Adria LeBoeuf
@adriatica.bsky.social
I study #socialfluids. Ponderer of the #behavior of myself & other organisms. #SocialInsects / #DistributedMetabolism / #CollectiveBehavior / #CompBio Assoc. Prof @ University of Cambridge; previously Fribourg, Weizmann, Lausanne, Rockefeller, UCSB.
Pinned
Adria LeBoeuf
@adriatica.bsky.social
· Feb 16
How do complex social behaviors evolve and shape species' success? Here doi.org/10.1038/s420... we reveal how a key social behavior in ants - mouth-to-mouth food sharing #trophallaxis - emerged as ants opportunistically exploited new ecological niches as terrestrial environments changed.
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
New paper in Science Advances!
Ants traded strength for numbers, and it worked 🐜
Our study comparing 500+ ant species shows how the evolution of cheaper workers fueled bigger colonies and faster diversification, shaping ants’ rise across the planet.
🔗To read here: doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adx8068
Ants traded strength for numbers, and it worked 🐜
Our study comparing 500+ ant species shows how the evolution of cheaper workers fueled bigger colonies and faster diversification, shaping ants’ rise across the planet.
🔗To read here: doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adx8068
December 21, 2025 at 6:19 PM
New paper in Science Advances!
Ants traded strength for numbers, and it worked 🐜
Our study comparing 500+ ant species shows how the evolution of cheaper workers fueled bigger colonies and faster diversification, shaping ants’ rise across the planet.
🔗To read here: doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adx8068
Ants traded strength for numbers, and it worked 🐜
Our study comparing 500+ ant species shows how the evolution of cheaper workers fueled bigger colonies and faster diversification, shaping ants’ rise across the planet.
🔗To read here: doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adx8068
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
🚨 Tenure-track professorship at Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany, with a focus on evolutionary ecology of social hymenoptera 🐝🐜
Initially for 6 years:
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/pr...
Initially for 6 years:
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/pr...
Goethe University Frankfurt hiring Professur (W1 mit Tenure Track) für Evolutionäre Ökologie der Hymenopteren in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany | LinkedIn
Posted 11:13:19 PM. Die Professur wird zunächst auf sechs Jahre befristet besetzt, nach erfolgreicher Evaluation…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
www.linkedin.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:43 PM
🚨 Tenure-track professorship at Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany, with a focus on evolutionary ecology of social hymenoptera 🐝🐜
Initially for 6 years:
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/pr...
Initially for 6 years:
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/pr...
@patrick-kennedy.bsky.social talks about so many fun social evolution dramas at @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting #wasplove
December 19, 2025 at 8:35 AM
@patrick-kennedy.bsky.social talks about so many fun social evolution dramas at @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting #wasplove
Lately I have identified a serious lack of whimsy in our lives in this era. Therefore, I am starting to report on nice instances of #whimsy when I see them #whimsyreport
December 19, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Lately I have identified a serious lack of whimsy in our lives in this era. Therefore, I am starting to report on nice instances of #whimsy when I see them #whimsyreport
So much #wasplove at the @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting!! Probably at least 50% of talks/posters.
December 18, 2025 at 12:41 PM
So much #wasplove at the @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting!! Probably at least 50% of talks/posters.
@rmash.bsky.social from @ucl.ac.uk opening @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting in Leuven! #CareAsACapacitor
December 18, 2025 at 8:21 AM
@rmash.bsky.social from @ucl.ac.uk opening @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting in Leuven! #CareAsACapacitor
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
Our dispatch:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225014691
on the recent Hydra volume EM paper by Zhang, Rafa Yuste and colleagues:
#connectomics, without synapses
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225013090
#neuroscience
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225014691
on the recent Hydra volume EM paper by Zhang, Rafa Yuste and colleagues:
#connectomics, without synapses
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225013090
#neuroscience
December 16, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Our dispatch:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225014691
on the recent Hydra volume EM paper by Zhang, Rafa Yuste and colleagues:
#connectomics, without synapses
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225013090
#neuroscience
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225014691
on the recent Hydra volume EM paper by Zhang, Rafa Yuste and colleagues:
#connectomics, without synapses
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225013090
#neuroscience
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
New paper out in @science.org! We unveil the online manipulation market with the Cambridge Online Trust & Safety Index (COTSI). We show in real time the cost of purchasing fake accounts across every social platform around the world - so they can be held accountable
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Mapping the online manipulation economy
A market perspective on digital manipulation may help improve online trust and safety
www.science.org
December 11, 2025 at 7:05 PM
New paper out in @science.org! We unveil the online manipulation market with the Cambridge Online Trust & Safety Index (COTSI). We show in real time the cost of purchasing fake accounts across every social platform around the world - so they can be held accountable
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
I really believe that if people knew how cheap it is to verify thousands of fake accounts for a platform like X or TikTok and properly absorbed that knowledge, they would treat the online information environment very differently...
The researchers have created an online tool that tracks the cost of SMS verifications for hundreds of different sites, from X and Instagram, to Grindr, PayPal and Amazon.
Take a look here: cotsi.org/platforms?vi...
It's fascinating. A verification for X in Germany will set you back just $0.06....
Take a look here: cotsi.org/platforms?vi...
It's fascinating. A verification for X in Germany will set you back just $0.06....
SMS Verification Statistics by platforms | COTSI
Discover how the Cambridge Online Trust & Safety Index (COTSI) tracks SMS verifications of social media accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Telegram; cloud infrastructure prov...
cotsi.org
December 11, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I really believe that if people knew how cheap it is to verify thousands of fake accounts for a platform like X or TikTok and properly absorbed that knowledge, they would treat the online information environment very differently...
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
December 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
Analysis of the DNA and proteins of a range of animals has revealed that sperm’s molecular toolkit arose in our single-celled ancestors, perhaps more than a billion years ago
Sperm's evolutionary origins go back before multicellular animals
Analysis of the DNA and proteins of a range of animals has revealed that sperm’s molecular toolkit arose in our single-celled ancestors, perhaps more than a billion years ago
www.newscientist.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Analysis of the DNA and proteins of a range of animals has revealed that sperm’s molecular toolkit arose in our single-celled ancestors, perhaps more than a billion years ago
Our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2025... getting media coverage (!)
November 24, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2025... getting media coverage (!)
I relied on corporations announcements of Black Friday to figure out when Thanksgiving would be, and it turns out they were a week off, and consequently, I’m celebrating Thanksgiving the weekend before rather than the weekend after… still yummy
November 22, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I relied on corporations announcements of Black Friday to figure out when Thanksgiving would be, and it turns out they were a week off, and consequently, I’m celebrating Thanksgiving the weekend before rather than the weekend after… still yummy
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
There once was a man from Tennessee
Who went on a criminal spree
To commit his crimes
He wrote them in rhymes
And gave them to ChatGPT
Who went on a criminal spree
To commit his crimes
He wrote them in rhymes
And gave them to ChatGPT
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 22, 2025 at 8:46 AM
There once was a man from Tennessee
Who went on a criminal spree
To commit his crimes
He wrote them in rhymes
And gave them to ChatGPT
Who went on a criminal spree
To commit his crimes
He wrote them in rhymes
And gave them to ChatGPT
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
We just released a new major version of TrackMate (v8), the cell and organelle tracking plugin of Fiji.
It ships many new features, detailed below, but that are articulated around the following:
It ships many new features, detailed below, but that are articulated around the following:
November 20, 2025 at 11:42 AM
We just released a new major version of TrackMate (v8), the cell and organelle tracking plugin of Fiji.
It ships many new features, detailed below, but that are articulated around the following:
It ships many new features, detailed below, but that are articulated around the following:
Had a great visit to @sussexneuro.bsky.social and @neurofishh.bsky.social today. Such a pleasure to chat with a bunch of clever and interesting folks, see a menagerie of interesting creatures and see the sea.
November 17, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Had a great visit to @sussexneuro.bsky.social and @neurofishh.bsky.social today. Such a pleasure to chat with a bunch of clever and interesting folks, see a menagerie of interesting creatures and see the sea.
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
This is such a cool study. A parasitic ant queen tricks worker ants into murdering their own queen, so the parasite can take over the colony.
This parasitic ant tricks workers into committing matricide
Newly mated parasitic queen ants invade colonies and spray their victims with a chemical irritant that provokes the workers to kill their mother.
www.sciencenews.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:43 PM
This is such a cool study. A parasitic ant queen tricks worker ants into murdering their own queen, so the parasite can take over the colony.
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
I am bewildered that this labour of Sisyphus is being carried out by volunteers, while Southern Water, which has admitted responsibility for the catastrophe, is doing nothing to remediate it.
‘We feel we’re fighting a losing battle’: the race to remove millions of plastic beads from Camber Sands
A huge cleanup effort has seen volunteers working to remove beads by hand and machine. They can only wait and see the extent of damage to wildlife and dune habitat
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:19 AM
I am bewildered that this labour of Sisyphus is being carried out by volunteers, while Southern Water, which has admitted responsibility for the catastrophe, is doing nothing to remediate it.
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
![[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]
JANET:
Ugh...
LIZ:
What's up?
JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!
LIZ:
Have you tried...
AI peas?
JANET:
AI peas?
LIZ:
They're peas with AI!
[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].
LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas
JANET:
What
LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]
Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?
[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]
LIZ:
Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine
[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]
LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!
JANET:
What
LIZ:
Shut up
LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow
From opening the bag of peas
to boiling the peas
to eating the peas
To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.
JANET:
Is it really necessary to-
LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET
[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:
AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiayqa37f7kik7l7s7fbtfp2sir5ckb662ry2lylinyjrfa2rkvvka@jpeg)
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 PM
It was a pleasure to speak today at an event on Reproduction and Sustainability organized by @cambridgezero.bsky.social and @cam-repro.bsky.social so many fascinating talks across so many disciplines! I spoke about this @socialtransfernet.bsky.social project: doi.org/10.32942/X2C...
The role of socially transferred materials in translating and mediating the effects of global change
doi.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
It was a pleasure to speak today at an event on Reproduction and Sustainability organized by @cambridgezero.bsky.social and @cam-repro.bsky.social so many fascinating talks across so many disciplines! I spoke about this @socialtransfernet.bsky.social project: doi.org/10.32942/X2C...
Reposted by Adria LeBoeuf
Come and join us here in Cambridge! Applications open for a new faculty position, for a researcher in computational and/or theoretical biology, based jointly in Genetics and Mathematics. Happy to answer questions about research, teaching and working here.
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/faculty...
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/faculty...
Faculty Position in Computational Biology
Applications are invited for an Assistant/ Associate Professorship in Computational Biology to commence on 1 April 2026 or shortly thereafter. This is a joint post between the Department of Applied
www.cam.ac.uk
November 11, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Come and join us here in Cambridge! Applications open for a new faculty position, for a researcher in computational and/or theoretical biology, based jointly in Genetics and Mathematics. Happy to answer questions about research, teaching and working here.
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/faculty...
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/faculty...