Bekka Björke
@bekka.bsky.social
Seasoned speculative art person, science person in training
Anthropology & Neuroscience undergrad @ WSU
thebekkaffect.com
Anthropology & Neuroscience undergrad @ WSU
thebekkaffect.com
Day dreaming doodle of the day.
July 21, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Day dreaming doodle of the day.
Fascinated by these hairstyles in the frescoes from Akrotiri today. If recreated would the blue areas be shaved? Cropped? Dyed? Something else?
May 17, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Fascinated by these hairstyles in the frescoes from Akrotiri today. If recreated would the blue areas be shaved? Cropped? Dyed? Something else?
Reposted by Bekka Björke
New paper out! Children actively made hand-stencils and flutings in the Upper Palaeolithic, but can we identify children's cave art without anatomical measurements? We present a new framework using universal features of young children's drawings 🏺 www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3...
Children as playful artists: Integrating developmental psychology to identify children’s art in the Upper Palaeolithic: Hunter Gatherer Research: Vol 0, No 0
Children’s agential behaviours in the archaeological record have often been overlooked.
Despite efforts to centre children in the past through ‘an archaeology of childhood’,
there remains a fundamenta...
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
December 2, 2024 at 1:00 PM
New paper out! Children actively made hand-stencils and flutings in the Upper Palaeolithic, but can we identify children's cave art without anatomical measurements? We present a new framework using universal features of young children's drawings 🏺 www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3...
Reposted by Bekka Björke
My 8-year-old child just determined that the Neanderthals went extinct because their brains got so big that they were crushed.
Moral of the story: don't let your brain get so big that it crushes you.
Moral of the story: don't let your brain get so big that it crushes you.
April 21, 2025 at 5:29 PM
My 8-year-old child just determined that the Neanderthals went extinct because their brains got so big that they were crushed.
Moral of the story: don't let your brain get so big that it crushes you.
Moral of the story: don't let your brain get so big that it crushes you.
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Reposted by Bekka Björke
I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.
March 29, 2025 at 11:52 PM
I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Just in case you thought that removing DEI criteria would mean that everyone is competing equally: NIH is removing grad students from underrepresented backgrounds from the applicant pool altogether. Their applications will not be considered. Other students, not from these backgrounds, will be.
February 6, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Just in case you thought that removing DEI criteria would mean that everyone is competing equally: NIH is removing grad students from underrepresented backgrounds from the applicant pool altogether. Their applications will not be considered. Other students, not from these backgrounds, will be.
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Birds on Broadway with Miah.
Glam: Paige Ashcroft
Styling: Mia Rose
Glam: Paige Ashcroft
Styling: Mia Rose
January 27, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Birds on Broadway with Miah.
Glam: Paige Ashcroft
Styling: Mia Rose
Glam: Paige Ashcroft
Styling: Mia Rose
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):
January 25, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):
Reposted by Bekka Björke
You better watch out, you better not cry. #FossilFriday
December 22, 2023 at 7:43 PM
You better watch out, you better not cry. #FossilFriday
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Beyond imagination!
A zoom out from the sharpest view of the Andromeda Galaxy ever, showing more than 100 million stars!
(Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B. F. Williams, L. C. Johnson, the PHAT team, R. Gendler / video by Universal-Sci)
A zoom out from the sharpest view of the Andromeda Galaxy ever, showing more than 100 million stars!
(Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B. F. Williams, L. C. Johnson, the PHAT team, R. Gendler / video by Universal-Sci)
December 21, 2024 at 12:37 AM
Beyond imagination!
A zoom out from the sharpest view of the Andromeda Galaxy ever, showing more than 100 million stars!
(Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B. F. Williams, L. C. Johnson, the PHAT team, R. Gendler / video by Universal-Sci)
A zoom out from the sharpest view of the Andromeda Galaxy ever, showing more than 100 million stars!
(Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B. F. Williams, L. C. Johnson, the PHAT team, R. Gendler / video by Universal-Sci)
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Chimpanzees Crack the Code to Human Evolution scitechdaily.com/chimpanzees-...
Chimpanzees Crack the Code to Human Evolution
Research indicates that the complex behaviors used in human language and tool making, such as organizing actions into sequences, may have evolved in our common ancestors with chimpanzees. This study a...
scitechdaily.com
December 5, 2024 at 4:18 PM
Chimpanzees Crack the Code to Human Evolution scitechdaily.com/chimpanzees-...
Reposted by Bekka Björke
How life became colourful:
Colour vision, aposematism, sexual selection, flowers, and fruits 🧪
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Colorful flowers likely evolved ~200 mya, colorful fruits/seeds ~300 Mya. Color vision itself appears to be substantially older, and likely originated ~400–500 Mya
Colour vision, aposematism, sexual selection, flowers, and fruits 🧪
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Colorful flowers likely evolved ~200 mya, colorful fruits/seeds ~300 Mya. Color vision itself appears to be substantially older, and likely originated ~400–500 Mya
December 5, 2024 at 4:31 PM
How life became colourful:
Colour vision, aposematism, sexual selection, flowers, and fruits 🧪
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Colorful flowers likely evolved ~200 mya, colorful fruits/seeds ~300 Mya. Color vision itself appears to be substantially older, and likely originated ~400–500 Mya
Colour vision, aposematism, sexual selection, flowers, and fruits 🧪
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Colorful flowers likely evolved ~200 mya, colorful fruits/seeds ~300 Mya. Color vision itself appears to be substantially older, and likely originated ~400–500 Mya
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Xmas came early! 🎄
Very happy to share this review on combinatoriality in chimps and the evolution of language 🐵
Part of a great special issue, in a French, OA journal, that promotes multilingual science! French version to come in Jan!
@LaSFDP
journals.openedition.org/primatologie/1…
Very happy to share this review on combinatoriality in chimps and the evolution of language 🐵
Part of a great special issue, in a French, OA journal, that promotes multilingual science! French version to come in Jan!
@LaSFDP
journals.openedition.org/primatologie/1…
To what extent are call combinations in chimpanzees comparable to s...
1 Introduction The emergence of combinatoriality has been argued to represent one of the seven key evolutionary transitions in life (Maynard-Smith & Szathmary, 1995). Specifically, syntax – i.e., t...
journals.openedition.org
November 30, 2024 at 5:25 PM
Xmas came early! 🎄
Very happy to share this review on combinatoriality in chimps and the evolution of language 🐵
Part of a great special issue, in a French, OA journal, that promotes multilingual science! French version to come in Jan!
@LaSFDP
journals.openedition.org/primatologie/1…
Very happy to share this review on combinatoriality in chimps and the evolution of language 🐵
Part of a great special issue, in a French, OA journal, that promotes multilingual science! French version to come in Jan!
@LaSFDP
journals.openedition.org/primatologie/1…
Reposted by Bekka Björke
New archaeological research reveals insights into the first-known seafarers to brave ocean crossings from Asia to the Pacific Islands more than 50,000 years ago www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
www.sapiens.org
November 29, 2024 at 11:13 PM
New archaeological research reveals insights into the first-known seafarers to brave ocean crossings from Asia to the Pacific Islands more than 50,000 years ago www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Here is a link to Antón et al's paper on concelaed sabre-teeth in Homotherium:
"Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae)": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae)": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae)
Homotherium is one of the sabre-toothed felid genera with a more extensive overlap in space and time with species of our own genus Homo, who must have…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 25, 2024 at 5:47 PM
Here is a link to Antón et al's paper on concelaed sabre-teeth in Homotherium:
"Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae)": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae)": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
MFW I can't stop flitting around the internet from rabbit hole to rabbit hole.
November 22, 2024 at 8:12 PM
MFW I can't stop flitting around the internet from rabbit hole to rabbit hole.
Reposted by Bekka Björke
A new algorithm for inferring DNA methylation patterns from ancient specimens demonstrates how this approach can reveal evolutionary changes in non-skeletal tissues, providing insights into epigenetics in archaic humans. #EvoBio #aDNA
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Inferring DNA methylation in non-skeletal tissues of ancient specimens - Nature Ecology & Evolution
The authors show that DNA methylation patterns in one tissue can inform on those in another, under certain conditions, and devise an algorithm that allows identification of differential DNA methylatio...
www.nature.com
November 21, 2024 at 9:02 AM
A new algorithm for inferring DNA methylation patterns from ancient specimens demonstrates how this approach can reveal evolutionary changes in non-skeletal tissues, providing insights into epigenetics in archaic humans. #EvoBio #aDNA
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Contrary to popular belief, there are only four kinds of bats.
November 21, 2024 at 2:23 PM
Contrary to popular belief, there are only four kinds of bats.
Reposted by Bekka Björke
Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w
November 20, 2024 at 4:15 PM
Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w