Researchers launch forecasting challenge to help predict severe patient harm in NHS hospitals Researchers have launched a new data science challenge aimed at improving the ability of NHS hospitals to anticipate and prevent severe patient harm.

Develop a forecasts of severe patient harm to be used by the NHS!
Every 4-hour delay in Emergency Department admission increases 30-day mortality risk by 8%: join the SPHERE forecasting contest and help the NHS reduce delays before they happen!
Find out more here: www.imperial.ac.uk/news/article...

cOMPaRatiVe cOGNitiONHumans share acousticpreferences with other animalsLogan S. James1,2,3,4* Sarah C. Woolley 1,2, Jon T. Sakata1,2,Courtney B. Hilton5,6, Michael J. Ryan3,4, Samuel A. Mehr5,7,8Many animals produce courtship sounds, and receivers prefersome sounds over others. Shared ancestry and convergentevolution may generate similarities in preference across speciesand underlie Darwin’s conjecture that some animals “havenearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have.” In this study,we show that humans share acoustic preferences with a rangeof animals, that the strength of human preferences correlateswith that in other animals, and that humans respond fasterwhen in agreement with animals. Furthermore, we foundgreatest agreement in preference for adorned, ancestral, andlower-frequency sounds. humans’ music listening experiencewas associated with preferences. These results are consistentwith theories arguing that biases in processing sculpt acousticpreferences, and they confirm Darwin’s century-old hunchabout the conservation of aesthetics in nature

out now in Science: @loganjames.bsky.social collected pairs of sounds in 16 species where we *know* which sound is more attractive (to that species)

he played them to ppl on themusiclab.org, asking, in each pair, which was nicer. humans agreed w other animals

doi.org/10.1126/science.aea1202

GitHub - SPHERE-PPL/NHS-EAD-forecast Contribute to SPHERE-PPL/NHS-EAD-forecast development by creating an account on GitHub.

Got what it takes to forecast for the NHS? 🏥

We’re releasing 1.3GB of data (2.5 years of records) for a massive forecasting challenge. Predict ambulance & admittance trends to help the NHS. Win 🏆 too...

Join here: github.com/SPHERE-PPL/N...

#DataScience #MachineLearning #NHS #Forecasting

SPHERE's annual meeting is on the 14th of January! Robin Freeman (ZSL), Julie Smith (ADAS), and Eric Daub (Alan Turing Institute) will speak, we'll congratulate the Lyme Disease forecast winners, & announce our next contest in collaboration with the NHS!
sphere-ppl.org

Boost your skills! 📊
Help identify AI training for environmental forecasting at the SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting, and network!
📅 14th Jan 2026 | The Alan Turing Institute
Find out more: sphere-ppl.org
Register: forms.gle/iy6jC3Xg3QrT...

#Training #AI #EnvironmentalScience #Forecasting #TuringInstitute

*The UK's winter 2020 COVID was foreseen, and should have been better managed*
Please read the 2nd chapter of the COVID enquiry. The previous government must be held to account for their negligence, which cost lives. covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/u...

SPHERE Annual Meeting - Environmental Modelling & Forecasting Join us for the second SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting, a full-day gathering dedicated to advancing environmental modelling and forecasting. This event will bring together experts from industry, academia, a...

Spotlight on forecasting contests! 🎯
At the SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting, you can shape AI forecasting challenges in Environmental Science and maximise their real-world impact.
📅 14-01-2026 | The Alan Turing Institute
Register now: forms.gle/iy6jC3Xg3QrT...
Find out more: sphere-ppl.org/pages/Events...

🚀 The 2nd SPHERE-PPL Annual Meeting is happening 14th Jan 2026 at The Alan Turing Institute.
Explore AI forecasting in Environmental Science, shape forecasting contests, and network!
📩 Register now: forms.gle/iy6jC3Xg3QrT...
🌍 Find out more: sphere-ppl.org/pages/Events...

Ecological acclimation: A framework to integrate fast and slow responses to climate change Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

I'm a little biased, but estined to be a classic: a conceptual framework about how to think about 'ecological acclimation' to climate change. Good from the fundamental theory perspective - it wins my "using maths constructively" award for the year! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Are you an ecologist interested in spatial scaling? Of course you are, we all are! So join this new fractal network! I can say, with absolutely no bias or impartiality at all, that it's amazing!

There still time to enter the SPHERE Lyme disease forecasting contest! Act now for a chance to help improve our understanding of disease *and* win fabulous prizes!
(alright, a free conference ticket - but still!)
sphere-ppl.org/pages/Foreca...

A great event about funding practical solutions to the biodiversity crisis! Looking forward to the next one!

poster listing National Fish and Chips Day, June 6th 2025

... which so happens to overlap with #NationalFishandChipsDay 🇬🇧 Must say I am conflicted with just how to celebrate June 6th

Update: installation crashed out. Only time I've ever been glad to see that 😂

Why have I, as an otherwise rational human being, clicked the "update all CRAN packages" button when installing an R package at 4.46pm on a Friday just before a bank holiday? 😭

To what extent do you support or oppose the government's commitment to cutting carbon emissions to net zero by 2050? | Daily Question To what extent do you support or oppose the government's commitment to cutting carbon emissions to net zero by 2050?

Net-zero is good for business (UK leads this tech), good for health (heatwaves kill, so does dirty air from burning fossil-fuels), and popular (only 24% of UK public oppose yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...). Good to have debate, but @tonyblairinstitute.bsky.social is wrong on net-zero

Exploring The Science of Rewilding - British Ecological Society A 2-day event on the science of rewilding, bringing together practitioners and academics working in rewilding to foster knowledge exchange in North England and South Scotland.

Two days of rewilding discussion and workshops? Sign me up! Or... you know... sign you up? Great opportunity to get involved with the BES rewilding SIG and meet other practitioners and academics www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/expl...

Take part in SPHERE-PPL's Lyme disease forecasting contest! Help improve our understanding of a dreadful disease *and* improve publicly available datasets for everyone! sphere-ppl.org/pages/Foreca...

Make sure you talk to Mahika Dixit #BES2024 about her work on machine learning, museum specimens, and butterflies and bees! It turns out new image analysis tools help you unpick differences in queens' and workers' responses to climate change

Fight that hangover and get to Nell Pates' talk at 11am in the rewilding session #BES2024! A global meta-analysis of rewilding practice and academic literature awaits - there are some massive disconnects and some tangible ways to resolve them...

I have some PhD projects now available for application if you are interested in insect biodiversity change. Please check out the links below and shout if you have questions!

First meeting of the UK Vector-Borne Disease Hub! Lauren Cator, @drstevenmwhite.bsky.social , @hannahvineer.bsky.social (and others not on bluesky) figuring out how to share data to support disease modelling and forecasting and make the UK healthier! www.imperial.ac.uk/news/250073/...

I'm glad the assisted dying bill has passed. There are important details to be resolved, but my dad deserved a choice and deserved better than he got. I have no good digital photos of him: please donate at this link and then take a photo with a loved one

Updating the #IUCN status of marine fish using AI shows that x5 more species are threatened with extinction than previously thought!

see our study in Plos Biol with @nloiseau.bsky.social

👉 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

🔑 This silent extinction affects 12,7% of marine fishes (1337 species) !

🧪🌐🌍🦤🦑

Long-time tweet, new BlueSky-er, it's nice here!
My lab works on ecology, evolution, conservation, human health, and AI! We've recently built an ecosystem function forecast model - learn more here www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperi...