gavin jones
@ecologyofgavin.bsky.social
“socially maligned, known hater of birds and birding”, etc: https://gavinmjones.com
Pinned
It’s official: I’m joining the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as an assistant prof starting Fall 2026!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
Reposted by gavin jones
I am hiring a postdoc @ Univ of Iowa. Potential project focuses include flood-risk infrastructure planning, disaster recovery processes and outcomes, insurance program externalities, or uncertainty in climate damage attribution. Please consider applying/sharing! jobs.uiowa.edu/postdoc/view...
Postdoctoral Requisition Details - Jobs@UIOWA: Search and Apply for Jobs at The University of Iowa
Jobs@UIOWA: The official place to search and apply for jobs at The University of Iowa.
jobs.uiowa.edu
February 13, 2026 at 7:38 PM
I am hiring a postdoc @ Univ of Iowa. Potential project focuses include flood-risk infrastructure planning, disaster recovery processes and outcomes, insurance program externalities, or uncertainty in climate damage attribution. Please consider applying/sharing! jobs.uiowa.edu/postdoc/view...
Was just thinking how this year I’ll turn 37, which is awfully close to 40, which you can more or less round up to 50, and so anyway I’m on a mortality-pondering spiral
February 6, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Was just thinking how this year I’ll turn 37, which is awfully close to 40, which you can more or less round up to 50, and so anyway I’m on a mortality-pondering spiral
50 days until baseball season. God I need this
February 3, 2026 at 11:27 PM
50 days until baseball season. God I need this
Parenting pro tip: if you throw something away you never have to pick it up again
February 2, 2026 at 1:54 AM
Parenting pro tip: if you throw something away you never have to pick it up again
Can you imagine how elected officials would vote if they could only hold office for a single term
January 31, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Can you imagine how elected officials would vote if they could only hold office for a single term
I made an extremely satisfying conceptual figure today that solved a problem in my brain. Please clap
January 31, 2026 at 12:48 AM
I made an extremely satisfying conceptual figure today that solved a problem in my brain. Please clap
It’s hard to explain how badly I need these for the summer academic conference season
January 30, 2026 at 3:26 AM
It’s hard to explain how badly I need these for the summer academic conference season
Reposted by gavin jones
If you, as a scientist, cannot be bothered to engage in the intellectual work of science, please quit your job and leave it to someone with skill and integrity.
“The idea is to put ChatGPT front and center inside software that scientists use to write up their work in much the same way that chatbots are now embedded into popular programming editors.
It’s vibe coding, but for science.”
It’s vibe coding, but for science.”
OpenAI’s latest product lets you vibe code science
Prism is a ChatGPT-powered text editor that automates much of the work involved in writing scientific papers.
www.technologyreview.com
January 28, 2026 at 5:10 AM
If you, as a scientist, cannot be bothered to engage in the intellectual work of science, please quit your job and leave it to someone with skill and integrity.
So is the purpose of this release to completely undercut public trust in science? I see no other possible outcome
“The idea is to put ChatGPT front and center inside software that scientists use to write up their work in much the same way that chatbots are now embedded into popular programming editors.
It’s vibe coding, but for science.”
It’s vibe coding, but for science.”
OpenAI’s latest product lets you vibe code science
Prism is a ChatGPT-powered text editor that automates much of the work involved in writing scientific papers.
www.technologyreview.com
January 28, 2026 at 3:26 AM
So is the purpose of this release to completely undercut public trust in science? I see no other possible outcome
Has someone tried building an open source version of google scholar? I’m slightly surprised that it’s still the only real way to aggregate and count citations for any given researcher.
January 26, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Has someone tried building an open source version of google scholar? I’m slightly surprised that it’s still the only real way to aggregate and count citations for any given researcher.
I’m gonna need my favorite artists to go ahead and release some new music at this time, thank you
January 26, 2026 at 8:52 PM
I’m gonna need my favorite artists to go ahead and release some new music at this time, thank you
Oh no, I outsourced all of my intellectual and educational responsibility to a tech bro’s content-stealing bullshit machine and it didn’t end well
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
When two years of academic work vanished with a single click
After turning off ChatGPT’s ‘data consent’ option, Marcel Bucher lost the work behind grant applications, teaching materials and publication drafts. Here’s what happened next.
www.nature.com
January 24, 2026 at 4:45 AM
Oh no, I outsourced all of my intellectual and educational responsibility to a tech bro’s content-stealing bullshit machine and it didn’t end well
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Crazy to think how much Microsoft fumbled the bag with Skype. They had a miles-ahead lead in the video conferencing realm, a brand so powerful it became a verb to describe video calling itself (like Kleenex and tissues). Now MS Teams replaced Skype and is the most hated video platform imaginable
January 23, 2026 at 7:24 PM
Crazy to think how much Microsoft fumbled the bag with Skype. They had a miles-ahead lead in the video conferencing realm, a brand so powerful it became a verb to describe video calling itself (like Kleenex and tissues). Now MS Teams replaced Skype and is the most hated video platform imaginable
So I interviewed 10 ppl for two grad positions on my lab and I asked all of them what they thought of using LLMs/genAI in scientific writing.
“Absolutely the $&#* not” is an apt paraphrase across all 10 responses. Honestly this gave me so much hope.
The kids are alright 🔥
“Absolutely the $&#* not” is an apt paraphrase across all 10 responses. Honestly this gave me so much hope.
The kids are alright 🔥
January 23, 2026 at 2:35 AM
So I interviewed 10 ppl for two grad positions on my lab and I asked all of them what they thought of using LLMs/genAI in scientific writing.
“Absolutely the $&#* not” is an apt paraphrase across all 10 responses. Honestly this gave me so much hope.
The kids are alright 🔥
“Absolutely the $&#* not” is an apt paraphrase across all 10 responses. Honestly this gave me so much hope.
The kids are alright 🔥
This is a real email I just received from an applicant to a PhD position after I notified them I had selected another candidate. Easily in my top 5 most unprofessional emails I’ve received in my career. Completely baffled.
I won’t reply, it’s not worth my time.
I won’t reply, it’s not worth my time.
January 21, 2026 at 1:04 PM
This is a real email I just received from an applicant to a PhD position after I notified them I had selected another candidate. Easily in my top 5 most unprofessional emails I’ve received in my career. Completely baffled.
I won’t reply, it’s not worth my time.
I won’t reply, it’s not worth my time.
The game of soccer could be improved by one rule change: goalies can use their hands in their opponents box too
January 17, 2026 at 6:07 PM
The game of soccer could be improved by one rule change: goalies can use their hands in their opponents box too
Microsoft outlook is a great product, my favorite feature is that the entire program freezes and crashes my computer when I place my cursor in the search bar
January 17, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Microsoft outlook is a great product, my favorite feature is that the entire program freezes and crashes my computer when I place my cursor in the search bar
Even though I’m no longer looking for a job I still impulse check ecoevojobs like 4 times per day
January 14, 2026 at 12:54 AM
Even though I’m no longer looking for a job I still impulse check ecoevojobs like 4 times per day
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you think you have come up with a new idea: no you didn’t. Someone wrote an entire dissertation on that in 1965.
January 13, 2026 at 1:11 AM
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you think you have come up with a new idea: no you didn’t. Someone wrote an entire dissertation on that in 1965.
In December I received a deeply meaningful recognition for my research from AFE, especially to cap off the unhinged year that was 2025. I dedicate this award to all scientists - especially my fellow feds - who have been vilified and whose work has not been valued.
@afe-fireecology.bsky.social
@afe-fireecology.bsky.social
January 8, 2026 at 2:30 AM
In December I received a deeply meaningful recognition for my research from AFE, especially to cap off the unhinged year that was 2025. I dedicate this award to all scientists - especially my fellow feds - who have been vilified and whose work has not been valued.
@afe-fireecology.bsky.social
@afe-fireecology.bsky.social
Giant costco bag of dried mango in my house is a Problem
January 7, 2026 at 2:18 AM
Giant costco bag of dried mango in my house is a Problem
One possible (or even likely?) outcome of the LLM and genAI craze might not be the continued death of expertise, but its rebirth.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
January 5, 2026 at 8:26 PM
One possible (or even likely?) outcome of the LLM and genAI craze might not be the continued death of expertise, but its rebirth.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
When nothing can be trusted as real, people will crave humanity, human-verified reporting, and human-generated information. The bullshit machines will be shunned.
It’s official: I’m joining the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as an assistant prof starting Fall 2026!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
January 3, 2026 at 3:36 PM
It’s official: I’m joining the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as an assistant prof starting Fall 2026!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
I’ll be recruiting multiple grad students and postdocs to join my lab, so if you’re into disturbance ecology and conservation science… watch this space!
A reviewer just asked us to cite his 1976 dissertation. What are we doing here
December 30, 2025 at 5:08 PM
A reviewer just asked us to cite his 1976 dissertation. What are we doing here