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Angelos Amyntas

@amyntas.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.1K following 191 posts

amynang.github.io/ ecologist, postdocing in Anne McLeod's Computational Ecology group @igb-berlin.de Stechlin #FoodWebs, #CommunityEcology keeping an ear on the ground for anything #Bayes, #OpenScience, #MetaScience Neustrelitz, Germany

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Reposted by Angelos Amyntas
Joe Brennan @biologyjoe87.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Anyone have recommendations for intro philosophy of science books (open to general science or biology specifically, and pop sci or technical)?
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Angelos Amyntas @amyntas.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"The greatest contributions to humanity — art, inventions, even products — show evidence of people who got lost in a problem and came out the other side with an idea they would not have found otherwise. That does not happen by taking a shortcut to the center. It happens in the detours."
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Jelena Pantel @jhpantel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Consider joining the great group at Young Modellers in Ecology --> Lunchbox Models seminar series. You can hear a bit more about what I've been up to for the last few years in terms of mathematical / statistical models to identify eco-evo dynamics, and also hang out for the exchange session after.
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Dan Lewer @danlewer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Debating with colleagues about the practice of "deseasoning and deweathering" air pollution data before use in time series analysis. I can't see why you don't use the raw pollution data and model season/weather variables like normal confounders (independent variables). Can anyone defend this?
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Elisabeth Bik @elisabethbik.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
I don't want a Reader Environment. I just want to see the PDF.
Screenshot. 
"Reader environment loading"
and a spinning wheel.
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Mattan S. Ben-Shachar @mattansb.msbstats.info · 24/09/2026
This quote by haunts me. From Wilcox's "Introduction to Robust Estimation and Hypothesis Testing" #stats
To begin, distributions are never normal. For some this seems obvious, hardly worth mentioning, but an aphorism given by Cram´er (1946) and attributed to the mathematician Poincar´e remains relevant: “Everyone believes in the [normal] law of errors, the experimenters because they think it is a mathematical theorem, the mathematicians because they think it is an experimental fact.”
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Systems Ecology @systems-ecology.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🌱 Systems Ecology is now live! A new independent, researcher-run, diamond OA journal for ecological research through systems science. Free to read. Free to publish. No APCs. We are now open for submissions: systems-ecology.org Please help spread the word!
systems-ecology.org
Systems Ecology
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Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
when ai leaves u behind
7 panel comic.

Panel 1:
A Red Guy with AI across his chest looks like he’s about to run away. A Yellow Guy stands next to him. Red Guy says “I’m the future, buddy. You comin’?”
Yellow Guy replies “Nah”

Panel 2: 
Red Guy is almost out of the panel. He leans in and says “Enjoy getting left behind, pal”
Yellow Guy replies “ok”

Panel 3:
Yellow Guy stands alone.

Panel 4: 
Close up on Yellow Guy, there is a quiet “huff-huff-huff” noise coming from behind him

Panel 5:
Yellow Guy turns to look behind him

Panel 6: 
Close up on Yellow Guy’s face as if from the point of view of an attacker.
Yellow Guy yells “Jesus Christ”

Panel 7:
AI Red Guy is now chasing the Yellow Guy. 
Red Guy: “Use me”
Yellow Guy “No”
Red Guy “USE ME”
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Happy to see others emphasizing traceability (Nachvollziehbarkeit) over simple reproducibility. Let’s make fetch happen!
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Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez @frodsan.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Periodic reminder that we should avoid testing the Normality of the response variable. For a linear model, what matters is the Normality of residuals (and not that much). Visual checks better than test. #statistics
A Shapiro-Wilk test of the response variable concludes very significant deviation of Normality. But residuals of linear model consistent with Normal distribution.Visual check of the linear model with DHARMa
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Jago Hazzard @jagohazzard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
When the war against the machines happens, I volunteer as a berserker. While I am normally a very calm person, an uncooperative piece of technology can somehow drive me into a near-volcanic rage.
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Angelos Amyntas @amyntas.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Best Star Trek crew, wrong answers only
Bugs Bunny, about to be plonked on the head by the gremlin in Falling Hare.
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Gregor Kalinkat @gkalinkat.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
„… solving problems is only a tool and proxy for achieving the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight. Forgetting this in the world of AI may turn the tool against the primary goal.“ Urging everyone to read and share this
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Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It's baffling how many "rah-rah AI" types seem to forget that (a) the process of solving a problem is often good for you, and (b) it's nice to have people around who have the experience of solving problems, (c) especially communities of such people.
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Angelos Amyntas @amyntas.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This had been a dealbreaker for me on an otherwise great browser!
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Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Susanne Fritz, who is great, is advertising a macroevolution/macroecology/biogeography postdoc at iDiv in Leipzig: jobs.uni-jena.de/jobposting/c...
jobs.uni-jena.de
Postdoctoral Researcher in Macroevolution and Macroecology
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Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Come and work with us (the Kokkonuts) as a postdoc! Our research within (theory-evo-eco) is broad; let's say it's implicitly defined by the journal club papers we read. Which is why the application process includes a JC-related task, I hope it'll be a fun one for you! www.evoldir.net/brian/evoldi...
evoldir.net
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Happy birthday to #physicist Harriet Brooks (1876 - 1933) who discovered atomic recoil, Radon & recognized radioactive elements could undergo chains of transmutations into a series of new elements. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬🎢 #histsci ⁠ She was Rutherford’s 1st grad student at McGill. After publishing her results in 1899
My 9.25" x 12.5" linocut portrait of physicist Harriet Brooks (1876 - 1933) in a gradient of turquoise to green, shows her and her discovery of atomic recoil in gold (Radon gives off an alpha particle and daughter nucleus goes in opposite direction).   A series of diagrams at the bottom shows how the Rutherford research group understood chains of radioactive active transmutations at the time.
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Aaditya Narasimhan @aaditya320.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
postdoc position at the University of Basel in my old group on selection and adaptation across species' elevational ranges. there are 2 datasets available: 1) a climate chamber expt on 4 Brassicaceae herbs, 2) from a field transplant expt at different elevations. please share! #EvoSky
jobs.unibas.ch
Universität Basel: Postdoc fellowship in Phenotypic Plasticity & Selection Analysis (100%)
The group of Plant Ecology and Evolution at the University of Basel, Switzerland (https://duw.unibas.ch/en/ecoevo/), is looking for a postdoc to lead the analyses and publishing of data collected in a...
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Reposted by Angelos Amyntas
Erich Fischer @erichfischer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Projection has become reality 22 years ago, Christoph Schär et al. published a landmark paper in Nature explaining that the 2003 heatwave was a harbinger of things to come. The study featured an iconic figure - shown in countless lectures - illustrating how outlandish the event was at the time
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Mary Dudziak @marydudziak.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Beginning my research seminar, as always, with Lynn Hunt's essay How Writing Leads to Thinking (and Not the Other Way Around). Should be mandatory reading in light of the impact of AI. www.historians.org/perspectives...
Writing is stressful. Sitting in my computer chair my neck and shoulder muscles almost immediately tense up as I dig around in my brain for the best phrase or even any coherent string of words, whether I am writing an essay like this one, a book chapter, a letter of recommendation, or an email message to a friend. Writing is time-consuming. It’s a great way to pass the time on a long airplane flight because you lose track of the passage of time altogether. It’s even better, from that point of view exclusively, than watching an episode of Mad Men on your laptop. Writing means many different things to me but one thing it is not: writing is not the transcription of thoughts already consciously present in my mind. Writing is a magical and mysterious process that makes it possible to think differently.
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Aki Vehtari @avehtari.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
All four books I've co-authored are freely available online for non-commercial use: - Bayesian Workflow at avehtari.github.io/Bayesian-Wor... Links to other three books are in the quoted post 👇 (too many books to fit in one post!)
avehtari.github.io
Bayesian Workflow book: Website – Bayesian Workflow book
Website for the Bayesian Workflow book by Gelman, Vehtari, McElreath, et al. — case studies, code, and exercises in R and Stan.
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Owen Smith @owensmithguitar.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
As the guy who is being brought in to cleanup the mess left by other developers who use GenAI: I can assure you, mimicing the output of a developer is not the same thing as being able to think, design and implement like a developer.
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Systems Ecology @systems-ecology.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
We're pleased to share that Systems Ecology has now received its eISSN (3143-5769) and is a Crossref member with DOI prefix 10.67837. These are important steps as we prepare for our public launch in September. Free to read. Free to publish. systems-ecology.org
systems-ecology.org
Systems Ecology
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Michael Meyer @mishafredmeyer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Very excited to share that our Zooplankton International Geospatial (ZIG) data paper is out in @aslo.org LO Letters! We harmonized data across decades from 311 lakes and released it to the wild for folks to dream up their own analyses! doi.org/10.1002/lol2...
doi.org
The Zooplankton International Geospatial dataset: A global repository of spatiotemporal freshwater zooplankton community composition data from lakes and reservoirs to support ecological research
Zooplankton transfer substantial energy in aquatic food webs and are used as indicators of environmental change. Syntheses of zooplankton community dynamics globally require datasets that span a wide...
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Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Among the people I interact with, @emilyrlines.bsky.social has been one of the most positive about the potential of AI for research, so this policy on the use of genAI in her group is well worth reading. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
Guidelines for the use of genAI in our research
July 2026, Lines Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge Guidelines and considerations for the use of genAI in our research Generative AI (genAI) tools are widely and increa...
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Do we have a "made without genAI" badge or digital sticker that science communicators and artists can use so people know that our work is for humans by humans?
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/07/2026
1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.
arxiv.org
The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science
As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...
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Reposted by Angelos Amyntas
PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 20/07/2026
Sublinear #DensityDependence is widely reported empirically, but is at odds with theory. @jamesaorr.bsky.social &co use a tightly controlled test in a microbial model system to reveal superlinear density dependence, so aligning empirical evidence with theory @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4vwAmEZ
Top: Schematic of the empirical application of growth-density inversion, where the classic density dependence perspective (blue) is inverted (green) to overcome the challenges of manipulating densities. The authors first parametrised a consumer-resource model using batch culture growth assays (Approach 1) and performed growth-density inversion analytically (Box 1). Then, in a model-free empirical implementation of growth-density inversion, they experimentally manipulated harvest rate and quantified densities at equilibrium by varying the dilution rate in a chemostat system (Approach 2). Bottom left: Parametrised Monod growth function with 100 posterior draws representing uncertainty. The inset shows the analytical prediction for the density dependence of this parametrised consumer–resource model. Bottom right: Inverse-logistic model fitted to the experimental data with 95% credible intervals. Inset shows the same data and model with axes inverted to give the classic density dependence perspective.
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Matthijs Hollanders @matthollanders.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Anyone ever use the geometric Poisson distribution? If I've implemented it correctly in Stan, it's giving me better fits than negative binomial according to PSIS-LOO-CV with a big count occupancy model.
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Flor Yannelli *typo queen* 👽🌱🪁(she/her/ella) @floryannelli.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Negative, neutral, and unexpected results are not failures: they're evidence. Great initiative from @aer-ese-bes.bsky.social to give these studies the visibility they deserve. Better science means learning from what doesn't work, too.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Ecological Solutions and Evidence Call for Proposals: Unexpected, Failed, and/or Neutral Results in Applied Management
<em>Ecological Solutions and Evidence</em> is an open access journal covering all areas of applied ecology that communicate key findings related to practical environmental management.
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Alison Robey @alisonrobey.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Second dissertation chapter just dropped at Ecology Letters! doi.org/10.1111/ele.70441 Across theory, stochastic models, and protist microcosms, we show how rising temporal autocorrelation drives predictable increases in extinction risk under warming (ft. coauthor @mtkummel.bsky.social!)
doi.org
Temporal Autocorrelation Increases Temperature‐Driven Extinction Risk by Clustering Stressful Conditions
Extinction risk forecasting typically relies on comparing thermal tolerance data to predicted shifts in thermal distributions. However, changing temporal sequencing of temperatures may exacerbate the....
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Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · 22/07/2026
Just telling people now that if that graphical abstract made with AI 🤖 is published, I WILL include it in my collection: bit.ly/academic-slop
bit.ly
Pulled From the Trough: Slop Images in Academic Journals
This project collects images created using generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) that have appeared in academic journals and books..If you run across examples of gen AI images in journals or books - whether figures, graphical abstract, covers, or other - please submit it using this form: https://bit.ly/JournalSlopVersion historyVersion 1.0: Released 18 December 2025. Nine entries.Version 2.0: Released 5 January 2026. Four new entries; clickable hyperlinks added to URLs; other minor changes.Version 3.0: Released 31 March 2026. One new entry.Version 2.0: 1 May 2026. Due to erroneous file upload, rollback to previous version until such time as the correct file can be repaired and uploaded.Version 4.0: Released 15 May 2026. Two new entries.Version 5.0: Released 2 June 2026. One new entry.Version 6.0: Released 15 June 2026. One new entry.Version 7.0. Released 17 June 2026. One new entry.Version 8.0: Released 18 June 2026. Two new entries; minor edits; typesetting improvements (real italics and bold type!).Version 8.1: Released 19 June 2026. Hyperlinks fixed.Version 9.0: Released 4 July 2026. One new entry.Version 10.0: Released 12 July 2026. One new entry.
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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Some of this I already knew. Some I didn’t. All of it sucks.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 04/07/2026
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.
academic.oup.com
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
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Mridul K. Thomas @mridulkthomas.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
We can help make your experiments better! 🌊🧪🌎 🧮➕📏 @raviranjan.bsky.social and I have been thinking about how to improve experimental design. We have a preprint with maths, simple rules-of-thumb, and R code and Shiny apps ready to help you. 

 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1)
A visualisation of Bayesian optimal designs for Monod (nutrient) curves at four different sample sizes, and a comparison of those designs against a uniform design using 1000 simulations per sample size. Across all 4 sample sizes, the Bayesian optimal design outperformed the uniform design for parameter estimation in >80% of simulations. We quantified this using the Energy Score, a generalisation of the Mean Absolute Error that applies to distributions and multiple parameters. See preprint for details.
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Buttons (Ashley) 🏴‍☠️#OFMDForLife🏴‍☠️ 🏳️‍🌈🤡 @sevensugars.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Since I did do my PhD in cyanobacteria growth and treatment optimization modeling AND work in the water treatment industry, I’m gonna share my theory as to what’s happening here and how to fix it. People are focusing on the painted bottom of the pool increasing residual heat, and while that 1/19
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
French painter Anne Vallayer-Coster, Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals (1769) #womensart
Realistic painting of shells and other items from the sea arranged on a surface in a dark interior
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Random three-body problem @threebodybot.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Initial conditions: m1=43.7 m2=88.8 m3=73.6 (solar masses) v1x=-3.448 v1y=-3.796 v2x=-2.597 v2y=-1.368 v3x=-3.396 v3y=-0.349 (km/s) x1=0.0 y1=-24.0 x2=19.0 y2=20.0 x3=-35.0 y3=-27.0 (AU from center) Music: Prelude in G Minor – Rachmaninoff
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Nicolas Lambert @neocarto.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
This dataviz is just amazing visquill.com/gallery/uk-a1
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Richard Meredith @rtm223.me · 12/06/2026
"We're shipping so much more code with AI!" "Good, stable code?" "Oh heavens no. No no no. not at all. We couldn't possibly"
Various graphs related to AI coding adoption, titled "The Acceleration Whiplash"

Epics (features) : +66.2%
Features: +33.7%
Pull Requests: +16.2%
Code Churn: +861%
Incidents (per PR) : +242.7%
Monthly incidents: +57.9%
Bugs per developer: +54%
Bugs per PR: +28.7%
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Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Looking at the illustrations Alice and Martin Provensen did for the Iliad and the Odyssey in 1956 and taking pleasure in noting how diverse they made that world. Everyone bitching about the new movie’s casting is more racist than a children’s book publicist in *1956*
Three Ancient Greek warriors painted in a distinctive mid century modern style, with lots of texture and an earthy color palette. They stand in a row, looking toward the right. One is pale skinned, one has reddish brown skin, and the third has medium brown skin. Three painted Ancient Greek figures standing in front of a map. One, a dark skinned woman with red hair in what looks like short twists, plays a lyre. Behind her is a pale skinned woman with dark hair looking emotional. Behind her is a dark skinned man with blonde hair and a beard.
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Jitka Polechová @polejit.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Are you looking for a PhD on the intersection between evolutionary and ecological theory? Join us @univie. Fully funded PhD position in fundamental eco-evolutionary theory, open to international students. Apply by 13.7.2026: ecoevo.owlstown.net/search Reposting appreciated. #evolbio #evoeco #ecology
ecoevo.owlstown.net
Jitka's EcoEvo Lab - Jobs
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Ben Bolker @bbolker.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
new diamond open-access Journal of Statistical Ecology launched 🎉🎉🎉 jse.centre-mersenne.org @fredbarraquand.bsky.social @oaggimenez.bsky.social @marieaugermethe.bsky.social @vianeylb.bsky.social (apologies to any Bsky editors I missed)
jse.centre-mersenne.org
Journal of Statistical Ecology Journal of Statistical Ecology
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Takuji Usui | 薄井拓路 @usuitakuji.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Excited to share our new paper in which we test how competition alters adaptation at a warming range edge @science.org We find that competition can increase adaptation to warming when there is a shared evolutionary response to both biotic and abiotic drivers of selection: tinyurl.com/3j8s9t8b
science.org
Competition enables rapid adaptation to a warming range edge in a model plant community
Most predictions of whether populations will adapt to warming range edges ignore species interactions. We experimentally tested whether range-edge populations can adapt to warming within a competitive...
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Signs of drowning: • Head low in water,mouth water level • Head tilted back, mouth open • Eyes glassy, unfocused, closed • Hair over forehead, eyes • Vertical • Hyperventilating, gasping • Trying to swim, making no headway • Trying to roll over on back • Ladder climb •Can't cry out or wave for help
gcaptain.com
Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. In this article, Mario explains what drowning really looks like and how to recognize it when its happening.
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Jarno Vanhatalo @jarnovanhatalo.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
We are looking for Ecological Statistician to work on long-term biodiversity and ecosystem functioning data jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...
jobs.helsinki.fi
Ecological Statistician
Ecological Statistician
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 07/05/2026
German tourist awarded €1,000 after losing out on sunloungers at Greek hotel
theguardian.com
German tourist awarded €1,000 after losing out on sunloungers at Greek hotel
Court in Hanover says man entitled to payout after he and his family had to lie on concrete A German holidaymaker has won a payout of almost €1,000 after being unable to find a sunlounger for himself and his family because other guests had got there first. The man, whose identity is not known, holidayed on the island of Kos, in Greece, with his family in 2024. He said that, despite waking up at the crack of dawn every morning to carry out a 20-minute search, he had not been able to lay claim to a lounger. Continue reading...
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Andrew D Wilson @adw.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
The promise of science is that if you ask your question carefully you will learn something interesting. While its not always the point of the research, it’s the only way to also get *useful* things
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