iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

it’s been a busy summer and I’ve gotten slightly distracted from my plants with a bug… (in my defense it looks like a plant) wrote a quick blog post about it for the slough: elkhornslough.org/blog/it-take...

elkhornslough.org

It Takes a Village to Raise a Caterpillar | Elkhorn Slough

It all started when researcher Emma Yockman encountered a caterpillar pretending to be pickleweed

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Reposted by Emma Yockman

Neil Forbes @treebeard793.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Very much at the other end of the #seedheads spectrum, Yellow Glasswort (Salicornia fragilis) - Salicornia's have some of the least showy flowers in the plant kingdom. Haverigg, #Cumbria #WildflowerHour

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

hello tiny seeds! left to right: Salicornia pacifica, Frankenia salina, Spergularia macrotheca, Spergularia marina.

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Sitting here with friends, scheming to bring more beautiful things into the world. I open bluesky, am met with more horror. Every day more horror. On Sunday, I gave a talk to the scientists where I implored everyone to do *anything*. It's easier to break than make things. Please make something.

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Defector @defector.com · 26/10/2025

Colleges' AI policies appear to be part of a broader effort to snatch away decision-making power over teaching, learning, and research from subject matter and pedagogy experts and give it to donors and administrators. defector.com/higher-eds-r...

defector.com

Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector

If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into…

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

writing a massive essay to my university for their AI use survey. it is so easy to write when I'm angry but so difficult for my thesis...

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

got to yap about marsh plants for like 4 hours today it was the best

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

attended a workshop by the ucsc library special collection dept and got to touch this ~4000 year old cuneiform tablet??!!!

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

the more I learn about herbaria the more it seems like everything is data science… is everything data science?

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

got to do some destructive sampling from a rare taxa today!

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Emily McPike @astrowithemily.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

As a final, final note: this change in policy is a disservice to all second-year graduate students and to the scientific community at large. Please reach out to grfp@nsf.gov to advocate for second year graduate students everywhere, and especially bridge program students!!

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Reposted by Emma Yockman

Carol, Muddling Through Somehow 😏 @pierrette1789.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

All my best to this FEMA employee, and may they succeed in their mission:

"I'M THE TYPE of person where, like, if you push me I'll push back. I don't like to live in a mindset of despair and negativity. When these people do this shit, it just lights my fire. It makes me more fucking mad. This used to be the best job I've ever had, the best environment I've ever had, the best culture I've ever had-and they fucking ruined it. I will never ever forget how much they ruined it. I'm like, fuck these people. They can't get me scared. I will not give them what they want. I will not just leave. I'm going to make it as difficult as possible for these fuckheads." -FEMA employee

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

this past weekend we hosted a volunteer session at the herbarium where we had ~35 attendees, and got 231 specimens mounted in just 3.5 hours! couldn’t be more thankful for a great community!!

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Jeremy Littau @jeremylittau.com · 14/08/2025

STEM people who think their work is apolitical are just people who like the current political context.

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

today’s monotonous task was sorting stems

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

the lab is such a liminal space sometimes I just blink and 3 hours has gone by doing a monotonous task

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Reposted by Emma Yockman

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Natural sciences/ecology friends, it's great that you want to add some social science/interdisciplinary work to your research. But please learn how to do it before you start! Among other issues, if you don't first get human subjects research ethics (IRB) approval, the work is unpublishable.

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

what kills me about this is that LLM ppl will always say "oh yeah i know it messes up and you should double check it" but then also in the same breath tell you use should use it for your academic research and lit review. NO!!!!! why isn't it being error-riddled enough to stop this?

The AI Scientist team also adds that it had already said in its paper that, in general, The AI Scientist makes citation mistakes; that it should cite more related papers; and that researchers should validate the tool’s outputs themselves.

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

You have FOUR (4) more days to order a Biology is Bigger than Binaries shirt, designed by the lovely and talented @franzanth.bsky.social. In this nightmare of a year, merch is keeping @skypeascientist.bsky.social afloat. Even if you don't order, RT's help so much! Get 'em: squidfacts.bigcartel.com

Two identical shirt designs but one is magenta and one is orange. It says biology is bigger than binaries and it has a clownfish and a bee and a lily

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

estuaries are at risk!!!! NOAA cuts result in complete elimination of funding for the NERRS system— this is the organization I do my research with. They’re SO SO IMPORTANT!!!!! please sign this letter of support and call your reps docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

beauty can be everywhere! even in the tiniest sidewalk cracks. This is Spergularia rubra, a flower that persists even in the pavement :)

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

what even is an herbarium? an herbarium is effectively a collection of plant corpses, ones that are dried and stored to last for years and years! they can give us a snapshot into what plants existed in the past! attached is a photo of a specimen from 1910!!!!

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Emma Yockman @taxonomicnightmare.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

heard a talk on Friday emphasizing the importance of science communication on social media. so here I am. scientist on social media. I'm going to try to share some stuff from my work at the UCSC campus herbarium! It's lots of fun and we see some cool stuff. #Botany #Herbaria

Herbarium specimen, pressed plant onto archival paper with a label.

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