Phil Pearson (they/them)

I'm here to chew gum and shitpost about science and I'm all out of gum. cartoon via @xkcd.com

My thoughts at conferences this year tend to go back and forth between “it’s weird that so many scientists and environmentalists are acting like everything is normal” and “joy is resistance”

5 yrs ago - 287k likes

“I finished my PhD @26. I regret this. Take time off between grad school and undergrad. Live your life. Defer, read, work, explore, party, save, make art, sleep. Don’t rush. Grad school is not the safety net you think it is. The degree will be there when ur done. Enjoy life!”

I #foundthatlizard! Can you?

a canva graphic that says "How it works Step 1: Go to SkypeAScientist.com Step 2: Click “Sign Up” then “Scientist Sign Up Form” Step 3: Tell us about yourself Step 4: Get matched with a classroom Step 5: Connect with the teacher Step 6: Make a kid’s day isn't that great? @SkypeAScientist"

Scientists!

@skypeascientist.bsky.social matches scientists with classrooms, libraries, & more for virtual Q&As! It's easy and fun!

We are looking for 750 more volunteers by 8/15

If you're down to chat with 1-5 classrooms this semester, sign up here
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

The book cover for Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis, Edited by Kelly Hayes. The book cover features an artistic rendering of a person with long hair wading into a body of water at night in a wilderness.

Hey fam, my new book, Read This When Things Fall Apart, comes out in three months. That means now is the critical window for preorders, which help get books on shelves, in libraries, and into the hands of the people who need them most. www.pilsencommunitybooks.com/item/vCQt68D...

𝘞𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘢 @consletters.bsky.social 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳!

Anyone still around? Or are you all on a sunny beach🏖️ or hiking epic mountains⛰️?

Coast or mountain, I think we all 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 it's holiday time!

An 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 was also found among +350 forests conservation stakeholders.

Curious? Join the thread!

She’s six years old, lives in Brisbane and might just be one of the best resilience coaches on television. 👉 theconversation.com/researc...

Check out our latest preprint 📣 TADA guidelines 📣

TADA (Transferable, Accessible, Documented, Annotated) helps researchers across disciplines share code, with the ultimate goal of increasing code availability & its quality.

Brilliantly led by @eivimeycook.bsky.social

🔗 doi.org/10.32942/X2D...

Does a lack of juveniles indicate a threat? Understanding body size distributions in a group of long‐lived vertebrates We used a large dataset to examine turtle size distributions and found that for most species in most areas, distributions are typically skewed towards large adults, with few juveniles present. Theref....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Glad to have this work out, led by Donald McKnight with collaboration from many turtle researchers across the USA and Australia. It came about to answer a critique that fox predation mightn't drive low juvenile abundance in Australian systems.

‘Hordes’ of tarantulas set to emerge in the U.S.: See where and why Tens of thousands of tarantulas will be crawling around certain parts of the United States soon.

*former field biologist who now stares at climate data all day long searches for something happy, hopeful, and deeply satisfying in the timeline*

*finds it*

www.pennlive.com/life/2025/07...

‘Things keep evolving into anteaters.’ Odd animals arose at least 12 separate times Findings speak to the dramatic impact ants and termites can have on mammalian evolution

Crab-like creatures are famed for having evolved five times in evolutionary history. But anteaters have evolved at least 12 times--in half the evolutionary span. Cool story by @jakebuehler.bsky.social for @science.org

this is shaping up to potentially be the most bisexual movie since The Mummy (1999)

A screenshot of a tweet by Joel McGlothlin. The tweet reads: "Students don’t realize how much time it takes me to deal with emails asking questions that I have already addressed in class. First, I have to grumble about it for a while, then I have to answer the email, and then I have to complain about it on Twitter.

Relatable #AcademicChatter

Open to Australian and international students, apply before 18 August 2025.

More info on the EOI process here: www.curtin.edu.au/study/higher...

(You can also contact me directly for more information!)

A reminder that sea turtles are important. #LetsChangeThat

Does Play Belong in Primary Schools? Australian Teachers’ Perspectives - Katy Meeuwissen, Tracy Logan, Kate Highfield, Deborah Pino-Pasternak, 2025 Teachers’ conceptualisations of play significantly influence its integration in school contexts, yet these perceptions remain understudied. This study employs P...

Full article here:
doi.org/10.1177/0004...

My amazing colleague, Katy, wrote this Conversation piece to accompany her recent paper from her #PhD on the importance of play in #earlychildhoodeducation.

Give it read! #edusky

If you were alive in the 1980s, this is among the most wonderful & truly incredible things you have ever witnessed in your lifetime.

The push-ups are essential one lizard talking to another saying “hey this is my territory back off,” or “hey ladies! I’m the one you should mate with!”

I hope you #FoundThatLizard? Let me know in the comments!

#Lizard #science #scicomm #sciart #wildlife #game
#conservation

Ecology/Evolution/Marine Biology labs recruiting for Fall 2026 Please complete this form if you are a PI recruiting graduate students for a Fall 2026 start. If you are NOT recruiting, feel free to share the response sheet with prospective students looking for lab...

Its that time again - the list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2026 is live!
PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/2XTHBP6CZGEn...
Prospective students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Please share! 🧪

Three vinyl stickers of the game changer loop-de-loop in progress pride, trans, and non-binary colours respectively. The stickers also have the words "we've been here the whole time"

Game Changer pride stickers are out now 🎉 (with massive thanks to @samreich.bsky.social for giving me permission to sell them!)

UK: canopyrobin.sumupstore.com/product/game...

International: canopyrobin.etsy.com/listing/4333...

Fiiiine, apparently half my readers enjoy an info dump, so here we go!

Grasslands Sequester Carbon Too or “Why trees are not the be-all and end-all.”

Ahem. *takes a sip of water*

With many postdoc grants like the NSF PRFB, Ford Fellowship, and Hanna H. Gray fellowships disappearing, I am currently looking for grants that could fund incoming postdoctoral scholars. Here is a thread of some of them 🧵

Discovering the Hidden Beauty of Moths in Alabama Moths, insects that are necessary and beneficial pollinators, are sometimes thought of as drab, like the ugly duckling cousin of the more sophisticated butterfly. But if you pay attention to them, mot...

Alabama has a high diversity of moths, as is true with most groups of organisms in the state. There will be a Moth Night July 25 at Ruffner Mountain in Jefferson County, Alabama. Y'all come! 🧪🌍🌿 #Moths

Learn about the first chapter of my dissertation! #LetsChangeThat
@chrisblanar.bsky.social

Save The Snakes Grants: Funding for global snake conservation & research! 🐍✨

Applications currently available for projects worldwide. Apply by August 31, 2025!
➡️ savethesnakes.org/grants

#SnakeConservation #WildlifeConservation #WildlifeGrants #YearoftheSnake #SnakeWeek #WorldSnakeDay

We are excited to present this beautiful poster, designed by #SnakeWeek organizer Christina N. Zdenek of Australian Reptile Academy.

Please share widely!