Shaun Killen

a blue jays mascot on a baseball field ALT: a blue jays mascot on a baseball field

Ecstatic about the Blue Jays knocking off the Yankees🥳. Less ecstatic about what this will continue to do to my sleep schedule watching games from Scotland😭.

Fisheries can drive selection, but what about small-scale ornamental fisheries? Our new study shows Amazonian fishes interact w/ traps in species- & environment-specific ways, hinting at overlooked selective potential. Led by @marpineda.bsky.social Read here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Our new paper shows how arena size can bias sociability estimates in sticklebacks: bigger tanks = lower sociability, even after adjusting for tank size. Repeatability highest at intermediate size. #methodsmatter! Great work from @mgmci13.bsky.social! Read it here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

(7/7) With @helenanorman.bsky.social, @cortesedaphne.bsky.social, Amelia Munson, and @jlindstrom.bsky.social.‬ What do you think – is it time to move beyond the fiction of constant baselines?

(6/7) The solution isn't to abandon SMR, but to refine measurements: either integrate across sleep-wake cycles for daily estimates, or match measurement states to your biological question. Shifting from static to dynamic baselines will provide more meaningful estimates of organismal energetics.

(5/7) Size, age, social environment, abiotic factors all affect sleep architecture. Correlations btwn SMR & behaviour, environmental effects on SMR/AS, heritability, scaling relationships - all could be confounded with sleep-wake states and partitioning of maintenance processes.

(4/7) Another issue: due to partitioning of different functions between sleep and wakefulness, treatment or environmental effects on SMR via effects on specific functions (e.g. protein synthesis) may be missed entirely if you measure during the wrong state.

(3/7) We modelled the consequences: Sleep-only measurements underestimate daily integrated energy costs. Wake-only measurements overestimate them. The bias isn't random - it follows predictable patterns based on variation in individual or species sleep architecture.

(2/7) The problem: Different maintenance processes happen at different times. Ion regulation & thermoregulation are active during wake. Protein synthesis, many brain functions, immunity peak during sleep. How “maintenance” is defined and what constitutes SMR depends entirely on WHEN you measure it.

🧵THREAD: (1/7) Standard metabolic rate (SMR) is one of biology's most measured traits. We argue it isn't the constant baseline it's assumed to be. Our preprint discusses how sleep-wake cycles create a 'metabolic mosaic' that requires us to rethink how we interpret SMR. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

<em>Journal of Sleep Research</em> | ESRS Journal | Wiley Online Library Click on the article title to read more.

New paper out in the Journal of Sleep Research 💤 discussing how using light as a mode of sleep disruption might be disrupting a whole host of other things too... @shaunkillen.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

In our new correspondence, we discuss how light-based methods of sleep disruption may generate confounds that complicate interpretation of results. Light affects hormones, circadian rhythms & stress responses beyond just sleep! @helenanorman.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Animal brains don’t think in a vacuum, they think in heatwaves & hypoxia, and around predators, parasites, and social groups. Our new review maps mechanisms, timescales, and gaps for understanding animal cognition in changing environments: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lau5Esvgs...

A gift from a student 🥹. Blobfish before and after decompression = me before and after grant deadlines.

And they said we were crazy. Well who's laughing now.

After so many years of toil, we've finally done it. Definitive proof that guppies can quantum phase shift between dimensions. Congrats to @helenanorman.bsky.social for this game-changing discovery. 🥳 #fishsci

How do you know they're not?

As usual, Nathan Fielder is right.

My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy.
Details found here👇

www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...

AI generated image showing flock of sheep, shoal of fish, flock of birds and swarm robots

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www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

PhD studentship! Comparative Analysis and Modelling of Collective Behaviour in Natural and Artificial Systems.

**this scholarship for UK residents only, as defined by UKCISA regulations**

Details below! Please RT

(AI-generated image)

Fish At Pretty Good Place In Its Life Right Now

Fish At Pretty Good Place In Its Life Right Now
theonion.com/fish-at...

Outstanding talk by @helenanorman.bsky.social for @pintofscience.uk on the nature of sleep in fish and other animals. Incredible that we know so little about this vitally important process. More to come from this fantastic scientist!

Kayaked around the gorgeous Loch Drunkie, apparently named after the time whisky smugglers rolled their cargo into the water to dodge tax men. Today, no whisky, no rain, no midges. Just a creeping feeling that Scotland is becoming Portugal. Has barely rained here since March 😮 .

📖Published📖

Check out our recent research article, presenting YOLO-Behaviour, a flexible framework for identifying visually distinct behaviours from video recordings 🌎 🧪 👇

https://buff.ly/4gJxtsL

🧵5 Top Free Alternatives to BioRender for Scientific Illustrations!

These five websites offer free scientific illustrations for biologists. Great for presentations, research papers and other research communication needs.

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Hogwarts is looking especially glorious today 🤩 #UofGlasgow

Any fish heads know what this massive group of European minnows is doing? Is this a spawning aggregation? Lots of cool collective behaviours on display. #fishsci

Typical Tiree traffic jams. No horns, just hooves. #IsleofTiree

If you see this, post the most recent photo of yourself from your camera roll. No cheating!

😂😂