Ben de Bivort
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debivort.bsky.social
Ben de Bivort
@debivort.bsky.social
1.7K followers 670 following 600 posts
Drosophila neurobiologist. We study insect behavior and individuality using the tools of computational neuroethology.

Harvard Organismic and Evolutionary Biology & Center for Brain Science

https://debivortlab.org

fediverse: @debivort@drosophila.social
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debivort.bsky.social
Ben de Bivort @debivort.bsky.social · Oct 8
Our new study modeling selection for (behavioral) variability has been covered in a lovely @genetics-gsa.bsky.social podcast featuring first author Shraddha Lall and @ecoevogal.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...
Family-based selection: an efficient method for increasing phenotypic variability
This article introduces a model comparing various selection regimes for increasing phenotypic variability. Individuals with the same genotype, reared in id
academic.oup.com
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
ferrisjabr.bsky.social
Recently visited the Glass Flowers at Harvard, a collection of 4,300 extraordinarily realistic glass models of plants crafted by the Blaschkas, a father and son team of sculptors

That’s right, these are all made primarily of GLASS — a fact difficult to accept given how accurate & lifelike they are
An overview shot of a portion of the collection: a long window box with wooden frames filled with glass models of plants carefully arranged and labeled on white backgrounds, as though part of a 3D herbarium. From this distance, they are indistinguishable from real plants. Glass model of maple leaves, featuring blended molten glass that mimics the red hues of autumn foliage A glass model of a Columbine (Aquilegia) with parsley-like leaves and pendulous, faintly red and yellow flowers that look like swans huddled together, necks touching and wings flared out. Glass model of a Potentilla with almost ferny foliage and simple, open-faced yellow flowers with fuzzy centers.
November 14, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
chemjobber.bsky.social
Cultural Revolution 2025
brookenewman.bsky.social Brooke Newman @brookenewman.bsky.social · 1d
Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
A thread by an A&M professor describing how the new rules will impact faculty. Syllabi must be fed into AI to be checked for content not aligned with approved syllabi; students will be encouraged to report faculty for inaccurate content; and young people are now being told they get to decide what a professor should teach.
November 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
jenniferrieser.bsky.social
First paper from our lab! Led by Calvin Riiska, we found that skin microtextures remain intact in museum-preserved reptiles. Using this result, we found a new instance of convergent evolution in sidewinding! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Preserved reptile scales retain microscopic features, revealing a new instance of convergent evolution | Journal of The Royal Society Interface
Small-scale structures on biological surfaces can profoundly impact how animals move, appear and interact with their environments. Such textures may be especially important for limbless reptiles, such...
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
cait.bsky.social
I have the most wonderful story for you all today: baby alligator spotted in Charles River, then immediately rescued by local reptile enthusiast
r/boston u/migrational_coconut • 1d Spotted a baby alligator in the Charles Salamanders Yesterday on my run, I was flabbergasted to spot this tiny alligator hanging out in Turtle Pond (on the Charles River bike path. My assumption is that he is someone's pet who was either lost or dumped (but he still gave me QUITE a jump scare at 7AM). I called Animal Control and was sent to voicemail - hopefully someone can grab him before it gets too cold. From instagram, it looks like some other folks have spotted him along the river too. Joe's Crazzy Critters • Follow 1d • Q ... Tonight NBC10 Boston contacted me for an interview regarding the small American alligator that was spotted in the Charles River near Back Bay. After the interview, more information was shared about the location the alligator was last seen. So, I grabbed a head lamp and flashlight and took a ride into Boston. With the cold temps, the alligator had very low chances of surviving. With some luck and a couple of bright flashlights after 15 minutes I found the Boston alligator. I was able to capture him safely and he will be warm and housed until we get more information and instructions on what's next for this little guy. We are hoping that he will be a new resident and ambassador here at Joe's Crazzy Critters New England Wildlife Center & • Follow •.. 5h • Meet Charles, the baby alligator who made quite the splash in Boston this week! ? Thanks to the quick action (and above-and-beyond dedication) of Joe's Crazzy Critters, Charles was safely rescued from the cold water of the Charles River last night and brought to us for care. Our veterinarians Greg, Harry, and Tess examined him today and determined he has an upper respiratory infection. He's now getting antibiotics and a warm, safe place to recover. Alligators don't belong in New England, and it's likely Charles was released by someone who couldn't care for him anymore. If you ever find yourself in that position, please call us and we are happy to work with you find a humane solution. Never release a pet into the wild. The Odd Pet Vet is dedicated to giving every creature the expert care they deserve. If you your scaled, furred, or feathered family member needs a check-up, give us a call! Learn more: newildlife.org/odd-pet-vet baby alligator in a bin marked "live animals" being held aloft in a man's hand
November 14, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
zandawala.bsky.social
🚀 New paper alert!
Thrilled to share our latest study led by postdoc
@gera_jayati
published in eLife.

👉 doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Continue reading for a summary. 🧵
Anti-diuretic hormone ITP signals via a guanylate cyclase receptor to modulate systemic homeostasis in Drosophila
A multi-pronged approach reveals that ion transport peptide neuropeptide acts through the guanylate cyclase receptor Gyc76C to coordinate osmotic and metabolic homeostasis across multiple tissues in D...
doi.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
hartman-plantlab.com
Stuck in the US as a postdoc due to the current political nightmare? Consider to join us in Freiburg @dompsfr.bsky.social @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social #plantscience
kleinevehnlab.bsky.social KleineVehnLab @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social · 2d
If you know postdocs in the US whose work is restricted or becoming difficult, there are new fellowship possibilities in the south of Germany. Please, forward this information to them:

uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...

Our lab in Freiburg can also serve as a host — happy to discuss options.
Call for Applications: Early Career Rescue Fellowship – Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies
uni-freiburg.de
November 13, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
ryanenos.bsky.social
The way this reads, it sounds like this kid saw Latino people working in his neighborhood and repeatedly called ICE, despite no factual grounding about their status. ICE eventually raided the facility and arrested legal residents.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/13/m...
President of BU College Republicans said he called ICE about Allston car wash for ‘months on end’ - The Boston Globe
“This week they finally responded to my request,” Zac Segal wrote on Nov. 8. “As someone who lives in the neighborhood, I’ve seen how American jobs are being given away to those with no right to be he...
www.bostonglobe.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
nuclearanthro.bsky.social
🚨HAPPY EXPLODING WHALE DAY🚨

1/n

www.oregonlive.com/travel/2024/...
Color image of a beach with ocean in background, sand foreground, some grassy cover in right lower corner. The sky seems clear-ish. In mid-ground near beach-water interface is a large explosion in sandy colors and also some red where untrained jackasses have used too much, and wrongly placed, dynamite in an effort to obliterate a rotting whale carcass. Rotting whale proceeded to rain upon the watching crowd and no one was injured. It is glorious.
November 12, 2025 at 4:04 PM
debivort.bsky.social
Why do Epstein's emails have such odd punctuation?
November 12, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
dulaclab.bsky.social
An remarkable new undergraduate course conceived and taught by our amazing colleague and Dean of Science Jeff Lichtman: "Genuinely Hard Problems" I wish I was an undergrad again!... 🤣🧪🧬🧠
@harvardmcb.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @harvard.edu

news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
No one knows the answer, and that’s the point — Harvard Gazette
“Genuinely Hard Problems” pilots novel approach to scientific education.
news.harvard.edu
November 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
phdbee.bsky.social
On the way home from #entsoc25 and saw the northern lights out of the window!
November 12, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
baym.lol
Holy crap go look at the sky right now
November 12, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
kristyn-lizbinski.bsky.social
Excited to share my most recent postdoctoral work in the Jeanne lab @yaleneuro.bsky.social !

“Sensory processing reformats odor coding around valence and dynamics”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We ask: how is a sensory code transformed across multiple stages of processing to inform behavior?
Sensory processing reformats odor coding around valence and dynamics
Extracting relevant features of a complex sensory signal typically involves sequential processing through multiple brain regions. However, identifying the logic and mechanisms of these transformations...
www.biorxiv.org
November 9, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
michaelhoffman.bsky.social
I was there at that dinner. I remember that several in our cohort bought copies of The Double Helix for him to sign beforehand and everyone just seemed disgusted at the end.
November 8, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
preparedmindslab.bsky.social
Our new study on remote touch .....✋
Touching Without Contact: We Physically Sense Objects Before Feeling Them - neurosciencenews.com/remote-touch... @zhengqichen.bsky.social @lauracrucianelli.bsky.social @elisabettaversace.bsky.social #LorenzoJamone ✋
--> 📹 youtu.be/6hpuLojesyQ?...
Touching Without Contact: We Physically Sense Objects Before Feeling Them - Neuroscience News
A new study shows that humans possess a form of “remote touch,” allowing them to detect hidden objects in sand before making direct contact.
neurosciencenews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
debivort.bsky.social
Let's get Dustin some nice pet photos.
November 7, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
michaelhendricks.bsky.social
It's irritating that they describe the effects of his racism as limited to causing controversy within science and reputational consequences for himself rather than giving an immeasurable boost, false veneer of legitimacy, and idiot-friendly prestige to modern scientific racism and eugenics.
November 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
debivort.bsky.social
Let's get Dustin some nice pet photos.
November 7, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
kevinrothrock.me
At California’s $16/hour minimum wage, it would take about 360 years of full-time work to earn $12 million — roughly what Musk makes in a single hour under his new salary.
November 7, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
cait.bsky.social
sharing this incredible resource created by a poster in r/boston: a map of local restaurants offering free or discounted meals to SNAP recipients

link: mysnapmap.com
r/boston u/Past_Election_5005 • 1d Made a website showing Boston area restaurants offering free/reduced price meals to SNAP recipients I Made This! mysnapmap.com Hoping this could help some people
November 6, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
juliasaltz.bsky.social
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
juliasaltz.bsky.social
If you're looking for a #postdoc but aren't quite a fit for my lab, check out this exciting opportunity via IU's Common Themes in Reproductive Diversity group! 2-year NIH traineeship to work on one of the group's core themes. Details here! ctrd.indiana.edu/how-to-apply/
How to apply
Learn how to apply to the Common Themes in Reproductive Diversity graduate program at Indiana University with detailed steps, requirements, and deadlines.
ctrd.indiana.edu
November 5, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
taniel.bsky.social
In light of the stunning size of the blue wave, I’m also thinking of all the important races that Dems left on the table by not running a candidate:
taniel.bsky.social Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · Jun 9
Now 8 days to go before the deadline fully passes for local candidates to run in Virginia — and there still only are Republican candidates running for sheriff in the state's two biggest cities, as sheriffs ramp up their cooperation with ICE and federal immigration authorities.

Background:
“It Blows My Mind That There’s No Opposition”: When ICE Allies Run Unchallenged - Bolts
In a populous city in southeast Virginia, a Republican sheriff who calls himself “Detain ’Em Dave” faces a race to the right against a GOP challenger who wants more immigration enforcement. No Democra...
boltsmag.org
November 5, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
david-g-clark.bsky.social
Now in PRX: Theory linking connectivity structure to collective activity in nonlinear RNNs!
For neuro fans: conn. structure can be invisible in single neurons but shape pop. activity
For low-rank RNN fans: a theory of rank=O(N)
For physics fans: fluctuations around DMFT saddle⇒dimension of activity
Connectivity Structure and Dynamics of Nonlinear Recurrent Neural Networks
The structure of brain connectivity predicts collective neural activity, with a small number of connectivity features determining activity dimensionality, linking circuit architecture to network-level...
journals.aps.org
November 3, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Ben de Bivort
kaylinchong.bsky.social
🎃🕷️Tick or treat?

Just in time for spooky season... I found a tick on an electric eel in the MCZ collections.

Not even the fish are safe!

Check it out here: doi.org/10.1093/jme/...
An eclectic encounter: ticks feeding on an electric eel and the untapped potential of natural history collections
Abstract. Parasites are quite likely the most diverse guild of species on earth. Nevertheless, they remain under-documented despite their impact on the hea
doi.org
October 29, 2025 at 5:05 PM