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Ben Stone @benstemon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Hey #Botany2026 check out Stone Lab PhD student Sara Wuerstl’s talk this morning in the Reproductive Processes section! 9:15 Tucson C-D

A decade of floral ecology: meta-analytic insights from Shaw nature reserve
Tue Aug 04 09:15 Am - 09:30 Am

Part of session 26: reproductive processes

Tucson c-d

Presenter: Sara Wuerstl

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Ben Stone @benstemon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Had to move this guy the other day as it was in the line of fire for lawn care. Eastern box turtle (genus Terrapene)

A small box turtle in the palm of my hand. The turtle head is withdrawn into the shell, but it is peeking out.

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Ben Stone @benstemon.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Probably a bit late, but if anyone in Cleveland for #Evol2026 has some free time, the Cleveland museum of art (open until 9PM tonight; 10am-5PM tomorrow) is FREE and has a ton of exquisite and culturally significant works of art! Here’s just one example. There were 4 Van Goghs on the other wall

Gigantic impressionist painting: Water Lilies, Claude Monet

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Ben Stone @benstemon.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

You need some pictures of honorary lab members

The cutest baby you’ve ever seen (other than his twin brother)

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Ben Stone @benstemon.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I am trying to convince Sara (PhD student in the lab) to join the dark side (work on Penstemon) Here she is collecting the rare and beautiful Penstemon dissectus!

A researcher collecting leaves from a small plant with purple flowers

A researcher collecting leaves from a small plant

A five-lobed purple flower tube at the end of a petite inflorescence

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Ben Stone @benstemon.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Why are we still spending tens of thousands of $$$ on APC for non-society journals like Nature? Wouldn’t that money be better spent at society journals at least? We are doing ourselves a disservice by continuing to participate in this madness. You don’t need a paper in these journals to succeed.

2 - Gold Open Access - same publishing process as above. The difference is that when an article is accepted for publication, the author/s or funder/s pay an Article Processing Charge (APC). The final version of the published article is then free to read for everyone. The APC to publish Gold Open Access in Nature is
£9390.00/$12850.00/€10850.00.

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Ben Stone @benstemon.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

New preprint is up! Not going spoil the results for you 🤓 but we looked at some “bird” vs “bee”-pollinated Penstemon hybrid zones and came away with some pretty unexpected results!