It's Trans Day of Visibility today. If you're trans and are raising money for something (I don't care what it is), reply to this thread and I will boost you. If you are a cis person, take a look and find someone to support if you can. Everyone give this a share after.

Had a fantastic first day at #UKVBD2026 learning about research into the UK’s vector borne-diseases. You know it’s been a good bit of conference-ing when afterwards you just need to go stare at a wall and think for a bit

Reposting this meme (with alt text) as a stand alone for any future usage needs where someone might prefer it not being already part of a thread:

Another (arguably even better) shot by the same LA photog, Jill Connelly, posted to her instagram. (Cropped)

This is what Potter money pays for. Why pay money to watch pretend heroes when you’re propping up a villain in real life?

*sad scientist noises*

Another bat caught on fly-paper yesterday. The 2nd brought to me in 2 weeks. Dead on arrival: horrible lingering death. This stuff is not environmentally friendly (the manufacturer's photo of it hung from apple blossom is baffling). @davegoulson.bsky.social @batconservation.bsky.social #bats #nature

I'm building an intro to R course to help students get up to speed on the basics. It's called 'R for Nervous Humans'. Modules 1-4 are up now. No interactivity though, for reasons. Feedback welcomed. arcaravaggi.github.io/r-for-nervou... #statistics #rstats

Some days I miss fieldwork, some days less so

The Abingdon Road residents said it well. I hate this shit

The Abingdon Road residents said it well. I hate this shit

I’m not sure if I ever shared on Bluesky this article we wrote on how almost everyone giving career advice is susceptible to survivorship bias, but I think it was good and you should read it www.nature.com/articles/d41...

i swear if we had social media in the past people would call the hippie and punk movements 'cancel culture' too. LARGE GROUPS OF PEOPLE MOBILIZING AGAINST THE THINGS THAT HURT THEM IS NOT NEW. SORRY BUD IT IS NOT SOME GEN Z FAD IF YOU SUPPORT HATE THINGS AND FOLKS DONT WANT TO BUY YOUR STUFF ANYMORE

He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world safe for children to grow up in.

Tesco can fuck off with their little tokens to vote for which local good cause will be funded. You made several billions of profit last year, just give all three the money you bastards.

One thing that isn’t discussed enough about JK Rowling and Harry Potter is the fact that SHE WAS IN THE EPSTEIN FILES. This woman, who has been on an anti-Trans crusade for years now because she “wants to protect women,” was cozying up to the world’s biggest trafficker of girls AFTER his arrest!

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Mar Wiley New study explains there is still no real scientific consensus on what sex is, and why gamete size--beloved of Rep state legislators--really doesn't work either since it is cannot be observed and thus proxies are inevitably used. [HT Denise Norris]

Semi-regular reminder: Baby open-ocean octopuses sometimes ride on jellyfish like little hats. 📸 Songda Cai bit.ly/2ZmNZZH 🧪🪼🐙🦑🌿

Say twit-twoo if you can hear us! 🦉 Many people think that the tufts on top of an owl’s head are its ears – actually, their ears are much lower. This owl in our birds gallery has a pencil inserted to mark the accurate location. ✏️ Did you know this? Let us know if you’d like more owls!

I keep getting predatory publishing scam emails from an account calling themselves 'George Orwell', and I really think he'd appreciate this tiny piece of dystopia

Good. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‼️ New preprint: By solving a paradox in graph theory, we show that specialist symbionts constrain ecosystem structure, drive biodiversity, and face high extinction risk. With @jbyoder.org and @ctrlalttim.com: 🎉 Specialists drive biodiversity scaling in symbiotic relationships

Here's a nice photo of an Argentine ant.

'the scientific process' in action

Finally, a real use case for JavaScript

STICK IT ON A FIVE POUND NOTE

Aaaand it's now published as a paper! Really pleased to see this out academic.oup.com/gigascience/...

Helpful explainer about the current meningitis B outbreak in Kent university, the need for public health investment & why students are more vulnerable - in addition to socialisation making them more likely to catch it are unlikely to have had access to the MenB vaccines as they were not available

Fucking NHS underfunding, man

They’re telling me a great empire will be destroyed if I attack Persia. Even the oracles who don’t like me very much, very nasty, they all said to me, “Sir, it’s one of the great empires, and it’ll be destroyed. And all because you attacked Persia.” That’s what they’re telling me.

Birds

For the record, this is my comment to the journalist on Colossal’s dire wolf.

Do These Severed #Orca Fins Covered in Tooth Marks Mean Killer #Whales Are Cannibals? It's Complicated, Scientists Say - www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/d... @smithsonianmag.bsky.social

Mahmoud's policy itself is abhorrent, but it's also profoundly stupid in terms of the UKs long term interests

Worth all 27 seconds of weirdness

Just incredible shoebill awareness-raising from this Hong Kong teens' magazine

OK but hear me out

Right I know this is shocking, but guess what? The Oxford Congestion Charge is seeing LESS congestion and MORE people taking the bus. Try this one simple trick etc etc. news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/more-people-...

Several male Goshawks breeding deep in Poland's Białowieża Forest 'routinely travelled up to 20 km to hunt feral pigeons in a town' with the authors concluding that 'urban environments shape the foraging behaviour of raptors even within primeval forests' #ornithology 🌍 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I’ve told my kids we’re going out for gelato when I get to 80k, and I recommend it as a tactic if what you want is to live with tiny versions of your most brutal internal work ethic whipcracker. “Write! Stop drinking that tea! Write! How many words did you get done today?!” #writing #writer

This is fine 🙃

This Pirkei Avot quote helps me feel a little less like I have to solve everything (it’s literally been thousands of years of people feeling overwhelmed!) and it cracked me up when someone stuck it on the pics of the tiny backhoe trying to dig out the EverGiven ship when it got stuck.

A little PSA, there’s a new rule. If you initiate conversation with someone who’s carrying a sleeping toddler:

Cutting air pollution should form part of government strategies to reduce cancer rates My latest piece for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...

New preprint! We developed a qPCR assay for detecting degraded DNA from Anopheles gambiae-complex mosquitoes (the main malarial vector sp) in mixed material such as predator faecal samples. Ultimately helping us better understand their place in their broader ecosystem 🧪 biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/1...

NEW PREPRINT! 🦠⚖️🌡️ The Pandemic Agreement is the first global health treaty to name climate change, and behind the scenes, the UNFCCC was a source of both inspiration and conflict. Cristina Arnés-Sanz and team tracked climate issues through three years of negotiations: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....