Elena Miu
@drelenamiu.bsky.social
Cultural evolution, cultural adaptation, innovation
Postdoc at Aarhus University with @felixthehauskat.bsky.social
https://elenamiu.github.io/
Postdoc at Aarhus University with @felixthehauskat.bsky.social
https://elenamiu.github.io/
Reposted by Elena Miu
Very nice modeling work by a great team: @drelenamiu.bsky.social @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social 👇
"The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution" with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social out in Proc B
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 22, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Very nice modeling work by a great team: @drelenamiu.bsky.social @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social 👇
Reposted by Elena Miu
Really great new paper using agent-based modelling to show how an exploratory childhood can lead to innovation in the population at large.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 22, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Really great new paper using agent-based modelling to show how an exploratory childhood can lead to innovation in the population at large.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
"The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution" with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social out in Proc B
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 22, 2026 at 1:01 PM
"The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution" with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social out in Proc B
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Reposted by Elena Miu
Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM
Simulation-based inference with deep learning suggests speed climbers combine innovation and copying to improve performance
Abstract. In the Olympic sport of speed climbing, athletes compete to reach the top of a 15 m wall as quickly as possible. Since the standardization of the
bit.ly
January 8, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM
Reposted by Elena Miu
Today sees the publication of the Theme Issue featuring the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme. Enjoy! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
December 4, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Today sees the publication of the Theme Issue featuring the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme. Enjoy! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
Reposted by Elena Miu
Huge thanks to @drelenamiu.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @ndersen.bsky.social for organizing an excellent & true _work_-shop @aiasdk.bsky.social. I go back with a long reading list, tons of notes & food for thought re: extended childhood, innovation & evolution 🙏
First time in Aarhus. Grateful to @felixthehauskat.bsky.social @drelenamiu.bsky.social for inviting me to a great workshop on ontogeny, phylogeny, innovation & adaptation, seeking to understand what makes human childhood special @aiasdk.bsky.social @au.dk
November 7, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Huge thanks to @drelenamiu.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @ndersen.bsky.social for organizing an excellent & true _work_-shop @aiasdk.bsky.social. I go back with a long reading list, tons of notes & food for thought re: extended childhood, innovation & evolution 🙏
Super proud to have hosted at @aiasdk.bsky.social an excellent group of researchers to think through all things play, childhood, and innovation. I'll be buzzing about this for a while!
November 7, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Super proud to have hosted at @aiasdk.bsky.social an excellent group of researchers to think through all things play, childhood, and innovation. I'll be buzzing about this for a while!
Reposted by Elena Miu
Young chimps play weird with tools and other objects & this can lead to innovation! Moss sponging, doll play, leaf clipping to ask for carrying. If copied and retained, rare kid innovations can contribute to cultural complexity 🧪🔬🐵
My fav article I've ever worked on: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My fav article I've ever worked on: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 21, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Young chimps play weird with tools and other objects & this can lead to innovation! Moss sponging, doll play, leaf clipping to ask for carrying. If copied and retained, rare kid innovations can contribute to cultural complexity 🧪🔬🐵
My fav article I've ever worked on: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My fav article I've ever worked on: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Elena Miu
How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone?
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
October 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM
How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone?
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Reposted by Elena Miu
@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
Fees and Funding - Durham University
www.durham.ac.uk
September 11, 2025 at 9:12 AM
@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution
2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.
Please share and apply!
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
Reposted by Elena Miu
🚨 Kids LOVE fear?!🚨
Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising:
Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun!
📄 doi.org/10.1007/s105...
[1/🧵]
Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising:
Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun!
📄 doi.org/10.1007/s105...
[1/🧵]
Recreational Fear Across Childhood. A Cross-Sectional Study of Scary Activities that Children Enjoy - Child Psychiatry & Human Development
This study investigated the prevalence of children’s engagement in recreational fear activities — i.e., playful engagement with scary stimuli where both fear and enjoyment are experienced. A detailed ...
doi.org
June 16, 2025 at 11:51 AM
🚨 Kids LOVE fear?!🚨
Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising:
Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun!
📄 doi.org/10.1007/s105...
[1/🧵]
Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising:
Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun!
📄 doi.org/10.1007/s105...
[1/🧵]
Reposted by Elena Miu
A study of 22 rural communities in Poland looks at how female friendships influence women’s decisions about how many children to have. Educated women with more emotionally supportive friends outside their kin networks have fewer children. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
May 12, 2025 at 5:37 PM
A study of 22 rural communities in Poland looks at how female friendships influence women’s decisions about how many children to have. Educated women with more emotionally supportive friends outside their kin networks have fewer children. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Reposted by Elena Miu
Join us in congratulating Robert Boyd, a SHESC professor and research scientist with the @asuiho.bsky.social, who has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences — one of the highest honors a researcher can receive! 🌟
news.asu.edu/20250505-uni...
news.asu.edu/20250505-uni...
ASU expert in cultural evolution elected to National Academy of Sciences | ASU News
A leading authority on cultural evolution, Robert Boyd, a professor in Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change and a research scientist with the Institute of Human Origi...
news.asu.edu
May 6, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Join us in congratulating Robert Boyd, a SHESC professor and research scientist with the @asuiho.bsky.social, who has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences — one of the highest honors a researcher can receive! 🌟
news.asu.edu/20250505-uni...
news.asu.edu/20250505-uni...
Reposted by Elena Miu
I'm THRILLED that our book is out. This book, with other 60 contributors from across the globe (!!!) is a love letter to the science we want to do, and a how-to guide for how to do it. Please read it and share it!
OUT NOW: A Field Guide to Cross-Cultural Research on Childhood Learning reimagines how we study kids—globally. With voices from 21 countries, this inclusive, practical guide bridges disciplines and challenges Western-centric research. buff.ly/0qk1cOs
May 9, 2025 at 4:33 PM
I'm THRILLED that our book is out. This book, with other 60 contributors from across the globe (!!!) is a love letter to the science we want to do, and a how-to guide for how to do it. Please read it and share it!
Reposted by Elena Miu
Job announcement 🚨: paid fieldwork opportunity with Sanguatsiniq research project! Details in thread ⬇️ Please share!
May 7, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Job announcement 🚨: paid fieldwork opportunity with Sanguatsiniq research project! Details in thread ⬇️ Please share!
So much fun, thanks @masonyoungblood.bsky.social for putting it all together!
Kicked off our new research group at @IACSComputes with a 3-day workshop on "Collective Creativity" last week! Incredibly inspiring to bring these folks together for a few days 🫶 @gemschedel.bsky.social
May 2, 2025 at 5:24 PM
So much fun, thanks @masonyoungblood.bsky.social for putting it all together!
Reposted by Elena Miu
This paper is now published. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
April 17, 2025 at 6:25 PM
This paper is now published. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Elena Miu
“the prolonged period of post-natal dependency experienced by infants contributes to development of social learning. Because of motor limitations, infants learn to interact with & act through caregivers, establishing social learning skills that continue to develop as children become less dependent”
Postnatal dependency as the foundation of social learning in humans | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Humans have developed a sophisticated system of cultural transmission that allows
for complex, non-genetically specified behaviours to be passed on from one generation
to the next. This system relies ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
April 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
“the prolonged period of post-natal dependency experienced by infants contributes to development of social learning. Because of motor limitations, infants learn to interact with & act through caregivers, establishing social learning skills that continue to develop as children become less dependent”
Reposted by Elena Miu
With @sheinalew.bsky.social: Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, in @naturecomms.bsky.social
#evolution #culture 🧪 #LeadSciSky #CultEvo
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#evolution #culture 🧪 #LeadSciSky #CultEvo
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
April 11, 2025 at 7:35 AM
With @sheinalew.bsky.social: Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, in @naturecomms.bsky.social
#evolution #culture 🧪 #LeadSciSky #CultEvo
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#evolution #culture 🧪 #LeadSciSky #CultEvo
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New pre-print out with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social on how childhood exploration drives population-level innovation in cultural evolution www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 1, 2025 at 4:48 PM
New pre-print out with @ndersen.bsky.social @sheinalew.bsky.social @felixthehauskat.bsky.social on how childhood exploration drives population-level innovation in cultural evolution www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Elena Miu
🚀COSMOS is BACK!!!💫 The Computational School on Modeling Social and collective behavior (COSMOS) will take place in RIKEN, Tokyo, between 29 Sept - 3 Oct, organised by me and fantastic @thecharleywu.bsky.social ! Application deadline: 25th April. For more details see 👉️ cosmossummerschool.github.io
COSMOS
The Computational Summer school on Modeling Social and collective behavior (COSMOS)
cosmossummerschool.github.io
March 12, 2025 at 12:10 PM
🚀COSMOS is BACK!!!💫 The Computational School on Modeling Social and collective behavior (COSMOS) will take place in RIKEN, Tokyo, between 29 Sept - 3 Oct, organised by me and fantastic @thecharleywu.bsky.social ! Application deadline: 25th April. For more details see 👉️ cosmossummerschool.github.io
Reposted by Elena Miu
amazing body of work and showcase of the value of long-term studies. beautifully illustrated summary 🧵 👇
saw this come to life years ago and am in awe of friend Sara Keen’s inspirational blue sky thinking and how @nilomr.bsky.social carried it forward, to new heights and Open Science excellence
🧪
saw this come to life years ago and am in awe of friend Sara Keen’s inspirational blue sky thinking and how @nilomr.bsky.social carried it forward, to new heights and Open Science excellence
🧪
New paper on the demographic drivers of cultural evolution in Great Tit song published today - epic work led by @nilomr.bsky.social with help from @andreaestandia.bsky.social Ella Cole & Sara Keen. Why did we do this, and what did we find? 🧵 follows: 1/n
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The demographic drivers of cultural evolution in bird song
Social learning can give rise to shared behavioral patterns that persist as culture within animal communities,1,2 such as bird and whale songs and cet…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 11, 2025 at 9:34 AM
amazing body of work and showcase of the value of long-term studies. beautifully illustrated summary 🧵 👇
saw this come to life years ago and am in awe of friend Sara Keen’s inspirational blue sky thinking and how @nilomr.bsky.social carried it forward, to new heights and Open Science excellence
🧪
saw this come to life years ago and am in awe of friend Sara Keen’s inspirational blue sky thinking and how @nilomr.bsky.social carried it forward, to new heights and Open Science excellence
🧪
Reposted by Elena Miu
Do whales optimize their vocalizations for efficiency, just like human language? 🐋🎶 My latest study in
Science Advances (@science.org) suggests they do—following linguistic laws seen in human speech. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Science Advances (@science.org) suggests they do—following linguistic laws seen in human speech. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Language-like efficiency in whale communication
Whale vocalizations follow efficiency rules seen in human language, revealing striking similarities in communication systems.
www.science.org
February 5, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Do whales optimize their vocalizations for efficiency, just like human language? 🐋🎶 My latest study in
Science Advances (@science.org) suggests they do—following linguistic laws seen in human speech. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Science Advances (@science.org) suggests they do—following linguistic laws seen in human speech. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Elena Miu
🏰 PhD position on computational modelling | collective dynamics | cultural evolution 🏰
Get in touch with any questions you might have and join me in beautiful Marburg!
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/c... (Deutsch)
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/3... (English)
Get in touch with any questions you might have and join me in beautiful Marburg!
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/c... (Deutsch)
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/3... (English)
February 3, 2025 at 8:52 AM
🏰 PhD position on computational modelling | collective dynamics | cultural evolution 🏰
Get in touch with any questions you might have and join me in beautiful Marburg!
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/c... (Deutsch)
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/3... (English)
Get in touch with any questions you might have and join me in beautiful Marburg!
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/c... (Deutsch)
stellenangebote.uni-marburg.de/jobposting/3... (English)