🧬 How do we scale biodiversity genomics? In the latest issue of EBP Life, Dr Caroline Howard shares how the Tree of Life Programme is building the infrastructure needed to produce reference genomes at scale. 📖 tinyurl.com/EBPLife #EarthBioGenomeProject #BiodiversityGenomics #Genomics #TreeOfLife

A big release today, 0.64.0, changelog is at github.com/SpeciesFileG...

Release Version 0.64.0 release · SpeciesFileGroup/taxonworks

Added Assigning OTU to taxon name task #130 ProjectOrganization model, link projects to org/depiction metadata #5027 Radial annotator: Add pagination to citations slice #4964 In the TaxonName verb...

github.com

Do you work with insect collections? Yes?! Then we hope to see you at #ECN2026! 🪲 When: November Friday 6 - Saturday 7, 2026 Where: Columbus Hilton Downtown hotel, Ohio That’s right folks, we’re trialling something new and starting a day earlier than usual. We really hope you can join us!

🏛️ In the following article, an opportunity for media-based storytelling to become a prominent application of natural history museum research is proposed, following a field-wide survey revealing that these stories are underrepresented on institutional social media: doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.3.176227

I started using AI tools because an awful lot of people in academia are using it, my students will certainly be using it, and while I hate AI for so many reasons, I cannot in good conscience just dismiss the whole AI thing based on vibes. I need to know what it is doing, and how to use it.

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science

As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...

arxiv.org

Be a dipterist. Be in Costa Rica for #FlySchool2026. See a muscoid #fly perching on a leaf. Tell student so they can collect it. Success!! Wait a minute 🤔 That's not a fly, but weevil mimicking one! This was so convincing, even rapidly moving & poking its wings out 🥰 #Curculionidae: cf. #Mnemynurus

From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation iucn.org/news/202607/...

From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums

The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation: a formal acknowledgement that natural history museums,...

iucn.org

A old-timer's concern about science as a chronic social medium, leading to the advice to spend time alone with nature and ideas. waynemaddison.wordpress.com/2026/07/25/s...

Science like no one is watching

I grew up largely unwatched. As children, David and I would go out and play unsupervised, free-range. We would go down to the ravine to explore nature. It was fun, but more than that, I think it wa…

waynemaddison.wordpress.com

Thrilled to share our #NSF award is official: we're heading to the abyssal Pacific to map deep-sea biodiversity using eDNA and ROV push coring. 16 stations, 1,024 cores, one incredible cruise. Huge thanks to co-PI @hollybik.bsky.social for leading this. 🧪 #marinelife

At the big Moth event tonight at @amnh.org people were asking about the awesome art by @fievelw.bsky.social on display! Check out #YearoftheMoth for all the awesome art from the Moth Challenge!

PL Weng@fievelw.bsky.social · 2w ago

Officially start of moth week #SciArt challenge! In conjunction with #YearOfTheMoth . . Here's no. 27 - the Somber Carpet moth (Disclisioprocta stellata) 🕶️ #somber #carpet #moth #teamMoth #mothweek2026 #mothweekart26 #mothweek mothing with @dinalab.bsky.social @amnh.org

I am excited to open my lab at @ibioillinois.bsky.social in Spring 2027! We will use zebrafish & other fishy friends to reveal the genetic basis of large scale changes in the vertebrate body plan, and how this impacts both human health and evolution. Join me at UIUC! 🧬🧫🔬 www.hawkinslaboratory.com

Realising #FAIR’s promise requires sustained investment in the infrastructures that organise, standardise, and curate #data: deposition databases and knowledgebases. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

accidental aRt

It was a pleasure to work with @nathanjaybaker.bsky.social and @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social on this long-term insect time-series. The megadiversity of #DarkTaxa is a serious blind spot for #biodiversity monitoring - by focusing on well-known groups, we neglect the vast majority of species. 🧪🦟🪰

Nathan Jay Baker@nathanjaybaker.bsky.social · 3w ago

Insect decline usually focuses on species we can name. But "dark taxa" like true flies kept revealing new species over 37-years of sampling a German stream, while well-studied mayflies/stoneflies/caddisflies plateaued with far fewer individuals. doi.org/10.1111/icad... @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social

Check out Genome Insider, the JGI’s podcast. Hear directly from users about how the JGI supports powering our future. Listen and follow on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. 🖥️ 🧬 More: jointgeno.me/GenomeInsider

Genome Insider | Joint Genome Institute

Our podcast features JGI users discovering the expertise encoded in our environment.

jointgeno.me

Our DNA library is made possible thanks to the support of our funding partners. Learn more about our funding partner, Genome Canada: 🔗https://genomecanada.ca/

Canada.ca

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Canada's federal funding agency for university-based research and student training in natural sciences and engineering. It's…

nserc-crsng.canada.ca

Some of us think TaxonWorks is pretty sweet, we might be biased. #3Dprint your own TW cookie cutter, model at www.thingiverse.com/thing:4536552. Cutter, and cookies, by #UI wiz José. As lore, our logo originated_from a collab between SFG and Pixo (pixotech.com), nearly a decade ago.

🚨 #MUSEUMJOBS KLAXON🚨 We're looking for a Senior Digitiser and two Digitisers to work across @zoologymuseum.bsky.social & @camplantsci.bsky.social to help create biodiversity data for the researchers who need it, through #DiSSCoUK. 1. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/senior-... 2. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/digitis...

Early bird 🦜discount 💵 for #TDWG2026 in #Oslo finishes in less than 48 hours on 21 July Hurry up 🏃🏾‍♀️ this is your last chance to secure discount tickets 🎟️! All presenting authors must be registered. More info: 🔗 tdwg.link/conf-registr...

Scientific fashions, perfectionisms, and the value of traditional morphological taxonomy. #evolbio #philsci 🧪 waynemaddison.wordpress.com/2026/07/16/s...

Scientific fashions, perfectionisms, and the value of traditional morphological taxonomy

Like any conversation, science goes through wave after wave of fashion. One decade, it will be all the rage to study one type of question, and to shun sloppiness of one kind but tolerate another. A…

waynemaddison.wordpress.com

Join the #TaxonWorks conversation & explore their software & community. Loosely focused on three themes, #research, #collections, and getting started, there will be lots of opportunities for conversation. #iDigBio events.zoom.us/ev/AjGnrAbjA...

Talking with TaxonWorks: Connecting Collections and Research

events.zoom.us

ERGA @ergabiodiv.bsky.social COST Action: CONSENSA Consensus Standards for Applied #Biodiversity #Genomics www.cost.eu/actions/CA25... Establishing standards for generating, analysing, interpreting, & applying genome-wide data, making evidence accurate, comparable, interoperable, & reusable

Could we get reliable medium-term evolutionary forecasting for eukaryotes?  What type of physics-scale experiment could change how we think about predicting evolution? If you're at #SMBE2026, grab Richard Nichols or me to help us craft a potential @aria-research.bsky.social moonshot investment.

The wonderful presentation by José on TaxonPages from TaxonWorks Together 2026 is now available on YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxdZ...

TaxonWorks Together 2026 - TaxonPages

YouTube video by TaxonWorks

youtube.com

4. Our advice for now: Use AI to orient yourself, but verify anything that matters. When FlyBase's own AI tools become available, those will be the methods we can properly support. For now, AI tools can be useful starting points, but researchers should still verify important details on flybase.org

TaxonWorks version 0.63.1 live 📢 Changes on this release: github.com/SpeciesFileG... 📝

Release Version 0.63.1 release · SpeciesFileGroup/taxonworks

Added type_taxon_name_relationship support to the extend[] parameter in inventory/summary.json Quick Forms: Pagination to Biological associations slice CSD: Added a button to load the associated C...

github.com

If biodiversity matters for prosperity, why are all the rich countries poor in biodiversity while those with great biodiversity are economically poor? In People and Nature we resolve this paradox and call for a reframing of the conservation agenda besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/IBRPPA...

🥁 Introducing.... the new and improved GBIF.org! 😍 Our refreshed website brings a series of enhancements to both the technical capabilities and user experience of GBIF infrastructure. Explore the new features on GBIF.org:🐅 🔗 gbif.link/new-gbif.org

🐛 Check out @gbif.org's brand new website (yay 🎉), which officially appoints Catalogue of Life as the default taxonomy for occurrence data: www.gbif.org

GBIF@gbif.org · 2mo ago

🥁 Introducing.... the new and improved GBIF.org! 😍 Our refreshed website brings a series of enhancements to both the technical capabilities and user experience of GBIF infrastructure. Explore the new features on GBIF.org:🐅 🔗 gbif.link/new-gbif.org