Field work today in Gaspesie, Quebec - one more time to our network of forest plots where we're looking at soil carbon and other ecosystem changes following defoliation by spruce budworm. The snow is a bit early... complicates things a little!

A well-loved bunchberry plant (Cornus canadensis) with leaf mines of Phytomyza agromyzina (lower left), Antispila cornifoliella (other linear mines), Antispila freemani (big blotches), and a Caloptilia sp. (narrow blotch and leaf roll at right), as well as stippling from leafhopper feeding.

Excellent thread. I'm 100% with Timothée here, and admiring his approach to grading.

Some in my household like @stephenbheard.bsky.social 's book for the contents; others prefer the taste and texture of the cover.

iNaturalist is a fabulous data source IF and ONLY IF you understand that there are lots of biases in what gets uploaded there. Here's an interesting example! This species is WAY more common than iNat would suggest.

"The Scientist's Guide to Writing" has a 3rd edition on the way! New chapter on "AI" writing tools (I have opinions...(and evidence)). Updated coverage of preprints, graphical abstracts, humour in titles, and lots more. Watch for it!

This looks great - new book, a compilation of long-form essays, from Elizabeth Kolbert. And the cover - chef's kiss! https://amzn.to/43b0AS3

Hey, the audiobook of "Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider" is only $5 (USD I presume) this month! I guarantee this can make 7 hours and 18 minutes of doing laundry and washing dishes at least slightly better, folks!

With a lot of work behind me, I can make this announcement: "The Scientist's Guide to Writing", my book of advice for scientific writers, will have its 3rd edition published next summer! Details about what's new, and timing, here:

It's interesting that there are shades of red that basically break photography - normal cameras just fail. In my area it's cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis). Maybe the wavelengths used to sense/set exposure just aren't close to the wavelength of this red?

Ever wonder how big a pin you'd need to mount an elephant in a display like this? No? Hard to imagine... but I bet you'll enjoy this slightly demented thread anyway.

Our university's "secure" file-transfer system doesn't require that the sender's name match the sender's email address. I'm sure there's a way I could exploit that for evil, but my inner 12-year-old prefers to exploit it for amusement. So one of my admins just got this notification:

This is very cool. But anyone else getting strong Snuffleupagus vibes?

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And last but not least, my most popular post of all time, "12 Mistakes Nearly Everyone Who Writes About Grammar Mistakes Makes". I got tired of stupid listicles of supposed grammar errors, so I made my own meta-listicle of errors in those listicles. www.arrantpedantry.com/2013/11/18/1...

I've worked with some really fabulous copyeditors and they've improved my work a LOT. And yes, they've listened to pushback and supported style choices!

I just learned there's a family of snails called the Sphincterochilidae, and I can assure you that my inner 12-year-old is DELIGHTED.

"Ghosts Behind Glass offers valuable insights into humanity’s grappling with our own hand in irrevocable loss, but the delight of the book is much simpler: as Jørgensen globetrots, we experience the museums and extinct species she visits through her enchanted gaze." lit.newcity.com/2025/10/30/s...

I wonder to what extent good writing principles transcend languages. And conversely, to what extent any differences in such principles and conventions feed back into how non-native English users (like myself) write in English.

This article rules. There’s a difference between “productive pedantry” and “pathological pedantry,” and good pop science writing can be killed by the latter.

This makes me oddly that I DON'T live in the dark blue part. Outer space, for me, is further away than the ocean. (Also much, much harder to drive to)

Responses to this piece, which argues that hyperbole is a useful and appropriate technique in non-fiction writing, seem to show a really fascinating pattern. Broadly: scientists disagree; non-scientists agree.

One of the best malapropisms I have ever heard was a reference to a "data suppository" instead of "data repository". "Hey David could you check out the code?" "Sure, let me fetch some latex gloves."

Thought this cheese looked astonishingly healthy until I looked at the serving size.

One of the (many) rabbitholes I went down doing research for something I'm writing led me into Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. This is a page from the Leicester Codex (some of Leonardo's notes about fossils). The notebooks are amazing to read (in translation, if you're me)

Does this really "change everything"? On hyperbole, and pedantry, and effective communication

Just a reminder to always read contracts carefully... I was offered one (to teach a course) that would have made the university I'd be teaching for the owner of all course materials, forever, in all forms and revisions that might be made... Clearly boilerplate, that's not what they intend, but WOW

Spotted in the wall at Bath Spa Uni yesterday @pavementgeology.bsky.social #stoneworkSunday

The F1 piloting his "coaster car" down the UNB hill. Some cars reach 60 km/h; I'm not at all unhappy that his didn't... Race checkin was at 7 a.m. At 6:30 a.m., car didn't yet have functioning brakes. What's the point of a deadline if you don't go right up to it? 🤣

I'm fairly sure that most supervisors would be happy to spend more time with their mentees. However, the more you climb the proverbial academic ladder, the more people, teaching, and everything else seem to start pulling at you for your time. It's a system problem, not always a supervisor problem.

A merger, observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in the COSMOS survey. It is at redshift 0.36 (lookback time 4.09 billion years) with coordinates (150.17982, 2.11037). 42 volunteers classified this galaxy in Galaxy Zoo: Hubble.

Clearly fans of Halloween. Overdoing it? Is that even possible? But look at the headstone in the closeup. 10/10 no notes.

"I may not have been trained to do the things I listed, but my education absolutely did prepare me for them. It taught me to think critically; it taught me to learn; and (perhaps most importantly) it taught me to recognize when I needed to do those things."

This is SO true !!

These are wise, wise words ... for students of science, engineering, arts and humanities, plumbing etc. ... 🧪

My life would be easier if I was only one of these kinds of procrastinators. Cleaner, List Maker, Sidetracker, Internet Researcher, Snacker, Perpetuator.... and there must be a special metalevel People Who Pick Types From Lists of Procrastinator Types Instead Of Working 🤣

Really cool art installation, waterlilies by Sarah Maloney, at the Beaverbrook Gallery in Fredericton, NB. Definitely zoom in to appreciate.

New post: All The Things I Was Never Trained To Do. Which turns out to be a sneakily disguised meditation on what university education is for, and thus what university is, and what it isn't - despite the persistence of idiots who don't understand that!

Google Maps is rather miraculous. But, if I may quibble: that construction up ahead has been there for 6 months. And you're telling me you had a report that it was there 1 minute ago. Do you really need to offer me a "still there?" button to hit?

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Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the sloths, for today is their special day! This woodcut of a sloth* was printed in 1635 in 'Historia Naturae, Maxime Peregrinae' by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg. * may it not haunt your nightmares 📷Baring-Gould Library 0689 Folio #InternationalSlothDay

We’re using Steve’s resources (book, workshop, monthly exercises) for our Fall 2025 pro-d with Weston Family Conservation Science Fellows @ncccnc.bsky.social. Highly recommended! Pair with a Pomodoro timer and students say “it’s life changing” ⬅️ direct quote.

Here is your Wednesday Weevil, Watching Warily. Seen at night in a Costa Rican rainforest. Love the giant eyes on this little nugget of a beetle. 🐙🌿 🕶️

Waxlip orchid ((Glossodia / Caladenia major) with sundew (Drosera sp. - probably D. auriculata) near Mallacoota,VIC. Lots of both sundews and orchids out here in coastal heathland heading into spring - but hot/dry weather since then has seen both suffer a bit in recent weeks #orchids #sundews

I knew nothing about these "fossils" before seeing specimens in the Vienna natural history museum a couple of years ago. 2.1 BILLION YEARS... I want it to be true.

1990s: Internet 1980s: CD-ROMs 1960s: Television 1930s: Radio … All the way back to printing press if not before.

Life goals. Wait, maybe that should be "death goals".

This from Gary Marcus is good. All the hype and panic about chatbot-style "AI" (LLMs) distracts from careful thought about what "AI" systems are good for what.

Don't you wish your department/university did more to help grad students learn to write? Teaching writing is hard, but students are eager to learn. I can help! I can teach a one-week intensive course for you. Details here: scientistseessquirre.... Get in touch!

I was a bookseller in my youth. One of my favorite things to do is boost awesome books by awesome people. If you've published a book in 2025, please let me know so I can read it in time for my annual Weirdly Specific Book Recommendations, shared each December for all your holiday shopping needs.