And freelancers like me!

ICYMI, deep-sea mining is in the news again. If you need a break from holiday cheer, you can learn why seabed mining is in the news, where it’s being considered, who’s behind it, and how the Trump administration is pursuing the option. And what potatoes have to do with it. eos.org/tag/deep-sea...

Ugh. The plague of AI generated deep-sea videos has finally hit. Really looking forward to constantly answering every "what is this creature?" post with "It's Fake is what it is."

Photographer Richard Robinson & I spent the spring documenting the toughest time of year for Kaikōura's fur seals. In the last 2 years they've faced starvation and a new virus -- now, as bird flu looms, what will this breeding season hold? nzgeo.com/stories/silent-spring 🧪🦭 @nzgeo.bsky.social

Loved talking to all these MacGyver scientists!

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." This @nickhunebrown.bsky.social piece about journalism grifters in the age of AI slop is fantastic, bonkers & sad on so many levels thelocal.to/investigatin...

Absolute gold thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-...

Really nice piece by @kategevans.bsky.social on moa footprint discoveries and preservation. www.nzgeo.com/mailster/547...

😍😍😍

It's that time of year again. If you value the work we do @nzgeo.bsky.social, please renew your subscription! It's really very affordable, and we need you to keep the mag alive and thriving (and me in a job.) I promise we'll make it worth your while. www.nzgeo.com/newsletter/w...

Extremely accurate map of NZ’s seasons

We live in an age of extinction 😭😭😭

Brilliant! Origami and evolution 😍 knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

The silent c’s of the sea world, cnidarians and ctenophores, have DNA architecture that is more similar to humans than their single-celled ancestors. www.quantamagazine.org/loops-of-dna...

Kudos to photographer Ashlee Rezin

Really should ban myself from “just having a browse” in a book shop

It was an absolute DELIGHT to speak to the Gastropod team all about Feijoas and my Feijoa book — which came out in the US this week — and in an episode also featuring durian, a fruit which inspires similar levels of obsession and belonging! #gastropod #feijoa #durian

The story of how the anus evolved is *wild* Here’s my latest sexstack essay — featuring the hilarious diversity of animal butts, an excessive number of puns, and for subscribers, a personal story of my own recent discoveries. #scicomm 🐟🪼🦖🦓 sexscience.substack.com/p/annals-of-...

Found this piece very reassuring! Thoughts? niemanreports.org/youre-as-goo...

@kategevans.bsky.social Spotted in the wild at Whitcoulls Silverdale today Whitcoulls Top 100 section 👍🌱

#storytime I was walking in Christchurch on the way to a Word writer’s festival event at the art gallery this afternoon. A young man coming towards me on the footpath gave a barely suppressed giggle of glee and leapt with joy, his heels clicking together. You seem happy, I observed. He turned..(1/2)

Ebony and ivory really are a perfect harmony—African forest elephants consume the tree's fruit, and in return, their fecal matter disperses and helps protect seedlings. That and more of the best from @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Ned is now going seriously viral. CNN came calling. The Guardian and BBC too. Get out in those gardens at night, Kiwis! Let’s find Ned a lover! (Please note Ned is a they; all snails are hermaphrodites) edition.cnn.com/2025/08/28/w...

This week's column. The details will make you gasp and rage. This massive desecration of nature is almost unbelievable, but it is happening in the UK right now. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A tiny silly fun thing in the midst of all the chaos... We're on the hunt for a mate for Ned, a 1 in 40,000 left-spiralling snail. www.nzgeo.com/stories/lets...

Crew I’m delighted to say we have a new campaign at NZ Geographic—let’s find Ned the lefty snail a mate! Have a look in your garden. Do any of the snails’ shells coil to the right? Only 1 in 40,000 coil left - and lefties can only mate w/ other lefties cos their shells get in the way 😭 nzgeo.com/Ned

Color me surprised! 😑 Turns out that an ecological system that has one stressor removed from it (fishing) is more resilient when faced with another stressor (marine heatwaves). 🧪🌊 Link: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Can chocolate cure jealousy? What *is* romantic jealousy anyway, and what can it teach us? Amazing new piece by the ever-insightful Monica Evans (my sister) featuring science and the deeply personal on our SexStack: sexscience.substack.com/p/science-as... 🧪🍫#scicomm

Freelancers out there - if you're getting paid by overseas clients, I highly recommend Wise to do so - lower fees and better rates than domestic banks, much quicker, and easy to use. If this might serve you, use this link and we'll both get a bit of a discount. wise.com/invite/dic/k...

Just got a 🧪pitch from a PR claiming to work with Colossal (de-extinction chancers). It was a pre-written article claiming the science sector is carrying out "coordinated attacks" on the co. Spy the headline. They asked if I'd publish it on my Forbes column. Not enough eye rolls on Earth for this 🙄

And what do we make of this? newsroom.co.nz/2025/08/06/f...

Anyone else see a lunar halo tonight? They’re caused by light of the moon refracting (or bending) through ice crystals in cirrus clouds, but so mystical! #scicomm #moon

Most humans aren't greedy; leaders are the reason for societal collapse, Luke Kemp argues. "Trump is a textbook narcissist, Putin is a cold psychopath, and Xi Jinping came to rule [China] by being a master Machiavellian manipulator.” Excited to read this book! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I think the really important thing about the "trans sports debate" is that it's NOT REAL, the things that people are fearmongering about are NOT REAL and are NOT HAPPENING. Cis women are not competing at a disadvantage against trans women, cis men aren't transitioning to win at sports, IT'S NOT REAL

Excellent ranty satire from @thespinoff.bsky.social this morning "Patriots, that was a wake-up call. Breathe in the new dawn. I love the smell of oil and gas exploration in the morning." thespinoff.co.nz/politics/31-...

Wow.

Thanks so much to everyone who voted for FEIJOA in the Whitcoulls top 100 - it made it again, which means it will stay in stock and up front in 55 stores around NZ, thank you!! Pics of celebratory dancing 📚🇳🇿🍈

Thanks Mindy!! #scicomm @giselledraws.bsky.social

This is already getting rave reviews in my group chat, check it out! sexscience.substack.com/p/landing-in...

I adore the latest piece on our Sex Stack (A Cliterary Journal for the Curious) by the brilliant Rata Gordon. It's about queer eros, making love with rockpools and rotting logs, and what happens at the moment friends (or other organisms) become lovers: sexscience.substack.com/p/landing-in...

One final post mortem on NZ's involvement in MethaneSAT, and the question of whether we should have been told more. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

This is a good time to remember that Moas, Emus, and the other ratites diverged so long ago, they FLEW to different continents, and then lost the ability to fly and became giants independently. You can't just sprinkle a few variants to make one into the other. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Need a mobile home? An incubation chamber? Dinner? 100s of species have hit on an elegant solution: find a nice juicy critter—and turn it into a zombie. My latest 'Just So' for @nzgeo.bsky.social with hilarious cartoons (as usual) by @giselledraws.bsky.social #scicomm www.nzgeo.com/stories/host...

This was me! I always thought it was “go go Jason waterfall” and wondered who Jason was!

Amen: thespinoff.co.nz/books/12-07-...

Wordle 1,483 1/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 what the actual… this word just popped into my mind when I opened Wordle and IT WAS THE WORD!!!!

Talked about a wholllle bunch of my favourite things - recommendations for books, podcasts, apps and a bit of music, with stories from my life, on Radio New Zealand this afternoon: www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Congratulations, I guess? Anyone have intel on how the GNS and NIWA scientists feeling about this? Cute announcement though. #science

‘The damage is terrifying’: Barbara Kingsolver on Trump, rural America and the recovery home funded by her hit novel

Shiffman pulls no punches, and this is a fascinating read