Jessica Bullock
LightNews LightNews
banner
jessbullock.bsky.social
Jessica Bullock
@jessbullock.bsky.social
130 followers 170 following 40 posts
All creatures great and small, mostly #TeamFish
PhD student @UofT EEB, evolutionary and behavioural ecology
she/they
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
walkerbragman.bsky.social
SCOOP: The Department of Health and Human Services has been using the term “sex-rejecting procedures” to describe gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary individuals.

The term is not clinical or medical. It comes from a Christian Right group.

www.importantcontext.news/p/hhs-is-usi...
HHS Has Been Using Anti-Trans Language From a Christian Right Think Tank
The department refers to gender-affirming care as “sex-denying procedures,” a term coined by the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
www.importantcontext.news
February 9, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
shoshanahjacobs.ca
Your path to #PhDLife depends on many things

Check out our NEW study on the influences of pathway and outcomes of a PhD education in #Canada

TLDR: disparities lead to significant differences in labour market entry

#GraduateStudent #HigherEd #PhD #MSc #MA

www.sciedupress.com/journal/inde...
screenshot of article title and abstract
January 30, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
danielgray.com
COW TOOLS COW TOOLS COW TOOLS
Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows
Brown Swiss in Austria has been discovered using tools in multiple ways – something only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees
www.theguardian.com
January 19, 2026 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
leafwarbler.bsky.social
Diversity=good:
“Our results show that editorial diversification is a practical lever for making peer review more inclusive & better aligned w the global distribution of ecological research. These changes make publication process fairer & improve the quality+global impact of the papers published.”
Room for optimism: Editor–reviewer interaction networks reveal positive outcomes of enhanced board diversity
Our results show that editorial diversification is a practical lever for making peer review more inclusive and better aligned with the global distribution of ecological research. These changes make t...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 19, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
davidho.bsky.social
It was inevitable.
Amazon's Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police | TechCrunch
Agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with "evidence collection and investigative work."
techcrunch.com
January 19, 2026 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
evornithology.bsky.social
AI is killing ecology www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI
In the race to embrace new technologies, some ecologists fear their field is losing touch with nature.
www.nature.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
phoebebarnard.bsky.social
1. Reframing the way we think about power dynamics in conservation’s khaki colonial history: a welcome @nature.com paper
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
by #moreangelsmbizvah and her team including @merynomsa.bsky.social
@amydickman.bsky.social …a 7-part personal 🧵

@africanornithology.bsky.social
January 12, 2026 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
profrachelgan.bsky.social
Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.
Dear Sir Paul, Re: Royal Society Code of Conduct I am sure that many scientists have written to you about the specific question of Elon Musk’s Fellowship and whether, under the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct, his retaining that Fellowship is appropriate. I will not rehash these issues. Instead, as a female scientist with extensive experience of activities aiming to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the engineering and physical sciences sector, I am writing to you (in a personal capacity) to ask you to reconsider the statements you have recently made in this context to the UK press about the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct and how it is applied. A 2018 report from the joint National Academies of the United States of America, concluded that “sexual harassment is common in academic science, engineering, and medicine” and that “greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia”. This report described codes of conduct that make clear that sexual harassment is unethical and will not be tolerated as a “powerful incentive for change”. The authors also noted that sexual harassment can have significant and damaging effects on the integrity of research. In my own praxis, I have found that clear and consistently-implemented codes of conduct that address these issues make female scientists and engineers safer, and allow them to focus more effectively on their research. For codes of conduct to have such a positive effect, it is vital that sanctions for actions which transgress the code are meaningful and substantial. I was hence aghast to realise that in an interview with the Financial Times published on 9/1/26, you appear to have suggested that the Royal Society “should only expel fellows if their science proved “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective””. Moreover, in a further interview with the Guardian on 11/1/26 you suggested that the code “may need to be looked at again”, with the implication that your aim would be to remove the option of sanctions on Fellows for reasons not strictly related to faults or defects in their research. I suggest that changing the Royal Society’s code of conduct so that the likelihood of serious sanctions for sexual harassment is reduced, would directly endanger women who interact with the Royal Society at events or otherwise, and would provide a licence to harass to the already powerful people on whom the Society bestows fellowship. The implications of your words - that under your leadership the only infringements of the code which are likely to receive the sanction of the Fellowship being removed are those related to research misconduct - already risk empowering harassers. You stated, in the Financial Times interview, that “there’s many bad people around, but they have made scientific advances”. Given this awareness of the possibility of bad actors in our scientific community, it is wholly irresponsible to suggest that the Royal Society would not act to sanction these people if they harass more vulnerable scientists. I am hence writing to request that you retract any suggestion that the Society’s Code of Conduct should be changed so that the only reason a Fellow might be sanctioned by the removal of their Fellowship is “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective” research. This action is necessary to safeguard female scientists, a requirement placed on the Society by safeguarding legislation and UK statutory guidance. Yours sincerely, Professor Rachel A. Oliver.
January 12, 2026 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
alexwild.bsky.social
Do Dems realize that “we should train the killers better!” is not a message that will land with anyone?
January 12, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
gribblelab.org
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
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
theglobeandmail.com
Alberta Insider: Edmonton doctors call for state of emergency as hospitals overflow
Doctors say they have exhausted all options and patients are at serious risk of harm
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 9, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
jcollins.bsky.social
ICE agents stopped by protesters after the shooting an observer in Minneapolis, according to witnesse. ICE deployed pepper spray and tear gas.
January 7, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
viralemergence.org
Exciting news to start 2026: for the first time ever, the PHAROS repository for wildlife disease surveillance is a journal-recommended home for your archived data!

Thanks to Integrative and Comparative Biology for taking the leap with us 🦠🔢➡️🌎💻💫 academic.oup.com/icb/pages/Ge...
General_Instructions
Instructions for Authors Authors who publish their papers under our open access model or who are NIH-funded will have their paper automatically depos
academic.oup.com
January 5, 2026 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
carlbergstrom.com
As @jbakcoleman.bsky.social and I wrote, “Every time a scientist abdicates their work to an AI tool, that is a tacit admission that the work is not worth being done by the scientist.”

Same goes for instructors.
hypervisible.blacksky.app Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Jan 5
You’ll have to read for the what happens next part, but I can tell you what will happen when parents and students realize profs have handed over expertise and teaching to chatbots.
NYU professor tested students with AI oral exams, here's what happened next
When student work looked like McKinsey memos, an NYU business school professor used AI oral exams to test real learning.
www.businessinsider.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids?

Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.
January 5, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
oceanfilly.bsky.social
Disabled students belong in biological sciences spaces! Here is a thread of some tips and suggestions to make your spaces more inclusive.
December 5, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
apsciencebylyn.bsky.social
Day 4 of my 2025 Favorites: Tiny Leaf With Grabby Hands!

Juvenile Macrocephalini, a somewhat rarely-seen tribe of ambush bugs. He's just a pleasing shape and color and disposition, with his chonky grabby hands he hasn't grown into yet
Bright apple green flat ambush bug, holding on to a twig with his big grabby hands (mixture of crab claws and mantis hands) Top view of the creature, showing the wide flat leaf shape with his head as the stem
December 5, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
carlbergstrom.com
This is how you write a headline
December 4, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
entsocamerica.bsky.social
An eel donated to a natural history museum in 1873 had two ticks embedded in its skin, making it the first known instance of ticks parasitizing a fish. But it was only first documented this year, when a tick specialist identified the ticks and reported the case in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
Ticks on an Eel: Museum Specimen is a First of its Kind
Two ticks found on an 1873 electric eel specimen mark the first recorded case of ticks parasitizing a fish—but only documented just this year.
entomologytoday.org
December 3, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
jethroreading32.bsky.social
For this year's #25DaysOfFishmas we're going to go in roughly chronological order, from the oldest lineages of fish to the present. We're kicking off, then, with a truly ancient and utterly bizarre animal - this is the Queensland Lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri.
An Australian lungfish rests on the gravel floor of an aquarium. It is torpedo shaped with long pectoral fins and a dog-like head. Credit: OpenCage.Info via Fishes of Australia.
December 1, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
ageofoddish.bsky.social
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
My hand holding a shortbread cookie in the shape of an airplane. There are red sprinkles in the pattern of the survivorship bias plane. A plate of the same cookies.
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
deathbybadger.bsky.social
i came across the saying "to follow like a Tantony pig" so I get curious and look it up, but Tantony isnt a place, it's a contraction of St Anthony who is the saint of swineherds, so the proverb means to follow someone like a pig following the hog messiah. alas this information will not pay my bills
November 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
baeussupremacy.bsky.social
Reason 37518 to not skip lunch when working - everything starts to look delicious, including this egg of a chalcidoid wasp (left)
Side by side comparison of pictures of a chalcidoidea egg on the right and a sour gummy worm on the right. The egg is shaped like the gummy worm with a reddish half and a yellowish half. There are small bumps (papillae) on the surface of the egg making it resemble a sour gummyworm.
November 25, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
biojlinnsoc.bsky.social
What's that? You didn't know boxfish made sound? Me neither...

It turns out all species (Atlantic & Pacific) do, yet little is known about how this evolved. A novel structure found only in the Atlantic species offered the answer, but it isn't quite what you think...🌍 🧪

doi.org/10.1093/biol...
November 25, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Jessica Bullock
tjnear.bsky.social
The story of the Birmingham Darter and the mega data center covered by Lee Hedgepeth and Dennis Pillion that reports on our latest field work in October 2025

insideclimatenews.org/news/1311202...
A Proposed Alabama Data Center Faces New Hurdles: A ‘Road to Nowhere’ and the Birmingham Darter - Inside Climate News
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacl...
insideclimatenews.org
November 16, 2025 at 2:32 AM