Erin Sauer
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sauerscientist.bsky.social
Erin Sauer
@sauerscientist.bsky.social
910 followers 620 following 46 posts
wildlife disease ecologist - http://www.sauerlab.com/
Rutgers DEENR assistant professor
founder of the feminist bird club - madison, wi chapter
bi - she/they

https://abortionfunds.org/
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sauerscientist.bsky.social
Erin Sauer @sauerscientist.bsky.social · Jul 21
New paper out modelling how the nutritional content of wild bird foods could affect disease transmission - a nice follow-up application of our Molecular Ecology study showing that food quality can affect immune function and disease tolerance.
doi.org/10.1093/icb/... @durantlab.bsky.social
The nutritional content of anthropogenic resources affects wildlife disease dynamics
Synopsis. Wildlife have become increasingly reliant on human-supplemented food, affecting interactions between individuals and subsequently pathogen transm
doi.org
Reposted by Erin Sauer
alanallport.bsky.social
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
jackiantonovich.bsky.social Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 2d
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
chuckwendig.bsky.social
You know what, I'm just gonna re-up this post
November 24, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
moreperfectunion.bsky.social
U.S. grocery prices have hit a record high — the monthly cost for a family of four is now $1,030.
November 19, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
sciam.bsky.social
Vaccines based on mRNA can be tailored to target a cancer patient’s unique tumor mutations. But crumbling support for cancer and mRNA vaccine research has endangered this promising therapy
Personalized Cancer Vaccines Are Almost Here—But Federal Funding Cuts Could Derail Them
Vaccines based on mRNA can be tailored to target a cancer patient’s unique tumor mutations. But crumbling support for cancer and mRNA vaccine research has endangered this promising therapy
www.scientificamerican.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
beyerstein.bsky.social
Coercive sterilization in ICE detention. Eugenics.
November 15, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
aoc.bsky.social
The average SNAP benefit per month is $177 a person.

The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person.

People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives.

And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.
November 10, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
nicholaswu.bsky.social
🚨 The climelab.net lab is seeking a postdoc in ecophysiology for 2-years to work on drivers of animal thermoregulation in a phylogenetic and global context. #ecophys

📷 Stellenbosch, South Africa
Closes: 26th Nov 2025
Submit app directly to Prof Clusella-Trullas.
November 9, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
meadekrosby.bsky.social
Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).
Rosalind Franklin and the damage of gender harassment
Spurred by a recent report on sexual harassment in academia, our columnist revisits a historical case and reflects on what has changed—and what hasn’t
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
colincarlson.bsky.social
I work on a topic that is now forbidden from federal funding, and if I run out of money, I will lay off the ten people who work for me and go work at McDonald's - and never come back to this job, my first and longest love - before I take a single dollar from the Department of Homeland Security
October 30, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
gsimpson.bsky.social
Just updated my manuscript on using #GAMs in #AnimalScience, now on arXiv: doi.org/10.48550/arX...
🐄🐖🪶

Extended examples now show how GAMs go beyond prediction, helping estimate biologically meaningful traits from data.

Code: github.com/gavinsimpson...

🧪 #RStats #mgcv #Statistics #OpenScience
Results of model fitting to the average daily fat content data from @Henderson1990-bd. a) observed average daily fat content (points) and estimated lactation curves from Wood's [-@Wood1967-re] model, a Tweedie GLM, and a Tweedie GAM (lines) with associated 95% confidence (Wood's model) or 95% credible intervals (GLM and GAM). Response residuals for Wood's model (b), Tweedie GLM (c), and Tweedie GAM (d), plus scatter plot smoothers (lines) and 95% credible intervals (shaded ribbons). The fitted lactation curves are like an inverted U, with an extended longer tail to the right (later in lactation). The GAM curve fits the data well, but the fitted curves from Wood's model and the GLM equivalent do not provide good fits to the data, and over predict the amount of fat produced at the peak of lactation, and only grossly capture the decline in fat production later in lactation. The remaining panels show the raw response residuals for the three models, drawing attention to the poor fit; for Wood's model and the GLM there is significant pattern in the residuals, while for the GAM no residual pattern is observed. Quantities of interest derived from Wood's model, a Tweedie GLM, and a Tweedie GAM fitted to the lactation data example: a) the estimated week of peak average daily fat content, b) the estimated average daily fat content at the peak, and c) the rate of change (first derivative) of the lactation curve estimated at a point that is midway between the peak fat content and the end of lacation. The points are the estimated values and the lines are a 95% uncertainty interval. The uncertainty interval is based on the 0.025 and 0.975 percentiles of the bootstrap distribution of model coefficient estimates (Wood's model) or of the posterior distribution (GLM and GAM). Each panel shows three point estimates and an uncertainty range. The three points are the estimates from a GAM, a GLM, and Wood's lactation model. The first panel shows the estimated timing of the peak of lactation, with the GAM capturing the fact that the peak in the data occurs much later in lactation (~ week 11) while the other two models confidently estimate that the peak is in week ~8-9. The GAM estimate has a much wider credible interval, which does include the estimates of Wood's model & the GLM at the extreme end. This reflects the uncertainty in the estimation of the peak timing arising from the data having a wide flat peak. The other panels show the estimates of fat content at the peak, which are broadly similar at ~ 0.7 kg fat per day. The final panel showing the persistency estimate shows the GAM estimate diverging from those of the GLM and Wood's model. Again, the latter two models are overly confident in their estimation of this biologically relevant parameter, despite the fited lactation curve not really following the lactation data. a) Estimated daily growth rate on November 15^th^, 2021 and 95% Bayesian credible interval for the 18 pigs in the pig growth example. b) Posterior distribution of daily growth rate on November 15^th^, 2021, for three pigs (numbers 2, 13, and 17), for whom weight observations ceased before November 1^st^, 2021. In b), the shaded region is the posterior distribution, the point, and thick and thin bars are the posterior median, and 66% and 95% posterior intervals respectively. With the fitted growth curves, we can estimate for any day what the growth rate of each pig was. In this figure I'm showing the estimated growth rate of each pig in the example on November 21st. This growth rate is the first derivative of the fitted growth curve (smooth function). I used posterior sampling to produce the posterior distribution of the growth rate for each pig. These are summarised as a point estimate (median) and ccredible interval in the first panel with most pigs growin at ~1-1.5 kg per day by November 21st, with uncertainties on the order of +/- 0.5 kg per day. The second panel shows the entire posterior distribution of the estimated growth rate for three pigs (2, 13, and 17) for whom there were no weight estimates after November 1st. Here, the model is drawing power from the other pigs to help extrapolate the growth curves for these three pigs, but pig-specific details remain, with the posterior distribution for pig 17 being much more diffuse (wider) than for either pigs 2 or 13, reflecting greater uncertainty for the former animal.
October 29, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
nicholaswu.bsky.social
Want to join a global 🌎 initiative to test the thermal limits of 🐟 using standardised approach? Led by @patricepottier.bsky.social, we are planning a globally distributed experiment to collect data on fish embryonic heat tolerance 🌡️. Make this experiment global!

🔗: www.thermalecologyalliance.org
October 28, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
viveknityananda.bsky.social
New #PhD ad alert!
Interested in wild #bee #cognition and #brains in different #bumblebees? Want to live in #Newcastle and the beautiful north-east of England?

Check out this project with me, @lenariab.bsky.social and Sarah Scott. Contact me for further information.

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
The cognitive ecology of wild bumblebees
iapetus.ac.uk
October 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
cognitiveecol.bsky.social
I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions
If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).
POSITIONS
default description
chickadeecognition.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
natureportfolio.nature.com
More than 11 million tonnes of meat is consumed in cities in the US every year, according to an analysis in Nature Climate Change. This equates to 329 million tonnes of carbon emissions, which is comparable to emission levels from US domestic fossil fuel use. go.nature.com/3Jo8DEh 🧪
This is figure 1, which shows meat consumption and carbon hoofprint across the USA.
October 28, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
saltydasilva.bsky.social
Thermal physiology and abundance trends over 30 years in 119 species of butterfly show narrow warming margins in tropical species and complex trends in abundance depending on climate adaptation, ecology and demography. @sarahdiamond.bsky.social
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
October 27, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
sciam.bsky.social
Scientists suspected that Europe’s largest bats snack on migrating songbirds when they can, but a stunning newly published observation proves it
Bat vs. Robin—Scientists Capture Real-Life Audio of Midair Hunt
Scientists suspected that Europe’s largest bats snack on migrating songbirds when they can, but a stunning newly published observation proves it
www.scientificamerican.com
October 9, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
lorennacleary.bsky.social
Land of the free. Home of the brave.
September 30, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
danielbolnick.bsky.social
Please spread widely and quickly - the more signatures we get the better chances we have of cajoling NSF into changing course on this small but very impactful item
danielbolnick.bsky.social Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · Sep 29
NSF unexpectedly changed (at the last minute) who is eligible to apply for the Grad Research Fellowship, dropping 2nd year students. We started a petition to reverse this unfair change, Sign here:
laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/
and please spread the word!!!!
Petition to NSF to Restore Eligibility for the 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Program Competition
laurenkuehne.github.io
September 29, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
danc-eco.bsky.social
We are seeking an ornithologist/modeller for a 2-year POST-DOC in Turin. Using archaeological remains, we will reconstruct past avian communities to understand the impacts of climate change and human pressure on birds through time. For details see cutt.ly/irN76QDZ PLEASE RT. #ornithology #AviArch
September 29, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
joshuasweitz.bsky.social
There is time to urge a change to the current #GRFP solicitation ( #NSF 25-547 ): reverse the eligibility restrictions and ensure applicants (including 2nd year PhD students) have a fair chance in the competition.

Feel free to sign and share this open petition:
laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/
Petition to NSF to Restore Eligibility for the 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Program Competition
laurenkuehne.github.io
September 29, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
ryanlcooper.com
a new mRNA therapy apparently can cut the rate of Huntington's disease progression by ~75%. yet more miracle shit www.bbc.com/news/article...
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time
One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.
www.bbc.com
September 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
standupforscience.bsky.social
You asked for it! We delivered Quack-O-Grams to our members of Congress urging them to #ImpeachRFK, and get that Quack out of office!

There's still time for you to get in on this fluffy, feathery action: Send your own duck at zurl.co/W1ZnB and keep the momentum going! 🦆
September 17, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
colincarlson.bsky.social
this is the goal. the kids and disabled people they're going to kill are as much a happy accident for them as anything else; the goal is government capture and really nothing deeper or more ideological
September 18, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
colincarlson.bsky.social
🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
"Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change," a brief communication in the journal Nature Climate Change. There's a map showing regions of the world, and pie charts of relevant studies as they apply to different health impacts like "heat-related deaths" and "maternal and child health"
September 17, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Erin Sauer
pbsnews.org
Sen. Bill Cassidy: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expected you to change the childhood vaccine schedule, despite a lack of science or data to support that move?

Former CDC Director Susan Monarez: "Correct."
September 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM