Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
@ejduncan.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Zoology @UniversityLeeds, Evolutionary Developmental Biologist. Interested in many things but mostly insects. Views are my own. She/Her. Was e_j_duncan on X.
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Parental care, and more complex cooperative systems of care, have independently evolved in hundreds of animal lineages. In an article published today, we explore how these behaviors evolve 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭l shorturl.at/g5OPw /1
Convergent evolution of a conserved molecular network underlies parenting and sociality - Nature Reviews Genetics
Kay et al. review evidence that parental care, and more complex social behaviour based on parental care, evolved in multiple species through the repeated co-option of members of a pleiotropic molecula...
shorturl.at
November 4, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Parental care, and more complex cooperative systems of care, have independently evolved in hundreds of animal lineages. In an article published today, we explore how these behaviors evolve 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭l shorturl.at/g5OPw /1
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Too warm to buzz? Check out our newest paper on how warming temperatures affect bee buzzes in the Arctic. Well done to Charlie and Guadalupe and other coauthors for this nice study in the Swedish Arctic! @hfspo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Increasing temperatures affect thoracic muscle performance in Arctic bumblebees - Nature Communications
Increasing temperatures threaten cold-adapted pollinators such as Arctic bumblebees by disrupting their physiology. This study found that thorax acceleration during non-flight vibrations peaks at 25 °...
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Too warm to buzz? Check out our newest paper on how warming temperatures affect bee buzzes in the Arctic. Well done to Charlie and Guadalupe and other coauthors for this nice study in the Swedish Arctic! @hfspo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
🌏 Biodiversity loss has deep-rooted causes—from power imbalances to short-term priorities. These shape indirect & direct drivers like land/sea use change, exploitation & climate change.
Graphic from the IPBES #TransformativeChange Assessment ⤵️
Graphic from the IPBES #TransformativeChange Assessment ⤵️
November 3, 2025 at 7:00 AM
🌏 Biodiversity loss has deep-rooted causes—from power imbalances to short-term priorities. These shape indirect & direct drivers like land/sea use change, exploitation & climate change.
Graphic from the IPBES #TransformativeChange Assessment ⤵️
Graphic from the IPBES #TransformativeChange Assessment ⤵️
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Radar technology has been around for decades, used to track & predict weather. Now scientists have made a breakthrough using it to monitor insects - paving the way for cost effective biodiversity tracking across huge areas @katatrepsis.bsky.social @ncas-uk.bsky.social www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article...
Trillions of insects fly above us - weather radar reveals alarming declines
Scientists have made a breakthrough in monitoring insect populations across the UK using an unexpected tool: weather radar.
www.leeds.ac.uk
November 3, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Radar technology has been around for decades, used to track & predict weather. Now scientists have made a breakthrough using it to monitor insects - paving the way for cost effective biodiversity tracking across huge areas @katatrepsis.bsky.social @ncas-uk.bsky.social www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
📢 PhD opportunity! 📢 Join me, @ejduncan.bsky.social, Tom Sloan + the wider #GairWood team to investigate climate-resilient woodlands in the UK 🌳 with @yes-dtn.bsky.social @earthandenvleeds.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social
Developing Climate-Resilient Woodlands in the UK: Insights from Gair Wood
Join @catzigle.bsky.social and the #GairWood team for a PhD working with our newly-planted research woodland!
yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/dev...
Join @catzigle.bsky.social and the #GairWood team for a PhD working with our newly-planted research woodland!
yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/dev...
Developing Climate-Resilient Woodlands in the UK: Insights from Gair Wood - Yorkshire Environmental Sciences • Doctoral Training Network
The concurrent climate and biodiversity crises have driven global, national and regional targets to restore landscapes and create woodlands. In England, Defra’s Environmental Improvement Plan commits ...
yes-dtn.ac.uk
October 21, 2025 at 8:45 AM
📢 PhD opportunity! 📢 Join me, @ejduncan.bsky.social, Tom Sloan + the wider #GairWood team to investigate climate-resilient woodlands in the UK 🌳 with @yes-dtn.bsky.social @earthandenvleeds.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
What looked like a hearing organ on a tiny stinkbug’s leg turned out to be something far stranger: a fungal nursery that mother bugs use to coat their newly laid eggs in protective symbiotic hyphae, shielding their offspring from parasitic wasps.
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm
![(A) An adult female in the field on Sicyos angulatus. (B) Back view of an adult female reared on cucumber, whose hindleg organs are covered with fungal hyphae (arrowheads). (C) Magnified image of the hindleg organ. (D to L) Morphology of hind tibia of adult male [(D) to (F)], immature adult female [(G) to (I)], and mature adult female [(J) to (L)]. [(D), (G), and (I)] Brightfield images. [(E), (H), and (K)] Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. [(F), (I), and (L)] Magnified SEM images. (M to O) Peculiar behavior of egg-laying adult female. After laying each egg (M), the female rhythmically scratches the hyphae-covered hindleg organ with tarsal claws of the opposite hindleg (N) and then rubs the egg surface with the claws in a skillful manner (O). Also see movie S1. (P to R) Egg mass covered with fungal hyphae at 0-day (P), 3-day (Q), and 10-day (R) intervals after oviposition. Reddish color of 10-day eggs reflects the body color of developing nymphs inside.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vqgovau5gkirnk3ss5qwjdmz/bafkreiatozcclrv3q5pr2susooiojtvkwr6kwnd22hwxh3ijzh7lpi276q@jpeg)
November 1, 2025 at 9:14 PM
What looked like a hearing organ on a tiny stinkbug’s leg turned out to be something far stranger: a fungal nursery that mother bugs use to coat their newly laid eggs in protective symbiotic hyphae, shielding their offspring from parasitic wasps.
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm
Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Bees exhibition at World Museum Liverpool is beautiful! Wonderful perspectives on pollination and the lives of bees. Go and see it. After all, bees are furry, vegetarian wasps. I wish it could visit us at NHM London.
February 18, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Bees exhibition at World Museum Liverpool is beautiful! Wonderful perspectives on pollination and the lives of bees. Go and see it. After all, bees are furry, vegetarian wasps. I wish it could visit us at NHM London.
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
#PrimatePost 🦧💧
Chimps pee when seeing others peeing! 💦 Contagious urination may have social implications for group cohesion, marking territory and long-distance travel - like when you ask your friends to pee before a long car ride! We do it too!
🧪 #science 🏺 #BioAnth
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Chimps pee when seeing others peeing! 💦 Contagious urination may have social implications for group cohesion, marking territory and long-distance travel - like when you ask your friends to pee before a long car ride! We do it too!
🧪 #science 🏺 #BioAnth
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Socially contagious urination in chimpanzees
Onishi and colleagues report socially contagious urination in chimpanzees, whereby
individuals synchronize urination with conspecifics.
www.cell.com
February 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM
#PrimatePost 🦧💧
Chimps pee when seeing others peeing! 💦 Contagious urination may have social implications for group cohesion, marking territory and long-distance travel - like when you ask your friends to pee before a long car ride! We do it too!
🧪 #science 🏺 #BioAnth
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Chimps pee when seeing others peeing! 💦 Contagious urination may have social implications for group cohesion, marking territory and long-distance travel - like when you ask your friends to pee before a long car ride! We do it too!
🧪 #science 🏺 #BioAnth
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
During the last six months there’s been a substantial increase in academics approaching me to ask about leaving #academia…
This article articulates many of the reasons why they’re doing that…
This article articulates many of the reasons why they’re doing that…
"It is impossible to be a top-line manager and administrator and mentor and researcher and writer and outreach officer and IT expert and online instructor and pedagogical innovator and recruiter and teacher and marker and external examiner and press pundit and grant bidder and editor."
It’s Not Your Fault That Academic Life is Getting Harder by Glen O’Hara
Universities are in trouble, and it’s not just money we’re talking about. They are living through something of a crisis of confidence, even of trust and faith. More and more, I find myself, and my col...
voicesofacademia.com
September 4, 2024 at 1:33 PM
During the last six months there’s been a substantial increase in academics approaching me to ask about leaving #academia…
This article articulates many of the reasons why they’re doing that…
This article articulates many of the reasons why they’re doing that…
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
📢 CUT&Tag version 3
Sometimes the preprint to paper route can be quite the odyssey. And so in that vein, we are delighted to give you version 3 of our CUT&Tag optimization and benchmarking manuscript:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Sometimes the preprint to paper route can be quite the odyssey. And so in that vein, we are delighted to give you version 3 of our CUT&Tag optimization and benchmarking manuscript:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
CUT&Tag recovers up to half of ENCODE ChIP-seq histone acetylation peaks
Techniques for genome-wide epigenetic profiling have been undergoing accelerated development toward recovery of high-quality data from bulk and single cell samples. DNA-protein interactions have tradi...
www.biorxiv.org
January 30, 2025 at 3:22 PM
📢 CUT&Tag version 3
Sometimes the preprint to paper route can be quite the odyssey. And so in that vein, we are delighted to give you version 3 of our CUT&Tag optimization and benchmarking manuscript:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Sometimes the preprint to paper route can be quite the odyssey. And so in that vein, we are delighted to give you version 3 of our CUT&Tag optimization and benchmarking manuscript:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
A massive study with 71,922 people in 68 countries shows widespread trust in science. Most people believe that scientists should take an active role in shaping public policy www.futurity.org/trust-in-sci...
Study debunks claims of 'crisis of trust' in science
"Our results show that most people in most countries have a relatively high level of trust in scientists."
www.futurity.org
January 30, 2025 at 3:29 AM
A massive study with 71,922 people in 68 countries shows widespread trust in science. Most people believe that scientists should take an active role in shaping public policy www.futurity.org/trust-in-sci...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Nancy Rothwell: UK science and research ‘at risk of declining’.
Interview: Ex-Manchester vice-chancellor, advising ministers on industrial strategy, warns “erosion of funding” will create long-lasting legacy
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Interview: Ex-Manchester vice-chancellor, advising ministers on industrial strategy, warns “erosion of funding” will create long-lasting legacy
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
January 29, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Nancy Rothwell: UK science and research ‘at risk of declining’.
Interview: Ex-Manchester vice-chancellor, advising ministers on industrial strategy, warns “erosion of funding” will create long-lasting legacy
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Interview: Ex-Manchester vice-chancellor, advising ministers on industrial strategy, warns “erosion of funding” will create long-lasting legacy
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Eusociality evolves more readily in haplodiploid #insects because of an inflated #genetic relatedness between sisters - the transition rate from solitary to eusocial life was 15-100 times higher in haplodiploid than diploid lineages www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Eusociality evolved at a much higher rate in haplodiploid insects
As a corollary to inclusive fitness theory, W.D. Hamilton’s famous haplodiploid hypothesis proposed that eusociality evolves more readily in haplodiploids because of an inflated genetic relatedness be...
www.biorxiv.org
January 25, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Eusociality evolves more readily in haplodiploid #insects because of an inflated #genetic relatedness between sisters - the transition rate from solitary to eusocial life was 15-100 times higher in haplodiploid than diploid lineages www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
In a new Science study, researchers present CASTER, a tool that uses arrangements in DNA sequences known as site patterns to infer “species trees,” which are diagrams that depict the evolutionary relationships among species.
Learn more:
Learn more:
CASTER: Direct species tree inference from whole-genome alignments
Genomes contain mosaics of discordant evolutionary histories, challenging the accurate inference of the tree of life. While genome-wide data are routinely used for discordance-aware phylogenomic analyses, due to modeling and scalability limitations, the...
scim.ag
January 25, 2025 at 3:07 PM
In a new Science study, researchers present CASTER, a tool that uses arrangements in DNA sequences known as site patterns to infer “species trees,” which are diagrams that depict the evolutionary relationships among species.
Learn more:
Learn more:
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
Hurray! Some good news for bees at last. Our new government has followed the science, and refused the application by sugar beet farmers to use banned neonicotinoid pesticides.
January 23, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Hurray! Some good news for bees at last. Our new government has followed the science, and refused the application by sugar beet farmers to use banned neonicotinoid pesticides.
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
New paper by PhD advisee Alex Waugh, et al. academic.oup.com/jeb/article-... "Our study highlights the utility of profiling genes with plasticity-associated expression to gain insight into potential assimilation by inversion polymorphisms."
Molecular underpinnings of plasticity and supergene-mediated polymorphism in fire ant queens
Abstract. Characterizing molecular underpinnings of plastic traits and balanced polymorphisms represent 2 important goals of evolutionary biology. Fire ant
academic.oup.com
January 23, 2025 at 8:54 PM
New paper by PhD advisee Alex Waugh, et al. academic.oup.com/jeb/article-... "Our study highlights the utility of profiling genes with plasticity-associated expression to gain insight into potential assimilation by inversion polymorphisms."
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
The University of Leeds has become the first Russell Group university to officially announce that it is quitting Elon Musk’s social media site X.
It will, however, be alive and well on Bluesky.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
It will, however, be alive and well on Bluesky.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
January 23, 2025 at 2:53 PM
The University of Leeds has become the first Russell Group university to officially announce that it is quitting Elon Musk’s social media site X.
It will, however, be alive and well on Bluesky.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
It will, however, be alive and well on Bluesky.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Reposted by Elizabeth Duncan 🐝🪰🔬🥼
I'm so proud of the University of Leeds for being the first Russell Group university to leave X.
January 23, 2025 at 9:15 PM
I'm so proud of the University of Leeds for being the first Russell Group university to leave X.