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Avery Russell

@draverbee.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.3K following 108 posts

#RussellLab studies #bees #behaviour #microbes & #flower #evolution @MissouriState therusselllab.net | #PUI | #SciComm #DiversityInSTEM #BLM #WomenInSTEM #Humanities | he/him

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Reposted by Avery Russell
DB @arnoldtortoise.bsky.social · 55m
Lithops otzeniana is flowering for the first time. It was sown in July 2024. #Lithops
A bright yellow daisy-like flower emerging from a grey-green leaf-pair that is growing in a gravelly medium.
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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 5h
The mortality reviews that ICE published late last week show that medical neglect is widespread in Trump's concentration camps — something immigrants, advocates and attorneys have said for years, and which ICE routinely denies. New from me in @prospect.org.
prospect.org
Disturbing Pictures of Neglect in ICE Mortality Reviews - The American Prospect
The federal government released dozens of mortality reviews of immigrants who died in detention in recent years. They show a uniform pattern of medical neglect.
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Robert Tropek @robtrop.bsky.social · 4h
New study published in @natecoevo.nature.com ! We assembled the largest global dataset of plant–pollinator networks to ask a simple question: do interactions become more specialised towards the tropics? doi.org/10.1038/s415... Study led by @saileesakhalkar.bsky.social and myself ☺️ 1/8
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Dr Sho Jacobs 🍁 @shoshanahjacobs.ca · 1h
It’s med school reference letter season 🍎 Observation: #HigherEd students struggle to find referees because classes are too large to build meaningful relationships with their instructors Hypothesis: Over-enrolling students without hiring faculty reduces access to mentorship and opportunity
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American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · 1h
NIH is considering changes to how grant review results are reported, including eliminating numerical overall impact scores. Comments are due Oct. 13. Learn more and make your voice heard: www.ascb.org/science-policy/nih-pro…
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Amy Rae Hill @amyraehill.bsky.social · 2h
Glazing process
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 22h
617 days into his 2nd term, Trump's Department of Transportation has *still* not approved a single new transit project for full funding. The problems I highlighted in March—how this lack of funding only makes projects cost more & delays completion—have only worsened www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...
There have been no approvals for new transit projects in the entire 2nd Trump Administration. This graph, produced in March 2026, remains accurate now, in September 2026.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 23h
Cornell Vows That Rapists Will Be Forced To Write Much Longer Essays In The Future theonion.com/cornell-vows...
Cornell Vows That Rapists Will Be Forced To Write Much Longer Essays In The Future
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 29/09/2026
Okay, just so we have a record: The Facebook Fake-Out, a record of Meta's tactic of transgressing, getting caught, waiting for things to blow over, and then breaking the rules again. I documented the pattern so we have a link to share for the next time they do it. www.anildash.com/2026/09/29/f...
anildash.com
The Facebook Fake-out - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 25/09/2026
We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)! Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/
a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans
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Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Definitely click through on this story for the quotes from the Third Way spokesperson, who AGREED Democratic candidates should NOT adopt Republican language on trans issues. I was floored - even tried to get Billie to put it in the headline. This is not just analysis, these quotes are news.
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Hisham Zerriffi @hishamzerriffi.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The experiment has been run. In Quebec low cost daycare resulting in tens of thousands of additional women joining the workforce. The increase in taxes to both provincial and federal governments were more than the cost of the subsidy.
ippr.org
Lessons from Quebec's universal low-fee childcare programme | IPPR
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is an independent charity working towards a fairer, greener, and more prosperous society.
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Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New paper out with @kaylastoy.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
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Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
fucking really
thehill.com
Education Department formally rescinds Title IX protections for LGBTQ students
The Education Department announced Monday it has formally rescinded the Biden-era Title IX interpretation that gave sex-based discrimination protections to students on the basis of sexual orientati…
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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I wrote a bit about the two university museums slated for closure. There is *still* time to do something about each! 🧪🦖
coastalpaleo.blogspot.com
A tale of two university museums: there is still time to save the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Sternberg Museum
September 2026 has been a pretty dispiriting month for American paleontologists. In early September, Drexel University gave a surprise annou...
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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
KBJ keeps tryna tell us about the deeply perverse way the Court is exercising its equitable powers on the shadow docket the GOP justices wielding equitable jurisdiction are (surprise surprise) actively hostile to the concept of equity, & produce injustice instead ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/ketan...
ballsandstrikes.org
Ketanji Brown Jackson Is Getting Tired of the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Abuses
The conservative supermajority keeps refusing to take the real-world harms of its work seriously.
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Brooke Fitzwater, PhD (she/her) 🐟🪱🏳️‍🌈♾️ @oceanfilly.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I will be attending #SICB2027 this year! I am also actively looking for a postdoc position and would love to connect with PIs looking for postdocs! I have interest/expertise in behavior, mate choice/sexual selection, host-parasite interactions, and disability/neurodivergent advocacy in biology.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Claude appears to be engaging in academic dishonesty, which could be fireable for a human researcher. But one of AI’s major functions is ethics displacement, a shield that allows cheaters and other bad players to escape accountability.
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Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I became a biologist because of a museum exhibit. Real artifacts tell stories that are more powerful than anything we can get from scrolling. They are part of our engine for training the next generation of scientists. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/the-awesomen...
scienceforeveryone.science
The awesomeness of museums
Genuine artifacts tell the richest stories that fill our souls. And they fuel the scientific enterprise.
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
nyti.ms
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Confirming the White House’s planned EO to exert more political control on NIH seems to be “dead” www.statnews.com/2026/09/23/n...
statnews.com
White House plan to increase control of NIH grants appears 'dead'
A planned EO that would have greatly enhanced White House influence over grants at the NIH is “looking dead,” a source said.
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Awful: Trump's Office of "Remigration" has just been exposed making sordid payments to authoritarian governments to take third-country deportees, leading to serious abuses. Dems tell me they will try to defund the agency if they win power. They should. 1/ New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2157...
newrepublic.com
Stephen Miller’s MAGA Terror Campaign Exposed by Damning New Leaks
Sordid revelations about the white-nationalist-themed Office of Remigration should galvanize Democrats: If they win power, they must try to shut it down.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What's behind this tidal wave of epidemics? In the largest study ever conducted on emerging infectious diseases, we show that the popular explanation - "our relationship with nature is out of balance" - doesn't hold up. Out now in Nature, after half a decade of work: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases - Nature
Emerging infectious disease outbreak risks are ubiquitous worldwide, and highest in landscapes where people, livestock and fragmented natural ecosystems coexist, but detection and data ...
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arr @arr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This makes me hopeful. This number is aspirational but nowhere near out of reach: a working professional could realistically cash out their 401k and buy off a public official. Owning a senator is more attainable for most Americans than home ownership.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
We have *six days* left until the Academy of Natural Sciences, North America's oldest Natural History museum, is scheduled to close it's doors. Here are *six reasons* why we cannot - and will not- let that happen.
a slide that says 6 days until the doors close -- 6 reasons we can keep them open, save-the-academy.org @savetheacademy
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Brian O'Meara @omearabrian.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Public access to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia is being shut down after this Sunday (unless stopped). Yet, 1) Their website has zero indication of this anywhere 2) Promises a botany exhibit through Feb 14, 2027 3) Allows people to join as members for "an entire year" of access
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Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
when ai leaves u behind
7 panel comic.

Panel 1:
A Red Guy with AI across his chest looks like he’s about to run away. A Yellow Guy stands next to him. Red Guy says “I’m the future, buddy. You comin’?”
Yellow Guy replies “Nah”

Panel 2: 
Red Guy is almost out of the panel. He leans in and says “Enjoy getting left behind, pal”
Yellow Guy replies “ok”

Panel 3:
Yellow Guy stands alone.

Panel 4: 
Close up on Yellow Guy, there is a quiet “huff-huff-huff” noise coming from behind him

Panel 5:
Yellow Guy turns to look behind him

Panel 6: 
Close up on Yellow Guy’s face as if from the point of view of an attacker.
Yellow Guy yells “Jesus Christ”

Panel 7:
AI Red Guy is now chasing the Yellow Guy. 
Red Guy: “Use me”
Yellow Guy “No”
Red Guy “USE ME”
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Evolution Students @ssegrad.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
How can we teach evolution more effectively and help students engage with concepts they find challenging? Join us for "Teaching Evolution: Evidence-Based Pedagogy for Graduate Students & Postdoc Instructors", a virtual workshop featuring practical, research-backed approaches to teaching evolution.
Promotional flyer for an SSE panel and workshop titled “Teaching Evolution: Evidence-Based Pedagogy for Graduate Student and Postdoc Instructors.”
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Hannah A. Brazeau 🇨🇦 @habrazeau.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Journals requiring humans to pass a captcha proving they are human in order to read articles, then immediately bombarding them with their “AI tools” to summarize said articles feels very “the call is coming from inside the house”
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Rebecca Nagle @rebeccanagle.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A lot of the justification for slashing Bears Ear is that local Utah residents don’t want it. Trump reduced Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante national monuments by 90%. But a new poll says 66% of Utah voters want the monuments restored.
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Bernard Kim @bernardkim.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Princeton EEB is running a very broad faculty search at the Assistant Professor level. Please consider applying to join us! This is a wonderful, collaborative, cohesive department with diverse interests and amazing colleagues. apply.interfolio.com/193474
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Pablo Nepomnaschy @pablonep.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Not new, and not discovered...still great news. I offer a, perhaps, more accurate, less colonizing, title: "Western scientists describe a felid known to local communities as Tilcayo. It is the first description of its kind in over a century"
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Don’t bring a union rep” is one of those sentences that always means your employer is going you treat you with respect and dignity
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Jenn @jennburrill.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Dept of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) program to shrink the federal work force, by paying people not to work, increased administrative leave costs by 435%, costing taxpayers $9.5 billion “This was the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse" - Senator Patty @murray.senate.gov
nytimes.com
Federal Employees Were Paid $9.5 Billion Not to Work in 2025 Under DOGE Effort (Gift Article)
As part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s program to shrink the federal work force, paid administrative leave costs rose by 435 percent.
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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Krista D Ball is Canada's Mouthy Potato @kristadb1.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is apartheid.
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 17/09/2026
Trump's attack on higher ed is why we have created America's Compact for Higher Education, our unified response to his authoritarian overreach into higher ed. Visit the link to read the compact and use our tool to send the compact to your school's leadership: tr.ee/NyrCgh #University #Trump
tr.ee
Demand your school's leadership publicly endorse America's Compact for Higher Education — STAND UP FOR SCIENCE
Email your school's president urgently asking them to publicly endorse America's Compact for Higher Education
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Michael D. Green, PhD @michaeldgreen.phd · 17/09/2026
Honestly, it was scary to think about being named. As I sat with the opportunity more, I thought that there aren’t a ton of moments to act and set up a better future for science. We’ve all been through a lot. Even though I’m at a vulnerable stage of my career, I also have relative privilege…
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NSF has reduced the research budget for all atmospheric, ocean, and earth sciences by ~80%. 80%! A lot of us will not be conducting new research or training new students for the foreseeable future.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 15/09/2026
Had some fun in my backyard last night with my new Seestar S50 Pro 🔭
NGC 6992 Eastern Veil NebulaNGC 7000 North America NebulaM31 Andromeda Galaxy
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 15/09/2026
I still think there is not a good awareness out there of just how much the AI industry plans to run off fossil fuels. This is a *conservative* estimate that excludes many planned projects. These are weak plans and they can be stopped. au.finance.yahoo.com/news/us-data...
Investing.com -- Data centers in the United States are projected to consume more natural gas than most countries within the next ten years, according to a new outlook from BloombergNEF.

Natural gas consumption for electricity generation at data centers is forecast to increase by 15 billion cubic feet per day in the decade ending in 2035, even when accounting for planned projects that may never be completed. This volume exceeds the current gas consumption of all nations except China, Russia, Iran and the United States, based on data from the US Energy Information Administration. The projection is more than double BloombergNEF's December forecast of 6.9 billion cubic feet per day.
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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 14/09/2026
Some Dems are running away from trans people. Abdul El-Sayed, Dem Senate Candidate in Michigan, is running towards them. When asked, he fully and unequivocally support trans youth care as a matter between parents, patients, and doctors. Subscribe to support our journalism.
erininthemorning.com
"The Decision Ought To Be Between A Patient And Their Doctor," Says Michigan Senate Candidate El-Sayed On Trans Care
Even conservatives “agree that the decision about healthcare ought to be between a person and their provider,” El-Sayed said.
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Project Salt Box @projectsaltbox.com · 13/09/2026
On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, DHS posted a contract notice most people will never see. ERO ONE would give ICE the military intelligence apparatus that ran the war on terror, aimed at people in the U.S. I did this job for 20 years. Here's why it could be the next chapter of the deportation engine.
projectsaltbox.com
OP-ED: The $100 Million Hole in ICE's Deportation Machine
A procurement notice describes the one capability ICE doesn't have yet: a standing near-real-time intelligence enterprise to turn its surveillance into target lists.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 14/09/2026
Cis people do not understand how much trans people's rights have regressed in just 5 years. 5 years ago, there were none of these restrictions. 19 states banned legal recognition 21 states have bathroom bans 8 states ban gender marker changes on DLs 25 ban gender affirming care for trans youth
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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 14/09/2026
Attention #sciart people! The ASM agar art contest is open. Deadline is October 21 🧪🧫
asm.org
ASM Agar Art Contest | Contest Details
Have you ever seen art created in a petri dish using living, growing microorganisms? That's agar art! ASM's annual Agar Art Contest is a chance for you to use science to show off your creative skills.
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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The rule they are overturning was predicted to give $120 billion in public health benefits by 2047, with projections that by 2035, it would would prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths, 870 hospital and emergency room visits, 360K asthma attacks, 48K school absence days and 57K lost workdays each year
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 14/09/2026
it’s so in our faces: these camps are not places people are meant to survive
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Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 12/09/2026
The international chess Federation banned trans women from playing women's chess. CHESS. It's not about fairness. The fairness argument is intended to radicalize people into more violent forms of transphobia.
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