Paul Macklin
@mathcancer.bsky.social
5.2K followers 990 following 980 posts
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education at Indiana University School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering • mathematical biologist • multicellular systems & cancer with PhysiCell • OpenSource • astrophotography Web: http://MathCancer.org
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Reposted by Paul Macklin
astrokatie.com
As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

1/🧵
Reposted by Paul Macklin
drnereide.bsky.social
🧵
As a physicist, teacher, and sci communicator with a genuine love for astrophysics & particle physics, I really connect with the insights shared in this thread about the importance of fundamental research.

In addition to the great points already made, I’d like to emphasize

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🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #cosmology
astrokatie.com
As a theoretical cosmologist, I'm frequently asked "what is the benefit of the work you're doing for people's lives?" Nothing I work on makes money or cures disease.

There are a few different answers one can give, at various levels of "convincing" / "actually relevant to why the work is done."

1/🧵
mathcancer.bsky.social
Welcome to BlueSky!

Helluva first 1st author paper!

Nature cover next 1st author? :-)
Reposted by Paul Macklin
liz-aguilar.bsky.social
I can’t think of a better reason to finally join Bluesky - my first first-authored paper is out! It being published in @science.org is surreal. This was a community effort in every sense, led by an incredible team with @rosvall-lab.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @juncowren.bsky.social
science.org
As the Moon eclipsed the Sun on 8 April 2024, birds took note.

Leveraging nature’s own experiment, scientists and the public joined forces to show how different species responded to sudden midafternoon darkness followed by a new “dawn.” Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/48WbhLL
As the Moon eclipsed the Sun on 8 April 2024, birds like these rock pigeons (Columba livia) took note.
Reposted by Paul Macklin
rosvall-lab.bsky.social
Liz worked with Luddy prof @mathcancer.bsky.social &co to create SolarBird, a free app that used GPS & time stamps to match 30 sec public observations with the % obscuration of the sun, clicking boxes to say what the bird they were watching was doing ☀️ luddyeclipse2024.org/solarbird.html (6/x)
Solarbird: Community Bird Science for the 2024 Eclipse
luddyeclipse2024.org
Reposted by Paul Macklin
rosvall-lab.bsky.social
I do want to take a minute to share the backstory of our paper on the total solar eclipse that triggered dawn behavior in birds. This was SUCH a fun paper to work on, a major light in a lot of different tunnels over the past 18 months. doi.org/10.1126/scie... < ☀️ Let the light puns begin ☀️ > (1/x)
two men are fighting with lightsabers in front of a doorway
ALT: two men are fighting with lightsabers in front of a doorway
media.tenor.com
Reposted by Paul Macklin
rosvall-lab.bsky.social
Pumped to share our work on bird behavior and the 2024 Eclipse, in today's @science.org. 100k bird vocalizations + 10k continent-wide observations from the public = really fun collab led by Liz Aguilar, with @juncowren.bsky.social @mathcancer.bsky.social @imillercrews.bsky.social #NSF
Reposted by Paul Macklin
science.org
As the Moon eclipsed the Sun on 8 April 2024, birds took note.

Leveraging nature’s own experiment, scientists and the public joined forces to show how different species responded to sudden midafternoon darkness followed by a new “dawn.” Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/48WbhLL
As the Moon eclipsed the Sun on 8 April 2024, birds like these rock pigeons (Columba livia) took note.
mathcancer.bsky.social
So proud of this multidisciplinary project, showing in particular the power of community science when enabled by user-friendly design, bolstering deep expertise.

In the 2024 solar eclipse, 11k observations from 1700 laypeople via a jointly developed, user-friendly smartphone app.🔭🧪
Community observations of bird behaviors across the path of the 2024 total solar eclipse, via a user-friendly smartphone app.
mathcancer.bsky.social
So once they identified today's Nobel prize recipients, they couldn't quite track them down.
mathcancer.bsky.social
I hadn't heard the good news congratulations!!
mathcancer.bsky.social
You might well see it with a 3x drizzle integration. Good luck!!
mathcancer.bsky.social
That's impressively clear!!
Reposted by Paul Macklin
eranandrechek.bsky.social
A once every 15 years thing… Titan is transiting in front of Saturn. In a few minutes I’m hoping to catch the shadow as well. #astrophotography #saturn
mathcancer.bsky.social
I'm grateful to represent IU Bloomington at
@bigtenacademic.bsky.social's Academic Leadership Program (ALP). ALP is a wonderful opportunity to learn about academic leadership from amazing peers and current leaders. Excited to grow as an associate dean and explore!

today.iu.edu/iub/live/new...
12 IU Bloomington faculty selected for Big Ten Academic Alliance leadership programs
The faculty members will participate in the alliance’s Departmental Executive Officer Program, Academic Leadership Program and Deans Leadership Program.
today.iu.edu
mathcancer.bsky.social
Really enjoyed talking about mathematical biology (and a little about being an associate dean) in @parmvir.com's Biology in Numbers podcast on the 2025 @smbmathbiology.bsky.social annual meeting!

Bolero superfans, don't @ me! 🧪

(I'm at 33:43)

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
S3 Ep1: SMB 2025
Podcast Episode · Biology in Numbers · 09/29/2025 · 53m
podcasts.apple.com
mathcancer.bsky.social
Well, I definitely won't give up my day job to be an interviewer--my inexperience definitely shows!

Thanks for the fun conversation and giving it a go! :-)
mathcancer.bsky.social
It was such a joy to tape this with you!

And thanks for letting me flip the script and interview you! A bucket list high point for me!! :-)
Reposted by Paul Macklin
parmvir.com
This year's @smbmathbiology.bsky.social meeting provided us with another delightful mashup of math biologists (and me) talking about science, and in Amy's case, ultra-running and conference coffee ☕
Thanks to all the excellent attendees who agreed to speak with me for Biology in Numbers.

#scicomm
amyhurford.bsky.social
I do regret not asking @parmvir.com about her ultra-running in the podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/7rpv... but even better, she's interviewed here too!