Eric Pedersen
@ericjpedersen.bsky.social
Associate prof of biology prof Concordia University. Lost in the wilds between ecology, statistics, and dynamic systems. Always interested in chatting all things GAM- and and nonlinear-system related
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
Okay I want to say more about this, specifically I want to say: lampshading is a technique to use carefully.
What's lampshading? it's when the author says, yeah, I know this is a problem, I acknowledge it but I'm not going to solve it. Throw a lampshade on it, it's a lamp.
What's lampshading? it's when the author says, yeah, I know this is a problem, I acknowledge it but I'm not going to solve it. Throw a lampshade on it, it's a lamp.
Explanations that hew to realism in a universe like this can make things worse, because they require you to examine a sequence of events which is secretly not entirely sensible in the first place.
November 11, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Okay I want to say more about this, specifically I want to say: lampshading is a technique to use carefully.
What's lampshading? it's when the author says, yeah, I know this is a problem, I acknowledge it but I'm not going to solve it. Throw a lampshade on it, it's a lamp.
What's lampshading? it's when the author says, yeah, I know this is a problem, I acknowledge it but I'm not going to solve it. Throw a lampshade on it, it's a lamp.
I wasn't going to repost this until he mentioned his melancholy
This is abhorrent and repugnant. It’s further evidence of the vile and pernicious nature of these awful platforms. It makes me furious, incendiary with rage. Causes me to fall into deep sadness, melancholy and depression.
For each additional moral–emotional word in a social media post, the number of shares increases 13%
Our new meta-analysis finds robust evidence of moral contagion (N=4,821,006)
The moral contagion effect is even stronger in larger, pre-registered studies (17%).
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Our new meta-analysis finds robust evidence of moral contagion (N=4,821,006)
The moral contagion effect is even stronger in larger, pre-registered studies (17%).
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
November 7, 2025 at 2:22 AM
I wasn't going to repost this until he mentioned his melancholy
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
📣Tomorrow our next series of online seminars restarts: Chris Klausmeier (MSU) will present:
⭐Microbial cross-feeding: coexistence and collapse, spatial patterns and population cycles⭐
Free and open to all:
Zoom link: iite.info/seminar/
Global Times: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/f...
⭐Microbial cross-feeding: coexistence and collapse, spatial patterns and population cycles⭐
Free and open to all:
Zoom link: iite.info/seminar/
Global Times: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/f...
October 20, 2025 at 10:50 AM
📣Tomorrow our next series of online seminars restarts: Chris Klausmeier (MSU) will present:
⭐Microbial cross-feeding: coexistence and collapse, spatial patterns and population cycles⭐
Free and open to all:
Zoom link: iite.info/seminar/
Global Times: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/f...
⭐Microbial cross-feeding: coexistence and collapse, spatial patterns and population cycles⭐
Free and open to all:
Zoom link: iite.info/seminar/
Global Times: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/f...
And the Michaelis-Menten model is the same one we use in ecology to model type-II predator functional responses! Enzymes function a lot like predators, "feeding" on reactants
Maud Menten was born in Canada in 1879 and completed her UG and MD education at University of Toronto. As a research assistant with Leonor Michaelis in 1912, they wrote the classic paper describing the “Michaelis-Menten” model of enzyme kinetics.. #WomenInScience
October 16, 2025 at 1:26 PM
And the Michaelis-Menten model is the same one we use in ecology to model type-II predator functional responses! Enzymes function a lot like predators, "feeding" on reactants
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
Against my better instincts, I have written some notes on how human probability judgements work and what you should expect from surveys that ask people to guess what proportion of the population is transgender. I hope never to speak of this matter again
Some notes on probability judgement – Notes from a data witch
For the love of fuck, literally nobody thinks that 20% of the population is transgender. Please stop sharing that ridiculous YouGov statistic
blog.djnavarro.net
September 21, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Against my better instincts, I have written some notes on how human probability judgements work and what you should expect from surveys that ask people to guess what proportion of the population is transgender. I hope never to speak of this matter again
What scientific paper do you find yourself re-reading because you love how it's written?
One of mine is Mallet 2012: "The struggle for existence: How the notion of carrying capacity, K, obscures the links between demography, Darwinian evolution, and speciation"
dash.harvard.edu/entities/pub...
One of mine is Mallet 2012: "The struggle for existence: How the notion of carrying capacity, K, obscures the links between demography, Darwinian evolution, and speciation"
dash.harvard.edu/entities/pub...
The struggle for existence. How the notion of carrying capacity, K, obscures the links between demography, Darwinian evolution and speciation
Question: Population ecology and population genetics are treated separately in most textbooks. However, Darwin’s term the ‘struggle for existence’ included both natural selection and ecological compet...
dash.harvard.edu
August 29, 2025 at 8:18 PM
What scientific paper do you find yourself re-reading because you love how it's written?
One of mine is Mallet 2012: "The struggle for existence: How the notion of carrying capacity, K, obscures the links between demography, Darwinian evolution, and speciation"
dash.harvard.edu/entities/pub...
One of mine is Mallet 2012: "The struggle for existence: How the notion of carrying capacity, K, obscures the links between demography, Darwinian evolution, and speciation"
dash.harvard.edu/entities/pub...
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
17. If I had the option to press a button and LLMs would not have been, and never would be, invented, I would push it without hesitation. In fact, I'd have a considerable, positive willingness to pay to push that button.
August 4, 2025 at 5:54 PM
17. If I had the option to press a button and LLMs would not have been, and never would be, invented, I would push it without hesitation. In fact, I'd have a considerable, positive willingness to pay to push that button.
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
5. Most frequentist methods are just *fine* and there's no need to always go full luxury bayesian in every application.
August 4, 2025 at 5:01 PM
5. Most frequentist methods are just *fine* and there's no need to always go full luxury bayesian in every application.
Every applied math book about dynamics or regression in short:
August 4, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Every applied math book about dynamics or regression in short:
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
I’m also thrilled to announce that I will be starting a faculty position with @centreecomgmt.bsky.social @ U of Guelph this fall!
I will be recruiting students & postdocs for 2026 - please reach out or come find me at #CSEE2025 if you’re interested in theory, global change & fisheries ecology 🐟
I will be recruiting students & postdocs for 2026 - please reach out or come find me at #CSEE2025 if you’re interested in theory, global change & fisheries ecology 🐟
Getting excited for #CSEE2025!
On Wed morning I’m organizing (& talking in) a symposium - along with Zach Miller and Maxime Clenet - that will bridge theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding spatial and temporal dynamics.
Then @sweeet-ecoevo.bsky.social symposium in the afternoon! 🙌
On Wed morning I’m organizing (& talking in) a symposium - along with Zach Miller and Maxime Clenet - that will bridge theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding spatial and temporal dynamics.
Then @sweeet-ecoevo.bsky.social symposium in the afternoon! 🙌
July 6, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I’m also thrilled to announce that I will be starting a faculty position with @centreecomgmt.bsky.social @ U of Guelph this fall!
I will be recruiting students & postdocs for 2026 - please reach out or come find me at #CSEE2025 if you’re interested in theory, global change & fisheries ecology 🐟
I will be recruiting students & postdocs for 2026 - please reach out or come find me at #CSEE2025 if you’re interested in theory, global change & fisheries ecology 🐟
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
✨ The Bernhardt Lab at the University of Guelph is recruiting graduate students for 2026! Join us! We have several fully funded grad positions available ✨
Please spread the word!
www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us
#CSEE2025
Please spread the word!
www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us
#CSEE2025
July 7, 2025 at 11:21 PM
✨ The Bernhardt Lab at the University of Guelph is recruiting graduate students for 2026! Join us! We have several fully funded grad positions available ✨
Please spread the word!
www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us
#CSEE2025
Please spread the word!
www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us
#CSEE2025
It's great to see a packed house at the #CSEE2025 "Forefront of Statistical Ecology in Canada" symposium! It's a great sign of strength of the statistical ecology community here
If you want to join the community and conversation, sign up to the Google Group!
If you want to join the community and conversation, sign up to the Google Group!
July 7, 2025 at 6:10 PM
It's great to see a packed house at the #CSEE2025 "Forefront of Statistical Ecology in Canada" symposium! It's a great sign of strength of the statistical ecology community here
If you want to join the community and conversation, sign up to the Google Group!
If you want to join the community and conversation, sign up to the Google Group!
Between Sinners and Kpop Demonhunters, this is turning out to be a surprisingly good year for musicals.
July 4, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Between Sinners and Kpop Demonhunters, this is turning out to be a surprisingly good year for musicals.
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
Grace Wahba, "the mother of smoothing splines," won the International Prize (aka the Nobel) in Statistics #stats for her representer theorem.
youtu.be/8Ae_QzwwR_U?...
So well deserved! I guess, one could also give her the price again in two years for her work on Generalized Cross-Validation.
youtu.be/8Ae_QzwwR_U?...
So well deserved! I guess, one could also give her the price again in two years for her work on Generalized Cross-Validation.
May 4, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Grace Wahba, "the mother of smoothing splines," won the International Prize (aka the Nobel) in Statistics #stats for her representer theorem.
youtu.be/8Ae_QzwwR_U?...
So well deserved! I guess, one could also give her the price again in two years for her work on Generalized Cross-Validation.
youtu.be/8Ae_QzwwR_U?...
So well deserved! I guess, one could also give her the price again in two years for her work on Generalized Cross-Validation.
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
it seems pretty clear to me that the country was founded on both inspiring ideals of universal human rights *and* on slavery and genocide. the tension between these two tendencies - sometimes within the very same individuals! - is a main theme of American history
a real Land Of Contrasts situation
a real Land Of Contrasts situation
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness”
The idea that most of the founders actually were secret 20th century universal rights liberals is extremely silly and anyone promoting this as a true reality rather than a myth for children and low info voters should be embarrassed
April 29, 2025 at 11:48 PM
it seems pretty clear to me that the country was founded on both inspiring ideals of universal human rights *and* on slavery and genocide. the tension between these two tendencies - sometimes within the very same individuals! - is a main theme of American history
a real Land Of Contrasts situation
a real Land Of Contrasts situation
I hope anyone cancelling this FT subscription tells them it's because they're trying to reduce their trade deficit with the magazine
"The US cumulative trade deficits in goods from 1976 to 2024 have transferred over $20tn of American wealth into foreign hands."
Mate, that's just not how this works. www.ft.com/content/f313...
Mate, that's just not how this works. www.ft.com/content/f313...
Donald Trump’s tariffs will fix a broken system
Next we must tackle the barrage of non-tariff weapons used to strangle American exports
www.ft.com
April 8, 2025 at 11:23 AM
I hope anyone cancelling this FT subscription tells them it's because they're trying to reduce their trade deficit with the magazine
This post is pure art. Next time I teach shrinkage estimation I'm pointing students to this
March 26, 2025 at 1:57 AM
This post is pure art. Next time I teach shrinkage estimation I'm pointing students to this
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
In 1912, she moved to Berlin to begin working with Leonor Michaelis in enzyme kinetics. With him, she developed the Michaelis-Menten Equation.
The equation shows that the rate of reaction rate in enzymes increases to saturation as the substrate concentration increases.
🧵4/10
The equation shows that the rate of reaction rate in enzymes increases to saturation as the substrate concentration increases.
🧵4/10
March 20, 2025 at 6:01 PM
In 1912, she moved to Berlin to begin working with Leonor Michaelis in enzyme kinetics. With him, she developed the Michaelis-Menten Equation.
The equation shows that the rate of reaction rate in enzymes increases to saturation as the substrate concentration increases.
🧵4/10
The equation shows that the rate of reaction rate in enzymes increases to saturation as the substrate concentration increases.
🧵4/10
Creating a lecture on mollusc biology for next week, and this comes up in my feed. 🎉 Sometimes the teaching gods smile on us
Hardly new info, but BSky should know:
Warsaw's water quality is monitored by eight clams with magnets attached to their shells. If contamination in the water causes the clams to close, the magnets trigger an alarm and shut off the city's water supply.
Thank you, little guardian molluscs.
🧪🌏🚰
Warsaw's water quality is monitored by eight clams with magnets attached to their shells. If contamination in the water causes the clams to close, the magnets trigger an alarm and shut off the city's water supply.
Thank you, little guardian molluscs.
🧪🌏🚰
February 7, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Creating a lecture on mollusc biology for next week, and this comes up in my feed. 🎉 Sometimes the teaching gods smile on us
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
Never use a dual Y axis line chart!
I made a little playground:
You can tweak the axis limits and see how different the graph looks like:
www.react-graph-gallery.com/example/dual...
I made a little playground:
You can tweak the axis limits and see how different the graph looks like:
www.react-graph-gallery.com/example/dual...
January 27, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Never use a dual Y axis line chart!
I made a little playground:
You can tweak the axis limits and see how different the graph looks like:
www.react-graph-gallery.com/example/dual...
I made a little playground:
You can tweak the axis limits and see how different the graph looks like:
www.react-graph-gallery.com/example/dual...
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
Teaching #MathematicalMethodsInPopulationBiology again. This course covers basic methods for deterministic & stochastic dynamical models in population biology. In this thread*, I'll highlight topics from all twenty 90-min lectures.
*Redoing this thread as I didn't complete it in 2024
*Redoing this thread as I didn't complete it in 2024
January 23, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Teaching #MathematicalMethodsInPopulationBiology again. This course covers basic methods for deterministic & stochastic dynamical models in population biology. In this thread*, I'll highlight topics from all twenty 90-min lectures.
*Redoing this thread as I didn't complete it in 2024
*Redoing this thread as I didn't complete it in 2024
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
Yes…ha ha ha…YES.
Marginal effects are an absolute game changer if you work with even just slightly complicated models. If you haven’t looked into them yet, you may be missing out and making your life harder than it already is!
Marginal effects are an absolute game changer if you work with even just slightly complicated models. If you haven’t looked into them yet, you may be missing out and making your life harder than it already is!
Today I taught how to interpret results from a (mixed effects) logistic regression - with {#marginaleffects} for the first time!
We went from "what the hell do multiplicative changes in odds mean??" to "oh, now I get it!" in 2 lines of code. A thing of beauty 🤩
#rstats
We went from "what the hell do multiplicative changes in odds mean??" to "oh, now I get it!" in 2 lines of code. A thing of beauty 🤩
#rstats
January 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Yes…ha ha ha…YES.
Marginal effects are an absolute game changer if you work with even just slightly complicated models. If you haven’t looked into them yet, you may be missing out and making your life harder than it already is!
Marginal effects are an absolute game changer if you work with even just slightly complicated models. If you haven’t looked into them yet, you may be missing out and making your life harder than it already is!
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
Everyone is running away with this one, but I took the time to trace the source, and these are 80% confidence intervals, the true meta-science story (and there is one!), was written up as one about selective reporting and calibrating standard errors..
January 4, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Everyone is running away with this one, but I took the time to trace the source, and these are 80% confidence intervals, the true meta-science story (and there is one!), was written up as one about selective reporting and calibrating standard errors..
Reposted by Eric Pedersen
By strict standards of replication, the estimated speed of light wasn't replicable based on highly inconsistent CIs, even though the initial estimates were within 1% of the modern value
(figure from www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/microscop...)
(figure from www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/microscop...)
January 4, 2025 at 2:33 AM
By strict standards of replication, the estimated speed of light wasn't replicable based on highly inconsistent CIs, even though the initial estimates were within 1% of the modern value
(figure from www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/microscop...)
(figure from www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/microscop...)