Except literally every data analysis or model I've ever asked AI to build has contained at least one error: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Common response: "But someone just needs to give AI detailed instructions..."
But who is the "someone" in that sentence? And how did they get their expertise?
Why Spain is breaking the mold in Europe -
choosing regularisation instead of MAGA mass deportations!!
Two reasons: morality & pragmatism.
🙏Spain showing us another, better way is possible www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/o...
In 2022, Dr. Foege joined us for a final, profound conversation on the history of global health. He left our students with a simple message:
“Get the science right. Add art. Get a moral compass. Put those three things together, and now you have moral, creative, common sense at its best.”
3/4
🦟📄 New preprint! Our first large-scale phylodynamic study of Jamestown Canyon virus (JCV) reveals how mosquito ecology shapes the evolution, persistence, and spread of this understudied arbovirus in North America.
Read it here! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The thing they never talk about is how much the UK as an economy & a functioning society is dependent on immigrants. Most of the press don’t care to share such facts either & just parrot anti-migrant rhetoric. It pains my brain to keep seeing such stupidity.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
My god, the sheer relief of reading a piece by someone who knows something about this football match and didn't just learn to spell Maccabi two days ago www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Paddington in 28 Weeks Later (2007)
I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1681
I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...
It does not matter if immigrants commit fewer crimes. In fact, it would not matter if every immigrant committed crimes. Immigration is still good, freedom of movement is foundational to humanity, and every restriction on freedom of movement by the state is itself a criminal act by the state
Queen
Celebrating the publication of our big collaborative spatial-social meta-analysis of density-dependent transmission effects, out now in Nature Eco Evo! doi.org/10.1038/s415... (or rdcu.be/eD6eB)
This absolute banger
It would be a lot simpler, and more effective, to provide all people seeking asylum with the right to work. It has public and cross party support, helps protect against exploitation, helps people rebuild lives faster, and reduces Home Office costs. #r4today
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
JOINT STATEMENT ON GAZA FROM AFP, AP, BBC NEWS AND REUTERS “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. “Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in warzones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them. “We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.”
BBC NEWS / AFP / BBC NEWS / REUTERS JOINT STATEMENT:
“We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families.
"They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. "
Interested in using phylogenetics to study arboviruses? Our new review in @natrevgenet.nature.com by @viralverity.bsky.social, @sdellicour.bsky.social, and Marta Giovanetti has you covered!
📖 👉 rdcu.be/epH2U
Short 🧵
The Copilot Delusion
buff.ly/99QsTEM
<- the story is that one thing LLMs are good at is helping programmers. An experienced programmer carefully explains, in detail, why this is not true.
Fantastic opportunity to join some excellent programmes to gain quantitative ecological training at the University of Glasgow
@sbohvm.gla.ac.uk
@uofglasgow.bsky.social
for full details see bsky.app/profile/uofg...
1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but
2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but
3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So
4. Now the LLM code points to malware.
Can we use social evolution to fight pathogens? @asgriffin.bsky.social and I review the evidence for 'cheat therapy' in bacteria and viruses...
🧪🦠 #socialviruses #evosky #virosky
1/3
Excited to see review with @asherleeks.bsky.social out today in Nature Antimicrobials and Resistance. We compare application of social evolution to treatment of infection in bacteria and viruses: very different stories! rdcu.be/eftKw @biology.ox.ac.uk @erc.europa.eu @naturerevmicro.bsky.social
"You can't policy your way out of a right-wing propaganda problem."
Louder for the people in the back! At no point will any right-wing party be like "You know what, I think as a nation we are now cruel enough to immigrants and LGBTQ-people. Let's focus on something else for a change."
Gift article written by @gregggonsalves.bsky.social that offers some much needed hope and a plan.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/o...
In Connecticut -
NIH FUNDING:
$770M
JOBS SUPPORTED:
6609
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY SUPPORTED:
$1.68B
I was a Head Start kid with a single teenage mom growing up in a rural community. My aunt is a Head Start teacher, my grandmother was a Head Start bus driver. This program provides vital support for our communities.
No one who is “pro-family” should want to shut this down.
Senator Bill #Cassidy owns this nomination now. As a physician he broke his oath to do no harm, his duty to serve the citizens of his state and this country. Every #measles case, every #mumps case, every #pertussis case is Senator Cassidy's now. This is his legacy of cowardice.
10/n To sum up:
1. The moral panic was gibberish. Only a tiny proportion of kids have ever been diagnosed with GD, and very few of those got drugs in the UK.
2. Services in the UK were TERRIBLE before the Cass review. Less than 1/10 ELIGIBLE kids were prescribed medications!
I am with dozens of Utah scientists, healthcare providers, and educators who urge Senators Lee and Curtis to vote no on RFK’s dangerous nomination. The health of Utahns and Americans is at risk. www.sltrib.com/opinion/comm...
@sltrib.com @gregggonsalves.bsky.social
1. Sabotage public institutions.
2. Claim they don’t work efficiently.
3. Eliminate them.
—
That’s the playbook.
Lawrence Fishburne in the film Contagion (2011): "is there are any way someone could weaponize the bird flu?" "Someone doesn't have to weaponize the bird flu. The birds are doing that"
As always, Contagion is a teaching resource
