Dr. Sebastian A. Echeverri, PhD

Tick on a purple plant waves it's legs in the air to sense the chemicals from passing hosts, indicated by wafting multicolored scents drifting down towards the tick.

Wicked art by Kai Gietzen: Spying on the secret sensory world of ticks. Carola Städele, a self-proclaimed “tick magnet,” studies the arachnids’ sensory neurobiology—how these tiny parasites zero in on their next meal. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social: www.thetransmitter.org/neuros-ark/n... #sciart

Thank you all SO much for joining us for our ICEBREAKER Immigrant Justice marathon. You all raised $130,772.53 over for the WFM's Immigrant Rapid Response Fund in the last two days. We're just floored by the turn out and support. Again, thank you all so so much.

A flyer for Myriapod Meet-Up 2026. The flyer has a picture of a millipede on it. The millipede is tan and has a cone-shaped head.

Myriapod Meet Up 2026 will be on 1 April, 8AM - 5PM (EDT). This online event will include short talks, and a chance to share and discuss research about myriapods (and other multipedes, e.g. Onychophora). Anyone may participate in this free event (no need to give a talk).

Buying Bee Safe Plants: How to keep pesticides out of your garden | Bug Banter Podcast There may be a hidden danger lurking in the plants you purchase. Many plants sold at stores and nurseries, even native plants, are pre-treated with pesticides. So while trying to provide habitat for p...

Many plants sold at stores and nurseries, even native plants, are pre-treated with pesticides. Join us on this #BugBanterPodcast to find out how to get plants that are actually safe for wildlife!
Audio & transcript 📻 xerces.org/bug-banter/b...
Video w/ captions 📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gcz...

‘I love midges because I know what their hearts look like’: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out? Insect taxonomist Art Borkent has described and named more than 300 species of midges but fears his field of science is dying out, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be ...

Yes. Taxonomy is very much in danger of dying out. Simply because other scientists don't understand its importance and there is very little money for doing this work. 1/n

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Dark, shallow underwater scene showing three Astraspis, yellow, finless, jawless fish with armored head swimming to the right, surrounded by some algae and rocks. 3D artwork.

Murky underwater scene with two Eriptychius, dark brownish, finless, jawless fish facing each other, half buried in the soft sediment, with rocks in the background. 3D artwork.

Top view of a shallow marine environment with Eriptychius and Astraspis, two different species of jawless fishes, loitering around the soft sediment and rocks. 3D artwork.

Look at my fesh
#Art #SciArt

World Central Kitchen head José Andrés confirms Israel has closed Gaza’s borders indefinitely and warns the NGO will run out of food this week. The group is currently cooking about 1 million hot meals a day.

World Central Kitchen head José Andrés confirms Israel has closed Gaza’s borders indefinitely and warns the NGO will run out of food this week. The group is currently cooking about 1 million hot meals a day.

They've been talking like that about trans people for awhile now.

Texas AG Paxton Declares Therapists Affirming Trans Youth To Be Illegal And Child Abuse The declaration echoes his 2022 efforts to target parents of trans youth with child abuse, and may force conversion therapy on trans youth in the state.

1. This morning, Texas AG Ken Paxton just released a chilling new declaration:

Mental health therapists, counselors, and psychologists must cease affirming trans youth - using their name and pronouns - or potentially face child abuse charges and loss of licensure.

Its a horrifying escalation.

I am already seeing "it's a distraction!" takes and please fucking kill me

My guess is that Israel will also start bombing Iranian hospitals and universities, "in self-defense".

Gaza was a blueprint.

Things are extremely bleak. Pointless wars being started by pathetic men who need to do this shit to feel powerful. I hope a better world is possible.

A crude MS paint sketch of Pombon from Pokemon Winds and Waves drawn with an extremely long body and many legs.

multiple friends have expressed to me how much they don't want pombon to become bipedal

so i propose to you: pombonbonbonbonbonbonbon

ICE has not left Minneapolis. Our neighbors are still being taken by masked secret police.

To Avoid Care Disruptions, Know When the Clock Runs Out on Your Prior Authorization - KFF Health News A Massachusetts woman knew the medicine her doctor prescribed required preauthorization, but she didn’t realize the approval had an expiration date. It took nearly three weeks of phone calls and paper...

Prior authorizations are the devil's work and they keep finding new ways to make them terrible.

SecDef Hegseth Announces Trans Scouts In Scouting America Will Be Outed, Segregated The policy is the latest in a trend of organizations capitulating to Trump over transgender people.

1. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that under a new deal with Scouting America, formerly Boy Scouts of America, trans scouts will be forcibly outed and segregated from peers of their gender.

The policy is the latest cruel capitulation.

www.erininthemorning.com/p/secdef-heg...

Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

Breaking WaPo:

Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

Parkside Chats: 2025 Monarch Butterfly Population Count (February 25, 2026). Page 1 with Emma Pelton and Dena Spatz, plus some Q&A.

Parkside Chats: 2025 Monarch Butterfly Population Count (February 25, 2026). Page 2 with Dena Spatz, Stephanie Little, and Emma Pelton again, plus some more Q&A and a few links.

Notes from today's online presentation about the 2025 Western Monarch butterfly count. Hosted by @californiaparks.bsky.social and featuring Dena Spatz, Stephanie Little, and Emma Pelton of @xercessociety.bsky.social.

What we bug lovers can do in the Year of the Horse? To admire the humble camel cricket! Known as Zao Ma in Chinese, which means “kitchen horse”, it is the mount of the Kitchen God Zao Jun, and brings good fortune & indicates plenty of food on the plates.

lmao

Immigrant Kids Detained in ‘Unsafe and Unsanitary’ Sites as Trump Team Seeks To End Protections - KFF Health News President Donald Trump’s Justice Department seeks to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which since 1997 has required U.S. immigration officials to hold migrant children in facilities that are...

The Trump admin is pushing to terminate rules that mandate basic rights & sanitary conditions for detained children.

Already, CBP is detaining kids in tents, airports & prison-like settings, according to lawyers

By @sandywestreporter.bsky.social @kffhealthnews.org kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

We're horse posting, post your horses

#art #sciart #gamedev #crab

Little brown salticid boy with bright green 1st leg pair, peering over the edge of a dry oak leaf with his little feets on the edge

Sneaking up on the edge of leaf to peer over it 👀

Habronattus notialis boys are silly little cats
#EmotionalSupportSpood

Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days “I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.

Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Sending this to the science and #invertebrates feeds. @xercessociety.bsky.social does great work! 🧪

exile: does anyone want anything from the store

kreia: the arrogance to consider the store will have "anything" astounds

exile: ok does anyone else want anything from the store

mandalore: i require a coke, to ensure performance in battle

kreia: actually i will also have a coke

Tamer Nahed 𓂆🇵🇸 @Tamer_Alnoaizy BlueSky is one of the worst platforms I have ever dealt with. Within seconds of creating a second account, after my first one was shut down just two days after it was created, my account was closed again. This happened despite the fact that I hadn’t posted anything or followed anyone. I was only in the process of adding a profile photo, yet I received an email claiming that my account was “spam” and that it was “causing harm.” What kind of logic is this? The painful truth is that the account was shut down the moment it became clear it was created from inside Gaza. It seems we are no longer allowed to write or speak about what is happening to us here. They are not afraid of content itself, but of our voices and the reality we carry with us. Millions are spent to silence these voices and to erase the truth. I am exhausted by this platform and by how our photos and videos, which document real suffering, are treated as “violations of community standards,” as if pain itself has become a crime. What is happening is not simple moderation or policy enforcement. It is an attempt to erase our existence and bury the truth. And honestly, this is shameful and unbearably painful. [the original poster has included two screenshots showing the email from bluesky admin informing him that his account has been taken down for being 'spammy, inauthentic or disruptive to users'. it's the standard boilerplate you get when they take moderation action.] 2:45 PM · Feb 10, 2026 https://twitter.com/Tamer_Alnoaizy/status/2021234178461704409

palestinian journalist posting on twitter that his bluesky account was immediately taken down purely because he was in gaza. all palestinian accounts are assumed to be spam.

He literally says in this clip that ICE will keep in Minnesota “quick reaction forces” — a military term — to go after “agitators.” Remember that those on the ground in MPLS have spent more than a week trying to tell everyone that Trump’s prior “deescalation” was a ruse and ICE is still operational

To me the chatbots pose zero interesting questions about the ‘nature of selfhood’ but dozens about the nature of manipulation. Here the Claude team pretends they are programming the robot for ethical responses but they land on one that is false and disingenuous.