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

An important and beautiful paper on the central role of natural history in ecology and evolutionary biology.

American Naturalist / ASN 🐌@asn-amnat.bsky.social · 3w ago

Historical Perspective: Sridhar et al. use the backstories of famous scientific papers in Ecology and Evolution to uncover the background roles of natural history that are written out of papers. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Historical Perspective: Sridhar et al. use the backstories of famous scientific papers in Ecology and Evolution to uncover the background roles of natural history that are written out of papers. Available now ahead of print! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

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

What is the current maximum capacity of your iPhone battery? (Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity) 1️⃣ 79% 2️⃣ 80% 3️⃣ 81% 4️⃣ other 📊 Show results

Am I the only one whose iPhone battery's measured Maximum Capacity has been stuck at 81% for months, even though it seems to be declining? Interesting that Apple judges the batteries to be worthy of warranty/AppleCare replacement when their capacity drops below 80%... 🤔

Anyone else printing hard copies of their papers, so they can be found in the rubble after the collapse of civilization?

An old quip: "All stories you read in the newspaper are completely true except those for which you have first-hand information." This has many corollaries, e.g. "All clades are purely diverging, without introgression, except for those for which you have the pertinent data." 🧪 #evolbio

The end of an era: the Tree of Life Web Project is going dark after 3 decades. Anyone interested in communicating phylogeny online should read David's account of goals, history, and future. @bembidion.bsky.social subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...

The Passing of the Tree of Life Web Project

The Tree of Life Web Project began its journey almost 40 years ago, and was formally announced in early 1996. It has served thousands of pages of information about the evolutionary tree of life and…

subulatepalpomere.com

Have any of you played the ZoL adventure game in Mesquite 4.02? (It's pretty short in its current version.) We'd welcome feedback about it as a game for students learning phylogeny.

Wayne Maddison@waynemaddison.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The scoop: To get to Mesquite's adventure game, type "ZoL" into the log window. You will find yourself in an open field with a mailbox. 📬 (If that does nothing, then you'll need to turn on "Use Log Window for Command" under File>Defaults>.)

Does Mesquite's phylogenetic adventure game look familiar to anyone? 🧪 #evolbio

The scoop: To get to Mesquite's adventure game, type "ZoL" into the log window. You will find yourself in an open field with a mailbox. 📬 (If that does nothing, then you'll need to turn on "Use Log Window for Command" under File>Defaults>.)

Wayne Maddison@waynemaddison.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Has anyone taken up the challenge of finding the adventure game in Mesquite? 🔍

👀 Mesquite's adventure game has been discovered by @josephwb.bsky.social! BTW, for those of you teaching phylogeny of all life or a particular group of organisms, the adventure game is designed for students to test their knowledge of relationships. (Yes, we'll reveal how to access the game!)

Wayne Maddison@waynemaddison.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Has anyone taken up the challenge of finding the adventure game in Mesquite? 🔍

Has anyone taken up the challenge of finding the adventure game in Mesquite? 🔍

Wayne Maddison@waynemaddison.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Mesquite now has a built-in adventure game, which you may be able to find if you say the correct magic word. You can also build your own versions of the game. 🤔

Mesquite 4.02 update released! It fixes a few bugs and adds Codon Alignment and various other improvements. Also, much faster with genomics files with 1000s of loci. www.mesquiteproject.org 🧪 #evolbio @bembidion.bsky.social

Drama among punctuation marks. Brilliant. www.instagram.com/reel/DIFU9g2...

🌳 Losing touch with nature A new study finds people’s connection to nature has fallen 60% since 1800, risking an 'extinction of experience' without radical change. 🔗 www.theguardian.com/environment/... #SciComm 🧪 #Nature

Human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years, study finds

Prof Miles Richardson says people risk ‘extinction of experience’ in the natural world without new policies

theguardian.com

Confused writing is usually a symptom of confused thinking. As we struggle to clarify writing, we clarify our thoughts. AI writing aids rob us of that struggle, leaving clean-looking text and thoughts still confused for lack of inspection. Writing is not just a product; it is a diagnostic tool.

The fifth law of thermodynamics is that in a closed system, bureaucracy will always increase over time. There remains the possibility that this is merely a specific instance of the second law, with bureaucracy = entropy.

At this juncture in the research pertaining to COVID infection & Long COVID, people really should understand that COVID sets fire to their bodies in a multitude of ways, that death is NOT the only outcome to be concerned about, & that death can still follow COVID infection.

Physicians for a Healthy Democracy@physiciandemocracy.medsky.social · 12mo ago

@tmprowell.bsky.social #medsky

Please help us spread the word! Please amplify! We are searching for an associate or full professor (Canada Excellence Research Chair) in Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph! 🐟🌿🦠🐜🐸🐝 Applications are due October 6 2025. careers.uoguelph.ca/job/Guelph-C... #AcademicJobs #EvoBio

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

Google Scholar Is Doomed

Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

hannahshelley.neocities.org

The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring! We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.

Herbarium director position opening at Oregon State University ‪@osu-herbarium.bsky.social‬ Great opportunity for herbarium- and field-trained botanists at any rank. bpp.oregonstate.edu/bpp/about/op...

A stained-glass piece of mine from a few years ago. #Canada

Phylogenomics processing of locus-by-locus files with inconsistent taxon names in Mesquite 4, a short video (3 minutes). youtu.be/YdSWQMkW92k (Channel: bit.ly/4eM2SLZ) 🧪 #evolbio @bembidion.bsky.social

Processing of locus-by-locus files with inconsistent taxon names in Mesquite 4

YouTube video by Mesquite ProjectTeam

youtu.be

Reading and viewing tree files output by different programs in Mesquite 4, a short video (3 minutes). youtu.be/MVk4aira8A8 (Channel: bit.ly/4eM2SLZ) 🧪 #evolbio @bembidion.bsky.social

Reading files with different tree dialects in Mesquite 4

YouTube video by Mesquite ProjectTeam

youtu.be

A two-minute video showing how to export geographic localities and trees from Mesquite 4 into Google Earth. youtu.be/tdOVmR122ts 🧪 #evolbio

Exporting to Google Earth

YouTube video by Mesquite ProjectTeam

youtu.be

Junior Professor Chair at MNHN Paris : Integrative Taxonomy for Describing Biological Diversity odyssee.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/procedures/r... filesender.renater.fr?s=download&t...

I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science