Lara S. Burchardt
LightNews LightNews
banner
lsburchardt.bsky.social
Lara S. Burchardt
@lsburchardt.bsky.social
500 followers 190 following 53 posts
Behavioural Biologist at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin| Rhythm and Beat Precision in Acoustic Communication and Other Systems | PhD from MfN Berlin and Free University Berlin | coding in R | she/her
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
lsburchardt.bsky.social
Lara S. Burchardt @lsburchardt.bsky.social · Oct 13
🔊3 years in the making OUT NOW & #OA: "Zebra finch tutees not only share the melody but also the rhythm of their tutor’s song" in #ScientificReports together with Judith Varkevisser and Michelle Spierings, APCs covered by #projectDEAL.
#bioacoustics #rhythm #zebrafinch #AnimalBehavior
🧵1/6
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
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
lsburchardt.bsky.social
Amazing opportunity to work with @stephanielking.bsky.social AND Dolphins 🐬
November 10, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
avsp.bsky.social
A richly annotated dataset of co-speech hand gestures across diverse speaker contexts www.nature.com/articles/s41... Dataset comprising 2373 annotated gestures, 9 speakers across 3 distinct categories: University lecturers, Politicians, and Psychotherapists can be accessed at doi.org/10.17605/OSF...
A richly annotated dataset of co-speech hand gestures across diverse speaker contexts - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - A richly annotated dataset of co-speech hand gestures across diverse speaker contexts
www.nature.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
jtroscianko.bsky.social
BehaveAI is live!

Our biologically inspired video analysis tool sees motion as colour. Track animals or objects, classify their behaviour, and handle complex natural scenes with ease.

Semi-supervised annotation, no GPUs required, user-friendly, free & open source.

Pre-print tinyurl.com/BehaveAI
November 6, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
animalbehaviour.live
Only 5 days left to register! ⏰

Don’t miss the chance to connect with animal behaviour researchers from around the world and discover the latest in behavioural science.

📅 13–14 November; free, online & open to all worldwide 🌍
🔗https://ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org/
November 7, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
kelseytea.bsky.social
🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity!

We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
October 22, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
animalbehaviour.live
1️⃣ month to go! ⏰

#ABL2025, our annual international online conference is on the 13–14 Nov 🎉

6 plenaries • 24 talks • 40+ posters • 3 workshops • lively Discord chats.. and more !

🌐 Free registration — register now!
👉 ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org
October 14, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
bioacousticsau.bsky.social
Paper & incredible science alert: Our assistant professor @laurastidsholt.bsky.social & a passionate team @elena-tena.bsky.social @ebdonana.bsky.social found proof for greater nocturnal #bats 🦇 preying on migratory birds 🐦 AND devouring them in flight! #bioacoustics
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
October 16, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
marcomaiolini.bsky.social
This year marks the 100th birthday of #bioacoustics, established by Ivan Regen in 1925, which studies how animals hear, produce and propagate sound.

Let’s discover this discipline with @nicolasmathevon.bsky.social, Professor of Saint Etienne University, in the first episode of Acoustic World.
October 20, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
kokkonut.bsky.social
🚨🚨Job! 🚨🚨Permanent (75% time) job! We are a pretty awesome research group & seek a manager who deals with everything: personnel tasks, organizing retreats, preparing code for teaching / data structures for research... Fluency in German & English essential. stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de#/jgu/job/51527
stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de
October 17, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
berlinbatlab.bsky.social
Brown rats are preying on bats at urban hibernation sites – even snatching them mid-air. Conservation efforts must include non-native rodent control at key bat roosts.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 14, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
enourani.bsky.social
🦅PhD position 🦅 in my new group at @fbm-unil.bsky.social in Switzerland, studying how the social and resource landscapes shape the learning process for soaring flight. Deadline: Oct 30. Pls repost! career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...
Golden eagle on the nest in Finland (by O. Karlin)
October 6, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
aosiecka.bsky.social
Brilliant work on the ontogeny of rhythm in zebra finches. "Shared rhythm goes beyond copying the temporal features of individual elements; tutees ...adjust the rhythm of non-shared intervals". 🔊 @lsburchardt.bsky.social & al: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Client Challenge
www.nature.com
October 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
lsburchardt.bsky.social
🔊3 years in the making OUT NOW & #OA: "Zebra finch tutees not only share the melody but also the rhythm of their tutor’s song" in #ScientificReports together with Judith Varkevisser and Michelle Spierings, APCs covered by #projectDEAL.
#bioacoustics #rhythm #zebrafinch #AnimalBehavior
🧵1/6
October 13, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
sarabssethi.bsky.social
Bugg is now available through GroupGets! groupgets.com/products/bug...

Real-time acoustic monitoring devices, tested from the Arctic to the tropics over long (1y+) deployments - with no maintenance!

Say goodbye to fiddly SD card retrievals and hello to instant ecological insights
Bugg v4 - Pre-Order
Bugg is the world’s first real-time bioacoustic monitoring device. Once set up, sit back and watch as live audio data streams in over months and years with almost no maintenance required.
groupgets.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
aosiecka.bsky.social
🔊 This the season! Looking or two MSc students to tackle
1. vocal efficiency across pipit species
and, surpsingly,
2. vocal tract anatomy of the great cormorant (bonus: I also have the heads to model hearing!)

Drop me a line! I love people! :)

docs.google.com/document/d/1...
MSc project
MSc thesis projects in animal communication Laws of brevity across pipit (Anthus) species Across many human languages, there are several general principles in temporal patterning: most frequent word...
docs.google.com
September 15, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
wimpouw.bsky.social
At this workshop today about where hand gestures get their rhythm from - participants can join online.

sfb1252.uni-koeln.de/veranstaltun...
Poster for this event: https://sfb1252.uni-koeln.de/veranstaltungen/internationale-tagungen-workshops/beatology
October 7, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
zacklabe.com
I’m often asked for temperature anomaly plots using a “pre-industrial” baseline (1850–1900). I update a full set of these graphics each month, now through August 2025: zacklabe.com/climate-chan.... Always free to use and share!
Climate change indicators
All data are referenced at My visualizations: Arctic Climate Seasonality and Variability Arctic Sea Ice Extent and Concentration Arctic Sea Ice Volume and Thickness Arctic Temperatures Antarctic Se…
zacklabe.com
September 18, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
jessicacalarco.com
Ironically, it appears that AI chatbots hallucinate for the same reason that students feel compelled to use them:

They were socialized in a high-stakes testing culture that rewards guessing and maybe getting it right over admitting when there's something you just don't know.
Why Language Models Hallucinate, by Kalai et al. Like students facing hard exam questions, large language models sometimes guess when uncertain, producing plausible yet incorrect statements instead of admitting uncertainty. Such “hallucinations” persist even in state-of-the-art systems and undermine trust. We argue that language models hallucinate because the training and evaluation procedures reward guessing over acknowledging uncertainty, and we analyze the statistical causes of hallucinations in the modern training pipeline. Hallucinations need not be mysterious—they originate simply as errors in binary classification. If incorrect statements cannot be distinguished from facts, then hallucinations in pretrained language models will arise through natural statistical pressures. We then argue that hallucinations persist due to the way most evaluations are graded—language models are optimized to be good test-takers, and guessing when uncertain improves test performance. This “epidemic” of penalizing uncertain responses can only be addressed through a socio-technical mitigation: modifying the scoring of existing benchmarks that are misaligned but dominate leaderboards, rather than introducing additional hallucination evaluations. This change may steer the field toward more trustworthy AI systems.
September 8, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
mpi-nl.bsky.social
A harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) shows extensive respiratory control in sound production. New paper by @diandraduengen.bsky.social , Yannick Jadoul & @andrearavignani.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1186/s12862-025-02404-9
A harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) shows extensive respiratory control in sound production - BMC Ecology and Evolution
The duration of animal vocalizations varies between and within species. Which mammals can learn to control this duration? Such respiratory production learning is a scarcely studied subcomponent of voc...
doi.org
September 8, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
aosiecka.bsky.social
Yay bioacousticians all around! <3 Come see me at the #IBAC session tomorrow - or anytime for coffee/bikes!
September 8, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
animalbehaviour.live
⏳ Time is ticking… Only 5 days left!

Don’t miss your chance to share your work at #ABL2025, our free online conference on animal behavior research.

🎤 15-min oral talks
🎥 5-min video posters
📅 Deadline: September 7
📄 Submit your abstract now 👉 ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org
September 2, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
sortee.bsky.social
📷 The 2025 SORTEE conference program is now online!

Visit sortee.org/upcoming/ to register and explore the exciting lineup of various sessions.

#SORTEE2025

If you know a great open science project, now is the time to nominate it for a SORTEE Award www.sortee.org/awards/
August 1, 2025 at 8:01 AM
lsburchardt.bsky.social
Thanks @animal-prattle.bsky.social for reminding me to post about this project🐋🎵
Mia Davitt (+ col), musician from 🇺🇸, attempted to transcribe whale sounds in Western musical style. Turns out to work quite well, so we #preprint ed these interesting results: osf.io/preprints/os...
#OSF #bioacoustics
August 15, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Lara S. Burchardt
abalkina.bsky.social
Great initiative by Wiley! The publisher has started marking retracted papers in reference lists. When you click on the retraction notice, you can also see the date and reason for the retraction.
All publishers should adopt this practice. But also screen references during submission.
August 3, 2025 at 10:43 AM