Bloo

Chemical Mate Choice Copying in Drosophila melanogaster | The American Naturalist Abstract Mate choice is a critical decision, especially for females, that requires time and energy to assess potential partners’ genetic quality. Consequently, in many species, females have evolved th...

🪰 Big news! 🪰

My first paper is officially published in The American Naturalist! We found that female Drosophila melanogaster can copy mate choices using only chemical cues - no need to witness mating, just sniff out the pheromones left behind~ doi.org/10.1086/736329 #Drosophila #BehavioralEcology

The tiniest baby grasshopper.

This is Stacy. She was quite popular.

Additional images from last Friday, a thread:

Image shows a white sheet draped over tiki poles with a bright light in front of it. It is night time and there are no other lights. The surrounding area is green grass and overhanging tree branches.

I had an absolutely wonderful time with the UofM bio graduates tonight! Many of us gathered to search out and identify sp. for the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge~ 😁

When you’re in a rush but your file won’t save. 😬

Donate to Relocate Bloo's Family to Safety, organized by Bloo Mitchell Help My Family Find Safety and Stability My name is Bloo, and I am a gradu… Bloo Mitchell needs your support for Relocate Bloo's Family to Safety

I’m moving my wife and daughter out of TN to protect them from anti-trans legislation while I stay behind to finish my PhD. Please help us by donating or sharing our GoFundMe. gofund.me/4f54b153

Hi Bluesky! 👋🏻 Today is Trans Day of Visibility, and I’m a trans nonbinary scientist studying mate choice copying in #Drosophila at the University of Memphis! #TDOV

We don’t really turn green, but when we get dizzy/nauseous/reduce blood to the skin and we pale in response our undertones will determine what color we look. Caucasian people may often look green/yellowish, but it’s not something that happens from just being sick.

On the use of kinship and familiarity associated social information in mediating Drosophila melanogaster oviposition decisions Decisions where an individual lays their eggs are important, as the choice may affect their offspring’s survival and lifetime reproductive success. Information produced by conspecifics can potentially...

NEW #DrosLife lab preprint from #FlyLumni/#AlumFly Emily Rakosy, Sanduni Talagala & myself exploring whether egg-laying decisions by #Drosophila females are influenced by social cues made by demonstrators of different degree of "relatedness"! doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Wow, fascinating!!

First adult progeny have eclosed! One step closer to oenocyte-free #drosophila!

And so the crosses begin. Anyone wanna bet on how quickly I accidentally kill these #drosophila? 😅

You’re gorgeous! Great smile!

Image depicts three bottles with fly food and several flies. You can see the labels on two bottles that state the genotype of the flies (UAS-Stinger or aTub84>Gal80ts), which iteration the bottles are (all are the first iteration), and the date (Feb. 18th).

Exciting things to come in our little #drosophila lab~

Per a court order, HHS is required to restore this website as of 11:59PM ET, February 14, 2025. Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female. The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being, and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects it.

A federal judge ordered the CDC to restore some pages that the Trump admin deleted. The pages were restored today, but they removed terms like transgender and nonbinary, and pinned this discriminatory note to the top of the pages.

Happy v-day from me and the Jimmies.

a sea otter is swimming in the water with its head above the water ALT: a sea otter is swimming in the water with its head above the water

Shoutout to @sse-evolution.bsky.social for their amazing email “Supporting our Community and our Mission” where they state: “The deletion of public data and reports from governmental websites amounts to book burning and cannot be tolerated.”

Wow, what intricate patterns!!

Ants cooperate selflessly. Here, Eciton burchellii army ants use their bodies to plug “potholes” in their colony’s path. This improves ant traffic flow, as it allows thousands of their sisters to run smoothly overhead.

I love that lipstick color!!

Unfortunately, leaving the country just isn’t possible for us at the moment. We are pivoting back to our original plan to get my wife and daughter to a sanctuary state. We have located an apartment that is reasonably priced. Will update moving costs soon. #trans #nonbinary #queer #gofundme

Nigel thornberry throws his hands into the air, in a "can you believe this beautiful world" way

Miss Frizzle throws her hands into the air, sitting in the drivers seat on the magic schoolbus, with liz the jackson's chameleon on her lap

Somewhere between these two, my spirit lies.

The individuals that I am posting about accomplished more than I can fit into a single Bluesky post. Please read their wikis or do independent research to learn more.

Happy #blackhistorymonth!

“Alice Augusta Ball was an American chemist who developed the "Ball Method" for making ethyl ester derivatives of chaulmoogra oil, which were used as a treatment for leprosy during the early 20th century.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_B...

Happy #blackhistorymonth!

“Dr. Jane C. Wright was a pioneering oncology researcher and professor of surgery. She discovered methotrexate, and developed a chemotherapy protocol that increased skin cancer patient lifespans by up to ten years.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_C....

Happy Black History Month!

“Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai became the first African female recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She is renowned for her dedication to conservation of the environment and human rights. [She] founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangar%...

Happy Black History Month!

“Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA [aerospace technologist] were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katheri...

The leafcutter ants at Brackenridge field lab in Austin are busy this afternoon. #ant