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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁

@alexsmithants.bsky.social
8.3K followers 5.7K following 764 posts

Assoc. Prof of #Biology at UofG, Guelph, ON, Canada. Inspired by the #Biodiversity in ACG, Costa Rica. #Ecology, #Evolution, #Entomology Opinions my own & do not overlap with my employer. he/him www.malexsmith.com www.youtube.com/@Alex_Smith_Ants

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Sphagnum Moss @mosssphagnum.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Im hearing coughing & seeing symptomatic students show up in school. And a colleague borrowed my aranet4 whi ch showed high CO2 levels (& potentially infectious aerosols) even 5 mins after students left the class
A graph showing 2601ppm at 309pm
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Tod Maffin 🇨🇦 @todmaffin.com · 30/09/2026
In 1973, Phyllis Webstad, age 6, arrived at residential school in a new orange shirt her grandmother had bought her. To her, the shirt stood for belonging. It was taken away on her first day. Today, in part, is about what was taken from children. 🪶 READ: orangeshirtday.org/about/phylli...
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Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Vaccines work" isn't a political statement. "Immigrants do not increase crime" isn't a political statement. "Climate change is real" isn't a political statement. "Genocide is bad" isn't a political statement. Stop neutralizing the power of facts by framing them as "politics." Reality matters.
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Carol Off @caroloff.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My new book describes the journey of a young country finding its place in the world. The story I tell is historic but it's also personal; how I came to truly, patriotically, love this country. On sale October 13 but you can pre-order at your favourite bookstore.
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
What an album. #NauticalDisaster youtu.be/e8Fi46BFAF0?...
youtu.be
The Tragically Hip - Nautical Disaster (Official Video)
YouTube video by The Tragically Hip
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Ctenophores Rock! @ctenophoresrock.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is Bob. They are a hermaphroditic comb jelly that recently underwent reverse development from adult lobate to larval cydippid, following a period of stress. The event reduced our colony to just Bob. Once our food source stabilized, Bob began to flourish & what was 1 Bob is now 500+ Bobettes! 🦑
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
So happy to be able to wear my newly arrived #ctenophore t-shirt in #ZOO3700 lecture today! Check them out! @elizabethbeston.bsky.social t supporting the Plankton Project theplanktonproject.teemill.com/collection/a...
screen grab of a lecture where there is a plot of host mass against parasite size and students have annotated their expectation.  top right hand corner speaker is wearing snazzy ctenophore tshirt!
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🧪 Preparing students to work on a project on the #DairyBush this fall (a natural woodlot on the #Guelph campus) and want introduce them (& you) to this sugar maple that is estimated to have germinated in 1785. This 241 year old 🍁 (older than 🇨🇦 , than lithography, than …) is part of your campus.
Image looking up the trunk into the canopy of a sugar maple that germinated in the UofG Dairy Bush in 1785
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Waking up to learn of ANOTHER case where a paper has been published using my data and samples without attribution, biological data or context (let alone inclusion or consultation) ..... digs further & finds another one. how's your Saturday?
static.klipy.com
Man's Frustrated Outburst of Anger
Alt: Man's Frustrated Outburst of Anger
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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
my favorite type of bivalve :) can YOU find the staphylinid?
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Dr. Jen Irwin @drjenirwin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Air sampling at four US airports in 2023 and 2024 detected SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in over 98% of samples and influenza A in over 17%, according to a study published in PLOS Global Public Health” www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/air...
cidrap.umn.edu
Airport air sampling captures COVID, influenza viruses
Researchers say air monitoring complements wastewater testing in detecting respiratory pathogens from diverse populations, including asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people.
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Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Did a brachiopod write this? 😅
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
So the banana bread cookies (or banana brookies as the kids have named them) recipe from today’s Globe and Mail is fantastic! 🎁 link through paywall because… 🍪 🍪 🍪 🍪 www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/c231c7b...
An image of the banana brookies cooling on a drying rack
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/09/2026
An update following feedback from several kind people. As before, reuse as you see fit..
An infographic showing the number of described and estimated species for major animal groups. There are more insects than anything else. Of the remaining groups, arachnids and nematodes are the most diverse.
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James Umbanhowar @jumbanho.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If you are mad at how expensive bike repairs cost, recognize that bike mechanics are basically the most poorly paid mechanics in the country and bike shops are not high margin.
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Dr. Jessica L Ware @jessicalwarelab.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I love this new journal---https://journaloflostspecies.org/index.php/jls/index
journaloflostspecies.org
The Journal of Lost Species
A peer-reviewed record of the contemporary biodiversity crisis.
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Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com · 14/09/2026
Obituary: Robert Ricklefs (1943–2026) www.nature.com/articles/s41... Polymath ecologist whose research and textbooks integrating ecology and evolution have inspired generations of students. Free to read: rdcu.be/D33fLgYcv4Ba
nature.com
Robert Ricklefs (1943–2026) - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Polymath ecologist whose research and textbooks integrating ecology and evolution have inspired generations of students.
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Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
On LLMs, and why I choose not to use them in writing my books. In part I'm explaining this to myself, because the more you think about it, the less obvious it gets. scientistseessquirre... 1/3
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
Why I don’t use LLMs in writing my books
There’s quite the hullabaloo, these days, around the use of so-called “AI” writing tools (more precisely “large language models” – ChatGPT and its kin) in writing. And I write a lot, including writ…
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James Andrew Smith @drsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The AI decisions that are being made are strongly biased by the decision structures and current practices. Check.
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James Andrew Smith @drsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Look at current practice. Is the LMS in faculty hands? Nope. Is the university IT department in serious, structural discussion with faculty (are they integrated in collegial decisions)? Ask Senate. Are phones allowed in exams? (As they are at York) Are devices required for everyday tasks? 2FA.
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James Andrew Smith @drsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
… but can’t get them because the TA subsidies dry up as management takes those funds and gives them to OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Anthropic? Seriously. Because that’s the obvious path we’re on. An AI-captured management will seek to bypass or co-opt collegial governance in favour of AI.
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James Andrew Smith @drsmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The internal debates fellow faculty are having about AI is super interesting. So many extremes. Boosters to refusers. And so little consensus. But, really, are the debates moot if management loads university infrastructure with AI? And you researchers who want grad students…
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Academic Bullying @academicbullying.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"Persons in positions of authority were the most common perpetrators of workplace harassment against PhD students and postdoctoral fellows (Statistics Canada, 2021)." #CdnPoli #Academia #HigherEducation #uOttawa www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-00...
Harassment and discrimination among faculty and researchers in Canada's postsecondary institutions
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Donna Giberson (Elbows UP!) 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @donnag.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Also frustrating: I retired early (just B4 65) hoping to open a space for someone new. They did fill my "position", but with a person in an entirely different area of study (health/physiology) than mine (entomology/freshwater ecology), despite proven need for entomology work at my uni.
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
After losing his wife, the man's children adopted a shelter dog to provide him with companionship. [📹 lolaa.mariaa] Original post
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Ryan Brook, PhD. Chairman of the Boar @ryankbrook.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Yeah I was 38 when I got my tenure track job and it took another decade to climb out of the financial hole we were in. Early retirement is not on my bingo card.
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Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde @albrechts-h.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
No mention, of course, of the truncated nature of academic careers given the training requirements (PhD, one and usually more post-docs etc). Most profs don’t land their first properly paying gig until their mid-30s.
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Harrison Ritz @hritz.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“Just 1.7 per cent of professors were 65 or older in 2000. By 2024, that proportion had risen to 12.1 per cent. One-quarter of full-time Canadian academic staff are now over age 60, while less than 15 per cent are under 40. There are now more professors aged 69 or older than under 35.”
A graph showing an increase in 65+ staff, and a decrease in every other category
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Matthijs Dorst @mattneuro.dorst-lab.org · 14/09/2026
Same here. I recently had a chat with our head of department on the odds of a position becoming available in the next few years. He told me it was essentially zero, unless someone decides to retire. There is simply no money to hire new faculty. I'm entirely on soft money, and when that runs out...
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John Trant @trantteam.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Counterpoint: it isnt a problem for us younger profs. Because when they DO retire, we dont get a replacement line anymore. So everyone retiring means one less member of faculty and more work for the rest of us. Them staying on is helpful right now. Very helpful.
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Andrew Iwaniuk @evoneuro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Worth noting that this has been flagged as an issue for decades. Gen X (👋) raised this 20-25 years ago and no one cared (of course). The bigger issue with respect to hiring new faculty is lack of funding to post-secondary institutions, and a corresponding lack of space.
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
🧪 An editorial this morning in the @theglobeandmail.com about the growing trend in Canada for professors to avoid retiring. "The grey (time) zone of academia" 🎁 link www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/c231c7b...
theglobeandmail.com
The grey (time) zone of academia
The growing cohort of aging professors is raising intergenerational tensions on campuses
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 13/09/2026
Ten years ago Tami, Roy, and I released a movie we made of antibiotic resistance evolving in real time. I thought maybe a couple thousand people tops would see it. I couldn't have imagined it would be seen millions of times, and be taught from middle school through the graduate level worldwide
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Schools are not a business and a student is not a customer and this is the framing that encapsulates everything wrong with higher education. The “solution” of running universities like businesses rather than a public good was always the problem.
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angela oliverio @oliverio.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Just a **few** (aka 25!) more eukaryotic phyla discovered/proposed! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Nice work @tedersoo.bsky.social @vmikk.bsky.social & all
biorxiv.org
Discovering 25 novel phyla that fill gaps in the eukaryotic tree of life
Protists play important roles in food chains and symbioses in soil and aquatic environments, displaying an enormous morphological and functional diversity[1][1],[2][2]. While most commonly found proti...
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Collburns @burnscolleen25.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Since 1961, eight presidents have used the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and it is one of the most famous pieces of furniture in the United States. Did you know that the origin of this famous desk is directly connected to Canada? This is the story! 📸 Barbara Kinney 🧵 1/9
The photo depicts the Resolute Desk, a historic piece of furniture, situated in the White House Oval Office. The desk, crafted from ornate wood with intricate carvings, stands prominently on a blue carpet. Behind it, a black leather chair is positioned, facing large windows with yellow curtains that frame a view of trees outside. Two American flags are placed on either side of the desk, adding a patriotic touch. The room is adorned with green plants in pots, a side table holding a bust and framed photos, and two additional chairs with blue and gold upholstery. The overall ambiance is formal and elegant, reflecting the office's significance.
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Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
When a new paper drops analyzing the occurrence of Beatles song lyrics and titles in scientific paper titles, the media eats it up. (Think of it as "I Want To Hold Your Band".) Kind of wish I'd thought to WRITE this paper, but instead I only got to comment on it, in a news piece in Science. 1/2
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Mike Schreiner @mikeschreiner.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Ontario teachers are the victims of Ford's latest PR stunt. It's time to: End the Staples Monopoly. Invest in Public Education.
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David Maddison @bembidion.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The Tree of Life Web Project is back online! tolweb.org Thanks to Travis Wheeler (@wheelerlab.org), Danny Mandel, and Andrew Lenards, the original programmers for ToLWeb, for retooling the code to work on a modern OS! It is hard for me to believe it lives again.
tolweb.org
Tree of Life Web Project
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Wayne Maddison @waynemaddison.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The Tree of Life web project is back! A phylogenetic view of biodiversity way ahead of its time (ca. 1995!), conceived and led by David Maddison, collaborative & human-curated, widely used in teaching. Defunct technology had doomed it until Travis, Danny, and Andrew revived it. 🥳🎉 🧪 #evolbiol
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Seems to me that Microsoft Teams' greatest utility is for sharing a Zoom link where a meeting can actually take place! #highered
static.klipy.com
Fry from Futurama Thinking and Squinting
Alt: Fry from Futurama Thinking and Squinting
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James Andrew Smith @drsmith.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
If your university is using public commercial AI, then it is entirely possible that both student and researcher interactions with the AI — even indirect — are feeding the models. See this statement: “de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models⁠.”
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Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
My last (!) PhD student defended last week. So I have thoughts about a career of mentoring grad students - and how clueless I was at the beginning. scientistseessquirre... 🧪
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
A thesis defence that was a milestone for me, too
Last week one of my students defended her PhD thesis. It was a milestone for her (of course): it followed years of hard work learning new things about the invasion biology of ambrosia beetles (and …
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naugtynonnie.bsky.social @naugtynonnie.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
On this day in 2025, Ken Dryden died. Born in 1947 in Hamilton, he won six Stanley Cups, five Vezinas, the Calder and the Conn Smythe in his Hall of Fame career. A best-selling author, he served in Parliament from 2004 to 2011. 📸 Bruce Bennett
Ken Dryden in his jersey standing on the ice with vintage pads, blocker, glove and stick, looking focused.
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Joël Meunier @jmeunierearwig.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
🪲 Open MSc Internship (M2): Who benefits from family life? Join my group to investigate the evolution of sociality and family life in earwigs through experimental behavioral research! Details: joelmeunier.wixsite.com/researchpage... Deadline: October 1, 2026
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Judith A.H. Smit @judithsmit.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Caterpillars eat plants, right? 🌿 Not always, some are carnivorous! 🥩🐛 Our new paper documents the life history, behavior, and vibrations of Juditha odites. It feeds on treehoppers, then moves into ant nests to consume ant brood! 🐜🐛🦋 link.springer.com/article/10.1... @insectessociaux.bsky.social
link.springer.com
An insect-eating caterpillar associated with arboreal ants: life cycle, diet, social integration and substrate-borne vibrations - Insectes Sociaux
Herbivory is the predominant feeding strategy in Lepidoptera, whereas carnivory has evolved rarely. The life cycles of carnivorous species, however, remain poorly documented. Here, we confirm that Jud...
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Many arguments for jettisoning PhD thesis requirements because it serves no utilitarian value and is a waste of time have also been used to argue against liberal arts. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s the value of a liberal arts education. Everything isn’t about utility.
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🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
US Republican Party convention doesn't want CBC/Radio-Canada on hand - revokes public broadaster's media accreditation for upcoming midterm. www.cbc.ca/news/world/r...
cbc.ca
Republican Party revokes CBC/Radio-Canada media accreditation for upcoming midterm convention | CBC News
Chuck Thompson, the head of public affairs at CBC, says the public broadcaster is reviewing the Republican National Committee's "disappointing" decision to revoke CBC/Radio-Canada press accreditation ...
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