Britt DK Gratreak 🖖 @Britt@qoto.org

#introduction time!
I am a social systems biologist.
I study how evolution created social life.
I study ant colonies as a model for development.
I study the evolution and impact of socially transferred materials.
I lead the Lab of Social Fluids at University of Fribourg.
I am also the founder of The Catalyst, a science entertainment collective.
I am passionate about scicomm, gender equality, and making academia a better place.

@DrRoo I am so sorry. We will make this a better place for all.

Hey, I'm feeling a bit lost here, but coming from Twitter, where I followed the Covid science and data, Zero-Covid people, mask-wearers and the #actuallyautistic hashtag. #longcovid #covidisnotover #wearamask

Hi all! I've been using the handle toorsdenote for YEARS, but if I'm leaving Twitter I might as well mix things up with my username as well!

Pandion is the genus of the osprey. Toorsdenote aside, almost all my handles over the years have been birds of prey, so it seemed fitting. :)

I'm concerned the honeymoon period is already over as I've had to block and report 3 accounts this morning for unprovoked attacks. 1 "gender critic" aka transphobe, because I'm a trans inclusive feminist and 2 for sexual harrassment.

I wish so much this would be a kinder, inclusive place. I know a social media utopia doesn't exist but damn, I'd hoped the good vibes would've lasted longer 😔

Anyway, I wish everyone a lovely day, filled kindness and inclusion.

#trolls #GoodMorning #BeKind

This is kind of an odd thing to post but I really want to emphasise how important it is to have political content behind a CW tag, and not boost posts that don’t adhere to that convention. Same thing applies with images and alt text. For those of us who have moved over from twitter I think it’s important that we pay attention to this. Mastodon isn’t twitter and we should really try to think carefully about how we interact here

Time for an #introduction. Nervous systems — yours, mine, those of mice, fish, and insects and worms — are made up of populations of different kinds of neurons that communicate with one another. Current electron microscopy generates millimeter-scale volumes with the morphology and synaptic connectivity of up to 10^5 neurons. As a scientist at the Allen Institute, I am mapping out the cell types and connectivity rules found in cortex and building computational tools to help others do the same.

After 1 week on #Mastodon, the biggest difference I notice compared to #Twitter is the way each network makes me feel.

Twitter:
Open, scroll…
“Why are people so horrible to each other?”

Mastodon:
Open, scroll…
“Wow! There are so many interesting people in the world! I want to know more of them.”

I sense being here is changing my perspective of social media. #TwitterMigration

The collapse of Twitter is a system breakdown. Mastodon and the fediverse represent something different: _system change_. From for-profit "Big Tech" to nonprofit, open source, community-owned public spaces.

System change is always harder than you think. It always incurs short-term costs, with hoped for long-term benefits.

The next few weeks will be really tough for the fediverse. Stick around, vibe with it, and you just might help us put a huge part of the web back in community hands. <3

Question: Lots of people are putting screenshots / pics in their Toots, but I can’t see them? I can see the writing, but not the pic?

I click on them, still can’t see them?

I have ‘Hide media marked as sensitive’ ticked
And ‘Always expand posts with content warnings’ Unticked.

So why can’t I see all these pics?
Apologies for the basic level of this question!
#NewHere

@bmatb thanks for posting this, I found a lot of great folks to follow!

I’m a queer (bi/pan agender) evolutionary ecologist, currently a PhD candidate studying how hormones in eggs influence wild bird growth and development! My MSc work was on baby bird growth and the environment. I like to pretend I use these platforms for science communication, but I tend to post about life in general most of the time!

One of my fav Mastodon cultural norms is taking #consent seriously by posting CWs (content warnings) on posts that can make social media heavy or toxic. Like US election coverage, media coverage of violence, etc. As well as nudity, NSFW, etc.
If you don’t use them I’ll unfollow.

Hey there I'm Sarah McAnulty!

I'm a squid biologist on a mission to bring joy to as many people as possible while learning about squid!

I drive the SquidMobile, host a squid facts hotline (text SQUID to 1-833-SCI-TEXT), & have a street art campaign celebrating these amazing animals!