Travis Seaborn
@travisseaborn.bsky.social
350 followers 310 following 42 posts
Assistant prof SNRS at NDSU. Landscape genetics and distribution (and other) ecology modeling endeavors. Conservation, climate change, and land use with disease sprinkles. Views own. He/Him
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
testeeves.bsky.social
What are the ‘social dimensions’ of moving species for conservation and why does engaging with them matter?

This is the focus of our new paper doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... published in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social olevo.bsky.social led by ever talented @aisrayne.bsky.social

📷 Kevin Parker
Whimsical photo of a karure | kakaruia | Chatham Island black robin courtesy of Kevin Parker. Features as a wee black bird with four leg bands: white over orange on the left leg and red over white on the right leg. Sneaky tufts of feathers peak out from otherwise borb-like body, encouraged by the unseen wind.
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
amfisheriessoc.bsky.social
The American Fisheries Society extends our support to the furloughed fisheries and aquatics professionals affected by the U.S. federal government shutdown. Read our full statement on the shutdown and its impacts on natural resources here fisheries.org/2025/10/afs-...
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
carlzimmer.com
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
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
rezekjoe.bsky.social
Just posting this. Everyone knows why.
Text of the fourth amendment “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
gregggonsalves.bsky.social
This is extortion. Faculty, students, staff, alumni across the country need to get to their Presidents & Trustees today. Just say no. This blackmail only works if most everyone folds. Capitulation now means the end of American higher education for a generation. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...
Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
climateguyw.bsky.social
Main Topic: Dozens of Scientists Find Errors in a New Energy Department Climate Report via @npr.org
On The Extreme Temperature Diary WED 9/03/2025
At: guyonclimate.com
+#climate #weather + record temp reports via
@extremetemps.bsky.social/ @michaelemann.bsky.social
@katharinehayhoe.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
insidehighered.com
🚨 Breaking News | Judge Rules Harvard Funding Freeze Illegal

A federal judge said the Trump administration violated the institution's First Amendment rights when it froze billions of dollars in research grants. https://bit.ly/42bh3oH

#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
ryanmarino.bsky.social
Vinay Prasad, a former adult oncologist, has moved to disrupt the childhood vaccine schedule by asserting - against all evidence - that administering multiple vaccines at the same time “could blunt their efficacy.” The added burden/delay of separating shots would sharply reduce US vaccination rates.
FDA quietly positions itself to disrupt childhood vaccine schedule
While CDC turmoil grabbed the media spotlight, a quieter but potentially more consequential drama unfolded last week at FDA. The agency has positioned itse...
www.biocentury.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
marynmck.bsky.social
An extraordinary joint op-ed and plea by NINE former directors or acting directors of the CDC under both Democratic and Republican administrations, succinctly describing undermining of public health, and what’s needed now.
(gift link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
needhibhalla.bsky.social
Insisting on expertise over ideology is not “politicizing” science. The ideologues installing scientific and governmental policy that is contradicted by evidence and data are.

By emphasizing ideology over expertise, THEY have made arguing for expertise and evidence-based decision making partisan.
Scientists Are Caught in a Political Trap
Fighting back against the Trump administration means they start to look more like activists.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
petergleick.bsky.social
Here is the official statement from the American Meteorological Society on the "foundational flaws" of the Department of Energy’s recent attempt to deny the reality of #climate change.

www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-am...
The Practice and Assessment of Science: Five Foundational Flaws in the Department of Energy's 2025 Climate Report
Adopted by the Executive Committee of the AMS Council on 27 August 2025
www.ametsoc.org
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
whetmoser.com
“Daskalakis went on to say that Kennedy… had never taken a briefing by a CDC subject matter expert from his center” [vax and respiratory disease]
brandyzadrozny.bsky.social
New: In 7 months, Kennedy has broken the CDC, perhaps irreparably. For all he’s done with mass firings, gutting expertise, and attacking vaccines, Wednesday’s loss of its most senior and competent leaders—truly the CDC’s backbone—is the most consequential attack yet.

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...
‘People will die because of this’: How RFK Jr. drove out the CDC’s senior leaders
On the same day Susan Monarez was fired, four of the agency’s top leaders quit.
www.msnbc.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
erthsarah.bsky.social
It’s a hard reality to see all of the NSF & USDA climate education funding vaporize. My sense of how to collaborate & move work forward has shifted tremendously. Definitely feeling some anchoring in the student energy, work, & community right at home.
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
whysharksmatter.bsky.social
For the eleventy billionth time:

Attacks on science funding and science jobs in the United States don’t mean that science will just move elsewhere.

It means a lot less science for everyone.

There aren’t enough jobs or funding everywhere else )combined) for US scientists to just move.
gregggonsalves.bsky.social
Some are embracing the fantasy that the cuts to #NIH funding will only have an impact here in the USA. As Nature reports, the NIH is the largest global funder by far and dwarfs the rest of the world’s funders of biomedical research.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How the NIH dominates the world’s health research — in charts
Abrupt cuts by the Trump administration to the US National Institutes of Health threaten progress in medical research globally.
www.nature.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
sorayanadiamcdonald.com
"work like this falls to the National Park Service, which was already facing staffing shortfalls when the Trump administration this spring directed additional cuts ... The service used to have 200 people assigned to maintain thousands of acres of trees and gardens in D.C., and now there are 20"
National Guard troops deployed in D.C. add sanitation, landscaping duties
Service members say they’re glad to help the National Park Service. But some question if trash removal and groundskeeping are an appropriate use of the military.
www.washingtonpost.com
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
ucs.org
This week FEMA staff raised legitimate concerns about the agency's ability to effectively respond to extreme weather events. The Trump administration responded by punishing the messengers instead of better preparing for the next climate disaster. www.npr.org/2025/08/27/n...
Some FEMA staff are put on leave after signing dissent letter
More than 180 current and former FEMA employees signed the letter sent to the FEMA Review Council and Congress warning that FEMA's capacity to respond to a major disaster was dangerously diminished.
www.npr.org
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
johnwares.bsky.social
Yesterday we had a “using AI” workshop in faculty retreat - one exercise was to upload PDFs and let it make a little podcast about the info. It defaulted to a man and woman talking and apparently it is normal that the male rattles off the facts while the woman goes “oh gosh that’s interesting” 🙄
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
aaup.org
AAUP @aaup.org · Aug 23
Todd Wolfson, AAUP President, warned of a more “militant” response on campuses in the fall – including possible mass strikes.

“We’re going to need to politicize this fight. It’s not an economic strike on our job conditions – it’s a political strike for the future of the sector.”

#DefendHigherEd
‘Everyone is coming into fire’: students return to US campuses bruised and changed by Trump’s assault
The effects of a rightwing campaign to remake American higher education are fueling fear and anxiety, but advocates say they have plans to fight back
www.theguardian.com
travisseaborn.bsky.social
Really enjoyed this, and would recommend for non-marine and non-polar folks (like me). Definitely good stuff for those who are or are involved with ECRs.
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
ggnanadesikan.bsky.social
"At the end of the day, the effectiveness of the education we deliver is scaffolded on the quality of the relationships we build with our students."

#HigherEd
hormiga.bsky.social
How I’m thinking about students having AI do their assigned work.

I think we need to ask why they make this choice. Those answers can help us be more effective instructors.
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
anthonymoser.com
A key difference here is that while either can be incorrect, the structure of Wikipedia *creates context* and the structure of LLMs *destroys context*

Wikipedia has linked sources and an edit history showing where information came from and who added it when

An LLM just generates text
eugenevinitsky.bsky.social
Some of the anti-AI stuff feels a bit like when people would say "don't use Wikipedia as a source." It's just like anything else, a piece of information that you weigh against multiple sources and your own understanding of its likely failure modes
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
niais.bsky.social
This is devastating, and part of a larger move to entirely push science out of NASA's mission. It is horrific betrayal of so much work, not to mention the fact that it violates NASA's charter.
Reposted by Travis Seaborn
jappliedecology.bsky.social
Modelling connectivity at a regional scale during seasonal movements of the greater horseshoe bat 🦇📊

Acoustic, stratified sampling at local & large scale provided enough spatial & temporal accuracy to model connectivity throughout the life cycle of bats 🧪🌏

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
doi.org