Gary Burness
@garyburness.bsky.social
Ecological and Evolutionary Physiologist. Our lab studies animal energetics, mostly birds, sometimes mammals or fish; most recently butterflies too. Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada).
Webpage: BurnessLab.ca
Webpage: BurnessLab.ca
Reposted by Gary Burness
Not all sexual swellings signal fertility. Some signal strategy. In our new Current Biology paper, we show how gelada females “fake it” during male takeovers—and why it works.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...
November 19, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Not all sexual swellings signal fertility. Some signal strategy. In our new Current Biology paper, we show how gelada females “fake it” during male takeovers—and why it works.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...
authors.elsevier.com/a/1m7%7E93QW...
Reposted by Gary Burness
ChatGPT fake citations in a 1.6M$ report! Absurdly unprofessional by Deloitte, NL gov't should sue for a full refund. I expect in a few years this too may be seen as 'normal'. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
N.L. asks Deloitte to carry out review after 'incorrect' citations found in $1.6M provincial health plan | CBC News
The Newfoundland and Labrador government says it's been in contact with the private company responsible for a new report meant to guide the province into the future, which was found to contain fake ci...
www.cbc.ca
November 24, 2025 at 8:53 PM
ChatGPT fake citations in a 1.6M$ report! Absurdly unprofessional by Deloitte, NL gov't should sue for a full refund. I expect in a few years this too may be seen as 'normal'. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Reposted by Gary Burness
The claim "the earth is not sitting on the back of a giant turtle" is not evidence-based because studies have not ruled out the possibility....
U.S. CDC C.D.C. Changes Website to Reflect Kennedy’s Vaccine Skepticism. A previous version denied a link between vaccines and autism. It now echoes the doubts about that conclusion voiced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/h... via @nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:16 PM
The claim "the earth is not sitting on the back of a giant turtle" is not evidence-based because studies have not ruled out the possibility....
Reposted by Gary Burness
Everyone should check out the recently updated CDC webpage on Vaccines and Autism. It's now loaded with blatant anti-vax misinformation. Infuriating, but also totally unsurprising considering who it in charge.
www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
Autism and Vaccines
Answers to common questions about vaccine safety and autism.
www.cdc.gov
November 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Everyone should check out the recently updated CDC webpage on Vaccines and Autism. It's now loaded with blatant anti-vax misinformation. Infuriating, but also totally unsurprising considering who it in charge.
www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
Reposted by Gary Burness
Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!
November 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!
Reposted by Gary Burness
Please enjoy my cartoon in today's Toronto Star
November 13, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Please enjoy my cartoon in today's Toronto Star
Reposted by Gary Burness
When downy woodpeckers pound wood with their beaks they hold themselves rigid like hammers & grunt like tennis stars to stabilise their core muscles at the moment of impact
@nickantonson.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
@nickantonson.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
November 11, 2025 at 9:18 AM
When downy woodpeckers pound wood with their beaks they hold themselves rigid like hammers & grunt like tennis stars to stabilise their core muscles at the moment of impact
@nickantonson.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
@nickantonson.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Reposted by Gary Burness
1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 10:57 AM
1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
Reposted by Gary Burness
We're hiring! Post-doctoral fellow in evolutionary ecology w/focus on ecophysiology.
Uncover why global warming and heatwaves reduce reproductive success and cause excess mortality in wild birds. Work with @cyanistesnord.bsky.social 👏
Please apply no later than 25 November.
👉 lnkd.in/dkAh9jnc
Uncover why global warming and heatwaves reduce reproductive success and cause excess mortality in wild birds. Work with @cyanistesnord.bsky.social 👏
Please apply no later than 25 November.
👉 lnkd.in/dkAh9jnc
November 5, 2025 at 7:30 AM
We're hiring! Post-doctoral fellow in evolutionary ecology w/focus on ecophysiology.
Uncover why global warming and heatwaves reduce reproductive success and cause excess mortality in wild birds. Work with @cyanistesnord.bsky.social 👏
Please apply no later than 25 November.
👉 lnkd.in/dkAh9jnc
Uncover why global warming and heatwaves reduce reproductive success and cause excess mortality in wild birds. Work with @cyanistesnord.bsky.social 👏
Please apply no later than 25 November.
👉 lnkd.in/dkAh9jnc
Reposted by Gary Burness
Reposted by Gary Burness
The Fudge Lab at Chapman University is recruiting a postdoc for an NSF-funded project on the biophysics of hagfish defensive slime deployment. Please repost!
Apply here: tinyurl.com/4p937dn5
Apply here: tinyurl.com/4p937dn5
November 7, 2025 at 6:36 PM
The Fudge Lab at Chapman University is recruiting a postdoc for an NSF-funded project on the biophysics of hagfish defensive slime deployment. Please repost!
Apply here: tinyurl.com/4p937dn5
Apply here: tinyurl.com/4p937dn5
We are looking for new graduate students! Feel free to repost or pass along to prospective students
November 6, 2025 at 9:01 PM
We are looking for new graduate students! Feel free to repost or pass along to prospective students
Reposted by Gary Burness
We should be paying more attention to this situation. An online letter has been put together and is being circulated to stop this data from being disclosed. Please sign the online letter here, if you are comfortable: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
November 4, 2025 at 1:22 PM
We should be paying more attention to this situation. An online letter has been put together and is being circulated to stop this data from being disclosed. Please sign the online letter here, if you are comfortable: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Gary Burness
The epigenetic clock measures biological age and could help scientists assess the health of polar bears, dolphins, baboons and other threatened creatures “while recovery is still possible”
#conservation #endangeredspecies
#conservation #endangeredspecies
This 'Clock' Could Warn of Hidden Stresses to Animals, Offering a Long-Sought Signal That a Population Is Nearing Collapse
The epigenetic clock measures biological age and could help scientists assess the health of polar bears, dolphins, baboons and other threatened creatures "while recovery is still possible"
www.smithsonianmag.com
October 29, 2025 at 5:56 PM
The epigenetic clock measures biological age and could help scientists assess the health of polar bears, dolphins, baboons and other threatened creatures “while recovery is still possible”
#conservation #endangeredspecies
#conservation #endangeredspecies
Reposted by Gary Burness
if you see this post, your actions are:
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
I’ve never donated to Wikipedia before but I set up a small monthly donation as a fuck you to the world’s richest psychopath.
Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia
Musk has denounced Wikipedia as "Wokepedia" on X and urged people not to donate to the platform.
www.newsweek.com
December 26, 2024 at 12:03 PM
if you see this post, your actions are:
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
Another useful reminder to not divide metabolic rate by body mass!
This classic work by Regnault & Reiset was published in 1849. It conclusively showed that correcting metabolic rate for body mass by dividing by body mass is a worthless & misleading technique. They knew better, unlike the legacy metabolic phenotyping companies today!
October 24, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Another useful reminder to not divide metabolic rate by body mass!
Reposted by Gary Burness
I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.
October 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.
Reposted by Gary Burness
Sharing this one last time: we're looking for a tenure track ecologist at UW-Green Bay. Applications close on Oct 19 🧪🌍🪶
Come work with us at UW-Green Bay! We're hiring an ecologist with a strong statistical background. 🧪🌍🪶
Assistant Professor - Biology
Current Employees and Students: If you are currently employed or enrolled as a student at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process. Pos...
wisconsin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
October 16, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Sharing this one last time: we're looking for a tenure track ecologist at UW-Green Bay. Applications close on Oct 19 🧪🌍🪶
Reposted by Gary Burness
Don't you wish your department/university did more to help grad students learn to write? Teaching writing is hard, but students are eager to learn.
I can help! I can teach a one-week intensive course for you. Details here: scientistseessquirre.... Get in touch!
I can help! I can teach a one-week intensive course for you. Details here: scientistseessquirre.... Get in touch!
Writing Course
I can help your students write! I can offer a one-week, in-person writing course for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at your institution. Class sizes of 8-25 work well; we can discuss la…
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Don't you wish your department/university did more to help grad students learn to write? Teaching writing is hard, but students are eager to learn.
I can help! I can teach a one-week intensive course for you. Details here: scientistseessquirre.... Get in touch!
I can help! I can teach a one-week intensive course for you. Details here: scientistseessquirre.... Get in touch!
Reposted by Gary Burness
In mice, prior COVID infection in males can affect anxiety in offspring by passing on altered RNA in sperm which reprograms gene expression in the hippocampus of the offspring’s brains. buff.ly/hUz5dIh
#medsky #reprosky 🛟😷🧪
#medsky #reprosky 🛟😷🧪
October 15, 2025 at 2:21 AM
In mice, prior COVID infection in males can affect anxiety in offspring by passing on altered RNA in sperm which reprograms gene expression in the hippocampus of the offspring’s brains. buff.ly/hUz5dIh
#medsky #reprosky 🛟😷🧪
#medsky #reprosky 🛟😷🧪
Reposted by Gary Burness
museum job alert 🇨🇦
royalontariomuseum.applytojob.com/apply/XBR2Yc...
royalontariomuseum.applytojob.com/apply/XBR2Yc...
Curator of Birds - Royal Ontario Museum - Career Page
Apply to Curator of Birds at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON, Canada.
royalontariomuseum.applytojob.com
October 15, 2025 at 10:09 AM
museum job alert 🇨🇦
royalontariomuseum.applytojob.com/apply/XBR2Yc...
royalontariomuseum.applytojob.com/apply/XBR2Yc...
Reposted by Gary Burness
🧪🪶🌍🕊 25 Critically Endangered Birds
All of these species are on the brink of extinction.
A poster to raise awareness and inspire action. Every effort counts. ✨
All of these species are on the brink of extinction.
A poster to raise awareness and inspire action. Every effort counts. ✨
October 9, 2025 at 3:05 PM
🧪🪶🌍🕊 25 Critically Endangered Birds
All of these species are on the brink of extinction.
A poster to raise awareness and inspire action. Every effort counts. ✨
All of these species are on the brink of extinction.
A poster to raise awareness and inspire action. Every effort counts. ✨
Reposted by Gary Burness
Our new paper is out! @camillasoravia.bsky.social leads this research, which looks into the relationship between heat- mediated cognitive impairment and the antipredator response in wild pied babblers. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Investigating the relationship between heat-mediated cognitive impairment and antipredator response in a wild bird | Royal Society Open Science
Increasingly frequent heatwaves require animals to spend more time thermoregulating
at the expense of other fitness-related behaviours. Emerging evidence also indicates
that high temperatures can impa...
royalsocietypublishing.org
October 8, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Our new paper is out! @camillasoravia.bsky.social leads this research, which looks into the relationship between heat- mediated cognitive impairment and the antipredator response in wild pied babblers. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...