Kris Crandell

On this day that supports inclusive futures for women and girls in science, let's not forget all the women that were sidelined, ignored, or forced out of science because they:
- had children
- prioritised family/caring
- did science differently
- questioned boundaries & norms
- fought the patriarchy

Comic. [2x2 chart. Top left quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of dinosaurs stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor, and long-neck dinosaur. Top right quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, and pteranodon. Bottom left quadrant: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of penguin, egret, ostrich, pigeon, falcon. Bottom right: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of squirrel, stapler, plant, person, and bicycle.]

Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

xkcd.com/3204/

Piranha bite force and tooth stress are fantastically high for their size! Check out our new paper on computational modeling of the cranial muscles and bite mechanics of the amazing piranhas. #biomechsky 🐟🧪🌿

link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007...

i got curious why Panopto was called Panopto -- and my computer suggested 'panopticon' (a system of constant surveillance in jail systems) .. and somehow, yeah, checks out. (although, fingers crossed, isn't the name's inspiration)

Students still have some days left to aplply for the first round of mcirogrants of 2026 :) Please share

Striking paper from researchers at Anthropic using a randomised control trial to look at the effects of AI use on skills acquisition.

TL:DR ‘We found that using AI assistance led to a statistically significant decrease in mastery.’
www.anthropic.com/research/AI-...

The Field Station Perspective series logo. The logo shows four images arranged in four quarters of a circle. The top right quarter shows a cartoon of a seal with icy mountains behind. The quadrant is coloured in shades of blue and white. The bottom right quadrant shows a beetle (black), the quadrant is yellow. The bottom left quadrant shows a salmon leaping above a wave; the quadrant is coloured shades of teal. The top left quadrant shows an emu running across savannah with the sun behind in the sky; the quadrant is in shades of red.

We are delighted to introduce a new Perspective series highlighting the important role that field stations have played, and continue to play, in comparative physiology and biomechanics

To find out about Harvard's Concord Field Station & more go to

journals.biologists.com/jeb/collecti...

Award issue cover with an illustration by Bertille Mohring of a pair of female Laysan albatrosses.

🚨 Now out: Award Issue, collecting all seven mini-reviews included in the 2025 Review Competition written by early career researchers. Highlighting emerging or less explored topics in avian biology

➡️ vist.ly/4pzxr

Cover: pair of female Laysan albatrosses by Bertille Mohring

#ornithology

:)
unrelated, know anybody who needs a stapler?

You mean the staplers you left out in the open at eye level which couldn’t have been more obvious? Totally.

return from mat leave, day 12: I have spent several days looking for my stapler. finally went to the supply closet today for another one. immediately found original stapler. two of them.

Habitat and complex life cycles promote morphological diversity in salamander limb bones We examined the external shape and cross-sectional morphology of limb bones in 133 salamander species spanning the ecological and phylogenetic breadth of Caudata. We find that adaptations for aquatic...

Second PhD paper is out! We find: 1) aquatic and terrestrial salamanders have different limb bone adaptations, 2) complex life cycles promote different traits, 3) decoupling of external and internal bone traits increase diversity.

Thread (1/8) and FREE link below! 🦎🧪

doi.org/10.1111/joa....

Uppsala in late autumn

Join us at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. We’re searching for an Assistant Professor in Biology. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Just a few days to go until our next deadline. Apply at the link below. #ornithology

i exude adorable and relatable energy. competency, maybe less so :)

return from mat leave, day 10(?): said "birdies" in my first lecture back.

i suppose being transparent about return to work & lack of sleep extends to transparency around my students, but gosh i would like to feel a bit more competent.

day 7 back from maternity leave: oh, i'm ill already.

🚨 PhD offer (please share)
Fascinated by bird migration and movement ecology? 🦜🌍 Join us at @vogelwarte.bsky.social to study annual cycle energetics with multi-sensor loggers in multiple species

Deadline: 20 Feb 2026
Starting: June 2026
Supervision: Martins Briedis & me

Info: tinyurl.com/2dbv9nzh

We are seeking to appoint four full-time field assistants to work on the Wytham Tit Project for 4-8 weeks in spring 2026. Two 8-week field assistants will join the nest monitoring team; duties for these posts will include (i) collecting standardised data from nest-box breeding populations of blue and great tits, (ii) catching and ringing parent birds, (iii) ringing nestlings, and (iv) inputting data collected in the field. These positions with run from approximately Tuesday 7th April to Monday 1st June. Successful candidates for these positions must have (or be qualified to obtain) a BTO permit to ring adult great tits and blue tits. A further two field assistants will be hired to support a project collecting behavioural (foraging) data for great tits breeding in the Wytham population. These roles will involve a significant amount of nightwork. Duties will include (i) setting up and calibrating electronic tracking equipment and nest box cameras in the field, (ii) mapping tracking equipment locations using GPS, (iii) helping with catching and ringing parent birds and fitting tracking devices, (iv) assisting with mistnetting to re-trap tagged parents, and (v) inputting data collected in the field. These positions with be approximately 7 and 4 weeks in duration, starting from 13th April and 4th May, respectively. Possession of a BTO ringing permit with misnet endorsement and driving license are highly desirable for these roles. All fieldwork will take place in Wytham Woods, near Oxford. All Successful candidates must be able to demonstrate skill and enthusiasm for biological research as well as experience of fieldwork under arduous conditions, and both lone work and working as part of a team. Due to the short-term nature of these posts, successsful applicants must already have the right to work in the UK. Salary & Accommodation: Field assistants will be paid at grade 5.2 (£17.37/hour). Contact eleanor.cole@Biology.ox.ac.uk

We are hiring at the Wytham Woods for the upcoming field season. 4 roles available. Please share with anyone who might be interested. #UKbirds #birdringing

How to lead a journal club you won’t be embarrassed by later One of the jobs facing an early-career scientist, and a developing writer, is to learn what their field’s literature looks like. One of the best tools to that end is the journal club. If you’ve nev…

Love this from @stephenbheard.bsky.social on how to prioritize learning and useful discussion over tearing apart papers, and look forward to using some of these question prompts in future lab meetings: scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/2026/01/13/h...

CLOSING SOON: Join us as Technical Facility Manager of our new digitisation centre @manmetuni.bsky.social. Run our new Neoscan microCT with loading rigs and autochanger. Plus LEICA BLK360 laser scanner, Creaform HandyScan, Olympus DSX microscope, Resonon Hyperspectral camera: tinyurl.com/y8x596hd

Day 5 back from maternity leave, some positives: ate fruit without having to share. coffees and lunch with good friends. running over lunch without the running pram (it acts as a sail). sitting quietly in the sunshine. supportive colleagues.

Day 4 back from maternity leave: I want to scream. Is it cognitive overload as meeting requests start to pour in? Is it a hormonal crash, am I weaning too abruptly? Is it lack of sleep w teething baby? Is it a dramatic crash in base activity levels as I sit at a desk again?

I don’t scream. I run.

second image courtesy of @armanafzadeh.bsky.social ! Thank you :)

(Images: A. Camp & UBrown XROMM facility). Network spearheaded by @arielcamp.bsky.social , @paulineprovini.bsky.social , @kelseytstilson.bsky.social , & @racheltran.bsky.social (&myself). stay tuned for more details on the network!

SEB Florence will be having an exciting workshop on the new EXN - European XROMM Network! We're collecting information from those interested in attending, participating, and being looped in! Please share and DM me if you'd like to be on our mailing list! www.sebiology.org/events/seb-a...

Out of curiosity, I tried to use ChatGPT to make R code a few times.

Once it worked great, solving the problem with more elegant code than I’d have used.

Twice it worked fine, clunky but it got there.

Twice it generated cuckoo-bananapants nonsense- but I’d only know that if I knew how to code.

day 2 back from maternity leave: excitement of return to work has worn off. i am ready to pick up my baby now. but it's only 1 pm. i miss her.

It’s day one back after 13 months of maternity leave. Started strong with not remembering how to make a new email. It’s going to take me a while to get back up to functional. but I want to be transparent and open for any other parents returning to work. This is hard.

In about a week we (Biological Sciences @ Monash Uni in Melbourne, Australia) will be opening a search for 3 (!!!) permanent academic positions (40% research, 40% teaching, 20% service) at Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. 1 Genomics, 2 Ecology. Please share, email me, DM, follow, send carrier pigeons…