This is a "reindeer cyclone", a defensive behavior that has been observed in herds of reindeer, even in captivity.
The fawns and older animals are at the center, the strongest animal in the outer lanes.
The point is to confuse the brains of predators accustomed to stalking a single outlier.
Wow! Our long-term collaborator and friend Martín Ramírez is the winner of the @royalsocietypublishing.org photo competition, with a SEM image from our joint research on spider silk!!
royalsociety.org/journals/pub...
„Jeden Euro, den man in der Bildung spart, muss man später vielfach für Sozialleistungen ausgeben.“
Auf den Punkt.
www.zeit.de/familie/2026...
Video
www.zeit.de
Im Kindeswohl-Ranking von Unicef liegt Deutschland hinter Portugal und Rumänien – und will weiter bei Familien sparen. Doch so wird es erst richtig teuer!
Just back from a productive writing retreat of @evoimec.bsky.social and @multipleye-lab.bsky.social on the remote island of Hiddensee.
Look out for new papers coming up from our labs!
Biggest spider web in the world: the area of a flat.
Found in a sulphur-smelling cave in the Balkans, this ~100m² spongy web is maintained by two species of solitary 🕷️. The 110K inhabitants feed on midges, probably because they can't see the other spiders.
🧪
subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/1623...
This is the Sunburst Candy Spider from Thailand. Not AI (sucks to have to declare this). Very real and had been on my wish list for a long time.
The taxonomic placement is unclear, so we are leaving it at Cyrtarachninae.
Spiders possess multiple types of silk glands, which produce silk materials with contrasting properties.
What happens if they combine different silks into a single line - Does this reinforce, even toughen, the silk thread?
We got some answers from cellar and cave spiders:
doi.org/10.1039/D5SM... 🔓
Dr. Jonas Wolff
Netcasting spiders modulate silk thread stiffness via a tailorable multi-fibre meta-structure to construct a web that is hyperelastic and high load-bearing at the same time.
Read about our discovery in PNAS: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🔓 & with video content!
zoologie.uni-greifswald.de/en/organizat...
We have an open PhD position in my group for someone interested in functional morphology, biology of reproduction and evolutionary biology. Please spread the word!🧪🕷🧪🕷🧪🕷🧪
Scientific conferences can be a bore. Can jokes liven them up?
Science Careers speaks with ecologist @stefanomammola.bsky.social about the power of humor to enhance science communication. https://scim.ag/4uCVf1N
On the beautiful island of Hiddensee for a writing retreat with @evoimec.bsky.social @multipleye-lab.bsky.social ✍🏼👩🏼💻 enormous thanks to @wolffspider.bsky.social for the invitation (and his trusty suitcase full of snacks...)
#outofoffice
Video
www.science.org
Science speaks with ecologist Stefano Mammola about the power of humor to enhance science communication
