Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Make Space for Girls @makespaceforgirls.bsky.social · 1d

Girls' use of parks drops after the age of 11. At a time when they should be gaining independence, many girls start to avoid parks.

Why? They feel that parks aren’t for them - there is nothing to do. Also, many state they don’t feel safe.

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Krish Sanghvi @krishsanghvi11.bsky.social · 1d

How should ejaculate ejection behaviour by females be measured? And does it correlate with female pre-mating preference?
Find out in our new paper!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Ejaculate Ejection by Female Fruit Flies Does Not Correlate With Mating Latency or Male Presence, Irrespective of How Ejection Is Measured

How to measure female ejaculate ejection, is it related to pre-mating sexual selection, or influenced by post-mating sexual environment? We explore these questions in fruit flies.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Alice Godden @alicegodden.bsky.social · 6d

🧬 Our latest paper out in Scientific Reports!
We explored how Gum Arabic (a dietary fibre) affects the microbiota–gut–brain axis and whole-organism fitness in zebrafish.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@immler.bsky.social @biouea.bsky.social

What we found ⬇️

Gum Arabic modulates the microbiota-gut-brain axis and affects general fitness in zebrafish - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Gum Arabic modulates the microbiota-gut-brain axis and affects general fitness in zebrafish

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Nicholas Wu @nicholaswu.bsky.social · 7d

🚨 Postdoc in evolutionary genomics of heat stress adaptation position at @ucddublin.bsky.social.
📍 Dublin, Ireland
Closes: 15th Oct 2025
🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOV094/u...

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

ISBE2026 @isbe2026.bsky.social · 7d

#ISBE2026 Call for Abstracts is now open! Submit your abstract by 15 December 2025 on www.isbe2026.com

@behavecol.bsky.social

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

David Berger @dbergerbiol.bsky.social · 8d

How do insects respond to changing climates? Our new review and analysis in @annualreviews.bsky.social suggests that phenological adaptation trumps thermal adaptation.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Life-History Evolution of Insects in Response to Climate Variation: Seasonal Timing Versus Thermal Physiology | Annual Reviews

Climate adaptation in insects can proceed via responses in life-history traits and their thermal plasticity and through phenological shifts mediated by responses to photoperiodic cues (photoperiodism)...

www.annualreviews.org

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Susanne Vogel @susannevogel.bsky.social · 16d

🧵 New study alert!
How does 🌡️ room temperature relate to how our body reacts to 😰 psychosocial stress?
We looked at everyday indoor temperature variation (17–28 °C) and measured stress markers in the body.

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Stuart Wigby @stuartwigby.bsky.social · 16d

New out in Molecular Ecology! In which we show that small males try harder when it comes to seminal fluid proteins. w/ @ju-morimoto.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @becks-seascience.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

University of Leeds Press Office @unileedsnews.bsky.social · 21d

The training is based on the 5Ds of bystander intervention, designed to promote safety and not escalate the situation:

🗣️ Distract
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Delegate
📱 Document
💙 Delay
✋ Direct

More here 👇
bit.ly/4ntiTtg
#saferparks #StandUpAgainstStreetHarassment

Leeds research is catalyst for major Safer Parks campaign

This September, researchers at Leeds are partnering with Keep Britain Tidy, and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to launch Safer Parks: Stand Up Against Street Harassment.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Simona Kralj Fišer @simonakraljfiser.bsky.social · 22d

Spiders have personalities—and in Pisaura mirabilis, opposites might attract: adventurous males and cautious females mate longer, revealing hidden personality-driven patterns in romance. Lead by @cristinatuni.bsky.social Read more here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Nicholas Wu @nicholaswu.bsky.social · 23d

New paper in @funecology.bsky.social led by @felixpleiva.bsky.social. We present ShareTrait, a community-driven platform for standardising & sharing individual-level trait data in ectotherms to improve data reuse across studies.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

#OpenScience #FAIRdata

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · Sep 3

With alt:

Smajo Beso • Follow
3d • ©
I started school in Newcastle in Year 5 without knowing a word of English. I was nine years old and had arrived as a refugee from Bosnia just a couple of months earlier.
I was one of those strangers our politicians often speak about.
I missed my grandparents and friends. I was having awful nightmares, and I would wake up screaming every single night. I hated going to school. I would sit in my chair, look out of the window, and spend my day daydreaming about ways to run back to Bosnia. I didn't want to be here.
After a couple of weeks at school, my teacher, Miss Webster, and my classmates did something special to help me settle, something that made me feel less of a stranger. That was the first day I went home with a smile on my face.
I have shared this story before, but as tomorrow is start of the new school year, I thought I would share it again.
**

Miss Webster was amazing, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. She had this ritual where, at the end of each day, we would all sit on the floor around her, she would play the guitar, and we would all sing a song together.
I couldn't understand what they were singing, but I could see she would sing one part of the song, then she would say someone's name or point to them. The next part of the song would be sung with that person's name in it, and they would get to go home first.
My classmates loved this, but I hated it. It annoyed me because I couldn't understand what they were singing, but if I am honest, l hated it mainly because of how happy they all were. I definitely wasn't happy. I cried myself to sleep nearly every night.
I eventually started having separate English lessons, which I enjoyed more because it took me out of the classroom. It was always daunting coming to school because I felt everyone was looking at me or speaking about me. For months, my dad would stand with me outside the school gates in the morning until it was time to go in.

One day I came back into the classroom from my English lesson. We sat down, and everyone was extra-excited, looking at me more than usual for some reason. Of course, I thought it was because I was a refugee, because I couldn't speak English, or because they couldn't pronounce my name. I was bracing myself for another afternoon of my classmates encouraging me to sing. This was probably the closest I came to running out.
So we were all sitting on the floor around Miss Webster. She was holding her guitar, ready to sing. I remember the sun shining through the tall, narrow windows as I slowly drifted into a daydream of being back in Bosnia. She began playing the guitar, my classmates joined in, but this time, everything was different. I froze. I understood what they were signing. Not because I had miraculously learned English in one afternoon, but because they were singing in Bosnian for me. I looked around in shock, and they were all smiling at me, and for a moment I thought I was daydreaming.

While I was having separate English lessons, Miss Webster had taught our entire class to sing this song for me in Bosnian. They sang it terribly, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I skipped home that day with a huge smile on my face. For the first time, I looked forward to going back to school the next day.
I have often imagined Miss Webster and my classmates rehearsing, struggling with the strange Bosnian words and laughing at themselves. For me, that effort was the ultimate recognition, an act of peace that felt like the opposite of everything I had known during the war. It was special.
I do not know if they realised it then, but that moment helped to give me back my dignity, my belonging, and, for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel like I was just a refugee or an outsider. I was home.

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Pau Carazo @paucarazo.bsky.social · Sep 1

We’re offering a fully funded 4 yr PhD position to work on Sexual selection in complex environments at the @uv.es. Co-supervised by @dbergerbiol.bsky.social. Find details below 👇

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · Aug 29

The Royal Society's Francis Crick Medal and Lecture 2026 is awarded to Professor Kayla King for contributions to the fields of evolutionary biology and genetics of infectious disease. #RSMedals https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/francis-crick-lecture/

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Science News @scinews.bsky.social · Aug 28

Repeated heatwaves can age you as much as smoking or drinking

"Long-term study suggests that the more heatwaves people are exposed to, the more it accelerates body ageing."

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Vanessa Penna Goncalves (she/her) @vanspidergirl.bsky.social · Aug 28

✨ It’s published! ✨

🕷️ Social spiders have bigger brains… but only in the right places! Our new study shows that in social huntsman spiders, regions for memory & vision processing are proportionally larger, supporting group living.

Read more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Volumetric Comparison of Overall Brain and Neuropil Size Between Social and Non‐social Spiders: Exploring the Social Brain Hypothesis

Brain size may be influenced by the cognitive demands of sociality (social brain hypothesis). We used microCT to compare CNS and brain volumes in social versus solitary huntsman and crab spiders. Soc...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

ISBE2026 @isbe2026.bsky.social · Aug 9

Visit our website and learn more about the @behavecol.bsky.social conference venue, host city and schedule!

www.isbe2026.com

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Andreas Prokop @poppi62.bsky.social · Aug 25

Dear [email protected], dear [email protected],
to learn more about the importance of #Drosophila and crucial role of @flybase.bsky.social, and how it gave rise to at least 9 Nobel laureates in Physiology and Medicine, please see this link:
droso4schools.wordpress.com/why-fly/

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Amanda Bretman @amandabretman.bsky.social · Aug 22

Well done @tonigabaldon.bsky.social and all the @eseb2025.bsky.social team for not just surviving but producing a #eseb2025 conference of such high fitness 😁

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Craig Primmer @fishcongen.bsky.social · Aug 22

Aurelien Tellier presenting the details of #eseb2027 which will be a hub meeting, with connected and local sessions in 4 hubs (Gothenburg, Munich, London, Istanbul) eseb2027.org #eseb2025

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Amanda Bretman @amandabretman.bsky.social · Aug 22

And May Shehady tells us her story of being g a biologist, artist and Palestinian. What inspirational people Sophia and May are, and so deserving of this recognition.

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Faculty of Biological Sciences @bioscienceleeds.bsky.social · Aug 21

Whoever heard of birds splitting up?

A new study from @biology.ox.ac.uk and Leeds researcher Dr Josh Firth reveals wild great tits show signs of 'divorce' months before breeding season.

🔎 Vital clues to social relationships in not just birds, but other species too.

bit.ly/4fLH3Nb @ox.ac.uk

Researchers uncover social clues to bird 'divorce'

Wild great tits exhibit clear behaviours signalling ‘divorce’ long before the breeding season, according to a study by researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Leeds.

bit.ly

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Amanda Bretman @amandabretman.bsky.social · Aug 22

Incredible presentation from Sophia EO prize winner #eseb2025. Let’s hear her call for our evolutionary biology community to support trans colleagues facing such challenges.

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Reposted by Amanda Bretman

Ed Ivimey-Cook @eivimeycook.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thanks to all those that attended the @sortee.bsky.social led symposium at #ESEB2025 and for those that met up on Wednesday!!

If you’re interested in joining SORTEE and supporting open science in EcoEvo, consider becoming a member!

sortee.org/join/

Join

Join Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE)

sortee.org

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Amanda Bretman @amandabretman.bsky.social · Aug 22

My hotel setting up the last day of #eseb2025 to start with a bang (I resisted)…

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