Apparently the evidence is not strong enough! I thoroughly enjoyed this talk, which opened my eyes to the diversity and complexity of the Filipinos and their connections, extended through time, to their neighbors near and far. Larena did an incredible job making the talk accessible yet rigorous!

What are you doing here? Go write!

Congrats, Leo and Laura!!

I'm walking away thinking about Gorman's comment at the end, that the training of a scientist should include training in science communication. This changes the nature of "being a researcher" beyond research, teaching, service to the scientific community. Scicomm is not external.

Greatly appreciate perspectives from Katharina Brandl, art historian, on art x science collaborations: (1) the stand-alone value of art itself (eg commentary on the contemporary via art) instead of serving some other purpose (eg for science) (2) taking seriously incentives & resources & purpose

From the opening examples to the types of #scicomm activities mentioned throughout the talk, Gorman focuses on the impact *people* have in deciding scientific careers, interest in science, trust in science, experience of science. The human touch that's missing in passive old-school exhibitions.

Science communication is a social conversation around science & trust in science is about trusting the people.

Ending remarks after a tour of the activities & fests at the MIT, including an AI chat bot that is able to change minds & correct misinformation (in part because it's calm and collected!)

From large static exhibitions in museum exhibitions and science centers to the small, agile, participatory "science gallery," Michael John Gorman talks about the "idea collider" with examples from Trinity College Dublin direct.mit.edu/books/monogr...

#misinformation is the biggest threat in the next few years, according to the World Economic Forum www.weforum.org/press/2025/0...

Looking forward to the publication of their current work 😍!

It was an honor to meet such a wonderful scientist and attend such a fun, lively talk. We are very blessed here to have vibrant research groups at UniVienna working on the evolution of reproductive biology!

Current studies on snakes, alpaca seem to point to female pleasure & clitoris function as critical elements that need to be considered in the study of sexual reproduction & (co)evolution. (eg Alpacas chewing grass- in their element- with big raised clitorises while being destroyed by the males)

And back to the first big question again: why is the clitoris understudied?

#whoownsthrclitoris?
NYTimes report: www.nytimes.com/2022/10/17/h...

Starting point: Pavlicev & Wagner 2016 on its phylogeny; Pavlicev etal 2022 on its hyper diversity.

So now we get to the harm and damage to vaginas (and the extreme case of uteruses in alpacas) and the healing mechanisms associated with it. So... why are these females still having sex?? Do they not... hurt? Or do they feel... good? This leads us to the next question: the evolution of the clitoris.

The spikes of sharks, the spines of bats, the deep scraping "nails" of alpacas-- shape is not the only way genitals coevolve.

Also widely reported: the alpaca penises that leave a bloody mess in the cervix and uterus (which then completely heal afterwards) pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Sum: Dolphins and ducks are both sexually aggressive. Females have the agency via morphology and behavior to allow or prevent copulation in a context where most are done by force.

More refs: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Surprisingly, they found the same types of folds/screw-like structures in vaginas and penises AND that they can mechanically prevent full penis intromission. Just like in ducks. Vaginal folds coevolve with the male penis: species variation can't be explained otherwise by phylogeny (Orbach etal 2017)

After summarizing her earlier viral work on the clockwise vs counterclockwise structures of duck vaginas and penises (to which my husband said: hey, John Oliver talked about it!), she is now talking about the marine vaginal systems they looked into thereafter.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29134627/

Big question: why are female genetial understudied when it comes to evolutionary explanations of crazy "key and lock" structures between males & females?

Genital Evolution: Why Are Females Still Understudied?
Malin Ah-King, Andrew B. Barron, Marie E. Herberstein journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...