michael catchen
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mdcatchen.bsky.social
michael catchen
@mdcatchen.bsky.social
3.8K followers 440 following 62 posts
postdoc in the Poisot Computational Ecology Research Group at Université de Montréal

species distribution models, optimal biodiversity monitoring, and network science using machine learning and hierarchical bayes

he/him

gottacatchenall.github.io
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mdcatchen.bsky.social
learning interesting things on LinkedIn
A LinkedIn comment with text: "We celebrate Christ who MAY HAVE actually been quantum too. He dissappear for 3 days but some scholars think he just shrank down VERY SMALL until he able to find growth ray or pill or liquid (unknown). It a test of our faith to believe in that which we cannot see like molecules or ants. MORE STUDY"
April 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM
mdcatchen.bsky.social
tapping the sign
A passage from "The Dialectical Biologist" by Levins and Lewontin. The paragraph reads: "One form of reductionist materialism regards abstractions as a form of idealism, so materialism in science necessarily overthrows abstractions and replaces them with some sort of “real” entities, each of which is then unique because of the immense complexity of interacting forces on each and because of the underlying stochasticity of nature. It is obvious, however, that we cannot eliminate all abstractions, or else nothing would remain but chronicles of events. If any causal explanations are to be given, except in the trivial sense that a historically antecedent state is said to be the cause of later ones, then some degree of abstraction is indispensable. There can be no predictability or manipulation of the world except by grouping events into classes, and this grouping in turn means ignoring the unique properties of events and abstracting the events. We can hardly have a serious discussion of a science without abstraction. What makes science materialist is that the process of abstraction is explicit and recognized as historically contingent within the science. Abstraction becomes destructive when the abstract is reified and when the historical process of abstraction is forgotten, so that the abstract descriptions are taken for descriptions of the actual objects."
December 15, 2024 at 12:35 PM
mdcatchen.bsky.social
it sure doesn't feel like bonus points promoting my own work, but my favorite part of my thesis is the opening epigraph
November 7, 2024 at 10:45 PM
mdcatchen.bsky.social
🚨 New Paper!

BON in a Box: An Open and Collaborative Platform for Biodiversity Monitoring, Indicator Calculation, and Reporting.

Led by Jory Griffith, along with many other collaborators (
@ctrlalttim.bsky.social) feat. some of the favorite figures I've ever made

ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
October 28, 2024 at 7:34 PM
mdcatchen.bsky.social
Clippy the annoying paperclip saying "It looks like the best lack all convictions. Would you like some help with that?" Below is a checkbox that reads "Don't show me this tip again"
October 17, 2023 at 5:19 PM
mdcatchen.bsky.social
i'm the marginal encouraging rat
Text: In addition, exercises that are especially recommended are marked by a marginal encouraging rat. Drawing of a cartoon rat.
August 12, 2023 at 5:38 PM