Beautiful day collecting in the eastern Coast Range of northern Oregon

Washington Post article on STEM cuts at federal agencies. NSF tops it at -42%!

“Between January 2025 and February 2026, STEM and health employees at science-focused agencies saw nearly 15,000 jobs cut. The rate outpaced cuts among other federal workers.”

OPM data - Figure from Wash Post article 19 April. (Where US science has been hit hardest.)

NSF at -42%!

Sitalcina californica harvester, from a disjunct southern population found near San Luis Obispo CA

i suspect that this southern population is going to hold interesting biogeograhic secrets!

pretty Amaurobius spider in web, with cribellate silk

interesting genus in California, many short-range endemics, very poorly known ...

Shastas little offspring on the left there…

a Uloborus spider wrapping prey

these spiders lack a venom apparatus (rare in the spider world!), and instead secure their prey in a tidy silken ball, combined with toxic digestive fluids!

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40506724/

look closely and you can see silk strands coming from the spinnerets

spider sits in the middle of her shiny orb web at night

a Larinia orb-weaver from last night

in Lightroom Classic I inverted a subject mask & increased the exposure on the web

a simplified evolutionary tree of eukaryotes with pictures of various microbes

New #ISEPpapers #preprint by @deemteam.bsky.social: Re-evaluating the eukaryotic Tree of Life with independent phylogenomic data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Eukaryotes #TreeOfLife #Phylogeny #Phylogenomics #Bioinformatics #Algae

jumping spider, Habronattus amicus, on a central CA beach, doing a very nice job of blending in ...

A fly with red eyes that are shaped upward like horns. The fly has pale legs and underside with brown on the top of the head and a brown and tan striped scutum. It is standing on an off white mushroom.

Two flies with red eyes that are shaped upward like horns. The flies have pale legs and undersides with brown on the top of the head, a brown and tan striped scutum, and a dark brown and pale striped abdomen. The fly on the left is getting ready to shove the fly on the right with his front leg.

Two flies with red eyes that are shaped upward like horns. The flies have pale legs and undersides with brown on the top of the head, a brown and tan striped scutum, and a dark brown and pale striped abdomen. The fly on the left is shoving the fly on the right with his front leg.

Just a lil guy defending his mushroom.

We found a log covered in mushrooms and spotted some small hammerhead flies on it. Turns out these are feisty fruit flies and the males are serious about defending their patch. One of our coolest finds so far! #invert
(Zygothrica sp.) Intag Refugio, Ecuador

Apparently the Glires are digging my backyard. Literally

We call ourselves "intelligent," yet the humblest fungus can decompose waste and build soil, a tree can harness solar energy, and a wetland can purify water—all without toxic byproducts. True intelligence is learning from these systems, not bulldozing them.

a California classic

yellow-eyed Ensatina from the Santa Cruz Mtns

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán concedes defeat after 'painful' election result Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has conceded defeat after what he called a ″painful″ election result, ending 16 years in power for a powerful figure in the far-right movement allied with U.S.

Congratulations Hungary!! apnews.com/article/hung...

Look at the women at NASA.

They are the ones pushing the boundaries of science, solving problems most people can’t even understand, and carrying this country forward, while our politicians right now posture and stumble through talking points.

And they are doing it all with joy.👇

perhaps an uncommon photo of a relatively common cellar spider (Psilochorus)

roadside rocky cliffs at night, along the lonely Hwy 58, Temblor Range CA

🏴‍☠️ 🕷️

The spider looks so innocent sitting there eating a fly while two other flies look on. Who, me ?

Awesome series 👍

Humanity did that. Science did that. Publicly-funded research did that. Excellent universities did that. Diversity did that. International cooperation did that.

Artemis II is a perfect example of what we can do at our best.

Welcome home, Integrity crew!

Love that place!

a male Silvestri's Cave Spider (Typhlonesticus silvestrii) shows off his hardware

photographed in situ, beneath redwood woody debris

what i call the "peace & quiet" of a slender salamander

time to slow down, smile, appreciate a brief moment of joy, ponder their millions of years of persistence here

and then go back to looking for spiders .....

Interesting how you backed off, and captured the balancing flower. Excellent

Rascal 🤣

I'm thinking today about @ricksteves.bsky.social's great episode on Iran

You have a different species in the LA basin, typically under woody debris in the spring 👍

Ortholasma levipes, a type of Opiliones, or "harvester"

on our recent trip along the central coast of CA we found many of these, in fact dozens at some locations.

spectacular little animals

Have you seen this petition yet? The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University needs your support!

As our university is undergoing restructuring, its partnership with the natural history museum where I work, the Academy of Natural Sciences, is in jeopardy. If you value the involvement of science museums in the community, please consider checking out this petition. c.org/Db5WKdZSQ8

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics
ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil

What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”

I see what you did there, Bigfoot