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tessa

@tesskou.bsky.social
9K followers 1.8K following 562 posts

Science Journalist 🔬🦠 muckrack.com/tesskou 📷 Wildlife Photography 🦋 ♥️ 🦇 #Nature, #Climate, #Health, #WildOz, #SciComm & #Sciart 🕷️ 🐙 🐧 🎓MSciComm, BSc. Zoology & Genetics 🐋 🌿 Views my own 🦎 Narrm 🇦🇺 ♾🧠 🌈ally

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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Jane Goodall showed the world there is an important place for emotion, empathy & advocacy in science. Her unconventional approach revolutionized our understanding of the other beings we share Earth with. Here's my tribute. Vale Jane Goodall 💔 Thank you for all you gave humanity! 🧪🌏 #NatureWriting
sciencealert.com
World-Renowned Primatologist Jane Goodall Passes Away at 91
Jane Goodall, one of the world's most beloved primatologists and conservationists, passed away from natural causes while in California as part of a US speaking tour.
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Gen Conway @trigonotarbida.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Got the proper scan of the graphite drawing of the Gariwerd/Grampians sandstone outcrop :) #landscape #graphite #grampians #gariwerd #geology
Graphite illustration of looking up an eroded sandstone rock face with some vegetation on it
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Denise Difficult-Shrivell @deniseshrivell.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
When politicians at all levels of Govt refuse to address the needs of their constituents - housing, health, education, economic concerns - it leads to people being vulnerable to those who will exploit them for their own interests & agendas That's we we're seeing today #auspol
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Woah!! What an utterly incredible perspective of coral 😍 🧪🦑🌿 Looks like alien art, but it's a very real and intimate view of Cauliflower soft coral (Dendronephthya) looking up from its base towards its fractal tips. Australian Geographic 2025 photo competition Winner 🎉 📷 Ross Gudgeon
Thick, pale pink trunks textured with short, darker pink wriggly lines, branching into fractals towards the middle of the image, leafed with spiky white polyps at their tips.
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David Milner @davemilbo.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
The Western world needs therapy. It does not know itself. Routinely "appalled" and "concerned" about the war crimes it arms, pays for, and covers up politically. It asks us to sever ourselves from reality in order to cope. On an individual level, this is unhealthy. On a societal level, it's suicidal
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Independent Media Australia. @indymediaaus.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2025
Carbon bootprints: How war is fuelling climate catastrophe johnmenadue.com/post/2025/08/carbon… #Auspol
johnmenadue.com
Carbon bootprints: How war is fuelling climate catastrophe
The military-industrial complex’s vast carbon footprint is deliberately hidden from public view, while we get gaslit into using paper straws.
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Ha! My honors paper is on here. I don't believe authors hold copyright to academic journal articles though, unfortunately. Anyone with other publications here definitely has a case against this predatory company though!
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Anera provide medical care in Gaza, and food through local community kitchens, when they can get supplies. They are treating the people Isreal is starving to death. support.anera.org/a/palestine-... Interview below provides insight into the current situation from a local aid worker.
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Tom Isaacson @parsley72.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Has anyone tried opening the Overton window to let some fresh air in?
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Dread @dreadful4x.blacksky.app · 16/07/2025
And I’ll die on this fucking hill. If you believe people have to pay for what you consider a “human right” then you do not believe it is indeed a human right. You believe it’s a privilege for those who can afford it.
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Royce Kurmelovs @roycerk2.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
If I can sum up what just happened as neatly as possible: a Federal Court judge found the Australian government had ignored climate science when setting emissions targets, appeared to want to find for the applicants, but said his hands were tied by the law of negligence in Australia. /1
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🜄 greybriar 🜁 @greybriar.art · 01/07/2025
A peculiar softness #anatomicalart #botanicalart #surrealism
A painting of a recently excised rabbit heart with forget me nots growing from it in multiple places.
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Niki Hubbard, PhD 🐙🦀 @nikihubbard.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
I've been slacking on the sea slug skeets. Enjoy a recent nudibranch from a Sydney tidepool. Jorunna pantherina (I think). From a distance, these tiny 1cm nudis look pale, plain, grey. Up close, they are full of stars! 🐙🦑🧪 #MarineLife #Inverts
A tiny nudibranch, textured white, silver and grey. Bright and sparkling against a dark backdrop of brown algal turf
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Dr. Elizabeth Sawin @bethsawin.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Some of us need to fight within the system, some of us need to create new systems, some us need to tend the wounded, some of us need to stand in the way of harm, and all of us need to support the ones doing the things that is not, right now, our thing to do. Good thing there are a lot of us.
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I did finally plant up my little garden bed with natives in between naps. Surprised to finding weeding quite meditative so far (I'm sure I'll get sick of it at some point though, lol). Loving the little bursts of #WildOz colors though 🥰
Small raised garden bed planted with young kangaroo paws, grevillea, happy wanderer, paper daisies.Yellow Xerochrysum flower about to openClose up of deep pink kangaroo pawClose up of bright pink and orange pea flower
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Y'all it's not just in my head!! I have measurable tachycardia when I stand. Smashed my glass coffee table top collapsing after one attempt 😅 Post exertion malaise, brain fog etc continue. Having a tough time accepting how debilitating this is. Sorry to everyone I haven't responded to in ages 🙈
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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
IT'S FINISHED! The Art of #InverteFest April 2025 Edition A digital art book showcasing the work of 86 artists from around the world, in celebration of overlooked invertebrate fauna. Thank you to the human artists who contributed to our art book! Download here drive.google.com/file/d/1JvEx...
a promo image showing various pages from the book, each page showcasing different animals like a bristle worm, octopus, butterfly, and so on.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.
"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?"
"Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
A chonky mother-to-be tending a web so strong she could occasionally feast on tiny birds, bats or snakes. Didn't find the male on the meter-wide web. They are tiny in comparison, 4 mm compared to the 4 cm Australian golden orb-weaver female pictured. 🐡 🧪 🌏 #InverteFest #WildOz #Invert
Spider with very large, rounded abdomen mostly grey with back-lit coppery legs
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Alarming drops in oxygen found in 80% of 15,535 lakes examined worldwide since 2003. Such drops across waterways have increased mass wildlife asphyxiations events, including deaths of thousands of eels in NZ, Murray cod in AU & mussels in EU in just the last few years #NatureWriting #WildOz 🧪 🌏 🦑
sciencealert.com
Oxygen Levels in Earth's Lakes Are Plummeting, Study Reveals
Earth's lakes are experiencing an alarming drop in oxygen levels, new research shows.
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Heavy metal snail 🤘 #InverteFest
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Tim Hollo @timhollo.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
We are in a climate crisis which threatens our capacity to survive and, a few days out from an election, our politics is dominated by a neofash-driven “debate” on Welcomes to Country and a spat about costings and credit ratings. Neither ALP nor LNP are being held to account on climate
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𓍊🍄Tarto𓋼𓍊 @tartospleen.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
#InverteFest Hi there I draw BUGS !!!
"Sun Guardian" & "Moon Wielder", two watercolor illustration picturing scarab beetles, one playing with the moon and the other hiding the sun between its wings. Both have wings with a starry night pattern.
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
A very adorable peice of #sciart for such a great cause 🥰 🧪 🪶
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Ugh, think I finally had COVID? Long expired RATs didn't clock it, but timing/sympts fit. The cough part was mild but the lingering fatigue since's been wild. Two months later, I'm still crashing so hard after mere easy walks. Really freaking hoping prioritizing rest on my break this week helps🤞🏼
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dispozition @dispozition.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Pink Breasted Robin - The Redwoods Otways Shot on Nikon Z FC + Tamron 150-600mm June '24 Spent an hour sitting on a muddy riverbank watching this guy flutter around until he was comfortable enough to be landing a few meters away.
A pink breasted robin sitting on a short, thick tree branch looking towards the cameraa pink breasted robin standing on a small branch, looking to the left of framea pink breasted robin standing on undergrowth at a riverbank, looking to the right of frame
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Dr Maggie J Watson @terngirl.bsky.social · 08/03/2019
Ever seen a pregnant shingleback lizard? /Tiliqua rugosa/ I think... www.facebook.com/csuvcc Ping @JamesUVanDyke @CSUMedia
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Nesrine Malik @nesrinemalik.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
‘We owe it to the thousands of children who have been killed to pause and open ourselves up to the fullness of the little lives that were snatched away.’ Goodbye to the slain children of Gaza. You were loved, you are remembered, you did not deserve it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Goodbye to the lost children of Gaza. You were loved, you are remembered, you did not deserve it | Nesrine Malik
There is no way to rationalise the horrors inflicted on Gaza’s innocent children. Now is the time to mourn them fully, says columnist Nesrine Malik
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
A juvenile galah who was incredibly tolerant of my attention 🥰 Here you can see the youngster's nictitating membrane over its eye - a third, transparent eyelid that birds can close for protection against dust, wind, foliage etc, while still allowing some visibility. #WildOz #NatureWriting 🪶🧪🌿
A large, white capped pink parrot with grey wings and black eye half covered by an opaque membrane, grazing on grass. Grey feathers scatter through the punk around its neck which mark it as a juvenile.
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Frala @fralafontaine.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
If you see this, quote with flowers from your gallery
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anniebabyhedgehogs @anniebabyhedgehogs.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Eucalyptus phoenicea, Scarlet Gum, from Cape York, Far north Queensland 😍
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 25/01/2025
This is such a great thread. Let me add that there is nothing that you, an individual, can do, that will scale because you are one person. The people arguing that you should only do things that “scale” are justifying not doing anything.
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
If you see this, quote with flowers from your gallery 🌿 #nativeplants #wildoz
Large bright pink hakea flower that's a rounded cone of tubular tepals rather than petals.
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Niki Hubbard, PhD 🐙🦀 @nikihubbard.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Can I offer you an Emotional Support Slug in these trying times? This beautiful black-margined nudibranch from Gordons Bay today has entered its unicorn-era with one rhinophore missing! 🧪🐙🦑
Close-up with a nudibranch facing toward the camera. Bright white with black margins against a background of algae and rocky reef. One of its rhinophores is missing.
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Life is pretty grim right now. Here's my #starterpack of writers, historians and institutes sharing quirky medical and science content that might serve as a welcome distraction. Make your corner of the world weird and wonderful. Never stop learning. go.bsky.app/3DuVT6Z
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David Milner @davemilbo.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
At dawn, near the Shrine, at a place called Camp Sovereignty, First Nations people, and allies, began a day of mourning by reading out hundreds of massacres that took place in Victoria since colonisation. This is the truth of our history, and on January 26, the very least we can do is acknowledge it
Camp Sovereignity, pre-sunrise, around 5amThe beginning of the smoking ceremony. The sun has brokenA bark tent and the city of Melbourne behind itCamp Sovereignity
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
We need good journalists more than ever. Here are some great ones working in the climate space. Follow them. Amplify them. Support them if you can.
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Thanks to all your amazing enthusiasm I got to write about this most spikeliciously cute li'l guy 😄 Learnt that some of this crablet's brethren take rides on sea piglets! 🧪🌿 #inverts #NatureWriting
sciencealert.com
Adorable Baby Crab Stuns The World With Its Spiky Charm
The most adorable, silly-looking baby king crab, accidentally collected by NOAA researchers in the Gulf of Mexico, has rightfully become an instant online sensation.
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Niki Hubbard, PhD 🐙🦀 @nikihubbard.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
@rosieriots.bsky.social sent me this version 😆
The photo of the baby spiky crab, with the text overlay "i will do crimes"
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Sure is a bad time to be a person who cares about things.
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Tim Baxter @timinclimate.naruresearch.com.au · 22/01/2025
This will get almost no attention. It fucking should though. The combustion of coal, oil and gas is killing one of the most remarkable and important places on the planet before our eyes, and most people are looking away instead.
theguardian.com
‘Catastrophic’: Great Barrier Reef hit by its most widespread coral bleaching, study finds
More than 40% of individual corals monitored around One Tree Island reef bleached by heat stress and damaged by flesh-eating disease
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Dr swift parrot @teamswiftparrot.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
We all need these gang-gang smiles 🤩🪶🌏🧪🌿
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
A series of savage lurches from intensely dry to fiercely wet conditions helped fuel the horrific winter fires we're witnessing in LA. This 'hydroclimate whiplash' has increased considerably due to our warming atmosphere's ability to store more water. #NatureWriting 🧪 🌏 #Climate
sciencealert.com
LA Fires a Catastrophic Example of Study's 'Hydroclimate Whiplash' Warnings
A series of savage lurches from intensely dry to fiercely wet conditions helped fuel the horrific winter fires we're currently watching destroy parts of Los Angeles and surrounding wilderness.
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
This is so true though 🤣
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 18/01/2025
Good analysis of why fact checking on social media matters in a world where false claims are sticky + go viral so fast. But no mention of how X + Meta have altered their algorithms to suppress expert accounts & factual info. Fact checking on those platforms isn’t a level field. It’s a steep cliff.
theconversation.com
Climate misinformation is rife on social media – and poised to get worse
Meta’s decision could open the floodgates to more climate misinformation on its apps, including misleading or out-of-context claims during disasters.
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Effie Seiberg @effies.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Hey folks! Do you have #LongCovid, #MECFS, or something related? Do you write? Here's a paid opportunity for articles and essays for a great publication. thesicktimes.org/write-for-us...
thesicktimes.org
Write for us - The Sick Times
The Sick Times is accepting pitches for reported news stories and essays/commentary pieces. We take pitches, not full (already written) drafts on spec. We prioritize pitches from people with Long COVI...
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tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
If you see this, post something orange. This smol friend, the transverse ladybird, is common all the way from India to Australia. 🧪🌿 #inverts #WildOz
Shiny orange and black blotched ladybird with delicate little antenna sitting on long nailed fingertip
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Michael Whelan @michaelwhelan.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
SKYCHILD'S FALL (2006) Acrylic on Gessobord - 22" x 22" Commissioned by a Japanese firm for a calendar. 1/2
As seen in profile, a bearded aboriginal man of middle years sits with legs crossed on a perch of orange rock. He stares determinedly across flat barren plains topped by a beautiful blue sky. Breaking the upward sweeping pattern of wispy clouds, the contrail of a heavenly object arcs to the ground. Painted in indigenous style, it's downward trail continues on the pictographs painted on the rock above the man. The surrounding art is a mix of decorative shapes and narrative elements. At the edge of the rock, above the contrail, a figure falls with arms and legs flailing. The older man holds a boomerang. Several more rest on the stone near him. Beside him sits a boy with eyes cast dreamily upward as he grips a spear with the butt resting against the stone. Both are bare chested, wearing only loincloths.
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