Dieter Lukas
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dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Dieter Lukas
@dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
480 followers 14 following 170 posts
Investigating the evolution of social behaviour. Comparative Behavioral Ecology group leader (he/him) at the MPI EVA

🌉 bridged from https://fediscience.org/@DieterLukas on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/
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dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Suggestions for how to develop systematic approaches to create equitable futures for individuals with disabilities in higher education
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/15/2/94
🧵 by author:
siobhancully.bsky.social Siobhán Cully 🇺🇸 🐱🥼🤓🩼 @siobhancully.bsky.social · 4h
Good morning! We have just learned that our article on experiences and recommendations for faculty with disabilities has been published:

www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/15...
www.mdpi.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
vicgrinberg.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Women need to work 15.5 months to earn what men make in a year.

What a way to put it. What a powerful reminder what the gender pay gap means.

https://eige.europa.eu/newsroom/news/new-eu-data-shows-women-need-work-15-1-2-months-earn-what-men-make-year?language_content_entity=en
New EU data shows women need to work 15½ months to earn what men make in a year
Despite progress across Europe, full gender equality remains at least 50 years away, according to EIGE’s 2025 Gender Equality Index which introduces new indicators and a renewed pace of change.
eige.europa.eu
February 4, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
rebeccasear.bsky.social
A lovely read about researchers who make animals happy for a living 😊 A day spent playing the sounds of baby bonobo laughter is surely a day well spent

www.sciencenews.org/article/scie...
Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it
Scientists have long focused on quantifying fear and other negative emotions in animals. Now they’re trying to measure positive feelings — and it’s a challenge.
www.sciencenews.org
February 3, 2026 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
nycki.bark.lgbt.ap.brid.gy
I'm #colorblind and I use https://xkcd.com/color/rgb/ frequently.

Randall 'xkcd' Monroe did a survey of over 100,000 readers where he showed them random rgb colors and said "what would you call this?" and afterwards he did his best to sort the results into the most popular color names and the […]
Original post on bark.lgbt
bark.lgbt
January 27, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
aschniedermann.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
"Many of the loudest Open Science advocates are deeply embedded in the very systems they critique such as traditional publishing, prestige-driven academia and grant-dependent research cultures. They speak the language of reform while continuing to “play the game” remarkably well. Researchers who […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
January 28, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
katharinehayhoe.com
New study finds that emphasizing collective efficacy (people's ability to catalyze large-scale change) is very effective in catalyzing behavioural change.

As you can see from my pinned post, I'm a big fan of simple messages that can mobilize public support for climate action!
A megastudy of behavioral interventions to catalyze public, political, and financial climate advocacy
Abstract. Addressing climate change depends on large-scale system changes, which require public advocacy. Here, we identified and tested 17 expert-crowdsou
academic.oup.com
January 27, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
vtraag.bsky.social
📣 Our introduction to structural causal models in science studies is now published:
doi.org/10.1162/QSS....

@tklebel.bsky.social and I tried to make our introduction as accessible as possible. We illustrate the theory by three case studies based on a simulated model of Open Science. 🧵(1/6)
January 27, 2026 at 10:24 AM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
„Frühes Lernen lohnt sich“: Kinder profitieren davon, wenn sie schon früh in Kontakt mit wissenschaftlichen Themen kommen, wenn diese mit ihren täglichen Erfahrungen verbunden werden

https://www.tagesschau.de/wissen/forschung/naturwissenschaften-kinder-100.html
Naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen: Frühes Lernen lohnt sich
Wie gut werden Kinder in der Schule in Naturwissenschaften sein? Die Grundlagen dafür werden bereits vor dem Schuleintritt gelegt - wenn Kinder früh mit naturwissenschaftlichen Themen in Berührung kommen. Von Philip Artelt.
www.tagesschau.de
January 27, 2026 at 12:14 PM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
"What animals can teach us about overcoming tyranny"

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260121-what-animals-can-teach-us-about-overcoming-tyranny
What animals can teach us about overcoming tyranny
Some animal societies are ruled by despots with an iron fist, while others seem naturally egalitarian – and they all have lessons for us.
www.bbc.com
January 23, 2026 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
leafwarbler.bsky.social
Diversity=good:
“Our results show that editorial diversification is a practical lever for making peer review more inclusive & better aligned w the global distribution of ecological research. These changes make publication process fairer & improve the quality+global impact of the papers published.”
Room for optimism: Editor–reviewer interaction networks reveal positive outcomes of enhanced board diversity
Our results show that editorial diversification is a practical lever for making peer review more inclusive and better aligned with the global distribution of ecological research. These changes make t...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 19, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
j2bryson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I am thinking about migrating or at least mirroring my blog. I'd like to move it into more of an ecosystem so am thinking about substack (especially since I will need to retire from academia one of these years) but I just got this recommendation that's more in line with my concerns about the USG […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
January 12, 2026 at 1:08 PM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Great new blogpost by https://bsky.app/profile/scientificdiscovery.dev explaining "Why data visualization matters, and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful"
https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-guide-to-data-visualization
December 11, 2025 at 12:03 AM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Do you like cities? The Global Building Atlas has the locations and 3D models of 2.8 billion buildings from around the world https://tubvsig-so2sat-vm1.srv.mwn.de

"1.22 of the 2.75 billion buildings are located in Asia" […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
Screenshot from the linked website, zoomed all the way out to show a map of the whole world with color codings indicating the density of buildings. South-east Asia, Europe, and North America have the highest density, with large parts of the world still relatively free of high clusters of buildings.
December 3, 2025 at 10:17 PM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
"The https://www.evolvedlab.net (S. Cully) seeks a postdoctoral researcher to join interdisciplinary projects addressing evolutionary medicine and human behavior."

https://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/details.cfm?JobCode=179308374
Home | Evolve D Lab
www.evolvedlab.net
December 3, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
realscientists.de
Das ist tatsächlich aus mehreren Gründen meine Lieblingsstudie von uns aus den letzten Jahren, falls man sowas haben darf.
Jemand hat da ein nettes Video draus gemacht: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6P...
Ants Hold Grudges? Exploring the Tiny World of Big Memories 🐜
YouTube video by BrainBeats
www.youtube.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
rebeccasear.bsky.social
Policy should focus not on fertility targets but on how “societies can remain prosperous, equitable & sustainable under conditions of low fertility, population aging & population decline. That is a question better aligned with what we actually know—and with the uncertainties we must acknowledge”
The demographic future that we do not know about
The demographic future of the planet has rarely been as questioned as it is today. For much of the 20th century, the demographic transition theory provided a clear narrative: With modernization and de...
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
marthadear.zirk.us.ap.brid.gy
die #antidiskriminierungsstelle des bundes führt gerade die bislang größte umfrage zu #diskriminierung in deutschland durch.

teilnehmen können alle ab 14 Jahren, die hier diskriminierung erlebt haben (geht anonym, barrierearm und in diversen sprachen).

hier geht's zum link, macht mit und teilt […]
Original post on zirk.us
zirk.us
November 19, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
hansonmark.bsky.social
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.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Social behaviour happens over time - so we can gain insights if we analyse it as it happened:
benkawam.bsky.social Ben Kawam @benkawam.bsky.social · Nov 12
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.
November 12, 2025 at 9:01 PM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
"Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships"

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0399#d1e770

interesting new study by https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethhobson.bsky.social et al.

J. Manson once reminded me that not […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
A cover for the journal Biology Letters of the Royal Society, displaying a photo of two monk parakeets (birds) preening each other
November 12, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
tomstafford.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy
Lottery before peer review is associated with increased female representation and reduced estimated economic cost in a German funding line https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65660-9

New from @rmrahal and colleagues

Funder was German Foundation for […]

[Original post on mastodon.online]
Research funding is a key determinant of scientific progress. However, current allocation procedures for third-party funding are criticized due to high costs and biases in the selection. Here, we present data from a large German funding organization on an implementation of a lottery-first approach followed by peer review to allocate funding. We examine the changes in submissions and funded projects of female applicants after implementation, estimate the costs of the overall allocation process, and report on the attitudes and satisfaction of researchers and reviewers. The data show an increase of 10% in submissions and a 23% increase in funded projects from female applicants with the lottery-first approach compared to a previously used procedure. Additionally, the lottery-first approach was estimated to have 68% lower economic costs compared to a conventional single-stage peer review approach. Satisfaction with this funding approach was high and around half of applicants preferred an initial lottery followed by peer review over a conventional approach. Thus, the lottery-first approach is a promising addition to allocation procedures.
November 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Speech by German President in remembrance of 9. Nov as ‚day of destiny‘ for democracy: „Simply waiting for the storm to pass and taking cover for the time being is not enough“

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-news-fall-of-berlin-wall-pogrom-night-commemorated/live-74671633
Germany news: Fall of Berlin Wall, pogrom night commemorated – DW – 11/09/2025
The German president called for the defense of democracy on the anniversary of several fateful events. This comes as the coalition government seems to be teetering six months after taking power. DW has the latest.
www.dw.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:58 PM
dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
"Reformation of science publishing: the Stockholm Declaration"

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.251805

None of the points are really new, but it's hopeful to see academics with potential power to enforce changes endorse new solutions like e.g. @PeerCommunityIn
November 5, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Dieter Lukas
rebeccasear.bsky.social
Evolutionary psychologists have long believed that men prefer physical traits in women which are cues to high potential fertility. A new review concludes: “current evidence base is too weak to support the claim that women’s feminine morphological traits are associated with reproductive potential”
A systematic review of the association between women’s morphological traits and fertility | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core
A systematic review of the association between women’s morphological traits and fertility
www.cambridge.org
November 5, 2025 at 9:02 AM