Chris MacQuarrie
@cmacquar.bsky.social
6.3K followers 580 following 740 posts
Husband, Dad, Entomologist, Ecologist, Researcher with NRCan Canadian Forest Service , and a (lapsed) Curler. Occasional climate scientist.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
epponews.bsky.social
➡️REGISTRATION OPEN for the EPPO-REUFIS-BFW Conference ‘Safeguarding Forests in Europe: Emerging Risks of Agrilus Wood Borers'

❓The conference is for NPPOs and academia.

🌲The focus is the protection of European forests against quarantine forest pests.

🔗See more www.eppo.int/MEETINGS/202...
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
cmacquar.bsky.social
Lol. I was not prepared for the number of suits I saw at my first ESA meeting (or the US military recruiters, but that's a different story).
cmacquar.bsky.social
Describe your Blue sky account in a single image
cmacquar.bsky.social
Entomologists conference: American PI: Canadian PI; European PI
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
derekhennen.bsky.social
I started a list for scientists and others interested in leaf litter fauna, please share and let me know if you want to be added! Do you love a good hand lens, soil sieves, and Berlese funnels? Perhaps this is the place for you.
cmacquar.bsky.social
Today felt weird and then I realized it's because for the first time in 5 years I'm not spending a Sunday at a @canentomologist.bsky.social Board meeting. Hope everyone there is having fun!
cmacquar.bsky.social
Not so sure this is a spurious correlation...
dailycorrelation.bsky.social
GDP per capita in Canada correlates with Gasoline Prices in the US (r=0.952)
cmacquar.bsky.social
see you can tell it's AI because it spells 'centre' wrong...
merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
cmacquar.bsky.social
Ages ago, a friend of mine who studied wolves used his animal tracking software to figure out his own "home range". Not sure that fits the bill, but it would be fun.
cmacquar.bsky.social
I'm not sure there's enough characters to get all of them! I probably should have tagged all of the USDA, we work with APHIS and ARS a bit too. But the folks in the Forest Service are our closest American cousins.
cmacquar.bsky.social
Adding a fist bump to our pals in the US Forest Service. Hope you're back in the woods soon.
sjcfishy.bsky.social
Thinking about all of my US colleagues today that work for USGS, USFWS, US Parks Service, NOAA and the EPA. From front line environmental practitioners to scientists and policy makers, these folks ensure that waters are swimmable, fish are edible, that natural areas are accessible, etc, etc, etc.
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
bcmerchant.bsky.social
1) This is some pretty remarkable shade thrown at the big AI companies by a startup that's hiring away their researchers

2) That those researchers are giving up millions to do this indicates a rising level of discomfort with OpenAI/Meta/Google/etc's moral standing

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/t...
Dr. Agarwal is among more than 20 researchers who have left their work at Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind and other big A.I. projects in recent weeks to join a new Silicon Valley start-up, Periodic Labs. Many of them have given up tens of millions of dollars — if not hundreds of millions — to make the move.

As the A.I. labs chase amorphous goals like superintelligence and a similar concept called artificial general intelligence, Periodic is focused on building A.I technology that can accelerate new scientific discoveries in areas like physics and chemistry.

“The main objective of A.I. is not to automate white-collar work,” said Liam Fedus, one of the start-up’s founders. “The main objective is to accelerate science.”

Mr. Fedus was among the small team of OpenAI researchers who created the online chatbot ChatGPT in 2022. He left OpenAI in March to found Periodic Labs with Ekin Dogus Cubuk, who previously worked at Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s primary A.I. lab.
cmacquar.bsky.social
I feel like I've done that. Like I'll cite the original paper and then briefly give the most important details. Same for repeated methods.
cmacquar.bsky.social
We just did a massive clean-out of my labs, which meant throwing out stuff that belonged to staff that retired 10+ years ago. It was still a bit hard to see it go.
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
regrettably if you try to point this out online you'll get yelled out by 79208 journalists going OH SO YOU WANT JOURNALISTS TO STARVE??? even if you're, say, a journalist yourself, and point out that while there are clearly no easy answers, the status quo isn't exactly working for society
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
andrew-m-davidson.bsky.social
🍁 Ottawa, Central Experimental Farm, 1946!

➡️ View is NE toward Ottawa. Fisher Avenue is the long diagonal road stretching from bottom right toward upper left. Near center of the image, Fisher Ave intersects w/Baseline Rd.

📷 NAPL REA 350-5
🔗 Bygone #Nepean Facebook: www.facebook.com/share/p/1EiT...
Reposted by Chris MacQuarrie
sicb.bsky.social
#SICB er @noahwithfish.bsky.social wants to share this job:
"Applicants must hold a #PhD. in a relevant area of #Biological #Sciences or closely related #science and must provide evidence of potential for excellence in #teaching and #research."
read in full

www.higheredjobs.com/institution/...
cmacquar.bsky.social
I'm not sure Ratatouille 2 is going to be as good as the first one...
en.afp.com
🇫🇷 A local Paris politician carries a rat called Plume around on his shoulder as part of a campaign to give the millions of rodents in the French capital a better name.
➡️ u.afp.com/SWuo
The rat 'Plume' sits on the shoulder of Gregory Moreau -- the deputy mayor of Paris's 11th district -- as he strolls through a market in the Belleville neighbourhood of Paris, on September 16, 2025
cmacquar.bsky.social
Stanley Park is also the location of one of the first aerial spray programs for an insect pest in Canada. Hemlock looper killed hundreds of trees in the park in the 1920s. The govt of Canada dusted the park to kill the looper. a.co/d/6zEYyc1
cmacquar.bsky.social
Could be worse. You could have this guy: