In many cases, an encounter with a target does not imply its capture (‘soft’ encounters). Soft encounters are often represented by parameters that denote capture success. However, capture success depends on movement strategies contingent on perceptual apparatus, physiology, and environment. 3/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

A majority of animal movement models focus on search and encounters, or how animals move through an environment to find what they are looking for. Movement strategies post-encounter (e.g., during pursuit of an encountered target) are less well understood. 2/N

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Now published, our paper on evolved movement strategies in the pursuit of targets with different perceptual modalities of a foraging animal and varying target signal reliability! 🧪🦁 Available open access in Movement Ecology. Link: rdcu.be/eWOM9 1/N

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Connor McShaffrey @cmcshaff.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Where does the life-death boundary come from, and how will a cell's dynamics unfold relative to it? Myself, Eran Agmon, and Randy Beer argue for a theory of cellular viability, with new global organizing principles for cell fate. Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2511.07847

A schematic of a death event in a multicellular system, where the loss of one cell results in a collapse in the dimensionality of the system. Each cell's essential variables have their ranges capped by viability constraints.

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Physalia-courses@ONLINE @physaliacourses.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

We’re currently running our first online ABM and IBM with @netlogo.bsky.social course after two in-person editions in Berlin & Łódź! Huge thanks to Volker Grimm, Steve Railsback & Jacob Kelter for their expert guidance Thank you to everyone who joined us on this journey!

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Thanks to my co-authors Randall Beer and Peter Todd. Link to the published version to come!

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Eden Forbes @eforbes.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Happy to say one of my dissertation projects was accepted for publication in Movement Ecology! We evolved small neural controllers to show how forager perception (visual v. tactile) and target signals generate different movement patterns during pursuit. Pre-print: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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