iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#TDWG2026 4 talks in. Can't overemphasize enough how important this conference is to every bio-related organization that wants AI or data-science forward advances (i.e. *everyone*). My whole home institution should be here. The scope, depth, and coverage of topics, from culture to O(n) is bonkers.

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Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I will buy a beverage of choice to the first speaker I hear say "AI in the loop" instead of "Humans in the loop" at #TDWG2026.

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William B. Ludt, PhD @planet-of-fishes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The NHMLA is hiring an Assistant Collections Manager for updating our frozen tissues collection to liquid nitrogen storage. This position is grant-funded for 3 years. I'm a bit late on posting this, but there is still one week left to apply! workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

workforcenow.adp.com

Recruitment

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Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Slowly images of DNA barcoding specimens are reappearing on BOLD View boldview.iphylo.org/recordset/DS.... It's a pity that @boldsystems.bsky.social puts obstacles in the way of sharing this part of their data. Biodiversity data is still trapped in silos of our own making.

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Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Tool to display the use of a taxonomic name over time based on @biodivlibrary.bsky.social data is online at iphylo.org/bhl-name-tim..., the screenshot shows results for Physeter catodon versus Physeter macrocephalus (names for the sperm whale). This will be part of @tdwg.org workshop on BHL in Oslo.

Occurrences of scientific names across the Biodiversity Heritage Library, over time for Physeter catodon and Physeter macrocephalus

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Sebastian Majstorovic @storytracer.com · 10/08/2026

Are open OCR models good enough to unlock historical knowledge? @danielvanstrien.bsky.social and I built a leaderboard using six expert-transcribed volumes from the @biodivlibrary.bsky.social sky.social. Meet FineBooks, from @hf.co and @eleutherai.bsky.social! huggingface.co/blog/fineboo...

huggingface.co

FineBooks: are open OCR models good enough to unlock historical knowledge?

A Blog post by FineBooks on Hugging Face

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Craig B @mutillidae.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Here's the working prototype of my setup. It's a 3D-printed black block with a socket to hold a watch glass, and a 3D-printed diffuser that sits on top of the block. Recessing the glass greatly reduces stray light & glare. #NaturalHistoryCollections #Macrophotography #FocusStacking #DIYImagingStage

This is a close up of the imaging set up I made to image the water penny. There's a 3D printed black block with a socket to hold a standard watch glass on the left, with an actual watch glass sitting atop the block on its right edge. On the right edge of the block is a off white 3D-printed diffuser, roughly shaped like a hollowed out hemisphere, with large circular openings on the top and bottom. The bottom rim of the diffuser fits into a recess on the top of the block holding the watch glass. The pieces are setting on a light grey bench top in front of a white wall.

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Digital Naturalism Laboratories @dinalab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Here's a visualization of all the insects we saw at @kalindifonda.bsky.social 's hacker camp Krkcreate a couple weeks ago! (with a close up view of the visualization). I enjoy playing with different shape packing methods! #sciart #teammoth #mothweek

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Digital Naturalism Laboratories @dinalab.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Whoa! we already got 200+ people signed up for this awesome #mothweek event! Come join the Mothy fun tomorrow NYC! (and don't forget there is a free event on the front steps right after this too!) www.amnh.org/calendar/mot...

amnh.org

Moths in New York City: Museum Panel - Jul 23 | AMNH

Discover New York City's insects at an evening all about the science and wonder of moths.

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Andrew Rambaut (🐏🎀) @arambaut.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

This is so important - allowing individual uses of data to be tracked as citations will be so useful for demonstrating impact and reach of genome data. When you use data from Pathoplexus, create a SetSet & DOI for the sequences used and cite it in your paper.

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American Institute of Biological Sciences @aibsbiology.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Join the #TaxonWorks conversation & explore their software & community. Loosely focused on three themes, #research, #collections, and getting started, there will be lots of opportunities for conversation. #iDigBio events.zoom.us/ev/AjGnrAbjA...

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Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh @thebotanics.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Want to work with Scotland's National Botanical Collection? We have a rare opening for a Herbarium Registrar to care for our preserved collection, supporting a wide range of users. Deadline 30 June. More info: www.rbge.org.uk/about-us/job...

rbge.org.uk

Vacancies | Working Here | What We Do

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Torsten Günther @trstngnthr.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I am recruiting a PhD student (fully funded, 4yrs) to analyze modern 🧬 and ancient 🦴 genomic data from humans and domestic animals 🐑 Please share, I am happy to chat at #ICP2026 or #SMBE2026 this summer www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

uu.se

PhD student position in Population Genomics - Uppsala University

PhD student position in Population Genomics , Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University

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Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Just going to drop this here for a little gratuitous ego boost. What's crazy is that mx still has functions found nowhere else... but that gap is closing very fast in TaxonWorks now.

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Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

My taxon of choice (Diapriidae) is my also my parameter of choice. They are an excellent barometer of how well something on the web works ChatGPT. Wrong host, biology, morphology awful (crying). New Zealand does rock for diapriids though! 5/100, Would not recommend.

A ChatGPT generated image of a diapriid wasp (spoiler, it's not a diapriid) attacking a caterpillar (wrong host).

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TaxonWorks @taxonworks.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

TaxonWorks Together 2026. We're now open to (free) registration. TWT is a little different, we do our best to build in as much time to converse as to listen, fear not the relentless presentations, embrace #chat, bring your perspective (kindly). Please join! #taxonomy together.taxonworks.org

together.taxonworks.org

TaxonWorks Together

Annual event about the collective work in the creation of data to Describe life

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Andrew Rambaut (🐏🎀) @arambaut.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

New feature for PearTree - root-to-tip plots. Web version at peartree.live | desktop apps to follow at github.com/artic-network/peartree/releases/latest

Screenshot of peartree with a tree and a root-to-tip plot

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Keith Bayless @thekeithing.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I don’t see ‘taxonomists’ or anyone organismal on this list of biodiversity collaborators

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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Chaos reigns, post rare snoots

Lateral view of the magnificent rostrum of a Curculio caryatrypes, the greater chestnut weevil. This one was collected in 1906, just as the chestnut blight was racing west from its introduction point in NY.

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Samanta Orellana @coleopterasam.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

For the entomological community looking for data available on Symbiota portals, here is the list of active portals maintained by the Symbiota Support Hub and a number of collection communities around the world 🥰🐞🐝✨🌎. symbiota.org/symbiota-por...

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Rod Page @rdmpage.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is calling for nominations for new members doi.org/10.21805/bzn... The call is behind a paywall 🤦‍♂️ but text is below. Current commissioners are listed here www.iczn.org/about-the-ic... #taxonomy #iczn

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) will soon have six vacancies among its ordinary members and is seeking nominations for new Commissioners to be elected in May 2027. Five vacancies stem from retiring Commissioners A. Ballerio (Italy; Coleoptera), P. Bouchard (Canada; Coleoptera), M. Harvey (Australia; Arachnida), D. Yanega (USA; Insecta), and H.-Z. Zhou (China; Coleoptera); a sixth vacancy needs to be filled to reach the Commission’s target of 28 members.

The Commission hereby invites nominations, from any person, organisation or institution, of potential candidates for election. The nationalities and areas of expertise of the present members of the Commission may be found on the ICZN website (http:// iczn.org/commissioners).

Article 2.2 of the ICZN Constitution prescribes that “The members of the Commission shall be eminent scientists, irrespective of nationality, with a distinguished record in any branch of zoology and an interest in zoological nomenclature”. Furthermore, according to Article 2.3 of the Constitution, the composition of the Commission shall be such as to secure representation of diverse interests and different parts of the world.

Current activities within the Commission include monthly virtual meetings, voting on Cases every two or three months and participating in various activities as needed (e.g., reviewing or proofing Cases and Opinions, co-writing Declarations, participating in ad-hoc committees, preparing the next edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, updating the ICZN Constitution and Bylaws). Based on Article 3.1.1 of the Constitution, the maximum term of service of a member of the Commission is 18 years.

Nominations, including the age, affiliation, nationality and qualifications of each nominee should be sent before 1 January 2027 to the ICZN Secretary (ic...@nus.edu. sg) together with a statement that the potential nominee will accept the nomination. Self-nominations are accepted.

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Andrew Rambaut (🐏🎀) @arambaut.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

So I pleased to announce the conceptual spawn of FigTree: PearTree (acronym still to be finalised). If you want to dive right in it is hosted as a web app here: artic-network.github.io/peartree (click the “Example...” button for immediate candy and then click every button you can find).

artic-network.github.io

PearTree — Phylogenetic Tree Viewer

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Samanta Orellana @coleopterasam.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Hi @gbif.org, just FYI I applied last year, was listed as a mentor a few weeks ago and I'm still being denied access to edit GRSciColl. Is that really a thing for volunteers? 🙃 Do I really have to keep asking for you to let me help collections? For free?? 😂🫠😃

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Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Hot (obvious?) take. We are in the midst of an "AI" induced Cambrian Explosion of creativity. So many ideas will emerge and be explored in this period that historians recreating "speciation" events will struggle to create trees/networks of the provenance underlying the "lineages" that emerged.

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David Notton @davidnotton.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

New paper with Neal Evenhuis: ICZN Case 3903 – Removal of homonymy between Psilini Fallén, 1812 (Hymenoptera) and Psilidae Walker, 1853 (Diptera) by emending the former to Psilusini. Comments encouraged. www.researchgate.net/publication/... Image Psilus fuscipennis Wikimedia commons public domain.

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Tapani Hopkins @tapani-hopkins.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Nice to have numbers on this! I can very much second the statement "mapping Earth's biodiversity is far from over". Looking at the many boxes of Ugandan wasps on the table in front of me right now, mostly with species new to science, it feels as if we've barely started.

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research. about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...

about.biodiversitylibrary.org

Call for Support: – About BHL

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Ze Frank @zefrank.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

New True Facts! Insect Waterbenders! youtu.be/H5bZ4Vk2u7M?...

youtu.be

True Facts: Insect Water Walkers

YouTube video by Ze Frank

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Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Hey look #species #taxonomists, cheer up, naming things is hard even in the tech world- mcyoung.xyz/2025/04/14/t.... Many frustrations resonate, but the fact that they do suggests maybe we're not so bad off after all.

mcyoung.xyz

What the Hell Is a Target Triple? · mcyoung

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Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

@bsky.app Can we please have a modicum of intelligence built into blocking functionality? If you see me blocking, routinely, accounts that follow thousands of people, and their posts are all political, clearly indicating bots (in my mind), can I just block this profile en-masse?

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Matt @mjyoder.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Looking through some old work for content for a presentation I'm reminded how much I appreciated having the freedom to explore visualizations during my PhD. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but one thing seems certain- it emerges in spaces where one is free.

Image a figure in my dissertation. With caption "FIGURE 5.16. Parsimony informative characters for expansion rRNA 28S expansion segments. The D2 region is excluded."

$Figure from my dissertation with caption: "FIGURE 5.20. 28S D3-D5 k-word plots. Alternating bands from left to right indicate words begining with A,C,G, and U. Ellipse highights repeating fractal-like patterns that repeat at each increment."$

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TaxonWorks @taxonworks.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

This years TaxonWorks Together is solidifying. We're excited to announce a series of conversations (together.taxonworks.org#Schedule) with guests on #biodiversityinformatics topics that spark our thinking. Do reach out if you're interested in contributing, from lightning talk to demo, let's talk!

together.taxonworks.org

TaxonWorks Together

Annual event about the collective work in the creation of data to Describe life

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Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Episode 3 (imaging): Don't just sort. Also image, from multiple perspectives! Insect levitation with ultrasound: capturing 360° views to automate measurements and create 3D models. More here: www.techrxiv.org/users/813834...

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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

FYI we are looking for a new CONSERVATOR at the Carnegie Museum(s)! Come battle museum pests and bring me the weird bugs you find in our stuff. Starts at $65-75k which you can actually live on pretty comfortably around here. us242.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePor...

us242.dayforcehcm.com

Job opportunity at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh - Senior Manager of Conservation

Check out this exciting job opportunity available at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh!

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Ze Frank @zefrank.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

So this is the first stab at figuring out the size/technique,etc. I’ll start fixing the bees to the acrylic pane tomorrow. I think I’ll have to work larger and I might need more than one species of bee. Also want to make them 3D. This is a portrait of Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer AG, killer of bees.

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