Kristina Muise, MSc 🦇👩‍🔬

Kids Can Press company logo and logo and image of Franklin character with statement text,”Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values.”

I wasn't selected - but I'm pretty stoked to be on the back up list! Congratulations to everyone going on the shark research expedition with @whysharksmatter.bsky.social - it'll be a phenomenal trip and I'm excited to see everyone's adventures!

Thanks to my Gen Z students and their newfangled slang, I am now very confused reading emails with subject line "It's Giving Tuesday"

a scrapbook style list of things, with pictures going around the list. The list is titled 2025, and the list is "Matched 4600 classrooms with scientists Distributed 5400 educational zines Distributed 10,000 packets of plant seeds Hosted 13 free science and art events Funded 13 scientists’ scicomm projects Hosted 9 Moth Nights Hosted 9 livestreams". The surrounding pictures are people drawing, voluntering around a table, playing in the woods with bugs, pictures of posters of plants, posters for events, two zines, etc

2025? Pretty bad for US science.

That just motivated us more.

In 2025 we reached people on the street, at the bar, in the classroom, at the rec center, in the park, & more

How much we accomplish next year is only limited by how much we can afford.

Support our org at givebutter.com/SupportSAS25

Shark scientists want their research to help save threatened species, but don’t know how. Our new paper can help. Sharks are some of the most threatened animals on Earth, and accordingly many scientists who study sharks want their research to be useful for conservation. However, most scientific training does n…

ICYMI, we have a new paper out offering advice to shark scientists who want to perform policy-relevant research but don't understand the basics of science-based policymaking.

Here's the press release/ lay summary. The open access paper is linked within.
🧪🦑🌍🦈

Sharks and Rays Gain Sweeping Protections From Wildlife Trade

From @nytimes.com: Sharks and Rays Gain Sweeping Protections From Wildlife Trade

These represent the first time there’s been recognition that some sharks and rays are wildlife, just like elephants or rhinos, WCS’s @lukedavid301.bsky.social tells the paper.

🌎 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/s...

For #TautonymTuesday this week, we celebrate Europe’s most widespread #deer! 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑠, the roe deer, ranges from the Atlantic to western Asia. Agile and adaptable, it thrives in forests, farmland, and even urban edges. #TaxonomyTuesday #Systematics Photo: Clément Bardot

omg I love this so much!

Meet the carrier crab, an animal that brings its defence wherever it goes. Its back legs are specially adapted to hold anything it can wedge between itself and danger: a bit of dead coral, seaweed, a broken shell. Sometimes, though, that shield is alive – like this jellyfish! 🛡️🪼👇

🎥: Jacob Guy

Everyone saying ”giving that essay a zero was probably too harsh, I would have given it like a 70% to avoid conflict” are perfectly demonstrating how the us education system has been successfully dismantled.

Day 2 being stuck in bed after getting sick - my luck after a weekend of work 😷

They're Honduran White bats (Ectophylla alba)! I covered them last year during #BatMas so won't be featuring them this year, but they are a fascinating species!

A light brown and white bat hanging upsidedown from the side of a light grey/brown rock surface. The bat has beady black eyes and huge light brown/grey ears.

Day 2 #BatMas: X: Desert long-eared bat (Otonycteris hemprichii)🦇🌎🧪

A species in North Africa & Middle East, these bats use echolocation to find scorpions (including the highly venomous deathstalker) which the bats catch & eat. The bats are considered immune to the venom!

📸: Christian Dietz

Figure 1 from a paper published in Nature (linked in post). The figure purports to be an infographic depiction of the "Overall working of the framework" for 'explainably' diagnosing autism spectrum disorder. The infographic is plainly nonsense, containing many spelling errors, nonsense words, meaningless images and graphs. Clearly created using generative AI and (crucially) NEVER CHECKED AT ANY STEP OF THE WRITING OR PUBLICATION PROCESS.

Hey @nature.com, have you got an explanation for how the hell THIS happened? & especially why you accepted a paper with such a bizarre piece of genAI slop in it?!
& more to the point, why we should take you seriously at all going forward?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Understanding bats in English churches: A citizen science approach Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Cool to see this research out: citizen science showing how important churches are for bats in the UK, especially pre-Reformation (old) churches, and those in rural areas where there may not be many alternative roost sites.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... 🦇

Our new paper in PNAS, led by Megan Power: a large-scale study of telomere shortening in relation to reproductive costs in bats. Photo of one of the greater horseshoe bats we studied at Woodchester mansion by Hetty Metcalfe.

a bat with brown fur, and large black eyes, with its head twisting to face the camera. The bat is against a black back drop.

Day 1 #BatMas: Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus)🦇🌎🧪

This species is an important seed disperser of many plants – which includes those which produce loquat, figs and dates! The bats can eat anywhere from 50 to 150% of their body weight in fruit per evening!

📸: Seregraff/Getty Images

a group of bats are sitting on top of each other on a green leaf ALT: a group of bats are sitting on top of each other on a green leaf

Happy #BatMas everyone! Follow this thread ⬇️ or check out the hashtag to find out about a new bat species everyday, for 25 days! 🦇🌎🧪

#BatSky🧵

“This research is important for the conservation and Management of Sharks”: A proposed framework for ensuring that this is actually true Many scientists want their research to inform policy and help manage endangered species, but many common research practices hinder potential policy relevance. The results of our survey provide advice...

I am excited to share with you a new paper, probably my last of 2025. @drcatmac.bsky.social is a coauthor.

Our paper presents advice for early career shark scientists who want their work to be useful for conservation and management policy.

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧪🦑🌍🦈

Unprestigious academia - University Affairs How I unlearned academic elitism.

Unprestigious academia - How I unlearned academic elitism.

universityaffairs.ca/opinion/unpr...

A stack of papers with a pencil case on top

Finished grading all 101 exams this weekend.

Please send help 🫠

Why is science under assault and what forces are behind it?

My review @thelancet.com of “Science under Siege” by @michaelemann.bsky.social & @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social

www.thelancet.com/callback?red...

a bat is hanging upside down in a duct ALT: a bat is hanging upside down in a duct

It's Dec 1st tomorrow - which means the start of #BatMas!

Thanks Kathryn for your kind words and for all that you do for all of the writers! So many people have passed through the position over the years and have learn a lot from you.

I really appreciate all that you do! :)

A persons arm with tubes coming out filled with blood. The person is donating blood

Saturday morning platelet donation 🩸🅰️➕

Platelet donation #2 & donation #40 in total!

I've emailed the Journal to fix the doi link :)

Block of text saying "During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the general concerns of the practitioners was the influence that administering a vaccine to a tattooed individual might have on developing the antibody response against the virus (55). To date, no epidemiological studies have evaluated how the presence of a tattoo may affect the COVID-19 vaccine efficiency. In this work, we demonstrated that the presence of tattoo ink crystals, at the site of vaccine adminis- tration, can modulate the immune response in a vaccine-specific manner. We showed the negative effect that the accumulation of ink has on the expression of the spike protein and, ultimately, in the humoral immune response elicited by the vaccine. Moreover, especially with red and black inks, we observed that the response to a UV-inactivated influenza vaccine was enhanced. This suggests that tattoo-induced inflammation and the presence of ink pigment"

particles at the site of tattoo injection may interact differently with various vaccine formulations, whose mechanisms of action may differ, potentially influencing antigen presentation, local inflam- mation, or innate immune activation. The alteration in the immune response to vaccines in the animals tattooed with black ink may be associated with the capacity of carbon black to interfere with the antigen-processing mechanism in lymphocytic popula- tions. Conversely, tattoo-induced local inflammation can act as an adjuvant-like stimulus, enhancing vaccine responses, similar to aluminum salts activating the NLRP3 inflammasome ( 56 , 57 ). This effect, also seen in tattoo-mediated DNA vaccination ( 58 ), may improve the efficacy of inactivated vaccines such as influ- enza vaccine.

Fascinating article on tattoo + vaccine interactions.

For SOME vaccines (like covid), immune response was lower when injected into tattoos. For OTHERS, (like flu), the immune response = higher!

Different formulations of vaccines interact with tattoo ink differently 🤯

www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Bats avoid overheating through intermittent flying Bats are remarkably versatile. Not only are they the sole mammal that has mastered the mystery of flight but they also have the ability to lower their body temperature to reduce their metabolic rate a...

And lastly - my very first Outside JEB article that I wrote, covering a study by Luo at al. showing that short intermittent flights used by wild great roundleaf bats may help the animals avoid potentially lethal high body temperatures. 🦇🧪🌎 (15/15)

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

An other article covering a bat study! This one talked about a study by Stapelfeldt et al., on how wet springs may impact bat mothers & warns that increases in spring rainfall may be a risk for theatened bats in Europe 🦇🧪 (14/n)

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Hibernating bats may use protein stores for water balance All hibernating bats need to eat enormous amounts of food during autumn to build up a substantial fat store for hibernation. These large fat stores supply the immense amount of energy needed to surviv...

The next article covered McGuire et al.'s paper showing that bats build up their muscles prior to hibernation, which could be used as a minor source of energy but could also play a major role in the production of water 🦇🧪 (13/n)

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...