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While these fritillaries love the coneflowers in my garden, they actually rely on wild violets for laying their eggs. They lay their eggs on withered violets and caterpillars hatch and go into a dormant state for winter. #bugsky #bloomscrolling #butterfly #photography #naturephotography 🍎🧬🧪👩‍🔬🌱🦋🐡

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Maybe, or maybe our metrics for assessing who belongs in graduate school are being fooled by technologically driven students that are able to utilize AI/other resources to make themselves look more driven than they are. Maybe we're just letting more under prepared students through than previously.

The big one on LinkedIn has like 200k followers. And big names in the field like their posts constantly. I think people don't care or don't realize? The platform itself definitely is just in it for followers, whatever followers on LinkedIn is worth

Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 17/07/2026

The number of sustainability infographics I see on #linkedin made with #AI is ridiculous. It takes an hour, two tops, to make an aesthetic and educational infographic on PowerPoint. Or use photos from unsplash. There are options other than AI 🧪👩‍🔬⚛️🧬🍎🥽🐡

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Yes I should have maintained that speed and eaten them before my kids saw them 😂

Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 17/07/2026

Mini harvest! Surprised I got some before the chipmunks! 🌱🍓🍅

Some strawberries and small tomatoes in a bowl

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Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 15/07/2026

It's very eerie! The inside of my house is all painted a light yellow and it's really adding to the eerieness inside the house when the yellow light comes in and bounces off the yellow walls

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Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 15/07/2026

I'm north of Albany, NY and same. I live fairly rural so the cities must be highly impacted if I am

Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 15/07/2026

Just a friendly FYI, if you're looking out your windows and it looks yellow and post-apocalyptic, that's climate change causing an increase in wildfires. Smoke particles scatter sunlight changing which wavelengths that reach our eyes #climatechangeisreal 👩‍🔬🦋🧪

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Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 13/07/2026

When judging science fairs, I often see high school projects focus more on broader impact than on novelty or intellectual merit. My next newsletter will explore why this happens and how we can better prepare students for college-level STEM research. 🧪🥽👩‍🔬🍎🧬🦋⚛️ www.linkedin.com/newsletters/...

linkedin.com

STEM Factually: Office Hours | LinkedIn

Virtual mentoring and guidance for the STEM community from Dr. Marissa Civic, PhD and former professor

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Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 13/07/2026

Yes, they would! It's most likely a soak in the dyes, extracted with something acidic. I like citric acid but vinegar would probably work as well. I used to bind the anthocyanins to titanium dioxide films for building dye-sensitized solar cells. It's a lot of fun.

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I am curious about that spray the scientists made that changes the color of pink blooms right by spraying the petals. I might need to do some experimenting!

Cool read: www.americanscientist.org/article/curi... Hydrangea color varies based on aluminum availability, not internal pH shifts. Soil pH determines if roots can absorb metals to form colorful coordination complexes w/anthocyanin pigments. White ones lack these pigments 🦋🐡🧬🧪🥽👩‍🔬🍎📷🌱 #bloomscrolling

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Couple other versions I've been playing with.

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Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 11/07/2026

Very excited to introduce my new logo! I'll be gradually updating my sites to incorporate it. www.stemfactually.com #stemfactually #smallbusiness #logo #graphicdesign #stem #womanownedbusiness

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Butterfly weed is another host plant for monarch butterflies. It's a type of milkweed and a valuable native plant across most of the US. It lacks the white sap associated with common milkweed. This photo was taken in my Dad's gardens. 🦋🌱🍎👩‍🔬🥽🧪🧬🐡 #photography

Butterfly weed orange flowers on a leafy green background

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Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 11/07/2026

Robber fly enjoying lunch. Robber flies inject a neurotoxin into their prey which liquifies their insides. 🦋🧪🥽👩‍🔬🍎🌱🐡🧬 #photography #bugsky

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Never forget to stop and smell the...bugs? Here's a netwing beetle who could use some appreciation. Found him hanging out in my pumpkin vines. 🌱🍎👩‍🔬🥽🧪🪲🦋🐡 #photography #art #bugsky

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He's neat, right? No idea what he is. I tried to find similar ones but they're all slightly different from him. He likes the soybean plant in my garden.

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Love these guys! Great photos. I photograph them too!

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Invading Ladybugs Carry Bioweapons

Huh interesting. I try to plant natives that attract native ladybugs rather than try to kill the Asian lady beetles, but I wasn't aware of that. Interesting. Found an article on some research on it as well: Invading Ladybugs Carry Bioweapons share.google/WyJUfJcwUA80...

share.google

Chemical Ecology: How Asian ladybugs destroy competitors with pathogens and use small molecules to protect themselves

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Right? I only upgraded the last few years to a phone with a decent camera and I'm so surprised what it's capable of. I get several blurry ones when I do the bugs because they're moving, but I usually take maybe 10 shots and get one good one? Which I think is pretty good for a phone

Thank you! Just my phone, it's a Google pixel 8 on 8x magnification. I just snap a bunch and hope they're not blurry then check them all when I come inside and periodically get lucky 😂

Not all ladybugs we see in our gardens are native. I found this Asian lady beetle in my garden today. You can tell by the "W" shape on the white part of its exoskeleton. They're welcome in my garden if they're eating aphids, but I'd like to try to support a native population. 🧪🥽👩‍🔬🌱🍎🐞🦋

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Dr. Marissa Civic @stemfactually.com · 09/07/2026

Found this little leafhopper nymph eating my sage plant. Fortunately there's enough for both of us Note all the little hairs on the leaf. They make the sage surprisingly hydrophobic which helps with cleaning and reducing fungal growth. I'll comment a photo of water beads on the leaves! 🦋🧪🥽🧬👩‍🔬🌱🌿🍎

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I agree. It's so cool when little kids are able to comprehend science of basic objects they use everyday. And it's nice to do some simple chemistry for me as well. It's easy to forget how simple some electronic devices actually are, and I enjoy the reminder

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Made a simple coin cell battery with the kids today. They really appreciated the concept of a battery when we wrapped it up and related it to the ones we buy in the store. Got 1 V and powered a small LED. 👩‍🔬🧬🧪🦋🥽🍎🔋 #kids #parenting #momsknowsciencetoo

Coin cell battery with copper and zinc disks.

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Unfortunate. Not a great way to set kids up for future careers.

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If your kids don't enjoy spreadsheets you're definitely teaching them incorrectly. Let me know if you need some tips

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I've always loved excel. I had a 9.8GB spreadsheet in grad school I'm still proud of lol

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I've tried a few, argument driven inquiry, openscied, etc. I thought were highly lacking in facts & too open ended. Expecting a K-2 to guess what to experiment without giving tools first seems ineffective. That said, I was doing it with a class of two and these are geared towards larger groups.

Well it's good to hear some programs are focusing on quant. I'll have to see what curricula Montessori schools use if any.

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Oh, possible. It was a pretty sudden transition to incorporate more STEM into early elementary. Probably a lot for educators to both adapt curricula and learn what they forgot from undergrad about quantitative measurement.

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