@mikebok

Researcher @LundVision interested in the evolution of vision in invertebrates. Middling photographer. 🐘@mikebok@ecoevo.social 🟦@mikebok.bsky.social

 Lund, Sweden
michaelbok.com
Joined November 2009
  • Tweets3.3K
  • Following511
  • Followers1.6K
770Media
The @lunduniversity press office made a great video about our recent paper on the amazing eyes of alciopid polychaetes! youtu.be/CHPFe4rBIMc?si=u5a8… @Biology_LU @LundVision
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..with a huge payoff, in gradual steps: ✅Choice of right depth ✅Body posture ✅Visually - guided locomotion, eventually 7/n
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Most bilaterians keep photoreceptor types separate. But vertebrate eyes are a mash-up: 🪡Ciliary (rods & cones) and 💈Rhabdomeric (ganglion, amacrine, horizontal) …all packed into a multilayered circuit. 2/n
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👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians! So how did it evolve? With @mikebok, @NeuroFishh and Dan-Eric Nilsson, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… 1/n
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Super excited to have received a @HFSP grant with @NeuroFishh for our proposal - Eyes inside out: Visual coding without a multilayered retina in squid and worms.
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We will peer across a 500 million year chasm of convergent evolution to discover how high resolution camera eyes in cephalopods and polychetes function without the elaborate local circuitry found in the vertebrate retina.
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Hyperspectral Imager paper out! High sensitivity UV to nearIR, radiance & reflectance, runs from a smartphone. Build the system for about $450 from 3D printed parts & off-the-shelf components. Paper: doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-0… Intro video: youtube.com/watch?v=9q8lyUpn…

A hyperspectral open-source imager (HOSI)

BMC Biology - The spatial and spectral properties of the light environment underpin many aspects of animal behaviour, ecology and evolution, and quantifying this information is crucial in fields...

link.springer.com
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🚨PhD siren #2!🚨A 4 year PhD project based in Exeter with @SensoryEcology in collaboration with us taking a deep dive into the visually-guided colour change behaviour of chameleon prawns🦐Funded by SWBio DTP to start in Sept 2025! Apply here: swbio.ac.uk/animal-behaviour…
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My collaborator, Anders Garm, is advertising a 2 year postdoc position in Copenhagen working on our awesome project with googly-eyed alciopid polychaetes. Applications are due 15 Dec! Apply here: candidate.hr-manager.net/App…
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I am thrilled to announce publication of a new paper led by Seth Frazer, showing we can accurately predict opsin phenotypes from their gene sequences academic.oup.com/gigascience…...

GigaScience | Oxford Academic

Co-published with BGI, GigaScience is an open access and open-data journal that aims to revolutionize reproducibility of analyses, data dissemination, organization, understanding, and use in the...

academic.oup.com
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We are excited to offer a DAAD Rise internship this coming summer (~May-August) for NA/UK/IRE undergraduate students! Interested in insect vision👀, quantitative behaviour🧮, and movement tracking🦋? Get in touch with us and/or apply here: rise-germany.de/offer/offers…
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Biennial politics post for US friends: Please go vote! 🇺🇸 And if you live in a swing state, anything you do besides voting for Harris is voting for Trump. There is nothing important to liberals or progressives that won't be made worse by Trump. votesaveamerica.com/
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If you care about the environment, there is only one rational choice. If you care about civil/human rights, there is only one rational choice. If you care about democracy, there is only one rational choice. Save pointless 3rd parties for the alternate reality where they matter
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#molluscmonday!
Ryan Howard@AbyssalAquanaut16 Sep 2024
This picture highlights the extreme difference in sizes between the left and right eyes of Histioteuthid squids. These eyes come from the species Histioteuthis miranda, which are found around New Zealand. #TeamStrawberry #BestSquid #Squidtember 📸: @AbyssalAquanaut
Two eyes from a Histioteuthis squid, aka a Strawberry Squid, lay side by side. One eye is larger than the other, but both come from the same specimen. This highlights the unique dimorphic eyes this genus possesses.

ALT Two eyes from a Histioteuthis squid, aka a Strawberry Squid, lay side by side. One eye is larger than the other, but both come from the same specimen. This highlights the unique dimorphic eyes this genus possesses.

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Hi neuro people: What is the current though on cephalization in bilaterians? Was there probably a significant CNS in urbilateria, or did brains evolve more than once in the major bilaterian lineages?
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Replying to @mikebok
Don't make me tap the sign: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.23…

The function and consequences of fluorescence in tetrapods | PNAS

Fluorescence, the optical phenomenon whereby short-wavelength light is absorbed and emitted at longer wavelengths, has been widely described in aqu...

pnas.org
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It is exceedingly unlikely that this is visible to anything in a natural light environment. Black light photos of animals are fun, but extremely misleading to the public and to researchers unspecialized in sensory ecology. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.23…

The function and consequences of fluorescence in tetrapods | PNAS

Fluorescence, the optical phenomenon whereby short-wavelength light is absorbed and emitted at longer wavelengths, has been widely described in aqu...

pnas.org
Science Magazine
@ScienceMagazine3 Sep 2024
Bats are known for navigating their surroundings by way of echolocation. But a new study reveals some species of these creatures of the night may also glow under ultraviolet light to signal their presence to others. scim.ag/8ey @NewsfromScience

Some bats may use ultraviolet glowing toes to communicate with their kin

The study is the first to identify UV glowing in live bats

science.org
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Science Magazine
@ScienceMagazine3 Sep 2024
Bats are known for navigating their surroundings by way of echolocation. But a new study reveals some species of these creatures of the night may also glow under ultraviolet light to signal their presence to others. scim.ag/8ey @NewsfromScience

Some bats may use ultraviolet glowing toes to communicate with their kin

The study is the first to identify UV glowing in live bats

science.org
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Why is it always like this?
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Final session of #icn2024berlin with @mikebok and @meganlinnay presenting fascinating research on invertebrate vision.
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