# acad: gender gaps in grant success; women are valued less favorably as principal investigators.

<< Funding agencies around the world show gender gaps in grant success, with women often receiving less funding than men. However, these studies have been observational and some have not accounted for potential confounding variables, making it difficult to draw robust conclusions about whether gaps were due to bias or to other factors >>

In AA study << gender gaps in grant success rates were significantly larger when there was an explicit review focus on the principal investigator, supporting the hypothesis that gender gaps in grant funding are partly or wholly attributable to women being assessed less favourably as principal investigators >>

Holly O Witteman, Michael Hendricks, et al. Female grant applicants are equally successful when peer reviewers assess the science, but not when they assess the scientist. bioRxiv 232868; doi: 10.1101/232868. Dec 12, 2017.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/12/12/232868

https://twitter.com/biorxivpreprint/status/940718114861436928 

# evol: about 'identity' (2): the complex relationships of whales and dolphins

<< Whales and dolphins (Cetaceans) live in tightly-knit social groups, have complex relationships, talk to each other and even have regional dialects – much like human societies >>

<< (..) they won’t ever mimic our great metropolises and technologies because they didn’t evolve opposable thumbs >> Susanne Shultz

Whales and dolphins have rich 'human-like' cultures and societies.  Oct 16, 2017

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/whales-and-dolphins-have-rich-human-like-cultures-and-societies/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171016122201.htm

AA << results suggest that cetacean [whales and dolphins] social cognition might similarly have arisen to provide the capacity to learn and use a diverse set of behavioural strategies in response to the challenges of social living >>

Kieran C.R. Fox, Michael Muthukrishna, Susanne Shultz. The social and cultural roots of whale and dolphin brains. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2017; 1: 1699–705.  doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0336-y. Oct 16, 2017.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0336-y

# evol-ethno: the fuzzy dispersal and interaction dynamics of ancient (early) nomads

AA << evaluate single versus multiple dispersal models and southern versus the northern dispersal routes across the Asian continent. They also review behavioral and environmental variability and how these may have affected modern human dispersals and interactions with indigenous populations >>

Christopher J. Bae, Katerina Douka, Michael D. Petraglia. On the origin of modern humans: Asian perspectives. Science. 2017; 358 (6368): eaai9067
doi: 10.1126/science.aai9067. Dec 8, 2017

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6368/eaai9067

<< Homo sapiens reached distant parts of the Asian continent, as well as Near Oceania, much earlier than previously thought. Additionally, evidence that modern humans interbred with other hominins already present in Asia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, complicates the evolutionary history of our species >>

Revising the story of the dispersal of modern humans across Eurasia. Technological advances and multidisciplinary research teams are reshaping our understanding of when and how humans left Africa - and who they met along the way. Dec 7, 2017

http://www.shh.mpg.de/742617/human-dispersals-africa

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171207141724.htm

<< Climate is a key factor determining the types of vegetation that can grow in an ecosystem. By recreating the plant foods and habitat available at a given time, it is possible to learn about changes that occurred during important transitions in the evolution of humans >>

Marie DeNoia Aronsohn. The Way We Were: Climate and Human Evolution. Dec 1, 2017.

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-12-wereclimate-human-evolution.html 

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/12/01/the-way-we-were-climate-and-human-evolution/

# gst: predicting the exact force needed to crumple a dented can

<< Dent an aluminum can and it will be easier to crush from top to bottom. But predicting the exact force needed to crumple a dented can is notoriously difficult, requiring knowledge of the exact dimensions and position of the flaw >>

Katherine Wright. Synopsis: Crumpling Coke Cans. Nov 28, 2017

https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.224101

AA << measure the response of cylindrical shells to poking and identify a stability landscape, which fully characterizes the stability of perfect shells and imperfect ones in the case where a single defect dominates >>

Emmanuel Virot, Tobias Kreilos, et al.  Stability Landscape of Shell Buckling. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 224101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.224101.  Nov 28,  2017

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.224101  

# gst-ecol: around 'extreme dust scenarios'

they << saw an extreme dust scenario >>

Jim Robbins. Unraveling the surprising ecology of dust. Dec 1, 2017

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-12-unraveling-ecology.html

AA << developed a new snow albedo decay parameterization based on observations in 2009/10 to mimic the radiative forcing of extreme dust deposition >>

J. S. Deems, T. H. Painter, et al.  Combined impacts of current and future dust deposition and regional warming on Colorado River Basin snow dynamics and hydrology. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 2013; 17: 4401-13. doi: org/10.5194/hess-17-4401-2013

https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/17/4401/2013/hess-17-4401-2013.html

S. McKenzie Skiles, Thomas H. Painter, et al. Regional variability in dust-on-snow processes and impacts in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Hydrological Processes. 2015; 29 (26); 5397–413. doi: 10.1002/hyp.10569. Jul 14, 2015

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hyp.10569/abstract;jsessionid=?

Christopher M. Taylor, Danijel Belusic, et al. Frequency of extreme Sahelian storms tripled since 1982 in satellite observations. Nature 2017; 544: 475–8. doi:10.1038/nature22069.  Apr 27, 2017.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22069

FonT

una intrigante introduzione circa l'importanza, nelle prospettive ecologica e sanitaria, delle (caotiche) dinamiche di sbricio-lamento ...

# lang: about 'identity'; acquisition of dialects among bats

<< Young bats adopt a specific 'dialect' spoken by their own colonies, even when this dialect differs from the bat 'mother tongue' >>

<< the study calls into question the uniqueness of this skill in humans >>

Young bats learn bat 'dialects' from their nestmates. Language acquisition not limited to human beings. Oct 31, 2017.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171031143723.htm

Yosef Prat, Lindsay Azoulay, et al. Crowd vocal learning induces vocal dialects in bats: Playback of conspecifics shapes fundamental frequency usage by pups. PLOS  Biology 15(10): e2002556. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2002556. Oct 31, 2017.

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2002556  

# behav: generous bonobo

<< Modern humans live in an “exploded” network with unusually large circles of trust that form due to prosociality toward unfamiliar people (i.e. xenophilia). In a set of experiments [AA] demonstrate that semi-free ranging bonobos (Pan paniscus) – both juveniles and young adults – also show spontaneous responses consistent with xenophilia >>

Jingzhi Tan, Dan Ariely, Brian Hare. Bonobos respond prosocially toward members of other groups. Scientific Reports  2017; 7 (14733). doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-15320-w. Nov 7, 2017.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-15320-w

Robin A. Smith. Bonobos Help Strangers Without Being Asked. Humans aren’t the only species eager to make a good first impression. Nov 7, 2017.

https://today.duke.edu/2017/11/bonobos-help-strangers-without-being-asked

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171107122904.htm