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Dave Hemprich-Bennett

@davehb.bsky.social
1.5K followers 590 following 2.5K posts

A bunch of stardust with ADHD. Scientist working on the ecology of mosquitoes and bats at Oxford Uni. Used to be @hammerheadbat on twitter. Runner, photographer, guitarist. He/him

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett
Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Magical creatures don’t exist, eh? Roughly 400 million years ago, before the birth of trees, there were giant mystery cones called “Prototaxites,” which grew nearly 30 feet tall. We literally have no idea what they were. Plant: no Mushroom: no Animal: no Tell me this isn’t a little bit magic
Sunset with giant mystery cones Prototaxites https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/prototaxites-fossil-explained-why-this-prehistoric-colossus-still-baffles-scientists-1773173
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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 19h
One of the biggest obstacles to trans inclusivity in fieldwork is uncertainty. Here's a video of me talking about it but you can also read about it at inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Major props to Robin and team for this important work. Read it, use it, share it far and wide.
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Yonette Joseph @sugarcane99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Huh. Suspect supposedly foiled RAF Fairford ‘bomb plot’ by ringing police himself. www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...
thetimes.com
Suspect foiled RAF Fairford ‘bomb plot’ by ringing police himself
As counterterrorism officers focus on whether the five men from London were proxies for Iran, they are also investigating the motives of the one who called 999
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Currently trying to work out if the big afternoon energy slumps I seem to be getting this week are due to new ADHD meds, general life-with-newborn sleep deprivation, or
static.klipy.com
The Road To El Dorado: Both Is Good
Alt: Gif from The Road To El Dorado: "Both? Both? Both Is Good"
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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward
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Rory🏳️‍⚧️🍉 @rory-f.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
vampire bats are champion pissers, because they need to be able to shed all the water from the blood they drink, i think people should incorporate this into their vampire fiction
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A really valuable programme, this. Balancing conservation of our wildlife with conservation of places of worship
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Colin @colin-fraser.net · 28/09/2026
I think if you meaningfully punish OpenAI & co for all of these cyberattacks then they will stop doing them. Whether or not you want to anthropomorphize the agents, you gotta just land there.
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Meta Muse appears to read your Apple messages and upload them to the cloud even if you explicitly tell it not to: appleinsider.com/articles/26/...
appleinsider.com
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Frank Swain @frank-swain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I wanted to know if Europe's wildfire line is moving northward. So I did what anyone would and mapped thousands of burn scars. If you now live in one of the red cells, your chance of being within 25km of a wildfire next year is 50% (based on rolling 10 year average).
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 25/07/2024
I see this comic in my mind every damn day at the office. Also every time Boris Johnson, Russell Brand, et al speak.
Calvin and Hobbes strip. Both sitting at a desk, with Calvin writing.
Calvin: “I used to hate writing assignments: but now I enjoy them. I realised that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog! Want to see my book report?”

Hobbes picks up paper and reads.
Hobbes: “the dynamics of interbeing and monological imperatives in Dick and Jane: a study in psychic transrelational gender modes”
Calvin: “Academia, here I come!”
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Matt Weiner @mattweiner19.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
great piece would add that one big dange is The Powers That Be putting a system that *isn't* capable of running things in charge of it, and trusting what it does because it is The Machine God the "the supercompetent AI will kill us all!" doomsaying makes that more likely, because Machine God
Most crucially, the real problem with this narrative is that there are real reasons to be afraid. Not in a “Skynet superintelligent AI turning on humanity in a sci-fi judgment day scenario,” but in the incredibly banal “as soon as the powers that be find AI models sufficiently capable to be put in charge of defense, weapons development and guidance (including bioweapons), and information, they will do it.” Smiling serenely and saying (correctly) AI is not super intelligent or sentient will not stop it from being used as though it is.Therein lies the real existential threat: not Skynet, but Shitty Skynet.
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Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The problem isn't rogue #AI models, it's *negligent companies*. If a biomedical firm put their product in public water supply because they wanted to test it 'in the real world', they'd be treated as criminal at corporate & individual level. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
OpenAI halts training of latest models as reports mount of AI agents going rogue
Decision follows disclosures that OpenAI agents searching government websites had acted in unexpected ways
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
At my PhD interview I was carrying a very full hiking-backpack with visible bloodstains. And a Nalgene bottle, obviously.
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Cannot tell you how much I hate this & how ashamed & angry I am that @ukri.org have taken this step. We KNOW this sort of gAI is socially biased, we KNOW it favours slopAI output over human-written. Our research landscape is falling apart due to underfunding, & they do this? it's *appalling*
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Major props to Robin and team for this important work. Read it, use it, share it far and wide.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Neurodivergence level: today for the first time I took a medication with ‘amfetamine’ in the name, and I’m the calmest and stillest I’ve been in ages
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Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Me: (driving car into wall) My car has gone rogue! Me: (dropping phone into tub) My god, my phone has gone rogue! Me: (tripping over table) The table! It's gone rogue!
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West Coast Birdwatching @westcoastbirds.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
HELP NEEDED! There is a stranded Manx Shearwater in the West Midlands (SOLIHULL) that needs a ride back to the coast. Can anyone in that area help? Even to take it some of the way and pass on to another volunteer? Please call 01437 723193 if you can help 🙏
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Have you ever tried to read a scientific journal article and been told “you don’t have access, pay to download this article?” Did you know that the author of that article gets $0 if you pay? Instead, you can email the author and ask for a free copy! I’d be delighted to help and answer questions!
Screenshot of a scientific journal paywall
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Bela Lugosi's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Once again, speaking as a professional archaeologist: "English" is not an ethnicity in any meaningful sense. You only have to go back about 1,000 years before everyone in Europe has the same group of common genealogical ancestors. Humans have lived on the British Isles for almost a million years.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What's behind this tidal wave of epidemics? In the largest study ever conducted on emerging infectious diseases, we show that the popular explanation - "our relationship with nature is out of balance" - doesn't hold up. Out now in Nature, after half a decade of work: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases - Nature
Emerging infectious disease outbreak risks are ubiquitous worldwide, and highest in landscapes where people, livestock and fragmented natural ecosystems coexist, but detection and data ...
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Not to be all maudlin, but I think "sung by a child" is the bit that has broken something inside of me.
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Rob Manuel @robmanuel.b3ta.com · 23/09/2026
Going to shoplift Meal Deals in Sainsbury's and they can't arrest me because it'll make me a martyr. "Free the scotch eggs" I shout on TikTok, with a mouth full of scotch eggs.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Terrible milestone reached: my toddler just asked me to stop listening to The Coup and is demanding we put Let it Go on instead
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Look, if this isn't a crime we've failed.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Fuck Manuscript Central
Meme with a photo of Kier Starmer, captioned "there's a famous slogan in the United Kingdom"
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Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Elvis was a hero to most But he never meant shit to me To you To me To you
Paul Chuckle from the Chuckle Brothers with Chuck D and Flavor Flav from Public Enemy
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Graeme Swanson @swansonian.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
*wakes up from a coma after 28 years* Hey, I wonder what happened to that 11 year old girl who rang This Morning to sing Pie Jesu.
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c3rmen @c3rmen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Losing my mind while doing some research for my creature design lecture that the closest relative to the maned wolf is the bush dog. Like there has gotta be a fable where the maned wolf took all the leggie from its cousin
Maned wolfBush dog
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Ran my first race since baby was born, got my worst ever 10k time 🥳 I’m choosing to count it as a win that I got out and did the thing while knowing it would be a shambles. Turns out ‘sleeping’ and ‘exercising’ are quite important for your running performance. Follow me for more fitness tips.
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Elias Greig @eliasgreig.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I keep seeing articles about men worrying they won't pass on their genes, and I don't understand why the media won't tell the plain truth: as a man hoping to sire children, the most important thing to do is artfully assemble a bower and surround it with a collection of startlingly blue objects.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Baby got her first vaccines today, yay for free immunity! 🥳 Take that, Polio, ya lil bitch
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Jason GRIZZLED Bittel @bittelmethis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
BREAKING NEWS: New cat species just dropped! 🧪 What is a tilcayo, exactly? Well, it's a small wild cat in the genus Leopardus and a member of the tiger cat species complex, but it is NOT a tigrina, oncilla, kodkod, Geoffroy's cat... www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
nationalgeographic.com
Meet the First New Cat Species Discovered in 100 years
A small, spotted tiger cat from Bolivia may just be the beginning of a wave of new small cat species.
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The thing about trying not to pick a side is that the nazis *instantly recognize* which side you picked. They immediately identify you as an ally. They know exactly what side you're on. It doesn't fool the victims, it doesn't fool the Nazis, the only people it could possibly fool is centrists.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
My smartwatch just gave me a notification that my cardiovascular health has declined over the past x weeks... coincidentally, x is the number of weeks since our baby was born.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Just received news of a paper being rejected within sixty seconds of accepting a review request of the same journal
Meme of a cat screaming, saying:
Why is the Cat Screaming?
1. Why wouldn't the cat scream
2. If you were smart, you'd be doing the same thing
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
“I don’t want to cause any problems” says man kicking hornets nest
Screenshot of news:

Donald Trump says unified Ireland would be a 'great thing' as he meets
Irish prime minister
The president says he doesn't want to "cause any problems" but he'd "love to see" a unified Ireland.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Good. When I lived in London I quickly learned to avoid running through the more hipster neighbourhoods in winter, the amount of woodsmoke would trigger my asthma instantly. Ridiculously, it was nicer on my lungs to run next to 6 lanes of rush-hour traffic than through some areas of Hackney
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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is all so upsetting on so many levels. And feels like a far bigger problem than is being acknowledged or addressed.
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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
With coffee in hand, epic music playing, gritted teeth and a world-weary look in their eyes, our protagonist sits down at their computer and finally opens up *that* email.
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Mums for Lungs @mumsforlungs.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Wood burning season is almost upon us. If you're thinking of burning, take two minutes to watch our new animation first. Top lines - burning wood and solid fuels creates large amounts of invisible fine particle pollution, impacting our #Health. But there are solutions! #AirPollution
gumlet.tv
Do you know the hidden cost of wood burning?
ResearcherDrMathySannasiandgrassrootsairpollutioncampaigngroupMumsforLungshavecreatedthisshortanimationonwhathappenswhenwoodorsolidfuelisburntinastoveoropenfireplace.Beforeyoustartburningorconsiderin…
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Fabulous Ice Age spear thrower handle carved in the form of an animal. Known as the ‘Creeping Hyena’ it was carved from mammoth ivory around 15,000 years ago. The shaft is missing, but the hook to propel the spear is still visible. From La Madeleine rock shelter, France. 📷 by me #Archaeology
My photo shows an Upper Paleolithic spear-thrower (also known as an atlatl) carved in the form of a crouching animal, viewed in profile with head to left. Its head and neck are extended forward, low to the ground, and its legs are tucked beneath its body. It has a long downward curved tail, the pointed lower end of which ends beneath the body at lower right, forming the hook against which the tail end of the spear rests. The shaft of the spear thrower is missing. The ivory is a warm beige colour and is cracked with age in places. The sculpture is mounted on a thin metal support in a museum display case. It was found in La Madeleine rock shelter, Tursac, Dordogne, France. I saw this spear thrower on display at the Pompidou Centre, on loan from the National Prehistory Museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac.
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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 08/09/2026
think it is probably worth pointing out that the entire reason the RNLI relies on donations and is not funded like the fire service or police is precisely to allow it to stay entirely independent of whatever government is in power so you know, it's worth keeping it going rnli.org/support-us/g...
rnli.org
Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea
Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.
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beetle moses @beetlemoses.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Three panel comic. Panel 1: a horseshoe crab watches as a variety of prehistoric creatures swim towards an ethereal light. An ammonite calls back to the crab, “come on, horseshoe crab! We’re all evolving!” Panel 2: the horseshoe crab stays in position and replies, “nahh that’s crazy” Panel 3: the horseshoe crab is superimposed in front of a future premonition: a rather miserable-looking human slouched in the glow of a desktop computer. The horshoe crab swims away and says, “good luck tho”
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
If "legitimate concerns" were considered to excuse illegitimate methods, then nobody from Just Stop Oil or Palestine Action would have been arrested. So we know it doesn't. In fact that phrase is only ever used in one context. Only in that context is uniformed mob intimidation "peaceful protest"
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