iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Ned Dochtermann

Claudia Wascher @wascherclaudia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The editorial 'Beyond bias: building a more inclusive and rigorous research culture in animal behaviour' summarises the 13 papers on how bias (taxonomic, geographic, observer, statistical,...) shapes our field, and how to address them. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

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Claudia Wascher @wascherclaudia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm so excited to finally see the special issue "Addressing Biases in Animal Behaviour" fully published: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu.... Huge thanks to my brilliant co-editors @viveknityananda.bsky.social & @nicolakoyama.bsky.social. Special issue grew from @asab.org's 2024 Winter Meeting 🧵

sciencedirect.com

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Jay Gallagher @jay-gallagher.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

🐟🚨 New paper! 🚨🐟 Where do behavioral differences come from? Early life environment clearly matters... ...or not? Early environment affected behavior, but NOT how different individuals became from each other. Those differences were seeded before birth through factors OTHER than genetic variation 🤯

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Born This Way: Individuality Is Seeded Before Birth and Robust to Ecological Stress

We reared and recorded behaviours of clonal Amazon mollies in standardized environments, with and without predation stress, from birth through week four of life, to understand how the developmental e...

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I've been asked for photos of us "doing science" in the lab. I have no idea what that's supposed to look like for evolutionary/behavioral ecology. We might all huddle around watching crickets doing things (?). I suppose I could also be at my computer with R open. Any ideas, serious or otherwise?

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The party of family (farm) values.

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Ian Miles Schlong @tedcruznipples.com · 10/09/2026

Some of those that work forces Are the same that fuck horses

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

It is not hyperbole to say these people (Bovino and his ilk) are evil.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Well, this is a bad way to hear the news.

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Vivek Nityananda @viveknityananda.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Very proud of the special issue of Animal Behaviour I worked on with @wascherclaudia.bsky.social and @nicolakoyama.bsky.social on addressing biases in animal behaviour. Thanks to all authors- plenty of cool papers to read. Here's our editorial: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @asab.org

sciencedirect.com

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I’m probably one of the few people that read this book (and series). The answers are all hilarious(ly wrong). Solid book focused on Herbert’s central question of what happens to people and a people when under pressure.

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Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology @sicb.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

ALERT #SICB members The Office of Management and Budget (#OMB) www.federalregister.gov/documents/20... The public comment period closes July 13, 2026. Submit your comment directly www.regulations.gov/document/OMB... Strong, individualized comments carry far more weight than form letters.

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Ian Dworkin @idworkin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I am excited to tell you about our new study led by Tyler Audet and in collaboration with Stefan Lüpold's group. Below you see two species. On the right is Drosophila melanogaster. On the left, Drosophila prolongata. Notice the highly exaggerated legs of the males in D.p! doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Two panel image of Drosophila prolongata and Drosophila melanogaster. In the top panel is a female of Drosophila prolongata on the left and a female of Drosophila melanogaster on the right. It shows that D. prolongata females are somewhat larger than melanogaster, and have spotted wings. Importantly the legs are proportional in each species.

In the bottom panel are males. On the left is a Drosophila prolongata male which is larger than all the other individuals, and has highly exaggerated legs in terms of width and length, and also has black stripes. In contrast male Drosophila melanogaster are much smaller than all the others, with normally proportioned legs.

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Denis REALE 🇨🇦 @denisreale.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

How important it is to explore a new environnement!

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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Periodic reminder that publishing papers is not the goal in and of itself. The paper is a mechanism for sharing what you have learned--sharing processes and outcomes that others should be aware of/should think about too. 1/3

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Some of us don’t need the help and naturally give bad talks! (jokes aside, useful short note)

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

That we live in a world where fantastic artists can’t do their art is a sad indictment of our world. The devaluing of arts and science is a devaluing of humanity.

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Tracy Tran Burkhard @ttburk.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Some of the news coverage from our latest paper in @animalecology.bsky.social! We used a meta-analytic approach to understand whether and how behavioral change is associated with urban environments. Dream collaboration with @neddochtermann.bsky.social and @annecharmantier.bsky.social!

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

I generally don't go for formality but getting referred to as Mr. Dachtermann in an email from a student submitting a late assignment... I guess it's good they got the second n into the last name. Not sure if that's better or worse than "Dr. Man"

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

I think the National Academies are damaging their reputation in an attempt to curry favor from political figures or to appease funders. I am disappointed and hope (and will try to insist) that they will take different approaches in the future. 30/30

media.tenor.com

a man with a beard says i expected better from you with his eyes closed

ALT: a man with a beard says i expected better from you with his eyes closed

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

This is a figure from a text book. This was not produced with "AI" (predates it). The book's author, editor, and copy editor all were okay with this. (you may have to click on the thumbnail to see the problem)

Text book representation of exponential and logistic population growth, pay particular attention to the rightmost part of the logistic curve.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

A worthwhile, and depressing, read.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

I’ve no idea why but I have TONS of horseshoe crab art showing up. How delightful! I quite like this viridis one.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10/02/2026

Rep. Delia Ramirez to DHS officials: "I have as much respect for you as I do for the last white men who put on masks to terrorize communities of color. I have no respect for the inheritors of the Klanhood and the slave patrol. Those activities were criminal and so are yours."

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

DAVE MATTHEWS: “I don’t want my taxes to pay for masked thugs to roam our streets & terrorize our communities... She was trying to get away. He shot her 3x in the head. Murdered in cold blood. They’re trying to tell us not to believe what we see. FUCK ICE.” (H/T @marcofoster.bsky.social )

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Denis REALE 🇨🇦 @denisreale.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Some hope in the world, and animals send us a message of peace and play: when the big one respects the small one, it’s a win-win situation.

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Timothée Poisot @ctrlalttim.com · 08/01/2026

Last spring, I was asked to give carreer advice to grad students. And the one thing I told them was: our best skill is our ability to learn difficult things -- it's also the first skill you will lose unless you intentionally don't let yourselves go.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Apparently the early peak is assumed in some fields but how sad is that? One of the best things about my job is I get to keep learning new things and get better at the things I want to improve. (I also get to choose where I invest that effort which is an amazing luxury)

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Urban Evolution & Ecology Conference @urbanevoecoconf.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

We are pleased to announce the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Urban Evolution and Ecology which will be held from Jan. 31 - Feb. 5, 2027. Please save the dates, and we look forward to welcoming you to beautiful Ventura Beach, California!

Poster advertising the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Urban Evolution and Ecology held January 31-February 5, 2027 in Ventura Beach, California

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

This is one of my wife and I's favorite movies. We watch it regularly. In addition to Rickman, every performance is amazing. Rockwell's "DO I?" and Weaver's "Hold please" get repeated far more often than they probably should.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I'm working on something that requires a lot of professional puffery. Unfortunately, I default to extreme self-deprecation and my colleague on the project is, well, Dutch. I suspect the outcome might look something along the lines of: "Dochtermann is just okay but we would really like the money"

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Accurate news reporting from yesterday’s joint lab meeting with @batsrkul.bsky.social‘s group.

Screen capture from The Simpsons of a newspaper headline: “Old man yells at cloud”

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Vladimir Pravosudov @cognitiveecol.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).

chickadeecognition.com

POSITIONS

default description

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

I had been trying to adopt universal design approaches. However, given LLMs, I now think I have to move back to in person, paper and pen, for any exams. Similarly, LLM use is forcing a move back to other, more rigid, assessment methods.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Over the last two years I’ve seen “Yet, …” surge in use in place of “However, …”. This seems increasingly the case regardless of field, publication, or country of author. Is this LLM driven or just an emerging norm? (I also don’t like it so it could be biased detection but I don’t think so)

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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 14/11/2025

For the Aussies, the zoologists and the architects out there. 💩🧊🧪 By @chazhutton.com

Wombat architecture critics.
Two wombats see a cube-shaped house and one comments: Well that looks like shit.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Check footnote 7. Personally, the formula notation has always made a lot more sense to me than the tidyverse "pipes".

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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

A lot of people are quoting this post and that's good because they should, AI sucks and robs us of something special and only mediocre uncreative piss-babies rely on it to make anything at all, fuck AI, p.s. Emma Thompson is now the president, sorry, that's just how it is

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Hi folks, Any recommendations of dissecting scopes with digital cameras that are sufficient for insect (cricket) morphometrics and relatively inexpensive (<2000)? Thanks!

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Avery Russell @draverbee.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

I cannot believe our work is finally out there and in @journal-evo.bsky.social ! This was an enormous group effort! We provide an updated estimate of the number of buzz pollinated angiosperm species, genera, and families, look at consequences for diversification, number of transitions, and more!

Circular phylogeny showing the branching pattern of 30k plant species with lineages with poricidal and non poricidal taxa indicated. A small subset of poricidal taxa are illustrated around the phylogeny.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

As folks get news about promotion and tenure, first, congrats!. Second, some unsolicited advice: Chairs & Deans don’t like the joke “My goal now is to be dead wood”. Solid lede for promotion seminars though.

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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Just to be super clear, if you’re phoning in your peer review to ai you should quit your job so someone else who actually likes science can have it.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Same: heard that a colleague (in a different department) openly discussed using LLMs for "ideation" and I replied that it was amazing they outright admitted they were bad at their job. Pathetic. Of course that could also probably have been inferred from the use of the word "ideation".

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

I too would like to move to the beach.

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Ned Dochtermann @neddochtermann.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

We have an updated version of this preprint, available at: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... Fingers crossed the formal, final version will be out soon. We think this highlights a major issue in how we study behavior (& more). Thank you @sekharma.bsky.social & @itchyshin.bsky.social! #evolution

ecoevorxiv.org

Ungeneralizable generalizations? A meta-meta-analysis of the influence of taxonomic bias on the study of behavior.

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Szymek Drobniak @szymekdr.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Our newest paper is out in Methods in Ecol Evol @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social :) amazing team effort - we show that the traditional way of analyzing comparative data lacks finesse. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/oidcS... w/ @itchyshin.bsky.social Yefeng Yang, Losia Lagisz & Ayumi Mizuno

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