Laure Spake

DDRI Congress Letter Dear [Senator/ Representative], Alternate CCs (SBE Assistant Director, etc.) We write to urge the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to reinstate its Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (...

All, Agustin Fuentes and I, with the help of numerous others, have drafted a letter to Congress regarding the recent archiving of NSF/ SBE DDRI (doctoral dissertation research improvement) grants, which you can find here: docs.google.com/document/d/1....

Postdoctoral Researcher in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology Postdoctoral Researcher in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology

📢 I'm hiring! 3-year postdoc in theoretical evolutionary ecology at University of Helsinki 🇫🇮 Apply: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki-Postdoctoral-Researcher-in-Theoretical-Evolutionary-Biology/1348955157/
#AcademicJobs #Postdoc #EvolutionaryEcology #TheoreticalEcology #ScienceJobs #AcademicChatter

Chimpanzees and children are curious about social interactions Abstract. Curiosity is adaptive, enhances learning, and reduces uncertainty. Social curiosity is defined as the motivation to gain information about the ac

The fourth most popular @royalsocietypublishing.org paper of 2025 finds that children and chimps share a curious trait: both are fascinated by social interactions. https://bit.ly/4pCSRW1

Bernadette Arnaud on X: "L’exposition « Momies » au Musée de l’Homme à Paris (du 19 novembre 2025 au 25 mai 2026) explore la momification à travers le monde et les époques, bien au-delà des clichés ! Pour les 10 ans de sa réouverture, le musée présente neuf corps momifiés exceptionnels (issus d’Égypte," / X L’exposition « Momies » au Musée de l’Homme à Paris (du 19 novembre 2025 au 25 mai 2026) explore la momification à travers le monde et les époques, bien au-delà des clichés ! Pour les 10 ans de sa réouverture, le musée présente neuf corps momifiés exceptionnels (issus d’Égypte,

L’exposition « Momies » au Musée de l’Homme à Paris (du 19 novembre 2025 au 25 mai 2026) explore la momification à travers le monde et les époques, bien au-delà des clichés ! x.com/narudaaarnau...

Konstanz school of Collective Behavior will take place again from 20th July to 7th August , 2026. We have an amazing line up of speakers covering state of the art research on collective behavior across systems. Application deadline : March 15th
Details here: www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/kscb/applica...

The entries for the Western States 2026 lottery are closed, a new record number of tickets, but still under 100,000

www.wser.org/lottery2026....

#WSER #running #ultrarunning #trailrunning #WesternStates

Another great PhD opportunity: An ERC-funded project on “Children as agents of cultural evolution,” lead by @sheinalew.bsky.social at Durham University. Come do fieldwork with Mayan groups in Belize with her, @dorsaamir.bsky.social, and I! One of three, 3-year PhD positions starting Fall 2026.

It's hiring season at @iast.fr!

- 2y research postdoc contract
- Full autonomy, you are your own PI
- Awesome multidisciplinary environment
- All social and behavioral sciences welcome
- Seed funding for projects and workshops
- Gorgeous city in the south of France

www.iast.fr/research-fel...

When parental care hurts: Extended parental care and the evolution of overparenting Abstract. In recent years, childrearing in high-income countries has become described as ‘relentless’ in its demands on parents. In response to growing del

New paper out today with Zhian Chen.

We argue that modern intensive parenting is not only exhausting for parents, but in some cases disrupts healthy child development.

What is 'overparenting'? And can evolutionary theory help us understand how we got here?

academic.oup.com/emph/advance...

Female mountain gorilla (G. beringei beringei). CREDIT: Martha M. Robbins

Gorillas likely experience menopause, according to an analysis of over 30 years of data from wild mountain gorillas in Uganda, which shows that females can live for a decade or more after their last baby. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/kxyz50Xf1ER

A photo of the Susan Welch Liberal Arts building at sunrise

📢 Come join us! Penn State Anthropology is hiring *two tenure-track assistant professors*, one in human reproductive ecology and one in archaeology. Here are just a few reasons why working at Penn State is awesome:

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

All scientists can easily respond to this and you can choose to stay anonymous. I modified my comment from the FASEB response. We all know that international scientists are essential to US science and that these proposed rules are cruel to our colleagues. www.regulations.gov/comment/ICEB...

Maybe they too need some relief from awful and belligerent leaders...

Cultural inheritance is driving a transition in human evolution Abstract. Previous research on a transition in human evolution has been befuddled by the complexity of adaptive culture and made little effort toward empir

I've been thinking for a while that humans have expanded beyond the scale of the individual and need to start thinking about emergence when dealing with social issues. Today, I'm reading this paper...

Released today!
SEVEN DECADES: HOW WE EVOLVED TO LIVE LONGER
Now available at your favorite bookseller.

Leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon if you can.

Please help spread the word!

#sevendecades @princetonupress.bsky.social

Transmission networks of long-term and short-term knowledge in a foraging society Abstract. Cultural transmission across generations is key to cumulative cultural evolution. While several mechanisms—such as vertical, horizontal, and obli

💙New paper!💙

How is knowledge transmitted across generations in a foraging society?

With @danielredhead.bsky.social
we found: In BaYaka foragers, long-term skills pass in smaller, sparser networks, while short-term food info circulates broadly & reciprocally

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!

3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution

2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.

Please share and apply!

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Leaving Academia: Insights from Evolutionary Biologists on Their Career Transitions and Job Satisfaction Many who have obtained PhDs in evolutionary biology will ultimately pursue careers that fall outside a narrow definition of an academic career. At the same time, PhD students and supervisors of PhD st...

“Overall, the message from this survey is positive; evolutionary biologists are readily employable outside of academia, generally well-prepared for those jobs, and report high levels of satisfaction” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Yes they should, all other grants still have BI requirements, but the wording of what BI means has been adjusted

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Being a mother in the west would be a dream, I was told. But compared to Uganda, it was a nightmare | Patience Akumu Nothing prepared me for the reality of mothering without my extended family to help. How have western women managed like this for so long?

“there is a particular servitude in parenting without your people”…

on the brutal demands of the nuclear family www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Court invalidates NSF 15% indirect cost cap. Strong ruling. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Social clustering of preference for female genital mutilation/cutting in south-central Ethiopia - Nature Human Behaviour Recent estimates indicate that half of Ethiopian girls aged 15–19 years have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting (FGMC). This socio-centric social network study estimates the social influenc...

This socio-centric social network study estimates the social influence and social selection on preference for cutting female relatives using data from 5163 Ethiopian Arsi Oromo adults. @drsarahmyers.bsky.social @bristolantharch.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Are you a forensic anthropologist or other biological anthropologist who considers skeletal trauma interpretation part of your skill set?

We are running a study (survey, ~15 min) on how practitioners interpret skeletal trauma. It's kinda fun to do!

Sharing this with others is much appreciated 🤩

A promotional image for the useR! 2025 Virtual Registration. The image features a laptop with a YouTube logo on the screen, placed on a wooden table. In the background, green leaves are visible through a window. Above the laptop, a blue banner with yellow text reads "useR! 2025 Virtual Registration." On the bottom left corner, a logo displays "useR! 2025" alongside a blue bull. On the bottom right corner, there is a QR code.

Registration is open for the useR! 2025 Virtual Program! The program features speakers from a diverse range of industries and parts of the world, covering topics from the basic to the advanced. Registration is free with options for suggested donations.

user2025.r-project.org/register

#RStats

🚨 Seeking practitioners, researchers, or students involved in forensic anthropology and/or skeletal trauma interpretation 🚨

Help us understand how forensic practitioners interpret gun shot and other trauma on long bones by participating in a short survey!

binghamton.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

I feel like every time I read local news my reaction is "Ohh Binghamton..." 😂😅

Making running smaller. New column at iRunFar:
www.irunfar.com/when-competi...

Thanks to everybody who chimed in!

I arrived at the conclusion that (1) there's a lot of interesting stuff about interactions and (2) the figure I was looking for does not exist.

So, I made it myself! Here's a simple illustration of how to control for confounding in interactions:>