Dylan Childs

This is what Sundays are all about.

Lovely sunny morning so I’m going into the office to feel the sunshine reflecting off the Arts Tower building.

I do enjoy my old college’s alumni emails:

Could you donate a) £500, b) £5000, or c) £50000?

My friend, I found 50p on the bedroom floor yesterday and that went straight into the cash-for-haircuts pot.

Starting to wonder if NERC's plan for the July 2025 PtF round is to keep their head down and just hope we all forget we submitted a proposal.

The brilliant and bizarre ways birds use their sense of smell – from natural cologne to pest control Humans and birds both have an underappreciated sense of smell.

I wrote an article for The Conversation about birds' often overlooked sense of smell. From vultures that detect gas leaks to citrus-scented seabirds - read more below:

Oh, you know, a bit of this, a bit of that. But mostly the realtime breakdown of the geopolitical order that kept us Europeans safe and prosperous for eight decades.

This is all starting to look like a "we can't put the shit back in the donkey" situation.

Identifying how chemicals shape microbial diversity through high-throughput ecological screens at University of Sheffield on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Identifying how chemicals shape microbial diversity through high-throughput ecological screens at University of Sheffield, listed on FindAPhD.com

Do you have an interest in quantitative microbiology and interdisciplinary research? I'm recruiting a UK PhD student to develop high-throughput ecological screens to help us understand how chemical inputs impact microbial ecosystems: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Josephine is going to need to install a trophy cabinet at this rate.

(Well deserved, obvs)

Research Associate: Horizontal Gene Transfer at University of Sheffield Searching for an academic job? Explore this Research Associate: Horizontal Gene Transfer opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

Come work with us!! 2.5 year postdoc on HGT in plants.

Please share and get in touch if interested

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ418/r...

Distributed systems are hard

🌍📢 Postdoc alert | 3-yr starting early 2026

Please 🔁!

Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action🌿🧭📈

👉 tinyurl.com/2mafwru3

#Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity

Poster announcing the workshop.

Join us for an @smtpb.bsky.social workshop on Modern Coexistence Theory. We'll cover mathematical foundations, the theory of partitioning, and data-based applications. Featuring @swatipatel.bsky.social, Nick Kortessis, & Lauren Shoemaker. Zoom link here: smtpb.org/event-6426026

ACCE+ DLA programme: Landscape-scale drivers and limits of endangered species spatial and temporal distribution at University of Sheffield on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - ACCE+ DLA programme: Landscape-scale drivers and limits of endangered species spatial and temporal distribution at University of Sheffield, listed on FindAPhD.com

🦜 New PhD project with @ACCE_DTP and project partners Macaw Recovery Network and Longleat — using bioacoustics data to help conserve one of the Neotropics’ most charismatic parrots, the Critically Endangered Great Green Macaw.

Find out more about ACCE+ DLA and how to apply 👉 accedtp.ac.uk

Colour-ringed long-tailed tit

🚨 Come join the fantastic long-tailed tit team 🚨
🐦We are recruiting a field technician to collect behavioural data on a long-term studied population of wild long-tailed tits (passerine birds).
🪶20 months contract in Sheffield, UK.
🌲Deadline: 23/11/2025.
jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Technici...

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...

Photo showing the inside atrium of the new Life and Mind Building

Oxford Biology is growing 📢

We’re appointing 3 Associate Professors in:
🌱 Plant Sciences
🦉 Animal Behaviour
🔬 Molecular Cell Biology

3 fields. 3 opportunities. One new home for Oxford Biology.

Learn more 👉 bit.ly/41S2Tc7
Apply now 👉 bit.ly/488CNW3

I did two different bits of science-ing today. Two different things. In one day. I feel 41 again.

Current status.

EvoDemoS 2025 EvoDemoS 2025 International Conference. The local organising committee welcomes you to the 10th International Conference of the Evolutionary Demography Society, hosted at Pembroke College, Oxford, bet...

Deadline for the EvoDemoS conference 2 wks away! Join us at @PembrokeOxford @UniofOxford to discuss the breath and depth of demographic theory and applications in Sept evodemo2025.weebly.com Please retweet @biology.ox.ac.uk @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social @mpidr.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org

Biodiversity and Conservation Develop your knowledge about major conservation issues and their human and environmental drivers across a range of ecosystems. Gain the skills you’ll need to understand how we can balance human needs ...

If you like the look of lovely green #Sheffield and our wonderful Peak District on #springwatch #bbcspringwatch, why not come and study for an MSc #Biodiversity & #Conservation @sheffielduni.bsky.social? Happy to consider unconventional academic backgrounds www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Great (free) opportunity coming up this Tuesday for researchers who are interested in finding out more about outreach with children…

The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme is now open with a call deadline on 10 September 2025.

Come to Sheffield. It's nice and (sometimes) sunny.

‘They dictate the rules’: BBC tells PM’s Evan Davis to stop hosting heat pump podcast Presenter believes decision was taken due to the technology’s link with net zero after he was told he risked accusations of political bias

This is deranged. We’re dragging *heat pumps* into the culture wars now?

——————-
footnote:

True to my centrist dad form, I am a heat pump owner.

This couldn’t be further from where UK HE is heading. Looks great, TBH.

It does sound cool, tbh.

The text of a post-modernist critique of integral projection models produced by chatGPT.

While waiting for my coffee to brew, I asked chatGPT to write a postmodernist critique of IPMs. It's magnificent.

The next call for the MSCA postdoctoral fellowships scheme opens soon. Come work with me if you're interested in anything related to biodemography and population ecology. And if you're not, consider coming to work with one of my many fine colleagues instead.

Bit if this. Bit of that. Might be OK. Or not.