imagine making the answer key to a high-school math test ––not by solving the math problems; not by asking a mathematician to solve the problems; and not by consulting a proven, trusted math resource.. but by averaging the answers every student gave to each question on that test.

The ‘Environmental Omics’ satellite of QRW2026, is happening at Te Pae, Ōtautahi, 3-4 Sep. Further information at: www.queenstownresearchweek.org/latest-advan.... Abstract submission (due June 24th): www.queenstownresearchweek.org/abstract-sub...

The 2026 Genomic Standards Consortium meeting is now open! genomicsstandardsconsortium.github.io/GSC26-Rotoru.... Awesome line up of folks, particularly focussing on genomic standards in Indigenous contexts: genomicsstandardsconsortium.github.io/GSC26-Rotoru... See ya in Rotovegas, NZ!

Hey so if you’re a man with an XX partner or child that you care about, I need you to read this thread because shit is not going to change unless cis men start not being okay with this stuff.

My usual Anzac Day post. George was Ngāi Tahu.

Here we go fam. Time to beat this oppressive, nasty, racist, divisive, Tiriti bashing bullshit AGAIN 😡 Sign up as a claimant supporting. #nzpol #ToituTeTiriti forms.office.com/pages/respon...

The 2026 Genomic Standards Consortium meeting is now open! genomicsstandardsconsortium.github.io/GSC26-Rotoru.... Awesome line up of folks, particularly focussing on genomic standards in Indigenous contexts: genomicsstandardsconsortium.github.io/GSC26-Rotoru... See ya in Rotovegas, NZ!

Pretty textbook on how not to do crisis communication for this type of attack. So here’s a little thread on what to do instead. 🧵 If you don’t know, I’m Hadyn Green, Principal Communications advisor at @first.org and my job is to go around the world teaching people how to do to cybersecurity comms

Now that it's public: RIP FluTracking, which I understand only cost $50k per year to administer, yet provided incredibly valuable and irreplaceable information on levels of influenza-like-illness. What an utterly dim decision.

SING Aotearoa is on! SING Aotearoa 2026 - Ōtepoti (Dunedin) - 8-13 February 2026 Applications for SING Aotearoa 2026 are now OPEN, head to www.singaotearoa.nz. Applications close 15 December. Please share share share with your networks, group chats and socials across the motu.

Only one week left to apply

In case you are looking for Indigenous thrillers/horror stories this October. Fricking love libraries that put together lists like this. pima.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/disp...?

One final bit of good news - 234600 people across the motu voted to remove Māori wards, 245800 to keep them - 51.1% of all votes were to keep them, 48.9% not to. The majority of the country that voted were in favour so suck it coalition!

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

led by wahine toa Tara, I'm lucky enough to be beside a rōpū of awesome Māori and Pacific "earliesh" career researchers on this one - our advice to the rangatira o āpōpō who are entering into STEM research training (ki a au, he reta aroha nā ngā tuākana tēnei): www.journal.mai.ac.nz/system/files...

This TikTok should be titled: “The Right Wing Explained” Well worth 90s of your time, & very applicable to the incoherent hypocrisy & gaslighting we see from Seymour, Peters & the Luxo-pool Noodle. This will get worse the longer NACT hold power here in NZ as it will feed their tantrum. #nzpol

“Overall, the message from this survey is positive; evolutionary biologists are readily employable outside of academia, generally well-prepared for those jobs, and report high levels of satisfaction” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@taniawaikatolawyer.bsky.social has posted these on Facebook so I'm sharing the joy here because we all felt Ellen Tamati's mamae. All of the mana, all of the time.✊✌️🥰 #ToitūTeTiriti #OneTermGovernment #nzpol

@sebasalco.bsky.social doing an awesome job repping the team on the research we were lucky enough to conduct on these taonga.

With fewer than 100 Māui dolphins left, and Hector’s also endangered, these rare subspecies are hard to find and even harder to study. But Otago researchers have cracked their DNA, revealing just how vulnerable they are and what it will take to protect them.💙🐬 Read more here🔗:

🧪 Great work on Hector’s & Māui genomes with @laninsky.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social phys.org/news/2025-07...

Tēnā koe e te whānau - ka kimihia tētahi tumuaki hou ki tō Te Koha Waimarie (tō taku pēpi) kohanga - tēnā, horahia tēnei pānui ki ngā tāngata e hīkaka ana ki tēnei wero! www.seek.co.nz/job/85125985...

That's appalling & Otago should protect & defend this esteemed & honourable thinker, scholar & Māori academic. I was honoured to learn from Anaru & look to his example at as a Social Worker, Academic Mana Tanē. Anaru has more mana & heart & mind in his little finger! He's obviously hit a nerve?

Our problem is not a lack of young people who want a career in science, our problem is a lack of careers in science

Submissions are open on the Regulatory Standards bill. The Chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee has opened them until 23 June, ie just over four weeks, instead of the more usual six weeks for a bill with a standard six month report back date. www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/mak...

The good people behind the flu tracker study are searching for new participants, particularly young ones. It takes about two minutes once a week to tell them whether you've had the snuffles or COVID or anything in between. Easy as, plus you're helping SCIENCE. www.flutracking.net/Join/NZ/inv2...

As a little kid, I was in an elevator at Boston’s Museum of Science, excitedly telling my grandparents about squid chromatophores. The older man with us turned to me and told me that it *was* amazing, and that that kind of excitement is the mark of a great explorer. Sir Edmund Hilary, folks.

A Fulbright is what enabled me to travel to the states to study conservation genetics of sperm whales for my PhD, giving me lasting scientific skills, friendships, and understanding of a place that was not my own 💔

📢 📢📢📢📢 Every biologist who cares about biodiversity should provide public comment on this rule proposed by the Trump administration that would REMOVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS for endangered species! This is extremely bad. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Scientists have assembled the first high-quality genomes of New Zealand’s Hector’s + critically endangered Māui dolphins using degraded DNA—an unprecedented breakthrough that offers insights for conservation and a new path forward for endangered species worldwide. whalescientists.com/new-zealand-...

The recap of the study by Sebastian Alvarez-Costes on his new study! Super fascinating and inspiring work 🐬✨

Really proud of @sebasalco.bsky.social's mahi on this one, and grateful to the iwi and hapū who entrusted us with their ngā ika moana taonga. @royalsocietynz.bsky.social, University of Otago, Genomics Aotearoa and ORG.one provided funding, and thanks to all incl coauthors who provided tautoko!

I have tariffed the penguins that are on Heard Island and which you were probably assuming did not export goods forgive me they were taking advantage of us so cunning and so cold

When the website for submission collapsed under the weight of our collective anger we were told that we could still bring our fury to the committee by hand, on paper. But that was not true. Those words are unread, those voices unheard. Thanks to @duncanwebbmp.bsky.social for fighting this. #nzpol

Kua kōrero pū tēnei tuhinga ki tōku ngākau, nā te mea, he tangata tahiti o tōku ake marae, ā, ka mōhio pū ki ngā pīki whera o te hono anō ki tō ake hapū. Waihoki, e mōhio pū ana ki te tautoko mai a Mauraka, a Kāti Huirapa hoki ki ērā e whai ai i te reo i Ōtepoti ❤️ e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/...

Stoked to see this wonderful story about @plutoxliu.bsky.social, a wonderful PhD student based in @ceridwenfraser.bsky.social's lab who I've had the pleasure to co-supervise: www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...

Delighted to have contributed to the genomic insights into demographic and evolutionary histories chapter led by @andrewfoote.bsky.social with @mariels.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social Michael Fontaine and Yacine Benchehida

Keynote speakers include Prof Amanda Black 🦠, Prof Alexei Drummond 🌳, Prof Matt Littlejohn 🐄, Prof Cris Print 🩺 and more! The conference will also include an Indigenous Early Career Leaders Session and a Precision Medicine Session. More info here▶️ www.gsa-2025.com/program

If screening is moved back to 60 years, 50% of Māori male and a whopping 60% of Māori female bowel cancers will be missed. My only aunt died of bowel cancer in her early 60s. Screening is so important!

Nōku te waimarie i tōku nohoanga i America kei ako ana au i taku tohu kairangi. It was my great privilege to start my PhD, in America, back in 2008. The amazing gift of Fulbright made this possible financially but the stipends are too lean to get by if payments missed: people will have to leave

Recreating @natforsdick.bsky.social 🧵 for #BIOL429_UC 'Current applications and future promise of genetic/genomic data for conservation in an Aotearoa NZ context' available as an OA peer-reviewed report in @docgovtnz.bsky.social #ScienceForConservation series: www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets... 1/7

➡️ "People were talking about this govt as the '3 headed taniwha', I'm like Bah. Don't waste this mana-full word, 'taniwha', on the govt. Taniwha he tipua. Taniwha is a kaitiaki, taniwha is powerful, taniwha is strong. We are the taniwha... the taniwha that's been awoken" ⬅️ @rawhitiroa.bsky.social

‼️These #PSMC #peaks are #artifacts‼️ Seen #PSMC results like this🤔? They are caused by ill-set parameters, #very #common, and #easy #to #solve! For details see 🧵& OA paper @currentbiology.bsky.social 🙂🐢🧬🎉! cell.com/current-biol...

Interpretation for the non-scientists: When faculty get NIH grants, the University gets some extra cash to make sure the research is supported. NIH just cut that $$ by a LOT. That means Unis are less likely to support research. Most research in the US is done at Unis, so... it's bad 🧪

Bluesky Altmetric account doesn’t miss.

My Departments vs Software Accuracy article is finally out -- with great support from the Editors, and some useful feedback from referees. doi.org/10.1093/bioa... #benchmarks #bioinformatics #genetics #software #compsci