I don’t! Thank you!
Climate, extinction, and biodiversity scientist researching Earth’s past for a better future. Writing and podcasting for the planet. Chaotic good professor. Forever DM. Working to be a good ancestor. She/her. @makeaplanetpod.bsky.social
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I don’t! Thank you!
It has to be an indoor lab, focused on naturalist skills. This is in addition to the field lab. But that’s a fun idea!
That sounds like a really fun class. :)
To clarify, the "skill sessions" activities have to be something we can do in a classroom (I have an active learning room). We have outdoor field labs each week, so this is in addition to going outside, not instead-of. :)
We'll do some of that in the field lab, but I'm looking for the paired in-class exercise we can do indoors for the active learning session (which happens in addition to the field lab!).
That's fun!
(Other skill sessions include learning bird songs from recordings and spectrograms, identifying species using dichotomous keys, verifying iNaturalist observations, pinning insects, and identifying mammals from tracks, skulls, and camera traps.)
The lectures set up the theme. Labs involve walks, then field journal entries assigned from a handout. Skill sessions are hands-on group activities on different naturalist skills. For this new week, I'm thinking something with fungi, lichen, maybe detritivores? I'd love suggestions! 2/2
I'm adding a new week in Field Natural History focused on hidden networks in forests: fungi, detritivores, chemical ecology and plant "communication." (I structure this class around themes/stories.) Each week a I do a hands-on skill session, and I'm looking for ideas for activities we could do. 1/2
The same mainstream media who continues to write about Biden’s health months after his presidency ended, and who made Hillary’s cough national news, has been silent on Trump’s health. Meanwhile, here’s an excellent, non-speculative, non-sensationalist post doing the MSM’s job for them.
Not the men all taking PEDs being up in arms about how HBC affects your emotions.
As one exception, the NEA--the largest union in the US--has been fighting the good fight, challenging attacks on education and immigrant rights both in the courts and in the streets. (I'm a proud member of the Associated Faculties of the University of Maine, which is a member of the NEA.)
I'm proud to say that the NEA (the largest union in the US) has been fighting the good fight, challenging attacks on education and immigrant rights, both in the courts and in the streets.
Waiter: Good evening, sir, do you prefer a table or a booth? Or perhaps something by the window? This Guy: No, thank you. I'll take the seat in front of the Union Jack. Waiter: ...
Happy Labor Day! As a proud public health professor and member of USW, some articles showing the public health benefits of labor unions. Unions promote safer working conditions and better contract-protected benefits, along with a sense of community. ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/...
Happy Labor Day! This holiday was established in 1894 to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the contributions of working people. Celebrate with us with some thematic reading, pictured below.
I saw! <3
I think it’s pretty clear from context clues that I’m referring to people scolding Chanda. If not, I hope it is now.
Protesting can be highly effective in motivating people to further action. It’s not either/or.
😍
Anti-intellectualism has a long history of being a pillar of fascism, so this tracks!
This was lovely. That other turtle was a snapping turtle!
The replies to this are an absolute Rorschach test of bad faith. Imagine if people put as much energy into actual organizing as they do scolding.
We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.
Montana is a red state, and it was the first state to be successfully sued under this model. You never know.
Here's a #GiftLink for those who want to read the full NYT obit of historian of science & gender, Margaret Rossiter. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s... #histSTM 🧪🗃️
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Does your state constitution ensure your right to a clean and healthy environment? If it doesn’t, such an amendment would be a fantastic lever for climate action. In the absence of federal leadership, we can make important headway on climate at the state level.
Right now, your ability to get access to a COVID vaccine this fall is in jeopardy, whether or not you fit the new, restricted eligiblity criteria. Please send a letter to your member of Congress here. And spread the word. @defendpublichealth.bsky.social actionnetwork.org/letters/writ...
This is from a ported-over tweet that’s over a decade old.
Every time your electricity bill goes up for the next 10 years, it can be traced back to this Administration’s actions. They are making solar and wind power illegal to build in the United States. They are artificially restricting supply while demand is going up.
Empathy is sin. Trusting experts is totalitarianism. When the satire is actually real life, does satire even have any power anymore?
"Her patient had signs of what could be a cancer or could be an unusual infection — diagnoses that would require completely different treatment. Ordinarily, she would confirm an infection after sending a sample to the CDC for testing ...the CDC no longer has the capacity to do that"
Sounds like a corporation, right? This is what happens after decades of universities being run increasingly like businesses in all the ways that have brought us to this moment. We have undermined the systems and popular support to we desperately need to stand as bastions of democracy.
@nature.com I love this article - but WHY are the only share options to X and Facebook when the whole point of the article is that science-based posts get more shares here? www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Going forward, what comes out of the CDC “will be a Frankenstein of science and ideology” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
NEW — Black organizers and elected leaders gathered today to denounce Trump’s threats to send military forces to Chicago. They are developing a 30-day emergency response plan, which includes establishing mutual aid hubs and Know Your Rights training sessions. thetriibe.com/2025/08/blac...
“You have to build the apparatus for change, even if no one else shows up. If you don’t build the movement, it won’t be there when the day for action comes. It’s thankless. People live their entire lives building something they may never see succeed. And you do it anyway.”
This story has it all: aquaculture, Black Flag, Bernie Sanders, Star Trek as policy, John Hodgman, male tears, and a candidate citing Luthen’s monologue from Andor. Meet Graham Platner, the Maine oysterman trying to crack the senate. @grahamformaine.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/1996...
I’ll try to let you know if I hear anything!
No idea. The CVS in Waterville; we looked everywhere and couldn’t find it in the first year. Last year Target got a few, without notice, but I need advance notice because I’m on immunosuppressants and I need to pause my dose for weeks around a vaccine.
Chuffed to see this. Entomologist @meganorourke.com, who has worked on Congress as well as for USDA, is also running for Congress if you're looking for great candidates to support! #standupforscience
I am immunocompromised and the only place I’ve been able to get the Novavax shot in the last two years is from a CVS an hour away. So much for “choice.”
If you have published anything, please consider doing this. The window is closing and you should get your details registered now for a chance at a settlement. The form works wherever in the world you are based.
There will be many casualties from UChicago ending ('pausing') PhD admissions in Humantities, but one which I am keenly aware of: this is close to a death sentence for teaching cuneiform in the United States (esp. Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Eblaite, Luwian) and it will affect the whole world.
I gave them the last eight months of @science.org issues and some very basic craft supplies.
It was a verbal prompt, but since a couple of folks have asked, I’m going to write something up! Probably as a zine. :)
I’ll write something up!
Thank you! I think the kids are alright.
I am disturbed by the news that 300,000 Black women have left the labor force within a three-month period, largely due to dramatic cuts to the federal workforce. www.msnbc.com/know-your-va...
Ha! Good point! Also, the exercise itself took two hours per session and I did not see a single cell phone once! They had the facts and data from the last eight months of Science Magazine issues I dumped on the table. Print is still worth it, folks!
This pre-med major creates a flier urging people to sign up for the health professions!
This zine focused on food waste, local food movements, and the environmental impacts of large-scale agriculture.
This student wants to draw attention to the problem of clean drinking water.
This premed student is excited about new possible treatments for depression and suicidal thoughts.
A couple of students focused on vaccine misinformation, like this flier:
I led a “punk science” activity for our incoming freshman biology majors at our orientation event. They made zines and fliers on any topic they chose. Here’s a sample:
My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up. NYT just covered it. 1/n www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...
We used this! Thank you!
This is a great one!
Ahhh we are definitely adding this!
Yessss thank you!
These are incoming freshmen, Marcelo! We still have time.
Yes!! Good one!
Very cool, but not quite biology!
Ooooh thank you!
Hahahahaha of course!
I’m looking for trivia questions about biology in pop culture. For example, the ferns named for Lady Gaga, or the cordyceps in The Last of Us.
Quick! I need your best biology-in-pop-culture trivia questions! Can be on the more human side or the ecology side.
If you like literary fiction with a tinge of the strange, this journal is for you. I love it, and not just because I’m married to the editor (I’m also his dungeon master, since we’re disclosing conflicts of interest). Buy, read, share, and submit your stuff!
How do scientists push back against autocratic, anti-science ideologies? The "Anti-Autocracy Handbook: The Scholars’ Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding" provides some insights on what can be done, from lower risk to extreme risk groups: (1/11)
I benefited from a full aid package at my second college, myself! And when I talk about this with my friends with kids approaching college age, most have no idea.
This is such a strange time to be gearing up for a new academic year. I feel like I need time to figure out my entire life and I just don’t have it.
An important thread on the state of Unis, this time with a focus on the U of Chicago. What a fricking depressing way to start the semester. I am going to make sure my class is taught as well as possible & that my mentees learn as much as possible while we have research Unis, & call my reps yet again
This—if the story doesn’t mention this point, that’s a pretty egregious omission. A lot of students and parents don’t look at private schools because of sticker shock, despite many of them having significant financial aid and often free rides based on need.
Just like perpetual motion machines are impossible because they violate the first and second laws of thermodynamics, this myth of meritocracy also requires constant external input to actually function. It must be constantly tended against the friction of reality. “You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
When you internalize the programming that white, able-bodied, straight, cisgender men are the default, identity becomes a proxy for merit. Any employee who doesn’t conform to that ideal requires an explanation, and if your model rules out merit by default, you’ve created a perpetual motion machine.
On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵
Catch up with your pals, the dinosaurs, in my latest book.
That’s the essay I initially read. In fact! As a few people note in the replies to my post, it turns out it misrepresents what the preprint actually said (the author may have been responding to the viral discourse before reading it). I agree with all the points raised, though!
The only thing I can say about this paragraph is read it. Sit with it. Read it again. @michaelharriot.bsky.social
This is a good reminder to always go to the source. But I also think the response to this preprint is a good indicator that there are large-scale conversations about AI and labor that need to happen. And those researching this need to be more careful about how their work will be interpreted.
A lot of people are interpreting this as “jobs AI can replace.” The authors even note that it’s tempting to do this, but job trends are difficult to predict. And I do think it’s reasonable to be concerned that employers will see these as jobs where AI can replace people. It’s already happening.
I get it. It’s going viral. I’m normally careful at fact-checking, but in this case I saw a published piece by a trusted source, shared by another trusted source. That was my first encounter with the Microsoft preprint. The preprint is a list of jobs with high AI “applicability.”
Correction: this is not what Microsoft actually stated. I learned about the preprint from a friend at ESRI who shared an essay by a UCSB geographer who described it as “a list of jobs AI will make obsolete.” This wasn’t fact-checked by the paper, the professor, or my friend.
I found out about the paper because a colleague at ESRI posted an essay by a UCSB geographer who described it as a list of jobs that AI would make obsolete. That’s not actually Ccurate, which I learned afterwards (to my frustration, since I trust the people involved to represent this accurately).
I did read the paper (as I note in the comments). There is very much an implication that some jobs could be replaced by AI, which is acknowledged by the authors in the paper. And certainly that’s how it’s being widely interpreted, which is understandable.
I think it’s just that it’s inconsistent more than anything. I don’t think there’s a been an update since a couple of days ago.
I have a PhD in geography. I’m aware.
Oh, I know -- that's why I use Kagi.
Maybe! Most of us say it's anything to do with space and place (my MS and PhD are in geography).
That is indeed where I heard about it. It turns out she mischaracterized what the preprint says (see the comments) but I do think the implication is there.
Fair; my language was taken from an essay that characterized the list as "careers AI will make obsolete." The authors say we can't know for sure what will happen in terms of loss of jobs or wages, but I do think the implication is there, regardless. www.independent.com/2025/08/20/g...
I read a response to the report by a geographer, but haven't checked out the report in detail yet. I'm sure it's very, uh, interesting!
Google’s AI summary told me just the other day that San Juan Island is not farther north than Maine, because Maine is further east. 🫡 🗺️ 💯 (It’s wrong.)
Never mind the fact that I REFUSE TO BE REPLACED.
One of the careers that Microsoft thinks will be replaced by AI is "geographer" and I really need us all to stop giving any credibility to tech bros, because someone definitely does not know what a geographer does if they think AI is going to replace us.
Recently, Microsoft listed 40 careers that would be replaced by AI. Today, a friend sent me a link to a series of ChatGPT prompts where it could not follow a basic request to draw a human with two arms, two legs, and eight spider legs. It kept drawing ten spider legs, despite repeat corrections.
