Dr. Emily Dolson
Assistant Professor at Michigan State University studying eco-evolutionary dynamics in artificial life, cancer, and evolutionary computation. she/her 🏳️🌈
@emilydolson@ecoevo.social on Mastodon
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonSave the date! The annual #Conference on #ArtificialLife - #ALIFE2026 will take place in Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), 17-21 August 2026. More details coming soon!
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonStep 1: GenAI coding contains almost twice as many errors as human coding. Step 2: Satya Nadella says as much as 30% of Microsoft code is written by AI. Step 3: Windows 11 is a sluggish, buggy mess.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonOne of my most formative experiences in academic medicine was chasing down a citation. I wanted to cite a reassurance I heard in residency that a 1cm dural exposure over the ear was okay. I found it--it was from a book chapter without any experimental evidence. The experience rewired my brain.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonThis is 100% infuriating.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonOur paper on constraints and functions is out! We show that agents can change from open loop control behavior to closed loop control by modifying their environment. It’s a follow up to many of the ideas that Tim Taylor explores with his POA framework. direct.mit.edu/isal/proceed...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolsonwas at an event on AI for science yesterday, a panel discussion here at NeurIPS. The panelists discussed how they plan to replace humans at all levels in the scientific process. So I stood up and protested that what they are doing is evil. Full post: togelius.blogspot.com/2025/12/plea...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonMy first lead author paper is out with Ben Kerr and @alisonfeder.bsky.social! We found that making an antiviral too strong can sometimes make resistance easier to evolve. This has implications for how we design drugs, choose doses, and think about viral evolution in the face of treatment. (1/n)
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonOur #ALIFE2025 paper is out! 🎉 We show that even when two circuits produce the same output, their evolutionary potential can differ greatly. #Evolution at the smallest scale. “Parameter Evolvability in Gene Expression Models Drives Phenotypic Adaptation” 🔗 direct.mit.edu/isal/proceed...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonHot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Fellow scientists who write conference papers and submit NSF/NIH grants: what publication type are you using for conference papers in your NCBI Bibliography? I realized that I've been doing a chaotic mix of "other" and "meeting abstract", each of which has pros and cons.
- Pros for meeting abstract: it's what ORCID import does automatically and it lets you enter both the conference name and publisher (doesn't let you enter a page count, though) Pros for other: lets you enter a page count (doesn't let you enter a publication venue name, though)
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonJeffrey Epstein justified his evil actions with "science" Evolutionary biologists whispering in his ear about how men and women are fundamentally different, and it's "natural" to desire younger women Our field has a duty to explain why this is wrong both scientifically and ethically
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonRep Tom Barrett would rather take food from the hungry than give care to the sick. If he won't lift a finger to help his constituents, I will. I'm holding vigil for 30 hours leading up to the SNAP cutoff deadline, and collecting donations for the Greater Lansing Food Bank. bit.ly/cd7food
- Remembering the time in grad school when a Black PhD student at the next desk over was doing computer vision research. He was testing out a facial recognition tool using his own face as a reference, but it wasn't working. So he asked a (white) colleague to try it, and of course it worked for her.
- New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonTLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-... 🧵
- Data like these are exactly why I think @wewill2026.bsky.social is an excellent candidate to be the next MI-07 representative! Some people say Elissa Slotkin won our district because she's moderate. I think that's wrong. I think she won because she stood for something. Will does too.
- This piece by @adambonica.bsky.social is a crucial read. The @nytimes.com editorial board leans into their priors in their own recent editorial on the need for moderation to win. As @adambonica.bsky.social suggests the story is more complicated. 1/ data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-new-yo...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonRFK is undoing human subjects protections so he can conduct placebo trials of vaccines. That means infecting people knowingly. I wonder who will “volunteer” for these trials? If history is any guide, a lot of incarcerated and other powerless people.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolsontl;dr 1. Studies of genAI in the classroom show that it harms learning 2. The quality of AI-generated text is irrelevant to its most negative effects on teaching 3. The way AI has entered the classroom is as a money-making project extracting new labour, not a “tool” serving teachers’ actual needs
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonIn 2018, Charles Murray challenged me to a bet: "We will understand IQ genetically—I think most of the picture will have been filled in by 2025—there will still be blanks—but we’ll know basically what’s going on." It's now 2025, and I claim a win. I write about it in The Atlantic.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonSwipe up to try a new variant on Conway's Game of Life. And another. And another. This is how artificial-life researchers spread the joy after the #ALIFE2025 conference! They say it's like TikTok, but I wouldn't know.... ⚙️🧫 rulehunt.org?rulesetHex=7... #cellularautomata #gameoflife
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonThe SONI session turned out a great—shout out to the speakers & the panelists @emilydolson.bsky.social, @risi.bsky.social, @blaiseaguera.bsky.social & Sidney Pontes-Filho for great talks & discussion on how we can rethink intelligence under the complexity lens. #ALife2025 @alife2025.bsky.social
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonNew, brief overview of lexicase selection: lexicase.ai It considers individual training cases in different random orders, and therefore with different priorities, for each selection event. #AI #MachineLearning #ALife
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonToday my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson"This compact is a “reward” in exactly the same sense that it is “rewarding” to purchase protection from the Mafia. The compact is an open, explicit threat." This is very good.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonI considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonYingnan Gao has a major overhaul on his paper investigating how to detect selection in lineage tracing data using tree balance statistics! #evoSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonWe're excited to announce final program of the @alife2025.bsky.social SONI session which will host a panel discussion with @blaiseaguera.bsky.social, @risi.bsky.social, @emilydolson.bsky.social & Sidney Pontes-Filho Check out the full program: sites.google.com/view/soni-al... See you in Kyoto ⛩️
- I love a good creative action! I just sent my rep a duck - send yours one too!
- 🦆DAY 21 of #31DaysOfAction Help us send a clear message that they must impeach & remove RFK “The Quack.” $3 donation = someone dressed in a duck costume will deliver a rubber duck stamped with IMPEACH THE QUACK to your Rep’s office. Help us flock the halls of Congress - Link: tinyurl.com/sufsci
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson#Workshop Call! Does ALIFE have a "marketing problem" ? We think so - and we're trying to do something about it! Come help us, at the Societal Outreach Initiatives for Artificial Life Workshop #ALIFE2025. More details: imytk.github.io/blog/2025/al... @alife2025.bsky.social
- Excited to see this effort to get a proposal for statewide ranked choice voting on the ballot in Michigan! Voting methods are a fascinating topic, and I like this website for experimenting with them: votevote.page (I believe the IRV option in the runoff methods box is equivalent to the proposal)
- We couldn't be more grateful and proud of every volunteer and donation making this day possible. Find signature gathering events at RankMiVote.org/Where-Do-I-Sign. Please note, ONLINE SIGNATURES DO NOT COUNT. Petitions must be signed IN PERSON! Support our grassroots efforts: RankMiVote.org/Donate
- Like most people I know who have spent too much time thinking about this stuff, I'd actually prefer approval voting to ranked choice. But we have the option right now to replace first past the post with ranked choice, and in my mind that's still a solid improvement, so I'm all for it!
- Or, put another way, if I was filling out a ranked choice ballot for voting systems, it would look like this: 1. Approval voting 2. Ranked choice voting 3 (or maybe unranked). First past the post (i.e. what we have now) So nice how ranked choice lets the perfect not be the enemy of the good!
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson“The goal of academic training is not to solve problems as efficiently and quickly as possible, but to develop skills for identifying and dealing with novel problems, which have never been solved before.”
- If you agree with our 5 requests to our universities, please sign 🖊️ the open letter and don’t forget to confirm your email! ☺️🙏 openletter.earth/open-letter-...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonSince inauguration day I've really started noticing how one of the toxic byproducts of fascism is how the "all these people are unworthy of life" idea has become more accepted on the left- the same shit as on the right but merely the targets flipped- and we really have to push back at that.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonIntroducing our #ALIFE2025 Ambassadors! Our ambassadors: - are champions of the conference & the field of #ALIFE - encourage interest and participation from old & new audiences - lead outreach efforts & build new relationships - are positive advocates for the conference and the wider community!
- Today I saw a family of two geese and a whole bunch of goslings cross the road in a perfect little line at a crosswalk (they even had the walk sign!) and it was the cutest thing
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonCourt invalidates NSF 15% indirect cost cap. Strong ruling. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonYou can find her on Bsky here: @emilydolson.bsky.social
- This is awesome work! Also, I'm biased, but I'm loving the empirical support for holding conferences in the great lakes region :)
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson🚨HUGE SCIENCE WIN ALERT🚨 NIH Grants to be restored en masse!!! Thank you Judge Young for standing up for science! #StandUpforScience #SummerFightforScience
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonOur biggest, bestest national celebration. I expected this to be a terrifying fascist spectacle, but instead I actually feel a little sad, like the time my friend Charlie and I set up a lemonade stand when we were seven and nobody stopped all day.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson🚨BREAKING: 300+ NIH employees call out the harm of censorship & politicized science in scathing email to Bhattacharya, demanding an end to political interference, a lift on funding freezes, & rehiring of fired staff whose work saves lives. This is historic - insiders are blowing the whistle. 🧵(1/5)
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson[ANNOUNCEMENT] 🔔 Call for Art Pieces 🔔 #ALIFE 2025 invites artists, designers, and makers from all backgrounds to contribute to the Community Artworks & Demos showcase, which sits at the creative forefront of artificial life. Full details: 2025.alife.org/submit#CALL-... Deadline: 31st July.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonI appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonI love the concept of domesticated transposable elements. I like that my genome has its little viral pets to feed nucleic acids and take out for transcriptional walkies. 🧬
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonWe’ve lost a giant. He was always very kind and encouraging to me as a young #kelp forest ecologist. Go listen to @futureecologies.bsky.social’s kelp series for a wonderful episode where he tells the stories behind his classic work. www.futureecologies.net/kelpworlds May his memory be a blessing.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonI would like my vaccines, thank you very much. Go comment.
- You do NOT have to accept this! Post on the public comments to pressure them to NOT do this! www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonAs a part of the @standupforscience.bsky.social Summer Fight for Science campaign, we want to host 1000 teach ins across the US between now and Sept 30th. Yeah, it’s a big, hairy, audacious goal. I know. Here is a running list of ideas, please scoop and do! 🧵🪡
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson🚨🚨 Alarming NSF policy update By accepting an NSF award, an institution now must say it's: 1. Not engaging in boycotts of Israel (yes really) 2. Not advancing or promoting DEI in violation of anti-discrimination laws Announced via a footnote today: nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/gc1-ma...
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson🚨URGENT RESPONSE CALL🚨 🌪️23 LIVES WERE LOST OVERNIGHT AS TORNADOS HIT KY. KY has one of several regions in the US without 24/7 National Weather Service coverage, due to DOGE cuts. W/out overnight monitoring, ppl don't receive weather warnings. THIS is how science cuts cost lives. shorturl.at/JgTjU
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonNEW: The Trump administration’s slashing of budgets and staff have Great Lakes scientists concerned that they have lost the ability to protect the public from toxic algal blooms, which can kill animals and sicken people. By @annaleighclark.bsky.social
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonThis. Love yourself enough to believe in learning and teaching yourself something and growing as a person. Do I remember a single term paper I wrote? No. Am I a writer now because of them? Yes.
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonSaveNSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the NSF. The mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation. Join: www.savensf.com
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonI at first thought 1/10 was the rating of the week and honestly hard to disagree
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonI must once again repeat: CONTACT 👏🏽 YOUR 👏🏽 OFFICE 👏🏽 OF 👏🏽 SPONSORED 👏🏽 PROJECTS 👏🏽 TO 👏🏽 FIND 👏🏽 OUT 👏🏽 HOW 👏🏽 TO 👏🏽 INITIATE 👏🏽 AN 👏🏽APPEAL 👏🏽
- Reposted by Dr. Emily DolsonDo people in the same household share strains when they have the same species? How many cells transmit when a strain is shared? Can strain composition be dynamic when species composition is stable? We answer these and related questions for the facial skin microbiome in our latest paper. 🧵[1/10]
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Dr. Emily Dolson1. In a landmark ruling, a federal judge has blocked the passport ban for transgender Americans... government ban likely violates equal protection, and is made with animus. Though the ruling only applies to plaintiffs, it is expected expand in coming weeks. Subscribe to support my journalism.
