Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
@scottmacshack.bsky.social
He/him. Bird scientist 🇨🇦
Author: Evolution and Psychology (Sage)
Love is love 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Author: Evolution and Psychology (Sage)
Love is love 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
I wrote an Opinion piece for @thelancet.com about James Watson. It's not an obituary - Georgina Ferry did that for them - but offers some thoughts on the problematic aspects of Watson's history.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
James D Watson: a cautionary tale
There was always going to be a complex reckoning in the obituaries of James D Watson
(1928–2025), the American geneticist who co-discovered the structure of DNA. For many
years, Watson was one of the ...
www.thelancet.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I wrote an Opinion piece for @thelancet.com about James Watson. It's not an obituary - Georgina Ferry did that for them - but offers some thoughts on the problematic aspects of Watson's history.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.
October 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
Evidence that even when LLMs produce similar results to humans, they “rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification”
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
October 17, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Evidence that even when LLMs produce similar results to humans, they “rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification”
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
This is a moment of world-historical importance:
"Renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity in the first half of this year - a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
"Renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity in the first half of this year - a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity
Developing countries lead the historic clean energy charge but the US and EU rely more on fossil fuels than before, a think tank study shows.
www.bbc.com
October 7, 2025 at 4:53 PM
This is a moment of world-historical importance:
"Renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity in the first half of this year - a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
"Renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity in the first half of this year - a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
Doug Ford's opposition to speed cameras coming into much clearer focus. Like every entitled driver everywhere, he and his ministers and the rest of the barking seals simply resent getting caught. globalnews.ca/news/1146373...
Vehicles registered to Ford cabinet ministers caught by speed cameras more than 20 times | Globalnews.ca
Documents obtained by Global News reveal that, over three years, vehicles registered to Ford’s cabinet minister received more than $3,300 in fines for speeding.
globalnews.ca
October 6, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Doug Ford's opposition to speed cameras coming into much clearer focus. Like every entitled driver everywhere, he and his ministers and the rest of the barking seals simply resent getting caught. globalnews.ca/news/1146373...
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
This particular cycle will happen over and over. Politicians and business types will never be able to resist dogpiling on the latest educational fad, because they never pay a price for being so excessively hubristic as to call the labour market five years out.
Big Tech Told Kids to Code. The Jobs Didn’t Follow.
www.nytimes.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:11 PM
This particular cycle will happen over and over. Politicians and business types will never be able to resist dogpiling on the latest educational fad, because they never pay a price for being so excessively hubristic as to call the labour market five years out.
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
September 28, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
As Britain’s royal family welcomed US President Donald Trump to Windsor Castle in a lavish ceremony on Wednesday, the British public gave the American leader their own – markedly less friendly – response to his presence in their country: https://cnn.it/3KqFB6Z
September 17, 2025 at 5:30 PM
As Britain’s royal family welcomed US President Donald Trump to Windsor Castle in a lavish ceremony on Wednesday, the British public gave the American leader their own – markedly less friendly – response to his presence in their country: https://cnn.it/3KqFB6Z
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart govts do the math on investing in better mobility.
Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.
#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social
Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.
#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social
September 5, 2025 at 6:53 AM
IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart govts do the math on investing in better mobility.
Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.
#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social
Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.
#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
For anyone on the neuroscience job market, our ads are up. We are looking for anyone working in systems neuroscience of animals to join us in southern Alberta 🇨🇦
#academicsky #neuroskyence #neuroethology #academicjobs #Canada
neurojobs.sfn.org/job/39049/as...
#academicsky #neuroskyence #neuroethology #academicjobs #Canada
neurojobs.sfn.org/job/39049/as...
Assistant Professor (Neuroscience, Tenure Track) - Lethbridge (City), Alberta (CA) job with University of Lethbridge | 39049
Assistant Professor (tenure track) of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
neurojobs.sfn.org
September 4, 2025 at 7:59 PM
For anyone on the neuroscience job market, our ads are up. We are looking for anyone working in systems neuroscience of animals to join us in southern Alberta 🇨🇦
#academicsky #neuroskyence #neuroethology #academicjobs #Canada
neurojobs.sfn.org/job/39049/as...
#academicsky #neuroskyence #neuroethology #academicjobs #Canada
neurojobs.sfn.org/job/39049/as...
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
Come join us at UBC in Vancouver! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30389 @zoology.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia, Department of Zoology
Job #AJO30389, Assistant Professor of Teaching- Neuroscience, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
academicjobsonline.org
August 26, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Come join us at UBC in Vancouver! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30389 @zoology.ubc.ca
Transfers to post-secondary institutions per inhabitant, Canada, 2001-02 to 2023-24
August 17, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
“…Canada 🇨🇦 continues to lag behind other countries in R&D spending; it spent 1.8% of GDP on research in 2024, placing it sixth in the G7 industrialized nations and well below the 2.7% average among the 38 nations that are members of the OECD.” 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Canada plans a 15% budget cut. Scientists are alarmed
Cuts could erase promised boost, researchers fear
www.science.org
August 9, 2025 at 4:55 PM
“…Canada 🇨🇦 continues to lag behind other countries in R&D spending; it spent 1.8% of GDP on research in 2024, placing it sixth in the G7 industrialized nations and well below the 2.7% average among the 38 nations that are members of the OECD.” 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
Aggregate Budgeted Provincial Transfers to Post-secondary Institutions as a Percentage of Total Provincial Spending, 2006-07 to 2025-26, Canada and Alberta (fao @evoneuro.bsky.social).
There is no austerity. Governments just don't like spending on PSE.
There is no austerity. Governments just don't like spending on PSE.
August 10, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Aggregate Budgeted Provincial Transfers to Post-secondary Institutions as a Percentage of Total Provincial Spending, 2006-07 to 2025-26, Canada and Alberta (fao @evoneuro.bsky.social).
There is no austerity. Governments just don't like spending on PSE.
There is no austerity. Governments just don't like spending on PSE.
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
For everyone in Canada, I will be on Daybreak Alberta this Sunday morning talking about our new book on bird brains and behaviour.
It will be available on the CBC listen app on demand too.
@mitpress.bsky.social
#birds #brains #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪
It will be available on the CBC listen app on demand too.
@mitpress.bsky.social
#birds #brains #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪
August 8, 2025 at 4:57 PM
For everyone in Canada, I will be on Daybreak Alberta this Sunday morning talking about our new book on bird brains and behaviour.
It will be available on the CBC listen app on demand too.
@mitpress.bsky.social
#birds #brains #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪
It will be available on the CBC listen app on demand too.
@mitpress.bsky.social
#birds #brains #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
2/ Basically, if governments won't fund universities properly, they should get the hell out of the way of unis looking out for themselves. Cut red-tape. No unfunded mandates. Let tuition rise.
And yes, institutions need to cut expenses, too. But on their own, free of government interference.
And yes, institutions need to cut expenses, too. But on their own, free of government interference.
July 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
2/ Basically, if governments won't fund universities properly, they should get the hell out of the way of unis looking out for themselves. Cut red-tape. No unfunded mandates. Let tuition rise.
And yes, institutions need to cut expenses, too. But on their own, free of government interference.
And yes, institutions need to cut expenses, too. But on their own, free of government interference.
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
Germany gave people €1,200/month no strings attached.
They kept working, slept better, switched to better jobs, and even gave more to others.
Turns out, when people aren’t drowning, they swim further.
#UBI doesn’t kill ambition, it frees it.
They kept working, slept better, switched to better jobs, and even gave more to others.
Turns out, when people aren’t drowning, they swim further.
#UBI doesn’t kill ambition, it frees it.
July 24, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Germany gave people €1,200/month no strings attached.
They kept working, slept better, switched to better jobs, and even gave more to others.
Turns out, when people aren’t drowning, they swim further.
#UBI doesn’t kill ambition, it frees it.
They kept working, slept better, switched to better jobs, and even gave more to others.
Turns out, when people aren’t drowning, they swim further.
#UBI doesn’t kill ambition, it frees it.
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
📢ONE WEEK until deadline (31st July 2025) to apply for full-time Managing Editor role of @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Must have animal behaviour background with previous editorial experience desirable.
#job #publishing #editor
Full details: www.asab.org/opportunities
Please spread the word
#job #publishing #editor
Full details: www.asab.org/opportunities
Please spread the word
Opportunities — ASAB
www.asab.org
July 24, 2025 at 7:41 AM
📢ONE WEEK until deadline (31st July 2025) to apply for full-time Managing Editor role of @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Must have animal behaviour background with previous editorial experience desirable.
#job #publishing #editor
Full details: www.asab.org/opportunities
Please spread the word
#job #publishing #editor
Full details: www.asab.org/opportunities
Please spread the word
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
Weird how the fossil fuel industry claims it's renewables that are expensive.
My solar panels paid for themselves in 7 years (instead of the predicted 13) and our solar electricity is free now. And it runs our car.
My solar panels paid for themselves in 7 years (instead of the predicted 13) and our solar electricity is free now. And it runs our car.
July 18, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Weird how the fossil fuel industry claims it's renewables that are expensive.
My solar panels paid for themselves in 7 years (instead of the predicted 13) and our solar electricity is free now. And it runs our car.
My solar panels paid for themselves in 7 years (instead of the predicted 13) and our solar electricity is free now. And it runs our car.
Reposted by Scott MacDougall-Shackleton
From the front page of the @TorontoStar, @krushowy on @ONgov’s planned revamp of post-secondary funding that could include lifting the tuition freeze that has hamstrung universities and colleges.
#onpoli
www.thestar.com/news/gta/ont...
#onpoli
www.thestar.com/news/gta/ont...
Ontario to revamp college and university funding as early as next spring — and lifting tuition freeze may be on table
Amid major cuts in the sector, minister seeks to ensure schools are on solid ground financially, with “fair, predictable and transparent” funding.
www.thestar.com
July 18, 2025 at 11:20 AM
From the front page of the @TorontoStar, @krushowy on @ONgov’s planned revamp of post-secondary funding that could include lifting the tuition freeze that has hamstrung universities and colleges.
#onpoli
www.thestar.com/news/gta/ont...
#onpoli
www.thestar.com/news/gta/ont...
This is why we should not give genes names that refer to their function.
The #foraging #gene coordinates #brain and #heart networks to modulate socially cued interval #timing in #Drosophila
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
The foraging gene coordinates brain and heart networks to modulate socially cued interval timing in Drosophila
Author summary This study reveals that the foraging gene, traditionally associated with behaviors such as foraging and learning, plays a critical role in interval timing (e.g., regulation of mating du...
journals.plos.org
July 18, 2025 at 11:43 AM
This is why we should not give genes names that refer to their function.