Norbert Holstein

However, we are fully aware that the collections are always in need of updating, and this Index will not be the final version. But it's a huge update.
Recuration requires a balance of reasonably stable taxonomy and time to update the collections and out database. So there is plenty left to do.

This new Index features the integration of the gymnosperm collections (which were missing before) and lately the complete recuration of the whole order Asparagales and the Vitaceae. Many other taxa were overhauled, created and synonymized.

New Index of the General Herbarium of the NHM London. It is the guide to find herbarium specimens in the collection.

The #herbaria at the NHM London are currently busy preparing several large projects that shape the future of the collections. After around 10 years, we have a new physical Index to our General #Herbarium collections reflecting updates from recuration based on research and visitors' annotations.

A graphic including a photo of trees at Dawyck Botanic Garden with rolling hills in the background, and text which reads: 'Join our team. Curator, Dawyck Botanic Garden'.

📢 We have a rare and exciting opportunity to become the Curator of Dawyck Botanic Garden in the Scottish Borders.

This is a key role responsible for the overall vision, management, and presentation of the Garden.

Find more details and apply: rbge.cc/Jobs

Please share with your networks!

This bill does not apply to people with a disability per se but to terminally ill. There are criteria for that.

Adesmia ephedroides, a newly discovered species in the legume family (Fabaceae), was identified in a restricted, mountainous area of Valparaíso Region, Chile. 🇨🇱

The species has been provisionally classified as Critically Endangered under IUCN criteria.

doi.org/10.3897/phyt...

Potentilla palustris

#wildflowers #botany #Doubs

Springer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citations Would you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Advanced, published by Springer Nature in April. Based on a tip from a reader, we checked 18 of the 46 citations in the book. Two-thirds of them either did not exist or had substantial errors. And three researchers cited in the book confirmed the works they supposedly authored were fake or the citation contained substantial errors. https://retractionwatch.com/2025/06/30/springer-nature-book-on-machine-learning-is-full-of-made-up-citations/#more-132235

Springer Nature--pioneering the new world of science where facts can be made up and citations generated to support them

Humanism and Aesop's Fables How do the ancient Greek stories link to humanist ethics today?

Aesop's Fables were written over 2500 years ago. Many of them provide a great way to teach about humanist ethics and how we might live well together. We've provided some suggestions for where to start. understandinghumanism.org.uk/articles/hum...

To use a highly technical term, this is dodgy as f**k. Publication ethics matter--without them the scientific literature ceases to be reliable.

Small note: it's the outer layer of the seed thats smelly, not the "fruit". Gymnosperms don't have fruits because the seeds are not covered by a carpel that eventually develops into a fruit.

You are seeing from the wrong direction being the common people and their needs
You need to see it from the view of private equity: healthcare is perfect way of making money because people pay everything to get rid of pain or not to die. New drugs exist also solely to make more $$$.

And then they wonder why academics don't have children, why people drop out etc...

Farage generates clicks and viewing rates (because his fans and his haters will engage) and therefore income from advertisers. Media are businesses who have to maximise profits, not report facts, educate or try to seek solutions. It's about making money, always and only.

Job Opportunity: Collections Manager, Lepidoptera 🦋🐛🔎🔬🌍 www.anhrt.org.uk/african-natu...

Close-up photo of a yellow squash flower with three bees jammed into the center. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

How many carpenter bees can fit into a squash flower? Three. I count three bee butts.
Happy World Bee Day! We need bees (and not just honeybees)!
#bees #WorldBeeDay #beeday #Cucurbitaceae

Trump Administration Cancels Scores of Grants to Study Online Misinformation

Foreign adversaries are pumping disinformation into our social media networks, but we know very little about the consequences let alone how to ameliorate them.

For years, Republicans have harassed us for studying this. Now, NSF has canceled all funding. It’s a profound lapse in national security.

Vacancies | Working Here | What We Do

Great opportunity for an 18 month bryophyte trainee position at RBGE (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) - working with the excellent bryologists there.

www.rbge.org.uk/about-us/job...

NEW INVESTIGATION: A private equity-fueled for-profit chain slashed patient care for years while its executives got rich. So we scraped every malpractice, personal injury, and wrongful death case tied to Steward hospitals.

And we found how mothers, newborns, and others paid the ultimate price.

close-up of a recently opened milkweed flower. its five light green petals point towards, creating a bowl around the central reproductive column, or gynostegium. this structure is a fused stamen + carpel complex, white on top of the column & dark green underneath, with 5 light green butresses. five purple and white corona hoods extend away from the column, though two are obscured behind petals. one nearby flower is also blooming, but they are both surrounded by unopened buds.

terminal umbels of light green milkweed flowers, some open, others still flowerbuds. parts of the purple, white, and green gynostegiums of two flowers can be seen though the upright petals which enclose them.

a branching, bushy milkweed with long, sessile, bluntly pointed green leaves. at the end of two branches there are umbels of developing light green flowers, a few of which are already blooming. the plant is growing in bare dirt near clumps of grass.

🌼 green antelopehorns 🌿
Asclepias viridis

milkweed season 🔜

#nativeplants #flowerreport

Garden Mousetail Myosurus minimus. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Endlos-Hitze droht im Sommer: „Ganz Deutschland muss anfangen, sich vorzubereiten“ Alarmierende Daten: Ersten Prognosen zufolge steht Deutschland vor einem beispiellosen Hitze-Sommer. Experten warnen vor massiven Folgen für Landwirtschaft, Flüsse, Energieversorgung und Gesundheit. W...

Tja, hatte ja achon vor Wochen davor gewarnt.

www.focus.de/earth/was-je...

The AI Boom Is Draining Water From the Areas That Need It Most A Bloomberg News analysis finds that roughly two thirds of new data centers built or in development in the US since 2022 are in places with high levels of water stress.

I forgot to add the link about the environmental impact: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

The worst part is that AI images and texts can be used for good but are much more abundantly and likely used to produce -at best- trivialities and light entertainment and -at worst- fake news, propaganda, mindless consumption, and complete surveillance.

#AI can be extremely powerful but as it looks like, it's going to be our new #coal/#oil/#plastic/#internet event: the massive expansion of its use will come at a high cost for #nature. We haven't solved the issues with clean energy sourcing, yet we head into the next level of energy consumption.

A branch of red maple, Acer rubrum, with spring leaves on the end of the branch and the rest of the branch covered in red samaras. Copyrght Tom Kimmerer

A cluster of pale brown samaras of sugar maple, Acer saccharum, on the end of a branch in early autumn. Copyright Tom Kimmerer

Reproduction in trees is wildly complicated. Here are two maples, red and sugar, with similar samaras. Red maple drops samaras in spring, seeds have no dormancy and must germinate immediately. Sugar maple drops samaras in autumn, seeds are dormant through winter, and germinate the following spring.

Mites Are a Made-Up Taxon: New Analysis Further Debunks Long-Held Classification What scientists know as "mites" is almost certainly an artificial taxonomic group, according to recent phylogenetic analyses and studies using advanced microscopic techniques.

What scientists know as "mites" is almost certainly an artificial taxonomic group, according to recent phylogenetic analyses and studies using advanced microscopic techniques.

Brian Cox ~ The purpose of life?