Dr. July Pilowsky
LightNews LightNews
banner
pilowsky.me
Dr. July Pilowsky
@pilowsky.me
240 followers 350 following 130 posts
I model infectious disease in wildlife using #RStats and #JuliaLang, and I design dance larps about intergenerational trauma. 🇺🇸 🇨🇱 🏳️‍🌈 they/she/he, eng/esp
Posts Replies Media Videos
pilowsky.me
I have uploaded my latest larp, which premiered at @makeascenemn.bsky.social , in fully boxed and playable form on my larp website. Enjoy! larp.pilowsky.me/project/the-...
The Language of Bones | July Pilowsky
Raise your monstrous ancestor from their grave with the power of dance, and uncover your past.
larp.pilowsky.me
August 3, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
science.org
In what may be one of Earth’s craziest forms of mimicry, researchers in 2023 reported a species of rove beetle that grows a termite puppet on its back to fool real termites into feeding it.

Learn more during #InsectWeek: https://scim.ag/4mM2aS9
Austrospirachtha carrijoi, a species of rove beetle
June 22, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
lauraakelley.bsky.social
Sexier in the city? Urban male great bowerbirds decorate bowers with human-made objects, creating brighter and more varied displays than rural males. Males strongly prefer human-made objects over natural ones, possibly boosting their appeal to females! shorturl.at/lcNY2 @royalsocietypublishing.org
The ground is covered in leaf litter. On the ground are two parallel walls made of sticks that form a corridor. At each entrance there are objects scattered around including grey plastic, green pieces of glass, grey stones, white snail shells and red items.
June 3, 2026 at 6:45 AM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
joshuasweitz.bsky.social
Viruses are highly abundant in the oceans, but there is one place you won't typically find them: in global ocean ecosystem models... until now.

Introducing "vDarwin", an explicit integration of viruses into the MITgcm/Darwin global ecosystem framework:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

a 🧵
Integration of a model of viral lysis, shunt and shuttle in a large scale ocean circulation model. (A) Schematic of the large scale ocean circulation model (MITgcm): major surface ocean circulation patterns and the schematic of the advection/diffusion are represented. Note that vertical grid spacing increases with depth (i.e., layers become thicker). (B) Simplified ecosystem represented in the study. For simplicity nitrogen remineralization to nitrite and nitrate and mortality fluxes to DOM and POM are not represented. (C) Schematic of the vDarwin ecosystem model integrated in the large scale circulation model. It represents a simplification of the ecosystem presented in (B) assuming that N is the limiting nutrient. It includes the growth of a single phytoplankton type, viral lysis, zooplankton grazing, the viral shunt and shuttle and remineralization (note that remineralizing bacteria are not explicitly represented).
May 29, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
bioinformer.bsky.social
When life imitates art
April 28, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
joshuasweitz.bsky.social
I find it fascinating that folks like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are having 'Abundance' discussions about NIH while ignoring the pre-2025 state of play, self-critique of scientists, and the many ways in which American science is imperfect and yet (near) the best in the world (or was).

🧵
Opinion | What We Got Right — and Wrong — in ‘Abundance’
www.nytimes.com
April 28, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
bachynski.bsky.social
“Emperor penguins, the world’s largest and perhaps most recognizable penguin species, have joined the list of wildlife endangered by global warming, the International Union for Conservation of Nature announced on Thursday… largely driven by shifts in sea ice levels and food availability”
Emperor Penguins Are Now Endangered, a New Assessment Finds
www.nytimes.com
April 9, 2026 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
aaronclauset.bsky.social
tl;dr: NIH is running at about 60% of pre-Trump levels and NSF is running at about 20% of pre-Trump levels of funding-outlays (some directorates far below even that). Utterly catastrophic. An unforced disaster for U.S. society, and the world
noamross.net Noam Ross @noamross.net · Mar 30
For #NSF and #NIH watchers, Grant Witness now has interactive data on numbers of grants and total funding obligations, broken down by institute and directorate, new awards and non-competitive renewals.

The stranglehold on new awards is still a disaster.

grant-witness.us/funding_curv...
March 31, 2026 at 1:31 AM
pilowsky.me
From the New Yorker.
Three scientists standing around in a lab. One of them says, “These days, if you’re not a mad scientist, you’re not paying attention.”
March 30, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
noguesbravo.bsky.social
Can rewilding save the planet? I gave my answer on BBC Radio's The Inquiry — and so did some of my colleagues. Tune in and see if you agree.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
The Inquiry - How can rewilding help combat climate change? - BBC Sounds
As rewilding initiatives grow there’s a concern some risk doing more harm than good
www.bbc.co.uk
March 18, 2026 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
ecoevorxiv.bsky.social
'Cities alter the latitudinal diversity gradient of birds in North America'
DOI: doi.org/10.32942/X23...
February 17, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
pengzell.bsky.social
Problem about the loneliness epidemic is, it's everywhere except in representative survey data. Let's look at where the claim comes from. 1/
jonmellon.bsky.social Jon Mellon @jonmellon.bsky.social · Feb 17
Case in point, @pengzell.bsky.social just sent me 5 papers proving that there’s not actually any evidence for a loneliness epidemic. My mind is highly changed
February 17, 2026 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
statsepi.bsky.social
An example of how impacts of interventions can differ at individual and population levels, and are conditional on other events. Given a car hits you, the helmet helps. But mandating helmets could lower the # of bikes on the road & thus might increase the chance of getting hit in the first place.
February 5, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
emilhvitfeldt.bsky.social
I decided to give one of my most well liked project a bit of a make over, and I wrote about it too!

See how I updated the visuals of r-color-palettes

emilhvitfeldt.com/post/r-color...
#rstats
R Color Palettes Refresh
Total rewrite of R Color Palettes and new release of paletteer.
emilhvitfeldt.com
January 30, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
cdelawalla.bsky.social
Wow. This is devastating.

www.science.org/content/arti...
U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office
A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies
www.science.org
January 27, 2026 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
thijskuiken.bsky.social
First evidence in Europe of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 infection in a dairy cow. Antibodies against H5N1 detected in a cow with mastitis and respiratory signs on a Dutch dairy farm at the end of December. A cat on that farm had died from H5N1. www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/do...
January 23, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
nathankhensley.bsky.social
This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.
January 23, 2026 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
frodsan.bsky.social
Oooh love this. Easiest way to parallelise anything in #rstats. Just add futurize() to your favourite function call

www.jottr.org/2026/01/22/f...

Thanks @henrikbengtsson.bsky.social HT @rstats.blaze.email
Examples of how to use the new futurize package
January 23, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
nsaphra.bsky.social
Academics, just use this simple LaTeX macro and you can avoid maintaining a separate CV just for 2026 federal grants.
January 16, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
whysharksmatter.bsky.social
The red dot is a baby North Atlantic right whale trying to migrate up the east coast of the United states.

The blue streaks are fast moving shipping vessels entering and leaving New York City harbor.

One collision and the whale is dead.

We need *mandatory* speed limits for these vessels! 🧪🦑🌍
January 14, 2026 at 4:34 PM
pilowsky.me
This is a serious issue in my field. I am a researcher studying avian influenza and even I am not allowed to access flu sequences in GISAID.
kakape.bsky.social Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · Jan 7
“[P]utting data into GISAID is like dropping it in a mail slot in an unmarked building,” says @colincarlson.bsky.social. “It’s wonderful that there’s so much cool stuff in that building. It would be great if we knew who owned it, or who paid for it, or what they plan to do with it.”
#IDsky 🧪
Fresh conflicts erupt around giant database for flu and COVID-19 sequences
Critics say “autocratic” behavior by GISAID could hamper response to a future pandemic
www.science.org
January 7, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
surtlab.bsky.social
Love having “venture capital” reviewing my grants
dangaristo.bsky.social Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Dec 17
The National Science Board, which oversees NSF, has published recommendations to update the foundation's merit review (which was just updated).

Below are the main points. www.nsf.gov/nsb/updates/...
The Board recommends that NSF: Boost participation and invite expert reviews from a wider range of industry, research institutions, venture capital, and regions of the country. Emphasize that NSF-funded research must deliver societal benefits, including research that advances the nation's economic competitiveness and national security. Build NSF's award portfolio at the agency level for greater nimbleness and strategic alignment with national priorities, both current and emerging. NSF previously announced operational changes to its Merit Review to streamline, clarify, and harmonize agency funding strategies to achieve top scientific and national priorities, similar to those made by the National Institutes of Health. In the coming year, the Board will continue working with NSF leaders to implement NSB recommendations for Merit Review policy changes, such as encouraging verification of previously reported results and pursuing more bold research with high reward potential. "We can't succeed in a new era with yesterday's playbook," says McCrary. "For our nation to win the race for the future, NSF must develop transformative partnerships with the private sector, states and communities. Together, we can blaze a trail to the next frontiers of science, usher in a Golden Age of American Innovation, and deliver on the promise of science and technology for the benefit of all Americans."
December 17, 2025 at 9:19 PM
pilowsky.me
I use the NCAR supercomputers to simulate disease outbreaks in wildlife. The impact of this terrible move will spread well beyond climate change research.
December 17, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Dr. July Pilowsky
katvolk.bsky.social
Wow. Grants might now be rejected/accepted based on a single outside review and no panel
December 16, 2025 at 1:10 AM