Dr. Michael Salter-Townshend 📊🖥️🧬

Just a Normal street I guess...

‘Too small to matter’ is the laziest-possible excuse in climate debate At a time of crisis, co-operation is the only way to resolve the climate collective-action problem

If Ireland's emissions are "too small to matter" then I might as well evade my taxes and eat doughnuts for lunch.

Read my latest column about the laziest excuse in the climate debate:

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

MOSAIC MOSAIC is a tool for modelling multiway admixture using dense genotype data. See our 2019 paper in Genetics for details or start with this post for a short and simple lay summary.

There's lots of interesting reading in vol 122 No 48 of @pnas.org. There's a focus on canine genetics, with several really interesting articles in there. Two of these report results on introgression between domestic dogs and wild relatives (wolves and dingoes) using MOSAIC maths.ucd.ie/~mst/MOSAIC/

Genuinely impressed with the food policy for #PopGroup 59! This should be default for all conferences and events @popgroup2026.bsky.social

Conference – ISHG ISHG 2025 will be held on the 12th September 2025 in the Iontas Theatre in National University of Ireland Maynooth

Excitement is building for our conference on Friday! Please register asap if you have not done so. See ishg.ie/conference/ for details on speakers, registration, directions and more!

Looking forward to this conference!

My thanks also to various mentors along the way especially John Haslett, @tbmurphy.bsky.social, and Simon Myers. Thanks also to my anonymous external assessors, whoever they may be!

I'm delighted to say that I was promoted to Associate Professor in UCD this month. The process involves quite a bit of investment, but encouragement and support from colleagues - especially Heads of School Ted Cox (former) and
@nialfriel.bsky.social (current ) - made it possible.

🎓 More graduation joy from CRT! A huge congrats to Matt Nagle, Thais Pacheco, and Prabhleen Kaur, who successfully completed their PhDs at @ucddublin.bsky.social 👏Hats off as well to their supervisors! Wishing all three graduates the very best in their next adventures #CRT #UCD @researchireland.ie

"It is, for me, the act of writing about a book that causes it to stay read." Very well put point. Using AI for coursework will have a hugely negative effect on student learning.

How fair is a coin toss actually? | Newstalk Have you ever wondered how fair the coin toss actually is?Research has shown that perception of ...

How fair is a coin toss actually? | Newstalk www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...

On the show today: Are you too old for this?; @profmeredithjones.bsky.social on no-eyelash men; @jokerrigan1.bsky.social on Fairy Forts; Banning smartphones; @feljin.ie on the public toilet crisis; World news; @mststats.bsky.social on is coin tossing fair?

CASI 2025 is up and running! #casi2025

Tradeoffs between such considerations exist and this paper uses a bespoke simulation study to quantify them, using realistic and relevant parameter settings. We think it will be of huge benefit to ecologists who wish to study social interactions of wild animal populations.

During a research visit to Zurich with Damien a related question arose: in order to get enough data how should a study be designed? Should the researchers follow a few animals for a long time or many animals for a shorter time? How often per day should locations be recorded?

There are many challenges in monitoring wild animals and Prabhleen's PhD focussed on statistical investigations into how much data is needed to infer an accurate picture of a social network.

Using an agent-based model to inform sampling design for animal social network analysis

Happy to see our paper on "Using an agent-based model to inform sampling design for animal social network analysis" published this week rdcu.be/efjkF Great work from Dr Prabhleen Kaur as part of her PhD on animal social networks with @ucdwildlife.bsky.social and @damienfarine.bsky.social

dino parade floats

#stpatricksday #parade dino floats! Got a sneak preview of these yesterday at Dublin Zoo

giant newt

#stpatricksday #parade

Always annoyed when a journal allows submission of latex source and even builds the pdf on its system, but then requests a word document after acceptance...

Ah nuts... down with a crash

swaying wall in wind

#StormEowyn vs our garden wall. Wall is swaying, doesn't look good.

Yes! I remember that's how he beat Mr Freeze at least once. Who despite having a PhD isn't referred to as Dr.

As we near the end of this cold snap I can't help but wonder: how does Batman operate his various gizmos while wearing gloves?

Thoroughly enjoyed my brief visit to Derry city this week to examine a PhD thesis in Ulster University. Couldn't leave without walking the walls and seeing the sights.

Just completed a survey on AI use in research training and innovation in UCD. Very concerning none of the questions mention the huge environmental impact of AI tools such as LLMs like chatGPT, Gemini, etc.

Went for a 7 foot #christmastree this year so I wasn't looking forward to lugging it home over the shoulder like usual. Wheelie bin to the rescue! Couldn't have been easier and no needles all over the car. The tree sellers were kind enough to wrap our sons up as well...