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Vivek Hari Sridhar

@vivekhsridhar.bsky.social
135 followers 123 following 2 posts

Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. Studies decision-making, mating ecology, collective behaviour, sociality. www.vivekhsridhar.com

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Reposted by Vivek Hari Sridhar
Jolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
BehaveAI can now measure orientation. So now you can work out the behaviour of your animal in each frame as well as its direction - e.g. tells you which way animals are pointing or whether they're turning. Video guide: youtu.be/FgmtHoardWg Install: github.com/troscianko/B...
youtu.be
BehaveAI - orientation tracking - v1.4
YouTube video by Jolyon Troscianko
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Jolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🦋 Butterfly wing patterns create motion illusions that protect them from predators! Our new study (8 years in the making) is out in Nature today doi.org/10.1038/s415... @grahancock.bsky.social @esbriolat.bsky.social @scienceanna.bsky.social @lauraakelley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social
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Félicie Dhellemmes @felicie-dhellemmes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Proud to present our latest work "Tracking human foragers and their prey reveals adaptive predator-prey dynamics", now hosted on BioRxiv! 🧵 doi.org/10.64898/202... @ralfkurvers.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social @alexschakowski.bsky.social @dominikdeffner.bsky.social
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
NEW CAT JUST DROPPED!!!!!
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Doc Edge @docedge.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Please repost: My department (quantitative and computational biology at the University of Southern California) is hiring a teaching-track faculty member. The new hire will focus on teaching statistics courses to biology students. Apply by Dec 1 usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...
usccareers.usc.edu
Full-Time, Teaching-Track Faculty Position in Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC
Learn more about applying for Full-Time, Teaching-Track Faculty Position in Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 12/09/2026
The Trump administration has blocked more than 130 projects in national parks worth $25 million in funding that had already been secured for work such as fire preparedness in California, prehistoric mound protection in Iowa and sled dog care in Alaska. wapo.st/4xQAfFZ
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
My home department (Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley) is searching for an assistant professor in ecology—please distribute widely! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05489
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
Assistant Professor –Ecology- Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
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Nature @nature.com · 13/09/2026
An abandoned quarry in southwestern China has given scientists an unprecedented glimpse into the lives and abilities of the mysterious ancient humans called Denisovans go.nature.com/4duLDza
go.nature.com
Who were the Denisovans? Rich trove of fossils and tools paints new picture
Nature - Objects found in a cave in southwestern China suggest that these enigmatic ancient humans were accomplished hunters.
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Science Magazine @science.org · 31/08/2026
This is what a Jurassic forest may have sounded like. By combining exquisitely preserved fossil wings with experiments on living insects, computer simulations, and machine learning, scientists have re-created what they say is a partial Middle Jurassic soundscape. scim.ag/4cirWKy
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Danai Papageorgiou @danaipapageorgiou.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
🧬🐬 Culture may leave a molecular footprint. Our new study on Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins @researchdolphin.bsky.social explores how a socially learned behaviour — sponging— may be reflected in DNA methylation. OA: doi.org/10.1098/rstb... Hosted by a Phil Trans B special issue:
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Jacopo Razzauti @jacoporazzauti.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
FERAL 1.0 is out! Just to remind you: FERAL is an open-source toolkit for supervised animal behaviour segmentation directly from videos with no pose estimation needed. We made it much easier to install and run FERAL First, to install FERAL: pip install feral www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵
biorxiv.org
FERAL: A Supervised Video-Understanding System for Direct Video-to-Behavior Mapping
Quantifying animal behavior often requires segmenting continuous actions into discrete, interpretable states, yet most automated pipelines infer actions from keypoint dynamics and are limited by keypo...
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David Grimm @david-grimm.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Deep in the lush forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo lives a rare monkey that has long evaded scientists and even most local communities. Only few have witnessed the black, orange-mouthed primate quietly perching high in the canopy. Story by @yejnlheee.bsky.social for @science.org
science.org
Mysterious orange-lipped monkey discovered deep in the Congo rainforest is a new species
“Likweli” find highlights importance of conservation work, researchers say
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Christos C. Ioannou @ccioannou.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
📢 @asab.org Conference Attendance Grants for developing country applicants: deadline 1st AUGUST 📢 Up to £2500!!! Joint Winter Conference of ASAB and PSGB: “Social Learning and Culture” @asabpsgb2026.bsky.social #ASABWinter2026 @asab-meetings.bsky.social Full details: www.asab.org/conference-g...
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 08/07/2026
Qualia goes where curiosity leads. This week, writer Philip Ball goes down a contentious rabbit hole to see if living organisms (including the rabbit) have agency, or do things for their own reasons. Read the latest column: www.quantamagazine.org/is-life-just...
quantamagazine.org
Is Life Just Different? | Quanta Magazine
The idea of ‘biological agency’ — that life devises its own goals and behaves accordingly — complicates our understanding of what it means to be alive. But does it serve a scientific purpose?
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 08/07/2026
Mental fatigue is an evolutionary relic. When our brains get tired, it’s because our body is saving its resources for the long haul — even when we have plenty of energy available.
quantamagazine.org
How Much Energy Does It Take To Think? | Quanta Magazine
Studies of neural metabolism reveal our brain’s effort to keep us alive and the evolutionary constraints that sculpted our most complex organ.
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Matteo Guardamagna @matteoguardamagna.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
1/7 🧠 My journey into development begins with this work and question: how does the brain's spatial navigation system develop? We found that the neural networks for spatial navigation (tori and rings) are preconfigured and only later anchor gradually to the world with experience! 🧵
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Dom Cram @domcram.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
How do animals cooperate when they aren't even the same species? Our recent review paper dug deep into the literature... 1/ Read the full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
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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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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
excited about this one: using longitudinal movement data and dyadic models, we show that orangutan moms adjust their ranging patterns so their kids can play with age-mates independent of kinship, at personal costs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Mothers with similarly aged offspring share more space, and their offspring play more.
Posterior effect sizes from social relations models (SRMs) of (a, b) infant-infant play scans (n = 996
infant-dyad-years across 79 mother dyads) and (c) mother-mother home-range overlap (Bhattacharyya coefficient; n
= 282 mother-dyad years across 71 mother dyads). Panel (a) shows the hurdle component (probability of play
occurrence), sign-flipped so positive values indicate higher probability of play occurrence; panel (b) shows the count
component (play frequency). Points and thick and thin lines show posterior medians with 66% and 89% credible
intervals, respectively. (d) Counterfactual home-range overlap for each dyad when offspring are the same age versus
6 years apart. Points show posterior medians across all mother-mother dyads (one horizontal bar per dyad);
background densities show population-level predictions. (e) Offspring age-difference effect on home-range overlap
versus intersection area. (f) Posterior difference between the two effects (BC overlap minus intersection area).
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/06/2026
Meanwhile the paper on the benefits of the COVID vaccine that Bhattacharya censored as Interim Director of the CDC is now out in JAMA Network Open. This is a paper he really didn't want people to view and download. You know what to do.
jamanetwork.com
Interim Estimated Effectiveness of 2025-2026 COVID-19 Vaccines in Adults
This case-control study estimates vaccine effectiveness of 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccines among adults with COVID-19–associated emergency department or urgent care encounters and COVID-19–associated hosp...
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Danai Papageorgiou @danaipapageorgiou.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
🎓📢 PhD Alert 🎓📢 Three weeks left to apply for the PhD position on maintaining the balance of power in animal societies! www.hu-berlin.de/en/universit... @animalopps.bsky.social
hu-berlin.de
Making sure you're not a bot!
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Stephanie L King @stephanielking.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
What a treat - this is the third time the Shark Bay dolphins have made the cover of @pnas.org! You can read more about our new paper - led by @alicebouchard.bsky.social in the current issue www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @bristolbiosci.bsky.social @researchdolphin.bsky.social
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Science Magazine @science.org · 14/06/2026
A new Science study shows that bumble bees can position a ball underneath a fake “flower” to reach a reward, suggesting they can exhibit spontaneous problem-solving and challenging the notion that such advanced cognitive abilities are exclusive to large-brained vertebrates. scim.ag/4vs08dC
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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 13/06/2026
Fireflies “have been doing computer science well before we even existed.” — Andrew Moiseff, a biologist at the University of Connecticut quantamagazine.org/how-do-firef...
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Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Our latest episode of Transmissions is out! This one features Prof. Dr. Lucy Aplin, a leading cognitive ecologist from the University of Zurich and Australian National University. This marks our very first episode dedicated entirely to understanding animal culture! youtu.be/M7qCTKRNVuA?...
youtu.be
Transmissions Episode 6 with Dr Lucy Aplin
YouTube video by Cultural Evolution Society
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Blair Costelloe @blaircostelloe.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Just over a week left to apply! 🧪 I am happy to answer any questions!
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Theiss Bendixen @theissbendixen.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
It's alive! 🎉 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁'𝘀 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 is out -- an introduction to causal inference in practice. The first two chapters are available for free here: theissbendixen.com/dag-book/ More below 👇
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Will Oestreich @will-oestreich.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The concluding paragraphs of this essay by Ted Chiang are particularly thoughtful.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 03/06/2026
1. How common is LLM use in scientific publishing, and how does it vary across field, publisher, journal prestige, author demographics etc.? @kylesiler.bsky.social has new paper in PNAS that addresses this question on a massive scale: 7.3 million papers from Elsevier, PLOS, MDPI, and Frontiers.
pnas.org
The diffusion of large language models in published academic articles | PNAS
Large language models (LLMs) are rapidly changing academic research, raising questions of who is adopting these tools and under what conditions. Th...
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Nadja Geiger @nadjageiger.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
New paper alert!🕷️✨ Tiny spider. Shiny abdomen. Suspiciously wiggly bum. In our new study, we asked what abdomen bobbing in this jumping spider is really all about: Cute? Yes. Meaningful? Let’s find out...! [1/8] @unibonn.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-026-03745-1
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Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
New mechanism for magnetic sensing in pigeons 🧭 Homing pigeons use magnetically responsive immune cells in their livers to sense Earth’s magnetic field, helping them navigate without visual cues like the sun. Published in Science: doi.org/10.1126/scie... @unibonn.bsky.social @unidue.bsky.social
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Blair Costelloe @blaircostelloe.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
If you'd like to get an idea of what a PhD with the WildBotics project will be like, check out our sister project WildDrone www.wilddrone.eu I'm happy to answer questions from any potentially interested applicants!
wilddrone.eu
WildDrone – Drones for Wildlife Conservation
An international training network funded by the EU’s Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions to research and develop the use of drones for wildlife conservation.
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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 29/05/2026
An internal compass: #pigeons use magnetically responsive immune cells in their livers to sense Earth’s magnetic field, helping them navigate without visual cues like the sun. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s8i... @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @science.org
youtube.com
Pigeons navigate using magnetic sensors in their livers
YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
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Nature @nature.com · 25/05/2026
Nature research paper: Imaging hidden objects with consumer LiDAR via motion-induced sampling go.nature.com/49dhpij
go.nature.com
Imaging hidden objects with consumer LiDAR via motion-induced sampling - Nature
Researchers enable hidden-object imaging on consumer LiDAR by fusing multiple frames with a motion-based model, achieving three-dimensional reconstruction, tracking and localization using low-cost, off-the-shelf smartphone sensors.
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Pawel Burkhardt @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
A fossil nervous system meets modern neurobiology. We found that a living comb jelly preserves neural architecture remarkably similar to those inferred from Cambrian fossils over 500 million years old 🤩. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
“Academic science is not only about productivity but also deep understanding, creative solutions & training critical thinkers as next generation of researchers. Now is the time for our community to evaluate whether AI products help or hinder these.“ @lmesseri.bsky.social & @mjcrockett.bsky.social🧪👇
nature.com
The uncritical adoption of AI in science is alarming — we urgently need guard rails
Artificial intelligence is rapidly accelerating scientific output, but risks narrowing inquiry, weakening judgement and undermining how scientists are trained.
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Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez @frodsan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
#StatsPubs No matter how many times you read it, this paper on hierarchical GAMs keeps giving. Clear model explanations together with R code (mgcv). So useful! doi.org/10.7717/peer... Thanks for writing @ericjpedersen.bsky.social, D. Miller, @gsimpson.bsky.social @noamross.net
In this paper, we discuss an extension to two popular approaches to modeling complex structures in ecological data: the generalized additive model (GAM) and the hierarchical model (HGLM). The hierarchical GAM (HGAM), allows modeling of nonlinear functional relationships between covariates and outcomes where the shape of the function itself varies between different grouping levels. We describe the theoretical connection between HGAMs, HGLMs, and GAMs, explain how to model different assumptions about the degree of intergroup variability in functional response, and show how HGAMs can be readily fitted using existing GAM software, the mgcv package in R. We also discuss computational and statistical issues with fitting these models, and demonstrate how to fit HGAMs on example data. All code and data used to generate this paper are available at: github.com/eric-pedersen/mixed-effect-gams.
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David Grimm @david-grimm.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Scientists have spotted seals taking refuge in an unusual place: a small, dome-shaped chamber accessible only through an underwater passage. Such hidden “bubble caves” may provide peace and quiet during tourist season. Fun story by @phiejacobs.bsky.social for @science.org
science.org
Rare seals spotted snoozing in an underwater ‘bubble cave’
Hidden chambers may provide Mediterranean monk seals refuge from tourists
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Researchers have long searched for the neural circuit underlying locomotion. Now they’ve found it in flies. By @natmesanash.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
thetransmitter.org
Long-sought walking circuit found in fruit flies
The neuronal circuit controlling repetitive locomotion patterns in any animal has been a mystery until now.
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Odd Jacobson @oddjacobson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
New paper out today in Nat Ecol Evol! On how within- and between-group competition jointly shape ranging in wild capuchins, and how the environment tips the balance. Thread below 🐒
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
New preprint: Whole-body 3D kinematics of freely behaving 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 New tech from @blobology.bsky.social & others at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social, which @ispizua.bsky.social and @elliottabe.bsky.social used to gain insight into 3D structure of locomotion & courtship www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Last weekend I received the Troland Research Award from the @nationalacademies.org. I’m so grateful to the communities who made this work possible. It's strange to receive this award at a time when much of the work being recognized is not eligible for federal funding. My remarks 👇 and a 🧵>>
youtube.com
NAS 163rd Annual Meeting - Awards Ceremony
YouTube video by National Academy of Sciences
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Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
🚨Last week to apply for a 3 year postdoc with me and @dominikdeffner.bsky.social, embedded in theadaptivemind-excellencecluster.de Focus is on developing innovative experiments and computational models to understand social & cultural learning. Deadline is March 30th 👉 hmc-lab.com/SocialLearni...
hmc-lab.com
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution posted on March 2, 2026 We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual...
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Julia Penndorf @julia-penndorf.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
🎉🦜NEW PAPER ALERT 🦜🎉 Which social learning biases underly the acquisition of novel food in wild parrots ? We (@lucymaplin.bsky.social, @bjjbarrett.bsky.social, @sonjawild.bsky.social, @drjohnmartin.bsky.social) presented >700 cockies with a novel, artificial food (🧵1/6)
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 28/04/2026
I can't imagine what would more effectively recruit US scientific talent to other countries around the world than destroying universities, eliminating research funding, and demonizing the very concept of expertise.
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Bruce Rawlings @brucerawlings.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Things I thought I’d never say - here’s a new manuscript of cockroach and rat collective intelligence. We argue group-level intelligence can emerge from very different mechanisms—from simple local rules to socially mediated cooperation and learning: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Clever vermin? Collective intelligence in rats and roaches
Abstract. Collective intelligence (CI) is the capacity of groups to outperform individuals in tasks such as decision-making, coordination and problem-solvi
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Tim McKay @timmckay.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Once again, Rebecca Solnit helps us to focus on important things. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit
The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment
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Stanley Heinze @stanley-heinze.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Are you a computational scientist? Within 7 years of your PhD? Come join us at Lund University! We have two new positions as assistant professor! Deadline: 25th of May. The advert is broad, but this is your chance to push computational neuroscience in a fantastic place! lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
lu.varbi.com
Two positions as Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Computational Science
We are looking for an up-and-coming researcher who wants to conduct pioneering research to take up a position as Assistant Professor in Computational Science. Computational science research is conduct
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I would have preferred to have the "draw the rest of the owl" meme on the cover, but this will do. Seems like it is on schedule, and we'll leave some typos so you know we didn't write it with AI.
cover of the book "Bayesian Workflow" by Gelman, Vehtari, et al. Coming out later this year, in the summer probably.
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