Anna Dornhaus reposted
Anna Dornhaus
Anna Dornhaus
@dornhaus.bsky.social
scientist, science communicator, mom, prof, desert dweller - not always in this order
1.1K followers420 following14 posts
Anna Dornhaus reposted
Replying to @donmoyn.bsky.social
Research units from across government have been gutted. More than 10,000 PhDs have left government. For example the research arm of the Department of Education lost 90% of their staff and the research office for the Secretary of Health and Human Services lost an estimated 60% of their staff.
Anna Dornhaus reposted
Goooood morning! The 2026 Snail Facts Calendars are OUT! We've got 24 days of scratchable snail fact goodness, designed by Philly artist Kelly Nichols! Advent calendars are cute as hell, a delightful tradition, and keep @skypeascientist.bsky.social funded! Get one at SquidFacts.net Pls repost ❤️
Anna Dornhaus reposted
Anna Dornhaus making the case that *evolution shapes variation*, even among individuals within a colony at the same time. Absolutely stunning examples of diligent tracking of variation in ant walking speeds vs. activity, corpulence, and even antenna sensilla density! @dornhaus.bsky.social #IUSSI26
Anna Dornhaus reposted
Looking forward to visiting beautiful Freiburg, seeing old friends and colleagues, and hearing cool and new insights about social insect research!
📢 Introducing @uissi-social.bsky.social, the Bluesky home of the XX International Congress of the IUSSI. The Congress runs 16–20 August 2026 in Freiburg, Germany, hosted by the University of Freiburg. Tag your posts, abstracts, and travel plans with #IUSSI26 so we can find each other.
Anna Dornhaus reposted
The US is now officially, as a nation, trying to pull the Russia move of attacking the EU by shoving money into "aligned" groups such as the far-right and Anti-EU AfD party in Germany.
The US state department is offering grants of up to $3mn for Maga-aligned European groups that combat “censorship” and develop “civilisational bonds” between the US and the continent. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Lecture on what we can learn from collective behavior about the world in general - www.youtube.com/watch?v=oioL...: algorithmic thinking, how to make groups behave better, how to get at truth despite our failing intuition
New preprint - essay - orphaned book chapter? Thinking about thinking aliens. How can we estimate how likely it is that life evolves 'intelligence'? ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... This is probably the article that got me on Netflix in 'Alien Worlds'... Where should I submit this 'for real'?
Anna Dornhaus reposted
📣 SEMINAR SERIES 2026 📣 Our first seminar of the year is coming up fast! 🐜🐝 🎥 Check out this teaser! Come listen to Dr. Anna Dornhaus ( @dornhaus.bsky.social ) to hear about “What we learned about the world from studying collective behavior: algorithms, replicators, and strong inference”
Preprint: What good is modeling? Introducing biology students to theory - arxiv.org/abs/2604.13344 - how to teach and think about what modeling contributes to science. How does it fit into the scientific method? This is often misunderstood.
Case in point: shared mutualists or other consumers may help or hinder, i.e. cause facilitation or competition, even when limiting. The model demonstrates this principle even though competition seems the 'intuitive' outcome from verbal argument alone. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Preprint: What good is modeling? Introducing biology students to theory - arxiv.org/abs/2604.13344 - how to teach and think about what modeling contributes to science. How does it fit into the scientific method? This is often misunderstood.
Anna Dornhaus reposted
Paper alert 🚨🐜! Fire ant foraging looks remarkably robust until you perturb their communication. @dornhaus.bsky.social and I tested how fire ants respond to disruptions in pheromone trail communication during foraging. More in the thread below 🧵(1/6). link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Anna Dornhaus reposted
Do primate brains and social insect colonies make decisions in similar ways? As shown in this @royalsocietypublishing.org paper, both share competing populations that accumulate evidence until a threshold is reached. @jordipinero.bsky.social @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @dornhaus.bsky.social
Anna Dornhaus reposted
📣SEMINAR SERIES 2026📣 Our 1st seminar of this year ! 📆Tuesday 28th April 2026 at 2pm GMT on Youtube: Dr. Anna Dornhaus (@dornhaus.bsky.social) on “What we learned about the world from studying collective behavior: algorithms, replicators, and strong inference” 🐜 🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=oioL...
@lovetheants.bsky.social convinced me to engage on social media again. So, here. What starter packs should I follow? I already followed her myrmecologists group.
I am at ESA! I would love to talk to students interested in coming to lovely Arizona for work on collective behavior, ant or bee cognition, or similar topics! www.annadornhaus.net
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