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Narcís Font-Massot

@narcisfontmassot.bsky.social
86 followers 94 following 4 posts

Researcher of Collective Animal Behavior | PhD Student at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, Konstanz, Germany narcisfontmassot.github.io

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Reposted by Narcís Font-Massot
Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
"Science is not simply a sequence of tasks that can be optimized....The scientific system thrives on inefficiency: redundant efforts, failed attempts, and divergent paths. These are not costs to be eliminated but sources of discovery." Excellent essay! ⬇️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Progression without progress
Progress in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to advance scientific discovery has made it increasingly realistic to envision automated “end-to-end science” (ETES) systems: integrated pipelines t...
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Reposted by Narcís Font-Massot
Ryan Greenway @ryangreenway.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Out now in @ecol-evol.bsky.social. Vector use in sympatric #Caenorhabditis nematodes. We document associations between three Caen. species and their dispersal vectors, finally name C. sp. 8 -> C. apta, and infer that C. apta may have spread with the invasive #beetle, Stelidota geminata doi.org/q5tq
doi.org
Differential Phoretic Vector Use Among Sympatric Caenorhabditis Nematodes and an Association With Invasive Nitidulid Beetles in Southwestern Germany
We show evidence for differential host use among the three sympatric Caenorhabditis, and a novel association with nitidulid beetles for C. apta sp. n. This information adds to our understanding of ho....
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Reposted by Narcís Font-Massot
Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
PLS RT📣 Two Postdoc jobs at #mpaib with Serena Ding on collective behavior of worms (Never seen a "wormuration"? That's them in green) 🪱 social dynamics of collective dispersal: bewerbermanagement.net/jobposting/2... 🪱 sensory ecology of worm towers: bewerbermanagement.net/jobposting/7...
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Reposted by Narcís Font-Massot
Ryan Greenway @ryangreenway.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
New preprint from the Genes and Behavior group! @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @cbehav.bsky.social Youn Jae Kang led this study on the evolution of a collective behavior in C. elegans. doi.org/qq3t
Multi panel figure from a scientific manuscript. Panel A shows a map of the globe with sampling sites for different isolates of C. elegans indicated. Panel B shows two plots demonstrating variation in different aspects of a collective aggregation behavior among globally collected strains.  Two strains which greatly differ in the magnitude of aggregation are highlighted below the graphs, with circular plots showing the representative distribution of worms during experiments. The less aggregating strain has individuals dispersed across the field of view, the more aggregating has clumps of individuals gathered together.
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Reposted by Narcís Font-Massot
Katrin Vogt @katrinvogt.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
The first paper from the lab is now out in Science Advances: Multimodal social context modulates larval behavior in Drosophila www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... We find that fly larvae keep their distance to conspecifics in the absence of food, enjoy reading! @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
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Ryan Greenway @ryangreenway.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Check out our preprint investigating host use in sympatric Caenorhabditis nematodes! We found three Caenorhabditis species in a local community are associated with different invert taxa, and document a strong association between one species and invasive nitidulid beetles. doi.org/10.64898/202...
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Reposted by Narcís Font-Massot
James Lightfoot @jameslightfoot.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Why do some worms graze on bacteria while others hunt and kill? Our study, published today in Nature, reveals how predatory aggression evolved in nematodes. Led by @gunizgozeeren.bsky.social and @leoboeger.bsky.social across the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social and @monikakscholz.bsky.social labs.
nature.com
Predatory aggression evolved through adaptations to noradrenergic circuits - Nature
Noradrenergic circuits support and balance aggressive behavioural states in predatory nematodes, distinguish predatory from non-predatory nematode species and are associated with the evolution of comp...
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Narcís Font-Massot @narcisfontmassot.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
The first preprint from my PhD work is out! We used C. elegans to define and manipulate heterogeneous groups, exploring how individuals with different behavioural phenotypes interact and shape collective behavior. Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Narcís Font-Massot @narcisfontmassot.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
My first co-author paper is out in Current Biology! In this study, led by Daniela Perez and Serena Ding, we show that nematode self-assembling towers occur in nature and can serve as a collective dispersal mechanism 🪱 Check out a video where Daniela explains the findings and the paper here 👇
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