Kendrick Nakamura's Avatar

Kendrick Nakamura

@soulsynapse.bsky.social

PhD student @ ASU's Social Insect Research Group ๐Ÿœ๐Ÿ ants, bees, wasps, social behavior, phylogenetics, evolutionary game theory โค๏ธ Community science, documenting the natural history of ants @ AntSciHub.com, discord.gg/antkeeping, reddit.com/r/antkeeping

1,070 Followers  |  1,642 Following  |  34 Posts  |  Joined: 09.10.2023
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Posts by Kendrick Nakamura (@soulsynapse.bsky.social)

The paper is great because the story is now more like okay I'll play scissors... unless there are a lot of rock, and then I'll switch and play paper instead.

24.01.2026 05:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The genetics, evolution, and maintenance of a biological rock-paper-scissors game Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) play a biological rock-paper-scissors game in which three differently colored male morphs utilize alternative mating strategies. We identified the genetic basi...

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Another reason to be skeptical of solutions to a 3 body problem.

24.01.2026 05:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It was great to catch up ๐Ÿ˜ Lemme know if you're out my way again some time!!

20.07.2025 05:11 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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What a spectacular way to end the trip. Seeing my friend and colleague @soulsynapse.bsky.social at the social insect research group at ASU for showing me around their labs and facilities on my way out of Arizona. Really cool work with social behavior and it was amazing to see their ant colonies.

11.07.2025 00:42 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 13    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿ”ฌ๐ŸŒ‘

28.06.2025 05:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I've seen folks talk about how "in four years" they'll be able to get back to their planned projects and I really don't think that's going to work out. People & projects losing funding now will not be able to hit pause and come back once funding is restored. Hard-won progress & capacity will be lost

03.06.2025 20:51 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11986    ๐Ÿ” 2924    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 313    ๐Ÿ“Œ 187

I'd love to hear about the theoretical background here- I'll be looking through your prior work. I run two very large science-adjacent communities and at first blush this sounds like what we do.

13.05.2025 21:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Deflate style hand vacuum as an electronic aspirator. Best of both worlds. Needs a pooter with a filter built in. #entomology #antkeeping #ants

05.05.2025 21:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Interestingly weavers can climb up a thin oil film alone

05.05.2025 01:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Corn starch baby powder works great as an ant barrier. Comes off easily but at least it's not a known carcinogen ๐Ÿ˜…

04.05.2025 03:18 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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A seed passes inspection (Pogonomyrmex barbatus)

07.04.2025 20:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Social control drove ant evolution | PNAS Social control drove ant evolution

Fantastic piece (doi.org/10.1073/pnas...) by @tlinksvayer.bsky.social on @arthurmatte.bsky.social and my recent paper in PNAS (doi.org/10.1073/pnas...). He really pulls together the threads of how we believe that socially transferred materials #socialfluids entrenched social complexity in ants. 1/2

25.03.2025 09:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 22    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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We don't know much about these odd-looking Zasphinctus ants, except they seem to raid other ant nests, steal their larvae and eat them... Their narrow elongated bodies probably help them enter small galleries.

#ants #myrmecology non #armyants #fourmis #science

29.03.2025 02:50 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 18    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
a pronged adapter for an air hose

a pronged adapter for an air hose

cut away

cut away

Finally taking the time to learn Fusion360. Design for a co2 hose that will make noise (so people don't forget to turn it off) but diffuses the flow to knock out ants.

29.03.2025 05:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Today, the USDA lost experts in Psylloidea, Thysanoptera, Cerambycidae, Hymenoptera, Pseudococcidae, and Malacology. This is a devastating loss of expertise, occuring without warning. Their union's official statement on the issue can be found here: aginspectors.org/2-14-2025-a-... #entomology ๐Ÿงช

14.02.2025 21:30 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 224    ๐Ÿ” 116    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6    ๐Ÿ“Œ 12
Extremely ant-like dark-colored wasp with long antennae, on a dried leaf stem.

Extremely ant-like dark-colored wasp with long antennae, on a dried leaf stem.

High quality An't ๐Ÿ–ค
Gelis species ichneumonid wasp.

21.12.2024 04:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 88    ๐Ÿ” 13    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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A timely assist.

04.12.2024 18:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This is a derivative work of a friend's that I'm not able to give out, but I'm making my own design and I'll tag you after I've tested it.

28.11.2024 08:11 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Ant feeder covered in Pheidole rhea

Ant feeder covered in Pheidole rhea

Ant feeder top view with cute ant heads visible drinking

Ant feeder top view with cute ant heads visible drinking

My hand holding a small liquid ant feeder with a 3D printer in the background

My hand holding a small liquid ant feeder with a 3D printer in the background

Pretty happy with this feeder. Ants seem to like it too.

28.11.2024 03:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Currently figuring out how to print this in high enough quality that it does it justice

28.11.2024 02:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 10    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Diverse species of Drosophilidae

Diverse species of Drosophilidae

#PhD Advert: Please share! Are you looking for a PhD studentship in comparative- or population-genomics, using 300+ species of #Drosophila and 1000+ genomes of #melanogaster? #Entomology #Genomics #PopGen #Phylogenetics

27.11.2024 16:23 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 145    ๐Ÿ” 114    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
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Pheidole rhea annoyed that I'm looking at em.

22.11.2024 03:07 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 13    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
A figure panel titled Escape-and-radiate, showing a series of radiations in parallel plant and herbivore lineages, illustrated with Keynote silhouettes of a plant and a beetle, and with stars and arrows indicating the origins of novel anti-herbivore defenses and herbivores' counter-defenses

A figure panel titled Escape-and-radiate, showing a series of radiations in parallel plant and herbivore lineages, illustrated with Keynote silhouettes of a plant and a beetle, and with stars and arrows indicating the origins of novel anti-herbivore defenses and herbivores' counter-defenses

No, YOU'RE making increasingly elaborate conceptual diagrams instead of grading papers

21.11.2024 00:42 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 159    ๐Ÿ” 17    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 16    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Gonna repost this every so often until it's full:

If you're into ecological niche modeling / species distribution modeling (ENM or SDM), here's a starter pack for you! And if you're an investigator in the field and you'd like to be added, please let me know in the replies.

bsky.app/starter-pack...

19.11.2024 08:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 27    ๐Ÿ” 13    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 28    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
An ant that is at least half transparent!

An ant that is at least half transparent!

Cephalotes clypeatus?! ๐Ÿคฏ via @alexwild.bsky.social

20.11.2024 21:07 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 10    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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I'm doing a Reddit AMA tomorrow 1:30-3:30 Eastern. Looking forward to answering some questions!
www.reddit.com/r/askscience...

19.11.2024 22:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 24    ๐Ÿ” 9    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Action Intent Links | Bluesky Authors, websites, and apps can use action intent links to implement "Share on Bluesky" buttons, or similar in-app actions. Logged-in users will be directed to the corresponding action view in the Blu...

We strongly suggest that academic publishers and other platforms that host research rapidly implement a Share to Bluesky button for their articles. Here's how:

docs.bsky.app/docs/advance...

#AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics

18.11.2024 14:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11360    ๐Ÿ” 4592    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 167    ๐Ÿ“Œ 247

Well, it is sufficiently costly for scientists to be wrong. It is not sufficiently costly for news orgs to spread lies. The voters eat the cost of those lies; temporal discounting alone makes it hard for any reasonable string of accountability, ร  la an iterative prisoners dillema.

16.11.2024 07:27 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Science is neither red nor blue Long before the 5 November US presidential election, I had become ever more concerned that science has fallen victim to the same political divisiveness tearing at the seams of American society. This i...

I agree with this article. It is time for scientists to build trust - we only do it by bringing everyone in and teaching the scientific method. We only beat misinformation and authoritarianism with the freedom that science brings. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

16.11.2024 04:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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More reports out of the ant-keeping hobbyist community about canned crickets killing colonies.

Latest: www.reddit.com/r/antkeeping...

Previous: www.reddit.com/r/antkeeping...

More: www.reddit.com/r/antkeeping...

16.11.2024 01:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0