This is extremely chilling - virologists being targeted for what appears to be minor (if any) "offenses". We all know _why_ this is happening, so I'm not going to belabor that point - but I want to provide some context on the technical details. 🧵 www.science.org/content/arti...

Abstract submissions to the first EEID Asia Pacific Conference close in two weeks on the 19th of June! Submit/register here: eeid-asiapacific.org

It’s exciting to see the hugely popular EEID conference starting new regional chapters, with the first Asia Pacific EEID conference kicking off in Tasmania, Australia this year. If you’re interested in the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases, we’d love to see you @eeidforum.bsky.social

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease Conference (EEID) has made its way to the Asia-Pacific! Come join us in Hobart to open this new chapter and build capacity and networks in the region: eeid-asiapacific.org

Hi all! The Brook lab is hiring a new lab manager, ideally starting sometime in summer 2026. Please submit a CV and cover letter to the linked application on our website to apply: brooklab.org/join. Application review begins on June 9 and will be rolling thereafter!

Male bats sing in the rotor-swept zone of wind turbines www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/museum/me...

"This is a momentous and epic decision, something I wasn’t sure I’d see in my lifetime" - Dr Rob Davis, Edith Cowan University The APVMA is recommending that second-generation anticoagulant rat baits be banned from consumer sale. au.news.yahoo.com/bunnings-col...

Registration for the 2026 Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases conference at Virginia Tech is now open! Come join us June 2-4 for great science in a picturesque setting. Register here by May 1 (early registration is encouraged due to capacity limitations): cpe.vt.edu/eeid2026/reg...

NEW MARSUPIALS

🦇 Grey-headed flying foxes are one mobile colony, from Meanjin to Kaurna Country. Essential pollinators, each year travelling and feeding on the nectar, pollen and rainforest fruit of east coast forests. Send an urgent email details on the link 👉🏽 animalsaustralia.org/our-work/wil...

New preprint from our Gates-funded Modjadji initiative showing that whole-genome surveillance of measles virus from wastewater greatly expands our ability for monitoring and control. Here, with our colleagues in South Africa - U.S., unfortunately, likely up next. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Using our bee-tracking drone, we discovered that honey bees 🐝 have highly precise and individual routes. Now published at @currentbiology.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

What could possibly go wrong? “Staff members at the United States’s premier infectious-disease research institute have been instructed to remove the words “biodefense” and “pandemic preparedness” from the institute’s web pages” 🧪🦠 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New paper from our Australia Hendra virus project! Juvenile animals often drive seasonal pathogen transmission. In our case, we find no evidence juvenile bats drive seasonal Hendra virus spillover events in Australia. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

With thanks to @jennbarr.bsky.social for the reminder re #NipahVirus #OneHealth research progress 🌏 A recent global meeting in Geelong brought together experts to share advances in vaccines & treatments, viral mechanisms, genetic diversity, and the bat ecology behind spillovers 🦇🔬 bit.ly/3Mx6kjM

🌐🦠 #NipahVirus in the news, but not a 'new global threat' Two cases in India & a newly reported death in Bangladesh, serious, but outbreaks stay small as it does not spread easily between people. Sensationalism doesn’t help, check AuCDC & WHO websites for advice. bit.ly/4rHGg4E

A little over 12 months ago, 150 scientists from 16 countries gathered in Geelong to reflect on the past 30 years of henipavirus research, current developments and future directions. The outcomes of that meeting are detailed in our recent publication in EID below. wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

Fabulous piece by Dani Anderson from the @thedohertyinst.bsky.social about the dangers of the media inflating the risk of small, well contained Nipah virus outbreaks. Do yourself a favour and take a read. www.doherty.edu.au/news-events/...

#Bats🦇 play a vital role in ecosystems, from agricultural land to tropical forests. In tropical zones some species pollinate plants and disperse seeds while approximately 70% of the 1500 described bat species eat insects, including ones that can damage crops. www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/w...

Pretty amazingly, THE WA EPA RECOMMENDED IN FAVOUR OF FRACKING IN THE KIMBERLEY One week left - please send an (easy) appeal to protect the Kimberley's wetlands from fracking (via Environs Kimberley) www.environskimberley.org.au/epa_submissi...

"Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment" SpaceX is 100% correct about this, even if their proposed solution is hollow nonsense www.spacex.com/updates#xai-...

🎧 At min 8 @alibat.bsky.social explains why #NipahVIrus isn't a pandemic threat 🦇 1️⃣ Infection contracted by consuming fruit/sap contaminated with bat saliva/urine 2️⃣ h2h spread is difficult 3️⃣ The Indian West Bengal outbreak is contained 4️⃣ Nipah‑carrying bats aren’t found in Australia bit.ly/4ka9pTg

Do you remember when people were saying "I think my phone is listening to me, i'm getting ads for stuff I spoke about" and people said "They arent listening to you, they're just this good at predicting your interests"? Well, it happens they were doing exactly that. www.cbsnews.com/news/google-...

That exodus…represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or health fields employed at the end of 2024 as then-President Joe Biden prepared to leave office.

@pducambridge.bsky.social is looking for a new lab administrator (0.5 FTE) - come and join in pushing forward our research and impact in infectious disease! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Want to get the data out of a PDF figure? As in, the actual data – not a rough trace-along-the-lines version? I made an app you might like: adamkucharski.github.io/pdf2plot/ It all started a few years ago... 🧵

With @eebdennis.bsky.social and many great partners already involved, we believe we can do more to link movement tracking data and wildlife diseases. The Move Disease Archive (MDA) is one step in this direction. Have a look and don't hesitate to get in touch if you're interested!

Flying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s black summer

So sad. Flying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s black summer

Reposting to make sure it reaches the intended audience. Note that the call is opened to both international applicants and Canadians currently abroad. Internal pre-application package is due Jan 14, so make sure you get in touch asap if interested!

🦇 Two PhD positions available on our new ARC Discovery Grant: "From Diversity to Disease: Viral Ecology, Evolution and Persistence in Bats" The project will investigate how viral diversity evolves and persists, with a particular focus on recently discovered henipaviruses in Australian flying foxes.

Fantastic news from ABC Science today: a wonderful donor - former librarian Ms Margaret Bales - has given $1 million to establish a Science Journalist Fellowship Program. www.abc.net.au/about/the-ab...

ARC says they’ll announce DECRA and LIEF outcomes tomorrow (Tuesday 25th Nov). In recent times these announcements have been around 11am Canberra time. With 2 schemes on the same day, I assume they’ll announce one of them later in the day (probably DECRA first).

Where to start, with a statement like this? "Tim Ayres said the cuts were aimed at refocusing … CSIRO towards research priorities, such as critical minerals, iron & steel production in Australia." From some rando down the bus stop, one would brush it off. But this is from our Science Minister 🤯

Thrilled to see this finally announced - and glad to see good things still happening to good people! Congratulations to Pardis, Christian, and the rest of the Sentinel team! 👏🥳 www.macfound.org/press/press-...

“CSIRO has announced it will slash up to 350 jobs as the national science agency grapples with long-term financial challenges … with current funding failing to keep pace with the rising costs of running a modern science agency.” Not “challenges”. They’re choices. 😡

First outbreak of Marburg (or Ebola) in Ethiopia. There isn't a licensed vaccine for Marburg, but an experimental one was used for a 2024 outbreak in Rwanda (www.science.org/content/arti...).

Applications are open for the Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (PDEP)—supporting postdocs as they advance cutting-edge research and build thriving scientific careers. Learn more & apply: bwfund.org/pdep #bwfpdep

Okay so as promised... let's go through this paper and why it matters 🧵 #medsky #immunosky #idsky

Our paper on the phenomenon of persistence and latency in Ebola virus in an unobserved reservoir is finally out in preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dunno if youse are across this... but it's forecast that in Sydney on Wednesday the temp will be 38C. (100 F) It's OCTOBER! That's FIFTEEN DEGREES ABOVE AVERAGE! Our Government and fossil fuel companies are determined to cook us alive! Boil the oceans. Kill our forests. Turn habitat to ash.🥺😩

… today, a group of 160 scientists from 23 countries is announcing that the planet has already reached its first major tipping point: the widespread death of warm-water coral reefs.

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

An ode to the written word.

This is desperately sad. Professor John Woinarski breaks the news for @aunz.theconversation.com that Australia's next animal - the tiny Christmas Island Shrew - has officially been declared extinct. theconversation.com/and-then-the...

Aww shucks, thanks so much @wdaa.bsky.social I love the sense of “being amongst my people” that the WDAA community brings & am so honoured to have been recognised in this way by that community. Thanks so much to the committee, my nominator & all my students/collaborators for their contributions 🦇

An interesting ZOLA (Zoonotic Risk Mitigation in Live Animal Markets) PhD research project for a Bangladeshi candidate [email protected] for more info

"Israel's policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)". www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

An announcement of famine — as has now happened regarding Gaza — is a complicated decision. Here's what must be considered before such a declaration is made.