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Michael Jennions

@mikejennions.bsky.social
761 followers 587 following 50 posts

Because there are never enough social media sites to sign up to and then ignore. Evolutionary ecology | Behavioural Ecology | thejennionslab.weebly.com

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Reposted by Michael Jennions
Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Are you looking for a PhD position, hoping to learn sexual selection theory from one of the true experts in the field? Lehtonen's work is awesome - Look at this and apply! ats.talentadore.com/apply/doctor...
ats.talentadore.com
Doctoral Researcher in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology (1-2 positions)
The Department of Biological and Environmental Science is seeking to recruit Doctoral Researcher in sexual selection theory (1-2 positions) starting 1.9.2026, or as soon as possible after that for a m...
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Australasian Evolution Society - AES @ausevosoc.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
✨ SAVE THE DATE ✨ This year's AES Conference will be held jointly with our friends at the Society of Australian Systematic Biologists 🧬 📍 University of Wollongong 📆 2-4 December Mark it in your calendars ✏️ more information to come soon!
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Upama Aich @upama.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Does early-life environment stress affect future reproductive investment? 🌊🐟 Our new paper found that when raised in fluctuating salinity, mosquitofish females produce eggs with lower protein, while older males had higher ejaculate glycogen content! Read the full paper here doi.org/10.1111/1365...
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Tim Janicke @timjanicke.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Compelling meta-analytic evidence for female fitness benefits of polyandry in arthropods by Yan et al. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
academic.oup.com
The adaptive significance of polyandry: a meta-analysis
Abstract. Polyandry is prevalent, but the optimal patterns of mating for females remain poorly understood despite their importance for our understanding of
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Upama Aich @upama.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Why is the human penis longer and thicker than those of other great apes, such as chimpanzees and gorillas? Read our @aunz.theconversation.com piece to find out! Full paper from @plosbiology.org below! 👇 1/3
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Randolph Nesse @randynesse.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
The ClubEvMed on Dec 2 at Noon ET on this new book will be interesting! Laurence Hurst will kick it off, David Haig will comment, and I will MC a lively discussion. @evmed.bsky.social @umehap.bsky.social @tricem.bsky.social @evmedasu.bsky.social Register now! duke.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
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Vivek Nityananda @viveknityananda.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Oh wow! An excellent engaged review of I Dream of Theresa May. I couldn't be happier! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ “A whip-smart piece of queer political satire.“ www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/i-dr... On until the 29th @taratheatre.com: taratheatre.com/whats-on/i-d... (Spoilers in the review- you have been warned)
thestage.co.uk
I Dream of Theresa May at Tara Theatre, London: dark, absorbing comedy
Read our review of I Dream of Theresa May at Tara Theatre, London: astute new political satire exploring British culture under a hostile-environment policy
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Dr Lizzie Speechley @lizziespeechley.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
The final chapter of my thesis has just been published in Ecology and Evolution! @ecol-evol.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Here we find that the social environment, notably vocal and aggressive interactions, are linked to cognitive development in magpie fledglings.
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Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
What is sexual selection all about... definitionally and mathematically? A super talented PI, Jussi Lehtonen, is looking for a postdoc to work it all out! Deadline end of this month. ats.talentadore.com/apply/postdo...
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Humboldt-Stiftung @humboldt-foundation.de · 05/11/2025
Dorsilla Anono Katimbwa, an expert in Metabolism, Biochemistry, and Genetics of Microorganisms, encourages other Kenyan women in science to believe in themselves—and to apply for the Humboldt Research Fellowship as well. Learn more about the programme here 👉 bit.ly/3Jhi7kU
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
ARC says Discovery Projects outcomes will be tomorrow (Tuesday). Linkage Projects (2025, round 1) on Wed. Over past ~year, it's often been at about 11am (Canberra). My bot will pick up the change to RMS & post immediately. ARC should email outcomes to lead CIs, but might take an 1hr or so for DPs
Screenshot of tweet from the ARC saying they will announce DP26 outcomes on Tuesday 28th Oct, and LP25r1 outcomes on Wednesday 29th.
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Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Developmental temp., not inbreeding, shapes life-history & behaviors in juvenile guppies. Warmer conditions accelerate maturity & reduce boldness with distinct male-female differences -key insights amid climate change: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... @mikejennions.bsky.social @mahmudalhasan.bsky.social
doi.org
Developmental temperature, not inbreeding, shapes life history and locomotor behaviours in juvenile guppies (Poecilia reticulata)
Abstract. Inbreeding plays a strong role in shaping life-history traits and behaviours. Supporting evidence for this role often comes from observational st
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Our ANU @ouranu.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Professor Evans … said he hoped the university’s leadership “will recognise the gravity of my concerns, which I know are shared by many others in the University community and am equally sure will be by the Minister for Education ...” www.canberratimes.com.au/story/902083...
canberratimes.com.au
'Gobsmacking': Former ANU chancellor's searing letter blasts university's leadership
Professor Gareth Evans shares some advice for Julie Bishop and Genevieve Bell.
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Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Why did bees become haplodiploid & birds didn't? And why are stick insects perfect just the way they are? This is probably the coolest paper from @koraklein.bsky.social‬ 's PhD thesis (though there's Colias butterfly work in the pipeline which I shouldn't diss...) academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
academic.oup.com
Sex ratio theory for facultative parthenogens: from fortuitously optimal stick insects to the origin of haplodiploidy in Hymenoptera
Abstract. Sex ratio theory usually assumes obligate sex; rare exceptions with facultative sex typically consider idiosyncratic cases of cyclic parthenogens
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Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Interested in Postdoc Research here in Oxford? Many projects possible using long-term population studies of birds, field & lab experiments with insect consumers, phenology of trees all in Wytham woods & based in new Biology building marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/calls/msca-p...
Field team in Wytham Woods May 2025Image of the new Biology Building, completed, and opening from August 2025Lunch with the field team to celebrate another successful season - May 2025
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Max Telford @maxjtelford.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
It's publication day of my first book: The Tree of Life. The tree of life is a time machine that can take us back 4 billion years to meet our most distant ancestor. It is the magic that lets us tell the origin stories, beginning with this ancient relative, of everything from mushrooms to man.
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 02/05/2025
Nature reports that the National Science Foundation has stopped awarding new grants and allotting funds to existing ones. All of them. @colincarlson.bsky.social says that unless the freeze is lifted, it “is going to destroy people's labs.” 2/10 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Great news! I will definitely do this course out when I have time. I’ve already watched one video* and found it useful. * a discussion of the dangers of using LLMs to create lecture content.
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Daniel Noble @danielwanoble.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Very happy and humbled to have received this award. A huge thanks to all my wonderful colleagues @scienceanu.bsky.social and abroad who made this possible!
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Lauren Harrison @laurenmharrison.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
And that’s a wrap! My last PhD research is now published 💪💪 Over 9 weeks we made males consistently experience winning or losing fights, with some winners/losers also able to mate, to test the impacts of contest outcome and reproductive investment on reproduction, growth and telomere length.
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Hi. Thank you to everyone - all 161 people - who signed the letter in support of nominating @arc-tracker.bsky.social for a Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science. The nomination was lodged last night. Keep your fingers crossed for a good outcome for our masked hero.
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
In case you’re trying to submit your response to the review of ARC grants, the Education Department’s portal is/was borked. Email instead👇
Screenshot of a tweet from the ARC providing an email address alternative to the Education Department’s portal for submissions to the review of the ARC grant process.
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com reporting on the proposed changes to the ARC grants system. There’s concern that getting rid of standalone fellowships will have lots of unintended consequences, especially for Early-Career Researchers. By @donnadlu.bsky.social
theguardian.com
Changes to ARC grants will make it harder for Australia to combat Trump chaos, researchers warn
Plan to cut most standalone positions in favour of shorter fellowships will hurt international recruitment, critics say
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The Tattooed Professor @schwessinger.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Great to see @nteuact.bsky.social coming right at this to make it crystal clear that academic freedom is not up for grabs in Australia and at ANU. Happy to talk with anyone about the issue who wants to know more.
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ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
CONVERGENT EVOLUTION is the independent development of similar traits or features in distantly related or unrelated organisms, often occurring when they occupy similar ecological niches or face similar environmental pressures 🦉 🍏
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
This year I’m teaching a science writing course. When the course started, I had this exact conversation with the students - Your thoughts are fuzzy phantoms that ping around in your brain. If you want to catch and share those thoughts you need to pin them to the page.
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Meanwhile, in Europe👇
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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
No budget increase for the Australian Research Council 😡
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Zanna Clay @zannaclay.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
The loss of a legend- Kanzi, the language-competent bonobo, has died age 44. Kanzi was exceptional in so many ways and offered us profound insights into the linguistic & cognitive capacities of great apes. He has taught us so much and will be hugely missed. www.apeinitiative.org/remembering-...
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 20/03/2025
I’ve long used FiveThirtyEight’s interactive “Hack Your Way To Scientific Glory” to illustrate the idea of p-hacking when I teach statistics. But ABC/Disney killed the site earlier this month :( So I made my own with #rstats and Observable and #QuartoPub ! stats.andrewheiss.com/hack-your-way/
Screenshot of the linked Quarto website, with input checkboxes to change different conditions for a regression model that predicts economic performance based on US political party, with a reported p-value
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Come on folk, get off your butts! Let's thank @arc-tracker.bsky.social. 3500+ of you follow their posts about proposed changes in ARC funding & which schemes remain open for now. But only 135 of you have signed up to support their nomination for a Eureka prize. Sign! forms.gle/ie7b32rWcZKK...
forms.gle
Letter of Support for nomination of @ARC_Tracker for a Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science
In signing this form you endorse the proposal to nominate @ARC_Tracker for a Eureka Prize in the category 'Leadership in Science'. The list of signatories will be appended to the nomination form. I wi...
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Szymek Drobniak @szymekdr.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
@nature.com has just published online our new paper!🎉🐸🌡️Lead by @patricepottier.bsky.social and supervised by myself and @itchyshin.bsky.social: in this massive research effort we overcome several common convictions related to the topics we studied. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Here are take-homes.
nature.com
Vulnerability of amphibians to global warming - Nature
A 4 °C global temperature increase would push 7.5% of amphibian species beyond their physiological limits.
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
We now have 125+ signatures to nominate @arc-tracker.bsky.social for a Eureka Prize. But there should be many more. ARC Tracker has 3000+ followers. Please repost & spread the word. Most signatures are from biologists. Please alert those in the humanities, social sciences, etc to sign. Thank you!
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
A read today’s e-newsletter from our central administration and the heading of one section was ‘Leave management’. I thought ‘Yes, a few of you really should’ but it turns out it was a noun not a verb. My mistake. @frankbongiorno.bsky.social @nteuact.bsky.social
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Science & Medicine at ANU @scienceanu.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
A global research team, including ANU scientists, discovered that an enzyme known as a ‘NUDIX hydrolase’ is used by many fungal pathogens as a weapon to cause disease in plants. The findings are published in Science. science.anu.edu.au/news-events/...
science.anu.edu.au
Scientists closer to engineering more resilient food crops
Researchers have discovered a powerful “weapon” used by many disease-causing fungi to infect and destroy major food crop staples could offer new strategies to bolster global food security.
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University of Bristol Biological Sciences @bristolbiosci.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Job alert! We seek to appoint a new Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology in the School of Biological Sciences, find out more at the link below! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
Job alert! Lectuter in Evolutionary Biology out now
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
A popular account by @cogniivan.bsky.social of our study on sexual selection and intelligence in fish that is now out in Nature Ecology & Evolution. The journal link is in the article. theconversation.com/smart-is-sex...
theconversation.com
Smart is sexy – new study on fish doing puzzles hints intelligence partly evolved via sexual selection
A better brain might help an animal find more mates, have more sex, and eventually have more babies.
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Our paper on #sexualselection and #intelligence / #cognition is now out in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Congrats to @cogniivan.bsky.social, Bec Fox & @kirindy.bsky.social for all their hard work to make this happen. www.anu.edu.au/news/all-new...
anu.edu.au
Smart is sexy: evolution of intelligence partly driven by love
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Good news we have now passed the 100 signature mark. But we should have as many signatures as people that follow @arc-tracker.bsky.social (over 3000!) So please keep sending the link to colleagues, spread the word and encourage others to sign. Thank you.
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Viraj Torsekar | विराज तोरसेकर @virajtorsekar.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Excited to announce our symposium on the 'maintenance of trait variation under sexual selection' as a part of the Behaviour 2025 conference scheduled August 25-30 in Kolkata, India. Send in your abstracts! 1/2
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Australian Researchers, If you want to support @arc-tracker.bsky.social being awarded a Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science, sign this letter of support. forms.gle/WxfVjk9JaGpn... Q: "Are they eligible?", A: "Let's find out" Sign, repost & send the link to colleagues. Word of mouth. Do it!
forms.gle
Letter of Support for nomination of @ARC_Tracker for a Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science
In signing this form you endorse the proposal to nominate @ARC_Tracker for a Eureka Prize in the category 'Leadership in Science'. The list of signatories will be appended to the nomination form. I wi...
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Aussie Researchers, we need your support if you want this nomination to happen. I’m not tech savvy but I’ll work with colleagues to generate an online letter of support for @arc-tracker.bsky.social being nominated for a Eureka award that you can then sign. Details soon(ish).
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
@cosmicpinot.bsky.social any chance you can boost the signal on this? The one thing I do know is that you are not ARC Tracker!
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Hi Australian Researchers. I have a plan. Let's thank the amazing @arc-tracker.bsky.social for a decade of selfless work by nominating them for a Eureka Prize (Leadership in science). Are you with me? If so, repost this. Please also reply and state your support for this quest. We can do this people.
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Damien Farine @damienfarine.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
We're launching our new #UZH funded citizen science project using exciting #AI powered smart bird feeders to learn more about common European garden birds and how they survive the winter. This is the start of something *BIG* Sign up if you are interested! www.citizenscience.uzh.ch/en/projects/...
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Some people lobby that scientific figures should always be readable by the colour blind. Is this really a big issue? I just don’t see the problem.
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Nature is art.
Sometimes all it takes is a closer look at the little things in life to make you feel happier.
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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Some people envision that biology will become engineering. We will all be using robots to screen millions of computer-generated molecules. If science stops being about playing, breaking things, brainstorming, and chance favoring the prepared mind, I think no one will want to do it. It won't be fun.
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Alex Skeels @alexskeels.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
@puttert.bsky.social and I are organising the ANU Research School of Biology's Ecology and Evolution seminar series for 2025 🌏🗣. Any researchers based in Oz 🇦🇺 and keen to connect with #TeamCanberra should reach out! We have also budget for travel 🛩
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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Time to move. I don’t think I can handle another day of reading Elon’s endless childish taunting on X. If you are interested in: Evol Biol; sexual selection, behavioural ecology, Southern Africa; University politics then please follow me so I can follow you back and build a new timeline. Thanks!
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