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Liss Mayer

@decantingnature.bsky.social

science writer. entomologist. anthropomorphic cat. 🏳️‍🌈 🔬

31 Followers  |  55 Following  |  9 Posts  |  Joined: 09.10.2023  |  1.5959

Latest posts by decantingnature.bsky.social on Bluesky

I had a medical thing last year in my mid-40s and wound up with a gazillion pills, so solidarity. It feels intense to portion them out every week at this age (and I know that’s some people’s whole lives, which I absolutely didn’t get before). 💚

17.11.2025 22:32 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Why Are People Wearing Masks in 2025? a mental health professional’s perspective

open.substack.com/pub/misfitme...

03.03.2025 04:05 — 👍 230    🔁 79    💬 18    📌 14
You’ve been clear in saying that Covid has not gone away. You ask people to wear masks at your events. But that attitude is not necessarily where the rest of the world is. How do you think about continuing to take precautions and advising others to do so when it feels as if society has moved on? I do it for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, I have learned that I enjoy not being sick. I know that the cost of long Covid is real and substantial, and I don’t want to run that risk lightly. I also know that I have many friends and people I’m close to who are immunocompromised. So for the sake of the people around me, I also don’t want to get sick. When I do events, I wear a mask for those reasons, and because I know that every time I do a talk, while the vast majority of people in the audience have probably moved on, there are going to be other people who haven’t. I think it makes a huge difference to them to have the person at the front of the stage wear a mask. It tells them, It’s not weird. So I do it for that reason, too. In terms of holding this line at a point when a large swath of society has moved on, I have written a lot about the panic-neglect cycle.

You’ve been clear in saying that Covid has not gone away. You ask people to wear masks at your events. But that attitude is not necessarily where the rest of the world is. How do you think about continuing to take precautions and advising others to do so when it feels as if society has moved on? I do it for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, I have learned that I enjoy not being sick. I know that the cost of long Covid is real and substantial, and I don’t want to run that risk lightly. I also know that I have many friends and people I’m close to who are immunocompromised. So for the sake of the people around me, I also don’t want to get sick. When I do events, I wear a mask for those reasons, and because I know that every time I do a talk, while the vast majority of people in the audience have probably moved on, there are going to be other people who haven’t. I think it makes a huge difference to them to have the person at the front of the stage wear a mask. It tells them, It’s not weird. So I do it for that reason, too. In terms of holding this line at a point when a large swath of society has moved on, I have written a lot about the panic-neglect cycle.

I appreciate this response from Ed Yong on why he requests that people mask at his events. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...

23.02.2025 02:52 — 👍 3646    🔁 1138    💬 35    📌 90

The entire business model of American R1 universities is not viable without restoration of federal funding, & every individual institution pretending it can solve this problem alone is also not viable. University presidents need to be speaking out, collectively & loudly about this, in DC, right now.

22.02.2025 05:14 — 👍 2069    🔁 713    💬 44    📌 50
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Anger, despair, and defiance from a voice within the US federal research system People around the world are watching with disbelief as the new US government closes down its aid programme, withdraws from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris agreement on climate change...

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

18.02.2025 05:30 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

What a pleasure to talk fire ants with Siavash Taravati 🐜

06.02.2025 21:44 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I do, in fact, like big bugs 😸

30.01.2025 22:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The questions that come in from kids about climate change are always hard, and that’s even more true now

26.01.2025 19:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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As the perpetual writer and not the hands-on-er in most lab situations, I’m super proud of my first go at using the virus sucks software with my PlusLife. Air bubble? I don’t know her ✨

26.01.2025 19:22 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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What makes snow sparkle? | Ask Dr. Universe | Washington State University When a snowflake falls, it can land in different positions. Light strikes different parts of the fallen snowflake, bending and bouncing to create sparkle.

I hear the snow is particularly sparkly at the South Pole. *packs bags*

24.01.2025 00:35 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

This was inspiring today 💚

24.01.2025 00:12 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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What happens to the pill capsules after you swallow the pill? | Ask Dr. Universe | Washington State University You swallow the pill, and it goes down the esophagus into the stomach, where the acid breaks down the gelatin capsule, Brand-Eubanks said.

I love having a job where I learn unexpected weird shit all the time—like that pill capsules can “ghost” your body intact. askdruniverse.wsu.edu/2025/01/09/h...

22.01.2025 02:07 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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