Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Starting a new project with these guys (bengalese finches) on the development of, and thermal consequences of, “cooperative”breeding and communal roosting. They basically form an avian version of a “beit yeladim” that we know very little about. 0101
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I rescued a few Yiddish books from heading to the dumpster this summer. I've started to go through them and was excited to find this pristine copy of "World of Science / די װעלט פֿון װיסנשאַפֿט" by Sol Podolefsky that contains, I believe, one of the few discussions of bird song science in Yiddish. 1130
Reposted by Gregory KohnAmmon Perkes @alltheperkes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Cool paper alert! Lots of other cool stuff here, and you won't believe how many hours of fish video were involved. 162
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I really enjoyed reading this review paper on the function and influence of song outside the breeding season. It moved from individual-level processes to group level consequences, and reiterates that we still have much to learn about why birds sing. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... 0177
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) in Keene Valley NY. 060
Reposted by Gregory KohnErin Siracusa @erinsiracusa.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Animals are known to prefer kin as social partners. But non-kin bonds are surprisingly common too. So, who forms them, how stable are they & what drives them? In our new @animbehsociety.bsky.social paper we tackle these overlooked questions in free-living rhesus macaques: tinyurl.com/mwsbkjve (1/5) 15627
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 03/09/2026www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...journals.uchicago.eduThe English Working Cat: J. B. S. Haldane and a Noncapitalist Experimental Organism | Isis: Vol 117, No 3AbstractDuring the 1940s and 1950s, the celebrated and controversial British geneticist J. B. S. Haldane decided to investigate heredity in house cats (Felis catus) by initiating a breeding program at... 021
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 29/08/2026On this day in 1749 Goethe was born in Frankfurt. I’ve been revisiting Goethe more these days, and his writings on observation and its role in science impacted me deeply. Just recently I found this book of his holiday sketches titled “Reise, Zerstreuungs, und Trostbüchlein”. 1131
Reposted by Gregory KohnRUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Great new open access book by Pim Edelaar: "The Selective Organism: An Expanded Theory of Adaptive Evolution" Check it out here: academic.oup.com/book/63165?l... #HPBio #PhilSci 25427
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Wood storks (Mycteria americana) and Great Egrets (Ardea alba) highlighting their different foraging strategies. 070
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Also, for all of Cofnas's posturing about his expertise in genetics and biology of behavior (he has none, his arguments would have been stale in the 1980s) there is only one biologist and not a single molecular geneticist as a signatory. The rest are the standard "heterodox" clique. 2176
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Yellow-crowned night heron (Nyctanassa violacea) 000
Reposted by Gregory KohnAndrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026The reductionism and the simple enumerative differencing is dead in evolutionary biology? Species differentiation by thresholding genetic distance (e.g. 2 %) is just a scientized bullshit? Reminds me the custom of programmers to count lines of code. www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1... 🧪 #EvoBio #PaleoBio 063
Reposted by Gregory KohnCharles C Roseman @evoroseman.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Here's a better version of my talk on race science. Many thanks to Dwane Monroe (@cloudquistador.eurosky.social) for fixing the audio. Thanks again to Pieter Beck (@ptrbck.bsky.social) for the invitation. youtu.be/NsTg6JlC39w?...youtu.beRace science, genetics, & evolution: A scientific evaluation [BETTER AUDIO]YouTube video by Charles Roseman 1259
Reposted by Gregory KohnThe Institute for Bird Populations @instbirdpop.bsky.social · 17/08/2026🪶Cool new research on female Passerines by @joannaxwu.bsky.social and colleagues at IBP and UCLA. Read more about it here-> bit.ly/4zfjbdY 22618
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 18/08/2026academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...academic.oup.comEvolution of sexually dimorphic plumage patterns in estrildid finchesAbstract. Pigmentation patterns aid in camouflage and may also serve for communication. To understand the evolution of different types of within-feather pi 040
Reposted by Gregory KohnKirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 17/08/2026What does a single-celled organism tell us about the origins of complex behaviour? Delighted to see the final version of our paper: Embodied behavioural complexity in a ciliated microorganism out in@natcomms.nature.com (Funded by @erc.europa.eu ERC) doi.org/10.1038/s414... #cilia #protistsonsky 110035
Reposted by Gregory Kohnc0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 31/05/2026The Long-wattled Umbrellabird (Cephalopterus penduliger) are the weirdest birds, from pompadour/mohawk to long fleshy neck-tie shaped wattle that converts to a feather duster on command. Native to the Pacific coasts of Ecuador & Colombia, these extraordinary accessories are mostly found in males. 832091337
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Moving some planters in the garden and suddenly felt something moving against my hand. This could have gone a lot worse. Florida cottonmouth (Agkistrodon conanti). 2220
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 15/08/2026In the wake of Arday's death, Nathan Cofnas (who led the X mob against him) states his motivation. Beyond whistleblowing, he states that after a 'revolution' removes professors like Arday, it will open opportunities for him to become 'head of the department of eugenics and race science at Harvard'. 51434461311
Reposted by Gregory KohnJoanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/08/2026Monkeys make friends with other species, and that can tell us a lot about how keeping pets came about. Great article by @cyrilgrueter.bsky.social et al., reporting friendly primate interactions with a whopping 55 non-primate species! 🧪🐒🐕 link.springer.com/article/10.1... 115756
Reposted by Gregory KohnComplexity Cat 🐱 @amahury.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Machine metaphors built modern biology, but what happens when a useful analogy becomes a rigid ontology? In Part II of our trilogy, we explore these limits by contrasting organicist paradigms and arguments against computationalism./1 🚧 #complexitycat 🐈⬛ www.complexitycat.org/posts/machin...complexitycat.orgMachine Metaphors in Biology II: Limits and Challenges“By axiomatizing automata in this manner, one has thrown half of the problem out the window, and it may be the more important half. One has resigned oneself not to explain how these parts are made up ... 2168
Reposted by Gregory KohnGreg Priest @gregpriest.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Donald Griffin, discoverer of bat echolocation, was born OTD 1915. I imagine “small mammals enough like ourselves to feel that I could understand what their lives would be like, and yet different enough to make it a sort of adventure and exploration to see what they were doing.” 🐋🌱🧪 #HistSTM 35015
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Somebody needs to tell the new parking lot attendants that attempting to get into a vehicle is unlawful (they literally tried to jump right in my car right after this video). 3182
Reposted by Gregory KohnDrug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 29/07/2026I really hope someone checks my math and memory of public university starting salaries. The idea that inflation adjusted numbers reflect starting assistant professors making 20% less now than they did 25 years ago is….. whew. 105122
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 26/07/2026www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...sciencedirect.comSinging softly at the edge: vocal amplitude and performance limits in star finch courtshipStudies of birdsong have long focused on long-range signals used for attracting mates and defending territory, but recent research has highlighted the… 022
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Forest gate in Adirondacks near Lake Placid, June 2026. 0299
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Lichens and moss in boreal bog near Keene Valley NY 0506
Reposted by Gregory KohnCristian Gutierrez-Ibañez @gallinaciega.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Neural correlates of seed-eating in songbirds royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article... Our new paper showing that songbirds that dehusk seeds with the beak and tongue have an enlarged trigeminal nucleus in the brainstem, particularly the part where the tongue is represented. 27023
Reposted by Gregory KohnJoshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 21/07/2026bonding with my yiddish-speaking ancestors over our shared love of vegetarian baked beans 5488
Reposted by Gregory KohnJake Berv @jakeberv.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Happy to share this 'capstone' project from my time as a postdoc @umich.edu, where we show that hierarchically nested bursts of body-shape evolution may underlie much of perching-bird diversification over ~50 million years. Free access link here: rdcu.be/fuxB1rdcu.beRates of passerine body plan evolution in time and spaceNature Ecology & Evolution - A reconstruction of the evolutionary history of passerine body plans over the past ~50 Myr shows rare bursts of phenotypic innovation near the origin of major... 314165
Reposted by Gregory KohnThomas MacGillavry @thomasmacgillavry.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Ever wondered what the bizarre dances of male birds of paradise look like to females? Check out our new preprint! @izziehb.bsky.social @fusanilab.bsky.social “The geometry of visual signaling in a bird-of-paradise” ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... 26729
Reposted by Gregory KohnJoe Morford @morfjoe.bsky.social · 24/06/2026The WISDOM OF CROWDS emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirds! Excited to share our work published by @aaas.org in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia...doi.orgThe wisdom of crowds emerges in flocks of thousands of migrating songbirdsLarger flocks of migrating songbirds orient more accurately toward their population’s migratory direction than smaller flocks. 16427
Reposted by Gregory KohnAnthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 17/07/2026For #FossilFriday, abundant Eocene (~50 mya) shorebird tracks from the Green River Formation, WY; seen last week in the Tellus Museum of Science, Cartersville GA. 🧪🪨⚒️🐾🐦 512844
Reposted by Gregory KohnRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 16/07/2026I just learned Peter Schuster passed away. A great colleague from @sfiscience.bsky.social , one of the smartest people I ever met. He made fundamental contributions to the maths of evolution and origins of life. A great inspiration for all. @josepsardanyes.bsky.social www.santafe.edu/people/profi... 13411
Reposted by Gregory KohnDrew Schreiner @schreinerdrew.bsky.social · 11/07/2026very nice read! I've been thinking about innovation vs. copying a lot lately - motivated by my finding that increasing learning rates in zebra finches led to learning novel syllable variants. And listening to the catbirds in my yard makes me wish I could get them into the lab eh:sciencedirect.comSong development by grey catbirdsWhat are the relative roles of imitation, improvisation and invention in the development of large song repertoires in species of the songbird family M… 041
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 11/07/2026Bird song has been central to the nature-versus-nurture debate. In my latest piece, I argue that new ideas from developmental science, combined with classic studies on the social shaping of song, point toward a way beyond the innate-versus-learned dichotomy. gregorykohn.substack.com/p/templates-...gregorykohn.substack.comTemplates in Tension: the dialectic of flexibility and structure in birdsongFlexibility 1268
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 09/07/2026My favorite photo this summer. Chestnut-sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica) at Norton Book in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. 180
Reposted by Gregory KohnKevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 08/07/2026A thorough documenting of the statistical shenanigans in the embryo selection company Herasight’s claims about genetic IQ prediction. The paper was published in a new Intelligence journal against the reviewers’ protest that the proprietary prediction model was not disclosed and so was unverifiableopen.substack.comHerasight: Latent Promises, Observed FailuresMany make the mistake of rejecting Herasight on ethical grounds, but doing so gives them too much credit. 33920
Reposted by Gregory KohnMathilde Tahar @drmathildetahar.bsky.social · 07/07/2026We are delighted to invite you to the interdisciplinary workshop of @animalinvention.bsky.social on Agency between Biology and Philosophy. It will take place at UCL and online on 22-23 September. All info and registration details can be found here: www.animalinventiveness.com/post/interna... 03922
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 07/07/2026If we lose the capacity to know anything then they can sell us anything. 060
Reposted by Gregory KohnEhud @duhe.bsky.social · 05/07/2026Clearly the best way to understand Mayr... #histbio 151
Reposted by Gregory KohnMateusz Kostecki @mtkostecki.bsky.social · 25/02/2026Am I right that this paper just shows that 1) chicks have a basic preference for round shapes, 2) this preference disappears when a stress-evoking sound is being played in the background? 1/4 142
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Really interesting article (in Polish) on the science of birdsong! www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/o-czym-spiew...tygodnikpowszechny.plO czym śpiewają ptaki? Mówią więcej, niż sądziliśmySztuczna inteligencja na dobre zadomowiła się już w wielu dziedzinach nauki. Dzięki jej zastosowaniu mamy szansę poznać reguły rządzące ptasimi pieśniami – a nawet ich znaczenia. 010
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Chestnut-sided warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica) at Norton Brook NY. This individual was exceptionally confiding and he followed me around the site. 040
Reposted by Gregory KohnKevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 28/06/2026Twitter is going kind of crazy about crime and genetics right now (What's new?). My next post is a deep dive into a paper behind a widespread claim that brutal execution in Medieval Europe selected for reduced aggression, allowing civilization to develop. The title says it all, really.sequencesandconsequences.substack.comCapital punishment is not a breeding programNo, medieval execution didn't "genetically pacify" Europe 2326375
Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 28/06/2026I’m pretty sure this is the first time bird conservation sparks a national revolution, and I’m looking forward to the ruling Lëvizja Bashkë-Birdlife Albania coalition. I birdied in Vjosë–Nartë around 08ish, and you’d have to be crazy to build a trashy resort there. 152
Reposted by Gregory KohnRicard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 27/06/2026What makes a new kind of mind possible? In this @royalsocietypublishing.org paper, the authors explain why cognitive transitions are not just moments when animals became smarter, but evolutionary shifts that opened new spaces of cognition. @eplantec.bsky.social pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... 29023