Beckett Sterner
@beckettws.bsky.social
Biodiversity data, models, governance, and philosophy | Associate Prof at Arizona State | all views my own
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
NSF Update
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
February 13, 2026 at 9:22 PM
NSF Update
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
We now have a CDC grant tracker and are collecting information on CDC terminations. If your CDC grant was terminated, we need your help to gather data and documents! Please report!
grant-witness.us/submit-cdc.h...
grant-witness.us/submit-cdc.h...
February 12, 2026 at 1:23 PM
We now have a CDC grant tracker and are collecting information on CDC terminations. If your CDC grant was terminated, we need your help to gather data and documents! Please report!
grant-witness.us/submit-cdc.h...
grant-witness.us/submit-cdc.h...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
What do we want?
Fossil databases! 🐚🦕
When do we want them?
Forever! 🗓️
Nice new paper highlighting how academic funding systems and digital architecture need to change, to ensure we can protect and sustain our precious fossil data 📚
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Fossil databases! 🐚🦕
When do we want them?
Forever! 🗓️
Nice new paper highlighting how academic funding systems and digital architecture need to change, to ensure we can protect and sustain our precious fossil data 📚
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The billion-dollar case for sustaining palaeontology’s digital databases - Nature Ecology & Evolution
The authors survey community palaeontological databases, documenting their contributions to science as well as their vulnerabilities, and provide recommendations for the future of open science databas...
www.nature.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:47 AM
What do we want?
Fossil databases! 🐚🦕
When do we want them?
Forever! 🗓️
Nice new paper highlighting how academic funding systems and digital architecture need to change, to ensure we can protect and sustain our precious fossil data 📚
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Fossil databases! 🐚🦕
When do we want them?
Forever! 🗓️
Nice new paper highlighting how academic funding systems and digital architecture need to change, to ensure we can protect and sustain our precious fossil data 📚
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Our newest timeline tracks actions that hamper our ability to control the spread of infectious diseases, making the US and the rest of the world more susceptible to disease outbreaks, including global pandemics:
unbreaking.org/issues/infec...
unbreaking.org/issues/infec...
Infectious Disease Control & Prevention — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
unbreaking.org
February 6, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Our newest timeline tracks actions that hamper our ability to control the spread of infectious diseases, making the US and the rest of the world more susceptible to disease outbreaks, including global pandemics:
unbreaking.org/issues/infec...
unbreaking.org/issues/infec...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Jim Olds on what worked and didn't in NSF's EEID sciencepolicyinsider.substack.com/p/when-agenc... (Lifted from Dynamic Ecology's Friday links)
When Agencies Collaborate: What EEID Teaches Us About Pandemic Preparedness
The research team moved carefully through the forest canopy platform at dusk, nets ready.
sciencepolicyinsider.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Jim Olds on what worked and didn't in NSF's EEID sciencepolicyinsider.substack.com/p/when-agenc... (Lifted from Dynamic Ecology's Friday links)
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Today is the paperback release day for my book The Contagion of Liberty! It’s about how Americans demanded that their governments provide inoculations for smallpox to the public as their right and also to affirm that public health is a foremost duty of government. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
The Contagion of Liberty
The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution
www.press.jhu.edu
February 3, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Today is the paperback release day for my book The Contagion of Liberty! It’s about how Americans demanded that their governments provide inoculations for smallpox to the public as their right and also to affirm that public health is a foremost duty of government. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Join us this week on 2/6 @ 11AM ET for our next Game Changers Seminar. How can AI & open science reshape verification of the Biological Weapons Convention?
Our panel will explore opportunities, risks, and what this means for global biosecurity.
Registration open ⤵️
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Our panel will explore opportunities, risks, and what this means for global biosecurity.
Registration open ⤵️
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
February 2, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Join us this week on 2/6 @ 11AM ET for our next Game Changers Seminar. How can AI & open science reshape verification of the Biological Weapons Convention?
Our panel will explore opportunities, risks, and what this means for global biosecurity.
Registration open ⤵️
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Our panel will explore opportunities, risks, and what this means for global biosecurity.
Registration open ⤵️
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
I just logged into myNCBI to update my bibliography for NIH and apparently was given access to someone else's account (totally different biosketches, papers, search history, etc). Anyone else experiencing this?
January 30, 2026 at 10:06 PM
I just logged into myNCBI to update my bibliography for NIH and apparently was given access to someone else's account (totally different biosketches, papers, search history, etc). Anyone else experiencing this?
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...
January 23, 2026 at 9:57 PM
Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
📣 CFP for a topical collection in EJPS:
*Understanding Climate Change: A Multifaceted Inquiry*
link.springer.com/collections/...
Submission deadline: 01 March 2026
#philsci #climatechange
*Understanding Climate Change: A Multifaceted Inquiry*
link.springer.com/collections/...
Submission deadline: 01 March 2026
#philsci #climatechange
Understanding Climate Change: A Multifaceted Inquiry
Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. Addressing it requires an unprecedented level of collaboration and engagement between ...
link.springer.com
January 16, 2026 at 9:23 AM
📣 CFP for a topical collection in EJPS:
*Understanding Climate Change: A Multifaceted Inquiry*
link.springer.com/collections/...
Submission deadline: 01 March 2026
#philsci #climatechange
*Understanding Climate Change: A Multifaceted Inquiry*
link.springer.com/collections/...
Submission deadline: 01 March 2026
#philsci #climatechange
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Please apply (or encourage your grad students to apply) to our awesome funded summer program by January 15th!
Thanks to generous funding from the @sloanfoundation.bsky.social, John Basl and I are thrilled to be running the AI and Data Ethics summer school in 2026! ~12 graduate students, $10k stipend, 9 weeks to learn about scientific and ethical issues raised by AI. Please apply! aidesummer.org
AIDE Summer
AI + Data Ethics (AIDE) Summer is intended for graduate students with advanced training in applied ethics, ethical theory, philosophy of science, metascience, epistemology, or other areas with potenti...
aidesummer.org
January 12, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Please apply (or encourage your grad students to apply) to our awesome funded summer program by January 15th!
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy these six absolutely amazing images of deep-sea life. www.scientificamerican.com/article/6-ot...
6 Otherworldly Deep-Sea Images from 2025
From the first sighting of a colossal squid in the wild to a seriously goofy octopus, 2025 delivered some astounding photos from the ocean’s depths
www.scientificamerican.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy these six absolutely amazing images of deep-sea life. www.scientificamerican.com/article/6-ot...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Great new paper!
Many stinging wasps, bees, and ants have controlled the sex of their developing eggs for millions of year using an ancient segment of their genome- always the same segment- but what's weird is, *the exact DNA sequence of that segment doesn't seem to matter*.
Many stinging wasps, bees, and ants have controlled the sex of their developing eggs for millions of year using an ancient segment of their genome- always the same segment- but what's weird is, *the exact DNA sequence of that segment doesn't seem to matter*.
New work from @miyapan.bsky.social and our team, bringing ant, bee, and wasp labs together. @chuanxinyu.bsky.social shows that the ANTSR locus we discovered in ants has determined sex for 150+ My across bees and stinging wasps 🐜🐝, despite virtually no sequence conservation 😮 doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
January 6, 2026 at 3:11 AM
Great new paper!
Many stinging wasps, bees, and ants have controlled the sex of their developing eggs for millions of year using an ancient segment of their genome- always the same segment- but what's weird is, *the exact DNA sequence of that segment doesn't seem to matter*.
Many stinging wasps, bees, and ants have controlled the sex of their developing eggs for millions of year using an ancient segment of their genome- always the same segment- but what's weird is, *the exact DNA sequence of that segment doesn't seem to matter*.
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Suppose you ask #AI for improvements to your writing.
The #LLM was trained on, but doesn’t mention, Smith’s work.
You adopt the suggestions containing Smith’s ideas.
You don’t even realize YOU’VE PLAGIARIZED because you’ve never read or heard of Smith.
The #LLM was trained on, but doesn’t mention, Smith’s work.
You adopt the suggestions containing Smith’s ideas.
You don’t even realize YOU’VE PLAGIARIZED because you’ve never read or heard of Smith.
LLM use in scholarly writing poses a provenance problem
Nature Machine Intelligence - LLM use in scholarly writing poses a provenance problem
doi.org
December 23, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
My new Gould paper is out today in Paleobiology (OA)! It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my historical work on Stephen Jay Gould’s early career, which explores the curious position of punctuated equilibria in his early vision for evolutionary paleontology
www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...
www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...
Max’s New Gould paper — Extinct
My new paper in Paleobiology (OA), on some lesser known aspects of the early history of punctuated equilibria, is available to read online. It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my older work on ...
www.extinctblog.org
November 12, 2025 at 1:47 PM
My new Gould paper is out today in Paleobiology (OA)! It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my historical work on Stephen Jay Gould’s early career, which explores the curious position of punctuated equilibria in his early vision for evolutionary paleontology
www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...
www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
A THREAD, which I am calling 'Some Of The Many Reasons Lichen And Moss Are Fucking Brilliant'.
1. They make public seating super comfy.
bsky.app/profile/dj-a...
1. They make public seating super comfy.
bsky.app/profile/dj-a...
There are over 18,000 types of lichen in existence. My personal favourite is ‘village bench lichen’, which devotes its entire existence selflessly to gradually making communal public seating more furry and comfortable.
December 18, 2025 at 12:41 PM
A THREAD, which I am calling 'Some Of The Many Reasons Lichen And Moss Are Fucking Brilliant'.
1. They make public seating super comfy.
bsky.app/profile/dj-a...
1. They make public seating super comfy.
bsky.app/profile/dj-a...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
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
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...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿
lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...
lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...
Weird wet weather has Joshua trees flowering early — or late? Help the Yoder Lab map this “bonus bloom” to understand why
A flowering tree in Yucca Valley, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor wanderingmojave on December 9. A tree with lots of flowers in Tehachapi, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor tina9294 o…
lab.jbyoder.org
December 10, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿
lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...
lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
There have been so many of these little Cyclopoida copepods in my samples the last few months. I’d love to know the species, if anyone has any idea?
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
December 8, 2025 at 8:48 PM
There have been so many of these little Cyclopoida copepods in my samples the last few months. I’d love to know the species, if anyone has any idea?
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
Philosophy group at Wageningen University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences. Position is in the Philosophy (PHI) group led by @rachelankeny.bsky.social Deadline is 12 January 2026
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
#philsci #philjobs #philsky #hpbio
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
#philsci #philjobs #philsky #hpbio
Assistant Professor in Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Are you seeking a challenging role in a nurturing and collegial setting that supports rigorous philosophical teaching and research as well as opportunities for productive collaborations with social an...
www.wur.nl
December 8, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Philosophy group at Wageningen University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences. Position is in the Philosophy (PHI) group led by @rachelankeny.bsky.social Deadline is 12 January 2026
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
#philsci #philjobs #philsky #hpbio
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
#philsci #philjobs #philsky #hpbio
Blog post: A Missing Heritability Update. Three legs and other problems. I follow up on the recent excellent post on the subject by @sashagusevposts.bsky.social. ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/missing-he...
Missing Heritability Revisited
Following up on Sasha
ericturkheimer.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Beckett Sterner
🚨We're hiring! A tenure track position at McGill University in the area of #bioethics and / or philosophy of science, with a special focus on the ethics of medical technologies. Please share widely. #philsky #ethics #philsci philjobs.org/job/show/30402
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy and Department of Philosophy, McGill University
- PhilJobs:JFP
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity...
An international database of jobs for philosophers
philjobs.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:02 AM
🚨We're hiring! A tenure track position at McGill University in the area of #bioethics and / or philosophy of science, with a special focus on the ethics of medical technologies. Please share widely. #philsky #ethics #philsci philjobs.org/job/show/30402