Rory Gibb
@roryjgibb.bsky.social
Biologist/ecologist and writer of some kind, researching how climate and ecosystems shape infection, disease and public health. UCL Excellence Fellow at UCL CBER/People & Nature Lab. Sounds, systems, stats, viruses. (he/him)
Reposted by Rory Gibb
New preprint! 🥳🎉 We looked at viral coinfection patterns at the largest scale ever in wildlife. We found a strong association among CoVs, PMVs, and influenza A, and higher coinfection rates in wildlife trade; plus, evidence that bats accumulate persistent infections. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 10, 2025 at 12:36 PM
New preprint! 🥳🎉 We looked at viral coinfection patterns at the largest scale ever in wildlife. We found a strong association among CoVs, PMVs, and influenza A, and higher coinfection rates in wildlife trade; plus, evidence that bats accumulate persistent infections. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
New workshop paper out today with 60 of our closest friends, providing guidance on how to design a study attributing health impacts to climate change. Hopefully this helps expand the field and start closing the representation gaps we discuss in our forthcoming work link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The attribution of human health outcomes to climate change: transdisciplinary practical guidance - Climatic Change
For over 30 years, detection and attribution (D&A) studies have informed key conclusions in international and national assessments of climate science, providing compelling evidence for the reality and...
link.springer.com
July 25, 2025 at 2:05 PM
New workshop paper out today with 60 of our closest friends, providing guidance on how to design a study attributing health impacts to climate change. Hopefully this helps expand the field and start closing the representation gaps we discuss in our forthcoming work link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
🦠🌿🐦🧪 How can biodiversity monitoring help global efforts in disease surveillance?
With ✨ fantastic ✨ colleagues from @viralemergence.org and the @geobon.org working group on One Health, we try to identify three key lessons for the future.
🧵 A short thread!
academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
With ✨ fantastic ✨ colleagues from @viralemergence.org and the @geobon.org working group on One Health, we try to identify three key lessons for the future.
🧵 A short thread!
academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Biodiversity science and biosurveillance are fellow travelers
The failure to meet the Aichi targets to alleviate global biodiversity decline (Nature 2020) was a wake-up call to the biodiversity monitoring community (T
academic.oup.com
June 30, 2025 at 1:07 PM
🦠🌿🐦🧪 How can biodiversity monitoring help global efforts in disease surveillance?
With ✨ fantastic ✨ colleagues from @viralemergence.org and the @geobon.org working group on One Health, we try to identify three key lessons for the future.
🧵 A short thread!
academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
With ✨ fantastic ✨ colleagues from @viralemergence.org and the @geobon.org working group on One Health, we try to identify three key lessons for the future.
🧵 A short thread!
academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Please read and share, on the US budget cuts now imminently impacting Verena. bsky.app/profile/vira...
An update from the team on the uncertain future of our program and the impact of NSF budget cuts. Please share and reach out 🦠
June 2, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Please read and share, on the US budget cuts now imminently impacting Verena. bsky.app/profile/vira...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
New podcast. I chat with independent socialist politician Jeremy Corbyn about compassionate politics, the history of neoliberalism, kneecap, jenoside, and a United ireland. Dog Bless open.spotify.com/episode/3F7g...
Jeremy Corbyn
The Blindboy Podcast · Episode
open.spotify.com
May 28, 2025 at 9:20 AM
New podcast. I chat with independent socialist politician Jeremy Corbyn about compassionate politics, the history of neoliberalism, kneecap, jenoside, and a United ireland. Dog Bless open.spotify.com/episode/3F7g...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
I subscribe to the @newyorker.com, I was part of ACT UP, I knew Larry Kramer well and know Tony Fauci too. Daniel Immerwahr's piece on RFKJr, features this and other passages that need a reponse. 1/
May 26, 2025 at 9:54 AM
I subscribe to the @newyorker.com, I was part of ACT UP, I knew Larry Kramer well and know Tony Fauci too. Daniel Immerwahr's piece on RFKJr, features this and other passages that need a reponse. 1/
Reposted by Rory Gibb
that said, at some point we will have to reckon with the political consequences of putting this scale of wealth at the personal, unilateral discretion of individual human beings (generations ago would've been nice, but I'll settle for now)
May 8, 2025 at 1:14 PM
that said, at some point we will have to reckon with the political consequences of putting this scale of wealth at the personal, unilateral discretion of individual human beings (generations ago would've been nice, but I'll settle for now)
The next meeting of London Infection & Ecology Network is tomorrow! 2pm at RVC in Camden with excellent speakers on mosquitoes, viral evolution, climate and more, plus optional pub afterwards. It'd be fantastic to see you there.
bsky.app/profile/jrag...
bsky.app/profile/jrag...
📣 Excited annouce that the next London Infection Ecology Network (LIEN)🦠🌎🧪🌳🌤️ in-person event is taking place on April 30th at the RVC (Camden)!
If you’d like to attend, please register for a free ticket via Eventbrite:
🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-inf...
If you’d like to attend, please register for a free ticket via Eventbrite:
🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-inf...
London Infection and Ecology Meeting
LIEN fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between ecology and health sciences, supporting inclusive research and innovation.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
April 29, 2025 at 8:51 AM
The next meeting of London Infection & Ecology Network is tomorrow! 2pm at RVC in Camden with excellent speakers on mosquitoes, viral evolution, climate and more, plus optional pub afterwards. It'd be fantastic to see you there.
bsky.app/profile/jrag...
bsky.app/profile/jrag...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
LLMs are nothing more than models of the distribution of the word forms in their training data, with weights modified by post-training to produce somewhat different distributions. Unless your use case requires a model of a distribution of word forms in text, indeed, they suck and aren't useful.
There are a lot of critiques of LLMs that I agree with but "they suck and aren't useful" doesn't really hold water.
I understand people not using them because of social, economic, and environmental concerns. And I also understand people using them because they can be very useful.
Thoughts?
I understand people not using them because of social, economic, and environmental concerns. And I also understand people using them because they can be very useful.
Thoughts?
April 24, 2025 at 4:54 PM
LLMs are nothing more than models of the distribution of the word forms in their training data, with weights modified by post-training to produce somewhat different distributions. Unless your use case requires a model of a distribution of word forms in text, indeed, they suck and aren't useful.
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Nice overview of mathematical approaches to analyse age-stratified serological data: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
March 18, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Nice overview of mathematical approaches to analyse age-stratified serological data: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Harding very much influenced how I think and understand the world, and I met her once and she was great. RIP to a real one.
Sandra Harding, a philosopher well-known for her work in feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and philosophy of science, has died.
Sandra Harding (1935-2025) - Daily Nous
Sandra Harding, a philosopher well-known for her work in feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and philosophy of science, has died. Professor Harding was recognized for her development of standpoint t...
dailynous.com
March 17, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Harding very much influenced how I think and understand the world, and I met her once and she was great. RIP to a real one.
Reposted by Rory Gibb
In the UCL Dept of Genetics, Evolution & Environment, we are advertising for people interested in applying for senior fellowship funding. I can say personally that it is a fantastic place to hold a fellowship. Apply at www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @uclcber.bsky.social
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
www.ucl.ac.uk
March 11, 2025 at 11:01 AM
In the UCL Dept of Genetics, Evolution & Environment, we are advertising for people interested in applying for senior fellowship funding. I can say personally that it is a fantastic place to hold a fellowship. Apply at www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @uclcber.bsky.social
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Nothing to see here, just Nature advocating LLM peer review.
“Feed your dictated notes into an offline large language model (LLM) to clarify and organize your feedback. A simple prompt such as “Write a critical reviewer letter based on the following notes. Maintain a professional tone throughout”
“Feed your dictated notes into an offline large language model (LLM) to clarify and organize your feedback. A simple prompt such as “Write a critical reviewer letter based on the following notes. Maintain a professional tone throughout”
Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review
Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.
www.nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Nothing to see here, just Nature advocating LLM peer review.
“Feed your dictated notes into an offline large language model (LLM) to clarify and organize your feedback. A simple prompt such as “Write a critical reviewer letter based on the following notes. Maintain a professional tone throughout”
“Feed your dictated notes into an offline large language model (LLM) to clarify and organize your feedback. A simple prompt such as “Write a critical reviewer letter based on the following notes. Maintain a professional tone throughout”
Reposted by Rory Gibb
I wholeheartedly agree with this piece from @kityates.bsky.social. The Royal Society has to take may things into consideration, including what its US members feel - but even so, I think the right course in this instance is very clear, and they ducked it.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Elon Musk is a proven danger to good science, but the Royal Society won’t say so. That’s why I resigned | Kit Yates
It is vital to act, and I urge colleagues to do so. How can we stand by and laud this man while he undermines scientific integrity? asks academic and author Kit Yates
www.theguardian.com
March 4, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I wholeheartedly agree with this piece from @kityates.bsky.social. The Royal Society has to take may things into consideration, including what its US members feel - but even so, I think the right course in this instance is very clear, and they ducked it.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
🚨Excited to share our latest research published in @commsbio.bsky.social , where we've developed a predictive model that integrates both host ecological traits and viral genomic features to identify potential reservoir hosts for Orthopoxviruses, including mpox virus.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
March 3, 2025 at 10:57 PM
🚨Excited to share our latest research published in @commsbio.bsky.social , where we've developed a predictive model that integrates both host ecological traits and viral genomic features to identify potential reservoir hosts for Orthopoxviruses, including mpox virus.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases NSF program has been archived. Huge loss. Does anyone know if the current proposals in the queue for funding will not be reviewed or are panels still happening?
February 24, 2025 at 7:42 PM
The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases NSF program has been archived. Huge loss. Does anyone know if the current proposals in the queue for funding will not be reviewed or are panels still happening?
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Two really important papers for anyone interested in causal inference in ecology came out recently in Ecology Letters. 1st up (by @lauradee.bsky.social & @katherinesiegel.bsky.social) is this over-view paper. Really useful for both experts and beginners.
https://buff.ly/4gZgTWa
https://buff.ly/4gZgTWa
February 25, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Two really important papers for anyone interested in causal inference in ecology came out recently in Ecology Letters. 1st up (by @lauradee.bsky.social & @katherinesiegel.bsky.social) is this over-view paper. Really useful for both experts and beginners.
https://buff.ly/4gZgTWa
https://buff.ly/4gZgTWa
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Ursula le Guin, on the accusation that fantasy is an escape from reality
![[“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? The moneylenders, the know-nothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can.”]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreihuubdwcftfkvvlnepoaf6pfxqulryfp7ydrydi5fe2pflwz63wgm@jpeg)
February 23, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Ursula le Guin, on the accusation that fantasy is an escape from reality
Reposted by Rory Gibb
AI is poised to accelerate understanding in infectious diseases, but its value needs to be demonstrated through close collaboration between research, industry, society, and policy.
Paper free to read: rdcu.be/eaxEw
Summary here: www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02...
Paper free to read: rdcu.be/eaxEw
Summary here: www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02...
Artificial intelligence for modelling infectious disease epidemics
Nature - This Perspective considers the application to infectious disease modelling of AI systems that combine machine learning, computational statistics, information retrieval and data science.
rdcu.be
February 20, 2025 at 10:13 AM
AI is poised to accelerate understanding in infectious diseases, but its value needs to be demonstrated through close collaboration between research, industry, society, and policy.
Paper free to read: rdcu.be/eaxEw
Summary here: www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02...
Paper free to read: rdcu.be/eaxEw
Summary here: www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Thanks to the more than *1100* members of the scientific community who have signed the letter to insist that the Royal Society remains true to values that we all hold dear but that Musk FRS has ridden roughshod over.
Please keep signing & sharing.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Please keep signing & sharing.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Open letter to the President of the Royal Society – time to stand up for your values
If you wish to show your support for the letter below regarding apparent inaction by the Royal Society in the face of breaches of its code of conduct by Elon Musk FRS, please sign below. I invite anyo...
docs.google.com
February 13, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Thanks to the more than *1100* members of the scientific community who have signed the letter to insist that the Royal Society remains true to values that we all hold dear but that Musk FRS has ridden roughshod over.
Please keep signing & sharing.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Please keep signing & sharing.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Serological data provide key insights on pathogen circulation. We introduce a new R package, Rsero, which is a pipeline to store and analyze age-stratified sero data, estimate the history of pathogen circulation and compare different transmission models.
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
RSero: A user-friendly R package to reconstruct pathogen circulation history from seroprevalence studies
Author summary Antibodies are immune markers of past infections. Seroprevalence studies that characterize the seropositivity status in the population have been used for decades in epidemiological stud...
journals.plos.org
February 11, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Serological data provide key insights on pathogen circulation. We introduce a new R package, Rsero, which is a pipeline to store and analyze age-stratified sero data, estimate the history of pathogen circulation and compare different transmission models.
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Reposted by Rory Gibb
This a summary of last part o my Ph.D. We investigated how temperature can affect the outcome of dengue infection.
The study covers a 10y period in all five regions of Brasil and all sub-climates of the country
We conclude that higher temperature makes risk of hospitalizations due dengue bigger!
The study covers a 10y period in all five regions of Brasil and all sub-climates of the country
We conclude that higher temperature makes risk of hospitalizations due dengue bigger!
Does heat have a short effect on Dengue, increasing risk for severe cases?
We know meteorological factors affect dengue incidence, with lag effects on weeks/months.
Here, led by @rafalpx.bsky.social, we found also a short effect of heat for Dengue Hospitalisation
journals.lww.com/environepide...
We know meteorological factors affect dengue incidence, with lag effects on weeks/months.
Here, led by @rafalpx.bsky.social, we found also a short effect of heat for Dengue Hospitalisation
journals.lww.com/environepide...
February 11, 2025 at 3:49 PM
This a summary of last part o my Ph.D. We investigated how temperature can affect the outcome of dengue infection.
The study covers a 10y period in all five regions of Brasil and all sub-climates of the country
We conclude that higher temperature makes risk of hospitalizations due dengue bigger!
The study covers a 10y period in all five regions of Brasil and all sub-climates of the country
We conclude that higher temperature makes risk of hospitalizations due dengue bigger!
Reposted by Rory Gibb
I can't begin to convey how horrible this would be. The US and UK, collectively, have supported 15-20% of Gavi's budget in the last several funding cycles. To understand the impact here you have to know that Gavi does much more that just buy vaccines 1/ (disclosure - I receive funding from Gavi)
Dismay as UK poised to cut funding for global vaccination group Gavi
Exclusive: Aid charities alarmed as decision would come in wake of Donald Trump’s decision to freeze USAid activities
www.theguardian.com
February 10, 2025 at 7:33 PM
I can't begin to convey how horrible this would be. The US and UK, collectively, have supported 15-20% of Gavi's budget in the last several funding cycles. To understand the impact here you have to know that Gavi does much more that just buy vaccines 1/ (disclosure - I receive funding from Gavi)
Reposted by Rory Gibb
Our new paper on bat influenza transmission dynamics is out. Check it out 👀🦇🦠 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Dynamics of influenza transmission in vampire bats revealed by longitudinal monitoring and a large-scale anthropogenic perturbation
Common vampire bats maintain bat-associated influenza virus H18N11 across Peru.
www.science.org
February 10, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Our new paper on bat influenza transmission dynamics is out. Check it out 👀🦇🦠 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...