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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 5h

Counterpoint, kind of…I can’t actually tell you how many R packages I use work internally but I use them in ways where can vet the outcomes on test sets and then check various aspects of the real output and it’s fine. Helps that I can actually derive ANOVA sums and whatnot by hand though

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 5h

The package oftentimes has publications using it (or vetting it) that work as a peer review check though.

For the popular packages you’re not just trusting a random person

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 7h

YMMV, but the coding part is simply a tool for many.

You’re right about the “why” and doing, but this can involve playing around with different toy datasets to learn ins and outs of statistics rather than wrangling code in R to get data frame to be recognized as a number rather than text

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 9h

What the fuck are we even doing here?!?!?!

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 11h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Richard Lenski @relenski.bsky.social · 10h

Mike Travisano back at MSU to give EEB Distinguished Alumni Lecture on "The major consequences of micro-evolution"

Mike a key player in establishing #LTEE and microbial expt'l evolution more generally. Here we are with LTEE lines in the incubator & Mike holding y'day flasks w/ @ofria.bsky.social

Lenski and Travisano with LTEE lines in incubator.

Ofria and Travisano, who is holding metal tray containing LTEE populations in their flasks.

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Craig MacLean @craigmaclean.bsky.social · 18h

New pre-print www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Plasmid-dependent phage (PDPs) are ubiquitous, but the selective pressures that they impose on plasmids are not well understood. Project led by Daniel Cazares in collaboration with @brockhurstlab.bsky.social!
#phagesky#microsky

Trade-offs between phage resistance and conjugative ability shape the ecological and evolutionary response of a multidrug resistance plasmid to plasmid-dependent phage

Phage therapy is a promising alternative to antibiotics to treat multidrug resistant infections. Plasmid dependent phages (PDPs) are particularly attractive as therapeutics because they can both kill ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 11h

Just following up here to say that

1. You create a hypothesis

2. You set up controlled experiments to see if data is consistent with the hypothesis given appropriately controlling other variables. This doesn’t “prove” a hypothesis.

Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 11h

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 11h

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 11h

If only shame still worked like in the days of Vanderbilt and Carnegie!

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 11h

That’s how you end up Sackler OxyContin money funding a bunch of museums

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Mike Wiser @drmikewiser.bsky.social · 11h

If we're going to have extreme levels of wealth and income inequality, the least we could do is place a ton of societal pressure on the wealthy to be patrons of master artists or natural history collections or whatnot.

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 11h

Throw in numbers but make them big (even when it’s nonsensical)

Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 12h

I don’t know whether he’s just stupid with numbers or whether his brain is wired to inflate numbers (or both!) but this repeated ignorance of basic math is embarrassing in an elected official

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Trump: "We're gonna be reducing the cost of medicines by 100%, 200%, 300%, 500% and even more than that."

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · 12h

Carbon source diversity shapes bacterial interspecies interactions academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #jcampubs

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 12h

TFW the little baby conference you helped start with a crazy idea back in 2019 actually keeps going on and on after the original organizers stepped aside

MEEhubs @meehubs.bsky.social · 2d

We’re back! ✨ The next #MeeHubs26 is coming with 7 hubs across the globe and incredible lineups at each. Can’t wait to share more soon! meehubs.org

Home

meehubs.org

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

MEEhubs @meehubs.bsky.social · 2d

We’re back! ✨ The next #MeeHubs26 is coming with 7 hubs across the globe and incredible lineups at each. Can’t wait to share more soon! meehubs.org

Home

meehubs.org

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 1d

MEEhubs is back in 2026, a highly recommended conference to follow online without a need to travel. I really enjoyed the talks during previous meetings, stayed awake for some talk until midnight (even with recorded talk)

it will be 3-5 August 2026, middle of vacation time in Europe 😭

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 12h

As coding gets more plug and play, it becomes IMPERATIVE for us as educators to teach fundamentals about what the statistical tests are comparing and assumptions.

Students might not need to understand how to code things up, but they should understand what the snippets are doing and why

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 1d

Y'all. I just got ChatGPT to do everything in R for this manuscript. I mean EVERYTHING. And it's all legit and reproducible. I'm shook.

How are we mentoring our trainees in statistics now? Who needs to learn coding in R line by line, and who doesn't?

scienceforeveryone.science/statistics-i...

Statistics in the era of AI

How do we mentor, teach, and do stats when AI can do so much of the work?

scienceforeveryone.science

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 1d

Y'all. I just got ChatGPT to do everything in R for this manuscript. I mean EVERYTHING. And it's all legit and reproducible. I'm shook.

How are we mentoring our trainees in statistics now? Who needs to learn coding in R line by line, and who doesn't?

scienceforeveryone.science/statistics-i...

Statistics in the era of AI

How do we mentor, teach, and do stats when AI can do so much of the work?

scienceforeveryone.science

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 14h

Yes and much of the rising was on bullshit, like: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 21h

Glad to share a collaboration with Yicen Lin's group at Kunming University of Science and Technology published in ISME Journal

Synergistic biodegradation of polyethylene by experimentally evolved bacterial biofilms
academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

#MicrobiomeEcology at #LeidenBiology

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 15h

Forgot about a high school assignment on the Russian Revolution. Wrote a 5 page essay by hand (in cursive!) in another class, in the 50 minute period before it was due.

Got an A and a shoutout from the teacher on my writing flair

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 1d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes

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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 1d

The left is terrible at messaging is my takeaway

Peter Sterne @petersterne.com · 16d

More from the Suffolk University poll: www.suffolk.edu/-/media/suff...

Do you support or oppose "defund the police"?
Support - 21%
Oppose - 74%

Would you support or oppose cutting some of the police budget and using the money for social services?
Support - 54%
Oppose - 41%

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Dave Baltrus 🦦

Tiffany Lowe-Power 🌱🦠 @tlowepower.bsky.social · 17d

Please repost -- The Univ. California Davis dept of Plant Pathology is hiring a Fungal biologist / Mycologist

Applications due Dec 1

Application portal: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07339

Screenshot shows part of the job posting (with alt-text of the same text)

he Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis is seeking applications for a fulltime, tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Mycology, with a focus on plant pathogenic, symbiotic,
or mycotoxigenic fungi and fungal-like organisms (e.g., oomycetes). We are looking for a highly
motivated and creative scientist with a strong background in mycology and/or the biology of fungi and
fungal-like organisms that interact with plants. The successful candidate will be expected to develop a
world-class, externally funded research program that integrates both fundamental and applied aspects
of fungal biology within the context of plant pathology. We welcome applicants pursuing a wide range
of research topics related to plant-associated fungi, including but not limited to mechanisms of fungal
pathogenesis or symbiosis with plants, population genomics and evolution of fungal plant pathogens,
plant-associated fungal microbiomes and plant-microbe interactions, and/or one health approaches to
fungal diseases and antifungal resistance. Applicants working in other relevant research areas involving
pathogenic, symbiotic, or mycotoxigenic fungi or fungal-like organisms that affect plant health are also
encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will have significant opportunities for collaboration with
faculty in plant pathology, microbiology, genomics, and agricultural sciences, and to contribute to
addressing issues of importance to California’s agricultural and natural ecosystems.
The appointee primary teaching responsibilities will be teaching Introductory Mycology, an upperdivision lab class, and SAS 30, Mushroom, Molds & Society, a general education class for non-majors.
Additional graduate and undergraduate teaching responsibilities may be assigned based on
departmental needs and the candidate’s expertise. The department offers modern instructional
facilities, including a newly renovated teaching laboratory.

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