A few years ago, through luck and vibes, I managed to produce this blue colored bean variety. This was an early step in trying to answer the question, [paraphrased] "Why isn't blue as common as red in beans, even though they're both anthocyanins and the plant has the genes for both?"

I really enjoyed working with Dorota on making the figures for this paper and here is a lovely thread from her about making it!

Today is the winter solstice, the traditional start of Christmas (Joulu) in Finland. These gingerbread biscuits illustrate the development of a plant seed #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt 🌱

This figure from a scientific review paper on plant phenology (the cycles of seasonal changes) was a commission from @richardnair.bsky.social and we worked together to bring it to this final form Link to paper in Alt text More on the design process in the 🧵👇 #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt

"Fake citations have turned into a nightmare for research librarians, who by some estimates are wasting up to 15 percent of their work hours responding to requests for nonexistent records that ChatGPT or Google Gemini alluded to."

If you’re interested in how gen A.I. is affecting academic publishing, How’d you like to browse my new collection of gen A.I. images in journals? doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...

We have 526 scientists signed up for spring semester. We try to get that to about 1000 scientists before unleashing the teachers on the database. Wanna connect a class of kids with science this spring? Sign up!

I see lots of job ads on LinkedIn for training AI - PhD expertise required. So surely it will change in future, but will it ever be reliable? So far the „scientific” graphics are especially terrible

The planned hepatitis B birth-dose trial in Guinea-Bissau raises serious ethical concerns. Withholding a proven, life-saving vaccine from newborns to answer speculative questions is an absence of equipoise with real downstream harms for trust in vaccines. bktitanji.substack.com/p/how-unethi...

The Red Queen running with the snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum and its trematode parasite. It’s quite niche #SciArt, but if you know, you know #ArtAdventCalendar

This is one of my favourite projects from this year - three infographics for a conservation genetics workshop. Free to use and modify #ConsGen 🧪 #biodiversity

Updated every month: Access the raw datasets behind every #dataviz we've ever released online. The IIB Data Room. 500+ sheets, 1200+ datasets. Continually updated. informationisbeautiful.net/data/

Put it this way... if every one of our Bluesky followers donated just $10, we'd fly past our goal! secure.qgiv.com/for/knowable...

One of the illustrations from the book ”Biodiversität zwischen Wasser und Land” showing a cross section of an alpine stream. I #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt

‘Provisional Atlas’ chalkboard, chalk, pastel, ink, and wilderness map on birch panel 24”x 30” From a series about #memory. Recording, erasing, rewriting, reworking while creating a history; leaving on the surface a gist of what’s important. #ArtAdventCalendar #sciart 🧠

Interesting perspective on scientific writing in generative AI era: when an idea arrives from a model and not a source, then we lose the attribution, as well as the context, limitations, and the commentary of the original paper. The future looks grim 🧪

A portrait of Charles Darwin dreaming about the tree of life #ArtAdventCalendar

Fun fact, a lot of wonderful scientific illustrations you see in the 19th century natural science publications, were done by women, usually spouses of the researchers as uncredited free labour. The famous finches, came from John Gould, his wife, Elizabeth, illustrated his ornithology books.

Maybe it’s a bit small when you’re looking on your phone, but these infographics about forest tree breeding are the #SciArt I’m really proud of (Full resolution: aoe.fi#/materiaali/...) #ArtAdventCalendar More details in the thread below 👇

If you’ve “Followed All” in my SciArt Starter Pack before, make sure to do so again. Added some new people! 🐡🧪🎨

In honor of BRAINS being the GRAND PRIZE WINNER for the MICE Mini-Grants, I have made it pay what you want on itch for the next week alexandragallant.itch.io/brains so you can snag a digital copy. Print copies will be available to purchase in January!

The fat moose has been one of my first character designs and my alter ego. I drew this picture for a goodbye party invitation when my last research job was finishing and I was leaving Saskatoon (Canada) in 2019 #ArtAdventCalendar

This picture has been making the rounds again, and is being misidentified again. This is a GOOSEFISH. This is NOT a tasselled wobbegong shark. It’s a great pic. I get why people are very excited about it. But it’s as easy to give it the right name as the wrong one. fullfact.org/online/tasse...

Nice highlight of new genome paper. ❤️ emphasis on leadership of ECR Potamomics team members @kylemcelroy.bsky.social @chelseahiggins.bsky.social @jsharbro.bsky.social Genome Duplication in a New Zealand Snail Holds Clues for the Persistence of (A)sexual Reproduction: academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), botanical illustration. This cool plant grows in forests in eastern North America. Young individuals are male, then produce both male and female flowers, and large plants produce only female flowers #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt

5. Apetalous catchfly Like little paper lanterns under the northern lights. This flower is found as far north as Greenland and Svalbard. #SciArt #ArtAdventCalendar

This thread is part of an ongoing series that incidentally shows how many journal editors are failing at the most basic and obvious levels of quality control and checking. "Check that citations are real" should not be a high bar to clear.

This is one of my older drawings (2019), which I used to teach young audiences about genetic engineering and breeding. It’s illustrating the basics of plant reproduction, highlighting the fact that seeds are plant “babies” #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt #ChildrenIllustration

#PudgyHorse Lascaux Tribute 2. A companion piece to the first, following one of the other cave horses with a darker colour morph. Again, painted with pigments made by Mary Sanche from Cretaceous rocks from the Albertan badlands. From 2020. #ArtAdventCalendar

Some parasites like it hot, some don’t. Nice commentary in @pnas.org by Jukka Jokela (illustrated by @dorotdesigns.bsky.social) on our recent meta-analysis on the relationship between climate and parasitism Commentary: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Original meta-analysis: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) branch fragment with a mature cone - botanical illustration #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt

Silver birch Betula pendula branch and seeds; botanical illustration #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt

The black alder (Alnus glutinosa) digital illustration of the tree silhouette and a branch fragment with male and female flowers #ArtAdventCalendar #SciArt

How is climate affecting parasitism? A recent meta-analysis and a commentary 🧪 (links below)

Is climate change making parasites and diseases worse? The short answer is: it depends, and both negative and positive effects are possible. Read more in this PNAS commentary by Jukka Jokela, which I had the pleasure of illustrating 🧪🐡

Moth Liv Rainey-Smith Woodcut print Never editioned. Part of the ARCANUM BESTIARUM by Robert Fitzgerald. #art #woodcut #printmaking #bestiary #ArtAdventCalendar

This portrait of Charles Darwin is inspired by traditional depictions of Saint Francis surrounded by birds. Here, Darwin is holding a book and perched on his arm and shoulder are the Galapagos finches #ArtAdventCalendar

Day 1 of the #ArtAdventCalendar. I can't believe it's another year. I don't share this one often, but I'm rather proud of this diorama of the effect badgers have on the grasslands and other wildlife. - digital painting.

introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen Fat Freddy’s Drop Cosmo Sheldrake Sam Amidon Erik Truffaz Shabazz Palaces

For the Science feed 🧪

#Dataviz books everyone should read 📚 - a community sourced #charticle informationisbeautiful.net/visualizatio... Created in association with @‌DataVizSociety #iibwab

Artists & Art lovers! Time to get geared up for the biggest art event of the year on Bluesky! Last year we had close to 1500 artists from 25 countries posting original work daily from December 1-24

Recently visited the Glass Flowers at Harvard, a collection of 4,300 extraordinarily realistic glass models of plants crafted by the Blaschkas, a father and son team of sculptors That’s right, these are all made primarily of GLASS — a fact difficult to accept given how accurate & lifelike they are

Did you know. That the meme-explosion that was the wooden model of Sacabambaspis (an Ordovician jawless fish) held at a Museum in Helsinki, was created by a pioneering Estonian fish paleontologist and palaeoartist, Elga Mark-Kurik. 🧵

If you see this post your bird art #birds I hope imaginary birds count too, I used these for a lesson about evolution #sciart

Snailposting? Yes please! #SciArt

Rosemary Grant, an evolutionary biologist

Potamopyrgus antipodarum (the New Zealand mud snail) genome paper is out! 🧪🧬

Happy birthday to Indian #botanist E.K. Janaki Ammal (1897-1984), here with plants she studied: #sugarcane, #magnolia & eggplant. 🧪🐡👩🏾‍🔬 #histsci A trailblazer for #womenInSTEM in India, expert in cytogenetics, phytogeography, coauthor Chromosomal Atlas of Plants, 1st Indian woman PhD & early woman 🧵

This snail silhouette is now available in PhyloPic: Potamopyrgus antipodarum, the New Zealand mud snail. It was really fun to draw, as we have a close connection: I have studied their fascinating reproductive system in my PhD www.phylopic.org/images/51df2... 🧪🐡