Richard Mann
richardpmann.bsky.social
Richard Mann
@richardpmann.bsky.social
Reposted by Richard Mann
Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
October 20, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Infinite games of Beggar-My-Neighbour: now out in The American Mathematical Monthly. Congratulations again to Brayden Casella who discovered the infinite game and knocked one off the Wikipedia lost of unsolved maths problems.
doi.org/10.1080/0002...
A Non-Terminating Game of Beggar-My-Neighbor
We demonstrate the existence of a non-terminating game of Beggar-My-Neighbor discovered by lead author Brayden Casella. We detail the method for constructing this game and identify a cyclical struc...
doi.org
October 24, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Richard Mann
Great piece on the absurdity of brute force multiverse analyses.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Robustness is better assessed with a few thoughtful models than with billions of regressions | PNAS
Robustness is better assessed with a few thoughtful models than with billions of regressions
www.pnas.org
October 22, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
📢 OUT NOW: Global Tipping Points Report 2025 📢

Professor Viktoria Spaiser contributes to a new report providing a temperature check on the status of dangerous Earth system #TippingPoints and opportunities in #PositiveTippingPoints across sectors.

#GTPR2025 #COP30
October 13, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
The second Global Tipping Points Report has been launched today. Please see our press release here: www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article...
Find the full report here: global-tipping-points.org @gsiexeter.bsky.social #TippingPoints #COP30
‘New reality’ as world reaches first climate tipping point
Researchers in Leeds have joined experts from across the world in warning that Earth is reaching the first of many climate tipping points that will cause catastrophic harm without urgent action.
www.leeds.ac.uk
October 13, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Reposted by Richard Mann
I'm super excited to announce that ISBA @isba-bayesian.bsky.social has voted to start a new section on Bayesian Social Sciences! It will be a great way to further collaborations with many disciplines in the Social Sciences and Humanities.

bss-isba.github.io
Home - BSS-ISBA
bss-isba.github.io
September 22, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Richard Mann
Our co-produced #PolicyBrief following our event "Accelerating #SocialChange in Response to the #Climate and #EcologicalCrisis", is out now, see here: cdp.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/u...
September 1, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Richard Mann
People do care! Exposure to moral appeals (moral implications of fossil fuels etc.) can reduce people's carbon footprints, while also increasing climate-related civic and political action, though it may backfire among individuals with strong egoistic values. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Mobilising climate action with moral appeals in a smartphone-based 8-week field experiment - npj Climate Action
npj Climate Action - Mobilising climate action with moral appeals in a smartphone-based 8-week field experiment
www.nature.com
August 28, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
Reposted by Richard Mann
Just a standard reminder that statistics is a stand-alone discipline because it’s really hard and it is very easy to get catastrophically wrong. (This example is p-curves, beloved of the reproducibility/scientific fraud warriors, absolutely indefensible in practice)
It should go without saying, but a signficance test should never go from significant to nonsignificant with increasing evidence. But theirs does; in fact, several times! This makes no sense for a test, but it is a result of the fact that...12/?
August 8, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
Our covariant model of evolution is now out in @systbiol.bsky.social. In it, rates of diversification and molecular and morphological evolution all covary governed by a “tempo” variable which itself also varies at a rate equal to its own value. @richardpmann.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
Evolutionary Tempo, Supertaxa, and Living Fossils
Abstract. A relationship between the rate of molecular change and diversification has long been discussed, on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Howev
doi.org
August 5, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Do diversification rates and molecular evolution covary? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s surprising how much falls into place if we assume they do doi.org/10.1093/sysb...
Evolutionary Tempo, Supertaxa, and Living Fossils
Abstract. A relationship between the rate of molecular change and diversification has long been discussed, on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Howev
doi.org
August 5, 2025 at 5:24 PM
It has been a pleasure to host two students from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Kenya www.leeds.ac.uk/news-global/...
Global networks advance wildlife research
Kenyan students have demonstrated how Artificial Intelligence can enhance the study of endangered animals.
www.leeds.ac.uk
August 4, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
A real must-read post from @rmcelreath.bsky.social that resonates particularly well after having spent the last couple of days on a matters arising for an open, pre-registered paper in a high-profile journal for which the results and story they support are largely a statistical artifact.
July 9, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
How to cooperate for a sustainable future? We don't know (yet), but I'm thrilled to share that our new perspective piece has just been published in @pnas.org. Bridging complexity science and multiagent reinforcement learning can lead to a much-needed science of collective, cooperative intelligence.
June 17, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Richard Mann
Long in the making, finally happening this week at Brussels: #GenAIResearchRetreat2025 - Exploring new generative #AI methods for understanding dynamic complex social and socio-ecological systems.

Exciting programme, great group:

computationalclimateactionlab.github.io/genai2025rr/...
Program
Exploring new generative AI methods for understanding dynamic complex social and socio-ecological systems Date: 9th – 13th June 2025 Venue: Brussels, Belgium (Double Tree By Hilton Brussels City Hot...
computationalclimateactionlab.github.io
June 9, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
Wonderfully kind and fulsome review of my book 'The Tree of Life' in the TLS by Charles Foster. "breezy, scholarly, whimsical, rigorous and companionable…" "extraordinary, adventurous book." I am absolutely THRILLED! @johnmurrays.bsky.social www.the-tls.co.uk/science-tech...
The tree of life
The Proto-Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. For about 100 million years, it marked time, dutifully circling round the sun, waiting for
www.the-tls.co.uk
June 6, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Richard Mann
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www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

PhD studentship! Comparative Analysis and Modelling of Collective Behaviour in Natural and Artificial Systems.

**this scholarship for UK residents only, as defined by UKCISA regulations**

Details below! Please RT

(AI-generated image)
June 3, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
It took us many years to improve idtracker.ai in both accuracy and tracking time. Here it is.
June 3, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Richard Mann
New entry into the sponge/ctenophore debate.... Have the chromosome fusions separating ctenophores from all other animals been given too much weight? Beautifully clearly written paper covering complex arguments from @rcply.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Sponges, ctenophores and the statistical significance of syntenies
Shared fusions between ancestral chromosomal linkage groups have previously been used to support phylogenetic groupings, notably sponges with cnidarians and bilaterians to the exclusion of ctenophores...
www.biorxiv.org
May 12, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Richard Mann
I am seriously becoming of the opinion that there should be a (ideally permanent, but at least a few years) moratorium on publication of molecular clock papers. This would allow authors to reflect on the idea that their results invariably involve “event x happened 10s - 100s Myrs before we thought”.
April 4, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Starting this account with a link to a nice recent Youtube video on the infinite game of Beggar-My-Neighbour
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HwK...
Mathematicians finally find the infinite card game.
YouTube video by Stand-up Maths
www.youtube.com
March 24, 2025 at 8:51 AM