Isabel
@isabelott.bsky.social
Evolutionary & population biology of vector-borne viral disease systems. 🦟 genetics PhD student in NC.
Arbovirologist, orthobunyavirus wonk, feral reference librarian, & public health advocate. 80s mosquito. Coaster-sized earrings. (she/her) 🏳️🌈
Arbovirologist, orthobunyavirus wonk, feral reference librarian, & public health advocate. 80s mosquito. Coaster-sized earrings. (she/her) 🏳️🌈
Pinned
Isabel
@isabelott.bsky.social
· Jun 11
The Athens (GA) Immigrants Rights Coalition, which I volunteered with for several years, is currently fundraising for their Support for Immigrant Families in Crisis fund. 98.5% of donations go straight to families in need. Please boost & contribute if you can!
www.athensimmigrantrights.org/donate
www.athensimmigrantrights.org/donate
Reposted by Isabel
I'm a gnat's asshair away from just letting all y'all learn shit the hard way, and literally all that's stopping me is the continued understanding that I gotta fuckin live here too.
1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but
2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but
3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So
4. Now the LLM code points to malware.
2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but
3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So
4. Now the LLM code points to malware.
LLMs hallucinating nonexistent software packages with plausible names leads to a new malware vulnerability: "slopsquatting."
April 13, 2025 at 4:39 AM
I'm a gnat's asshair away from just letting all y'all learn shit the hard way, and literally all that's stopping me is the continued understanding that I gotta fuckin live here too.
Reposted by Isabel
Coverage of our recent research progress on Himalayan treeline dynamics (nature.com/articles/s41...) in Science News.
www.science.org/content/arti...
The Himalayan tree landscape is shifting—and so are its ecosystems
At high elevations, fir trees are outcompeting once-dominant birches amid warmer, drier conditions
www.science.org
December 15, 2024 at 6:33 AM
Coverage of our recent research progress on Himalayan treeline dynamics (nature.com/articles/s41...) in Science News.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Isabel
Not to be controversial but I think we should use tools and resources to make people's lives less miserable instead of more
December 27, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Not to be controversial but I think we should use tools and resources to make people's lives less miserable instead of more
Reposted by Isabel
🎯
“MAHA says don’t change the system, change yourself. Purify your body. Deny your kid vaccines. Blame the sick for their sickness. It’s magical thinking for the carceral state.”
“MAHA says don’t change the system, change yourself. Purify your body. Deny your kid vaccines. Blame the sick for their sickness. It’s magical thinking for the carceral state.”
“MAHA works in large part because it promises sweeping change and improved health even when in practice what it delivers is benefit cuts, deregulation, and increased spread of contagious disease.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
Teaser - Health Fascism and the Anti-State State (12/22/25)
Podcast Episode · Death Panel · 12/22/2025 · 7m
podcasts.apple.com
December 27, 2025 at 12:42 AM
🎯
“MAHA says don’t change the system, change yourself. Purify your body. Deny your kid vaccines. Blame the sick for their sickness. It’s magical thinking for the carceral state.”
“MAHA says don’t change the system, change yourself. Purify your body. Deny your kid vaccines. Blame the sick for their sickness. It’s magical thinking for the carceral state.”
Reposted by Isabel
The group of six authors includes two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou… “They argue, as in previous cases, that high-quality books are the "gold standard" of training data and that the AI companies "used those copies to build systems now worth many hundreds of billions of dollars."
Authors File New Lawsuit Against AI Companies Seeking More Money
Six authors have filed individual lawsuits against Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity AI, arguing they are entitled to more than the $3,000 per title proposed by the Anthropic copyri...
www.publishersweekly.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
The group of six authors includes two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou… “They argue, as in previous cases, that high-quality books are the "gold standard" of training data and that the AI companies "used those copies to build systems now worth many hundreds of billions of dollars."
Reposted by Isabel
this is really reckless, unethical, and irresponsible behavior, especially as we approach the peak of flu season. it’s also not the first time he’s done this — he’s fully aware what he’s doing is not okay because we have already explained that to him. this guy shouldn’t be repping public health
If there is a tamiflu shortage this year I blame twitter's #1 catastrophist EFD for advising people to stockpile prescription antivirals.
December 26, 2025 at 2:13 PM
this is really reckless, unethical, and irresponsible behavior, especially as we approach the peak of flu season. it’s also not the first time he’s done this — he’s fully aware what he’s doing is not okay because we have already explained that to him. this guy shouldn’t be repping public health
Reposted by Isabel
Modeling Reemergence of Vaccine-Eliminated Infectious Diseases Under Declining Vaccination in the US | Infectious Diseases | JAMA | JAMA Network jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Modeling Reemergence of Vaccine-Eliminated Infectious Diseases Under Declining Vaccination in the US
This study estimates the number of cases and complications in the US under scenarios of declining childhood vaccination for measles, rubella, poliomyelitis, and diphtheria.
jamanetwork.com
December 26, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Modeling Reemergence of Vaccine-Eliminated Infectious Diseases Under Declining Vaccination in the US | Infectious Diseases | JAMA | JAMA Network jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Reposted by Isabel
NEW: beginning january 1, chicago will ban unhoused people on the sex offense registry from seeking shelter on public transit.
it’s the latest in a concerted effort by mayor johnson’s admin to criminalize homelessness on cta trains + buses and in public parks during the coldest months of the year.
it’s the latest in a concerted effort by mayor johnson’s admin to criminalize homelessness on cta trains + buses and in public parks during the coldest months of the year.
‘An impossible situation’ - Chicago Reader
Beginning January 1, the City of Chicago will ban unhoused people on the sex offense registry from seeking shelter on public transit.
chicagoreader.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:20 PM
NEW: beginning january 1, chicago will ban unhoused people on the sex offense registry from seeking shelter on public transit.
it’s the latest in a concerted effort by mayor johnson’s admin to criminalize homelessness on cta trains + buses and in public parks during the coldest months of the year.
it’s the latest in a concerted effort by mayor johnson’s admin to criminalize homelessness on cta trains + buses and in public parks during the coldest months of the year.
Reposted by Isabel
⚫Another deadly shipwreck: during the night of 19 December, 116 people went missing from a boat according to @alarmphone.bsky.social
Tunisian fishermen reportedly found a single survivor on a wooden boat, who said he was the only one to make it.
Safe passage, now!
alarmphone.org/en/2025/12/2...
Tunisian fishermen reportedly found a single survivor on a wooden boat, who said he was the only one to make it.
Safe passage, now!
alarmphone.org/en/2025/12/2...
Alarm Phone fears yet another deadly shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean - Alarm Phone
Alarm Phone fears that yet another shipwreck occurred during the night of 19 December. Against the silence and indifference of the authorities, we demand answers! Families searching for their missing ...
alarmphone.org
December 25, 2025 at 10:48 AM
⚫Another deadly shipwreck: during the night of 19 December, 116 people went missing from a boat according to @alarmphone.bsky.social
Tunisian fishermen reportedly found a single survivor on a wooden boat, who said he was the only one to make it.
Safe passage, now!
alarmphone.org/en/2025/12/2...
Tunisian fishermen reportedly found a single survivor on a wooden boat, who said he was the only one to make it.
Safe passage, now!
alarmphone.org/en/2025/12/2...
Reposted by Isabel
Everyone knows that the academic’s capacity for work expands exponentially
No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
December 26, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Everyone knows that the academic’s capacity for work expands exponentially
Reposted by Isabel
Reposted by Isabel
Dear colleagues - the international meeting on arboviruses and their vectors planned in Hamburg, Germany for 2026, is going to be moved to Liverpool instead. Logistical reasons beyond our control necessitated this move. Still the same dates- see you on Merseyside!
December 18, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Dear colleagues - the international meeting on arboviruses and their vectors planned in Hamburg, Germany for 2026, is going to be moved to Liverpool instead. Logistical reasons beyond our control necessitated this move. Still the same dates- see you on Merseyside!
Reposted by Isabel
Reposted by Isabel
Do you like this beaver lodge. Would you believe this is on Beaver Creek
December 26, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Do you like this beaver lodge. Would you believe this is on Beaver Creek
Reposted by Isabel
For some of you, it's still Christmas—this is a way to help numerous families in Palestine survive winter, health emergencies (like lupus and hepatitis), malnutrition...infancy!
Not a metaphor! Every ounce helps, especially if you click "weekly": chuffed.org/project/hope...
Not a metaphor! Every ounce helps, especially if you click "weekly": chuffed.org/project/hope...
Keep Hope Alive: a Gaza Giving Circle
We are a team of volunteers in the US and UK, led by two sisters passionate about helping our friends on the ground keep their families and neighbors alive with food, water, & shelter. We saw that…
chuffed.org
December 26, 2025 at 4:00 AM
For some of you, it's still Christmas—this is a way to help numerous families in Palestine survive winter, health emergencies (like lupus and hepatitis), malnutrition...infancy!
Not a metaphor! Every ounce helps, especially if you click "weekly": chuffed.org/project/hope...
Not a metaphor! Every ounce helps, especially if you click "weekly": chuffed.org/project/hope...
Reposted by Isabel
I’m a trained social worker. I worked with cases of CSA and other horrifying traumas. I didn’t learn til 6 months before I burnt out how dangerous and cumulative vicarious and secondary trauma are.
You don’t want this in your head and you don’t want it to live in your body. It doesn’t leave.
You don’t want this in your head and you don’t want it to live in your body. It doesn’t leave.
And as several folks are saying in the comments: curiosity about the Epstein files is understandable, but just for yourself personally, think carefully about what you want in your head forever.
It will come to you later in upsetting ways that you may not expect.
bsky.app/profile/sass...
It will come to you later in upsetting ways that you may not expect.
bsky.app/profile/sass...
I promise you- people think they want to know the lurid details- they don't. I spent 30 years reading accounts of CA/SA and that shit never leaves your head.
I'm interested in knowing who was on public payroll and didn't do their jobs. And I'm happy to wait for the truth so it sticks.
I'm interested in knowing who was on public payroll and didn't do their jobs. And I'm happy to wait for the truth so it sticks.
December 25, 2025 at 10:10 PM
I’m a trained social worker. I worked with cases of CSA and other horrifying traumas. I didn’t learn til 6 months before I burnt out how dangerous and cumulative vicarious and secondary trauma are.
You don’t want this in your head and you don’t want it to live in your body. It doesn’t leave.
You don’t want this in your head and you don’t want it to live in your body. It doesn’t leave.
Reposted by Isabel
ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS.
I cannot imagine knowing stuff without getting sucked into a citation rabbit-hole / wonderland and then reflecting on how these works engage with each other.
I cannot imagine knowing stuff without getting sucked into a citation rabbit-hole / wonderland and then reflecting on how these works engage with each other.
Am I the only one who gets a real kick out of citation chains? Reading people's writing and footnotes, and making assessments and notes, finding the sources in the footnotes and reading them yourself, and making more notes?
I...love it?
I...love it?
Not for academics it isn’t. You learn by reading and by following citation chains and talking to other people in the field. Letting the AI do the summary is abdicating your job.
December 23, 2025 at 5:32 AM
ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS.
I cannot imagine knowing stuff without getting sucked into a citation rabbit-hole / wonderland and then reflecting on how these works engage with each other.
I cannot imagine knowing stuff without getting sucked into a citation rabbit-hole / wonderland and then reflecting on how these works engage with each other.
Reposted by Isabel
Doctors interviewed 21 deported mothers. More than half said ICE never asked if they had children before deporting them, leaving babies and young children behind in the U.S.
sanfernandosun.com/2025/12/24/d...
sanfernandosun.com/2025/12/24/d...
Deportations Have Caused Growing Crisis of Family Separations - The San Fernando Valley Sun
Last month, a young woman stepped off a plane and set foot in her native Honduras for the first time in at least 15 years. But this wasn’t a happy […]
sanfernandosun.com
December 26, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Doctors interviewed 21 deported mothers. More than half said ICE never asked if they had children before deporting them, leaving babies and young children behind in the U.S.
sanfernandosun.com/2025/12/24/d...
sanfernandosun.com/2025/12/24/d...
Reposted by Isabel
Ian Fleming was a great writer because he wrote two riveting chapters on a game of golf. J. R. R. Tolkien was the greater writer because wrote a riveting chapter on a committee meeting.
December 26, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Ian Fleming was a great writer because he wrote two riveting chapters on a game of golf. J. R. R. Tolkien was the greater writer because wrote a riveting chapter on a committee meeting.
Reposted by Isabel
First-ever US airstrikes in Nigeria put the second Trump admin’s 2025 combat actions at:
—Nigeria—tonight’s strikes
—Yemen—1,000+ strikes (Mar-Apr)
—Somalia—120 strikes, 1 ground raid
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Iran—3 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike
—Nigeria—tonight’s strikes
—Yemen—1,000+ strikes (Mar-Apr)
—Somalia—120 strikes, 1 ground raid
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Iran—3 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike
December 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
First-ever US airstrikes in Nigeria put the second Trump admin’s 2025 combat actions at:
—Nigeria—tonight’s strikes
—Yemen—1,000+ strikes (Mar-Apr)
—Somalia—120 strikes, 1 ground raid
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Iran—3 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike
—Nigeria—tonight’s strikes
—Yemen—1,000+ strikes (Mar-Apr)
—Somalia—120 strikes, 1 ground raid
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Iran—3 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike
Reposted by Isabel
It's official: Today was the warmest Christmas in US history. It was raining and nearly 40°F here in Minneapolis.
Astonishing feat!
US will break its record for the warmest Christmas by ~5°F! That’s remarkable.
Anomalies are up to +40°F in the nation’s middle and as you can see the US has the warmest air - relative to average - in the World!
H/T to @BenNollWeather
US will break its record for the warmest Christmas by ~5°F! That’s remarkable.
Anomalies are up to +40°F in the nation’s middle and as you can see the US has the warmest air - relative to average - in the World!
H/T to @BenNollWeather
December 26, 2025 at 2:55 AM
It's official: Today was the warmest Christmas in US history. It was raining and nearly 40°F here in Minneapolis.
Reposted by Isabel
20 yrs ago UCLA mycology prof Dexter Howard gave me his old lab freezer. Crazy that its still used every day, holding ~$50k in enzymes. Sears stopped making the Coldspot in 1976.
Dexter’s passed away, but they they simply don’t make them like they used to - freezers or profs….. cheers Dexter!!!
Dexter’s passed away, but they they simply don’t make them like they used to - freezers or profs….. cheers Dexter!!!
December 25, 2025 at 11:47 PM
20 yrs ago UCLA mycology prof Dexter Howard gave me his old lab freezer. Crazy that its still used every day, holding ~$50k in enzymes. Sears stopped making the Coldspot in 1976.
Dexter’s passed away, but they they simply don’t make them like they used to - freezers or profs….. cheers Dexter!!!
Dexter’s passed away, but they they simply don’t make them like they used to - freezers or profs….. cheers Dexter!!!
Reposted by Isabel
I am very excited to share the first Accorsi lab publication: a collection of detailed protocols to maintain an apple snail 🐌 colony and generate stable mutant lines. The video is coming soon @ JoVE! We hope this will be a valuable resource for the community. app.jove.com/t/69267/the-...
The Golden Apple Snail Pomacea canaliculata: From Zygotes to Stable Mutant Lines
University of California, Davis. This study developed a workflow for the generation and maintenance of stable mutant lines for the freshwater apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata. The protocols include ...
app.jove.com
December 26, 2025 at 12:31 AM
I am very excited to share the first Accorsi lab publication: a collection of detailed protocols to maintain an apple snail 🐌 colony and generate stable mutant lines. The video is coming soon @ JoVE! We hope this will be a valuable resource for the community. app.jove.com/t/69267/the-...
Reposted by Isabel
I use the research by CCDH in my own work. This action by US government is shocking and unconstitutional. All researchers are in danger.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate
www.nytimes.com
December 26, 2025 at 12:43 AM
I use the research by CCDH in my own work. This action by US government is shocking and unconstitutional. All researchers are in danger.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
Reposted by Isabel
DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.
December 25, 2025 at 10:47 PM
DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.