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Journal of Experimental Biology
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Journal of Experimental Biology is the leading journal in comparative physiology
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In the 1st article of the #SensoryPerceptionInAChangingWorld SI, Almut Kelber&co propose that scientists study all developmental stages of species & include entire ecosystems to understand how changes to sensory information caused by humans affect animals

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Sensory Perception in a Changing World graphic. The graphic has a black background. The text in the top right says: Special Issue. Next line: Sensory Perception in a Changing World Next line: Guest Editors: Almut Kelber, Kathleen M. Gilmour and Sanjay Sane Next line: the Journal of Experimental Biology logo Left of graphic: image showing a moth drinking nectar from cluster of white flowers against two circular green leaves
February 13, 2026 at 8:00 AM
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The Inside JEB article accompanying our new Special Issue, #SensoryPerceptionInAChangingWorld, provides a brief overview of the issue, highlighting the key points and take-home message from each article

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Screenshot of the first page of the Inside JEB article. Top line, left: INSIDE JEB Top line, right: SPECIAL ISSUE Second line, right: SENSORY PERCEPTION IN A CHANGING WORLD Third line, left: title: Sensing the world: perception at a time of unprecedented change Beneath the third line is a photograph of a butterfly on a hibiscus flower. Beneath the photo is the caption: A Japanese yellow swallowtail butterfly (Papilio xuthus) perched on a hibiscus flower. Photo credit: Michiyo Kinoshita The text of the article begins beneath: 'The world is changing, and fast. In 2020, the Earth passed a tipping point. '
February 12, 2026 at 4:37 PM
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Congratulations to Nicholas Antonson @nickantonson.bsky.social, winner of the 2025 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize, for his research into the neuromuscular coordination of movement and breathing in woodpecker drilling

Find out more about Nicholas & his research

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Photo of Nicholas Antonson, wearing a red, white and grey checked shirt
February 12, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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Congratulations to all of the remarkable ECRs whose research has been recognised in the 2025 JEB Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist

Find out about each of the shortlisted papers and their outstanding ECR authors

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
The PDF of the News article, Announcing the 2025 Journal of Experimental Biology Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner, by Kathryn Knight. The publishing information at the top states: © 2026. Published by The Company of Biologists | Journal of Experimental Biology (2026) 229, jeb252265. doi:10.1242/jeb.252265. The first sentence of the article says, 'If you're a fan of comparative physiology, clicking on a new issue of Journal of Experimental Biology can feel like being let loose in an opulent store of treats'. The first three shortlisted articles are presented in a box at the top of the second column of text.
February 12, 2026 at 11:51 AM
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Read the full research here
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Screenshot of the PDF of the first page of the Research Article, Dancing in the dark: the annelid Platynereis dumerilii is re-envisaged for its climactic final night, by John D. Kirwan, Emelie A. Brodrick, Jacob Bartholin, Morten Bartholin, Julius Friis Petersen, Cameron Hird, and Anders L. Garm. The publishing information states: © 2026. Published by The Company of Biologists | Journal of Experimental Biology (2026) 229, jeb251047. doi:10.1242/jeb.251047. The first sentence of the Abstract states: 'When sexually mature, the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii emerges at night from its tube and swims to the surface in search of a mate'.
February 12, 2026 at 8:29 AM
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The ragworm Platynereis dumerilii does its mating dance in near total darkness, yet the adults have huge eyes with long light-sensing cells. Kirwan &co show that these cells help them see a tiny bit better helping them find mates to dance with in the dark

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
A scanning electron microscopy image of the ragworm Platynereis dumerilii. Photo credit: John Kirwan and Ola Gustafsson.
February 12, 2026 at 8:29 AM
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On #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience, we celebrate all of the great women that contribute to JEB, from our fantastic female Editors to the female ECRs submitting their first ever paper to the journal!

#WomeninScience
Photos of the six female JEB Editors. Top row: Almut Kelber, Monica Daley and Emily Baird. Bottom row: Katie Gilmour, Trish Schulte and Sheila Patek
February 11, 2026 at 3:06 PM
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All of the Reviews and Commentaries in our new Special Issue, Sensory Perception in a Changing World, are available for FREE!

tinyurl.com/5t3mkrny
The front cover the Journal of Experimental Biology Special Issue, Sensory Perception in a Changing World, volume 229, Supplementary issue 1, published February 2026. The background of the cover is purple. In the centre there is an image of a butterfly, surrounded by a dove (top), turtle, seal, snake, dolphin, frog and fish, arranged in a circle. Those images are surrounded by a second circle of images representing sources of environmental change, including; a submarine (top), a wind turbine, a thermometer with the mercury to the top, a flask containing bubbling chemicals, a car (bottom), an electricity pylon, a light bulb and a factory with smoke coming out of its chimneys. The Company of Biologists logo is in the bottom left corner.
February 11, 2026 at 1:47 PM
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Read our new Special Issue, Sensory Perception in a Changing World, guest edited by Almut Kelber, Kathleen Gilmour and Sanjay Sane, featuring Reviews & Commentaries discussing the impact of environmental change on how animals perceive their surroundings

tinyurl.com/5t3mkrny
Sensory Perception in a Changing World graphic. The graphic has a black background. The text in the top right says: Special Issue. Next line: Sensory Perception in a Changing World Next line: Guest Editors: Almut Kelber, Kathleen M. Gilmour and Sanjay Sane Next line: the Journal of Experimental Biology logo Left side of graphic: image showing a moth drinking nectar from a cluster of white flowers against two large circular green leaves
February 11, 2026 at 10:41 AM
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John Steffensen, titan of the field and extraordinary fish biologist, passed away unexpectedly on 27 September 2025. In their affectionate Obituary, Peter Bushnell, Paolo Domenici, David McKenzie & Robert Shadwick remember John & his remarkable creativity

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
John Fleng Steffensen, smiling in Antarctica, 2007. John is on a boat in a sea inlet, wearing an orange waterproof coat with land behind. Photo credit: Peter Bushnell
February 10, 2026 at 3:59 PM
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Read this month's Editors' Choice, Socially responsive yolk steroids correlate with gene expression in early extra-embryonic membranes by Jasmeen Kaur kaurjasmeen.bsky.social, Ryan Paitz, Taylor Verrett and Alexandra Bentz bentzlab.bsky.social

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
A male house sparrow on a branch. Photo credit: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
February 10, 2026 at 3:27 PM
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Read the full research here
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Screenshot of the PDF of the first page of the Research Article, The photoacclimation state of stolen chloroplasts affects the light preferences in the photosynthetic sea slug Elysia crispata, by Xochitl G. Vital, Sónia Cruz, Nuno Simões, Paulo Cartaxana and Maite Mascaro. The publishing information states: © 2026. Published by The Company of Biologists | Journal of Experimental Biology (2026) 229, jeb251281. doi:10.1242/jeb.251281. The first sentence of the Abstract states: 'Photosynthetic sacoglossan sea slugs sequester the chloroplasts of the algae they feed upon and keep these organelles functional in the cells of their ramified digestive system'.
February 9, 2026 at 12:27 PM
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Some sea slugs steal chloroplasts from plants and use them to make even more food for themselves, but the chloroplasts need the right light levels. Vital &co show that finding the right light is a team effort between the sea slugs & their captured chloroplasts
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
A sea slug making the choice between low or high intensity light. Photo credit: Xochitl Vital.
February 9, 2026 at 12:27 PM
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🧵1/4 We are calling for submissions for our upcoming Special Issue: The Integrative Biology of Reproduction bit.ly/3ZT42hY
A card announcing the call for papers stating 'Special Issue: The Integrative Biology of Reproduction Guest Editors: Etya Amsalem, Tony D. Williams and Kathryn Wilsterman. Submission deadline: 30 June 2026' with the Journal of Experimental Biology logo and the logo for the Special Issue containing an egg cell surrounded by seven sperm cells with an eighth sperm cell on the top right penetrating the egg.
February 6, 2026 at 8:57 AM
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Located on the California Coast, Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station has been a home to inspirational research for more than 130 years. In his Perspective, Mark Denny talks about the field station’s august past and current ground-breaking research

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
The fish icon for the JEB field station Perspective series. The icon shows a cartoon of a salmon leaping out of wave. The icon is in shades of teal.
February 5, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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If you're a JEB author and fish biologist, then the 16th International Congress on the Biology of Fish #ICBF2026 in Vancouver, Canada, 12-16 July 2026, is the perfect meeting for you!

Abstract submission and registration are now open:
icbf2026.com
The 16th International Congress of the Biology of Fish logo. The circular logo includes a sketch of a salmon (top left), a sketch of a sturgeon (bottom right) with a sketch of Vancouver landmarks across the middle. The text, 'ICBF 2026' is positioned in the middle right of the circular logo.
February 4, 2026 at 2:56 PM
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We are delighted to introduce a new Perspective series highlighting the important role that field stations have played, and continue to play, in comparative physiology and biomechanics

To find out about Harvard's Concord Field Station & more go to

journals.biologists.com/jeb/collecti...
The Field Station Perspective series logo. The logo shows four images arranged in four quarters of a circle. The top right quarter shows a cartoon of a seal with icy mountains behind. The quadrant is coloured in shades of blue and white. The bottom right quadrant shows a beetle (black), the quadrant is yellow. The bottom left quadrant shows a salmon leaping above a wave; the quadrant is coloured shades of teal. The top left quadrant shows an emu running across savannah with the sun behind in the sky; the quadrant is in shades of red.
February 4, 2026 at 10:25 AM
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Issue 2 has closed and issue 3 is open

journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/22...

The cover image, by Yi Mei Low, shows a male Atlas moth basking beneath a palm leaf in Singapore's Alexandra Hospital gardens
Front cover of issue 2 of volume 229 of Journal of Experimental Biology, published in January 2026. The image, by Yi Mei Low, shows a male Atlas moth basking beneath a palm leaf in Singapore's Alexandra Hospital gardens. The moth has yellow, chestnut and brown markings on its wings, which are wide open, and it is perched on the underside of a fan of palm leaves.
February 3, 2026 at 2:22 PM
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In their Commentary, Andreassen & co argue that studying how an individual's metabolism scales as it grows and how this interacts with other traits could help clarify the century-long debate about what causes variation in metabolic scaling relationships

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Screenshot of the PDF of the first page of the Commentary, Ontogenetic growth and size-at-age shape metabolic scaling, by Anna H. Andreassen, Alexander Rosén and Tommy Norin. The publishing information states: © 2026. Published by The Company of Biologists | Journal of Experimental Biology (2026) 229, jeb250868. doi:10.1242/jeb.250868. The first sentence of the Abstract states: 'Metabolic scaling describes the relationship between metabolic rate and body mass and has traditionally been investigated across individuals or species'.
February 3, 2026 at 9:49 AM
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In her Commentary, Nina Kraus @ninakraus.bsky.social introduces the 'environmentally dependent developmental induction’ model, a potential means through which phenotypic evolution is influenced by environmental effects on development

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Screenshot of the PDF of the first page of the Commentary, Environmentally dependent developmental induction as a potential driver of heart evolution, by Nina Kraus. The publishing information states: © 2026. Published by The Company of Biologists | Journal of Experimental Biology (2026) 229, jeb250920. doi:10.1242/jeb.250920. The first sentence of the Abstract states: 'Developmental biology and evolutionary theory have traditionally emphasized gene mutations as the primary drivers of new traits, with natural selection shaping the resulting variation'.
February 2, 2026 at 4:58 PM
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Read the full research here
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Screenshot of first page of the PDF of the Research Article, Winter intensity shapes overwintering energy gain and use in bark beetles under range expansion, by Fouzia Haider, Amanda D. Roe, Mads Kuhlmann Andersen, Yuehong Liu, Antonia E. Musso, Serita Fudlosid, Maya L. Evenden and Heath A. MacMillan. The publishing information (top line) states: © 2026. Published by The Company of Biologists | Journal of Experimental Biology (2026) 229, jeb251414. doi:10.1242/jeb.251414. The first sentence of the Abstract reads: The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is an eruptive bark beetle that overwinters as a freeze-avoidant larvae under the bark of pine hosts.
January 30, 2026 at 10:56 AM
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Thanks to the warmer weather, mountain pine beetles are expanding northward, destroying trees in the process. Recently, Haider &co showed that if winter arrives early, the larvae don't have enough time to prepare for the cold weather, halting their expansion

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An adult mountain pine beetle on some bark. Photo credit: Fouzia Haider.
January 30, 2026 at 10:56 AM
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Calling all JEB ECRs! It's that time again! The deadline for the next JEB Travelling Fellowship applications is 6 February, so if you've got a burning desire to travel to another lab to answer an extraordinary question get your application ready now!

www.biologists.com/grants/trave...
Postcard advertising the JEB Travelling Fellowships. The Company of Biologists logo is in the top left corner. The top right corner shows a photo of an an ECR standing in water bending over black dustbins used to collect aquatic animals. In a teal-colour band across the centre of the postcard is the message, 'Are you an early-career researcher planning to do a collaborative visit to another lab?'. The answer to that question is in the bottom left corner, stating, 'You could be eligible for funding from us'. A statement in a teal-colour box in the bottom right corner states 'Find out more'.
January 29, 2026 at 4:38 PM
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In her ECR Spotlight, Reshma Menon discusses her interest in understanding how organisms deal with stress, her passion for science communication & why Dr Eric Wieschaus has inspired her the most

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A photo of Reshma Menon
January 28, 2026 at 1:24 PM
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Moon jellyfish recover well from high pressure, their nerves and connective tissue are fine after experiencing 300atm pressure, although their muscles may be damaged. Mitchell Ford &co suggest the jellies could propel hybrid robots for deep sea exploration
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Eight moon jellyfish swimming in the observation tank of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, USA, pressure chamber, during the pressure test. Photo credit: Sean Colin.
January 27, 2026 at 4:11 PM