it's impossible to get good at something new without sucking at it first

Okay, so obv. lots of feelings about the "US congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese Collaborations" Science article floating around... Not going to reskeet it though: sorta discussed why a while back here. buff.ly/zhSVzLV Instead, lemme teach you some insect order names in Chinese! 🪲🪳 Why?

One final quick talk/post (before I need to go to bed 😅) - Jack Whisenant returns with the story of the Bible Fly at Cornell's Insect Collection, which was found squashed in the pages of a book. Rather unconventional and unique way of collecting/preserving insects! 😂

Jess Awad (@parasitoidrex.bsky.social ) uncovering hidden treasures in the Naturalis collections ( @naturalis.bsky.social )! Each unassuming box contains new insect stories (more in ECN's thread): from tiny galls on delicate leaves, to the tale of notorious beetle image thief Oskar Vogt! #ECN2025

Original Riker mounts by inventor Clarence Riker held at @denvermuseumns.bsky.social , presented by Genevieve Anderegg! 😍 The cabinets are just as intricate as the insects held within!Though lacking in collection data, lots of educational & natural history research value once imaged! #ECN2025

NO dermestids found?! How??? 😲 (That's honestly more impressive to me than the lack of broken antennae!) -- Some more closeup images of the lovely Lepidoptera donated, as well as a newspaper article about the donation written in a local paper by former student.

Learning more about the prolific work of hymenopterist Lubomír Masner with Proctotrupoidea wasps & development of new collection tools! Glad to hear my sewing hobby might come in handy haha - though mesh is super tricky! 🧵 Good message from Lubo: "Less computer, more collecting"! #ECN2025

Day 2 of #ECN2025 starting up soon! 🪲 Always looking forward to seeing some hidden gems from insect collections around the world! 🌐 (Btw shout out to @entcollnet.bsky.social for still having an online vers. of the event! ❤️ Means us folk who can't make ESA EntSoc can still join in on the bug fun!)

Getting "jump-scared" by moon cake boxes left and right these last few days. 🤣 Like whad'ya mean they sometimes contain actual moon cakes🥮 , not entomological specimens?! Thread with context: bsky.app/profile/rebe...

Deeply saddened to hear about Dr. Jane Goodall's passing a few days ago.💔 Had the honor of hearing her speak last year. One of my science heroes, a wonderfully empathetic researcher who helped us realize that we are not alone in the world. Thank you Jane for everything.👩‍🔬🦍 youtu.be/d_FzzLeA6pk?...

this is cheese phenetics and I won't stand for it

Not sure if it's cus this beetle's "Spiderman" colors are making me think of superhero movies... But just hit me that Thanos the Marvel villain & thanatosis the behavior prob share a similar "death related" root origin?! 🤯 And yeah: Thanatos = Greek personification death, son of Nyx (night). TIL!

Ooh! Going with the famous Jaddite Cabbage/翠玉白菜 (Cuìyù Báicài), which a flawed piece of jade carved to resemble a nappa cabbagge/bok choi with a kaddid and locust in its leaves. If you're ever in Taipei 🇹🇼 , be sure to visit it in the National Palace Museum/故宮博物院! theme.npm.edu.tw/exh106/npm_a...

Whoop! #InverteFest Art book is out now! 🎉 Go check it out & show your support for all the amazing artists who contributed! 😍 (And if you haven't seen the previous ones before, they are at invertefest.com#artbook👍 lots of amazing stuff there too!)

day 4 #InverteFest #invertebrate weird fact: there is plenty of research into invertebrate sleep, but so far the most well studied invertebrates DREAMING are cephalopods (we don't yet know WHAT they dream about, but they have the same sleep patterns as humans!) 🦑🐙

2x posts today to catch up with Day 3 of #Invertefest - Saw some people lamenting how arthropod/insect-centric the hashtag has gotten (whoops! 😅)… So here are a few chill HK snails I saw recently to mix things up a bit! 🐌🐌🐌

For Day 2(-ish) of #Invertefest : Enjoy this brilliant, “beetle-full” photo a family friend took of me earlier this summer! 😂 My first time ever visiting Pittsburgh & the Carnegie Museum of Natural History! ❤️ Who needs Dippy the Dino 🦕 & halls full of gemstones when there are BUGS to see?! 😜

picked up this eastern tailed blue and felt like i picked up a kitten by the scruff of its neck :T the little legs tucked in is too cute #invertefest #invertebrates

For Day 1 (-ish) of #Invertefest, I’m taking you inside the insect lab with me! 🪲🪳 Today I sorted some bug samples from Tung Chung/東涌 🇭🇰 into different arthropod orders, using a stereo microscope + some featherweight forceps. (As part of a ongoing @HKBM.bsky.social project)

i love you beginner artists. i love you even if you're trying to learn art in your 60s. sharing your art can be scary if you are new to art and learning, but don't ever let mean people stop you. your art is important and beautiful because it's yours. keep creating, now more than ever.

Oooh fun experiment idea! 💡 Be sure to check out all the other human-made creations & unique art styles over at #DrawABird + in the reposts of the original prompt (…after you finish your own drawing of course)! ❤️ Here‘s mine in all its glory hahaha! 😆

Good old Larval U. Fight fiercely, fellows!

Best Office Notice EVER!😂 Love how laid-back the Chi version is vs Eng. + cus Chi grammar, it's ambiguous how many bugs are involved or # of photos needed haha!😜 1st lines literally: "In this office interior previously, suddenly arise centipede(s). If found, please help take photo(s), thanks!"

I realize broad science-literacy problems cannot generally be solved just by shoving more facts at people but I really wish more people understood that the entire purpose and mechanism of a vaccine is to educate your OWN immune system, making it about the most "natural" medical intervention possible

Great photos of a really neat lil' critter @nashturley.bsky.social! 🐛 Got to meet a one up close at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in DC earlier this summer! (+ a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach/Gromphadorhina portentosa) Many insects look intimidating but are chill cutie pies IRL 🥰

Crazy record-breaking amounts of rain in Hong Kong 🇭🇰 these past few days (worst Aug since records began in 1884 - climate change man😩)... Lots of flooding videos online already, so instead here's one I took of dragonflies swarming the sky during a brief moment of rain respite Monday evening. ⪩༏⪨

Just some flowers fireworks for your feed today 💕

People with shitty takes about Texans deserving this flooding are blocked on sight.

So I apparently missed out on #InsectWeek 2025 by a few days? Oh well, better late than never! 😅 (More info about the annual event by @royentsoc.bsky.social‬ here www.insectweek.org ) Anyways, some recent-ish photos I took at @amnh.org 's excellent insectarium & butterfly vivarium in NYC!

Back home stateside for a bit: visiting family & friends over the summer🥰 (+ scoping out potential PhD schools??🤷‍♀️) Any suggestions for things to do/see in NYC, Philly, Pittsburgh, Boston/Cambridge and DC (+Ithaca, PSU, UMD)?* *Besides the NatHist & Sci museums which are obvs already on the list!😜

Y'all ever start off a side project full of unbridled enthusiasm... Only to realize part way through that it miiight actually take tons time to finish? 😅 But you are also in way too deep to turn back? And like it's such a cool idea that you'll keep do it anyways? For free even?🙋‍♀️

Yeah... that's not really good. 😬 As Duolingo is finding out the hard way with languages, there are LOTS of things that AI tools simply aren't equipped to handle: species ID-ing is 1000% one of them. Scientists who use this platform don't care about the "experience", we just need accurate data.

If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow. The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.

Bit late to the start of pride & the whole "see a flower, post a flower" thing (really appreciate it - last few day have been pretty *AHHHH* for me due to *gestures broadly*), so here's a two-in-one post! ❤️ First being this wonderful plant collage by @secondnaturemb.bsky.social ! Also...

Happy #Pride everyone. Nature is infinitely diverse.

One of my fav little guys to find in donated student collections!😄 Great macro photos HKBM! Hard to show how sparkly they are IRL otherwise! 📸 Here are a few of my own photos (cellphone ones😅) with my thumb for scale + all the info that goes along with each insect (more details in alt text)! 🪲

Brilliant thread about a fascinating insect specimen (hawk moth with an ant bite) & the importance of Natural History Collections🏛️ in answering big science questions today! Gotta keep our collections alive folks! 💪 [Insert "subtle" advert for the HKBM @hkbm.bsky.social & NatHist research here😜]

Whoop~ *ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!* 🎉 Warmest welcome to the bug club Sabrina- May you have many, many joyous insect catching days ahead of you! 🥰 #Bugsky

Some photos from the 14th Spring History Symposium at HKU in early May: Day 1- Presented own NatHist research on 🇭🇰 views of introd. & invasive species in mid-late 20th c.! Panel with Jiaying Fu (G. W. Groff's Guangdong fruit) + Lizhang Bai (China's locust mang. strat. in US Ento. Com. reports)!

Having access to trustworthy experts and being able to parse what is and isn’t misinformation or disinformation is a PRIVILEGE. Education is a PRIVILEGE. People aren’t “stupid” because they can’t do this. And if you think you’ve never fallen for propaganda you’re lying to yourself.

Okay- so I’m by no means an actual artist (didn’t even have a brown pencil lol). But with such a cute spood, how could I resist a quick little doodle?! 😍 You’re right, he’s perfect! 🥹 (No art critiques please- idk what I’m doing, just wanted something happy to stick on my desk cork board 😅)

Recently went to a 五月天 (Mayday) concert with Mom - had a blast!🥰 But realize few people here know about this amazing Taiwanese 🇹🇼 band I grew up listening to (literally, they've been making music for 25 years!) - So here's a crash course as a "timeline cleanse" + AAPI culture post for May! [🧵]

Whoop! Go check out some fantastic, human-created invertebrate art everyone! 😍 (Also brilliant work on the cover Franz, love how colorful and cheerful it is! 🌈)

Enjoy! Libraries are magical places imo! 🥰 Like if you thought all those books FOR FREE was amazing - wait til you learn they've got AV stuff, study spaces, interlibrary loans, maps, newspapers, tools, events...! 🎶 Havin' fun isn't hard, when you've got a library card! youtu.be/lyxEDSnegTU 🎶

Oh F-ing hell... 😡 Look, I HAVE a USA passport & birth cert, but even so - Doesn't the "in person ID required for voter registration" part basically means I (along with many 🇺🇸 citizens living overseas + military) just CAN'T vote from abroad in upcoming USA elections anymore? [🧵]

Whoa hold up - The Hong Kong Biodiversity Museum (HKBM)🏛️ is on Bsky now!! 🎉 @hkbm.bsky.social Go give them a follow for fun facts about 🇭🇰's wonderful wildlife and the crazy cool stuff found in our collections! (+ they're at <10 followers despite having far better stuff than me! 😅 )

OMG #oceanhist #histsci #envhist

#MuseumConversations @ the HKBM - Q: “Uhhh… why are there dozens of mooncake/月餅/🥮 boxes stacked up on your desk? In late March??” A: “Right... So you know how those blue Danish butter cookie tins always contain sewing supplies? Like magic? Without fail? Well...”

Final call to support this fantastic art fundraiser for trans & queer folk if you are interested in supporting! ❤️ #SciArt

New(ish) to sewing - Just spent an entire weekend afternoon, literal HOURS, troubleshooting my machine (jammed thread under fabric). Tried everything: new needle, different fabric/thread, other stitch settings etc... even disassembled machine bits! Turns out I just threaded the top thread wrong.🤦🏻‍♀️