Noah Leith

I’ve watched a very smart child try to encode what chaptgpt thinks is “human” so that her class assignments don’t get flagged for plagiarism.

I’ve heard expert professionals admit to self-editing so they don’t “sound” like an llm.

This is the kind of cultural flattening that accelerates fascism.

Panel A depicts pathogen load increasing over time for an infected host but decreased at all times by constitutive resistance. Inducible resistance reduces pathogen load at high loads while acquired resistance decreases pathogen loads at any time during a reinfection. Panel B shows that evolution of constitutive resistance, over years, leads to lower mean and roughly the same standard deviation of log pathogen load. Panel C shows that evolution of inducible resistance lowers mean and standard deviation. Panel D shows that evolution of acquire resistance lowers mean and increases standard deviation.

We collect pathogen load data all the time to tell what proportion of hosts are infected and also how infected they are. Our new theory shows that trends in the variance of pathogen load can reveal underlying mechanisms, e.g., what kind of resistance frogs are evolving.

doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

Researcher with a petri dish, in which ozonated ants were presented to nest mates. CREDIT: Markus Knaden

Ants recognize their nestmates by their distinctive hydrocarbons, including alkenes. Ozone pollution can degrade these alkene compounds, leaving these social insects stranded in a world of strangers . In PNAS: https://ow.ly/qrCn50Yaq1f

Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

New paper out in @funecology.bsky.social y.social: Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice! We find ovarian fluid only has a positive effect on sperm function at colder temperatures and that sneaker males have faster sperm than dominant nesting males at warmer temperatures. (1/3)

🌊 Parasites are not always bad! In blue mussels (Mytilus edulis), trematode infection can buffer acute heat stress, linked to increased heat shock protein expression. A surprising twist on host-parasite interactions under warming conditions

📖 buff.ly/5dVyY6X

Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice Matthew C. Kustra, Louise M. Alissa, Michaela M. Rogers, Megan M. Molinari, Kelly A. Stiver, Susan Marsh-Rollo, Jennifer K. Hellmann, Suzanne H. Alonzo This is a plain language summary of a Functio…

📰Published📰Warm waters undermine cryptic female choice🐟️

buff.ly/U6zrsZ4

🧪🌍

Postdoktor i parasiters populationsgenetik Zoologiska institutionen är en av de äldsta institutionerna vid Stockholms universitet och har en lång historia av grundläggande och tillämpad djurforskning, från leddjur till stora däggdjur. I

Looking for a postdoc to work with existing SNP data from parasites of guppies across Trinidad. How do river structure, host specialisation, and host behaviour structure parasite population genetic structure and evolutionary potential? Join me in Stockholm! Email me :D

su.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Such a deserving award winner! @moore-evo-eco.bsky.social @sicb.bsky.social

SIR of susceptible, infectious, and recovered compartments with individuals who take short "trips" to other locations away from home, plus diagram of four phylogenetic patterns of host-mediated infection (resident-to-resident, visitor-to-resident, resident-to-visitor, visitor-to-visitor).

New preprint modeling pathogen phylogeography, where infected hosts spread disease through short "trips" between locations. Very fun collaboration with the brilliant @albertchristian.bsky.social and Ammon Thompson.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

How relaxed preferences facilitate the evolution of novel animal signals Abstract. The evolution of novel animal signals is critical to the generation of biodiversity. Here, we explore how new sexual signals become established.

So excited to share our new work out in @evolletters.bsky.social today!
doi.org/10.1093/evle...

Sexual signals and preferences for them often differ across groups, contributing to reproductive isolation. But how do new signals evolve if females already have preferences for existing ones? (1/4)

rdcu.be/eSIHs
We reported on the chemosensory toolkit of an Orb weaving spider in our PNAS paper earlier this year. Here, we report on a cursorial spider: similar, sex-specific sensory equipment and evidence for olfaction.
🧪🕷

Carryover Effects on Reproduction Can Buffer Against Mortality‐Driven Population Declines at Elevated Developmental Temperatures We show that hotter juvenile temperatures can increase adult fertility in an emerging model insect system. These reproductive benefits may be crucial for insect populations to avoid extinction during....

Great new paper by the amazing @noahleith.bsky.social and his colleagues! 🌎🧪🦑

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students

“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”

Data figure with adult temperature on the x axis and mating likelihood on the y axis. Four panels show results when cool females are paired with cool males, hot females are paired with hot males, and intermediate combinations. Mating success is lowest when male and female developmental temperatures are mismatched

Finally, we found evidence that carryover effects on reproduction are mediated by sex-specific developmental plasticity in genital morphology. This plasticity affected selection on adult genitalia in the form of assortative mating by juvenile temperature, with cool implications for evolution!

Plots with adult temperature on the x axis, population growth rate on the y axis, with data in red indicating hotter developmental temperatures and in blue cooler developmental temperatures. The plots show that populations can have positive growth at hotter developmental temperatures (in red) even in the face of increased mortality

We simulated population dynamics based on these effects of temperature at multiple life stages and on multiple fitness components. They showed that the thermal sensitivity of reproduction can offset the thermal sensitivity of survival. This indicates multiple paths to resilience in warming climates

Data figures showing that hotter developmental temperatures reduce juvenile survival but affect adult sperm transfer and enhance fertility in treehoppers

Stress early in life can carry-over to affect adult fitness, but how “carryover effects” shape resilience to climate change is poorly understood. We combined years of experiments in #treehoppers showing that even though hotter temps are more lethal for juveniles, they're better for adult fertility

Carryover Effects on Reproduction Can Buffer Against Mortality‐Driven Population Declines at Elevated Developmental Temperatures We show that hotter juvenile temperatures can increase adult fertility in an emerging model insect system. These reproductive benefits may be crucial for insect populations to avoid extinction during...

New paper with @kfowlerfinn.bsky.social and team in Ecology Letters!

Hotter developmental temperatures reduce survival in juvenile insects, but also enhance adult fertility enough to potentially avoid population declines in warming climates

doi.org/10.1111/ele....
#evosky #ecology #climatechange

A graphic abstract for the paper linked in the post which includes a drawing of a fly at three life stages, a broken walnut husk which is the fly's host, and four petri dishes representing the four substrate treatments tested in the experiment.

Thrilled to share this paper that started as a summer research project and ended as a co-first author pub with amazing undergrad mentee Naomi 🪰

#evosky 🧪

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

White-necked jacobin, a hummingbird, perched on a branch

Here's my latest contribution to the "Lost Science" series at the New York Times: Jay Falk, a scientist who studies why some female hummingbirds look just like males. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qF7Qje

Pumped to share our work on bird behavior and the 2024 Eclipse, in today's @science.org. 100k bird vocalizations + 10k continent-wide observations from the public = really fun collab led by Liz Aguilar, with @juncowren.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @imillercrews.bsky.social #NSF

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

It seems the GRFP solicitation is FINALLY released (like 5 minutes ago)! Due dates have also been pushed back, thankfully! 🧪 🔭

www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Why do males and females often differ in traits?
The expected answer: selection.
But our new paper in GENETICS shows that genetic drift alone can generate sexual dimorphism — even when male & female optima are the same

Exaggeration Through Sexual Selection May Impact the Thermal Biology of Arthropods Synopsis. Sexual selection is often invoked to explain the evolution of extravagant morphologies, such as antlers and horns. While the focus is typically o

🚨 New paper in ICB! 🚨

We demonstrate that sexually selected traits like horns and claws aren’t just about mating success: these structures can also shape thermal biology. 🦀🪲🌡️

doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

@tattersallg.bsky.social @avpalaoro.bsky.social @sicbjournals.bsky.social

High temperatures amplify aggressiveness of an invasive lizard toward a native congener Invasive species cause major disturbances to endemic wildlife and often displace native species. Behavioral aggression can contribute to invasive spec…

New paper! PhD student Julie Rej found that invasive brown anoles are more aggressive than native green anoles across a wide range of temperatures. The difference is greatest when it's hottest, ie, heat amplifies the aggression of an invasive species!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Showy dragonflies are being driven extinct by warming and wildfire Nature Climate Change - The authors use 1,603 estimates of local extinctions from 1980 to 2021 to show that dragonfly species with wing ornamentation have disproportionately gone extinct and lost...

new paper from my lab @cudenverclas.bsky.social in @natclimate.nature.com, led by @sarahnalley.bsky.social!

Dragonflies with dark mating ornaments on their wings are disappearing from parts of the United States that have had more warming and wildfire over the last 40 years 🧪🌍🐙

rdcu.be/eFm7e

Spent hours being spellbound by Convolvulus Hawk Moths last night as they nectared on Nicotiana plants in my highland garden!. Up to 3 feeding at a time, their entire abdomens glowing red hot in the thermal from flight muscle use!! #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

🦠 New Research - The gut microbiome shapes latitudinal differences in host immunity and pathogen load in a damselfly ➡️ buff.ly/0f99mq4

new paper, led by Lin Yan from the Elias Lab at UCB

Latent preference for red ornamentation drives interspecific mating in nascent jumping spider species (Habronattus americanus group, F. Salticidae)
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

The SORTEE Guidelines for Data and Code Quality Control in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

Introducing "The SORTEE Guidelines for Data and Code Quality Control in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology"

The first standardised set of data editor guidelines. Led by SORTEE with input from numerous data editors across ecology and evolution.

🔗 doi.org/10.32942/X24...

2025 - Hypoxia PhD job ad The Moore lab at the University of Colorado Denver is searching for 1 Ph.D. student to study the elevational limits of dragonflies in Colorado (http://moore-evo-eco.weebly.com). This position is fully...

Are you looking for a PhD position and want to spend your summers in the Rocky Mountains?

My lab @cudenverclas.bsky.social is looking for 1 PhD student to work on a NSF-funded project to study elevational range shifts in Colorado! 🧪🌍🐙

Apply by Nov 1!

Details here docs.google.com/document/d/1...