Martin Rundkvist
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social  ·  activity timestamp 15 hours ago

Sweden has a native species of brick-red forest slug, Arion rufus. The country has also recently acquired an invasive slug species that is likewise brick red, Arion vulgaris. Swedish people immediately forgot that A. rufus exists and started to exterminate all brick red slugs.

A Gothenburg study that asked people to send A. vulgaris specimens received 60% indigenous A. rufus. Because people just can't tell them apart.

#biology #environment
Martin Rundkvist
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social  ·  activity timestamp 15 hours ago

Sweden has a native species of brick-red forest slug, Arion rufus. The country has also recently acquired an invasive slug species that is likewise brick red, Arion vulgaris. Swedish people immediately forgot that A. rufus exists and started to exterminate all brick red slugs.

A Gothenburg study that asked people to send A. vulgaris specimens received 60% indigenous A. rufus. Because people just can't tell them apart.

#biology #environment
jakalopes
@jakalopes@mas.to  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

I came across this awesome website with (mostly) free to use silhouette images of different organisms - great for scientific publications and presentations! I really appreciate people making/uploading these images for others to use - will probably be using these on graphs in the future. The bee species available are a bit lacking, though.
https://www.phylopic.org/

#science #biology #entomology #bees #research #academia#ScienceResources
jakalopes
@jakalopes@mas.to  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

I came across this awesome website with (mostly) free to use silhouette images of different organisms - great for scientific publications and presentations! I really appreciate people making/uploading these images for others to use - will probably be using these on graphs in the future. The bee species available are a bit lacking, though.
https://www.phylopic.org/

#science #biology #entomology #bees #research #academia#ScienceResources
Sunguramy :nb_lily:
@sunguramy@flipping.rocks  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
boost_ok Re: iNaturalist getting involved with Google genAI...feeding our comments into things...

Due to continued silence from iNaturalist about everything, October 31. That’s my deadline. That’s MORE THAN FAIR amount of time for them to:

1) Have a proper outline of the project and exactly what it will be.
2. Have a solid opt-in to the project, so no users are auto opted in without their consent
3. Have added account deletion options from an over-year-old feature request to add ways to delete including without removing ID’s for others along with anonymization. If data loss is really such a problem to them (which I think it should be) not having a way to do such a type of delete should be TOP PRIORITY especially with all this genAI bs going on...already it sounds like some power users have fully deleted their accounts over this, tired of waiting.

- Signed, someone with almost 25k ID’s for others, and almost 4k observations, including some firsts on the site (including new species to science) and other rare reports.

Please boost because I don't think most users know what is going on. All this info is mostly occurring on their separate forum, which you need to make a separate account to join. This is part of the issue of lack of transparency!

#AI#genAI#LLM #programming #computers #nature #naturalist #iNaturalist #iNat #biology #ecology#communityScience #cave #critters #invertebrate #insect

A cave silverfish, that our team discovered. Not only is it a new species, it was entirely new *genus*. My observations were the first up on iNaturalist. The rest all belong to our crew which are all equally worried about iNaturalist getting into bed with Google GenAI. It is a pigmentless critter, with three "tails" which are facing the camera. Lots of little tiny sensory hairs, and they skuttle around quickly, like surface rock bristletails/silverfish (common names vary). Muddy rock background.
A cave silverfish, that our team discovered. Not only is it a new species, it was entirely new *genus*. My observations were the first up on iNaturalist. The rest all belong to our crew which are all equally worried about iNaturalist getting into bed with Google GenAI. It is a pigmentless critter, with three "tails" which are facing the camera. Lots of little tiny sensory hairs, and they skuttle around quickly, like surface rock bristletails/silverfish (common names vary). Muddy rock background.
A cave silverfish, that our team discovered. Not only is it a new species, it was entirely new *genus*. My observations were the first up on iNaturalist. The rest all belong to our crew which are all equally worried about iNaturalist getting into bed with Google GenAI. It is a pigmentless critter, with three "tails" which are facing the camera. Lots of little tiny sensory hairs, and they skuttle around quickly, like surface rock bristletails/silverfish (common names vary). Muddy rock background.
Sunguramy :nb_lily:
@sunguramy@flipping.rocks  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
boost_ok Re: iNaturalist getting involved with Google genAI...feeding our comments into things...

Due to continued silence from iNaturalist about everything, October 31. That’s my deadline. That’s MORE THAN FAIR amount of time for them to:

1) Have a proper outline of the project and exactly what it will be.
2. Have a solid opt-in to the project, so no users are auto opted in without their consent
3. Have added account deletion options from an over-year-old feature request to add ways to delete including without removing ID’s for others along with anonymization. If data loss is really such a problem to them (which I think it should be) not having a way to do such a type of delete should be TOP PRIORITY especially with all this genAI bs going on...already it sounds like some power users have fully deleted their accounts over this, tired of waiting.

- Signed, someone with almost 25k ID’s for others, and almost 4k observations, including some firsts on the site (including new species to science) and other rare reports.

Please boost because I don't think most users know what is going on. All this info is mostly occurring on their separate forum, which you need to make a separate account to join. This is part of the issue of lack of transparency!

#AI#genAI#LLM #programming #computers #nature #naturalist #iNaturalist #iNat #biology #ecology#communityScience #cave #critters #invertebrate #insect

A cave silverfish, that our team discovered. Not only is it a new species, it was entirely new *genus*. My observations were the first up on iNaturalist. The rest all belong to our crew which are all equally worried about iNaturalist getting into bed with Google GenAI. It is a pigmentless critter, with three "tails" which are facing the camera. Lots of little tiny sensory hairs, and they skuttle around quickly, like surface rock bristletails/silverfish (common names vary). Muddy rock background.
A cave silverfish, that our team discovered. Not only is it a new species, it was entirely new *genus*. My observations were the first up on iNaturalist. The rest all belong to our crew which are all equally worried about iNaturalist getting into bed with Google GenAI. It is a pigmentless critter, with three "tails" which are facing the camera. Lots of little tiny sensory hairs, and they skuttle around quickly, like surface rock bristletails/silverfish (common names vary). Muddy rock background.
A cave silverfish, that our team discovered. Not only is it a new species, it was entirely new *genus*. My observations were the first up on iNaturalist. The rest all belong to our crew which are all equally worried about iNaturalist getting into bed with Google GenAI. It is a pigmentless critter, with three "tails" which are facing the camera. Lots of little tiny sensory hairs, and they skuttle around quickly, like surface rock bristletails/silverfish (common names vary). Muddy rock background.
Andrew Millar
@A_J_Millar@fediscience.org  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

What a difference a research field makes! 📢 new paper on high rates of #OpenData sharing in #Biology at #EdinburghUni, led by Haya Deeb from our BioRDM team with 5 student researchers 👩‍🎓.

Previously on her #Metascience2025 poster. 🧵 1/3

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328065

@toothFAIRy @fresseng
Björn Brembs
@brembs@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

Starting off the second day of the CogEvo workshop

https://event.unitn.it/cogevo/

in pretty Rovereto, Italy, is Elizabeth Spelke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Spelke

talkng about "From birds, fish and newborn babies to primary school classrooms: Leveraging developmental cognitive science to improve children's learning of mathematics"

#biology #evolution #learning #cognition
Björn Brembs
@brembs@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

Up now, Simon Laughlin

https://royalsociety.org/people/simon-laughlin-11790/

starting off his presentation on how the "wetware computer" of life - neuronal circuits, processes information.

So far, huge emphasis on external input. Completely missing mentions of spontaneously or endogenously active neurons until now.

Will use this to adjust my presentation tomorrow 😆

#neuroscience #evolution #biology
ABC Feeds
@abcfeeds@rssfeed.media  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

Lizards wearing tiny backpacks live fast and die young
By Jacinta Bowler

Ecologist Kristoffer Wild spent a year in the Australian outback fitting bearded dragons with hand-sewn jackets with GPS trackers to track every second of the lizards' lives.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-07-17/bearded-dragons-backpacks-research/105532670

#Reptiles#AnimalBehaviour#ScienceandTechnology#Biology#Zoology#EndangeredandProtectedSpecies#Nature#Animals#JacintaBowler
ABC Feeds
@abcfeeds@rssfeed.media  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

Lizards wearing tiny backpacks live fast and die young
By Jacinta Bowler

Ecologist Kristoffer Wild spent a year in the Australian outback fitting bearded dragons with hand-sewn jackets with GPS trackers to track every second of the lizards' lives.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-07-17/bearded-dragons-backpacks-research/105532670

#Reptiles#AnimalBehaviour#ScienceandTechnology#Biology#Zoology#EndangeredandProtectedSpecies#Nature#Animals#JacintaBowler
Joseph Szymborski :qcca:
@jszym@cosocial.ca  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago

My question for #researchers in the fields of #biology , #genetics , #medecine , etc... is are we going to be ready for the possibility of #PubMed and other #NIH online databases and services becoming one of the many casualties of the current #US administration and its increasingly unreliable #HHS department?

This is an interesting opportunity for the broader international research community to create a more distributed, resilient alternative. Scientists, citizen or otherwise... any ideas? #phd