Scott MacDougall-Shackleton

James D Watson: a cautionary tale There was always going to be a complex reckoning in the obituaries of James D Watson (1928–2025), the American geneticist who co-discovered the structure of DNA. For many years, Watson was one of the ...

I wrote an Opinion piece for @thelancet.com about James Watson. It's not an obituary - Georgina Ferry did that for them - but offers some thoughts on the problematic aspects of Watson's history.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Oh no! I saw her at ISAE in India last year. What a loss

I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.

Evidence that even when LLMs produce similar results to humans, they “rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification”

Most of the people commenting we need to integrate AI more seem to have no idea when AI is useful and when it isn’t.
I’m reminded of the time when everyone was in a tizzy that MOOCs were going to revolutionize and disrupt PSE.

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity Developing countries lead the historic clean energy charge but the US and EU rely more on fossil fuels than before, a think tank study shows.

This is a moment of world-historical importance:
"Renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity in the first half of this year - a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember."
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Vehicles registered to Ford cabinet ministers caught by speed cameras more than 20 times | Globalnews.ca Documents obtained by Global News reveal that, over three years, vehicles registered to Ford’s cabinet minister received more than $3,300 in fines for speeding.

Doug Ford's opposition to speed cameras coming into much clearer focus. Like every entitled driver everywhere, he and his ministers and the rest of the barking seals simply resent getting caught. globalnews.ca/news/1146373...

Big Tech Told Kids to Code. The Jobs Didn’t Follow.

This particular cycle will happen over and over. Politicians and business types will never be able to resist dogpiling on the latest educational fad, because they never pay a price for being so excessively hubristic as to call the labour market five years out.

The festering carcass of American rot shoved into an ill-fitting suit…

#UK 🇬🇧
#MOG8

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

What were the 7 wars he claims to have ended? 🤔

As Britain’s royal family welcomed US President Donald Trump to Windsor Castle in a lavish ceremony on Wednesday, the British public gave the American leader their own – markedly less friendly – response to his presence in their country: https://cnn.it/3KqFB6Z

Images of Dutch bike infrastructure

IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart govts do the math on investing in better mobility.

Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.

#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social

Assistant Professor (Neuroscience, Tenure Track) - Lethbridge (City), Alberta (CA) job with University of Lethbridge | 39049 Assistant Professor (tenure track) of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

For anyone on the neuroscience job market, our ads are up. We are looking for anyone working in systems neuroscience of animals to join us in southern Alberta 🇨🇦
#academicsky #neuroskyence #neuroethology #academicjobs #Canada
neurojobs.sfn.org/job/39049/as...

Marmora is north of Belleville.

Come join us at UBC in Vancouver! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30389 @zoology.ubc.ca

The Dangerous Precedent of Political Interference in Medical Research in Canada The European Animal Research Association (EARA) expresses deep concern over recent statements by Ontario Premier Doug Ford regarding biomedical research involving dogs.

www.eara.eu/post/the-dan...

Anybody see a problem here? #canada #academia

American academics, who should know better, seem to assume that any post about science funding or academic policy is referring to the US system.

How about we get Canada up to even an average level of spending on research first? We have one of the lowest rates of science funding among developed countries.

Canada plans a 15% budget cut. Scientists are alarmed Cuts could erase promised boost, researchers fear

“…Canada 🇨🇦 continues to lag behind other countries in R&D spending; it spent 1.8% of GDP on research in 2024, placing it sixth in the G7 industrialized nations and well below the 2.7% average among the 38 nations that are members of the OECD.” 🧪

www.science.org/content/arti...

Aggregate Budgeted Provincial Transfers to Post-secondary Institutions as a Percentage of Total Provincial Spending, 2006-07 to 2025-26, Canada and Alberta (fao @evoneuro.bsky.social).

There is no austerity. Governments just don't like spending on PSE.

A flyer for the book Bird Brains and Behavior: A Synthesis, written by Georg F. Striedter and Andrew N. Iwaniuk and published by MIT Press.

For everyone in Canada, I will be on Daybreak Alberta this Sunday morning talking about our new book on bird brains and behaviour.

It will be available on the CBC listen app on demand too.
@mitpress.bsky.social

#birds #brains #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪

2/ Basically, if governments won't fund universities properly, they should get the hell out of the way of unis looking out for themselves. Cut red-tape. No unfunded mandates. Let tuition rise.

And yes, institutions need to cut expenses, too. But on their own, free of government interference.

Germany gave people €1,200/month no strings attached.

They kept working, slept better, switched to better jobs, and even gave more to others.

Turns out, when people aren’t drowning, they swim further.

#UBI doesn’t kill ambition, it frees it.

Opportunities — ASAB

📢ONE WEEK until deadline (31st July 2025) to apply for full-time Managing Editor role of @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Must have animal behaviour background with previous editorial experience desirable.

#job #publishing #editor

Full details: www.asab.org/opportunities

Please spread the word

Weird how the fossil fuel industry claims it's renewables that are expensive.
My solar panels paid for themselves in 7 years (instead of the predicted 13) and our solar electricity is free now. And it runs our car.

Ontario to revamp college and university funding as early as next spring — and lifting tuition freeze may be on table Amid major cuts in the sector, minister seeks to ensure schools are on solid ground financially, with “fair, predictable and transparent” funding.

From the front page of the ⁦‪@TorontoStar‬⁩, @krushowy on ⁦‪@ONgov‬⁩’s planned revamp of post-secondary funding that could include lifting the tuition freeze that has hamstrung universities and colleges.
#onpoli

www.thestar.com/news/gta/ont...