I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful

I want to hear about what early-mid-career ecologists and botanists have done on sabbaticals, especially "stay-baticals"

Found the best Kerry Woods figures in this paper from 1984. I love these illustrations so much. The original tree emojis.

EEB Mentor Match is now open! But apps due soon (8/17). Mentees: get help applying for grad school or fellowships in ecology & evolution. Mentors: senior grads, post-docs, or faculty in these fields willing to give advice Org by Diversity Cmte of @asn-amnat.bsky.social Pls share! eebmentormatch.com

EEB Mentor Match

Visit the post for more.

eebmentormatch.com

Just read and really enjoyed "Spark, Scaffold, Substrate" (the @asn-amnat.bsky.social paper on natural history in EEB research recommended by @hormiga.bsky.social) and I have two notes...

When I advise my faculty colleagues to diversify their funding beyond their traditional NSF/NIH grant portfolio, this isn't quite what I had in mind, but maybe where we're headed www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/s...

‘OnlyMarms’: Marmots Are on OnlyFans to Raise Money for Research

A team of scientists uploaded videos of the squirrel-like rodents in the wild on the adult-content site OnlyFans to raise money amid government budget cuts.

nytimes.com

The art museum in my home town has a fantastic exhibition on climate change this summer. I totally stumbled into this multimedia space while taking my kid and my niece to see the armor down the hall and we were mesmerized. www.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/...

I guess I've been at Bennington long enough that I'm no longer the "new Kerry Woods" but I am totally taking advantage of Kerry's emeritus status this fall and teaching a senior reading seminar on old growth forests... we're reading Kerry from the 1970s through 2020s

Can we take a moment to appreciate the many services @doctorzen.net has provided for our community? Starting with the Better Posters blog, and now this lovely curated AI slop collection. A true champion for the people.

Zen Faulkes@doctorzen.net · 2w ago

Just telling people now that if that graphical abstract made with AI 🤖 is published, I WILL include it in my collection: bit.ly/academic-slop

This fall my intro to forest ecology methods course will include an ecological restoration project in the campus forest and I'm so into these examples of teaching restoration principles with bicycles (Speldwinde 2010) and artifacts (Lundholm and Larson 2004). www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This is a great conversation! I was so psyched that I was able to watch it live last week in the midst of some fieldwork, but we wrapped up Mt Mansfield early in the day and I practically skipped across the ridge to get home in time for a shower & #Botany360.

Botanical Society of America@botsocamerica.bsky.social · 2w ago

Two authors, two very different botany textbooks, one great conversation. The recording of our #Botany360, "College-Level Botany Textbooks and Teaching: Different Approaches" with Dr. Ken Cameron and Dr. Rachel Jabaily is now available! Visit: youtu.be/OyNZFU5QI-o #IamaBotanist #PlantPeopleFTW

Just treated the field vehicle to a carwash after wrapping our week in the Green Mountains (lots of dirt roads) and the morale-boosting among the undergrad field assistants was off the charts. College students love a carwash.

I think I've seen this film before... During the first Trump admin, my colleagues and I analyzed the public comments about de-listing National Monuments. Though back then, 95% of humans, form letters AND bots all supported protecting Nat'l Monuments conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Recurrent neural network reveals overwhelming sentiment against 2017 review of US monuments from humans and bots

In the United States, the conservation of federal lands reflects a social history of public advocacy, public policy, and public comments. US federal agencies solicit public comments to scope for idea...

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Jeremy Yoder says no war@jbyoder.org · 3w ago

Holy COW. Text analysis of comments on the OMB rule: overwhelming opposition, overwhelmingly not form letters. (But 9 in 10 comments supporting the rule ARE form responses, LOL) Whatever happens next, folks have stepped up.

Submitted my comment this morning before packing up equipment with undergraduates from my small, rural college to spend the day on Vermont's tallest peak downloading microclimate data from sensors that we installed last summer as part of an NSF-funded project.

Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 3w ago

Here’s a helpful guide to writing a public comment by @hormiga.bsky.social: scienceforeveryone.science/submit-your-...

For folks asking why bother commenting because the OMB won't care: comments help build cases for the courts by explicitly laying out harms. That's why it's really important to have your comments be as specific as possible. Also, contact your senators and reps! They actually do care about this.

Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 4w ago

Monday is the deadline for public comment! The Heritage Foundation has been mobilizing its members to leave comments in favor of the rule change, so every unique comment matters (don’t use a form letter or copy/paste—similar comments are batched and treated as one).

I'm reading through the Tables of Contents on back issues of @newphyt.bsky.social for a lit review project and the cover photos for this journal are phenomenal. Gorgeous plants. Just beautiful.

Our Environmental Studies program threw a cook-out for Senior Night and the faculty grilling for the students was super fun and a bit cheaper than expected. How should we spend down the rest of our program budget?

Three weeks left to apply to our postdoc position on alpine plant resilience! Us: Three years of funding, an awesome collaborative team, a gorgeous study system, blueberry pie, unionized postdocs. You: A PhD and experience in ancient DNA, paleoecology, and/or plant genetics and genomics.

OMB is run by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought. Did you know that the Director of the OMB can be impeached? Congress has historically supported science—it’s why they keep rejecting Trump’s budget cuts. Vought is trying to do an end-run around Congress. There’s an easy fix for that.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

OMB is forcing “the Smithsonian to spend congressionally appropriated funding in a way that’s ‘consistent with the FY 2026 President’s Budget’ in order to receive it. The president’s budget differed widely from what Congress ultimately chose to fund.” www.notus.org/trump-white-...

The list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2027 is live! PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/MAGd4ohyPeoY... students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please share widely! 🧪

Ecology/Evolution/Marine Biology labs recruiting for Fall 2027

Please complete this form if you are a PI recruiting graduate students for a Fall 2027 start. If you are NOT recruiting, feel free to share the response sheet with prospective students looking for lab...

forms.gle

Several people have asked for possible content and structure for comments regarding the proposed OMB regulations. With some suggestions from others, I have posted on example (as a Word document) for downloading). jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... I hope this is helpful.

to be clear, this is a comment on the current moment's dumpster fire that is higher ed and scientific research funding

Caitlin MacKenzie@cmacmtns.bsky.social · 2mo ago

i fund my lab by joining my college's wellness incentive step contest with cash prizes while training for a half marathon.

i fund my lab by joining my college's wellness incentive step contest with cash prizes while training for a half marathon.

This spring I took over and redesigned the only Gen Ed on plants here #IB103. We walked through every core aspect of plant bio in lectures & labs, but also through art & design. I had a blast, the evaluations are rewarding (4.9/5), the redesign got an award from the college, and a little press too!

It's June, which means even though it's not technically summer, it's basically summer. Which means it's gonna get hot out there. Which means you better look hot out there. With a shrimp shirt. Nothing hotter, in MY opinion, than fashion involving marine invertebrates. Get a shirt: SquidFacts.net

i love vermont but it's the season of the wool long underwear under my borrowed regalia at commencement

Calling all Scientists! Research Administrators! Deans! Fans of Science! No one is coming to save us. Here is your assignment. I have written a step by step, easy to understand "how-to" document to help you comment on the proposed OMB rule. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...

What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB 2026-10817)

What OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule Means in Practice

elizabethginexi.substack.com

NEW: A lot of bad has happened to American science over the last year but nothing comes even close to what’s about to happen if we don’t speak out in opposition to the OMB rule changes and I hope @aaas-socsci.bsky.social @apsphysics.bsky.social and others will launch public campaigns about this. 🧪🔭⚛️

It's the End of American Science As We Know It

We have 45 days to express our opposition to catastrophic changes.

news.chanda.science

Registration is open! Join NEBS for our August 1-2 Away Meeting in Rhode Island, featuring field trips throughout the state, a presentation, and a tour of the Brown University Herbarium. rhodora.org/meetings/ (Photos by Doug McGrady, Isabel Tribe, Bill Holmes)

More than 10% of my students listed Kate Furbish among their favorite class readings that linked art and the herbarium. The catch: there was no Kate Furbish reading. I just talked about her constantly, hyped her lousewort, invoked her ghost, and used her watercolors in lectures all term. ❤️🎨🪻