jasedavis.bsky.social
@jasedavis.bsky.social
Professor of Biology at Radford University (Ecophysiology Research Lab, Radford Honors College, Radford Away Research Experience)
Tricking a bunch of easily manipulated teenagers into doing your dirty work and training them to deliver abuse and corruption is gross as hell, Elon. #doge #musk
February 8, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Be like the beavers. Do what's needed and dam (pun intended) the consequences.
Beavers build planned dams in protected landscape area, while local officials still seeking permits
A beaver colony has gained overnight fame by building several dams in the Brdy protected landscape area, creating a natural wetland exactly where it was needed.
english.radio.cz
February 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I'd really like to keep a low profile, look at photos of other people's cats and share occasional science nerd stuff. Instead I have to join the masses trying to stop the full on fall of western democracy to a cringy billionaire asshat and his team of embarrassing interns. Not cool guys. #pissed
February 5, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Super lucky to catch a great lecture by @bittelmethis.bsky.social with my 10 year-old. Sparked a great chat about how we're all pretty much waterfalls; living things more their patterns than the stuff they're made from. Deep talk with your kids is the absolute best. #parenting #science #radford
February 4, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Even cooler, this is what happens if the digital flowers in our algorithm are "toxic" (cost you points when you click them): they evolve warning colors. Boom. Aposematism.
January 19, 2025 at 9:46 PM
In case you were wondering, here's what our genetic algorithm looks like when you're "playing" it. The flowers start out pretty colorful, but they evolve pretty quickly to match the background (which we set as a purple-red in this iteration). Green bar means a "hit", white means a "miss."
January 19, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Virtual "flowers" evolving camouflage in response to human selection pressure over generations in a Python algorithm we wrote (the video snapshots of the whole population over time). Evolution - it just happens.
January 19, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted
"Restoring a balance of power on American campuses would be more effective. As our Founders understood, power diffused in a system of checks and balances helps guarantee democracy. Centralized power, on the other hand, is always susceptible to abuse."

#sharedgovernance

prospect.org/education/20...
Universities and the Coming Storm
It’s difficult for colleges to defend democracy if they aren’t run democratically.
prospect.org
January 7, 2025 at 4:50 PM
In our evolving genetic algorithm (see previous post) we saw mutation rates go up in small populations. Why? Seems to be because if mutation stays low, small populations don't have enough variations in their gene pool to evolve new patterns like camouflage and warning colors. Beautiful science.
December 21, 2024 at 11:36 PM
We just coded a genetic algorithm where real humans act as selecting agents on populations of colorful digital "flowers." In less than 75 generations we saw evolution of camouflage, warning colors on toxic species, and mimicry. Evolution is absolutely a universal process. It just happens.
December 21, 2024 at 11:30 PM
Deer selfies.
December 4, 2024 at 2:32 AM
Brownfields are greener than you probably think. Abandoned industrial spaces can actually have higher amounts of animal activity - and more species diversity - than parks, suburban yards, and even (in some cases!) primary growth forests.
December 4, 2024 at 2:29 AM
When Helene hit Appalachia it left roughly 750,000 (back of napkin estimate) crayfish in ONE riverside soccer field on the Radford University campus. So... A) the number of crayfish in our rivers is totally crazy and B) that's absolutely one hell of a natural selection event.
December 3, 2024 at 10:41 AM
Can migrating birds predict the weather that they're about to fly into? And, if so, how do they change their physiology to compensate? That's the question. Spending a lot of our fall sunrises in cow pastures is how we try to find an answer. Ecophys life :)
December 3, 2024 at 10:28 AM
Cemeteries are incredible reservoirs for biodiversity (which is awesome) but not all cemeteries are created equal; older cemeteries have more biodiversity and more complex impacts on animal behavior than modern memorial gardens. Necroecology is the coolest.
This is beautiful:

"...cemeteries are valuable biodiversity hotspots, serving as refuges for plants and animals in landscapes encroached on by human activity."

"...cemetery biodiversity is vulnerable to threats such as invasive species and climate change."

🧪 🌎

academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Sentinels of biodiversity: In cemeteries around the world, the dead protect the living
Rebirth
academic.oup.com
December 2, 2024 at 9:58 PM