Stephen Murphy (smurph)
@smurph.bsky.social
Professor at U Waterloo - Sch Environment, Resources & Sustainability. Ecologist, EIC Restoration Ecology, Botanist, Protected Areas, Grasslands. https://uwaterloo.ca/environment-resources-and-sustainability/blog/you-break-it-we-fix-it
👇THIS. I've co-edited four books. Total revenue to me and the co-editors is maybe $3K (over 30 years).
Dr. T. Flo (Trying to get back on two feet in 2026)@tnflorvil.bsky.social · 6h agoGreetings, Psst, most academics aren't making much money from their book publications. They can't use their royalties. This means we are not popping our collars and purchasing prosecco or NA prosecco. The few scholars who are making bank are not publishing with university/academic presses.
Hey @stephenbheard.bsky.social you have quite the prominent booster here with Dr. Gill. (for all, the book on how to write scientifically is awesome!)
Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 6h agoI can’t say enough good things about this book, which my entire lab read together several years ago. It was hugely helpful to me even after tenure, and I consider myself to be a strong writer who usually loves writing!
"Plant tissue lifespans: Solving a fundamental mystery in plant ecology". PhD opportunity for domestic (Australia/New Zealand) candidates, closes 30 September: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Fires beyond fire-prone ecosystems: the erosion of beech forest doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... @globalchangebio.bsky.social Global warming weakens the flammability barrier & enables fire to spread beyond fire-prone ecosystems, into fire-sensitive spp 🧪🌍🔥🪴🌱🍁🌐 wildfire #ClimateChange #GlobalChange #Fagus
A flowering plant has been confirmed as a new carnivorous lineage, says research in Nature Communications. Findings show Saxifraga candelabrum can attract, trap, & digest insects, and absorb nitrogen from them, supporting prediction made by Charles Darwin: spklr.io/63323EuqgT #Biology 🌾 🧪
Identification of carnivory in the flowering plant Saxifraga via multidisciplinary evidence - Nature Communications
Carnivorous plants capture and digest insects for nutrients, an adaptive strategy typically found in wetlands. This study identifies carnivory in the alpine Saxifraga plant lineage, supporting Darwin's hypothesis of carnivory in this genus.
spklr.io
Time for Canada/provinces to make this possible here too. We should be allowed to have nice things that lower bills and emissions!
🇨🇦Joe Vipond🇨🇦@jvipondmd.bsky.social · 2d ago"new state laws and safety codes are reclassifying these plug-in kits as standard appliances — meaning renters can finally treat home solar like a simple toaster oven, plugging a personal power plant into any wall socket and cutting electricity bills by up to 25% with zero landlord approval."
New News & Views: "A grass-specific route to salicylic acid" rdcu.be/fxOA1 Two complementary studies in rice identify the missing SA biosynthesis enzymes and reveal that grasses and eudicots evolved distinct biochemical solutions to produce the same defence hormone. #PlantScience
Most lowland woods in England are criss-crossed with drainage ditches, dug to help intensive forestry exploitation. Most woods no longer managed, but drainage still maintained for convenience of dogwalkers etc., losing ponds, bogs. Re-wetting woodland to buffer against droughts should be a priority.
Guy Shrubsole@guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 4d agoAustralia has a completely different set of ecosystems to the UK. In Britain, you don’t fight fire with fire: you fight it with water. We have allowed landowners to comprehensively drain our peat bogs, remove farmland ponds, riddle landscapes with field drains. Make Britain Wet Again!
Sublinear #DensityDependence is widely reported empirically, but is at odds with theory. @jamesaorr.bsky.social &co use a tightly controlled test in a microbial model system to reveal superlinear density dependence, so aligning empirical evidence with theory @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4vwAmEZ
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
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
Now here is an absolute stunner of a robber fly. In the genus Lampria, possibly L. clavipes. So beautiful!
Gomer Pyle's Iconic 'Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!'
ALT: Gomer Pyle's Iconic 'Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!'
static.klipy.com
Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray”@ryanjreilly.com · 5d agoBREAKING: The Trump administration has moved to drop its felony Reflecting Pool case against a former Olympic canoeist, admitting their allegations against David "Davey" Hearn don't hold water.
Now reading 📖 Cruz, Nicole (2026). Illusions of Understanding from Outsourcing Thinking to LLMs. Computational Brain & Behavior doi.org/10.1007/s421... 1/🧵
Illusions of Understanding from Outsourcing Thinking to LLMs - Computational Brain & Behavior
Computational Brain & Behavior - Some illusions of understanding are an inevitable part of the research process, while others can be avoided or overcome by careful critical thinking and...
doi.org
BREAKING: Google has rolled back its tool less than a day after it launched. Updated story coming soon.
Very excited for this new essay at "Can We Still Govern?": The key claim is that planning for a progressive future cannot just focus on new policies. It also has to include - to start with - political power. What does a power-shifting perspective look like? 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rebuilding...
Rebuilding Democracy Requires Rebalancing Power
What does a power-shifting agenda look like?
donmoynihan.substack.com
WildMarsh Europe Survey halfway – an update from Wales, Spain and France penyu.nl/wildmarsh-eu...
WildMarsh Europe Survey halfway – an update from Wales, Spain and France
What does it take to keep a salt marsh resilient to climate change? And how does rewilding change ecosystem functioning? This week, we’re out looking for answers on the ground (and in the mud) in sout...
penyu.nl
Absolutely nuts: Google Earth now has a feature that lets you convincingly fabricate satellite imagery www.digitaldigging.org/p/how-to-pla...
We're hiring at Canadian Centre for Climate Services. Several positions, closing soon (Aug 4), open to full time students - see all details here emploisfp-psjobs.cfp-psc.gc.ca/psrs-srfp/ap...
Research Assistant - Climate Services
emploisfp-psjobs.cfp-psc.gc.ca
Correct, sadly. This is also a function of human biases in terms of scale. As in “only 59,000” of 41 million died. Ghoulish. Politicians will exploit 1 murder. People take that personally. But 59,000 is too abstract so politicians learn to ignore that horrible number. Cynical but it works.
Michael DeMoor@michaeldemoor.bsky.social · last wk.Even in Canada, I fear that the key lessons politicians have “learned” from the pandemic is that it is less political trouble for them to let people die than it is to do what’s necessary to keep them alive.
Always happy to see new mapping tools for R. David Willinger's **{cartographr}** is a welcome addition to the spatial visualization ecosystem. The more the merrier! cran.r-project.org/package=cart... #rspatial #rstats #Cartography #DataViz #GeoSpatial
cartographr: Crafting Print-Ready Maps and Layered Visualizations
Simplifying the creation of print-ready maps, this package offers a user-friendly interface derived from 'ggplot2' for handling OpenStreetMap data. It streamlines the map-making process, allowing…
cran.r-project.org
Someone should really compile a list of the best and worst use of stats on TV/in movies for us to use when teaching.
📢 PhD opportunity at the University of Helsinki! Join the ANEW project to study ecological networks, seed dispersal and biodiversity conservation under global change. Apply by 31 Aug 2026. 🔗 jobs.helsinki.fi/job/31_8_202... #PhD #Ecology #Conservation #AcademicJobs
Doctoral Researcher (PhD student) in Ecological Networks and Biodiversity Conservation
Doctoral Researcher (PhD student) in Ecological Networks and Biodiversity Conservation
jobs.helsinki.fi
Here's EPA's press release. Exempting data centers from pollution regulations is touted as "safeguarding communities." 🙃 www.epa.gov/newsreleases...
EPA Issues Permitting Guidance to Further President Trump’s Agenda Promoting Data Centers and Safeguarding Communities | US EPA
This month, EPA issued guidance clarifying that the Clean Air Act Acid Rain Program does not apply to power generation facilities that are not connected to a public electricity grid, commonly referred...
epa.gov