Dion Durnford
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ddurnford.bsky.social
Dion Durnford
@ddurnford.bsky.social
Biologist studying the life and death of microalgae. Professor at UNB. Haiku writer. River rower. Shitty guitar player.
Reposted by Dion Durnford
By attempting to abdicate any legal responsibility to provide for a healthy environment, the U.S. is running in the opposite direction as the global legal community, @zoeschlanger.bsky.social reports:
America Is Living in a Climate-Denial Fantasy
On climate, the U.S. and the rest of the planet are now in “completely separate worlds.”
bit.ly
August 9, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
Phenotypic heterogeneity in a batch culture of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with different light tolerances. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.30.667606v1
July 31, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Disappointed to hear an emphasis on “decarbonized oil and gas” from the first minister’s meeting. What a failure in leadership. We are about to surpass a 1.5oC global temperature increase and it’s business as usual. We are committed to a 40% decrease in CO2 by 2030, yet we dance around the issue.
June 6, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
CO₂ at Mauna Loa just reached a monthly average of >430 ppm for the first time.

That's possibly higher than in over 3.3 million years.

The global RATE of increase is off the chart.

It's hard to exaggerate how unprecedented this is!
June 1, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
Tree and Sky
Shannon Craig Morphew
2024
May 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
Another reason to not use AI. The thing none of us needs or asked for.
wired.com WIRED @wired.com · May 22
tired: people AI-generating rando images of themselves as anime

WIRED: AI’s energy use already represents as much as 20 percent of global data-center power demand, new analysis has found
AI Is Eating Data Center Power Demand—and It’s Only Getting Worse
A new analysis of AI hardware being produced and how it is being used attempts to estimate the vast amount of electricity being consumed by AI.
www.wired.com
May 22, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
David Do owns a house just outside Toronto, drives a Tesla and is paid $121,000 a year as a hospital pharmacist. But he leads a double life behind the world's most notorious website for non-consensual, AI-generated porn of real people: MrDeepFakes.com.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
He's the key person behind the most notorious deepfake porn site in the world. And he's Canadian | CBC News
A joint international investigation by CBC News, Bellingcat and Danish outlets Politiken and Tjekdet has linked a Canadian pharmacist to one of the biggest website in the world for non-consensual, AI-...
www.cbc.ca
May 7, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
I'm seeking graduate students interested in studying nectar evolutionary ecology. Masters or PhD. Sep 2025 or Jan 2026 start. Interested students encouraged to apply by May 5 to be eligible for additional scholarships. #gradschool #flower #evolution #nectar #pollination
April 17, 2025 at 10:01 AM
It’s funny that we are at a stage of censoring art in Canada. Art reflects the time it is made, and this piece does it perfectly. Grow up UPEI. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Artist quits post after P.E.I. vet college tells him to remove painting based on U.S. politics | CBC News
Christopher Griffin, the now former artist-in-residence at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown, says administrators were trying to censor one of his paintings after complaints from Americ...
www.cbc.ca
April 10, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
One of JVL’s darkest columns yet
April 3, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Chrétien always had a connection to the average Canadian, and his speech tonight hit the right notes. Vive le Canada!
March 9, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Skipping a conference I love so I don’t have to travel to the US. Maybe in 4 years.
March 6, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
March 5, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
February 26, 2025 at 4:21 AM
UNB is looking for a Chair in Digital Agriculture. Position has reduced teaching and upwards of 500k research funding over 5 years, with possibility of more.

www.unb.ca/hr/_assets/d...
www.unb.ca
February 25, 2025 at 5:54 PM
I remember in the 1980’s the the controversy of the original Free Trade Agreement, when there were calls for dropping trade barriers between Provinces. Glad we are talking about that again 40 years later.
February 5, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Is it odd that some of the richest men have the poorest character?
January 24, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Got to listen to analysis about the possibility of the US taking over Canada on my way to work. Thanks US voters for another 4 years of this stupidity.
January 8, 2025 at 1:17 PM
The university gym is mostly people sitting on weight machines looking at their phones.
December 20, 2024 at 3:13 AM
Walked by someone eating breakfast cereal from glass bowl on the walking trail and I was envious of their ability to multitask.
November 27, 2024 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
Darwin's “Origin of Species” was published #OnThisDay in 1859.
November 24, 2024 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
I spent a long time writing, and living through, this story about my dad's healthcare journey. It's the most widely read, and consequential, piece I have ever written. Posting it here for anyone interested who may not have seen it. ottawacitizen.com/feature/the-...
The Fall: My once-vibrant dad emerged broken from the hospital. Then he was gone.
A longtime health reporter, Elizabeth Payne thought she understood Canada's failing health-care system. Then her dad fell.
ottawacitizen.com
November 18, 2024 at 2:31 PM
More of this from our government at all levels would be great. Government policy is complex and we need to hear about the grey areas of decision making.
#CanadaSky Our Prime Minister is starting to use YouTube for detailed messages. This one is about immigration, & it is well explained.

youtu.be/vOB7-dbYuCc
Why Canada’s changing its immigration system
YouTube video by Justin Trudeau
youtu.be
November 18, 2024 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Dion Durnford
I'm excited to be starting as an Assistant Professor (@BiologyUnb) at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, Canada) in July 2025!

My group will be exploring the evolutionary forces driving pangenome variation in prokaryotes.

Details here: https://buff.ly/3UPVcQ9
November 13, 2024 at 1:00 PM
The New Brunswick government releases its Ministers mandate letters. Love the transparency. www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/...
Mandate letters
Mandate letters
www2.gnb.ca
November 14, 2024 at 11:36 PM