Sign in

Will Pearse

@willpearse.bsky.social
288 followers 212 following 25 posts

Ecology, evolution, health, and stats: geeky but dreadful at typing Imperial College London pearselab.com/

PostsRepliesMedia
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 6h
Enter the SPHERE/ @nbntrust.bsky.social biodiversity forecast challenge! Show us what you can do with the amazing NBN Atlas data, and have real-world impacts on how we carry out biodiversity monitoring. Find out more (nbn.org.uk/news/sphere-...) and enter (github.com/SPHERE-PPL/N...)
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
020
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Learn from the winter fuel payment fiasco: don't open new drilling licenses in the North Sea www.theguardian.com/politics/202... @labouruk.bsky.social
theguardian.com
Burnham risks Labour backlash if he reverses ban on new oil and gas drilling
Party manifesto pledged to honour existing North Sea exploration licences but not issue new ones
000
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Can you predict the UK’s next wheat disease outbreak? Enter SPHERE's forecasting contest, run in collaboration with @ADASgroup! Details (www.imperial.ac.uk/news/article...) and GitHub to enter (github.com/SPHERE-PPL/A...)
imperial.ac.uk
Can you predict the UK’s next wheat disease outbreak?
A new AI forecasting competition aims to improve prediction of major wheat diseases and support agricultural decision-making.
001
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
🌍 Biodiversity post-doc! 🏭 Combine our dataset on European policy and industrial emissions with biodiversity data to figure out what policies work where. 💻 Apply here (www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...), or ask me (profiles.imperial.ac.uk/will.pearse) or Laure (profiles.imperial.ac.uk/l.depreux)
012
Reposted by Will Pearse
Jingyi Yang @jyang19.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Happy to see my PhD work on birdsong complexity published today! doi.org/10.1098/rspb... 🐦‍⬛ 🎶 ⬇️ Why are some birdsongs simple and some extremely complex? The answer is long thought to be ‘sexual selection favouring complex signals’. But - really?
doi.org
Song complexity in suboscine birds: evolutionary drivers and ecological constraints
Abstract. Acoustic signal complexity varies widely in animals, from single notes to highly sophisticated vocal displays. In birds, vocal complexity can evo
1045355
Reposted by Will Pearse
Diogo B Proietti @provete.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
pnas.org
A transparent universal credit system to incentivize peer review | PNAS
A transparent universal credit system to incentivize peer review
033
Reposted by Will Pearse
Rona Learmonth @rona-learmonth.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
New preprint! 🌳🐛 We combined experimental and genomic methods to study local adaptation of winter moths to variation in oak budburst timing in Wytham Woods, UK. With @andreaestandia.bsky.social, Lea Beaupere, Ella Cole, and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Integrative analysis of fine-scale local adaptation of winter moths to variable oak phenology
For herbivorous insects whose fitness depends on tight phenological synchrony with host plants, spatial variation in plant phenology can impose strong selective pressures and promote local adaptation ...
11710
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Develop a forecasts of severe patient harm to be used by the NHS! Every 4-hour delay in Emergency Department admission increases 30-day mortality risk by 8%: join the SPHERE forecasting contest and help the NHS reduce delays before they happen! Find out more here: www.imperial.ac.uk/news/article...
imperial.ac.uk
Researchers launch forecasting challenge to help predict severe patient harm in NHS hospitals
Researchers have launched a new data science challenge aimed at improving the ability of NHS hospitals to anticipate and prevent severe patient harm.
021
Reposted by Will Pearse
samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 19/03/2026
out now in Science: @loganjames.bsky.social collected pairs of sounds in 16 species where we *know* which sound is more attractive (to that species) he played them to ppl on themusiclab.org, asking, in each pair, which was nicer. humans agreed w other animals doi.org/10.1126/science.aea1202
cOMPaRatiVe cOGNitiONHumans share acousticpreferences with other animalsLogan S. James1,2,3,4* Sarah C. Woolley 1,2, Jon T. Sakata1,2,Courtney B. Hilton5,6, Michael J. Ryan3,4, Samuel A. Mehr5,7,8Many animals produce courtship sounds, and receivers prefersome sounds over others. Shared ancestry and convergentevolution may generate similarities in preference across speciesand underlie Darwin’s conjecture that some animals “havenearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have.” In this study,we show that humans share acoustic preferences with a rangeof animals, that the strength of human preferences correlateswith that in other animals, and that humans respond fasterwhen in agreement with animals. Furthermore, we foundgreatest agreement in preference for adorned, ancestral, andlower-frequency sounds. humans’ music listening experiencewas associated with preferences. These results are consistentwith theories arguing that biases in processing sculpt acousticpreferences, and they confirm Darwin’s century-old hunchabout the conservation of aesthetics in nature
10484164
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Got what it takes to forecast for the NHS? 🏥 We’re releasing 1.3GB of data (2.5 years of records) for a massive forecasting challenge. Predict ambulance & admittance trends to help the NHS. Win 🏆 too... Join here: github.com/SPHERE-PPL/N... #DataScience #MachineLearning #NHS #Forecasting
github.com
GitHub - SPHERE-PPL/NHS-EAD-forecast
Contribute to SPHERE-PPL/NHS-EAD-forecast development by creating an account on GitHub.
010
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
SPHERE's annual meeting is on the 14th of January! Robin Freeman (ZSL), Julie Smith (ADAS), and Eric Daub (Alan Turing Institute) will speak, we'll congratulate the Lyme Disease forecast winners, & announce our next contest in collaboration with the NHS! sphere-ppl.org
000
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Boost your skills! 📊 Help identify AI training for environmental forecasting at the SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting, and network! 📅 14th Jan 2026 | The Alan Turing Institute Find out more: sphere-ppl.org Register: forms.gle/iy6jC3Xg3QrT... #Training #AI #EnvironmentalScience #Forecasting #TuringInstitute
sphere-ppl.org
SPHERE-PPL
020
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
*The UK's winter 2020 COVID was foreseen, and should have been better managed* Please read the 2nd chapter of the COVID enquiry. The previous government must be held to account for their negligence, which cost lives. covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/u...
010
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Spotlight on forecasting contests! 🎯 At the SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting, you can shape AI forecasting challenges in Environmental Science and maximise their real-world impact. 📅 14-01-2026 | The Alan Turing Institute Register now: forms.gle/iy6jC3Xg3QrT... Find out more: sphere-ppl.org/pages/Events...
forms.gle
SPHERE Annual Meeting - Environmental Modelling & Forecasting
Join us for the second SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting, a full-day gathering dedicated to advancing environmental modelling and forecasting. This event will bring together experts from industry, academia, a...
000
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
🚀 The 2nd SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting is happening 14th Jan 2026 at The Alan Turing Institute. Explore AI forecasting in Environmental Science, shape forecasting contests, and network! 📩 Register now: forms.gle/iy6jC3Xg3QrT... 🌍 Find out more: sphere-ppl.org/pages/Events...
021
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
I'm a little biased, but estined to be a classic: a conceptual framework about how to think about 'ecological acclimation' to climate change. Good from the fundamental theory perspective - it wins my "using maths constructively" award for the year! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Ecological acclimation: A framework to integrate fast and slow responses to climate change
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
020
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Are you an ecologist interested in spatial scaling? Of course you are, we all are! So join this new fractal network! I can say, with absolutely no bias or impartiality at all, that it's amazing!
142
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
There still time to enter the SPHERE Lyme disease forecasting contest! Act now for a chance to help improve our understanding of disease *and* win fabulous prizes! (alright, a free conference ticket - but still!) sphere-ppl.org/pages/Foreca...
sphere-ppl.org
Forecasting Contests – SPHERE-PPL
000
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
A great event about funding practical solutions to the biodiversity crisis! Looking forward to the next one!
000
Reposted by Will Pearse
Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
... which so happens to overlap with #NationalFishandChipsDay 🇬🇧 Must say I am conflicted with just how to celebrate June 6th
poster listing National Fish and Chips Day, June 6th 2025
251
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Why have I, as an otherwise rational human being, clicked the "update all CRAN packages" button when installing an R package at 4.46pm on a Friday just before a bank holiday? 😭
120
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Net-zero is good for business (UK leads this tech), good for health (heatwaves kill, so does dirty air from burning fossil-fuels), and popular (only 24% of UK public oppose yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...). Good to have debate, but @tonyblairinstitute.bsky.social is wrong on net-zero
yougov.co.uk
To what extent do you support or oppose the government's commitment to cutting carbon emissions to net zero by 2050? | Daily Question
To what extent do you support or oppose the government's commitment to cutting carbon emissions to net zero by 2050?
100
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Two days of rewilding discussion and workshops? Sign me up! Or... you know... sign you up? Great opportunity to get involved with the BES rewilding SIG and meet other practitioners and academics www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/expl...
britishecologicalsociety.org
Exploring The Science of Rewilding - British Ecological Society
A 2-day event on the science of rewilding, bringing together practitioners and academics working in rewilding to foster knowledge exchange in North England and South Scotland.
000
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Take part in SPHERE-PPL's Lyme disease forecasting contest! Help improve our understanding of a dreadful disease *and* improve publicly available datasets for everyone! sphere-ppl.org/pages/Foreca...
sphere-ppl.org
Forecasting Contests – SPHERE-PPL
000
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Make sure you talk to Mahika Dixit #BES2024 about her work on machine learning, museum specimens, and butterflies and bees! It turns out new image analysis tools help you unpick differences in queens' and workers' responses to climate change
040
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Fight that hangover and get to Nell Pates' talk at 11am in the rewilding session #BES2024! A global meta-analysis of rewilding practice and academic literature awaits - there are some massive disconnects and some tangible ways to resolve them...
040
Reposted by Will Pearse
Charlie Outhwaite @charlieouthwaite.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
I have some PhD projects now available for application if you are interested in insect biodiversity change. Please check out the links below and shout if you have questions!
13243
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
First meeting of the UK Vector-Borne Disease Hub! Lauren Cator, @drstevenmwhite.bsky.social , @hannahvineer.bsky.social (and others not on bluesky) figuring out how to share data to support disease modelling and forecasting and make the UK healthier! www.imperial.ac.uk/news/250073/...
064
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
I'm glad the assisted dying bill has passed. There are important details to be resolved, but my dad deserved a choice and deserved better than he got. I have no good digital photos of him: please donate at this link and then take a photo with a loved one
worldwidecancerresearch.org
Donate to Worldwide Cancer Research
Together we can reach a day when no life is cut short by cancer. Donate to cancer research and become a Curestarter today.
000
Reposted by Will Pearse
Nicolas Mouquet @nmouquet.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Updating the #IUCN status of marine fish using AI shows that x5 more species are threatened with extinction than previously thought! see our study in Plos Biol with @nloiseau.bsky.social 👉 doi.org/10.1371/jour... 🔑 This silent extinction affects 12,7% of marine fishes (1337 species) ! 🧪🌐🌍🦤🦑
28729
Will Pearse @willpearse.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Long-time tweet, new BlueSky-er, it's nice here! My lab works on ecology, evolution, conservation, human health, and AI! We've recently built an ecosystem function forecast model - learn more here www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperi...
010