Barrett Klein

Spiders sleep! What's better? They sleep in two states, including a REM-like sleep state. I was honored to join @nadjageiger.bsky.social, @roesslerdaniela.bsky.social and colleagues on this new Halloween special, compliments of PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

🕷️💤 New paper in time for 🎃! Do #spiders really sleep? In our new study on #Portia fimbriata we tested all behavioural criteria of #sleep and found evidence for regulated, two-stage sleep with recurring REM-like stages. Out in @pnas.org! @roesslerdaniela.bsky.social 📄 tinyurl.com/3fky8ze7 🧵1/9

What if we truly cared for non-human life in a manner that even remotely approaches how we care for human life? Nature has rights — it is time the world recognized them www.nature.com/articles/d41...

My twin brother is raising money through Go Fund Me to conduct research with the aim of creating the clearest type face/font in the universe! Please help if you wish. gofund.me/31b251ac8

The Aldo Leopold Foundation has asked me to give an online talk and all are invited! (Thursday 8 October) events.zoom.us/ejl/Au822v9O...

Bre Harris has created a podcast devoted to exploring questions about nature. She invited me to participate in her first episode! open.spotify.com/show/0xhsHZ6...

Please join me for a virtual visit to the NJ Butterfly Club! This Tuesday, I will talk about how insects affect human culture... and have throughout our history as a species. Can register through njbutterflies.org us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Are you a food scientist? Consider applying to UWL! wisconsin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UW_Com...

Less than one week to apply! Please reach out if you are interested!

William Stobb, poet and fellow UWL professor, recorded a conversation with me for the latest issue of Conduit, a literary journal. Snippet here: www.conduit.org/barrett-klei...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDZg... My mom (Karen Anne Klein) drew sleeping ducks--showing that when sleeping in a group, those on the periphery do so with one eye open, and that eye is facing away from the group (alert for danger). See 15 min 0 sec.

I'll be giving a talk in Ohio about cultural entomology: www.arcofappalachia.org/culturalento... If you would like to join a three-day workshop about insects, there are still 5 open spots! www.arcofappalachia.org/insectepiphany

@rno Klein has not only published the most comfortable, optimized keyboard layout ever created ("Engram"), but is the first person I am aware of to publish his Halloween costume as supplemental materials! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I joined Joe Gardener to spread the word about our insect allies! joegardener.com/podcast/how-...

Deepanjana and Arno Klein produced the most beautiful and scholarly work celebrating the Ellora Cave Temple site in India. The book is, again, glowingly reviewed (in Take On Art)!

The highlight of today's butterfly transect was ... a cranefly! This is the fabulous Wasp-banded Comb-horn, Ctenophora flaveolata. I've been lucky enough to see this species several times over the years, and each one is equally stunning 😍

These highly sentient creatures have weak protections for their well-being. That must change. go.nature.com/48vuHGw

For stories about human-insect interactions, feel free to join me this Sunday in La Crosse!

The President of the United States is threatening to commit war crimes and wipe out a "whole civilization" — all because he started a disastrous war of his own making and had no plan and no strategy for how to end it. This is abhorrent, and the American people do not support this.

Myrmecophily (love of ants) is back at the Bruce Museum! Please join as I give a talk at 2pm this Sunday about how ants (and other insects) have affected our lives and our cultures throughout history. (Free with admission; registration recommended.) brucemuseum.org/events/exper...

Two Stylops sp. males today in Bengeo garden. Males live for only few hours seeking out females on their Andrena bee hosts & so are very rarely observed. @hans-pohl.bsky.social @vannabartlett.bsky.social #Strepsiptera

It’s me!

My mom's (Karen Anne Klein's) art graces the cover of the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience! "The cover portrays the brighter phase of this [infraslow brain] rhythm in a panther chameleon sleeping at night." www.nature.com/neuro/volume...

High and Just-As-High are two mysterious Asgardian informants in Valhalla. After reading O'Connor's "Asgardians," Rivyn and I teamed up with Arno and Ellora Klein to create our own masked versions of these two Nordic enigmas. There is a third, called "Third," and his marionette will come later.

Declining birthrates come with huge benefits for people and the planet. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/o...

While reading Theodore Gray's "The Elements" together, Rivyn decided to create a periodic table of the elements, interpreting each of the 118 known elements that make up matter in the universe. He now unveils his "Periodic Box of the Modeled Elements." Details: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The grand premier of Rivyn's "Periodic Box of the Modeled Elements" for his 5th grade class! Months in the making, Rivyn interpreted each of the 118 known elements that make up matter in the universe. Close ups to come!

I am so excited to give a talk on 22 February to complement The Bruce Museum's "ANTS: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives" exhibit. My super-talented friend Sean Murtha is an artist and exhibit-maker who has helped to make the Ants exhibit come to life. Join me if you can! brucemuseum.org/events/exper...

The Age of Reptiles: How One Mural Changed The Way The World Saw Dinosaurs 🧪🌿🌎🪶🐡 open.substack.com/pub/alwaysso...

My nomination for the most influential scientific visualization ever produced. 🧪🌿🌎🪶🐡 #scicomm #sciviz #visualscicomm #sciviz #dinosaurs alwayssomethingtosee.substack.com/p/the-age-of...

I enjoyed giving a talk about insects and human culture to the fine folks at Morbid Anatomy last night. If you haven't explored the writings of Morbid Anatomy's founder, Joanna Ebenstein, I recommend exploring: www.morbidanatomy.org/press.

plant literature always sends a chill down my spine, like what if this is what WE sound like to non-entomologists? Could something as ordinary and harmless as the beetle taxonomist be this violently inscrutable??

Look at this amazing amblypygid mom who brought all her babies to the jungle bridge building with us!

Danielle Hudson officially and triumphantly defended her master's thesis: "Pollination behavior of solitary ground-nesting bees in Wisconsin’s Driftless and beyond." Danielle is an ambassador for invertebrate conservation, spreading the word about our local, native pollinators. Congratulations!

defenders-cci.org/sign-on/safe...

Ready for an entomo-doubleheader deluxe at Daedalus Books? The great Peter Kuper and I will be giving talks about our insect-centered books (Insectopolis & The Insect Epiphany) and doodling in books afterwards. All are welcome to join the fun on 10 November in Portland, Oregon!

The Sericulturist! Raising silkworm moths from eggs this summer, my body partially transformed into the mulberry branches on which they feed, and was promptly overtaken by voracious Bombyx mori caterpillars -- spinning their silk cocoons, then eclosing into winged, but flightless adults.

NO KINGS, in Ferndale, Michigan.

The mama and I know how to spend a Saturday afternoon in Ferndale, Michigan. Protesting!

I will be giving a talk about sleeping insects as part of the Brain and Behavior series in the Psychology Department at the University of Michigan. Join if you can! It will take place on October 21 at 12:00 PM in East Hall, room 4464. medicine.umich.edu/dept/michiga...

I will have the grand pleasure of joining Tracey Gallup for a double-header book celebration at Book Beat in Oak Park, Michigan on October 19th from 5-8pm. Expect some epic insect tales! www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/202...

If Cranbrook Science Center is within reach, join me on Friday eve for a talk (and book signing) about insects and how they affect human culture! science.cranbrook.edu/visit/events...

I've long marveled at and been stumped by those wacky head extensions of treehoppers. This careful research exposes a convincing reason (detect electric fields of enemies) to sport such burdens: www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....