🚨We are looking for an early-career 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺! 💻This is a permanent post based in Aberdeen, with some flexibility to work from Dundee or Edinburgh, or remotely from home. ✅Further info: bioss.current-vacancies.com/Jobs/Advert/...

Social Science Statistician - Flexible Aberdeen/Dundee/Edinburgh

Are you keen to use your quantitative skills in tackling practical problems to improve our environment? BioSS (Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland) is looking for an innovative and motivated early-...

bioss.current-vacancies.com

OK, since this thread has blown up a bit, I think it's worth clarifying in a new thread to what extent the 'GenAI is asbestos for the mind' analogy might hold up, and where it breaks down (as even useful analogies always do): 1/n

Shannon Vallor@shannonvallor.bsky.social · 6d ago

We are soon going to have to come to grips with the fact that this shit is asbestos for the mind

I am once again begging everyone who supervises student theses to stop making students conduct mediation analyses because “a regression isn’t complicated enough for a thesis” 😭

Delighted to share this work from my PhD, which is now published in Animal Conservation: 🎉 zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Huge thanks to my co-authors, and to all the funders who supported this work. #MarineMammals #OffshoreWind #RenewableEnergy #AnimalMovement #Seals

🚨 We’re recruiting! 🚨 12‑month fixed‑term post for a senior ecological statistician with movement‑modelling expertise. The post is to build movement models for unique seabird + fish datasets, and contribute to major applied & methodological research on offshore renewable energy impacts.

Sports Commentary xkcd.com/3262/

We are delighted to announce that our BioSS colleague, Professor Iain McKendrick, has been appointed to the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, helping to protect the welfare of wild and companion animals and giving scientific and ethical advice to government. www.bioss.ac.uk/news-events/...

Iain McKendrick Appointed to the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission

Our BioSS colleague, Professor Iain McKendrick, has been appointed as a member of the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, helping to protect the welfare of wild and companion animals and giving scient...

bioss.ac.uk

there was also a Stanford study that found that a surge in AI slop by lazy people actually created significantly more work for others who had to decipher and correct it this "I'm being efficient" (but not really) vibes well with the American obsession with artifice and appearing productive

Stanford Study: ‘AI’ Generated ‘Workslop’ Actually Making Productivity Worse

Automation undeniably has some useful applications. But the folks hyping modern “AI” have not only dramatically overstated its capabilities, many of them generally view these tools as a…

techdirt.com

Dave Jamieson@jamieson.bsky.social · 7mo ago

AI Isn’t Lightening Workloads. It’s Making Them More Intense.: "It’s not that AI doesn’t create efficiency. It’s that the capacity it frees up immediately gets repurposed into doing other work, and that’s where the creep is likely to happen." www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-i...

Our Director @markjbrewer.bsky.social recently attended a meeting of the AI in Mathematical Sciences Working Group of the UK Knowledge Exchange Hub for Mathematical Sciences at Loughborough University. Click below to find out more!

BioSS at the UK Knowledge Exchange Hub for Mathematical Sciences' AI in Mathematical Sciences Working Group

Our Director Professor Mark Brewer attended a meeting of the AI in Mathematical Sciences Working Group of the UK Knowledge Exchange Hub for Mathematical Sciences at Loughborough University on the 26th...

bioss.ac.uk

AI often gets talked about as if it “thinks”. In reality, it is statistical. Our landmark paper argues that understanding this is essential for using AI safely, effectively and ethically. Read more: rss.org.uk/news-publica... Paper: rss.org.uk/RSS/media/Fi...

AI is statistical. That matters.

rss.org.uk

Back in the 1980s-2000s, there was an organization called Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility that worked to oppose irresponsible and dangerous uses of computers in warfare. Maybe it needs a reboot, in our new age of AI. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compute...

A new study from Anthropic finds that gains in coding efficiency when relying on AI assistance did did not meet statistical significance; AI use noticeably degraded programmers’ understanding of what they were doing. Incredible.

Pavel@spavel.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The latest from Anthropic: using Anthropic's products makes you worse at your job

UK government, I beg you: please please ban me from using Teams

France to ban officials from US video tools including Zoom, Teams

The government wants staff to shun Silicon Valley and shift to its home-grown Visio platform instead.

politico.eu

‘Terrible things are happening outside… Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return… to find their families gone.’ Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy arriving home, say school officials

Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to Texas

theguardian.com

Good decisions need good analysis! BioSS partnered with the Office for Environmental Protection to independently review how environmental trends are assessed. Read more on our website: www.bioss.ac.uk/case-studies... And the report: www.theoep.org.uk/commissioned...

SEFARI Gateway would like to extend a huge congratulations to our Knowledge Broker for the Environment, Professor Lorna Dawson has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List. 🎉 🔗 SEFARI Gateway Blog - tinyurl.com/LornaDawson

I wrote this brief talk on why “augmenting diversity” with LLMs is empirically unsubstantiable, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful and a nice surprise to see the organisers have made it public synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf

Just overheard my son, on the computer with his mates, using ‘you absolute AI’ as an insult.

Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’ AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a ‘disaster’ @aishadown.bsky.social for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’

AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a ‘disaster’

theguardian.com

Earlier this week, we came together in Edinburgh for our BioSS Rob Kempton Lecture & Annual General Meeting 2025. These two days were an excellent celebration of the diverse, impactful work BioSS continues to deliver for an ever-increasing range of stakeholders. Read more about it on our website:

BioSS Rob Kempton Lecture & Annual General Meeting 2025

Over Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th November, BioSS came together to meet in Edinburgh for our 2025 Rob Kempton Lecture and Annual General Meeting.

bioss.ac.uk

Our colleagues Esther Jones and @kateywhyte.bsky.social contributed to delivering a multi-generational workshop, bringing together young people, educators, academics, and industry leaders. 🌍 Read more about the project here: www.bioss.ac.uk/case-studies... Funded by @sefariscot.bsky.social.

Adapting Education to the Climate Transition: A collaborative workshop for change

BioSS participated in a multi-actor and multi-generational workshop on rethinking how education meets the demands of the climate transition.

bioss.ac.uk

Say what you want, but these companies’ commitment to releasing half baked, insecure, or just plain dangerous products is something to behold.

AI browsers are here, and they're already being hacked

Hackers can target AI browsers with prompts hidden in websites.

nbcnews.com

Our colleagues @spcatterall.bsky.social & Martin Knight attended the ModStatSAP network UK - France Workshop 2025 in Paris last week and presented work on “Modelling disease spread when the populations at risk are poorly mapped” & “Disease risk-based trading in the Scottish cattle trading system”

This year’s SEFARI Science for Life Lecture, hosted by @bioss.bsky.social, was delivered by David G. Farquhar FRGS - a talk that championed throwing out the rule book and finding your niche. As he put it, ‘Science is a chance to be daring.’

We tried to tell y'all to stop calling everything "AI" many years ago and you just wouldn't listen and now the poor machine learners must also suffer alongside the statisticians 😜

Sharon 🪳🌹@sharonk.bsky.social · 12mo ago

so I can explain this: it's not generative AI: it's usually deep learning models trained on meteorology tasks and it can be quite effective

Check out this new publication from our Dave Ewing, on tracking the spread of #AvianInfluenza inside a #seabird colony. 📰 Read the summary: www.bioss.ac.uk/case-studies... 📕 Read the full paper: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @daveewing.bsky.social @animalecology.bsky.social

Inside a Seabird Colony: Tracking the Spread of Avian Influenza

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has caused unprecedented mortality in wild birds and led to the culling of millions of poultry worldwide. Since 2021, this ongoing global outbreak has severely...

bioss.ac.uk

Kind reminder that the registration deadline for the SEFARI Science for Life Lecture 2025 is today! tinyurl.com/mv3smw57 "Giving life to your science so it impacts the transformation of agriculture, environment and society" by David G Farquhar FRGS 🗓️Friday Oct 24th ⏰12:30 - 3:30pm 📍Edinburgh

BioSS@bioss.bsky.social · last yr.

Join us at the SEFARI Science for Life Lecture 2025! Giving life to your science so it impacts the transformation of agriculture, environment and society by David G Farquhar FRGS 🗓️Friday Oct 24th ⏰12:30 - 3:30pm 📍Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue Register by 17th Oct: tinyurl.com/mv3smw57

🎉 A HUGE congratulations to the winners of the ENRA conference poster session 🥇Oana Petre @rowettinstitute.bsky.social 🥈Amanpreet Kaur @hutton.ac.uk 🥉Gillian Mitchell @moredunfoundation.bsky.social The early career researcher prize went to Grant Henderson @bioss.bsky.social

📢 Last chance for the 2025 SEFARI Science for Life Lecture organised by @bioss.bsky.social! How can we better deploy science to create impact? - David G Farquhar FRGS 🗓️Friday Oct 24th ⌛12:30 - 3:30pm 📍Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue Register by tomorrow! 17th Oct: tinyurl.com/mv3smw57

Science for Life Lecture

Science for Life Lecture hosted by Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland

tinyurl.com