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Swastika Issar

@issarswastika.bsky.social
230 followers 164 following 2 posts

Evolutionary biologist | Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow HBCSE-TIFR, Mumbai | Media Committee Co-chair SORTEE | PhD UCambridge, St John’s College #WOCinSTEM

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Reposted by Swastika Issar
Cell Press @cellpress.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
What animals do before going to war. Learn more in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... Josh J. Arbon & Andrew N. Radford @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social
first page of Trends in Ecology & Evolution paper: "Pre-emptive behaviour in a landscape of intergroup conflict"
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 16/07/2026
How do #olfactory early-life memories exert privileged influence on long-term #memory & #brain structure? This study shows that early experiences with pleasant #odorants create persistent memories supported by neonatal #neurons & dynamic brain connectivity @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3TmixuJ
Top: Mouse olfactory bulb section immunolabeled for DAPI (nuclear staining, blue) and cFos (marker of cellular activation, red). Image acquired by epifluorescence microscopy. Bottom: Graphical abstract. Childhood exposure to an attractive odorant in a playful environment establishes long-lasting olfactory memories in mice. Memory recall in young adults engages neonatal-born olfactory bulb granule cells as well as memory-related reward circuits, while memory persistence in adults shifts toward olfactory-limbic connectivity. Image credit: Jules Dejou.
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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Ever think the #peer-review system is broken? ‘Peer review by Reciprocity’ proposes to make this process fairer and more sustainable. Learn all about it through Oakleigh Wilson’s incredible conversation with Angela Moles for the ninth instalment of the #ECRAsks series: sortee.org/blog/2026/06...
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Evolution Letters @evolletters.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
How predictable is evolution? Replicated C. elegans experiments show environmental differences and population bottlenecks jointly shape the repeatability of adaptation doi.org/10.1093/evle... Image credit: Wikimedia
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James Gilbert @jdjgilbert.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Our Conversation article here about our new paper on heatwaves and bee fertility theconversation.com/heatwaves-ar... Read the journal article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
theconversation.com
Heatwaves are destroying the sex lives of bees – new research
Sperm activity in bees dropped after being exposed to heatwave conditions.
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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Help us tackle financial barriers to participation in open science practices by spreading the word! 💚 Join us sortee.org/join/ #openscienceisforeveryone #SORTEE
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 28/04/2026
Why do humans exhibit such a striking right-hand preference? @tpuschel.bsky.social &co study 41 anthropoid species, revealing #Homosapiens as an evolutionary outlier & identifying #bipedalism & #brain expansion as likely drivers of human lateralization @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4ufOvWJ
Predicted handedness in hominin species based on the reduced models including Homo sapiens. Right-hand colors represent the predicted magnitude of MHI; left-hand colors show the corresponding negative values (i.e., greater color differences between hands reflect stronger handedness direction bias). Hand size is proportional to handedness strength, MABSHI. The phylogeny is the maximum a posteriori tree from ref 34. Only hominin species with complete relevant covariate data were included in the analysis and are shown here. The handedness values for Pan troglodytes and Homo sapiens correspond to observed data.
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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
🎉 At our next SORTEE Code Club (May 19th, 16:00 - 17:30 UCT (+01:00)), we will walk you through how to create your own (free!) personal website with Quarto. Join the Code Club mailing list using the link below. sortee.org/code_club/ Looking forward to seeing you there!
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Vivek V. Venkataraman @vivek123.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Not up for a 15,000 word manuscript about the intellectual history of Man the Hunter? Fair enough! Instead, check out my popular article published today in @aeon.co aeon.co/essays/why-m...
aeon.co
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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Would you like to join a welcoming community that is passionate about improving transparency, rigour, and equity in science? 👀 Check out SORTEE! You can join for free, if you like. Your support goes a long way in growing our impact 💚 👉 sortee.org/join/ #openscience #SORTEE
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 27/03/2026
Predicting the effect of a #mutation on #fitness is hard. @oliviamghosh.bsky.social @petrovadmitri.bsky.social &co use fitness effects of adaptive yeast mutants to show that underlying genotype-phenotype-fitness maps are low-dimensional but context-dependent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4dLy2Ez
Two models for the nature of pleiotropy in adaptation. Left: Schematic of the environmental structure in this study. Environments can be mapped onto a multidimensional environment space characterized by chemical and physical compositions. The large green circle represents an environment where adaptive mutants evolved, and the large pink circle is a distant environment. Around each base, a set of identical environmental perturbations (arrows) is applied, generating clusters of similar environments around distinct base environments. Top right: Schematic of fitnotype map for adaptive mutants near their home base environment. By measuring fitness in each of the green environments, one can infer how many fitnotypes matter for this set of mutants in their home environment. Here, only four of the possible 8 fitnotypes matter. Bottom right: When the mutants are moved to the distant base environment, and their fitness is measured in all pink environments (base and perturbations), there are two possibilities. Either more fitnotypes become important and the space appears higher-dimensional (left, pleiotropic expansion), or the set of fitnotypes that matters remains low-dimensional, but shifts (right, pleiotropic shift).
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 30/03/2026
How predictable are the collateral effects of adaptation? This Primer explores a @plosbiology.org study suggesting that growth across environments is fairly predictable because selected mutations only affect a few latent fitness-impacting phenotypes 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4dLy2Ez Primer: plos.io/4lYdUBh
Phenotypic correlations across environments suggest beneficial mutations impact relatively few latent phenotypes underlying fitness. Top: A library of 4,000 barcoded, evolved yeast strains was competed simultaneously against their ancestor across a panel of environments (multiple “base” media with individual small perturbations like extra glucose or EtOH). Middle: The reaction norm of fitness (δX) of evolved yeast strains (a to f) is plotted across a panel of perturbations (Pi). Each line connects the phenotypes from a single mutant representing its pleiotropic consequence across environments. The phenotypic profile of mutants clustered into discrete patterns (here termed ‘fitnotypes’). For simplicity, two such clusters are shown representing single fitnotypes (red = mutants a, b, c; blue = d, e, f). For example, F1 includes mutants who only demonstrated a benefit in P3. Note mutant phenotypes can also form linear combinations of fitnotypes (purple). When these mutants are tested across the same perturbations but in a new base environment, the outcome could range, at its extremes, from (bottom left) being maintained as the exact same groups that fell into the original fitnotypes, or (bottom right) these groups could split, clustering into entirely new sets (purple = b, d, e, f; green = a, c). Data from Ghosh and colleagues indicate that evolved strains fall in between, representing a blend of the bottom left and bottom right panels. There remain just three or four fitnotypes per environment, but these still overlap partially with the original fitnotypes.
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Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar @asanchez-tojar.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
My new piece "Reproducibility: how to strengthen a weak foundation" is out today @nature.com! 🎉 How reproducible is research in the social & behavioural sciences? A new study by Miske et al. assessed 600 papers across 62 journals: the results are sobering. 📄 doi.org/10.1038/d415... 📄 rdcu.be/fbcq5
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Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar @asanchez-tojar.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Our paper investigating reproducibility potential in ecological journals without a code-sharing policy is now @peercomjournal.bsky.social 📰 doi.org/10.24072/pcj... 💻 github.com/ASanchez-Toj... We've shared our results already (bsky.app/profile/asan...), so we won't bother you again. Instead...👇
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National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
#PublicTalk Prof Daniel Bolnick will be giving a talk titled "How Can Evolutionary Biology Help Public Health and Medicine?" 📆 Friday, 06 March 2026 ⌚ 4:00 PM 📍 National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru Open to All! 👇 Check out the poster for more details
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Kevin Healy @healyke.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Our new paper is now out showing how time perception in animals is linked to their ecology. Using data from 237 species we show temporal perception is faster in species that fly and pursuit predators www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌐
nature.com
Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Using phylogenetic comparative methods across 237 species from disparate phyla, the authors show that species with fast-paced ecologies have higher temporal...
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Saoirse Kelleher @saoirsekelleher.eco · 24/02/2026
Coming up in March! Join @sortee.bsky.social for a webinar with @daxkellie.bsky.social on good, shareable, and reproducible R code - register here: events.humanitix.com/sortee-webin...
events.humanitix.com
SORTEE Webinar: On what makes good sharable and reproducible R code, how to do it, and why it’s good for science
For this month's SORTEE webinar, Dr. Dax Kellie from the Atlas of Living Australia will present on good, sharable, and reproducible R code in science
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Tatsuya Amano @tatsuya-amano.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
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...
doi.org
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...
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Prakash Lab at Stanford @prakashlab.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
After all the anticipation - FrugalScience 2026 - a collaborative global collective is LIVE again for 2026 season. www.frugalscience.org Apply - deadline 9th January (midnight)
frugalscience.org
Frugal Science
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Jack A Brand @jack-brand.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
New paper led by @michaelgbertram.bsky.social! Environmental pollutants can alter animal behaviour, but behaviour is rarely used in risk assessments. We outline how behaviour is key for population outcomes, and why it should be taken seriously in chemical regulation. Link: tinyurl.com/behav-ecotox
tinyurl.com
Are Behavioral Ecotoxicity Endpoints Relevant at the Population Level? Evidence-Based Insights for Environmental Protection
A substantial body of evidence exists demonstrating that exposure to environmental contaminants can alter animal behavior. Moreover, methodological and technological advancements, as well as increasin...
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National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
🌿Under the mentorship of @gaurigharpure.bsky.social and @issarswastika.bsky.social, the initiative began with interactive presentations on ecology, followed by a nature walk led by the Research and Collections team at NCBS—sparking curiosity and real-world observation. (2/4)
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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
In our latest #SORTEEjournalclub blog post, authors Graziella DiRenzo , Ephraim M. Hanks and David Miller present a step-by-step guide to understanding complex models using data simulations, including how to use simulations effectively. 🔗https://buff.ly/4i6Z5tP
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Deepa Agashe @deepaagashe.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Life isn't even-handed: many cellular components are all either left or right handed. But we are now (uncomfortably) close to being able to make flipped "mirror" cells. A group of us consider and highlight the risks and call for collective effort before we get there. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Confronting risks of mirror life
Broad discussion is needed to chart a path forward.
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Origami Organelles @origamiorganelles.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Look at human evolution by making our skull paper models! Click here to learn more about: Human Skull: bit.ly/46enC9d Australopithecus: bit.ly/3v8yWa6 Paranthropus: bit.ly/3SI6XHj #EduSky #humanevolution #skull #iteachbio #biologyteacher
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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
In their 2022 @ecography.bsky.social paper, Palacio et al. suggest an 8-step protocol to make trait-based ecology more standardized and reproducible. Learn more about this roadmap in our latest blog post by authors Stefano Mammola & Facu X. Palacio buff.ly/40GGIFJ
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Ecography @ecography.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Measuring the evolution of n-dimensional environmental niches nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com… #SDM #Niche #Birds
Measuring the evolution of n-dimensional environmental niches https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.07285 #SDM #Niche #BirdsMeasuring the evolution of n-dimensional environmental niches https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.07285 #SDM #Niche #Birds
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Stu West @stuwest.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
I keep finding myself suggesting this brilliant paper by John Welch, about why pointless debates in evolutionary biology + behavioural ecology. Maybe it is easiest if I just repost it here every so often? link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
What’s wrong with evolutionary biology? - Biology & Philosophy
There have been periodic claims that evolutionary biology needs urgent reform, and this article tries to account for the volume and persistence of this discontent. It is argued that a few inescapable ...
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SORTEE @sortee.bsky.social · 28/02/2024
Curious about implementing #reproducibleresearch & #openscience practices at your institution? Check out this eLife paper by Friederike Kohrs et al on how to adapt research criteria, build communities & offer training across leadership levels: i.mtr.cool/twyupuuxnl #SORTEEjournalclub
Figure 1 from the Kohrs et al. article published in eLife is a schematic of “eleven strategies for making reproducible research and open science training the norm at research institutions” proposed by the researchers at a virtual brainstorming event organized in collaboration with the German Reproducibility Network.
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