Gerardo Fracasso
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gfracasso.bsky.social
Gerardo Fracasso
@gfracasso.bsky.social
24 followers 58 following 3 posts
Evolutionary Biologist mainly interested in host-(ecto)parasite interactions, ecology and behaviour.

Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow (UKRI Funding Guarantee) working on HosTiLyme project...of birds, ticks and their microbiome!
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gfracasso.bsky.social
Gerardo Fracasso @gfracasso.bsky.social · Nov 11
Hello world!👋 I finally migrated to Bluesky as well🙂

Stay tuned for (scientific) updates on host-parasite interactions... mostly ticks and birds in fairness... And life at @uniexecec.bsky.social (Cornwall, UK)😜
Reposted by Gerardo Fracasso
uniexecec.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Gerardo Fracasso
erikpostma.bsky.social
A lot has happened since our first announcement of #ExE2026, an evolutionary ecology conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in #Cornwall from June 29 to July 3 2026.

Have a look at our new website to see our confirmed plenary speakers, the mid-conference excursions, and more.

👉 evoxeco.uk 👈
The logo of the Evolution x Ecology 2026 conference in Cornwall, UK.
November 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
gfracasso.bsky.social
Very interesting presentation from Sarah Perkins yesterday at @uniexecec.bsky.social on the use of wildlife pictures uploaded on the web as tools for screening disease outbreaks!
November 21, 2025 at 10:28 AM
gfracasso.bsky.social
Do ticks use environmental cues to preferentially drop off in more suitable environments?

We tested for dry and bare vs moisturized and rich environmental in Ixodes ricinus on the wood mouse. Article here:
doi.org/10.1007/s104...
Spatial variation in detachment rates of larval Ixodes ricinus from a common host (Apodemus sylvaticus): an experiment - Experimental and Applied Acarology
Because of their low intrinsic mobility, spatial distribution of Ixodes ticks depends strongly on movement of their hosts, but this may be modulated by the tick’s decision to detach in relation to env...
doi.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Gerardo Fracasso
btschirren.bsky.social
*PhD opportunity @uniexecec.bsky.social* How does antimicrobial resistance spread through ecosystems?

Combine fieldwork (rodent trapping 🐭, habitat surveys 🌳, pheasant sampling 🦤), molecular techniques, GIS, and spatial modelling to understand AMR evolution and spread. 🔬🦠🧪
Please repost!
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Gamebirds: A One Health Approach to Understanding and Mitigating the Risk of AMR Evolution and Spread through Ecosystems at University of Exeter on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Gamebirds: A One Health Approach to Understanding and Mitigating the Risk of AMR Evolution and Spread through Ecosystems at University of Exeter, list...
shorturl.at
November 12, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Gerardo Fracasso
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
gfracasso.bsky.social
Hello world!👋 I finally migrated to Bluesky as well🙂

Stay tuned for (scientific) updates on host-parasite interactions... mostly ticks and birds in fairness... And life at @uniexecec.bsky.social (Cornwall, UK)😜
November 11, 2025 at 6:30 PM