Daniel Villar
@daniel-a-villar.bsky.social
Conservation biologist and behavioural ecologist. Treasurer of Scientists for Labour. Postdoc at @durhamanthropology.bsky.social, DPhil from @biology.ox.ac.uk
Ah yes, disruptive research! Why didn’t we think of that!
November 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Ah yes, disruptive research! Why didn’t we think of that!
2017 — clearly a very different era….I say, as if I don’t still own and wear the same overcoat, hat, scarf, and tie as in that photo
October 13, 2025 at 10:42 AM
2017 — clearly a very different era….I say, as if I don’t still own and wear the same overcoat, hat, scarf, and tie as in that photo
Show us the last four albums you listened to
October 5, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Show us the last four albums you listened to
I have hit one of those age markers which makes one realise youth is well and truly gone; someone who matriculted with me at my college is now a junior minister
September 8, 2025 at 4:33 PM
I have hit one of those age markers which makes one realise youth is well and truly gone; someone who matriculted with me at my college is now a junior minister
Being a scientist interested in politics is just the xkcd comic over and over again (and I’m not interested in data centres! It’s not my field at all! Yet somehow there are those in government who know less about them than even me!)
August 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Being a scientist interested in politics is just the xkcd comic over and over again (and I’m not interested in data centres! It’s not my field at all! Yet somehow there are those in government who know less about them than even me!)
It’s hardly LLMs most common use case, it does seem that they have massively harmed StackOverflow, which is my experience is one of the most useful websites on the internet
medium.com/tech-ai-chat...
medium.com/tech-ai-chat...
August 12, 2025 at 3:42 AM
It’s hardly LLMs most common use case, it does seem that they have massively harmed StackOverflow, which is my experience is one of the most useful websites on the internet
medium.com/tech-ai-chat...
medium.com/tech-ai-chat...
It’s been the challenge of left politics since the 19th century — Marx wrote about how, in the absence of some sort of collective to make people effectively “compare notes”, you can have none of the class consciousness with the the necessary precursor to socialism
August 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM
It’s been the challenge of left politics since the 19th century — Marx wrote about how, in the absence of some sort of collective to make people effectively “compare notes”, you can have none of the class consciousness with the the necessary precursor to socialism
Decided to run a quick and dirty Distribution Model for this species in the UK (BART, bioclim variables selected by embarcadero::variable.step, AUC = 0.94, TSS = 0.82, N = 27), and it seems that there should be other suitable habitat for the species elsewhere in the UK
July 19, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Decided to run a quick and dirty Distribution Model for this species in the UK (BART, bioclim variables selected by embarcadero::variable.step, AUC = 0.94, TSS = 0.82, N = 27), and it seems that there should be other suitable habitat for the species elsewhere in the UK
Unfortunately, as Marx realised, leftwing politics isn’t possible if a class is so fractured that they fail to “compare notes” and live individually. In the age of the suburb, algorithmic social media, and a fragmented press landscape, that doesn’t happen. We are all neo-peasants now
July 3, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Unfortunately, as Marx realised, leftwing politics isn’t possible if a class is so fractured that they fail to “compare notes” and live individually. In the age of the suburb, algorithmic social media, and a fragmented press landscape, that doesn’t happen. We are all neo-peasants now
Some nice details of bird-plant interactions in this Czech painting by Jan Rudolf Bys from 1704
June 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Some nice details of bird-plant interactions in this Czech painting by Jan Rudolf Bys from 1704
Interesting depiction of what looks like a cassowary in a Dutch painting from 1622 by Roelant Savery, a mere 27 years after Europeans first saw any bird of the genus
June 12, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Interesting depiction of what looks like a cassowary in a Dutch painting from 1622 by Roelant Savery, a mere 27 years after Europeans first saw any bird of the genus
The hard right thrives in a world of individuals, where there is no society. Of course this was an insight Marx had 160 years ago:
June 9, 2025 at 12:58 PM
The hard right thrives in a world of individuals, where there is no society. Of course this was an insight Marx had 160 years ago:
Viva went well — now the newly minted Dr Villar
March 20, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Viva went well — now the newly minted Dr Villar
First day of my first postdoc, certainly excited to see what work I do here over the next two years
February 3, 2025 at 9:15 AM
First day of my first postdoc, certainly excited to see what work I do here over the next two years
The Commonwealth, and especially the Commonwealth Realms, should be standing side to side with Canada against Yankee aggression
February 2, 2025 at 4:09 PM
The Commonwealth, and especially the Commonwealth Realms, should be standing side to side with Canada against Yankee aggression
There’s always other options I suppose…
January 26, 2025 at 2:18 AM
There’s always other options I suppose…
A nice example of how sex differences within a species can be a product of natural rather than sexual selection
January 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM
A nice example of how sex differences within a species can be a product of natural rather than sexual selection
I always posted the four books I most enjoyed in the year on Twitter on New Years, so thought I’d do the same here
December 31, 2024 at 9:53 PM
I always posted the four books I most enjoyed in the year on Twitter on New Years, so thought I’d do the same here
Only time of year I get to wear this bow tie
December 24, 2024 at 6:15 PM
Only time of year I get to wear this bow tie