For their first project, my Kids and Society students have to create an infographic clarifying a common misconception about "kids these days." I'd prefer that they not use AI to create their projects, so I made my own infographic explaining why : )

Yesterday, history happened at the UN: For the first time hundreds of orgs signed a global pledge declaring that healthy indoor air is a human right. Healthy indoor air is a key tool for preventing pandemics, building climate resilience, and increasing health equity. We need it everywhere!

“Searching for a ‘cause’ is to treat autism as some kind of tragedy, failure or mistake. But autism is none of those things … Autism is a way of being human. It is a natural variation that has always existed, and always will.” www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

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.

Writing about this right now. We've had five-plus years of educators being ousted by MAGA. Can we go back and restore those folks' careers, safety, and peace of mind?

Ponderosa pine smells like butterscotch. Go ahead, sniff one the next time you're in the western US. Some say "vanilla", some say "oh no, my nose is covered in sap." Let's talk about birds, butterscotch, forest fires, blue wood, & boring beetles. But mostly this thread is about terpenes.

the most important thing to remember when you see eugenicists who don’t believe that autistic people should exist rambling about “the autism epidemic” is not that they’re wrong about the “cause” (although they are absolutely wrong about it); it’s that they are eugenicists

Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Loving the new @zotero.org update so far! Dark mode and being able to annotate items with text and drawing are huge improvements.

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama. His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful. Now he is tweeting in support of me. This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*. Or used to work.

This x1000. The moral injury from *gestures at everything* is rough and chronic. Take care of yourself and find your people.

Paper from 2024: We found Genus species present, strain Y, type 1.B, verified by Smith et al. (2021), Li et al. (2022), and Singh et al. (2023)(accessible on GenBank via these numbers). Paper from 1980: Frank said he found it one time (pers. comm.).

you don’t understand bro, if we didn’t lie, no one would buy our product 😩

A standing ovation? Really? Brought about by a speech from the party that regularly shakes hands with people who have expletives against politicians on their trucks? www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Bad bad bad bad bad

If you need a little hope this morning - the current tween trend involves decorating clothespins with affirming messages, then clipping them on friends' backpacks when they're not looking. Here are a few that my 11-year-old decorated this weekend ❤️

Education report calling for ethical AI use contains over 15 fake sources arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/e...

This + increasingly, I think it's important to note who doesn't want these spaces (public schools, universities, parades, etc) to exist and who benefits from them feeling unsafe.

I am ecstatic to announce the new Latin American Chapter of the Mycological Society of America!! This is going to have a great impact on the Latin American mycological community. Please spread the word and join for only $15/year! msafungi.org/latin-americ... @msafungi.bsky.social

Not enough people know that you don't hear about the holes in the ozone layer anymore because an international agreement banning production of chlorofluorocarbons was wildly successful and the ozone has recovered since. Change is possible. None of this is inevitable. We can choose differently.

is #iCanHazPDF a thing on bluesky? Dumais, J. 1994. Premieres mentions pour le Canada d'Amaurobius similis (Blackwall) (Araneae : Amaurobii- dae). Pirata 1:230-231. I can find no record of the journal 'Pirata' anywhere. cc @seq.ca

“This is a once-in-a-hundred-years discovery.” https://scim.ag/47zxDCq

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” It costs a lot less to house people.

JFC. Canada is complicit. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

"While my story might be exceptional, it’s not unique. Less than 5% of women in Canada are Indigenous, but we make up almost half of the women serving life sentences in this country. To understand me is to see crime as a branch on a large tree whose roots plunge into the wet, dark earth of history."

"... as history has proved, Canada cannot succeed in defending itself as a nation-state without acknowledging and partnering with Indigenous nations." thewalrus.ca/first-nation...

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

It’s incredible really

Climate and weather scientists still going strong over on Youtube - approaching 24 continuous hours! 🧪 🌊 ☁️ The energy of the audience and quality of the speakers are fantastic! Come join: www.youtube.com/@wclivestrea....

22 years ago I pivoted from working on antibiotic resistance to pandemic viruses. Since then, I've argued that if we care about saving US lives in expectation, advance capacity for producing bird flu vaccine offers by far the greatest expected return on investment. ... We were so goddamn close.

1/ The US government has ordered the Swedish city of Stockholm to end its diversity, inclusivity and equality (DEI) programmes within 10 days. The city authorities say the demand is "bizarre" and they won't be complying. ⬇️

Genocide By Starvation: Israel And Canada’s Shared Crime www.readthemaple.com/email/726e8a...

I wrote this in a week where it felt like professoring while parenting (and equally, parenting while professoring) was impossible. This feeling ebbs and flows. Seems like Mothers Day is as good a time as any to share, maybe it will help someone else feel less alone. The More Paradox 1/8

I put this together mostly to share with friends and family, but you may find it useful also. "How to be (and make others) sick less often" tryangregory.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

I ask all my able-bodied friends, followers, and mutuals to please take a few minutes to read this.

This is very exciting, though remember this blocks transmission not infection. So it will stop folks passing the virus to you, but it won’t stop you from getting the virus from someone who has not had this vaccine. When this becomes available we need to encourage everyone in our lives to get it!

Letter from the SSE/SSB/ASN councils on the scientific understanding of sex and gender, pls RT

"How to Find and Join an Organization Pushing for the Causes You Care About: Attending protests and reading anti-racism books are great first steps, but real power comes from working with other people to make change." www.vice.com/en/article/h...

I took this webinar a couple years ago and it was awesome. Lots of effective strategies for all kinds of scenarios. Highly recommend following Julie and signing up for one of these if you can!

Proud to be a member of MSA. Hoping more societies stand up for their members!

USA #HigherEd colleagues, What can Canadian academics do to help you sustain your research programs? Let's find the loopholes! 🌎🧪🧑‍🔬

I usually reserve this account for my personal views; but today I want to represent my position as President of @asn-amnat.bsky.social to post a message that will shortly go out to the membership of the American Society of Naturalists from the ASN Executive Council

Straight out of the Nazi playbook. How is anyone still pretending that this isn't what it is? Protect your colleagues and neighbours in whatever way you can.

there are organized actions to take in response to all of this. they require that scientists talk to each other regularly and often and build a culture of solidarity. 1) most importantly one could simply use these “banned” words more, and make the intended filtering hard 🧵

"These responses missed the opportunity to see broader connections between technology, politics, economics, culture, health, and the environment, an approach that likely would have enhanced public trust in postcolonial countries as well as in the Western world." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our study on #lichen #symbiosis is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! How can multiple microbes create a large, 3D, and structurally complex organism? To answer this question, we used #metagenomics, #metatranscriptomics, and a bit of protein structure modeling 🧵1/7 🧬 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky