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Joan Silk

@jbsilk.bsky.social

Evolutionary anthropologist, primate behavioral ecologist, and part-time baker.

1,420 Followers  |  168 Following  |  234 Posts  |  Joined: 06.10.2023  |  2.0122

Latest posts by jbsilk.bsky.social on Bluesky

There are a lot of disappointed second year graduate students whose have already invested time and energy in preparing GFRP applications. There is no excuse for phasing in this new rule without prior notice.

27.09.2025 03:34 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

πŸ§ͺThe NSF has made changes to the GRFP solicitation and eligibility TODAY that may change your eligibility! PLEASE read through the solicitation if you were planning to apply and speak to your mentors about the merits of applying: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

26.09.2025 18:55 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 19    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
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Modest Advice for New Graduate Students Throughout the course of my years in graduate school, I kept a running list of the best advice given to me, and the strategies that helped…

Some very good advice for thriving in graduate school dorsaamir.medium.com/modest-advic...

22.09.2025 15:49 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Cute, but this perpetuates the notion that science is only about novel discoveries. The goal is to build the body of knowledge step by step, and the value of replication of the original result, exploration of the sources of variation that shape phenomena, and analysis of the robustness of effects.

21.09.2025 15:10 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Congratulations. You've provided a model of integrity and grace under pressure. So pleased that you are now celebrating your accomplishments.

19.09.2025 15:32 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

New evidence about how do people in a small scale society acquire foraging skills and knowledge?

14.09.2025 21:23 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Good news. Better news, there are still GFRPs for Life Sciences (due Oct 27) and Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences (due Oct 28).

09.09.2025 14:29 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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β€˜Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

#GreatAdaptations Better than science fiction www.nature.com/articles/d41...

04.09.2025 14:35 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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How the Pygmy Sea Horse Lost Its Snout

#GreatAdaptations Even cuter and more amazing than regular size sea horses How the Pygmy Sea Horse Lost Its Snout www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/s...

26.08.2025 18:44 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

#GreatAdaptations A new spin on the old adage: I'm all thumbs

26.08.2025 15:38 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand - Communications Biology Thumbs and brains coevolved in primates. Across living and extinct species, longer thumbs predict bigger brains, highlighting the neural cost of dexterity.

New paper: Human dexterity and brains evolved hand in hand www.nature.com/articles/s42...

26.08.2025 11:21 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

This would be fun

21.08.2025 03:35 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

#GreatAdaptations In the deep blue sea, it's hard to find mates. So, male anglerfish latch on to females and don't let go.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

18.08.2025 19:00 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Or a PDF of your poster.

18.08.2025 18:42 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Adaptive Responses to Adversity Drive Innovation in Human Evolutionary History Thinking is costly. Nonetheless, humans develop novel solutions to problems and share that knowledge prosocially. We propose that adversity, not prosperity, created a dependence on innovation in our ...

Herzog & Demps argue for the role of adversity in shaping the human adaptive niche
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

18.08.2025 18:38 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

If you have a draft of this chapter, I'd be very interested in reading it.

18.08.2025 15:36 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Many thanks.

14.08.2025 14:43 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Link to paper?

13.08.2025 15:26 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I take the Persian carpet approach. There will always be errors in works produced by mortals.

12.08.2025 16:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

#GreatAdaptations Power and leverage are not always based on size.

08.08.2025 15:07 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Female mountain gorillas can outrank males twice their size...

...and exhibit priority of access to resources over these males

Article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225008723

Press release:
https://www.mpg.de/25119311/0730-evan-it-s-not-just-about-size-150495-x

07.08.2025 16:10 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 13    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

A newer synthesis, 50 years after the publication of Sociobiology www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagaz...

08.08.2025 14:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Kind, supportive, and always engaged.

05.08.2025 14:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Jane's contributions, as founding editor of Human Nature and patron saint of biosocial perspectives on human behavior, have had an important impact on the scope and direction of evolutionary social science. She will be missed.

05.08.2025 14:34 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Not true. See House et al 2013. Choosing 1/1 means giving up one reward in order to provide reward to partner.

04.08.2025 14:05 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Comparative data rock. New MS leveraging grooming data on 11 species of papionin primates (baboons, geladas, mandrills, and mangabeys) across 13 sites.

31.07.2025 22:23 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Karen Kramer writes about the importance of women's food foraging and food processing.

29.07.2025 19:50 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

#GreatAdaptations The benefits of social bonds for zebra females
brill.com/view/journal...

20.07.2025 18:48 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

#GreatAdaptations So improbable it must have evolved.

19.07.2025 20:35 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This Jungle Plant Is a Good Landlord to Its Tenant Ants

#GreatAdaptations There are good landlords out there, but you might have to live in a jungle www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/s...

12.07.2025 16:01 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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