Markus Eichhorn

Students bring Covid compensation claim against 36 more universities It comes after University College London settled a claim from students there over lost learning in the pandemic.

By making a settlement in their own interest, UCL have opened Pandora's Box for UKHE. Regardless of the merit of the claims, many of these universities are already in serious financial difficulty.

Watch out for unsolicited wand pics.

A Jen Calleja display at Tills Bookshop in Edinburgh 🤯

Books shown:

Favorita by Michelle Steinbeck tr. me (Faber)
The City and the World by Gregor Hens tr. me (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Fair: The Life-Art of Translation by me (Prototype)
The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann tr. me (Serpent's Tail)

Chester Zoo gains botanical garden status in UK first Chester Zoo is recognised as an internationally important botanic garden for its plant conservation.

Chester Zoo has long been worth a visit for its excellent gardens and landscaping. Also contains animals if you're into that sort of thing.

Where Could Ireland and Britain’s Temperate Rainforest Actually Go? Katerina Chernyuk highlights the need to understand the various factors impacting temperate rainforests and shares her team’s research investigating the potential climate envelopes in Ireland…

Atlantic rain forests have become a hot topic in the UK and Ireland with demands for their restoration. But where could they go? Our PhD student Kat Chernyuk describes her first paper addressing the environmental factors: 🧪🌏🌲🌳

🚨3 Lectureships in Biology 🚨

Come join us in Bristol @bristolbiosci.bsky.social!

We are looking for new collegues working across a broad spectum of topics in biology, including ecology & environmental change. Get in touch if you have Qs!

Apply here by 8 March: www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Solidarity, I'm finding momentum stalling as well. Well done for pushing on and good luck.

Why does every 5-minute interaction with a service now lead to a request to complete a 15-minute customer satisfaction survey?

The Morton Arboretum Herbarium | The Morton Arboretum The Morton Arboretum’s Herbarium houses the most complete collection of dried plants of the rich and diverse flora of the Chicago region.

The Morton Arboretum Herbarium website is live!

Check it out... and more importantly, come visit us for great collections of:

* Lichens!
* Bryophytes!
* Vascular plants of Chicago!
* Oaks!
* Sedges!

... and so much more. We look forward to meeting you.

mortonarb.org/science/herb...

No oil crop is inherently bad—But our thinking might be Public debates about vegetable oil are often driven more by myth than by fact, oversimplifying complex issues and vilifying or praising certain oils w…

Oil palm isn't necessarily bad, and many of the common replacements are worse. A nice paper here on why strong opinions about oil crops need to be challenged.

Gotcha beat. Dan Janzen could be pithy when he wanted to be.

On a two-word scientific paper, and a fascinating (heated) exchange I’ve blogged before about the shortest scientific papers. Very short papers (a handful to a few dozen words) are usually amusing, but they’re often not very effective at communication. But I’ve jus…

Is this the shortest ever scientific paper? @stephenbheard.bsky.social manages to extend it into a 1400-word blog post with the story behind it.

Private student housing was notoriously dreadful 20+ years ago but at least it was cheap!

Already we see declining lecture attendance, not because students aren't willing, but in many cases they're working. Morning lectures are missed not due to drinking but from working late into the evening.

A similar story could be told in many European cities, and I don't think contests over who has it worse are helpful. The emerging problem is that access to university will be more limited by living costs than fees.

UCC students commuting before dawn as housing crisis fuels daily parking battle Sky-high rents and a lack of public student housing are forcing UCC students into long commutes and daily parking stress

It's becoming impossible for our students to find or afford housing. It's even worse for international students and scams are rampant. The housing crisis is also a crisis for third-level education. #SpeirGorm

Successful campaign proves Ghana’s forests are worth more than gold (commentary) On Dec. 10, 2025, Ghana’s government revoked one of the worst pieces of environmental legislation in our country’s history. The Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations passed ...

Macroeconomics affect conservation on the ground. The surge in gold prices drove unregulated mining in Ghana's forest reserves. @mongabay.com report on the fightback led by local NGOs.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
An adult pleasure zone decree

Bluesky Map Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!

bluesky-map.theo.io

I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Well, there goes my psychic pine tree business. Thanks a lot, science.

Eclipse of reason: debunking speculative anticipatory behavior in trees Advancing plant behavior research requires robust experimental design, falsifiable hypotheses, sufficient replication, and stringent controls. A recent study claims that Picea abies trees collectively...

Did this paper need to be written? Unfortunately yes, it did. Trees don't collectively anticipate solar eclipses. Occam had something to say about this kind of problem. 🧪🌲🌳

Peter Mandelson stripped of Prince of Darkness title buff.ly/Y0u0AQT

Aye, but I don't hold a formal qualification in sack-opening which I spent a great deal of time and money obtaining. Perfect parking is sweeter because I've earned it.

No, and I'm not convinced that it would show much. There are too many confounding effects: landscape history, browsing pressure, management, connectivity etc.

Sorry, thought I was on LinkedIn for a moment there.

It may have looked like it only took a few seconds but there was a lifetime of preparation behind it. I'd like to thank my teachers and mentors, along with everyone who supported and believed in me along the way.

I'm proud of many things in my life - the publications, the projects, the people I've worked with - but sometimes you nail a tricky parking manoeuvre and I feel we don't celebrate those often enough.

The available evidence doesn't justify the bans. www.iflscience.com/review-of-52...

“PUT SEASHELLS IN THE ANKLES OF YOUR SOCKS,” my dad told me on the phone today. “Why on earth would I do that?” I asked. “YOUR MUM TOLD ME YOU’VE GOT BADGERS IN THE GARDEN. WHEN THEY BITE YOUR LEG, THEY’LL CRUNCH ON THE SHELLS AND THINK THEY’VE ALREADY HIT BONE, THEN LEAVE YOU ALONE.”

10. My dad's advice for badger attacks.