Since the iDigBio Portal is shutting down, I downloaded 35.000 weevil images as a backup (github.com/weevil-see/i...). Now I am doomscrolling scolytines! This is what funding cuts are taking from you...
Melvin Williams
@mlvnwllms.bsky.social
OEB PhD student @Harvard in the lab of Naomi Pierce 🐜🦋🐛🪲🐝
These jellyfish larvae: * . * . * . * . * * . * . * * . *
This definitely forbidden gummy is in fact a moth larva of genus Olona (possibly Olona zolotuhini). It's *normal* to want to know what flavor it is, but the answer, unfortunately is "pain". Most species in this family are covered in tiny stinging spines connected to poison glands. (📷: Janice Ang)
New research finds that nursing carpenter ants apply their venom to their brood to prevent fungal infections, highlighting peptides’ role in colony hygiene and social immunity. Learn more in this week’s issue of #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/3PfGh24
Teaching Retreat to Explore the Future of Undergraduate Science Education at Harvard #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social @harvard.edu @dulaclab.bsky.social @neurovenki.bsky.social @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social
Teaching Retreat to Explore the Future of Undergraduate Science Education at Harvard - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Faculty, instructors, postdoctoral fellows, and teaching staff from across Harvard will gather on Tuesday, May 19, for a daylong Teaching Retreat focused on undergraduate science education, innovative...
mcb.harvard.edu
'Philosophers of Many Minds': A selection of our interviews with philosophers!! 🎙️🎙️ Now on Spotify: open.spotify.com/playlist/6UZ...
Philosophers of Many Minds
open.spotify.com
Talk about an in-flight meal. Last year, researchers reported on capturing rats hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky. Learn more on #WorldRatDay: https://scim.ag/47vw4Ve
New preprint! We sequenced 175 'Alalā (Hawaiian crow) genomes to understand why >50% of eggs fail to hatch in a species recovered from just 9 individuals. What we found was a both exciting and surprising. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Male octopuses use a specialized arm that acts as both a sensory and reproductive organ to navigate the female’s mantle, locate oviducts, and transfer sperm. These findings reveal how sensory systems shape reproductive behavior and drive speciation. Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4dYMtFq
🐨🧬First came the reference genome. Then came the deeper story. Biodiversity genomics is helping reveal resilience and recovery across wild koala populations. 🐨 This study is a reminder that reference genomes are not the finish line, but the foundation for discovery. @bioplatformsaus.bsky.social
I love it when a native pollinator garden comes together! A visitor to our lantana this evening, the lined sphinx Hyles lineata.
Evolutionary Clues Reveal How a Key Hearing Protein Adapted for Function 🧪 🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @nbellono.bsky.social @treyjscott.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @harvardoeb.bsky.social @currentbiology.bsky.social
Evolutionary Clues Reveal How a Key Hearing Protein Adapted for Function - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
A new study in Current Biology (PDF) sheds light on how a critical protein underlying hearing evolved to perform its specialized role in vertebrate sensory systems—offering a rare […]
mcb.harvard.edu
“Trillions of insects embark, largely unnoticed, on epic journeys every year across mountain ranges, deserts and seas, and it is only now, as their numbers suffer huge declines, that scientists are tracking their movements” #scicomm #migration #navigation www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🧪 🦋 🐙
Butterflies crossing oceans, moths navigating by the stars: unravelling the mysteries of insect migrations
Trillions of insects embark, largely unnoticed, on epic journeys every year across mountain ranges, deserts and seas, and it is only now, as their numbers suffer huge declines, that scientists are tra...
theguardian.com
A pop. lit. piece from the BBC discussing whalefall ecology. Lots of our favorite critters get a mention: hagfish, scale worms, snot flower worms, amphipods We’re constantly surprised': The strange deep-sea creatures that eat whales share.google/amJpU2HEyDqs...
'We’re constantly surprised': The strange deep-sea creatures that eat whales
From bone-eating snot-flowers to snowboarding scale worms, when a whale dies it becomes a colossal island of nutrients – attracting weird and wonderful creatures to feast.
share.google
Donald Trump’s Alzheimer’s or senile dementia has reached unzipping his fly level, complete disinhibition. He has always blurted, but now there’s not even a thin layer of self-protecting hypocrisy left. We cannot have this man, saying this, in power for another minute.
I hate how math is forced to continuously justify itself by its uses and it can't just be allowed to stand on its own. Humans have done art for thousands of years because that's what humans do. It's the same with math. Humans reason about pretend things that don't matter, and that's okay.
"Beth Shapiro stated that the three animals are "grey wolves with 20 edits" as purportedly stated by the company "from the very beginning", acknowledging that it is impossible to bring back an extinct organism" These are deeply unserious people and even using the term "science" here is misleading.
NPR@npr.org · 6mo agoA Texas biotech company is trying to bring mammoths and other extinct creatures back to life. The science is as intriguing as the ethical questions are thorny.
The science is as over-hyped and borderline fraudulent as the ethics are thorny (and that doesn't even count the George Church, friend of Epstein angle)
NPR@npr.org · 6mo agoA Texas biotech company is trying to bring mammoths and other extinct creatures back to life. The science is as intriguing as the ethical questions are thorny.
What a wonderful thing this will be for so, so many people, if it turns out to work. Once we get rid of RFKjr and his lackeys.
Nanoparticle system shows promise for delivering mRNA to prevent type 1 diabetes
Research on preventing type 1 diabetes often focuses on limiting the autoimmune response that destroys the body's ability to produce its own insulin. A new technology developed by scientists at the Un...
phys.org
"Diversity within species contributes to ecosystem functioning and represents an often-overlooked layer of biodiversity." #Biodiversity - we have so little understanding of what we are trashing www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Who’d guess they’re the same species?’ What Italy’s wall lizards reveal about genetic diversity and why it matters
Understanding biodiversity within species is key to our understanding of why nature works the way it does, say researchers
theguardian.com
Salinity tunes mode of multicellularity in a tidepool choanoflagellate www.nature.com/articles/s41... - paper in @nature.com
Clonal-aggregative multicellularity tuned by salinity in a choanoflagellate - Nature
The choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa forms motile and contractile cell monolayers purely clonally, purely aggregatively or through a combination of both processes depending on environmental condi...
nature.com
It looked like a normal bee in an orchard, but after a few seconds, a scientist realized she was seeing something that almost no one had ever seen in that area before www.ecoticias.com/en/it-looked... #NY #bees #science
It looked like a normal bee in an orchard, but after a few seconds, a scientist realized she was seeing something that almost no one had ever seen in that area before
Rare chestnut mining bee rediscovered in New York orchard, marking its first Central NY sighting in over a century.
ecoticias.com
Billions of your tax dollars are going to Palantir — and the police state it's helping Trump build could soon be used against you.
The Most Dangerous Corporation in America?
The AI surveillance state is real — and it's being built by Palantir.
youtube.com
Giant tortoises restored to Galápagos island nearly 200 years after they were wiped out. #biodiversity www.bbc.com/news/article...
Giant tortoises return to Galápagos island after nearly 200 years
The native species was driven to extinction by sailors in the 1800s. Now, 158 juvenile giant tortoises have been reintroduced to the island.
bbc.com
There is no way you can support this man at this point, he is calling for the destruction of entire nations based on his whims. If we do not act quickly, the destruction and loss of human life on this planet will be unprecedented. No matter your beliefs I think we can all agree this is morally wrong
Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 7mo agoTrump: "The court has given me the unquestioned right to... destroy foreign countries." The US Supreme Court has done no such thing.
How do busy bees avoid overheating from flying? New measurements could help predict pollinators’ ability to withstand climate change. Learn more: https://scim.ag/46ZlLbt
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed E.O. 9066, authorizing the forced relocation & incarceration of more than 125,000 Japanese Americans, solely because of their heritage.
I'm very happy to share that a paper from my DPhil thesis has been selected as the Editor's Choice article in Evolution. 😊 You can read it here: lnkd.in/eCnAQfzT 🐜 @journal-evo.bsky.social #EvolutionaryBiology #SocialEvolution #Insects
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland. And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
Kyle Cassidy@kylecassidy.bsky.social · 7mo agoI’m constantly astounded at the sheer level of artistic production coming out of Iceland. Novels, movies, music. Amazing.