Maria Litto

Animal Behaviour - Bielefeld University With a team of over 50 people, the different research groups study animal behaviour within the framework of the four questions of Tinbergen, both in the lab and in the field. Current model systems include laboratory studies on zebra finches (

Bielefeld University seeks a postdoc for a 6-year scientific assistant position in Animal Behaviour, starting March 2026. Apply by Sept 10, 2025. More info: www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/biologie/forschung/arbeitsgruppen/behaviour #job

Happy Birthday, Rosalind Franklin. She captured an X-ray diffraction image of DNA and stated that a helical structure was probable. Watson and Crick then created a detailed model based on her results. They initially received credit for the discovery and were awarded the Nobel Prize after her death.🧪

Check out our new community funding proposal "Adopt an Invertebrate Genome with GIGA". The focus is to help scientists get funds for sequencing invertebrate genomes through crowdsourcing.

Details here if you are interested : www.gigacos.org/index.php/20...

#genome #omics #genomics #invertebrate

Parasite prevalence in a social host has colony-wide impacts on transcriptional activity and survival Abstract. Parasites pose significant challenges not only to individual hosts but also to entire social groups. We investigated the effects of parasitism by

Is it stressful to be surrounded by infected individuals, even if you're not infected yourself? Might this even increase mortality (if others could have performed work but now won't)? Sounds plausible, but we don't have evidence from very many systems. Here's one! academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Twelve days in Gaza: what happened while the world looked away? One of the consequences of Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran was a drop-off in attention paid to the war in Gaza, where a terrible humanitarian situation deteriorated even further. This is a timeline of what happened

Twelve days in Gaza: what happened while the world looked away?

The importance of being heterogeneous: the complex phase behaviour of insect cuticular hydrocarbons | Journal of The Royal Society Interface Global warming dramatically increases desiccation risk for insects. To avoid water loss, terrestrial insects are covered with a thin, chemically complex layer of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), which a...

Do you know that cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) viscosity in ants is bi-phasic? It might help to maintain both communication and waterproofing function when temperature changes! Check out a new paper from our group @unimainz.bsky.social ❄️🐜🐜☀️ royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Spontaneous field trip to Leiden, Netherlands to collect Cardiocondyla obscurior 🐜. We hit the jackpot with >20 colonies in the botanic gardens 😍. Also this cool frog! @jaimesnino.bsky.social @mlitto.bsky.social

🌲Exciting Summer internship in Warsaw for Students! 🐜
Dive into the fascinating world of forest ant ecology while completing your university internship! Don't miss this unique opportunity to gain valuable field experience and expand your knowledge. Check the details below 👇🏼

The pace and shape of ant ageing Ants have been proposed as good models to study ageing and the effects of extrinsic mortality because of their long lifespans and plasticity of ageing within species. We discuss how age-dependent ext...

From our talented postdoc @jaimesnino.bsky.social, The Pace and Shape of Ant Ageing in Biological Reviews. Check it right now! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Only one week left to apply to join our new lab at @sgn.one in Frankfurt am Main! Are you interested in #fossil #plants, traits, and the #Mesozoic?
www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

Do you love #fossil plants? Are you searching for a #PhD position? I am recruiting a doctoral student to join my group at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt/M! Deadline on the 11th of May
#paleobotany #paleontology #plants #botany

www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

Well-coordinated cooperative transport in the invasive ant Anoplolepis gracilipes - Insectes Sociaux Cooperative transport, defined as the coordinated effort of multiple individuals to move a single item, enables social animals to retrieve resources more efficiently and reduces the risk of exploitati...

Check our newest work on cooperative transport on the #invasive yellow crazy #ant! doi.org/10.1007/s000... #OpenAccess #animal #behavior and the #SciencePerspective of Gil-Hoed our first author insectessociaux.com/2025/03/20/a...

Move beyond ‘publish or perish’ by measuring behaviours that benefit academia A standardized system to measure contributions in mentorship, collaboration and more could bring about systemic change in science.

Reading in journal club

Move beyond ‘publish or perish’ by measuring behaviours that benefit academia

A standardized system to measure contributions in mentorship, collaboration and more could bring about systemic change in science

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Only two days left to apply!

www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

🐦 Calling all Early Birds! ​
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Hurry up and seize the opportunity to participate in the upcoming ESEB Congress, set in the vibrant city of Barcelona 🌟​
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🎟️ Secure now your place at the best possible price 👉🏻 eseb2025.com/registration...
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#ESEB2025 #Biology #Evolution #Genomics

if you are looking for a PhD opportunity in paleobiology, check it out here!
www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

Lestrimelitta robber bees standing on the entrance tube

Melipona flavolineata stingless bee guards standing on their nest entrance tube

🐝 3-year Postdoc position 🐝

Join us @bristolbiosci.bsky.social to study the impacts of parasitic bees on tropical bee communities using eDNA, SNPs & field-based surveys.

📅 Deadline: 23 Feb 2025
💃Vibrant city
🌎 Collaboration with USP 🇧🇷
🐝 Details here: tinyurl.com/586u7vau

@leverhulme.bsky.social

Ridgeline chart showing the distribution of global daily air temperature differences from the pre-industrial reference period (1850-1900), for every year between 1940 and 2024. Each individual year resembles a hill, shaded in a darker shade of red and further to the right for warmer years. The trend is clearly towards warmer years, with 2024 standing out as first year above 1.5C.

NEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold.

We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940.

2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.

AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that. The sprawling data centres that house AI servers churn out toxic electronic waste and are voracious consumers of electricity, which in most places is still produced from fossil fuels.

"A request made through ChatGPT, an AI-based virtual assistant, consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search"

This isn't a game. This is accelerated destruction via huge usage of power, water, resources etc. Stop using it - especially for messing about!!

www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

Jumping from X to here, it's like breathing fresh air again! Finally, I can read about science without being interrupted by an infinite series of ridiculous ads and propaganda. Merry Xmas and happy new year to everyone!