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Pranav Minasandra

@pminasandra.bsky.social
355 followers 389 following 44 posts

Nature and structure of animal behaviour | Postdoc and PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social | MSc and BS @iiscbangalore | English | ಕನ್ನಡ | हिन्दी | اردو | Dalit lives matter. ➡️ pminasandra.github.io

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Reposted by Pranav Minasandra
Tim Lee @leetim.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My institute is hiring a group leader in Neuroethology! Bonn is a wonderful place to do neuroscience. Check it out! jobs.b-ite.com/jobposting/4...
jobs.b-ite.com
Max Planck Research Group Leader (W2) in Neuroethology (m/f/div)
limited contract
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T Revathe @revathe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thrilled that our research is featured on the cover! There is also a perspective piece. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Observation and exploration widen the menu
Orangutans expand their foraging skills by combining observation with trial-and-error learning
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Apply to join a really cool new group!
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I wrote down my thoughts about the last several weeks of AI hell. aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading...
aiguide.substack.com
Misleading Metaphors, Real Risks
What To Fear from AI Agents and How to Reclaim Our Human Agency
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I guess now it should also say "convince my idiot government"
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
...company starting to churn out 'scientific' results based on this corpus. And you're right that EEB is less vulnerable than things like *omics and neuro. But EEB also has multiple attack surfaces e.g., from the neuroscience, conservation, and climate interfaces. It's a concerning moment. [2]
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I feel the worry is mid-range companies. With this solution to the Millennium problem it's easy for a start-up to sell themselves as "solving" a (non-theory) field of science with brute force. Scientists have published all data, code, ideas etc in the spirit of openness. I'm worried about some...[1]
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Eleonora Gatti @eleonoragatti.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
So excited to see my first PhD paper featured on the cover of J. R. Soc. Interface! 🦅🎉 Thanks to @joefresna.bsky.social & Hannah Williams! Check it out @royalsocietypublishing.org doi.org/10.1098/rsif... @imprs-qbee.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
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Benedetta Catitti @bcatitti.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🚨Preprint alert! 🚨What if your study animal doesn't know the landscape yet? Standard movement models such as SSA assume it does. In our new study we let it learn instead, and put "learner" against "omniscient" head to head (1/4) doi.org/10.64898/202...
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Emily Grout @emilygrout.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Excited to share our new publication in Bioacoustics today, describing the vocal repertoire of white-nosed coatis! 🐾 We combined traditional acoustic analyses with an unsupervised approach to characterise the complexity and diversity of their vocal behaviour. doi.org/10.1080/0952...
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I couldn't do it much justice with my phone camera, but this eclipse was a beauty. The moon remained visible until 10 mins before eclipse maximum, when the moon slipped behind a cloud bank with flashing lightning. I suppose that's the only appropriate exit.
Lunar eclipse nearing completion
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Just watched Nolan's Odyssey and was disappointed despite the visual spectacle. But piggybacking off this, if you haven't read it already, do check out A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. A small review of that book by me here: pminasandra.github.io/reviews/2024...
pminasandra.github.io
'A Thousand Ships' by Natalie Haynes
Wrath! Sing, Goddess, of the wrath of Achilles, Peleus’ Son, whose wrath brought on the Achaians innumerable woes, hurled down into Hades countless brave men’s souls while leaving their bodies to dogs...
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I'm speaking at #ISBE this afternoon at 13:00 (session 2F), come say hi!
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Reposted by Pranav Minasandra
Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Slightly out of date, but Melanie Mitchell is one of the most thoughtful people in the ai/cogsci space: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
aiguide.substack.com
LLMs and World Models, Part 1
How do Large Language Models Make Sense of Their “Worlds”?
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Reposted by Pranav Minasandra
Josep Gasol @josepgasol.com · 10/07/2026
Yesterday the European Parliament gave the green light to #ChatControl, here are some very useful tools to go against their mass surveillance: @signal.org , Posteo, @nextcloud.bsky.social , Linux or @grapheneos.org are very good options, in my opinion. exitchatcontrol.org
exitchatcontrol.org
Exit Chat Control · Become Ungovernable
A practical field guide to escape Chat Control and reclaim your digital privacy: encrypted messaging, email, VPN, DNS, passwords, Linux, GrapheneOS, self-hosting. Free, open source, no tracking.
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
tbh better rejected than neglected
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Zoë Goldsborough @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I’m beyond excited to share I’ve been awarded a Minerva Fast Track Fellowship by @maxplanck.de to start my research group “Culture and Social Behavior” at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social! Keep your eyes peeled for a PhD position advertisement coming later this year 🐒 www.ab.mpg.de/1442914/zoe-...
ab.mpg.de
Zoë Goldsborough named Minerva Fast Track Fellow
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Ended up doing this, the associate editor was quite helpful. Thank you!
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Does anyone have any idea how to get in touch with editorial staff at *Animal Biotelemetry*? I've agreed to review a paper for them, but need a small extension. There is absolutely no point of contact or e-mail ID anywhere, and all contact was from do-not-reply IDs. Help is welcome!
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Reposted by Pranav Minasandra
Ross Floate @rossfloate.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken
sinceyouarrived.world
taken.
A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.
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Ketika Garg @ketikagarg.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
the amazing @mayankchugh.bsky.social once again powerfully captures the lived realities of inequality in academic mobility by sharing his experiences. this artwork "weighing" Indian and American passports hits really hard -- goes much beyond mobility privileges.
nature.com
I was set to lead an undergraduate research trip abroad. Then my visa was denied
Through flexibility, problem-solving and the generosity of colleagues, I shepherded students through fieldwork remotely.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 02/04/2026
"The real threat is a slow, comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing. Not a dramatic collapse. Not Skynet. Just a generation of researchers who can produce results but can't produce understanding."
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Minas Karamanis @minaskar.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...
ergosphere.blog
The machines are fine. I'm worried about us.
On AI agents, grunt work, and the part of science that isn't replaceable.
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Reposted by Pranav Minasandra
Isaac Planas-Sitjà @iplanass.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
If you have ever thought 'I wish I could track individuals in real-time' or 'this tracker runs too slow on my laptop' or 'I want to remove observer bias in my study' or 'how could I automatise my setup?', then you'd like this project 👇 @asab.org @ceiussi.bsky.social @iussi-nwes.bsky.social
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Woah, that's a cool bit of software, and love the documentation! We have done a bit of tinkering with YOLO, and it definitely shows promise. Maybe this is the way to go!
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Dom Roche @domroche.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Such a fun project led by really talented and passionate people! If you want a free, user-friendly tracking option (live and post-hoc) check out TracktorLive! doi.org/10.64898/202... @rasmusern.bsky.social @jutfelt.bsky.social @tnorin.bsky.social @shaunkillen.bsky.social @zegnitriki.bsky.social
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Interested in automating lab experiments or tasks with camera-trackable animals? We (@vivekhsridhar.bsky.social, @domroche.bsky.social, @iplanass.bsky.social) are launching TracktorLive, a real-time #python package for tracking and response. Video below by @iplanass.bsky.social [1/4]
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
PS: Although the software is designed for tracking and response in real-time, it does a fantastic job with pre-recorded videos too. Just saying!
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
If you are interested to know more, head on to our pre-print: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Or, head on to GitHub and start with our docs and tutorials: github.com/pminasandra/... [4/4]
biorxiv.org
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Because of a completely parallelised architecture and a lack of reliance on deep-learning methods, the software can run quite fast with minimal latency between frames. [3/4]
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
TracktorLive uses a no-AI solution, and runs easily on smaller, older, or cheaper hardware. Users don't need familiarity with computer vision or machine learning. The behaviour of the system is specifiable using copy-and-paste snippets of code called 'cassettes'. [2/4]
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Interested in automating lab experiments or tasks with camera-trackable animals? We (@vivekhsridhar.bsky.social, @domroche.bsky.social, @iplanass.bsky.social) are launching TracktorLive, a real-time #python package for tracking and response. Video below by @iplanass.bsky.social [1/4]
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Reposted by Pranav Minasandra
Vlad Demartsev @animal-sounds.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
🚨REPOST PLEASE! 🙏🏻 Calling all South African 🇿🇦 zoology students! You have ONE more week to apply to our Collective Behaviour Field Course 📍Two weeks at the Kalahari Research Centre 🗓️ June 2026 💸 Fully funded Application details are at www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/cbfc DM for any questions
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Some of us put together a cool real-time tracking+ response system as a python package. Super accessible for those without much computer vision expertise. More when the paper is published. See the pre-print below! 👇
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Resharing this timely and important piece from the most recent #ISBE newsletter
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
One issue is, what happens when the big AI companies start charging the actual costs of running these models? I predict that future AI-agent use may be restricted to big companies and universities. Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/m...
nytimes.com
Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It
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Ketika Garg @ketikagarg.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
✨New Perspective out w/ Wenning Deng and @fearbrain.bsky.social in @cp-iscience.bsky.social ! We argue that social foraging gives us a unifying, and ecologically grounded way to study how decisions unfold across levels — from individuals and dyads to collectives. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
This is really interesting!
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
New entry on my webcomic! The poem "HE TELLS HER" by Wendy Cope pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...
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Gerry Carter @gerrycarter.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
pyecoacc: A python package for supervised learning of behavioural modes from accelerometer data
Supervised learning of behavioural modes from body-worn sensor data, especially accelerometers, has become a transformative research tool in behavioural ecology over the past years. Due to the pop...
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Vlad Demartsev @animal-sounds.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
🧪Before the day begins, meerkats share a unique ritual. After emerging from their burrows, they spend up to an hour "sunning" to warm up for the day. During this quiet time, they produce soft, tonal "sunning calls". Just standing, sunbathing, and calling. But why❓ #bioacoustics #meerkats #kalahari
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Sometimes, when I really like (or really dislike) something I read, I write a small review about it on my website. Sharing a more recent one: pminasandra.github.io/reviews/2026...
pminasandra.github.io
'The Idea of the Brain' by Matthew Cobb
What are minds? How well do we understand them? This book is the history of how people have thought about minds, brains, cognition, and the like. Covering the past, present, and predicted future of wh...
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Cecilia Baldoni @cecibaldoni.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
After a trip to the ER for an extremely avoidable silly accident, I started wondering about the neuroscience behind being clumsy. Sounds interesting? Have a look at my post on Substack!
open.substack.com
The science behind clumsiness
How a snowy trip to the ER made me wonder about brains and being clumsy.
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
How are sound elements combined to make calls in this Pūkeko population in NZ? How do calls change based on where they're made in the call sequence? Read our paper to find out!
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Mathilde Martin @mathildemartin.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Our group is looking for two MSc students to conduct a one-year research project on meerkat navigation and vocal activity at the University of Zurich and the Kalahari Research Center. Please share around!
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Ben Kawam @benkawam.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
New paper! We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Each dyad (a, b) moves through four discrete states over time, represented by coloured circles. The dyad remains in a given state for a certain duration, or "holding time", before transitioning to a new state according to state-specific transition probabilities, indicated by arrows showing all possible (non-zero) transitions. Paintings by Sofia M. Pereira & Judith von Nordheim.
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Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Periodic reminder to check out my new webcomic, Remarkable Doodles! Title: If Isaac Newton has seen further Permalink: pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...
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Danai Papageorgiou @danaipapageorgiou.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
I have some brilliant news to share! I recently received a DFG-funded Emmy Noether 6-year grant to establish my own group in Germany. I will soon be looking for a PhD student and a research assistant to join the team and investigate how the balance of power is maintained in animal societies.
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Vlad Demartsev @animal-sounds.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
🚨STOP SCROLLING, IT’S AN EMERGENCY BROADCAST📣 This message will self-destruct in 10…9…8…7…⏰ …now that I have your attention: 🧪Our new paper on Alerting Components in animal vocalization is out in AnimBehav🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #AnimalBehaviour #Bioacoustics #Communication
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