Peter Dearden

on how bees count to two and why I care about hornet sex

Want to know how bees count to two, and why it matters?

on how bees count to two
open.substack.com/pub/peterkde...

After three (tumultuous) years guiding the department, Professor Peter Dearden has stepped aside from his role as Head of Department to refocus on research and teaching. Professor Julian Eaton-Rye has taken over as HOD, having starting in December last year.
blogs.otago.ac.nz/thesheet/hod...

Thanks! Best of luck

awesome! make it available!

Insect research has used Drosophila as a model organism for over a century. But today’s tools now open up a much wider spectrum of insects which deserve to be studied. See the recent commentary in @fly-journal.bsky.social by @peterkdearden.bsky.social, ‘Why just fly?’ doi.org/10.1080/1933...

Absolute disaster. #NeverVoteTory. 🤮🤮🤮

on trusting scientists to lead. And why not doing so is a problem.

Why we need to expect better from science leadership.
on trusting scientists to lead.
open.substack.com/pub/peterkde...

The Arrival of the Yellow-legged Hornet – Why Incursion Communication Needs to Change | Bioprotection Aotearoa Biological incursions are the gift that keeps on giving. One of the latest gifts is the yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina), discovered in Auckland in late October. This hornet is like...

To what extent is communication integrated into Aotearoa New Zealand’s biosecurity system?

Professor Amanda Black @whenua.bsky.social reflects on the biosecurity response to the yellow-legged hornet incursion: bioprotection.org.nz/the-arrival-...

On Sunlight and Fresh Water ...and cucumbers

On Sunlight and Fresh Water
open.substack.com/pub/peterkde...

on insults and winning arguments

on insults
open.substack.com/pub/peterkde...

Why just fly? Drosophila melanogaster is an incredible model system, providing tools and technologies that allow careful, effective, and reproducible research. This experimental approach, and the genetic tools a...

For those of you with the skills and ‘Drosophila mindset’, studying other insects may help us understand diversity, improve the security of food production, and help avoid the current, worrying, insect apocalypse. More in this recent article in Fly Journal from @peterkdearden.bsky.social

US LNG export dominance to be tested as sellers look beyond Europe A potent mix of American ingenuity and full-throated political backing has propelled the U.S. to the top of global LNG exporter rankings, and promoted a narrative that shipments of "freedom gas" will ...

The US is looking for new markets for its liquified natural gas. Fancy that. www.reuters.com/markets/comm...

You must live in Dunedin, New Zealand!

On the second law of thermodynamics nothing to see here

On the second law of thermodynamics
open.substack.com/pub/peterkde...

The banshee of Christmas Village a terrifying (mostly) true story

The banshee of Christmas Village
open.substack.com/pub/peterkde...

On teaching evolution and not taking bad advice,

I started a thing on Substack- here is my first post. I hope you like it.
On teaching evolution open.substack.com/pub/peterkde...

Snowing here

Happy bees!

More hornets expected over summer, public urged to remain vigilant "We encourage all Aucklanders to be on the lookout for these hornets in and around their homes and also on their walks through our reserves and native bush," said North Shore councillor Richard Hills.

Hornets don’t holiday, so please continue to keep an eye out for this unwelcome visitor to our area. I was happy to contribute to another article, to help promote the fight against the yellow-legged hornet. www.1news.co.nz/2025/12/23/m...

No contest. Just read the first two sentences of the abstract. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵

Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...

That was last week. I have regressed!

Otago announces 32 new professors Twenty-six University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka academics are being promoted to the position of Professor, with a further six promoted to the positions of Research Professor and Clinical Researc...

So well deserved - Otago Biochemists Liz Ledgerwood and Louise Bicknell have just been promoted to Professor!
www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...

Awesome weedy discussion with my phenomenal award winning hoamahi Margaret (with the fab Peter, Amanda and Nick) - our natives need more PR, and let's all be on the lookout for newbies!

Under the Lens Podcast | Bioprotection Aotearoa

Soft launching our new podcast series - Under the Lens 🎙️

This is our pilot series… warming up the mics, dusting off the pipettes and pulling together the crew for something new.

Its part science, part 80’s nostalgia and all about what keeps our ecosystems thriving.

hosted by @whenua.bsky.social , Nick Waipara and me!

Under the Lens Podcast | Bioprotection Aotearoa

We made a podcast for @bioprotection.bsky.social Have a look if you are interested in all things that start with b, Nick singing 80's songs or, perhaps more importantly, why and how to save the planet. bioprotection.org.nz/under-the-le...

𝒟-BLUP: a differentiable genomic BLUP model with learnable variance and marker weights Genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) is widely used for genomic selection in livestock and crop breeding. There is growing interest in connecting machine learning with genomic breeding valu...

. @josephguhlin.bsky.social and I wrote a thing ( mainly him!)

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Universities in 'battle of the century' with journal publisher Elsevier One New Zealand university told its staff all universities in New Zealand and Australia would "lose some degree of access" to the publisher's 1600 titles from the start of next year.

Looks like I’m not reviewing for Elsevier for a while. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Very particular!