Trevor A. Branch

We never had daylight savings in South Africa and survived just fine.

Yikes, so infuriating.

And the agenda item discussing it has been removed, I'm told.

Good grief.

Anyone know the scientific paper where this figure was? Impacts of trawling and dredging by gear, taxa, and bottom substrate

Is that fish on the front cover not real too?

This is not just any random report. This is a review of how the major federal fisheries on the U.S. west coast are assessed, basically how U.S. fisheries management should be altered so that it works better.

And one of the hallucinated papers has "Trust and transparency" in the title!

Ooof. The paid consultants' report reviewing the review process that I participate in contains at least three references to papers that do not exist, and appear to be AI-generated hallucinations. One of the hallucinated papers is attributed to two authors who are on the review body being reviewed.

Ironically when I look to read it... (check top left)

Do NOT eat gar eggs!!! 🤢🤮

Scientists Finally Found Something Tardigrades Can’t Survive Tardigrades are practically invincible on Earth, so scientists looked to outer space in search of their kryptonite.

Important science: tardigrades are actually killed by something

gizmodo.com/scientists-f...

"Is this the road to Oz or Mordor? Future of west coast fisheries given environmental and political change"
Talk on Thursday 4pm at Univ Washington, Seattle
Scott Rumsey (NOAA Fisheries, retired)

Sigh.

This is the directorate that funds all of the earth, ocean & atmosphere research at NSF.

How cockfighting imperils Peru’s critically endangered sawfish MANCORA, Peru — The largetooth sawfish is a critically endangered fish distinguished by its long, blade-like snout edged with tooth-like projections. In the waters off Peru, it’s become an unlikely ca...

In #peru, the teeth of endangered #sawfish are used as cockfighting spurs

share.google/lvfBkT98xWkw...

Yes lots wrong with the current system. I'd say even the tenured full-pay faculty get essentially no reward or pay from reviewing either. But at least we are paid (9 months in the US).

Yeah I've been asked that as Reviewer 3 and responding with a scathing review agreeing with Reviewer 1 100% and questioning why it was sent to me.

Best news today! BHL is an incredible free open treasure trove of nature papers and books from the 1500s to 1900s, and completely invaluable to my research.

An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

Yeah, but I average 40+ review requests a year so it gets a bit overwhelming.

Yup. And just got a response from the editor that they *always* send it back to the reviewers for another round regardless of how minor the comments are.

I never managed to see any kiwis, other than the people and the currency.

Ok yes but that is absolutely not the point I was making.

Ha ha! As both an author and reviewer I just want the process over as quickly as possible!!!

I wish more editors would decide to accept a manuscript after seeing author responses to reviews, instead of requiring reviewers to make that decision. It would save everyone a lot of time*.

*except the editors...

Overly honest footnotes!

This seems to be the main evidence plot in the paper. Predicts 5% average annual growth rates if temperatures stay the same, and the scatter of points is very wide compared to the model fit.

Fighter jet https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/xf-92a-delta-wing/

How do blue whales stop themselves tipping over when they inflate their lower jaw to engulf krill? The upper jaw! The triangular shape of the upper jaw keeps them swimming forward, acting like the delta-shaped wings of a fighter jet

Fish et al. 2026: doi.org/10.1111%2Fmm...

What’s the point of going to the gym?? This forklift can lift and move around weigh more weight more efficiently.

A clear opportunity to sell naming rights to new species descriptions! Imagine Cryptogenius Christopher!