Andrew Straw
LightNews LightNews
andrewstraw.bsky.social
Andrew Straw
@andrewstraw.bsky.social
120 followers 130 following 1 posts
I'm a Professor in the Faculty of Biology at the University of Freiburg, Germany. I'm fascinated by visual navigation in insects. We study this and also develop tools to help us with that. https://strawlab.org/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Andrew Straw
hackadayofficial.bsky.social
2025 Component Abuse Challenge: Overdriven LEDs Outshine the Sun
2025 Component Abuse Challenge: Overdriven LEDs Outshine the Sun
Hackaday Article
hackaday.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Andrew Straw
viveknityananda.bsky.social
New #PhD ad alert!
Interested in wild #bee #cognition and #brains in different #bumblebees? Want to live in #Newcastle and the beautiful north-east of England?

Check out this project with me, @lenariab.bsky.social and Sarah Scott. Contact me for further information.

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
The cognitive ecology of wild bumblebees
iapetus.ac.uk
October 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
andrewstraw.bsky.social
Lab member and hacker extraordinaire Victor Titov has entered the Component Abuse Challenge @hackadayofficial.bsky.social with the LEDs on our bee tracking drone. hackaday.io/project/2043.... Check out the video! Thanks @volkswagenstiftung.de @dfg.de @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @uni-freiburg.de
overdriving LEDs, for the bees
This project is about maxing out the LEDs. Can we drive them harder than the datasheet allows? We need this to overpower daylight, to see bees that wear retroreflective markers, as if was at night.
hackaday.io
October 28, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Andrew Straw
danielkronauer.bsky.social
New preprint from the lab: A reference brain for the clonal raider ant.
With this resource, which is based on 40 individual brains, you can register and compare all kinds of samples in a common space. It comes with lots of detailed protocols and a user-friendly GUI.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 17, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Andrew Straw
hormiga.bsky.social
This is a supreme example of mutual aid among academics. Faculty First Responders monitors the media of the anti-intellectual far right to notice when fellow scholars are being targeted, and offers practical support and guidance.

facultyfirstresponders.com
Faculty First Responders
Mutual Aid for Academic Freedom
facultyfirstresponders.com
September 24, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Reposted by Andrew Straw
drk-lo.bsky.social
Today 14 scientific societies in #ecology #evolution and #marineScience are publishing the results of a survey that finds negative impacts of federal policies on food security, flood mitigation, infectious disease preparedness, and wildlife conservation: 🧪👩‍🔬 www.firsthandaccounts.org/impacts/2025...
This infographic describes the main results from a survey of members of 14 scientific societies. There is a pie chart showing that both academic (58%) and non-academic (42%) responded to the survey. It lists statistics: 85% of respondents reported uncertainty about the future; 71% reported federal training programs were "very" or "extremely important"; 83% reported negative impacts or irreparable harm on their field of science. There is a word cloud summarizing open-ended responses with the largest words "student research fund federal grant". Eight major themes in the responses are listed: disruption of research with societal important; concerns of closure of the USGS Bird Banding Lab; Early Career Bottleneck; Restricted Freedoms including travel and speech; Decline in Government Efficiency and Expertise; Concerns about Biased/Removed Data and Data Gaps; Concerns about the Ability to Meet Legal Mandates; and From Positive Impact to Irreparable Harm. There are icons for each participating society and a QR code for website and data availability.
August 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Andrew Straw
viveknityananda.bsky.social
Look - it's a new preprint!

Predatory attacks change bee visual perception and decision-making, making bees better prepared to detect threats.

Excellent work by the brilliant Olga Procenko for her (prize-winning) PhD with us! #bees #vision #predation

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Acute stress modulates early visual perception and decision-making speed in bees without compromising accuracy
Acute stress is known to influence decision-making, but it can also directly affect earlier stages of sensory processing. In humans, stress alters the perception of basic visual features, fine-tuning ...
www.biorxiv.org
August 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Andrew Straw
ryanmarino.bsky.social
Reports of insect decline are not new but they are worsening. International data has estimated annual losses between 1%-2.5% each year.

But this is a newer phenomenon: catastrophic collapse of insect populations in supposedly protected regions that are free of destructive insecticides & pesticides:
‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects
A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides
www.theguardian.com
July 22, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Reposted by Andrew Straw
friasunifreiburg.bsky.social
Are you a #PostDoc or #Professor seeking time to focus on your research in a vibrant, international community?
Apply now for the FRIAS Fellowship Programme 2026/27!
Deadline: 13 Sept 2025, 13:00
#Fellowship #AcademicJobs #CfA
🔗https://uni-freiburg.de/frias/funding/frias-fellowship-programmes/
Informational graphic for the FRIAS Fellowship Programmes 2026/27. It lists three types of fellowships: Early Career Fellowships – 4 to 10 months for researchers with a doctoral degree and up to 8 years of postdoctoral experience. Senior Fellowships – 3 to 8 months for researchers with a doctoral degree and at least 8 years of postdoctoral experience. Sustainable Governance Senior Fellowship Programme for Researchers from Africa – 6 months for researchers with a doctoral degree, at least 8 years of postdoctoral experience, and affiliation with an institution in Africa. Application deadline: 13 September 2025, 13:00.
July 16, 2025 at 2:52 PM