Gunnar De Winter

Environmental Intelligence: Redefining the Philosophical Premises of AI Forthcoming. Now Available: Just Accepted Version.

Just out /2: condensing years of thinking, my philosophical examination of “Environmental Intelligence” as framing for foundations of #AI is on @harvarddataverse.bsky.social ! Officially published with commentaries in October, but sneak preview here: hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/mx9vpa0b... #philsci 🧪

The secret to what makes colours pop on dazzling songbirds Hidden layers of colour in the plumage of tanagers and some other songbirds explain what makes them so eye-catching

Painters often prime a canvas with a layer of white to make it smoother, stronger and to enhance the colours they will later layer on, but it seems this is a mechanism that birds were using long before humans picked up paintbrushes.

Habitats Volume 2 (Optimistic Science Fiction & Fantasy) The second issue of a brand-new optimistic science-fiction and fantasy magazine. Published by Habitats Press.

Do you want more...
✍️ amazing short stories?
🌄 about hopeful futures?
🎨 with incredible artwork?

(Should be three yesses, just saying...)

Check out @habitatspress.com, which is running a Kickstarter for their second issue. You know you want to...

#writing #writingcommunity #shortstories

Behavior drives morphological change during human evolution Dietary shifts and corresponding morphological changes can sometimes evolve in succession, not concurrently—an evolutionary process called behavioral drive. Detecting behavioral drive in the fossil re...

"Decoupling diets and morphologies in time was conducive to determining when and to exploring why dietary changes helped to propel human evolution."

#science #biology #evolution

Ireland trialled a scheme where they provided 2000 artists with a guaranteed income of €1300 a month. It's been such a success that it's already been extended and there's a campaign to push it further. Here's the government report: assets.gov.ie/static/docum...

It has been brought to my attention that some adults alive today were born after the year 2000.

Join the boycott!

Alchemist Newton's other side - tiny magic - we are the river

From Newton to bacteria, Jung, and Bruce Lee... Alchemy!

#science #biology #psychology

Alchemist Newton's other side - tiny magic - we are the river

From Newton to bacteria, Jung, and Bruce Lee... Alchemy!

#science #biology #psychology

Four-day working week may boost our health and performance at work Employees who trialled a four-day work week for six months said they slept better and felt that their ability to work improved

In today's episode of Let's State the Obvious...

#science #culture

a cartoon of a keypad that says enter password automatic voice enter password . ALT: a cartoon of a keypad that says enter password automatic voice enter password .

No, I don't want you to use my fingerprint, or face, or DNA, or breath microbiome. I simply want to log in with a password.

a man is swimming in a lake with his mouth open and his eyes closed . ALT: a man is swimming in a lake with his mouth open and his eyes closed .

Haven't posted in a while...

Location, location, location
It matters, even for cells within a tissue

Me, looking at to do list:

"Time is a construct
Deadlines are imaginary"

To be fair, it could have gone either way with me 😉

Yours truly doing a handstand in a gray shirt and blue shorts on a patch of grass. Fores-covered mountain in the background

When you reach the top of the mountain... you do a handstand.

Advancing cancer research via comparative oncology Nature Reviews Cancer - Comparative oncology combines evolutionary biology, ecology, veterinary medicine and clinical oncology to better understand cancer, for example, by identifying the molecular...

New paper out! rdcu.be/etKdN Experts in #cancer across the tree of life and philosophers of science teamed up to explore how comparative thinking can improve current approaches to cancer, including conceptually and therapeutically. #evolution #ecology #oncology #philosophy

Enigmatic lizards somehow survived near Chicxulub asteroid impact The night lizards may have been the only terrestrial vertebrates that survived in the region of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs

A small, secretive group of lizards that still exist today may have been the only terrestrial vertebrates that survived in the vicinity of the Chicxulub asteroid collision that led to the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.

Deep Sea Farmers and How To Eat a Planet Farming spiders - mining oceans - eating planets

It begins with deep sea spiders and ends with Earth's destruction.

I promise it makes sense.

#science #biology #sciencefiction 🧪

‘Explosive increase’ of ticks that cause meat allergy in US due to climate crisis Unusually aggressive lone star ticks, common in the south-east, are spreading to areas previously too cold for them

Babe, wake up. Lentil velociraptors just dropped.

“They will hunt you, they are like a cross between a lentil and a velociraptor,” said Sharon Pitcairn Forsyth, a conservationist who lives in the Washington DC area.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Wildest thing’: solar-powered slug steals chloroplasts and stores them for emergencies Nature - Marine creatures house contraband structures in special organelles, which the animal raids for food in times of need.

‘Solar-powered’ sea slugs have specialized depots in their cells that store photosynthetic equipment looted from algae

https://go.nature.com/4l27lMN

Manufacture and use of allogrooming tools by wild killer whales Michael Weiss and colleagues report on wild orcas using kelp as a tool for social grooming.

You scratch my back...

"... we report evidence of the widespread manufacture and use of allogrooming tools in a population of resident killer whales."

#science #biology #animals 🧪

This is figure 1, which shows aniline synthesis from carboxylic acids in vitro and in vivo.

Escherichia coli bacteria (E. coli) can convert a molecule derived from a waste plastic bottle into paracetamol, a pain medication also known as acetaminophen, according to a paper in Nature Chemistry. go.nature.com/44cvLw1 #chemsky 🧪

Methane-powered sea spiders: Diverse, epibiotic methanotrophs serve as a source of nutrition for deep-sea methane seep Sericosura | PNAS Methane seeps harbor uncharacterized animal–microbe symbioses with unique nutritional strategies. Three undescribed sea spider species (family Ammo...

"These spiders, found at methane seeps along the Pacific margin, host diverse methylotrophic bacteria on their exoskeletons, which they farm and consume."

#science #biology #animals 🧪

Towering behavior and collective dispersal in Caenorhabditis nematodes Perez et al. report that self-assembling nematode towers occur in nature and can function as collective dispersal structures. Using Caenorhabditis elegans, they establish a tractable empirical model t...

Worm! Tower!

"Individuals of many nematode species can group together and self-assemble into a living tower of worms..."

#science #biology #animals 🧪

The Virus and the Algorithm It's (not) alive - flat and fragmented - antivirals

How viruses go viral and what algorithms got to do, got to do, got to do with it.

#science 🧪 #socialmedia #culture #technology

"Please tell me two authors YOU admire, to share our admiration and love for those who create."

@angelaliu.bsky.social's stories are unique, beautifully bittersweet, smart, and deserve all eyes.

Similarly, @thomasha.bsky.social's singular stories combine stunning prose with a clever, creepy edge.

Fashion’s Recycling Start-Ups Inch Closer to Commercialisation Over the last month, a flurry of companies with backers from H&M to Inditex have advanced plans to build their first industrial-scale textile-to-textile recycling plants, advancing a technology that i...

#SoilpunkStoryStarter

Fast fashion is out, textile recycling is in!

Over the last month, a flurry of companies with backers from H&M to Inditex have advanced plans to build their first industrial-scale textile-to-textile recycling plants.

Read more here:
www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sus...

*wink wink, nudge nudge* 😜

Thank you, Gemma!