One more story about botanical artist Marianne North with a modern twist...

A couple of years ago, Tianyi Yu recognized 14 new-to-science species of bright-blue fruited rainforest shrubs.

One specimen was first collected in 1973, but it turns out, North painted it ~100 years earlier in 1876.

Here’s her painting beside “Chassalia northiana T.Y. Yu” - which became the 5th plant species named in Marianne North’s honor. kew.org/read-and-watch/mariann… #art #history #nature #science #HistoryRemix /2

✨🔭 The night sky is rapidly getting brighter

Artificial lighting that escapes into the sky causes it to glow, preventing humans and animals from seeing the #stars. Citizen scientists reported global rapid reductions in the visibility of stars. Trends in the data showed that the average night sky got brighter by 9.6% per year from 2011 to 2022, which is equivalent to doubling the sky brightness every 8 years.

🔗 science.org/doi/10.1126/scienc…

#science #OpenScience #OpenAcess #CitizenScience

Marianne North traveled to 6 continents & 17 countries, painting exotic plants in remote & hazardous jungles… all while traveling alone in Victorian dress in the 1800s.

North depicted over 1,000 scientifically accurate pitcher plants, orchids, ferns & more. Her oil paintings introduced botanists to multiple previously unidentified species & several are named after her.

Her art has its own gallery at Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. artsandculture.google.com/stor… #HistoryRemix #history #art #science

“If current trends continue, women & men will be equally represented in the field of biology in 2069. In physics, math & engineering, women should not expect to reach parity for more than a century.“

“The data show that women are systematically denied the chief currencies of scientific credit: publications & citations.”

hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?is… #women #science #books

Equity for Women in Science — Cassidy R. Sugimoto, Vincent Larivière

Equity for Women in Science is the first large-scale empirical study of the global gender gap in science.

^{www.hup.harvard.edu}

🌍 #ClimateChange
Getting hotter 🔥 / colder ❄️
... or what ever I want?

Check out this neat illustrated thread on why "it hasn't warmed in 8 years" based on climate satellite data ... and what this claim has to do with cherry picking by @andrewdessler

👉 mastodon.world/@andrewdessler/…

#Science #ClimateChange #Statistics #OpenData

In pop culture, computing & programming are often depicted with “tech bros.” But the first computer programmer was a brilliant woman.

Augusta “Ada” Lovelace was born in 1815. Her notes include an algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine & she envisioned that computers could go beyond calculations. Lovelace described “how individuals & society relate to technology as a collaborative tool.”

Lovelace passed away in 1852 at just 36. newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-t… #HistoryRemix #history #science

#Introduction

The word “invasivore” is a portmanteau combining “invasive Species” with the Latin root “devorare” meaning to swallow (as in "herbivore" or “carnivore”). Thus, #invasivore = one who eats invasive species, those organisms that have been introduced around the world and cause massive environmental and economic damages.

Our website invasivore.org/ serves a buffet of knowledge about #invasivespecies. At the core of our approach are #recipes featuring invasive ingredients, but we also provide species profiles describing notorious invaders, harvesting tips, exposition and commentary on related topics, summaries of relevant #science and #research, and roundups (#InvasionBites!) of the latest #news and other media about invasive species.

We believe that #education and #awareness can decrease the impacts of invasions by controlling existing populations and preventing new introductions.

🧬Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing precise DNA-editing technology, CRISPR.

#genetics #science #scientists #womeninscience #illustration #mastoart #art #portrait #ciencia #divulgacion #digitalart

I’m doing a project featuring little-known women of science as a part of my studies as a lab technician.
I’ll be drawing some portraits and illustrating the research and discoveries of some interesting scientists✨

Let’s start!

🧬Nettie Stevens. American geneticist who discovered chromosomes X/Y by studying Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor)

#science #womeninstem #womeninscience #molecularbiology #genetics #mastoart #portrait #research #art #ciencia

🔬Bonnie L. Bassler
Molecular biologist. She researched chemical communication between bacteria, also called ‘quorum sensing’.

#microbiology #science #womeninscience #art #mastoart #ciencia #digitalart #portrait

Over 50,000 years ago, our ancient cousin, Homo floresiensis, lived on the Indonesian island Flores. Popularly referred to as "hobbits,” adults were ~3 ft tall.

Soaring the skies above them, a giant carnivorous bird, Leptoptilos robustus, measured 6 ft tall with a long, sharp beak.

Did they interact? Newspapers around the world have run sensationalized headlines claiming the #birds ate hobbit babies, but scientists just don’t know. Yet. nationalgeographic.com/science… #science #history #SharedPlanet

🚀 #Nasa has greatly expanded its #software package, which is #free for users to download and use. Over 800 programs are now available for free.

software.nasa.gov/

#science #space #opensource #openscience

Never a truer statement has been said about my experience with #Science. Sigh. I vowed never to take another Science class after I finished High School (Thanks #MarpleNewtown !!) and now at age 63 I consume more scientific journals than my doctors. All due to on-the-job-training in medical research.

So sad it had to be this way.

#hEDS

About 250M years ago, 90% of species on Earth died during the Permian extinction. All of that loss created a lot of vacant niches to fill.

And not long after, the first mammals, our ancestors, appeared.

I find it comforting to remember that life on this pale blue dot will be resilient - whether we’re part of it or not. #science #nature #history #SharedPlanet

Mirror, mirror, in the snow, who’s the prettiest penguin of them all?

Wild Adélie penguins have passed the mirror test, suggesting they’re self-aware. 🐧❄️

Written by Richard Pallady.

#penguins #zoology #science

hakaimagazine.com/news/penguin…

Penguins May Have Passed the Mirror Test | Hakai Magazine

Wild Adélie penguins respond to their own reflection, suggesting self-awareness.

^{Hakai Magazine}

Dragons are real. And they live in the ocean.

Blue Glaucus or “the blue dragon” is a brightly colored nudibranch that incorporates toxic chemicals & stinging cells from prey into its skin as a defense against predation.

And in my humble opinion, it’s more spectacular than anything ever imagined in Westeros. Image: Sylke Rohrlach #science #nature #SharedPlanet

Sometimes literary works of fiction inspire scientists.

Meet “Ampulex dementor” aka “the dementor wasp.” This species, discovered a few years ago, was named after the mythical dementors in "Harry Potter" that suck souls with abandon.

Why? The dementor wasp injects venom into its prey, turning cockroaches into passive zombies before dragging them off to be devoured. #nature #science #books #SharedPlanet

Over 80% of the world’s population & 99% of Americans & Europeans live under "sky glow," where light pollution affects wildlife, human health & our ability to observe celestial objects.

As we lose the chance to look up & peer back in time at once vivid stars, we risk forgetting our place as a single species in the magnificent symphony of life. education.nationalgeographic.o… #space #science #nature #SharedPlanet

Fellow scientists of Mastodon, what's the big question that drives your research?

please boost and reply to compile a big ol' honkin' list of scientific inspiration
#science #scicomm #curiosity

Populism coupled with increasing assaults on scientific integrity have dramatically shifted the political landscape & contributed to geopolitical instability.

The policy ramifications are yet to be understood, but anti-intellectualism has threatened public health, stymied environmental progress, influenced funding priorities & sculpted the rhetoric of local, state & national politics.

New post: The Rise of Anti-intellectualism sheril.substack.com/p/the-rise… #science #politics

The Rise of Anti-Intellectualism

Facts aren't enough.

^{Sheril Kirshenbaum (Unelected Representative)}

Alan Turing was a mathematician & cryptographer who was a leading code-breaker in the team that decrypted Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine during WWII. He inspired modern computing & what became AI.

Instead of being hailed as a genius & hero, Turing was convicted as a homosexual & forced to endure chemical castration. He died by suicide at 41 in 1954.

The British government didn’t apologize until 2009 & Queen Elizabeth II finally pardoned him in 2013. #history #science #HistoryRemix

Satyendranath Bose was a brilliant theoretical physicist born this week in 1894 in West Bengal (now India).

In 1924, while on faculty at the University of Dacca, he wrote a short paper to Albert Einstein about indistinguishable particles related to quantum theory.

Einstein immediately recognized Bose’ genius, translated the work into German & made sure it was published. Bose ideas led to Bose-Einstein statistics which continue to be studied in quantum mechanics. #science #history #HistoryRemix

In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded its own research on the effects of sugar on health.

The results didn't look good - for them. Studies revealed a high-sugar diet may increase risks associated with heart attacks, strokes & certain cancers.

But... rather than share emerging findings, the study was curiously halted & the industry successfully shifted blame onto fats.

It took decades to widely link sugary diets to disease. It didn't have to. npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/… #food #science

What The Industry Knew About Sugar's Health Effects, But Didn't Tell Us

The sugar industry pulled the plug on an animal study it funded in the 1960s. Initial results pointed to a link between sugar consumption and elevated triglycerides, which raises heart disease risk.

^NPR

NEW EPISODE!

We had a great time this week. We talk about #Centipedes, #Mushrooms, and #Amoebas.

There's also a shout-out to @openscience in this week's show.

podbean.com/media/share/pb-nrz…

#Nature #Strange #Weird #Oddity #Fungus #Science #scicomm #Podcast #Caves #Naturalist

What's the best way to debunk a misleading graph? 📊

A new study suggests that providing an "accurate alternative" is most effective.

Misleading graphs can omit baselines to exaggerate differences and cherry-pick sections of data to hide greater trends. The other methods tested included providing a warning arrow pointing to the issue or an educational or general text warning next to the graph.

doi.org/10.22323/2.21070207
#SciComm #ResearchIntegrity #Misinformation #Science @academicchatter

We (myself included) have taken this for granted for 50 years. But … Damn, we built rockets, spaceships, protective suits, & all the comm/control systems to make it work, … and then sent people to the MOON! And back!
And we did all that with the primitive computing capabilities available back then … 🤦‍♂️

#science #Tech #astronomy #moon #nasa

Of course you had to launch it at night. How else would you be able to see the moon?

And yes, I know you can see the moon during the day sometimes. But it's hard, and that makes navigation hard.

#science

#CarlSagan was a hero of mine
In the 70s I lived on a large commune in the hills near NASA Ames. One of us worked there under Dr Sagan making a stereo map of Mars from Mariner 9 photos

Never one to turn down an audience he brought his slideshow (the bones of Cosmos) up the mountain and gave 150 hippies a tour of the Universe projected on a pair of white sheets!

It was truly awesome ✨ 🚀🪐
#Science #Astronomy #Mars

OK. I'm totally showing my inner space geek here. This is cool.

#space #science #nasa

📄 Statistical code for #ClinicalResearch papers in a high-impact specialist #medical journal

Interesting #paper on the availability of #statistical #code in European Urology papers. And a checklist to get us all thinking about how good the code we share is.

thanks for finding and posting it first @MarkKelson

🔗 ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/…

#Science #OpenScience #Reproducibility #Research #OpenAccess