Owen Martin
lepurplemartin.bsky.social
Owen Martin
@lepurplemartin.bsky.social
Ph.D candidate at CU Boulder. conservation ecology, synchronization, collective behavior, fireflies, data science. rock climber. wildlife painter. he/him.
Reposted by Owen Martin
This fight is ON. ✊

JOIN US!
At the end of this summer, the future of U.S. science and research will be decided.

From weather alerts to cancer breakthroughs, science shapes every part of our lives.
We need everyone in this fight.

The Summer Fight for Science starts now. Are you in?

The fight starts here: bit.ly/4ddiuqU
May 14, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Owen Martin
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." ~ #AldousHuxley
May 4, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Owen Martin
In these chaotic times, I’ve been grounding myself in my mentees’ successes: here’s a beautiful story by PhD candidate Owen Martin (@lepurplemartin.bsky.social) on Colorado’s fireflies 🌟✨ theconversation.com/fleeting-fir...
Fleeting fireflies illuminate Colorado summer nights − and researchers are watching
New research uses firefly flashing patterns to identify species and what they’re communicating.
theconversation.com
May 4, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Great to see my work and the work of my advisor @oritpeleg.bsky.social featured by one of my media heroes @zefrank.bsky.social ! Alongside my conservation heroes Candace and Richard from the @xercessociety.bsky.social!
Let’s get talking about firefly conservation

www.youtube.com/watch?v=czt_...
True Facts: Where Have All The Fireflies Gone!
YouTube video by Ze Frank
www.youtube.com
March 26, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Reposted by Owen Martin
Goodnight.
‘‘(W)e are not separate from each other or from the world, from the whole earth, the sun or moon or billions of stars, not separate from the entire universe. Listening silently in…wonderment, without knowing…there is just one mysteriously palpitating aliveness.’ ~ Toni Packer
🖼️ C Dunn
March 13, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Inca jay with a fun background ! the querrequerre has to be one of the most charismatic birds of the andean rainforest and has an extensive vocal repertoire, including buzzes, alarm bells, and whistles
March 9, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Owen Martin
Scientists analyzed thousands of bird sounds from all over the world to try to peck out some kernels of knowledge about what determines a bird’s vocal range and the sounds that they make.
The Factors That Make Bird Sounds So Diverse Across The World
An analysis of 140,000 vocalizations from 77% of bird species showed that beak size and geography play a big role in the way birds sound.
buff.ly
March 9, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Owen Martin
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA):

“A program is not waste just because it doesn’t help the richest man in the world. It is not fraud just because he doesn’t like it."
February 23, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Owen Martin
Excited to have @lepurplemartin.bsky.social, PhD candidate at CU Boulder, join us at AI for Animals 2025, March 1-2 in Berkeley. 👏

His research focuses on swarm intelligence and collective computation, shedding light on how AI can learn from nature.

👉 Register today: aiforanimals.org/aia2025
February 23, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Owen Martin
The Indigenous People of North America have decided to go back to calling the Gulf of Mexico, “Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl”. It is what the Nahuatl People originally called it as it is the domain of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, who is assoc w/water bodies, including the Gulf of Mexico.
February 14, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Owen Martin
Here is a photo of a trans non-binary biologist (me) holding a bird (Eastern Towhee) that is likely a bilateral gynandromorph-- a fusion of cells with female-type chromosomes and cells with male-type chromosomes in one bird!

Biological sex and human gender diversity is real and wonderful ❤️🏳️‍⚧️
January 22, 2025 at 8:55 PM
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I count, this first day of another year, what remains.

—Jane Hirshfield
January 1, 2025 at 12:41 PM
old condor painting found on my friend Marc’s wall in Medellin yesterday. Happy new year everyone!
January 1, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Owen Martin
Feeling compelled to share something positive today.

In the recent expedition by Conservation International & local indigenous groups to Alto Mayo, Northern Peru,

27 new animal species were discovered!

A swimming mouse,
a blob-head fish, and others!

Merry Christmas everyone! ❄️☃️🎅
December 21, 2024 at 7:53 AM
Reposted by Owen Martin
What if the basic ecological unit was not the individual or species, but the interaction?

It is interactions that create ecosystems

(This adapts Eleanor Catton’s idea about society in her great novel Birnam Wood)
December 9, 2024 at 7:52 AM
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True
December 6, 2024 at 7:00 PM
thinking about Fort Collins Photuris fireflies, dancing over the marsh
December 7, 2024 at 7:16 AM
welling with gratitude for the fact that I spend my days staring at bioluminescent bug butts
November 29, 2024 at 4:56 AM
Reposted by Owen Martin
A poem for my last day working at the writing center for the semester (by Joseph Fasano)
November 23, 2024 at 2:09 AM
Hello blue sky community! Here’s a canyon wren and the spectrogram of their call echoing through the sky - maybe a metaphor for what it will be like being on this app instead of X at last!
November 22, 2024 at 5:39 AM