Timothée Poisot
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ctrlalttim.com
Timothée Poisot
@ctrlalttim.com
Almost certainly one of the ecologists of all time.

AI/ML, biodiversity monitoring, viral emergence, open science, methodological anarchism

he/they

🧪 https://epic-biodiversity.org/
Pinned
As one of the greatest writers of our age said, “venom with a new twang, same swagger, new thang” - the lab has changed a lot over ten years, and after thinking about who we became, we decided to re-do the website. And write about our theory of change.

Follow us - @epic-biodiversity.org !
👋 Bonjour hi!

We've built a whole new website, and @ctrlalttim.com has thoughts about the long-term dynamics of research groups to share.

epic-biodiversity.org/blog/2025/11...
Bonjour hi! | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
it’s come to my attention that my tumblr post has been crossposted to bluesky, so I’m posting it on my account here #AntiAI #GenAI
January 9, 2026 at 5:07 PM
This is a real tour de force by Maria Isabel. This paper is, put together, a whole century of CPU time done with the help of Calcul Québec. We will also be moving some of the outputs to BON-in-a-Box, @geobon.org cloud-based tool to facilitate the reporting of biodiversity indicators.
🧪🌎 Only 12% of Colombia's Tropical Dry Forest is located within protected areas, which puts over 750 species of plants, birds, and mammals at risk of habitat loss.

Read more about our most recent paper, where we also tie this trend to national-level biodiversity commitments.
Are we there yet? Ongoing habitat loss in Colombia’s Tropical Dry Forests | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
January 14, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
🧪🌎 Only 12% of Colombia's Tropical Dry Forest is located within protected areas, which puts over 750 species of plants, birds, and mammals at risk of habitat loss.

Read more about our most recent paper, where we also tie this trend to national-level biodiversity commitments.
Are we there yet? Ongoing habitat loss in Colombia’s Tropical Dry Forests | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
January 14, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
For Canadian scholars, the reality is bleak .
Ottawa is dangling money for American researchers, but what about our own? #academicsky #neuroskyence #psychscisky
January 12, 2026 at 11:29 AM
Doing the final edits and bringing the last bits of nuance to this statement was a good reminder that by far the best part of this job is to just do things. We get to think about stuff and then do it. Amazing. Still can't believe it most days.
Last week, during the lab meeting, we adopted a position statement (and lab rules) on the use of generative AI.

epic-biodiversity.org/generative-ai/

In a nutshell: "The use of GenAI is disallowed-by-default", but we also go to great length to justify why.
Use of generative artificial intelligence | ÉPICBiodiversity
epic-biodiversity.org
January 12, 2026 at 12:55 PM
Hello, I'm passing on some stuff we found in the closet of doom! I feel almost certain that multiple people who follow me want Star Trek Catan. If someone will pay shipping it can be yours!

The catch: the back uh... appears to be in German? I suppose the inside is too maybe? LOL
January 10, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
One of the reasons I am in the lab pretty much every day, and a assistant on all my student’s assays: if you aren’t practicing those skills, you are losing them (and one of the best parts of this whole profession imo)
January 8, 2026 at 6:40 PM
This is a genuine issue for two very important (and inter-related) concerns.

First, pandemic preparedness; second, the hopefully last remnants of a colonialist perspective on open science that demands the right to exploit, and dares call it "access".

A short thread.
“[P]utting data into GISAID is like dropping it in a mail slot in an unmarked building,” says @colincarlson.bsky.social. “It’s wonderful that there’s so much cool stuff in that building. It would be great if we knew who owned it, or who paid for it, or what they plan to do with it.”
#IDsky 🧪
Fresh conflicts erupt around giant database for flu and COVID-19 sequences
Critics say “autocratic” behavior by GISAID could hamper response to a future pandemic
www.science.org
January 8, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
It was great to meet so many other Early Career Researchers at our #TIBS2026 mixer last night - both catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.

To celebrate all the ECR Biogeographers, we have created a starter pack so you can follow all the exciting work being done:
go.bsky.app/KvnmdnK
January 8, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Real
January 8, 2026 at 1:25 PM
I suspect that one of the reasons behind the widespread adoption of generative AI by faculty is that it gives people the illusion that they can still do the things they knew how to do as a postdoc. Gen AI is used as a poor substitute to maintaining core skills.
January 8, 2026 at 1:10 PM
Today I found out that a criteria for B2 level in French fluency requires one to be able to "navigate a complex awkward social situation".

Needless to say it was quite a surprise to learn, after all these years, that I'm actually speaking French at an intermediate (B1) level.
January 6, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
The moment I decided to cancel Grammarly.
January 6, 2026 at 4:49 PM
It's time for a little book retrospective for 2025. So here's a top 5+. Based on no particular criteria, just... a bit more than 5 really, really cool books I enjoyed a lot.
January 4, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Writing reviews of books is incredibly difficult.

My reasons to decide what is a 5⭐ book have included

- words make pretty music in my brain

- forever changed the way I see myself as a person in relation to the world

but also

- time travelling maculinists cut in half with a claymore
December 28, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
I've been writing a lecture which is going to feature a wide range of different invertebrate taxa.
At some point, I realised that instead of trying to source photos/images for all those taxa, it'd be easier (+ more stylistically consistent) for me to just draw them all myself.
#Invertebrate #SciArt
December 9, 2025 at 2:38 AM
After 10 years in storage my xbox360 finally croaked. My last 300 google searches are variations of "fallout new vegas linux please help please i need this so much"
December 21, 2025 at 8:36 PM
It's amazing how little Bloodborne has aged in 10 years. It's still at least as good as Elden Ring in my book.
December 19, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Over a month ago, Ecological Indicators returned us either the wrong editorial decision, or the wrong reviews. In a month of emails with Elsevier, we have been unable to get any help.

The last time I published there, they also returned the wrong review to us. What is going on there?
December 18, 2025 at 10:29 PM
The simulations didn't work and I didn't get as far as I thought on this draft, bug the baking?

The baking got done.
December 17, 2025 at 10:13 PM
The long downwards spiral of mozilla makes me sad everyday. At least they had the decency to get rid of thunderbird and let the community save it.
December 16, 2025 at 11:27 PM
This is, not a joke, one of my favourite papers in a long time. Absolutely stellar co-authors, but also a straight line from "nitpicky little nerds obsessing over sampling" to "translational research with clear implications for management". Go read all about it here: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
December 15, 2025 at 3:07 PM
11y.o. decided on tyrannids. We're SO back.
December 13, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
found an etsy shop that's doing a tremendous bit
December 12, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Timothée Poisot
i made a few edits to my sad little poem & drew something to accompany it
December 10, 2025 at 10:40 PM