Dr. Catherine Scott
@cataranea.bsky.social
Arachnologist, behavioural ecologist, natural historian, & spider advocate. I also knit, sew, & have strong opinions. Pronouns: she or they
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
It's almost the weekend! 🥳
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
November 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
It's almost the weekend! 🥳
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨
Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!
drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Are you a POC student, early career researcher, or professional entomologist from a country in the Global South?
We are now funding memberships!
Apply from October 1st to December 15th.
More info:
www.entopoc.org/apply.html
Apply:
docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLS...
We are now funding memberships!
Apply from October 1st to December 15th.
More info:
www.entopoc.org/apply.html
Apply:
docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLS...
October 1, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Are you a POC student, early career researcher, or professional entomologist from a country in the Global South?
We are now funding memberships!
Apply from October 1st to December 15th.
More info:
www.entopoc.org/apply.html
Apply:
docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLS...
We are now funding memberships!
Apply from October 1st to December 15th.
More info:
www.entopoc.org/apply.html
Apply:
docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLS...
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
If you have or have had Tri-Council funding you, too, may be concerned about this Parliamentary Committee request for confidential data.
Also, these clowns asked for 5 years of data on applications from everyone from MA students to Canada Research Chairs in... an excel spreadsheet. 15 days notice.
Also, these clowns asked for 5 years of data on applications from everyone from MA students to Canada Research Chairs in... an excel spreadsheet. 15 days notice.
Open Letter to Protect Tri-Council EDI Data
Why do we need urgent action to protect our data?
The mandate of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research is to review and report on topics relating to science and research in ...
docs.google.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:03 AM
If you have or have had Tri-Council funding you, too, may be concerned about this Parliamentary Committee request for confidential data.
Also, these clowns asked for 5 years of data on applications from everyone from MA students to Canada Research Chairs in... an excel spreadsheet. 15 days notice.
Also, these clowns asked for 5 years of data on applications from everyone from MA students to Canada Research Chairs in... an excel spreadsheet. 15 days notice.
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Signed. It’s important that Canadian academics sign this letter to protest this hateful, anti-DEI & anti-academic freedom attempt to control research funding in Canada. This is an attempt to weaken & politicize research funding.
If you have or have had Tri-Council funding you, too, may be concerned about this Parliamentary Committee request for confidential data.
Also, these clowns asked for 5 years of data on applications from everyone from MA students to Canada Research Chairs in... an excel spreadsheet. 15 days notice.
Also, these clowns asked for 5 years of data on applications from everyone from MA students to Canada Research Chairs in... an excel spreadsheet. 15 days notice.
Open Letter to Protect Tri-Council EDI Data
Why do we need urgent action to protect our data?
The mandate of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research is to review and report on topics relating to science and research in ...
docs.google.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Signed. It’s important that Canadian academics sign this letter to protest this hateful, anti-DEI & anti-academic freedom attempt to control research funding in Canada. This is an attempt to weaken & politicize research funding.
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
One small thing people can do is refuse to consume shitty art that isn’t made by people
Interact with art made by real artists
Interact with art made by real artists
November 4, 2025 at 3:07 AM
One small thing people can do is refuse to consume shitty art that isn’t made by people
Interact with art made by real artists
Interact with art made by real artists
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Pseudoscorpions are small arachnids that are often overlooked. They prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. Pseudoscorpions will sometimes hitch rides to new locations on other insects. #Arachtober
November 1, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Pseudoscorpions are small arachnids that are often overlooked. They prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. Pseudoscorpions will sometimes hitch rides to new locations on other insects. #Arachtober
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
more people need to realize that honesty and jank, in this economy, are charming. lots of science youtubers reach millions of people with low effort stick figures/doodles.
I realize that many scientists are not confident in their art skills. Simple drawings made by scientists who may not be artistically talented are significantly better than the ai art because **the ai stuff is full of errors**. “Bad” but correct figures are better than “prettier” wrong ones.
October 31, 2025 at 6:31 AM
more people need to realize that honesty and jank, in this economy, are charming. lots of science youtubers reach millions of people with low effort stick figures/doodles.
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
I'm doing another print run of these "Biology is Bigger than Binaries" shirts!
Back, quite literally, by popular demand. Bullying works, sure, but so does a bunch of nice cutie patooties politely asking!
Order 'em now, I'll mail 'em in early November.
SquidFacts.net
Back, quite literally, by popular demand. Bullying works, sure, but so does a bunch of nice cutie patooties politely asking!
Order 'em now, I'll mail 'em in early November.
SquidFacts.net
October 10, 2025 at 12:02 AM
I'm doing another print run of these "Biology is Bigger than Binaries" shirts!
Back, quite literally, by popular demand. Bullying works, sure, but so does a bunch of nice cutie patooties politely asking!
Order 'em now, I'll mail 'em in early November.
SquidFacts.net
Back, quite literally, by popular demand. Bullying works, sure, but so does a bunch of nice cutie patooties politely asking!
Order 'em now, I'll mail 'em in early November.
SquidFacts.net
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
important reminder: food banks usually prefer money to direct food donations because they can buy at discounted rates
check with your local food bank to be sure but now is the time to help out
check with your local food bank to be sure but now is the time to help out
Americans brace for food stamps to run out: ‘the greatest hunger catastrophe since the Great Depression’
Americans brace for food stamps to run out: ‘the greatest hunger catastrophe since the Great Depression’
Nearly 42 million people in danger as federal government shutdown continues and Snap funding to end 1 November
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:09 PM
important reminder: food banks usually prefer money to direct food donations because they can buy at discounted rates
check with your local food bank to be sure but now is the time to help out
check with your local food bank to be sure but now is the time to help out
“We can stop. We can pause. We can demand something better. And we must. Because there is a body count.”
Here’s where it gets personal for me. When I was 9, I started experiencing suicidal ideation … disinterested in living, and at least some of the time contemplating death and how it might happen … It’s easy to imagine how I would have used programs like these chatbots.
Perry: How can AI be used ethically when it’s been linked to suicide?
"It’s not on us, on you and me, to use AI ethically or responsibly. It’s on the companies to build safe, reliable, ethical products," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
October 26, 2025 at 10:56 AM
“We can stop. We can pause. We can demand something better. And we must. Because there is a body count.”
“It’s not on us, on you and me, to use AI ethically or responsibly. It’s on the companies to build safe, reliable, ethical products.”
As @lollardfish.bsky.social notes, it’s not currently possible to use these tools ethically. And they are frankly dangerous.
www.startribune.com/adam-raine-c...
As @lollardfish.bsky.social notes, it’s not currently possible to use these tools ethically. And they are frankly dangerous.
www.startribune.com/adam-raine-c...
Perry: How can AI be used ethically when it’s been linked to suicide?
"It’s not on us, on you and me, to use AI ethically or responsibly. It’s on the companies to build safe, reliable, ethical products," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
October 26, 2025 at 10:38 AM
“It’s not on us, on you and me, to use AI ethically or responsibly. It’s on the companies to build safe, reliable, ethical products.”
As @lollardfish.bsky.social notes, it’s not currently possible to use these tools ethically. And they are frankly dangerous.
www.startribune.com/adam-raine-c...
As @lollardfish.bsky.social notes, it’s not currently possible to use these tools ethically. And they are frankly dangerous.
www.startribune.com/adam-raine-c...
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
"Knowledge is worth your time because of how it shapes your mind...even when it's not obvious how you will profit from it. You are more than a future source of profit, and humanity's survival depends on all of us understanding this."
October 23, 2025 at 2:38 PM
"Knowledge is worth your time because of how it shapes your mind...even when it's not obvious how you will profit from it. You are more than a future source of profit, and humanity's survival depends on all of us understanding this."
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Bookmarked this for teaching but also for my own kid when he's old enough.
"You'll probably forget most of what you learn, especially if you don't end up using it repeatedly in future. What you will always have, though, is the mind that taking the courses made."
"You'll probably forget most of what you learn, especially if you don't end up using it repeatedly in future. What you will always have, though, is the mind that taking the courses made."
October 23, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Bookmarked this for teaching but also for my own kid when he's old enough.
"You'll probably forget most of what you learn, especially if you don't end up using it repeatedly in future. What you will always have, though, is the mind that taking the courses made."
"You'll probably forget most of what you learn, especially if you don't end up using it repeatedly in future. What you will always have, though, is the mind that taking the courses made."
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
In "the most rigorous test to date of how AI would perform in the real world," researchers found that workers using AI completed tasks 19% slower than when working without it -- but thought they were faster.
#AI #GenerativeAI 🧪
www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...
#AI #GenerativeAI 🧪
www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...
Just How Bad Would an AI Bubble Be?
The entire U.S. economy is being propped up by the promise of productivity gains that seem very far from materializing.
www.theatlantic.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
In "the most rigorous test to date of how AI would perform in the real world," researchers found that workers using AI completed tasks 19% slower than when working without it -- but thought they were faster.
#AI #GenerativeAI 🧪
www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...
#AI #GenerativeAI 🧪
www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Hello Canadian followers. Here's how you can "help define the next chapter of Canada's AI leadership.
Unfortunately, the ❓s are skewed & circular, but if you are passionate about how AI should be used and regulated in Canada, this is your chance to weigh in. ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en...
Unfortunately, the ❓s are skewed & circular, but if you are passionate about how AI should be used and regulated in Canada, this is your chance to weigh in. ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en...
October 19, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Hello Canadian followers. Here's how you can "help define the next chapter of Canada's AI leadership.
Unfortunately, the ❓s are skewed & circular, but if you are passionate about how AI should be used and regulated in Canada, this is your chance to weigh in. ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en...
Unfortunately, the ❓s are skewed & circular, but if you are passionate about how AI should be used and regulated in Canada, this is your chance to weigh in. ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en...
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
October 17, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Xylethrus superbus is a fabulous species of orb weaving spider from the Amazon rainforest. While she looks a bit like a strawberry, eating her is not recommended. #Arachtober
Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022
Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022
October 16, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Xylethrus superbus is a fabulous species of orb weaving spider from the Amazon rainforest. While she looks a bit like a strawberry, eating her is not recommended. #Arachtober
Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022
Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Spooky bird stories. Last year's Halloween comic.
October 14, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Spooky bird stories. Last year's Halloween comic.
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
My first pseudoscorpion observation was pure luck. Happen to see this wasp and took a shot. It was only later did I see what was hanging on the antenna.
On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]
On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]
October 8, 2025 at 12:17 PM
My first pseudoscorpion observation was pure luck. Happen to see this wasp and took a shot. It was only later did I see what was hanging on the antenna.
On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]
On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
"People can do these jobs, and people learn things by doing them, and eventually these people will replace you when you retire. Your expertise is the result of every single thing you’ve ever learned or done, so what are we doing to the expertise of students and postdocs by outsourcing the work[...]"
I clearly had a lot of thoughts/feelings from reading Terry's blog post, so I wrote one of my own
It ended up being a bit of a stream-of-thought post but I think it captures some of my worries
benharrap.com/post/2025-10...
#statssky #episky #academicsky
It ended up being a bit of a stream-of-thought post but I think it captures some of my worries
benharrap.com/post/2025-10...
#statssky #episky #academicsky
October 10, 2025 at 1:37 AM
"People can do these jobs, and people learn things by doing them, and eventually these people will replace you when you retire. Your expertise is the result of every single thing you’ve ever learned or done, so what are we doing to the expertise of students and postdocs by outsourcing the work[...]"
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
So when I hear of students being encouraged to use GPT in college I don’t hear innovation. I hear cognitive atrophy, the inability to think critically for oneself, and total dependence on vulnerable centralized repositories of data for knowledge without ever understanding how knowledge is generated.
October 10, 2025 at 4:07 AM
So when I hear of students being encouraged to use GPT in college I don’t hear innovation. I hear cognitive atrophy, the inability to think critically for oneself, and total dependence on vulnerable centralized repositories of data for knowledge without ever understanding how knowledge is generated.
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
The more we use this technology, the more we necessarily turn over not only our data and our privacy but the basic things we need to survive. Meanwhile, reality is totally reshaped by LLMs as increasingly authoritarian media is pumped out as training data. Nothing could be more useful to them.
October 10, 2025 at 4:02 AM
The more we use this technology, the more we necessarily turn over not only our data and our privacy but the basic things we need to survive. Meanwhile, reality is totally reshaped by LLMs as increasingly authoritarian media is pumped out as training data. Nothing could be more useful to them.
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
Imagine for a moment a world so dependent on data centers that every aspect of municipal infrastructure must be reshaped. Not around human need, but maintaining GPU farms that use exponentially more power and water with each build. Models are only growing, and our resources are only diminishing.
October 10, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Imagine for a moment a world so dependent on data centers that every aspect of municipal infrastructure must be reshaped. Not around human need, but maintaining GPU farms that use exponentially more power and water with each build. Models are only growing, and our resources are only diminishing.
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
I like this framing: LLMs as a window into thinking people previously did jwmason.substack.com/p/actual-int...
“The lesson we should be taking from LLMs is the immense social value there is in having all kinds of material–all kinds of products of human intellectual labor–freely available online.”
“The lesson we should be taking from LLMs is the immense social value there is in having all kinds of material–all kinds of products of human intellectual labor–freely available online.”
Actual Intelligence
I wanted to put down some thoughts on Large Language Models (LLMs), or so-called artificial intelligence.
jwmason.substack.com
October 11, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I like this framing: LLMs as a window into thinking people previously did jwmason.substack.com/p/actual-int...
“The lesson we should be taking from LLMs is the immense social value there is in having all kinds of material–all kinds of products of human intellectual labor–freely available online.”
“The lesson we should be taking from LLMs is the immense social value there is in having all kinds of material–all kinds of products of human intellectual labor–freely available online.”
Reposted by Dr. Catherine Scott
I started a list for scientists and others interested in leaf litter fauna, please share and let me know if you want to be added! Do you love a good hand lens, soil sieves, and Berlese funnels? Perhaps this is the place for you.
October 6, 2025 at 3:07 AM
I started a list for scientists and others interested in leaf litter fauna, please share and let me know if you want to be added! Do you love a good hand lens, soil sieves, and Berlese funnels? Perhaps this is the place for you.