iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 26/09/2026

Happy #Caturday, my cousin was selected by the cat distribution system

A cute grey long-haired stripey kitten with blue eyes

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 19/09/2026

To my great delight, the French also do Ren faires! (Technically medieval but we'll take it)

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 16/09/2026

Starting the revolution one sticker at a time. AI is poop

Ai flyers with a sticker that says l'IA c'est du caca which means AI is poop in french

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 15/09/2026

me, trying to write a grant on vacation: "yup, I've made great progress"

protect narrative, background, innovation, specific aims, study design, statistical plan. is all it says

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 14/09/2026

This is my current solution. It translates to "AI is poop!" Except it rhymes. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social taught me that protest stickers don't have to be professional! Imma stick these bad boys all over these slop fliers

Envelope labels that say "AI is poop" in french, written in sharpie

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 14/09/2026

AI slop has french towns in a chokehold. It's an epidemic 🤮

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 08/09/2026

I feel professionally obliged to watch this

A movie called GOAT on an airplane screen

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 02/09/2026

I came across a truly exceptional bumper sticker in Mississippi yesterday

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 01/09/2026

“Only the essentials” I whisper to myself

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 26/08/2026

I love being the biologist in my friend group

Text exchange. Real quick what the fuck is this. With a picture as a stuck bug

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 26/08/2026

New work from the Boston brain bank, confirming our suspicions that CTE affects between 25%-95% of NFL players, which is much more than previous studies have shown. It's based on a huge cohort of 1712 former players. doi.org/10.1136/bmj-...

CTE prevalence at death in NFL players infographic

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 20/08/2026

Being an academic can feel like drowning in emails and admin with no time to focus on what really matters, like deep thought on our research. A colleague recommended I read Slow Productivity. It offers an alternative view with some tips I found useful. A perfect way to kick off my sabbatical.

Cal Newport's book Slow Productivity. The lost art of accomplishment without burnout.

1. do fewer things. Put tasks on autopilot. Pull not push
2. Work at a natural pace. Define a shorter work year, schedule rest projects, form rituals
3. obsess over quality

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 18/08/2026

Reminds me of a sketch I did a while back

Too cool for a helmet? Donate your brain! Illustrations of a skeleton crashing an e scooter and its brain falling out

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 03/08/2026

I'm excited to announce the first episode of @technicaltea.show is up today! Technical Tea is a podcast by women in STEM, for everyone! We hope to build a vibrant community, so have a listen then share & leave a review so we can spread the word! 🧪

Cover art for technical tea show featuring Polaroid's of Niki and Huyen on a purple background

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 11/07/2026

If you think about it... Hammerhead sharks look real dumb

Hammerhead shark seen from the side with a googly eye and a gaping mouth

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 01/07/2026

I've started playing Animal Crossing again and it is just such a delight, especially over the summer!

Character in animal crossing sitting amongst plants

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 29/06/2026

Working on a little secret something for experiment week... First episode draft just dropped 🤫 @queencodemonkey.dev @dtnsshow.bsky.social

Screenshot of an audio wave called H + N science

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 28/06/2026

TIL Alabama has native stick bugs and they live in my strawberries! I used to raise exotic stick bugs, maybe I should have a tank of native ones on my desk, would certainly make me feel like an old school biology prof

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 26/06/2026

There's the last 3y of my life! Let's hope the grant reviewers like it (gaslighting myself that that's what matters)

Screenshot of bioarchive that says submission confirmation

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 23/06/2026

In a meeting about goat biomechanics and it made me want to sketch this

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 13/06/2026

Someone brought one of my publications to autograph at the con I'm at. Peak academic, I will never surpass this lmfao

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 09/06/2026

I just got back from camping at Chaco Canyon and I saw a bunch of dessert wildflowers

Six kinds of desert wildflowers. White, purple and yellow

A window through a Charcoan sandstone ruin looking out into the desert

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 03/06/2026

I saw a collared lizard today. Hell yeah

A turquoise lizard with a yellow head and a very long tail

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 22/05/2026

Well, that's a bit mean, thyroidectomy paper from 1925

A number of cretinoid sheep and goats have already succeeded in learning the labyrinth

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 14/05/2026

I went to a cabin for 3 days and it was one of the best decisions I've made in a while

A book on a bed with a giant window view of a River

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 05/05/2026

YALL I DID 311 LAPS! And the team beat the fundraising goal 🥳 🛼

Selfie in Derby gear with a counter that says zero

Selfie with a red face with a counter that says 311

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 01/05/2026

Probably nobody cares but there were a bunch of new warblers today and now I'm up to 64 bird species in what is basically a suburban playground

Ebird list screenshot showing black and white warbler, American RedStart, bay breasted warbler and blackpoll warbler

A binocular picture of a red-headed woodpecker sitting on a telephone pole

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 24/04/2026

I'm giving a talk at MSU today, come say hi! 🧪

Conservation seminar series Mississippi State University April 24th 1:00 p.m. knock on wood! Exploring brain damage in woodpeckers and other head hitters

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 22/04/2026

For the last day of class in Comparative Neuroanatomy we do an open house so that the students can teach everything they have learned to the public. We always get great questions and as a bonus we were lucky enough to be hosted at the ALMNH this year! 🧠 🧪

A group of students in lab coat standing in front of a basilosaurus skeleton in a museum

A student dissecting a shark while another person asks questions

A group of people standing around tables asking questions

Student art presented on easels underneath a basilosaurus skeleton

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 21/04/2026

My derby team is having a fundraiser! It's a skate-a-thon, so you can pledge a per-lap donation and wager on how how bad my endurance really is 😆! Or just a one-time donation to my skater name, Yellowhammer. Our team is a non-profit so this is how we keep the wheels rolling 🛼 tiny.cc/Donate

Druid City Derby skate-a-thon fundraiser. The more laps we skate, the more you donate. Support your local Derby team! Provide one-time or perlap donation

Nicole posing in Derby gear and yellow Hammer makeup with an armband that says number 14 yellowHammer and a Druid City Derby Jersey

Nicole skating in a derby belt with a Druid City Derby Jersey and a Jammers star on her helmet

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 18/04/2026

I got up on time and got to see an indigo bunting up close and personal! Worth it! Awesome event by Jefferson Co Greenway

A professional bird bander is holding an indigo bunt tonight. A bright blue bird with a triangular beak

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 15/04/2026

Here's another look at that visual pathway so I can point out the two balloons on the doors are the eyes and the person holding all the streamers is the optic chiasm 👁️ ❌ 👁️ A memorable way to learn!

Students standing in an x shape holding streamers that are going to two balloons on either side of the room which represent the eyes

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 15/04/2026

Students in my comparative Neuroanatomy class were encouraged to present the sensory pathways in a creative fashion as their group project. We got auditory jeopardy, an olfactory rap and an art installation of the visual pathway. As usual, they knocked it out of the park! 🥳 (Photos with permission)🧪

Students presenting auditory system jeopardy

Students wearing. Fly hat and a big fake nose presenting an olfactory rap

Students holding streamers across the whole classroom to illustrate the visual pathway. Note the two disco balls were used to represent eyes

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 03/04/2026

Sketching out a silly poster that's been on my mind ever since e-scooters have become popular on campus.

Too cool for a helmet? Donate your brain! Drawing of a skeleton riding in e-scooter crashing in its brain flying out.
Over 2000 Americans dive TBI every year. Biu sa.com

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 02/04/2026

News! I'm doing a 9-month fellowship to the Centre for Advanced Studies at U Vienna in Oct! I did my MSc there, the pic is at the Vienna nat. hist. museum, my absolute favorite! I'm very excited to go back, and even more so for the opportunity to do some deep thinking & interdisciplinary work there!

Person pretending to kiss a taxidermy reindeer at the Vienna natural History museum

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 26/03/2026

Another sperm whale headbutting picture because hell yeah onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cms/asset/71...

two sperm whales headbutting from Burslem et al. 2026

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 26/03/2026

AAAAH WHALE HEADBUTTS WHALE HEADBUTTS! We published the first image of dolphins headbutting in a 2021 review of headbutting animals (doi.org/10.1002/jnr....). Really exciting to see this documented in another cetacean!

figure from a scientific journal of two sperm whales headbutting. Image from Burslem et al. 2026

Two dolphins headbutting mid-air. Image from Ackermans et al. 2021

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 12/03/2026

New woodpecker model just dropped. The mechanical engineers are at it again. That makes 3

Scientific publication depicting a woodpecker silhouette with a sphere and a line through it

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 27/02/2026

Got some sketching of my own done alongside my students today

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 16/02/2026

Really interesting map of worldwide TBI distribution and causes. Road incidents are the highest cause of TBI worldwide. 🧪 🧠 From Maas et al. 2022 doi.org/10.1016/S147...

world map of TBI rates and human development index.

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 14/02/2026

My students brought me a baby goat to pet for Valentine's Day!! Best lab ever ❤️🩷🐐🩷❤️

Dr ackermans holding a baby goat in heart pyjamas

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Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪 @nicoleackermans.com · 13/02/2026

My secret to getting students to engage in class

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