A week after the arXiv was forced to tighten down on submissions because of overwhelming volumes of AI slop, bioRxiv is throwing the doors wide open.

Almost PhDone! I'll be giving my PhD exit seminar in the morning (Thursday), and defending on Friday.

The US funds the bulk of biomedical research globally by far. It's not like other countries can simply take up the slack. The more likely: people leave research, new people don't become researchers. There is no happy ending. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake go.nature.com/3X5lbUg

"The project that was terminated was on this hummingbird, the white-necked jacobin....I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary." Researcher @jjinsing.bsky.social interviewed by @carlzimmer.com #birds #nature #science #fundscience #nonbinary 🧪

Yet another example of the importance of natural history collections. Here, helping to address two questions: • Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways) • What sets range limits 🧪

Check out the recent publication in Annual Reviews of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics where the authors explore genomic species delimitation in depth. You'll see a number of #sciart figures I created to help explain some of the concepts! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Why fundamental research is fundamental to progress, seeding major breakthroughs Editorial @nature.com this week And 7 basic science discoveries that changed the world nature.com/articles/d41... nature.com/articles/d41...

Majority of grants in my portfolio did not change titles... but they did have to edit their summaries and narratives. Mostly to remove any indication that their training grant would work to be inclusive and support a diverse cohort.

New story up on the non-existent banned words from NIH grants (based on my grant title, word cloud analysis) www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n... 1/3

I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

friend shared this, immediately updated my settings

Smart people keep saying… “AI technologies severely impede humans’ ability to learn and retain skills… Rather than expanding our intellectual horizons, these technologies undermine the very conditions that allow us to think for ourselves.”

One of the things I love most about my colleagues is that we were collectively asked how the in-house AI slop machine could be used and we all simply said "no, that's stupid we will not do that" And management caved

Grateful for UC Faculty Association leaders. UCLA's Faculty Association and our UC-wide council pushed the Regents for transparency. When push came to shove, they sued over it. This is a matter of public interest. Californians deserve to know about Trump's attempt to ransom the UC. Thank you CUCFA!

Here it is: the Trump Administration "draft proposal" to the University of California. Published bc faculty sued for its disclosure. Its terms go beyond what Trump demands in similar compacts to other universities. EVERYONE should read: faculty, students, admins, alumni. ucop.edu/communicatio...

New Ecologist and Research Support roles for a project in Northern Ireland! @bto-ni.bsky.social Discover more and apply at www.bto.org/jobs These positions are supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). #Ornithology #Ecology

POSTDOC JOB AD: I'm hiring a Bayesian ecologist to build a (IMO, extremely fun) model of humpback whale spatiotemporal dynamics in California 2-year position starting fall 2026. in-person in Santa Cruz; collab w with Mevin Hooten's lab at UT Austin. ask me Qs or apply: recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF02003

We’re hiring a doctoral researcher in the area of migration ecology. The work will focus on the question of how and when migratory songbirds learn where their home is using #Motus. Part of the Cluster of Excellence NaviSense and linked with @sfb1372.bsky.social uol.de/job788en #ornithology

Court document reveals that the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area would be cut severely, and maybe entirely, along with critical natural resource management staff. This would be devastating for our public lands!

#ornithology act.audubon.org/a/audubon-in...

We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT

If you're already a WOS member, now is the time to renew for 2026—and if you're not, it's a great time to join! We strive to provide professional development and community for everyone involved in #ornithology. wilsonsociety.org/membershipbe...

I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.

I'm very excited to announce that UNC Biology has 6 faculty positions open this year! The first is for an Asst Professor who studies organismal resilience using an integrative approach 1/n unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

A Crushing Year for Science in America

So great to have this work led by @devonderaad.bsky.social covered by an Evolution Digest!

🥳 My latest digest for Evolution is now available online! Digest: Postzygotic isolation barriers stabilize a hybrid zone between two grosbeak species academic.oup.com/evolut/advan... Original paper: academic.oup.com/evolut/advan... #ornithology

I'm the incoming SSE president and am behind this idea -- if you're interested in putting together an app and have questions, pls reach out!

Federal researchers are confronting growing uncertainty about their future, as the 10-day-old shutdown of the U.S. government is now poised to extend into at least next week. https://scim.ag/4n1uy22

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

Found this just incredibly depressing, more than anything.

Apart from the massive invasion of academic freedom that this compact demands, MIT simply does not want a special leg up—it wants "open competition for excellence." "In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences." A stunning rebuke.

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration. MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone." orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Apply to become the next MSU EEB Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow! These are two year positions with research stipend, working with 2+ MSU EEB faculty. Applications due 10 November 2025. More here: eeb.msu.edu/initiatives/...

I clearly had a lot of thoughts/feelings from reading Terry's blog post, so I wrote one of my own It ended up being a bit of a stream-of-thought post but I think it captures some of my worries benharrap.com/post/2025-10... #statssky #episky #academicsky

I'm editing and putting the finishing touches on a grant proposal. The though of having AI write the whole thing or even a part of it is pretty unthinkable. When you write you see what you truly know. It forces you to think and troubleshoot your logic. (1/3)

A Cornell University researcher has been developing an artificial heart for children for more than 20 years. Now, his research is on hold and his lab is shut down. n.pr/3KIfcSn

If you have enjoyed the artwork of the March Mammal Madness team #2025MMM but have been waiting for an instrumental moment to financially express your appreciation- now is a GREAT time :-D

i can say with confidence that this is how most faculty senate meetings discussing the 'compact' would go down. it's terrible and seen for what it is - trump's effort to end university autonomy in favor of rw dominance. faculty get it. the question is whether administrators do.

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below. It's especially for journalists covering this story! Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

this is, predictably, some wild reading

I, a University Administrator, am very much interested in signing a vague agreement with someone who has persistently operated in bad faith, breaks agreements, and has dictatorial fantasies. #Satire

Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:

UC’s Academic Council calls on the Office of the President & the UC Board of Regents to unequivocally reject governmental demands that compromise institutional autonomy and #academicfreedom. This is the way. #DefendHigherEd

*Postdoc in Evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University* We are recruiting a postdoc for a large interdisciplinary project to investigate evolutionary drivers and genomic consequences of pollen evolution in response to pollination mode shifts in flowering plants. 1/5 su.varbi.com/what:job/job...

South Bay folks, close your windows and mask up. If you're driving, set air to recycle. The Chevron refinery in El Segundo just blew up. citizen.com/-OacL7_yVyF5...

Ornithology is all about the process. #GoBills | #BillsMafia

The Bills social media team is unmatched in complete and utter randomness.