Elaine Ayers
@eayers0.bsky.social
Historian of science, collecting, plants + museums // Professor at Yale // PhD in History of Science from Princeton // Contr. Ed. at Public Domain Review // elaineayers.com
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Elaine Ayers
@eayers0.bsky.social
· Dec 2
Excited to launch Thinking With Moss, an NEH-funded project that I've been working on for the past few years with @tega.bsky.social + @aansari86.bsky.social. Bringing in collabs from around the world in a series of workshops, we asked what it might mean to think with moss /
www.thinkingwithmoss.net
www.thinkingwithmoss.net
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
The British Museum has launched a long-term loans program that sent 80 Greek and Egyptian antiquities to India in “a rebranding exercise that preserves colonial power structures while pretending to dismantle them,” writes Emiline Smith.
British Museum Launches Farcical “Decolonizing” Loan Program
Long-term loans to former colonies are not restitution. They do not acknowledge historical wrongdoing, nor do they restore agency to source communities.
hyperallergic.com
December 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The British Museum has launched a long-term loans program that sent 80 Greek and Egyptian antiquities to India in “a rebranding exercise that preserves colonial power structures while pretending to dismantle them,” writes Emiline Smith.
This is a dumb take for a lot of reasons, including that military history intersects with most of...history. I teach the history of science & medicine, and we constantly talk about the ways that war shapes & shifts culture. We DO teach this, we just don't call ourselves military historians.
90% of military history is about where the latrines are dug. You cannot make war if you have dysentery.
December 24, 2025 at 2:37 PM
This is a dumb take for a lot of reasons, including that military history intersects with most of...history. I teach the history of science & medicine, and we constantly talk about the ways that war shapes & shifts culture. We DO teach this, we just don't call ourselves military historians.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it.
December 23, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it.
Worth reading through all the comments to laugh and laugh. I have many of my own stories, and fucking love being a historian.
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 23, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Worth reading through all the comments to laugh and laugh. I have many of my own stories, and fucking love being a historian.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Visited a regional branch of the National Archives, and the mss I wanted to look at were in a filing cabinet for which no one could find the key. They called a locksmith on the spot, who drilled out the cylinder to get them to me. Archivists are the best! 🗃️
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Visited a regional branch of the National Archives, and the mss I wanted to look at were in a filing cabinet for which no one could find the key. They called a locksmith on the spot, who drilled out the cylinder to get them to me. Archivists are the best! 🗃️
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Article if you’d like to read: www.sfgate.com/local/articl...
America’s oldest park ranger dies at 104 years old in Bay Area home
“She led a fully packed life and was ready to leave,” her family wrote.
www.sfgate.com
December 22, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Article if you’d like to read: www.sfgate.com/local/articl...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
We’d like to share a remembrance for Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest serving National Park Service ranger in the country, who has passed away. Her life and work helped preserve history, expand whose stories are told, and inspire generations to come.
December 22, 2025 at 1:01 AM
We’d like to share a remembrance for Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest serving National Park Service ranger in the country, who has passed away. Her life and work helped preserve history, expand whose stories are told, and inspire generations to come.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
🧪📣 McGill University is recruiting exceptional researchers through the Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program. #McGillResearch #ImpactPlus #AcademicCareers #ResearchLeadership
December 21, 2025 at 10:33 PM
🧪📣 McGill University is recruiting exceptional researchers through the Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program. #McGillResearch #ImpactPlus #AcademicCareers #ResearchLeadership
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
The man in charge of logging each native seed in Ireland has described the project as like “Noah’s Ark” for plants – a vault for renewal after ecological disasters.
Ecologist Darren Reidy has been researching, gathering and banking native seeds across Ireland since 2022.
jrnl.ie/6910184
Ecologist Darren Reidy has been researching, gathering and banking native seeds across Ireland since 2022.
jrnl.ie/6910184
Noah’s Ark for plants: The man in charge of logging every native seed in Ireland
Conservation ecologist Darren Reidy has been researching, gathering and banking native seeds across Ireland since his appointment in 2022.
jrnl.ie
December 21, 2025 at 3:10 PM
The man in charge of logging each native seed in Ireland has described the project as like “Noah’s Ark” for plants – a vault for renewal after ecological disasters.
Ecologist Darren Reidy has been researching, gathering and banking native seeds across Ireland since 2022.
jrnl.ie/6910184
Ecologist Darren Reidy has been researching, gathering and banking native seeds across Ireland since 2022.
jrnl.ie/6910184
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Congrats to Australia, this is really cool!
report.cervicalcancercontrol.org.au
report.cervicalcancercontrol.org.au
December 20, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Congrats to Australia, this is really cool!
report.cervicalcancercontrol.org.au
report.cervicalcancercontrol.org.au
Been watching collections get hit by funding cuts for years - university herbaria, local museums + historical societies losing staff, donations dwindling in this economy. It's scary to think about what'll happen to the objects, the future generations of knowledge.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...
An Engine of Fossil Discovery Fights Its Own Extinction
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Been watching collections get hit by funding cuts for years - university herbaria, local museums + historical societies losing staff, donations dwindling in this economy. It's scary to think about what'll happen to the objects, the future generations of knowledge.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...
Job opening in #histsci #philsci at Wageningen University: Asst. Prof. of Philosophy of Life Sciences, in a group led by Rachel Ankeny. Deadline Jan 12!
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
Assistant Professor in Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Are you seeking a challenging role in a nurturing and collegial setting that supports rigorous philosophical teaching and research as well as opportunities for productive collaborations with social an...
www.wur.nl
December 19, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Job opening in #histsci #philsci at Wageningen University: Asst. Prof. of Philosophy of Life Sciences, in a group led by Rachel Ankeny. Deadline Jan 12!
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
FBI Director Patel is busy talking about his romance with his girlfriend on Katie Miller’s podcast at 6pm.
Manhunt for Brown University shooter stretches into fourth day, leaving residents on edge reut.rs/4oWdnj2
Manhunt for Brown University shooter stretches into fourth day, leaving residents on edge
The manhunt for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and injured seven more in a classroom shooting stretched into a fourth day on Tuesday, leaving the campus and surrounding neighborhood on edge.
reut.rs
December 16, 2025 at 10:34 PM
FBI Director Patel is busy talking about his romance with his girlfriend on Katie Miller’s podcast at 6pm.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
“In the faunal frenzy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, even serious naturalists competed with fabulists like Barnum for the attention of the public.”
Our latest piece in A Time Of Monsters, from Sam Moore.
Our latest piece in A Time Of Monsters, from Sam Moore.
Aaahh!!! Fake Monsters
exuberant life beyond our knowledge
contingentmagazine.org
December 14, 2025 at 9:01 PM
“In the faunal frenzy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, even serious naturalists competed with fabulists like Barnum for the attention of the public.”
Our latest piece in A Time Of Monsters, from Sam Moore.
Our latest piece in A Time Of Monsters, from Sam Moore.
One nice thing during a horrible, heartbreaking weekend - New Haven’s first snow, and a very happy dog.
December 14, 2025 at 3:25 PM
One nice thing during a horrible, heartbreaking weekend - New Haven’s first snow, and a very happy dog.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Two victims of previous school shootings — Mia Tretta, who was shot in the stomach in 2019 at Saugus High School, and Zoe Weissman, who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — are now at Brown. Gun violence is out of control in this country.
December 14, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Two victims of previous school shootings — Mia Tretta, who was shot in the stomach in 2019 at Saugus High School, and Zoe Weissman, who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — are now at Brown. Gun violence is out of control in this country.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
Much respect to the staff of the Brown Daily Herald, working tonight to inform fellow students and the rest of the campus community.
www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...
www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...
Live updates: Two deceased in active shooter incident at Brown University
Serving the Brown University community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
December 14, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Much respect to the staff of the Brown Daily Herald, working tonight to inform fellow students and the rest of the campus community.
www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...
www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...
As a former Brown professor, I am horrified, terrified, and heartbroken. I am holding my current and former students in my heart, while demanding change to gun laws in the US. This is sickening.
December 14, 2025 at 3:48 AM
As a former Brown professor, I am horrified, terrified, and heartbroken. I am holding my current and former students in my heart, while demanding change to gun laws in the US. This is sickening.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
As an aside, I just noticed that if you google a font, google displays the entire results page in that font.
Which is neat.
Which is neat.
I refuse to surrender classical antiquity or Times New Roman font to the fascists.
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
December 10, 2025 at 9:25 PM
As an aside, I just noticed that if you google a font, google displays the entire results page in that font.
Which is neat.
Which is neat.
First task for end of semester: reading Mosses, Liverworts & Hornworts of the World alongside the fieldguides I study historically.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/b...
Liverwort or Moss? Horny Toad or Fence Lizard? Niche Field Guides Can Tell You.
www.nytimes.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:12 AM
First task for end of semester: reading Mosses, Liverworts & Hornworts of the World alongside the fieldguides I study historically.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/b...
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
This is really important. Both in the fact of IMLS reinstating grants. (Which have been *crucial* for libraries and civic life across the country. Notably in rural areas.)
And in the example that the overall stalwartness and rigor of federal district/circuit courts has made a huge difference.
And in the example that the overall stalwartness and rigor of federal district/circuit courts has made a huge difference.
IMLS announces "upon further review" that it is reinstating all federal grants to libraries. It leaves out that it's doing this because a federal court told them a few weeks ago that the Trump admin's decision to destroy libraries was not legal.
www.imls.gov/news/stateme...
www.imls.gov/news/stateme...
Statement of Agency’s Reinstatement of Terminated IMLS Grants
Statement of Agency’s Reinstatement of Terminated IMLS Grants Washington, DC– Upon further review, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has reinstated all federal grants. This action supersede...
www.imls.gov
December 3, 2025 at 10:43 PM
This is really important. Both in the fact of IMLS reinstating grants. (Which have been *crucial* for libraries and civic life across the country. Notably in rural areas.)
And in the example that the overall stalwartness and rigor of federal district/circuit courts has made a huge difference.
And in the example that the overall stalwartness and rigor of federal district/circuit courts has made a huge difference.
Can’t believe it’s the last week of class before finals. This has been a particularly productive and exhausting semester, and I can’t wait to share new work soon. In the meantime, here’s my patient, helpful son.
December 2, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Can’t believe it’s the last week of class before finals. This has been a particularly productive and exhausting semester, and I can’t wait to share new work soon. In the meantime, here’s my patient, helpful son.
Look: @thisguysucked.com is an incredible podcast, @ceaubin.com is an incredible person, and who DOESN'T want to roll into the first day of the new semester ( / the holidays) with hater gear on? Go order yours.
IIIIIT'S (finally) TGS MERCH TIME! Click the link below for all the details :-)
December 2, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Look: @thisguysucked.com is an incredible podcast, @ceaubin.com is an incredible person, and who DOESN'T want to roll into the first day of the new semester ( / the holidays) with hater gear on? Go order yours.
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?
December 2, 2025 at 4:40 PM
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?
Reposted by Elaine Ayers
"You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. "
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon
It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.
www.wired.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:12 PM
"You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. "
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
www.wired.com/story/poems-...