UBC Science

@ubcscience

News and events from the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia. Also on Bluesky at @science.ubc.ca

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Joined March 2009

1KFollowing

13KFollowers

Pinned

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 18

"We can't be like, 'Oh, they're recovered enough, so now let's go ahead and build this new pipeline or increase shipping traffic.' Those are all things that still concern us," says UBC's Dr. Andrew Trites about Salish Sea orcas. vancouverisawesome.com/national-busin…

ubcscience's tweet card. VANCOUVER — Chatchawan Jaksuwong says he used to feel empty when he looked at the ocean.

137

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 25

“Pretty much everybody knows that the work was mistaken, but it’s still important to prevent newcomers to the literature from being confused” says retired @ZoologyUBC prof @RosieRedfield, who criticized the study after its publication in 2010. nature.com/articles/d4158…

104

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 24

JOB POSTINGS: 1. Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Ecological Modelling 2. Canadian Excellence Research Chair in AI for Improving Patient Outcomes and Enhancing Health Service Delivery 3. Assistant Professor of Teaching in STEM Public Engagement science.ubc.ca/about/careers

ubcscience's tweet image. JOB POSTINGS:
1. Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Ecological Modelling
2. Canadian Excellence Research Chair in AI for Improving Patient Outcomes and Enhancing Health Service Delivery
3. Assistant Professor of Teaching in STEM Public Engagement
science.ubc.ca/about/careers

281

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 23

A toxic algal bloom in Australian waters has killed thousands of marine animals. "Once a bloom has flourished, all that can really be done is to leave it to die on its own," said Dr. Patrick Martone of @UBCBotany. #ClimateChange @Martonelab cbc.ca/news/climate/s…

ubcscience's tweet card. South Australia's state premier has declared a toxic algal bloom a "natural disaster" amid thousands of marine animal deaths, as well as impacts to tourism and seafood farming.

123

UBC Science Retweeted

Michael Smith Labs@ubcmsl · Jul 22

We’re hiring! The MSL & @UBCMicroImmuno are seeking candidates for an Assistant Professor of Teaching in STEM Public Engagement position. Learn more & apply: msl.ubc.ca/careers/ #IndigenousinSTEM #BlackInNature #WomenInSTEM #MinoritiesInSTEM #DiversityInSTEM #STEMEducation

604

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 22

With restorative work Canada’s western ecosystems are in a better position to absorb greenhouse gases than any current technology. “It's not just the plants, because the animals are fundamental parts of those ecosystems,” says Dr. @KaiChanUBC. @ubcires thetyee.ca/News/2025/07/2…

ubcscience's tweet card. While Canada bets big on engineered tech, experts say nature still offers our best climate solutions.

226

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 21

UBC Marine ecologist Dr. Chris Harley supports shell re-introduction on B.C.'s coast despite the risk of invasive species: "We could absolutely test whether my intuition on that is correct by ... swabbing things and sequencing.” @UBCoceans @ZoologyUBC timescolonist.com/islander/shell…

ubcscience's tweet card. Their first product is a soil amendment made from the shells and coffee waste. But they say one critical way to recycle the shells is to return them to the ocean

234

UBC Science Retweeted

UBC Oceans (also found at ubcoceans.bsky.social)@UBCoceans · Jul 18

"This is not just an ecological story, but a human story that speaks to the wide-reaching impacts of colonization," said @megefford. @tsleilwaututh theconversation.com/colonization-d… via @ConversationCA

166

UBC Science Retweeted

Kwang Moo Yi@kwangmoo_yi · Jul 16

Preprint of today: Zhuo and Zheng et al., "Streaming 4D Visual Geometry Transformer" -- wzzheng.net/StreamVGGT/ VGGT with cache / causal attention for 70ms inference on an image stream. Similar to other Dust3R speed-up methods, but with VGGT.

111

6.0K

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 17

“Strange metals” may point to a new understanding of electricity. "Maybe electrons are not the fundamental particle in condensed matter physics,” says Dr. Meigan Aronson of @UBCphas. Via @ScienceMagazine science.org/content/articl…

ubcscience's tweet card. Exotic materials with bizarre electron behavior could pave the road to revolutionary technologies

235

UBC Science Retweeted

Tsleil-Waututh Nation@tsleilwaututh · Jul 15

səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) and @UBCoceans researchers have published groundbreaking research demonstrating severe colonial impacts that have devastated Burrard Inlet and səlilwətaɬ rights since European contact. Learn more: bit.ly/44FcvqY

500

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 16

“In our health care system, there really is a lot of text data that we never really have the time and the power to dig into,” says Dr. Raymond Ng @UBC_CS. “This is where #AI large language modeling is going to help us.” bit.ly/3TIVt6w

ubcscience's tweet image. “In our health care system, there really is a lot of text data that we never really have the time and the power to dig into,” says Dr. Raymond Ng @UBC_CS. “This is where #AI large language modeling is going to help us.”

bit.ly/3TIVt6w

258

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 15

Preprint of today: Li and Yi and Liu et al., "Cameras as Relative Positional Encoding" -- liruilong.cn/prope/ Conditioning cameras (and rays) with Plucker raymaps have been a breakthrough for enabling 3D for transformer-based models. How you encode this matters a lot.

RRuilong Li@ruilong_li · Jul 15

For everyone interested in precise 📷camera control 📷 in transformers [e.g., video / world model etc] Stop settling for Plücker raymaps -- use camera-aware relative PE in your attention layers, like RoPE (for LLMs) but for cameras! Paper & code: liruilong.cn/prope/

4.0K

UBC Science Retweeted

UBC Oceans (also found at ubcoceans.bsky.social)@UBCoceans · Jul 11

SEEKING: Canada Excellence Research Chair in #Ocean #Ecological #Modelling. #Professor or #Associateprofessor level with #tenure. ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/ubcfacul… @ubcscience @UBCeoas @UBCoceans

235

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 14

"The great white is really, really rare—although maybe it'll be more common in another 50 years when we do another anniversary for Jaws," said Dr. Andrew Trites of @UBCoceans. "Maybe then we can talk about great whites, because ... the waters are warming." cbc.ca/news/canada/br…

ubcscience's tweet card. Fifty years after Steven Spielberg's Jaws set the template for the Hollywood summer blockbuster movie, the spectre of a great white shark attack still looms over ocean swimmers — but scientists say...

217

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 11

The population of Bigg’s killer whales has grown into the hundreds since the government stopped culling harbour seals and sea lions. In stark contrast there are only 73 endangered southern resident #orcas left. vancouversun.com/news/vancouver…

ubcscience's tweet card. Vancouver harbour a buffet of seals and sea lions for Bigg's orcas

251

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 8

“Previously, people thought perhaps males realized that if they were more orange, they were more sexy,” explains Dr. Judith Mank of @ZoologyUBC. @judithmank @_Axeman_ karmactive.com/male-guppies-w…

ubcscience's tweet card. Orange male guppies perform sexual displays twice as long and attempt mating 200% more than dull males. UBC scientists link bright coloration to brain development in genetic breakthrough study.

231

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 4

“In even moderately busy airspace, there’s a high probability of getting disrupted by re-entering space junk,” says UBC astronomer Dr. Aaron Boley. @UBCphas smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…

ubcscience's tweet card. Debris from rockets and satellites can fall back to Earth or collide with other objects, and wreckage that burns up can harm the ozone layer

169

UBC Science@ubcscience · Jul 2

It turns out colour isn’t just a fashion statement for guppies. UBC zoologists Drs. Wouter van der Bijl and Judith Mank found that the more orange the male guppy, the more virile it is. @ZoologyUBC @judithmank @_Axeman_ science.ubc.ca/news/2025-07/o…

ubcscience's tweet card. It turns out colour isn’t just a fashion statement for guppies. According to a new University of British Columbia study, the more orange the male guppy, the more virile it is.

855

UBC Science Retweeted

UBC Dept of Microbiology and Immunology@UBCMicroImmuno · Jul 2

Corn is a staple summer side dish, but it’s also plagued by fungal infections. To combat the fungus Ustilago maydis, Jim Kronstad's team is investigating how the pathogen drains the health from its host, paving the way for new crop protection strategies. bit.ly/3IbAVAR

357