Vivek Nityananda
@viveknityananda.bsky.social
I research behaviour, mostly with insects.
I write (Book out here: https://tinyurl.com/ypu67rb9; Play: https://tinyurl.com/cjscz4c4).
Illustration. Improv. Scicomm. Personal account. (He/Him) 🏳️🌈
website: www.viveknityananda.com
I write (Book out here: https://tinyurl.com/ypu67rb9; Play: https://tinyurl.com/cjscz4c4).
Illustration. Improv. Scicomm. Personal account. (He/Him) 🏳️🌈
website: www.viveknityananda.com
Pinned
Predator visual adaptations for breaking camouflage
iapetus.ac.uk
Do you want figure out how mantis 3D vision breaks camouflage and what prey can do to counter it?
Come work with our lab, @lenariab.bsky.social and Prof Julie Harris on a PhD project. Look at behaviour, brains and more and live in the beautiful Northeast of England!
iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Come work with our lab, @lenariab.bsky.social and Prof Julie Harris on a PhD project. Look at behaviour, brains and more and live in the beautiful Northeast of England!
iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
Holy shit the Mexico City Dia De Los Muertos parade this year is stunning stuff
www.instagram.com/popular/mexi...
www.instagram.com/popular/mexi...
October 31, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Holy shit the Mexico City Dia De Los Muertos parade this year is stunning stuff
www.instagram.com/popular/mexi...
www.instagram.com/popular/mexi...
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
🎉🎉🎉Yay! The Hooded Mergansers are back! They are the most art deco of all the ducks! Spotted on Central Park's Reservoir this #Marathon Sunday. #Merganser #CentralPark #birdsseenin2026
November 1, 2026 at 1:38 PM
🎉🎉🎉Yay! The Hooded Mergansers are back! They are the most art deco of all the ducks! Spotted on Central Park's Reservoir this #Marathon Sunday. #Merganser #CentralPark #birdsseenin2026
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
On Halloween, sharing all my freely readable horror stories online.
'Breaking Water'; nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, which traces the spiritual & social fallout of a pandemic of the undead in Kolkata (1st pub Reactor, '16, ed. Liz Gorinsky):
'Breaking Water'; nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, which traces the spiritual & social fallout of a pandemic of the undead in Kolkata (1st pub Reactor, '16, ed. Liz Gorinsky):
Breaking Water - Reactor
Krishna is quite unsettled when he bumps into a woman's corpse during his morning bath in Kolkata's Hooghly River, yet declines to do anything about it--after all, why should he take responsibility fo...
reactormag.com
October 31, 2026 at 1:31 PM
On Halloween, sharing all my freely readable horror stories online.
'Breaking Water'; nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, which traces the spiritual & social fallout of a pandemic of the undead in Kolkata (1st pub Reactor, '16, ed. Liz Gorinsky):
'Breaking Water'; nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, which traces the spiritual & social fallout of a pandemic of the undead in Kolkata (1st pub Reactor, '16, ed. Liz Gorinsky):
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
But we're not forced to adopt that perspective. We can focus on actual individuals as living organisms - dynamical regimes of interlocking processes - and see the genes as a collective, cooperative resource for "storing the settings" of this regime.
October 31, 2026 at 5:11 PM
But we're not forced to adopt that perspective. We can focus on actual individuals as living organisms - dynamical regimes of interlocking processes - and see the genes as a collective, cooperative resource for "storing the settings" of this regime.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
But that's very different from a more confused interpretation of competition between different genes (i.e., bits of DNA at different loci). There's no reason to think of genes in this sense competing with each other - they have to cooperate!
October 31, 2026 at 4:53 PM
But that's very different from a more confused interpretation of competition between different genes (i.e., bits of DNA at different loci). There's no reason to think of genes in this sense competing with each other - they have to cooperate!
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
The first situation is unproblematic - different versions of a gene (i.e., genetic variants at a single locus) can arise and in a metaphorical sense they "compete" with each other for transmission to the next generation
October 31, 2026 at 4:52 PM
The first situation is unproblematic - different versions of a gene (i.e., genetic variants at a single locus) can arise and in a metaphorical sense they "compete" with each other for transmission to the next generation
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
But these accounts can get confused if you don't keep straight whether we're talking about competition between alternate alleles of a single "gene" or supposed competition between separate gene loci across the genome
October 31, 2026 at 4:50 PM
But these accounts can get confused if you don't keep straight whether we're talking about competition between alternate alleles of a single "gene" or supposed competition between separate gene loci across the genome
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
Life is the dynamical pattern of processes that constitute a cell or a multicellular organism. The genome is an informational resource that stores the settings of this dynamical regime.
October 31, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Life is the dynamical pattern of processes that constitute a cell or a multicellular organism. The genome is an informational resource that stores the settings of this dynamical regime.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
But genes are NOT replicators. They get replicated. Replication is not something they DO. They're not agents and they're not alive.
October 31, 2026 at 4:42 PM
But genes are NOT replicators. They get replicated. Replication is not something they DO. They're not agents and they're not alive.
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
The Selfish Gene, 50 years on — it’s time for an update www.nature.com/articles/d41... - an interesting piece by @nccomfort.bsky.social, but peppered with red herrings, IMO...
The Selfish Gene, 50 years on — it’s time for an update
A focus on the gene alone has become outdated. Books that capture the complexity of life deserve centre stage.
www.nature.com
October 31, 2026 at 4:21 PM
The Selfish Gene, 50 years on — it’s time for an update www.nature.com/articles/d41... - an interesting piece by @nccomfort.bsky.social, but peppered with red herrings, IMO...
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD (ed. @jonathanstrahan.bsky.social) is out! I've a story in it, 'Passengers', that I'm v proud of, following high school students on a night train through Bengal in the 90s, two of whom journey unexpectedly to the event horizon of death's country. Sex, death & gender, as always 🖤
October 31, 2026 at 1:09 PM
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD (ed. @jonathanstrahan.bsky.social) is out! I've a story in it, 'Passengers', that I'm v proud of, following high school students on a night train through Bengal in the 90s, two of whom journey unexpectedly to the event horizon of death's country. Sex, death & gender, as always 🖤
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
📢Two fully funded #PhD options at @bristolbiosci.bsky.social:
Intergroup communication & conflict in mountain gorillas tinyurl.com/3b389a4s
@robinmorrison.bsky.social
Ecology and conservation of migratory birds under global change
tinyurl.com/5n7f79yk
@fyguo.bsky.social
📆Deadline: 13th Dec 2026
Intergroup communication & conflict in mountain gorillas tinyurl.com/3b389a4s
@robinmorrison.bsky.social
Ecology and conservation of migratory birds under global change
tinyurl.com/5n7f79yk
@fyguo.bsky.social
📆Deadline: 13th Dec 2026
October 30, 2026 at 3:54 PM
📢Two fully funded #PhD options at @bristolbiosci.bsky.social:
Intergroup communication & conflict in mountain gorillas tinyurl.com/3b389a4s
@robinmorrison.bsky.social
Ecology and conservation of migratory birds under global change
tinyurl.com/5n7f79yk
@fyguo.bsky.social
📆Deadline: 13th Dec 2026
Intergroup communication & conflict in mountain gorillas tinyurl.com/3b389a4s
@robinmorrison.bsky.social
Ecology and conservation of migratory birds under global change
tinyurl.com/5n7f79yk
@fyguo.bsky.social
📆Deadline: 13th Dec 2026
October 31, 2026 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
did a raccoon write this story
October 30, 2026 at 6:03 PM
did a raccoon write this story
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
"Neither a celebration of hedonism, nor conservative castigation of moral degradations, The Devils is about the elite roots of fascistic social contagion."
for @defector.com, i wrote about seeing Ken Russell's The Devils anew
for @defector.com, i wrote about seeing Ken Russell's The Devils anew
‘The Devils’ Gets Its Due | Defector
Aldous Huxley likened the exorcism of the prioress Jeanne des Anges to “a rape in a public lavatory.” It was this horrific description that director Ken Russell shared with production designer Derek J...
defector.com
October 30, 2026 at 3:53 PM
"Neither a celebration of hedonism, nor conservative castigation of moral degradations, The Devils is about the elite roots of fascistic social contagion."
for @defector.com, i wrote about seeing Ken Russell's The Devils anew
for @defector.com, i wrote about seeing Ken Russell's The Devils anew
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
can't tell you how happy I am they managed to get this over the line!
it felt like such an impossible ask, but collectively we might just be able to make this little corner of Northumberland a little bit better for the curlews and adders and beetles! 🕷️🙌🦆
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
it felt like such an impossible ask, but collectively we might just be able to make this little corner of Northumberland a little bit better for the curlews and adders and beetles! 🕷️🙌🦆
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Wildlife Trusts hit £30m target to buy and rewild huge Northumberland estate
About 25,000 members of public chip in £17m towards 3,800-hectare Rothbury estate, described as ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2026 at 3:32 PM
can't tell you how happy I am they managed to get this over the line!
it felt like such an impossible ask, but collectively we might just be able to make this little corner of Northumberland a little bit better for the curlews and adders and beetles! 🕷️🙌🦆
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
it felt like such an impossible ask, but collectively we might just be able to make this little corner of Northumberland a little bit better for the curlews and adders and beetles! 🕷️🙌🦆
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Arrives in Manchester. Involuntarily bursts into song from Hair. Every time.
youtu.be/p9-rzwTSE3s?...
youtu.be/p9-rzwTSE3s?...
Manchester, England
YouTube video by Paul Nicholas - Topic
youtu.be
October 30, 2026 at 3:46 PM
Arrives in Manchester. Involuntarily bursts into song from Hair. Every time.
youtu.be/p9-rzwTSE3s?...
youtu.be/p9-rzwTSE3s?...
Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
thinking about Patrick Stewart and Tim Curry and Dolly Parton and Catherine O’Hara and how many of the tributes shared after they died translate to something like “their art made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the world”
it is hard to think of a better way to spend a life than that
it is hard to think of a better way to spend a life than that
October 30, 2026 at 4:26 AM
thinking about Patrick Stewart and Tim Curry and Dolly Parton and Catherine O’Hara and how many of the tributes shared after they died translate to something like “their art made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the world”
it is hard to think of a better way to spend a life than that
it is hard to think of a better way to spend a life than that
Important reminder for National Trust members. Last day to vote is today.
If you’re a National Trust member, it’s time to vote for this year’s council at buff.ly/amlnQak. It took me less than a minute: just click ‘Quick Vote’ for the Trust’s approved candidates. It’s important, because as usual there are far-right infiltrators on the ballot. Deadline is 11.59pm on 30 Oct.
October 30, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Important reminder for National Trust members. Last day to vote is today.
Bunny hate tortoise
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Bunny is bugs?
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M'laria bunny
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October 30, 2026 at 11:49 AM
Bunny hate tortoise
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Reposted by Vivek Nityananda
Among India's finest journalists, one I've had the pleasure to commission, edit, and publish.
Brave, thorough, and deeply committed to truth telling.
Brave, thorough, and deeply committed to truth telling.
In a joint statement, the Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists and Arunachal Press Club condemned the inclusion of Tongam Rina’s name in the application for the search warrants and said that the move was “a serious threat to press freedom”.
scroll.in/latest/10967...
scroll.in/latest/10967...
October 30, 2026 at 9:47 AM
Among India's finest journalists, one I've had the pleasure to commission, edit, and publish.
Brave, thorough, and deeply committed to truth telling.
Brave, thorough, and deeply committed to truth telling.
