Trevor Branch (moved to Bluesky)
@TrevorABranch
Now posting at https://bsky.app/profile/trevorabranch.bsky.social. I run @bluewhalenews, teach R graphics, fish models. Prof @UW_SAFS and member of @UW_QERM.
Naked mole rat + Hallucigenia = sea pig
Published! We found out how much whaling pressure was on each of five overlapping populations of pygmy blue whales. Based on spatial data from blue whale songs with 30+ coauthors doi.org/10.1111/mms.70…
Why is it so rare to see blue whale calves? I have an explanation in my new paper! fish.uw.edu/2025/02/unrave… Paper: doi.org/10.3354/esr013…
New paper: blue whales make super loud calls but are acoustic ghosts to killer whales, also true of many other baleen whale species. The ghost species flee when attacked, while the audible species fight back when attacked (the fight club) doi.org/10.1111/mms.13…
Hope he checked with his wife. (Source: Hoard of Mathematical treasures by Ian Stewart)
This is really cool. Writeup here about the background: livescience.com/physics-mathem…
We JUST solved a hard open math problem— the moving sofa problem! "What is the area of the largest shape that can be manuevered through an L corner of width 1?" On Dec 2, 2024, Korean Jineon Baek proved the answer is the 18 curve section Gerver's sofa with area 2.2195..!
#jobs Assistant or associate teaching professor in marine biology, Univ Washington @uwsafs.bsky.social, come and work with me! apply.interfolio.com/159510
Anyone know of any blue whale strandings in 2024? Trying to make sure we have not missed any recent ones in a big compilation.
Last 6 weeks, number of new followers on... Twitter: ~0 Bluesky: ~2600 Folks the shift away from this site is real.
University of Washington: we care a ton about the environment and global warming. Also UW: please download and fill out this form and get it signed by your administrator to grant permission to use an Uber Green ride for the same price as Uber X.
A place of joy: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky nature.com/articles/d4158…
Antarctic blue whales display high movement rates around the Southern Ocean. Estimated 8-32% movement rates from one ocean basin to another each year, and therefore circumpolar-wide complete mixing in under 10 years. doi.org/10.3354/esr013… New by @ZoeRand, me, @polarbiome
My bluesky account has gone from 800 to 1800 followers in the last 3-4 weeks, despite minimal posts over that time. Definitely the place to be now. Meanwhile on Twitter I don't get new followers any more.
I'm teaching a 20-hr course in data visualization theory and making scientific figures in ggplot (R graphics) this quarter, and have some time near the end to cover more advanced topics. What are some candidate topics?
The normal distribution in pacing manifested again at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai half marathon today. Like it or not, our lives are dictated by mathematics.
IMAX film on blue whales showing in Seattle's Pacific Science Center right now! So many people I know are featured in this movie, and I helped a tiny bit in the research pacificsciencecenter.org/shows/blue-wha…
New paper led by @DrCraigMc out @Oikos_Journal - the average size of known marine animals declines through time, because we tend to describe the biggest ones first nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/oi…
New paper on Atlantic bluefin tuna migration and hotspot behavior with @FishySounds, @Thunnus et al. @RSocPublishing Open access: doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2…
Poll for #Rstats ggplot users: when combining different plots together, which package do you use? (Reply if your preferred method is not listed.)