🍁 Alex Smith 🍁

🐜🥛 Des scientifiques ont « ressuscité » une ancienne recette des Balkans et de Turquie : le yaourt aux fourmis ! Leur étude, publiée dans la revue iScience, révèle que les #fourmis rousses (Formica spp.) possèdent un ensemble de ferments permettant de transformer le lait en yaourt 😆

Photo of Jane Goodall in the center, signing a book, with three women standing slightly hunched behind her. A very young Michelle is to the right, smiling.

As a primatologist, Jane Goodall was a huge inspiration to me. I admired the way she describes chimpanzee behavior with such detail and empathy, and she’s inspired so many people and advocated for chimpanzee conservation and welfare.

However, I'm dismayed at what her narrative leaves out (1/10)

Having an assignment for an undergrad class where students have to read press releases and their associated papers, and evaluate the difference in quality of information between the two really has highlighted for me how often various organizations purge old press releases & popular science articles

Africa is leading the way on protecting the ocean. Now the world must follow The high sea waters off West Africa may seem remote to people reading this in London or New York. But these waters can impact the very weather patterns that determine whether crops grow in British fields or storms crash into the eastern seaboard of the U.S. They provide oxygen for every breath we take.

H.E. President Boakai of Liberia, on ocean protection at #UNGA:

"Deep-sea mining threatens the ocean floor before we even understand what lives there"

🦑https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/africa-is-leading-way-protecting-ocean-now-world-must-follow--ecmii-2025-09-30/

This - so much this!

I generally like to believe that everyone is doing their best but unfortunately it seems some of you are doing your worst.

I am attending the “30th Annual Latornell Conservation Symposium”. Come watch my talk, “Terrestrial Invertebrate Biodiversity Across Ecological Gradients: A Metabarcoding Approach”, along with many other excellent conservation presentations.

#Latornell2025

www.latornell.ca

I am begging Canadians to understand that Canada Post, like public transit, should not be a business - it's a service.

Canada Post is a lifeline for rural, remote and Northern communities and overall, we need to re-evaluate why people think they "need" random shit delivered ASAP.

#NuanceIsLife

#NuanceIsLife

To be clear, 'nuance' is not a 'trick' on the exam.
Nuance is life!
#HigherEd

Photo through the front door with blue sky, in the background, of a cross orb Weaver on its web. Yellow and red banding patterns on its legs.

Sunny beautiful day in #Guelph - celebrate with a crossorb weaver #spider

#Araneusdiadematus

While at The Arboretum, @uofguelph.bsky.social, I came across this beautiful moth caterpillar of _Hyalophora cecropia_ (Saturniidae). Enjoy!

#Entomology
#Saturniidae

Thanks @shoshanahjacobs.bsky.social for sharing your discovery!

Photo through the front door with blue sky, in the background, of a cross orb Weaver on its web. Yellow and red banding patterns on its legs.

Sunny beautiful day in #Guelph - celebrate with a crossorb weaver #spider

#Araneusdiadematus

A graph of Covid rates. It's more complex than can be described here, but the important bit is that the rates have gone up a lot since late July, nearly to the heights of last winter.

Hey, so...Covid rates have gotten real high. Maybe change your behavior to fit this new risk profile? Stop eating indoors at restaurants, mask on mass transit, that kind of thing?

Toronto wastewater sites show spike in COVID-19 levels Toronto’s two wastewater monitoring sites reported elevated levels of both COVID-19 and RSV

"Toronto's two sites at Ashbridges Bay and Humber both reported elevated levels of both COVID-19 and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) earlier this month.

...Ontario is also experiencing its highest levels of COVID-19 wastewater activity since March."

Google: here's an AI summary!
Adobe: want an AI assistant?
Zoom: get more done with an AI companion!
Outlook: don't you want to turn on copilot??

Me: I trained for 10 years to think. I like thinking. Please just let me think.

I can definitely relate. Congratulations!

a woman wearing a denim jacket is making a funny face with #schitts creek written on the bottom ALT: a woman wearing a denim jacket is making a funny face with #schitts creek written on the bottom

thank you to those congratulating me on my department’s vote to grant me tenure. I’m focusing on the many people who are happy for me but I’m also thinking about the enemies who motivated me & are mad today. I want to thank them, too.

couldn’t have done it without you, folks.

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

It would be an honour to participate. And here's the 'fine print' (but I'll keep it in large print 🙂 ) : I agree to support your efforts in whatever way that I can provided that there is evidence of inclusive and accessible practices throughout. I am happy to step aside as an authoritative voice should we decide that the voices of others are more important, and I reserve the right to step down should commitments to equity and access not be realized.

If you are invited to speak at a conference or on a panel, consider sharing this caveat 👇

Feel free to use it. It's mine.
#HigherEd 🧪

bipartite diagram showing the host-specificity of ACG tachinids in the genus Belvosia. Species in red were formerly known as one species that is now known to be three by host-use and genetics. Where formalised names exist, they are largely honoring ACG paraxonomists.

🧪

A #bipartite diagram showing the #host-specificity of #ACG tachinids in the genus #Belvosia.

In red are species that were formerly thought to be one species that is now known to be three by host-use and genetics.

Where formalised scientific names exist, they largely honor ACG #paraxonomists.

Figure 1. Four representative tachinid species from ACG. (A) Patelloa ‘xanthuraDHJ01’ voucher DHJPAR0034758; (B) Chorotegamyia sp.; (C) Spathidexia atripalpus; (D) Phosocephala alexanderi female voucher DHJPAR0048468. Photo credits - AJ Fleming CNC

bipartite diagram showing the host-specificity of ACG tachinids in the genus Belvosia. Species in red were formerly known as one species that is now known to be three by host-use and genetics. Where formalised names exist, they are largely honoring ACG paraxonomists.

Venn diagram of the overlap between the diversity of ACG tachinids known from rearing larval lepidoptera versus those that are collected in Malaise traps. Only 18.5% overlap.

Evident decline in the abundance of tachinid parasaitoids (here counts/year for the two most abundant subfamilies) in ACG after the stabalisation of the parataxonomist collection workforce in ~2005

🧪
🪰

Happy to see this large data release and analysis of decades of #tachinidae collected by #DanJanzen, #WinnieHallwachs and the #parataxonomists of #ACG @gdfcf.bsky.social in #CostaRica. So much diversity!

Paper here:
doi.org/10.3390/d170...

Data here:
doi.org/10.5683/SP3/...

🪰
🧪

Screenshot of a text that reads “the Department of redacted text is deeply committed to equity and diversity“ Posts list of nominees for Chair’s advisory committee. All one demographic

This you?

Stop it

#HigherEd

Figure 1. Four representative tachinid species from ACG. (A) Patelloa ‘xanthuraDHJ01’ voucher DHJPAR0034758; (B) Chorotegamyia sp.; (C) Spathidexia atripalpus; (D) Phosocephala alexanderi female voucher DHJPAR0048468. Photo credits - AJ Fleming CNC

bipartite diagram showing the host-specificity of ACG tachinids in the genus Belvosia. Species in red were formerly known as one species that is now known to be three by host-use and genetics. Where formalised names exist, they are largely honoring ACG paraxonomists.

Venn diagram of the overlap between the diversity of ACG tachinids known from rearing larval lepidoptera versus those that are collected in Malaise traps. Only 18.5% overlap.

Evident decline in the abundance of tachinid parasaitoids (here counts/year for the two most abundant subfamilies) in ACG after the stabalisation of the parataxonomist collection workforce in ~2005

🧪
🪰

Happy to see this large data release and analysis of decades of #tachinidae collected by #DanJanzen, #WinnieHallwachs and the #parataxonomists of #ACG @gdfcf.bsky.social in #CostaRica. So much diversity!

Paper here:
doi.org/10.3390/d170...

Data here:
doi.org/10.5683/SP3/...

🪰
🧪

Natural history museums are missing an opportunity to present research and collections on YouTube There have been repeated calls in the US for scientists to communicate the importance of biological collections to both a general public audience and to policy makers. Natural history museums that hou...

We put out some social science research via preprint: "Natural history museums are missing an opportunity to present research and collections on YouTube" doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Image in an Ontario Woodlock, looking east towards the rising sun with an increasing number of leaves on the forest floor.

The first #GigaPan of Fall 2025 in the #DairyBush in #Guelph

‘Fear and hopelessness’: study finds one in four professors leaving US south Survey by American Association of Professors shows nearly quarter of respondents are switching due to states’s politics

‘Fear and hopelessness’: study finds one in four professors leaving US south

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...