It’s -2C 🙄

If you thought Ivy League universities were able to keep up with such basic services as emptying trash cans. Well, silly you.

NYC takes Christmas season *very* seriously. Everyone waited until exactly after thanksgiving, but not with one day of delay, now Every. Single. Business. is playing Christmas songs nonstop.

Students and I were jokingly discussing what an aesthetic element in a student's slide was supposed to represent and I said I thought it was "fire". These Gen Z'rs didn't understand that the way I meant it.

Last! Day! Of! The! Semester!

There are few more terrifying sounds than a rhythmic drip drip drip of water coming from a part of your home where there’s no faucet #FML

In the year of our Lord two-thousand-twenty-five, there are still shockingly diagnosable, legit never-before-seen-by-scientists new bird species out there to be discovered

How long after getting a job do you stop having weird anxiety dreams about the academic job market? Asking for a friend

Everything my friend Luke does is 💯, so go check this out right now!

December

The definition I landed on was "the totality of organismal behavior, phenotype, and ecology apprehensible by observation". Unlike some of the replies, I don't think nat his has much to do with method. In a scientists, it's more of a stance towards the world. If anything, it implies a lack of method.

Not unexpected, but (freshmen) students are having a hard time identifying mono- para- and polyphyletic groups on phylogenies. Review session for the final exam tomorrow. Has anyone landed on language or on examples that seem to make it really "click" with students?

Exam on the Monday right after thxsgiving break = Sunday evening flood of emails with requests to make up due to sickness or canceled flights

Idk what's worse, that everyone is using AI, or that everyone now thinhs everything is AI

Why is this not more widely known

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild: South American tapir West Indian manatee Pigmy marmoset Lear’s macaw São Paulo marsh antwren

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, and I’ll keep saying it: the best part of teaching is how much you learn from the students 🤯🥹

Reviewer didn't understand and/or didn't like my use of the term "natural history". I came up with a simple definition to add to the revised manuscript, but before I post I'm curious as to how all y'all 21st century natural historians would define it. Drop your take in the replies!

More than one student suggested we met on thanksgiving day. WTF.

Reviewer didn't understand and/or didn't like my use of the term "natural history". I came up with a simple definition to add to the revised manuscript, but before I post I'm curious as to how all y'all 21st century natural historians would define it. Drop your take in the replies!

Former Brazilian President Bolsonaro begins 27-year prison sentence for coup attempt

PSA: Anyone living close to the coast in the northeast Atlantic should keep their eyes out for beached sea turtles as we head into the coldest months of the year. Countries across northwest Europe have quietly been documenting greatly elevated stranding rates for the last couple of years. 🧪🐢

Two things whose rationale for I understand and agree with in theory, but in practice i find to be the work of the devil: paper straws and 2-factor authentication

What am I lecturing about today?

IYKYK

President Lula and I are focused on increasing trade and deepening our strong partnership between Canada and Brazil. We’re intensifying free trade negotiations with Mercosur — a bloc of South American nations with a GDP of over $4 trillion, and a massive new export market for Canadian businesses.

GOOD

If i never posted again after tomorrow afternoon, it’s because i passed away of meetings 💀

So relieved that my HR now employs “Millie, an AI campus concierge designed to assist with general questions and campus guidance”. We were all CLAMORING for that!

I found a pair of dirty socks on a bench in the classroom when i walked in to teach today. How does that even happen?!?!

Incredibly impressed with my Senior student thesis papers, esp. considering the theme I assigned-evolution-wasn't previously an interest of any of these students. Bu by god reading and commenting on nine 7,000-word review papers at the same time as all the other end of semester sh*t may kill me yet

Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela sings John Lennon's "Imagine".

Pumpkin Spice Jimmy Carter

Me: it sucks our campus is so tiny, i miss working on a campus with wide open spaces Also me, when i have to walk to a meeting on the other side of campus: omgggg that’s so farrrrrr 😩😩😩😩

Dept asked if anyone was up for teaching at 5:40pm in the spring and i volunteered. But that was before i realized it looks like this here at 5pm—and it’s just november 😳😩😳😩

It was great to host another Brazilian-New Yorker evolutionary biologist—and total #bosslady —Ana Carnaval to speak to our first-year biology students at Barnard today!!!

E aí

Students weren’t nearly as excited about my favorite Wikipedia article as i hoped 😭🫤😒

Snow is fun, what’s less fun is that my landlord hasn’t turned on my heat yet. Thankfully the walls in this 1903-built (!) building are super thick so it’s losing heat pretty slowly, but 🤬🤬🤬🤬

I’m looking for a medical artist. I was awarded a grant to write a new lab manual and will need anatomical images created. Open to someone starting out! #science #anatomy #medicalillustrations #medicalsky #academicsky #medicalart #jobalert

SNOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW (Teeny tiny baby flakes, but it counts!)

Does anyone have recommendations for cellular GPS tags (GPS + GSM) for box turtles? I want to be able to have the data sent to me remotely via a cellular network. Needs to weigh 20-30g or less. These would be attached to box turtle shells with epoxy.

Happy to see this out in early view in Evolution! We tested the roles of signaling and camouflage in the evolution of iris color in Tyranni songbirds. Our findings suggest that bright irises are social/sexual signals mostly associated with species less vulnerable to predation doi.org/10.1093/evol...

we're snailposting, post your snails

Roz—who’s named after Rosalind Franklin—is very nonchalant about James Watson dying

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

Accidentaly found a subreddit called "male living spaces". Just literally what the names says. Dudes posting photos of their living spaces to be rated or receive suggestions. I'm set for the next 8 hours.

Wonder why this scene looks so familiar... #WildlifeWednesday 🐦🐕