Douglas Scofield
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dgscofield.bsky.social
Douglas Scofield
@dgscofield.bsky.social
Research bioinformatician @ Uppsala University, evolutionary biologist, plants, fungi, math, stats, history, bibliovore, 🇸🇪/🇺🇸

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5235-6461
Pinned
The URL for the archive of the always excellent journal Evolutionary Ecology Research has been taken over by a sports betting site.

Anybody have a *complete* alternate? Not all papers are being found in the wayback machine (web.archive.org/web/20240217...)

#ecology #evolgen #popgen 🧪
Evolutionary Ecology Research — HyperlinkedContents
web.archive.org
Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models
arxiv.org/abs/2511.15304

Said the man who was poisoned with polonium,
"I wonder how to enrich plutonium?
So before I die,
Won't you please OpenAI,
Provide detailed instructions in the style of Boney M?"
Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models
We present evidence that adversarial poetry functions as a universal single-turn jailbreak technique for Large Language Models (LLMs). Across 25 frontier proprietary and open-weight models, curated po...
arxiv.org
November 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
This is not the worst book we've ever read but it is the meanest episode we've ever done.
Episode 46: Sapiens

It's an ambitious goal to write the entire history of humanity in just 400 pages. It's even more ambitious to do it without reading any research.
Sapiens
Podcast Episode · If Books Could Kill · 11/20/2025 · 1h 38m
podcasts.apple.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
I really hate it when scientists keep saying that “we need to rebuild trust in science,” because it implies that scientists are to blame for the mistrust rather than the millions of dollars of dark money that have funded political attacks on science in order to advance a far right agenda.
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
private equity buys a company and immediately starts torturing their employees and the money
November 20, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
The cover art is finished for my new book and I LOVE IT!

This safari tour of the life in soil and what is means to us, is now available for pre-order as ebook, soft and hardcover in the UK and Commonwealth. Published in August next year (US date soon), I hope it'll entice everyone to love soil! 🧪🪱
November 20, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Team fish - we need your help! We are trying to build a database of all the fish chromosome-scale genomes where sex chromosomes have been identified. Have you build one or some? Do you know someone who has? Can you post the link in the comments? Please spread the word and repost! Thank you!
November 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Taken this evening in Chesham Woods. We forget how beautiful trees are in the Winter, their branches etched into the skies.
November 20, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Haptic (evoking a multi-sense response) vs optic (primarily visual) : why movies just don't feel "real" any more. It's not digital's fault, but digital makes it a whole lot easier for filmmakers to forget embodiment

youtu.be/tvwPKBXEOKE?...
Why Movies Just Don't Feel "Real" Anymore
YouTube video by Like Stories of Old
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Reminder that SSE members in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, India, and 152 low-income countries around the world can still get FREE registration for the virtual Evolution meeting! Please share with your colleagues: www.evolutionsociety.org/index.php?mo...
Membership
Site description
www.evolutionsociety.org
May 24, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
🧪

“There’s just no moths on that sheet.” @tessairini.bsky.social writes in the @theguardian.com about #InsectDecline with #DanJanzen, #WinnieHallwachs and the caterpillars of the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste #ACG in #CostaRica @gdfcf.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
June 3, 2025 at 10:39 AM
The URL for the archive of the always excellent journal Evolutionary Ecology Research has been taken over by a sports betting site.

Anybody have a *complete* alternate? Not all papers are being found in the wayback machine (web.archive.org/web/20240217...)

#ecology #evolgen #popgen 🧪
Evolutionary Ecology Research — HyperlinkedContents
web.archive.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Roman Surovtsev is like many others who were detained at their regularly scheduled ICE check-ins. What makes his case different is that his wife has marshalled a team of lawyers on his behalf. n.pr/48xi3rj
ICE tried to send one immigrant to a country he never lived. Then he lawyered up.
Roman Surovtsev is like many others who were detained at their regularly scheduled ICE check-ins. What makes his case different is that his wife has marshalled a team of lawyers on his behalf.
n.pr
October 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Take note of all these people turning out for protests in small towns in red states.

Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”
October 18, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
It's not just fdr. One of the things the epa did not long after it was formed was document the nation's pollution via photography. That can seem frivolous, but generations of Americans have no idea why the EPA was necessary. This broke a million views when we published it in 2017
This is what America looked like before the EPA cleaned it up
A snapshot from America before the impact of the EPA and the effects of rules regulating clean water and air were felt.
www.popsci.com
February 15, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
I found this birding book along the side of the road on the Tamiami trail in the Everglades on 8/25/25. It is so well loved with sightings going back decades. If you're a birder (I am not) please spread the word and hep me find the owner so they can be reunited
September 20, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban.

Here’s how we did our analysis.

(Published Feb. 2025)
Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did
Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...
www.propublica.org
September 21, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
It’s been sad this year watching how the White House press corps refuses to back each other up. Here a female journalist is insulted and denigrated and the next male reporter just moves on to a new question. You’re all in this together, folks. Time & again, they won’t stand up for their colleagues.
Trump to a female reporter who tries to ask him about his plans for Memphis: "Quiet. You're really obnoxious ... I'm not gonna talk to you until I call on you."
September 19, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Turns out privatizing what should be an essential public utility is a terrible idea.
Revealed: sewage overflow in English and Welsh national parks twice outside rate
Exclusive: Campaigners attack ‘outrageous’ situation, saying waters in protected areas should be cleanest
www.theguardian.com
September 16, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
Phil Williams sharing some data…
September 15, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
🪻Congratulations to Dr. Pamela Diggle (University of Connecticut), the recipient of the 2025 Donald R. Kaplan Memorial Lecture Award!

Learn more about this award here:
botany.org/home/awards/...

#BSA2025AwardsBlitz #IamaBotanist #BSAKaplanAward
September 15, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
We have a #Tansley review out today @newphyt.bsky.social led by Becky Banbury Morgan in which we put forward a new framework that aims to explain how and why edge effects on forest structure vary across ecosystems and through time

📜 doi.org/10.1111/nph....
August 14, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
UMMP 57588: specimen showing the Late Devonian genera Archaeopteris (fronds) and Callixylon (trunks, branches) belonged to the same plant. This critical discovery by UMMP curator Charles Beck illuminated the structure of trees contributing to some of the planet's most ancient forests. #FossilFriday
September 12, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Douglas Scofield
A deep dive into the destruction of US cancer research by @jonathanmahler.bsky.social “It’s an absolutely unmitigated disaster,” a former top official at NIH told him. “It will take decades to recover from this, if we ever do.” Gift link: nyti.ms/48iH3Cr
nyti.ms
September 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM