Very interesting article, and in my field (plant taxonomy etc.) the bottlenecks are fieldwork, museum work, permits, grants, old literature, and simply 'we do not know what we are looking for until we have found a new species' - it is discovery in the unknown sometimes, not based on data we have.

Ran Blekhman@blekhman.bsky.social · last wk.

Everyone says AI will accelerate science. I don't think it will -- at least not in biology, and at least not soon. New post where I explain why, and how the productivity paradox can be resolved: blekhman.substack.com/p/why-ai-wil...

Great writing about bottom-up processing, the power of observation of details, how the eyes search for the different and the specific, and linkages between and to autism, cooking, meaning, and nature exploration - it is a great read! #cooking #skills #ability #nature #iNaturalist #neurons

Sarah E. Kelsey@botanylicious.bsky.social · last mo.

New essay on #neurodivergence and nature, with detours to a Sandhills roadside paradise and my kitchen. Cover photo is a box turtle eating a white mushroom. All photos in the essay have alt text, and the post includes voiceover narration. #CNF #ActuallyAutistic #NatureWriting #NaturePhotography

If you haven't checked out @botanylicious.bsky.social and her gorgeous blog, photogenic photos and insightful text about nature in urban and non-urban Georgia, USA, please do. She is a lawyer by day, and a species nerd by day and night. (And, she was my student at Rutgers too.) Thanks Sarah!

Sarah E. Kelsey@botanylicious.bsky.social · last mo.

Georgia's passionflowers and the #insects that depend on them. Lots of #MacroPhotography and an essay. Cover photo is yellow passionflower, Passiflora lutea. Alt text for all photos and voiceover narration for accessibility. #CNF #NatureWriting #BugSky #MacroMonday #Bloomscrolling #Passiflora

"Hence our dismal conclusion: rather than finding that LLMs free us to do a better job of what we were doing before they came along, they shift scientific incentives (and the playing field of academic competition) in ways that compel us to do more and more, faster and faster, less and less well."

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2w ago

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.

Like fine beadwork, or stitches. #swallowtail #butterfly #closeup

WE DON'T NEED PETROLEUM-BASED PLASTICS ANYMORE! "The [bamboo plastic] outperforms most commercial plastics and bioplastics in mechanical and thermo-mechanical metrics while maintaining full biodegradability in soil within 50 days and closed-loop recyclability with 90% retained strength."

High-strength, multi-mode processable bamboo molecular bioplastic enabled by solvent-shaping regulation - Nature Communications

Bioplastics derived from biomass show promise as sustainable alternatives to petrochemical plastics, but their adoption is hindered by their inferior mechanical properties and processability. Here, th...

nature.com

Welcome to Shrimp City! Teach your friends about a variety of crustaceans with this helpful visual aid - and set the record straight... bugs is shrimp. Shrimp is not bugs These shirts are designed by @the666cat.bsky.social & printed in Philly! Get one at SquidFacts.net (pls RT!)

This is a revelation.

Alina Rehkopf@arehkopf.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Which is actually really helpful to know because then all I have to do is that thing and it feels like I've accomplished a lot 😆

Same experience, but different reason - my day got sidetracked by hackers (who managed only to waste our time majorly), rain (thankfully), and unexpected deals on FB Marketplace. Plus work. And creative writing. Plus frogs in the dark at night. And planted rhubarb and two fig trees. #life #time

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D.@sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"I didn't do SHIT today!" I said to my cat Otis as she snoozes. Then I remembered that I had a doc appt, ran a livestream, prepped for a product launch, transferred seed packs to a community partner, and had a meeting with another community partner. Why does my brain report that as "nothing"?1

Awe.

Peter Lewis@peterlewis55.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Shooting at the sweet spot! This evening's Moonshot - 32.5% waxing crescent - in a blue dusky sky! #astronomy #astrophotography @stormhour.com @photohour.bsky.social

This reminds me of 1980s Swedish bands like Ebba Grön etc.

Rob Burton@trebornotrub.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Kids are gonna be alright - Punk still rules and they are dissing A.I. Check them out on Facebook - Knights of Molino Or their website: knightsofmolino.com SF Bay Area punk band. Erik on guitar/vocals, Rowan on bass, and Tommy on drums/vocals #Music #Punk #LiveMusic

The pandemic-planted peonies have now erupted exploded/ matured / found their loveliness in my garden in these crazy bad times. Then it rain-hailed 1 inch @ 30 min in a violent #thunderstorm, but they survived! Bent down but alive and rebounding. Small lovely #garden things in the greater scheme…

This Mars photo is so... evocative, incredible, beautiful, soothing - add your own adjective :)

Andrea Luck@andrealuck.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Mars - Clouds over Terra Cimmeria - ESA Mars Express HRSC Full size 5k image: flic.kr/p/2sdpsHP 🔭🧪 Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck CC BY 2025-07-24 South is up HR211_0000 ND3+GR3+BL3

I love things like this. And then wonder - how does this match up with people's movements over thousands of years. (Beck and Dale are similar to old norse names, for example)

Michael Merrifield@astromikemerri.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Very cool analysis of names for geographic features in the UK. My former PhD student Tom Peterken may have moved on from astrophysics, but great to see him still using those data analysis and visualisation skills on such interesting things. 🧪 www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-pe...

In 2017, Criselda Vasquez painted this portrait of her parents and titled it "The New American Gothic." Last month, her father, the man in this portrait, was abducted by ICE after being in the US for 30+ years. The family is now struggling with bills. A GoFundMe has been started: gofund.me/456d8a193

Life Rate Accounting is what really counts!

bingley567@bingley567.bsky.social · 3mo ago

True, but just TRY to get something like this past the GOP.

This is fantastic in so many ways - click on the post and then read and see the threads with all the other images.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 3mo ago

THREAD. A while ago my parents' cat Bridget went missing. As the worrying weeks dragged on my dad devised a way to distract himself: he began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time & inhabiting art's most iconic scenes. What he produced (& how quickly) was phenomenal...

"Scientists don't want you to know-" Buddy there are so many things I, as a scientist, want you to know and the only thing stopping me from writing more papers and posts about it and then starting a podcast to tell you even MORE things is that I am limited by hours in the day

Yes, and we are animals too, eating plants, fungi, algae, and animals (and bacteria and archaea). It is all connected.

zupiz@zupiz.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is your reminder that despite being full of microplastics, YOU are still nature. When you look at trees, bugs, birds, leaves, you are looking at yourself. Our society is so anthropocentric that we often see ourselves as separate. That separation is a lie taught to disconnect you. Reconnect!! 🌱

It is the time of red columbines, aquilegias, and aklejas, depending on your language preference. Flowering today in New Jersey (USA) and reminding me of Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as the beauty of native plants. This species insist on growing here in the shaded gravel spot. #botany

Goals.

Maximillian Potter@maxpotter.bsky.social · 3mo ago

AOC seems to personify the subtle art of not giving a fuck. Meaning she gives a fuck about what matters. And that seems to make The Club nervous. markmanson.net/not-giving-a...

A great read, with wow examples, about (unfortunately fantastic) examples of AI slop from the #knitting and #craft communities. Sad, but remember. It is the real things that matter. Try to wear an AI-knitted sweater (and I am not talking about knitting machines, they are real). #AIslop #AIfail

GenghisKait - commissions open, dm for info@genghiskait.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Great article about how AI is invading knitting spaces and why that’s a problem: katedaviesdesigns.com/2026/04/29/k...

In celebration of #YearOfTheMoth, the Mothbox team hired an artist in Panama, David Francesco, to create a fun sticker pack so you can more adequately express yourself online via Moths! Available in @signal.org (and telegram + WhatsApp below!) #sciart #teammoth signal.art/addstickers/...

Sarah, love your writing! And your screaming birds too ;)

Sarah E. Kelsey@botanylicious.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is certainly not my most beautiful photo, but it made me laugh: a phone photo of my lifer #GreatTailedGrackle doing what grackles do — scream — at my car. At the OKC REI parking lot, it was my first lifer of the road trip west. #BirdOfTheDay #Black #RedWed #ColorADay #BirdPhotography #Grackle

The #moon last Saturday night, a day past full, over Overflow Creek, a tributary of the Chattooga River in Rabun County, GA #BWFri #ColorADay #NorthGeorgia #NaturePhotography

Lots of lessons for professors and teachers (and university administrators) to learn from this total disruption.

Sickos Committee@sickoscommittee.org · 3mo ago

Hope none of y’all need to sign into your Canvas accounts for a while. Looks like 275 million users across 8,809 universities have been affected.

Americans don't appreciate the long term damage from a catastrophic interruption to scientific research. Continuity between generations of researchers, loss of long term testing data, expatriation of the most talented and dedicated scientists- Turning the money back on in a few years will not fix it

So glad to see this work being spread - innovative beginner-level #botany #education using popular #music, media, and science, love and poetry, based on #TaylorSwift and botanical #biodiversity. Congratulations Gláucia Silva and everyone. (link to article in comment below)

Longtail News@longtail-news.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Feed: "Botany One" By: Renata Cantoro on Wednesday, May 6, 2026

This is exactly why language matters: “women were given the vote” frames equality as a gift from men, instead of hard won political power extracted through organized resistance. Nobody gave women anything. Women fought, marched, strategized, endured violence, went to prison and died for it.

For those biologists and mycologists that are wondering, the fungus is the mold Aspergillus calidoustus. Abbreviating the genus with only an A. is not cool, what if it was Amanita or Alternaria? :) #taxonomy #mycology And yes, it can infect humans: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/...

Lee Billings@leebillings.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Scientists isolated a fungus—A. calidoustus—from NASA’s clean rooms where Mars-bound spacecraft are prepped. Then they tried and failed to kill it with conditions mimicking Mars and deep space. The implications... aren’t great. www.scientificamerican.com/article/coul...