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

Excited to share my latest for @sciam.bsky.social, on Sexual Synesthesia. I’m very grateful to the friends and acquaintances who spoke to me about their unique, beautiful and colourful experiences, & even painted them! www.scientificamerican.com/article/sexu... Maybe you have it too? #scicomm

Excited to share my latest for @sciam.bsky.social, on Sexual Synesthesia. I’m very grateful to the friends and acquaintances who spoke to me about their unique, beautiful and colourful experiences, & even painted them! www.scientificamerican.com/article/sexu... Maybe you have it too? #scicomm

Here's Kate Newton (with her tardigrade) and finalists @kategevans.bsky.social and @michelleduff.bsky.social

@kategevans.bsky.social's @nzgeo.bsky.social story will change the way you think of red-billed gulls www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-...

My first story is out on our Sex Stack: A Cliterary Journal. It's about the new literary form of audio erotica, featuring writers, creators & scholars & my own experiences, & fair warning, some swearing & sexy stuff. But it's also funny & nerdy & heartwarming sexscience.substack.com/p/talk-dirty...

this is all a bit exhausting. luckily (helpfully(?)) today is June 12. so it's all worth it. thank you @firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social.

This seems like a huge honour - have apparently been selected as one of 10 inaugural New Voices of Aotearoa, along with some amazing company - and I look forward to discovering more about what it involves! thespinoff.co.nz/books/12-06-... 🇳🇿📚

Excited to be coming to Wellington for this year’s very competitive awards and see all my science journo buddies!

In Nelson? Check the website to see what they take and take your trimmings to Natureland!

In Auckland and pruning your Feijoa, olive, puma or guava trees this winter? Don’t dump the trimmings, take them to the Zoo to feed the giraffes! www.aucklandzoo.co.nz/browse-at-th... @aucklandzoo.bsky.social

Last year many lovely people voted for Feijoa in the Whitcoulls Top 100 and it made it in, so it sat up the front of the book shop all year long, and people read it who otherwise wouldn't have. I'd love you to do the same this year - anyone can vote: www.whitcoulls.co.nz/top-100-books 📚🇳🇿

And it's here! Our first essay on Sex Stack: A Cliterary Journal for the Curious. It's by my sister Monica Evans and begins with the question--are boobs hot because we hide them?--but goes all sorts of other fascinating places, as well. #scicomm 🇳🇿📚 sexscience.substack.com/p/permitted-...

incredible database.

Noting that this is, at least partially, #SciComm, in case any of you folks are interested x

Welcome to SexStack: A Cliterary Journal for the Curious! Two writer pals and I have created this nice dimly lit space where we can write about sex research in ways that are weirder, raunchier, and more personal than our day jobs allow. Come with us? 🧪📚 sexscience.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

What a joy to review Auckland’s Forest Restaurant’s deep friend Feijoa dessert for @thespinoff.bsky.social - it’s pure Kiwi nostalgia in a dish thespinoff.co.nz/kai/19-04-20... 🇳🇿🌱