Vivek Nityananda
@viveknityananda.bsky.social
5.2K followers 1.6K following 320 posts
I research behaviour. Writing. Illustration. Improv. Scicomm. Views my own. (He/Him) 🏳️‍🌈 website: www.viveknityananda.com
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viveknityananda.bsky.social
In March we put on an insect cabaret show I developed with Cap-A-Pie Theatre about insects and the threats they face. We've now uploaded the songs and everyone can now see how brilliant the actors and song-writer were. Thread of songs below 👇🧪 #Insects #cabaret #theatre #scicomm #songs
A poster for a play: "The Vanishing Act: A new cabaret about Earth's disappearing insects". On the right is a black and white ant in a top hat with one leg extended. Radiating from the finger are children's drawings of insect- bees, butterflies, beetles and so on.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
ceph-whisperer.bsky.social
I want to share a new project: We are working to support the neurodivergent community with the goal to educate young children about different brains and skills that people have to offer. Along with some fun about insects, vision, flight and ecology.

See here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/fli...
Flight Camp - The Animated Series
This is the pilot for a comedic and educational animated series, where an amazing group of insects attends summer camp.
www.kickstarter.com
viveknityananda.bsky.social
Amazing! Congratulations 🥳
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
ishmailsaboor.bsky.social
I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!
zuckermanbrain.bsky.social
Congratulations to @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social on receiving the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, celebrating “scientists with outstanding records of creativity.” His lab will explore how the sense of touch can help build relationships. 🫶🧠💡

See zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/zuckerman-in...
Ishmail Abdus-Saboor
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
filiphusnik.bsky.social
OIST is seeking up to four tenure-track or tenured faculty in Ecology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, and Oceanography. Application deadline: Oct 15. Please share. Thx!
www.oist.jp/careers/facu...
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
dreamwisp.bsky.social
Because it feels relevant as we continue to evaluate the media and our representatives’ statements, my favorite way to identify the active vs. passive voice.
A post by Rebecca Johnson:
“I finally learned how to teach my guys to ID the passive voice. If you can insert "by zombies" after the verb, you have passive voice.”

A tumblr respond from mightymur:
“The final, brilliant word on passive voice.
"She was killed [by zombies.]"<--passive
"Zombies killed [by zombies] her." <-- active”
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
valondar.bsky.social
Dmitri Shostakovich saw Jesus Christ Superstar! He also liked it so much he considered writing a rock music themed suite (like his earlier Jazz suites) but died soon after.
raxkingisdead.bsky.social
you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
nameshiv.bsky.social
me: fandom is so weird you get super invested in the doings of these other people who don't even care about your opinion most of the time and your entire day is based on whether they did good or feel bad and then you have to feel the same way

mom: This is just parenthood
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
divyampersaud.com
Survival funds are STILL survival funds—but that isn’t hopeless. It’s hopeful that we can have a material impact and help anyone survive.

One link, SIX families & a camp, food, tents, blankets; most were just displaced. WE can help.

8 hours to go. 40/500
Keep Hope Alive: a Gaza Giving Circle
We are a team of volunteers in the US and UK, led by two sisters passionate about helping our friends on the ground keep their families and neighbors alive with food, water, & shelter. We saw that…
chuffed.org
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
damianbarr.bsky.social
This story reveals so much. Why is still disturbing and distressing to some folk to consider the possibility that a historical figure might just be, well, not completely straight? Nelson was still Nelson. Queer people have always existed. We always will.
hleehurley.com
"Nelson branded ‘queer’ by museum" [Telegraph]

Kate Barker, LGB Alliance, "We already have enough LGB heroes from history, without pretending that straight people were gay."
Nelson branded ‘queer’ by museum
Liverpool exhibition gives paintings of British naval hero a place in its same-sex relationships collection
The Daily Telegraph front page 7 Oct 2025 By Craig Simpson Arts editor

The Death of Nelson, 1859-64 (oil on canvas) by Daniel Maclise. The museum’s collection examines bonds that ‘go beyond platonic friendship in some way’
Lord Nelson has been branded queer by a leading museum. The naval hero was killed during his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Curators at the Walker Art Gallery have described him as queer despite his marriage and numerous affairs with women. The Liverpool gallery holds two paintings depicting Lord Nelson’s final moments aboard HMS Victory, during which the wounded admiral uttered the words to his friend and fellow officer Captain Thomas Hardy, “kiss me Hardy”. LORD NELSON has been branded queer by a leading museum, The Telegraph can reveal.

The naval commander became a national hero and ensured the dominance of British sea power before he was killed during his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Now, curators at the taxpayer-funded Walker Art Gallery have described him as queer despite his marriage and numerous affairs with women.

The Liverpool gallery holds two paintings depicting Lord Nelson’s final moments aboard HMS Victory, during which the mortally wounded admiral uttered the famous words to his friend and fellow officer Captain Thomas Hardy, “kiss me Hardy”.

The request – with which Hardy duly complied – has proved enough for Nelson to be placed in a “Queer relationships” collection at the gallery, which examines bonds that “go beyond platonic friendship in some way”.

Paintings of Nelson’s death at Trafalgar have also been added to an online article about the “history of LGBTQ+ love”, and in a broader collection of “Love and Relationships” paintings, which itself sits within the “LGBTQ+ collections”.

Information provided by the gallery, part of the publicly funded National Museums Liverpool group, states: “Historians have speculated about the exact nature of the relationship between Hardy and Nelson.

“Regardless of the truth, for many, Nelson’s famous request is symbolic of the sometimes hidden queer history of life at sea.”

Further information adds: “Whether or not their relationship was sexual remains unknown, but their friendship is reflective of the close relationships formed between men at sea.”

Online information on the death scene explains that “intimate relationships, both sexual and platonic, could develop between those on board”.

The inclusion of two canvases depicting Nelson’s death, by Daniel Maclise and Benjamin West, comes after an effort by National Museums Liverpool to highlight “often hidden or overlooked LGBTQ+ histories”.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
rishpardikar.bsky.social
New report on navigating challenges of doing science in Global South countries. We often hear about obstacles like bureaucracy and funding constraints. Some practical here on how to navigate
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
robertmullins.bsky.social
If people are looking for a good entryway to this whole debate, to the extent that I had any doubts about what was happening with Cass etc, this guy's intervention settled them: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Trans health care "skeptics" lost a key ally—now they're having a meltdown
The godfather of evidence-based medicine on rejecting anti-trans "misuse" of his work.
www.motherjones.com
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
robertmullins.bsky.social
If I were an investigative journalist in the UK (are there any left?), I would be having a good look at the extent to which NHS leadership seems to have allied itself with a fringe medical movement that more or less condones conversion therapy. qnews.com.au/australian-r...
Australian report says UK’s Cass review should not guide transgender healthcare
QNews LGBTIQA+ News
qnews.com.au
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
jexpbiol.bsky.social
Apply by 24 October. Our Travelling Fellowships offer PhD students and postdocs up to £3,000 for undertaking collaborative visits to other laboratories. Find out more and apply at biologists.com/grants/trave...
A social media card with the Company of Biologists logo in the top left and a photo of a woman standing in shallow water placing a small bucket inside of a larger bucket in the top right who is a previous recipient of a Travelling Fellowship. Underneath these it says 'Are you an early career researcher planning to do a collaborative visit to another lab? You could be eligible for funding from us.' In the bottom right is a button stating 'Find out more.'
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
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)
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
arispeshkin.bsky.social
⭐PhD position available!⭐
Come join us @imprs-qbee.bsky.social to study communication and collective behavior in animal groups! We're looking for someone excited to use computational approaches to tackle biological questions, using our full-group tracking datasets
imprs-qbee.mpg.de/121465/analy...
Analysis of communication and collective behavior in animal groups
imprs-qbee.mpg.de
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
hetanshah.bsky.social
This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.

Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
thresholdrose.bsky.social
It was a pleasure to select/edit the fiction for this @tasavvurnama.bsky.social issue, featuring new fiction by three writers, as well as a @indrapramitdas.bsky.social reprint. Plus, original art and a bonus ghost tale by Alia Sinha. Thanks, team Tasavvur!
tasavvurnama.bsky.social
Our 13th issue has been edited by the talented Shreya Ila Anasuya, who has helped us show what the meaning of a true retelling is.

Link to read: tasavvurnama.com

🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
indrapramitdas.bsky.social
I forgot about my novelette 'Breaking Water', which was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Awards in 2016, and follows a journalist and a cook who becomes a 'dead charmer' as they grapple with the spiritual fallout of an epidemic of the undead in Kolkata:
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
hannahmrowland.bsky.social
Calliteara pudibunda, the pale tussock moth caterpillar. Brilliant yellow tufts and an ultra-black stripe – a striking warning. When disturbed, it curls into a conker-like ball. Those hairs are likely irritating to the skin, a fine example of visual and chemical defence.
Calliteara pudibunda, the pale tussock moth caterpillar.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
iussi-nwes.bsky.social
🚨 Still 10 days left to submit an abstract for our IUSSI winter meeting in beautiful Leuven, 18-19 December;

🚨 Registration is now open: www.iussi-nweurope.org/meetings
Nighttime view of Leuven city center decorated with Christmas lights, with historic buildings and streets glowing in a wintery atmosphere.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
mrchrisaddison.bsky.social
Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie, One Beatle After Another.
The famous cover of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, featuring the four members of the band walking in profile and single file across the road.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
indrapramitdas.bsky.social
Since it's officially horror season, here ICYMI is 'Here Comes Your Man', one of the few of my horror short stories available for free online. Perhaps the only one so far, can't remember (the rest are paywalled in anthologies). A young Calcuttan couple's trip to exurban Bengal turns into a crucible.
indrapramitdas.bsky.social
Free to read for the 1st time, my story 'Here Comes Your Man', (1st pub SCREAMS FROM THE DARK ed. Ellen Datlow, '22), about a young Calcuttan couple whose weekend trip to Santiniketan turns nightmarish. Kindly reprinted in Tasavvur issue 10, ed. @architamittra.bsky.social. Real proud of this one:
Here Comes Your Man - Tasavvur
The phone is in her hands. She doesn’t want to switch it on for fear of this coffin-like space keeping her safe and trapped, she doesn’t want to see Aditya’s face in that pale blue glow, the blood mar...
tasavvurnama.com