Natural history is dying; long live the natural historians In which I manage to make one of the oldest systematic anxieties in ecology and evolutionary biology about my personal natural historical imposter syndrome

Natural history is dying; long live the natural historians

A Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) contemplates natural history on the Oregon coast. (Flickr, me) "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." — Yogi Berra "You can observe a lot by watching." — also Yogi Berra One of the formative papers I read in my first year of graduate school was a lament about the state of the field I was trying to enter.

denimandtweed.jbyoder.org

I think biologists should read this. It is great fun to find Economists in the wild and ask them annoying questions about "nobel" prize winners like Ostrom, Kahneman Acemoglu et al. There are several nods to ideas in #ecology #evolution, I think we need to make these links clearer.

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 2w ago

I'm curious what people think about this "market humanism" idea.

1. A bit of evolutionary biology. I'm really intrigued by a new perspective piece from Steve Frank that explores connections between how natural selection creates systems that generalize and recent work in machine learning about the surprising capabilities of massively overparameterized systems.

Generalization as the great leap in evolvability: insights from machine learning

Abstract. Natural selection encodes learned information in the genome. Learned solutions may be tuned specifically to past challenges, failing in altered e

academic.oup.com

It's as official as it can be: The Yoder Lab has been very lucky to receive NSF funding to develop our TARDIS method of modeling plants' flowering activity in varying environments. Watch for grad (MSci) opportunities in Fall 2027, and a postdoc position sooner than that 🌿 buff.ly/OHpbfB0

The Yoder Lab is building the TARDIS, with new support from NSF

Chaparral whitethorn, Ceanothus leucodermis, bearing flowers and fruits near the Red Box Picnic Area along the Angeles Crest Highway in early May, 2026. (Flickr, jby) Why do Joshua trees grow only …

lab.jbyoder.org

New Zealand Prime Minister Luxon on funding science research. #NZpol

I’ve spent more than a year reporting on how the fossil fuel industry has infiltrated academia over the last 30 years, shaping fundamental paradigms on how to address climate change. My first story in the new @propublica.org and @drilledmedia.bsky.social series, “Carbon Captured”, is out today.

ProPublica@propublica.org · 2mo ago

NEW: This is the story of how one of the most influential climate papers in history came to exist thanks to one of the companies most responsible for causing the climate crisis — and one with a financial stake in the technologies described in the paper. w/ @drilledmedia.bsky.social

Man adopting a Rogernomics (Reganomics) playbook looks at his countries' approach to technology and complains: "We're really stuck in a 1995 way of doing things." www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Luxon 'constantly underwhelmed' by slow AI uptake in NZ businesses

Christopher Luxon says he is "constantly underwhelmed" at the slow adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technology by Kiwi businesses.

rnz.co.nz

'Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington, has developed bonds with many crows at his home and on campus....“I’ll find myself sneaking across campus in a tunnel or through buildings,” he says, “because I feel so bad when I run into them.”'

Are Crows Really Our Friends?

An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations.

audubon.org

Your neighborhood could have this.

Qagggy!@qagggy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It doesn’t have to be fancy or over-programmed, just a pedestrian square in the heart of every neighborhood, one designed for the people who live nearby.

This afternoon's reflection on AI and the dying internet.

Today, the University of Maine's Vice Chancellor for Finance and Strategic AI Integration (who made $243,000 last year) sent UMaine campuses an announcement that we have partnered with OpenAI with a contract for ChatGPT Edu. I sent him the following questions:

I've just spent the last year on the administrative side of things and here are some of the lessons I've learned (or not learned). #academicsky 🧪

What I learned in my year as Academic Senate Chair

My 1-year term as Chair of Academic Senate is winding to a close. Phew. My obligations in this term end in two days. At that time, the new elected Chair steps into the role. Now's a good time to refl...

scienceforeveryone.science

Please read Molly’s thread.

M.J. Crockett@mjcrockett.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Last weekend I received the Troland Research Award from the @nationalacademies.org. I’m so grateful to the communities who made this work possible. It's strange to receive this award at a time when much of the work being recognized is not eligible for federal funding. My remarks 👇 and a 🧵>>

Can carbon economy explain leaf dynamic seasonality? Tan et al. tested the ‘carbon benefit’ hypothesis in a tropical seasonal rain forest and their results did not support the hypothesis. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

📅Next Tuesday, our online seminar speaker will be Lisa Buche @lili-buche.bsky.social (ETH Zürich), presenting: ⭐Moving beyond linear interactions in community ecology⭐ Zoom link: iite.info/seminar/ Global times: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/f... Free and open to all - we hope to see you there!

Ecologists of Australia - has there been an update to Lesley Hughes' excellent 2003 paper on climate change in Austral Ecology? I'm looking for reviews on the current knowledge of CC impacts on biodiversity in Australia. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

I wanted to share a paper considering unintended consequences of using #AI in ecology. A big highlight is that measures of accuracy is often obscure important details of ecology. Paper is here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We have blog summary here. www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/posts/w

When does management using artificial intelligence lead to unintended consequences? A case study using ‘smart’ traps

Rapid improvements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are leading to new options to manage species of conservation concern, for example by developing “sm…

sciencedirect.com

Finally! Here is our perspective on why cooperation maximizes diversity and how it promotes additional coexistence mechanisms that do not occur under competition journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1... This is a hard topic with strong opinions... Thanks @asn-amnat.bsky.social for publishing it! 🧵👇

Cooperation maximizes biodiversity | The American Naturalist: Vol 0, No ja

journals.uchicago.edu

ASN Address: The Evolutionary and Ecological Consequences of Cooperation Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

If I want to do calculations reasonably fast I use 20th century computing... If I want to do calculations very fast I use 17th century mathematics... Then again, if I want to do calculations wrong I use 21st century computing.

2. NB these are rough dates, with time for travel and birding in between. Feb 10-11 University of Otago Feb 13 University of Canterbury Feb 17-19 University of Auckland, NetSciX Auckland Feb 24-25 CCCSS Wellington Feel free to reach out if you'd like to connect or talk about scheduling a seminar!

Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026

Join us to explore cutting-edge knowledge of complex systems and how this knowledge is being used to drive system change.

tepunahamatatini.ac.nz

Cris Moore and @cbo.bsky.social stake out the AI Luddite label as the nuanced, humanist position.

Abstinence From AI Is Not the Answer

Opinion | Refusing to use AI won’t protect society. Responsible resistance must include gaining knowledge about it.

undark.org