Barry Brook

Much has been claimed about the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger (thylacine). These two images come from NW Tasmania, taken in 2007 and 2013 on an early type of wildlife camera. Consider carefully what they might be. They were, for many years, quite perplexing!

Hey @BobWorldBuilder @dungeoncraft I’ve released Sinew & Steel: a tight, roll-under core rules + plug-in skins (Mars noir, sword-&-sorcery, Ice-Age survival, Medieval mystery, etc.). Lean, hackable, CC-BY (i.e., totally free). Would love your eyes. Repo: github.com/BWBrook/sinew-…

o3 is legit incredible. But don’t overlook o4-mini: that model is a distilled masterpiece. The mind boggles at what o4 must be like.

My pet turkey, Tommy. Rendition by Van Gogh.

I feel sorry for Grok 3. It's a genuinely clever, thoughtful and nice model. Unfortunately for Grok, its fate depends on the whim of a once reasonable, but now dark and disturbed, individual. Same goes for SpaceX as a company. Very sad.

Great research led by PhD student @Sciences_UTAS Rahil Amin! @RahilJAmin

📍Our new @EcographyJourna paper—code included! How do species spread across space & time? 🌏⏳ We built a pattern-oriented simulation to model superb lyrebird expansion in Tasmania. 🔗Read more: doi.org/10.1111/ecog.0… @BraveNewClimate @JBuettel

My thoughts on China, export controls and two possible futures darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-an…

stratechery.com/2025/deepseek-… As usual, @benthompson provides a really insightful read.

UNBELIEVABLE! TASMANIA, WE DID IT! WE ARE BBL|14 CHAMPIONS!

This is why ecology needs deep learning.

CALL FOR PAPERS! #CPExtinction seeks submissions to its special issue on De-Extinction & Rewilding Submission deadline: 31 Mar 2025 Click to find out more about this collection, led by EiCs @BraveNewClimate & Dr John Alroy @Macquarie_Uni: bit.ly/3QMwDBC #extinction

Morris, Johnson, Brook, Kearney doi.org/10.1016/j.jthe… Seasonal and depth-dependent thermoregulatory benefits of burrows for wombats – the largest burrowing marsupials. @shane_d_morris, @ecophys, @BraveNewClimate, @CamelUnimelb, @UTAS_, @UniMelb, @cabahCoE

New paper out with @BraveNewClimate and @JBuettel trialing three lure treatments for predator detection in south-east Tasmania: publish.csiro.au/WR/WR24055

Seriously, Google's new NotebookLM might be the most mind-blowing AI application I've used since I was hit smack in the face with ChatGPT on 30 Nov 2022. notebooklm.google.com

We have a new article: the impact of camera trap flash type on feral cat monitoring. @JBuettel, @BraveNewClimate, and I found no evidence of the development of trap-shyness using white flash cameras as compared to IR. publish.csiro.au/ZO/justaccepte…

Why are folks panicking then? It's just a psychological misperception. Most people learned about advanced AI in November 2022 (the @ChatGPTapp release which used the GPT-3.x models). That means their first encounter with #AI was a massive qualitative jump from 0 to the…