nicky nicolson
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nickynicolson.bsky.social
nicky nicolson
@nickynicolson.bsky.social
👋 Software developer turned biodiversity informatics researcher: I use collaborative #OpenScience practices to build tools, analyse & mobilise natural history specimen data - at Kew & with partners worldwide. Fellow at Software Sustainability Institute.
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Minority representation on TV causes outrage

From the new Private Eye, in shops now.
October 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Just a thought: How about we stop shaming the poor for buying things that may not be essential, and start shaming the rich for making a profit off things that are essential?
October 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
I'd also like to shout out @carpentries.carpentries.org for leading the way on this, having made a similar decision earlier this year.
October 27, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Python was awarded a funding grant, funding grant asked Python foundation to remove all diversity and inclusion initiatives they have.

Python foundation said no and rejected the grant.

If you use Python, send a few dollars to the charity to keep it going. I’m pushing a dono on behalf of ScamGuard.
Please read our statement, share it with your networks, and support us if you can. www.python.org/sponsors/app... psfmember.org/civicrm/cont...
October 27, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Calling botanical researchers, the School of Natural Science at Trinity College Dublin is hiring a tenure track Assistant Professor in Plant Biodiversity and Conservation.

I know this is someone's dream job, so let me know if that is you and you want to chat!

my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...
October 1, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Here's your reach @turingway.bsky.social 😎supporting botanical research into the plant families that give us potatoes and coffee
@sandyknapp.bsky.social opens the #SOLRUB2025 meeting talking about how wonderful are #Solanaceae species. New dating results are coming out soon. The family is older that we thought. Almost 90 MY. She closes her presentation talking about the importance of community.
September 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Great closing quote from Graham Lee in this mornings Track A talk on Where do people come from?

"RSE is more than a technical discipline, its a social movement aiming to revolutionise how research engages with software." - Graham Lee

#RSECon25
September 10, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Sorry to miss #RSECon25 - are the talks (or at least the keynotes) being recorded for later viewing?
September 10, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.
May 21, 2025 at 11:31 AM
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Still a few weeks to register for some hands-on training and hacking on open-source tools for analysing animal motion, whole-brain microscopy with @brainglobe.info, and big imaging data. 🧠📈

Aug 11-15 at @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social in London.

"Free as in beer" and travel stipends available.
We're excited to announce the Neuroinformatics Unit Open Source Week, August 11-15 2025 in London, UK.

Bringing together researchers and developers of open-source software for training, community-building and hacking.

No cost and travel stipends available.

neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

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May 19, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
📢 Registration is now open 📢

Join us on 7-8 October 2025 at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum for the second Festival of Hidden REF!

Explore the indicative schedule, learn more on our website or head straight to the registration page to secure your place! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-festiv...
May 19, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
We're not "over-diagnosing", we're getting BETTER at diagnosing. That was the point of all those years of research.

And yes, more people are self-diagnosing, but that's because they are better informed. That was the whole point of raising awareness! #MentalHealth
March 19, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Okay, I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but BHL is an absolutely VITAL resource for ecologists and evolutionary biologists. There's no other database I'm aware of that provides digital access to species descriptions dating all the way back to the 1800s and beyond.
April 23, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Oh no - I use BHL collections multiple times a week for my work 😭 it’s open access & the only place the old American Mosquito Control Association journal (Mosquito News) are kept, with a ton of work on disease vector surveillance, ecology, their pathogens, you name it. God.
In addition to EVERY-FUCKING-THING ELSE

The most vital of tools, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, is apparently homed at the Smithsonian. For obv reasons, the Smithsonian cannot retain it

For free, you can access biodiversity-related texts going back to the 1400s!

www.biodiversitylibrary.org
April 24, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
The most meaningful work of my career has been the 17.5 years I have spent with the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Now BHL faces new challenges, and seeks funding and support. Please share this message, and reach out if you can help.

#ILoveBHL
Change is in the air for BHL! In 2026, BHL hosting will transition away from the Smithsonian, opening doors to reimagine our future. Rest assured, our 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge remain secure and accessible.
Learn what's next for BHL ➡️
A New Future for the Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. A global consortium of over 660 contributors, BHL has made more …
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org
April 23, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Today we celebrate the incredible biodiversity of our planet – and the power of #OpenAccess to protect it. The Biodiversity Heritage Library makes over 62 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely available to all. 🔗 biodiversitylibrary.org
#EarthDay #EarthDay2025 #Biodiversity #BHLib
April 22, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Last few days to apply #Metascience post @uniofmanchester.bsky.social working with James Bird, @naubertbonn.bsky.social, Prof Andrew Stewart & me to investigate opportunities and barriers in deploying Electronic Research Notebooks (ERNs)

www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

#ELN #OpenResearch
March 21, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
👥 If you have written software, code or scripts for research purposes and are from an underrepresented group in research software, we would like to hear from you! Find out how to get involved in our inclusive RSE study at www.software.ac.uk/news/partici...
March 20, 2025 at 11:40 AM
💪 An anti-acknowledgement:
"No thank you to the people who have called me scary instead of strong and intimidating instead of intelligent"
A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.”
Absurd we still need to go through this
🧪👩‍🔬
March 7, 2025 at 9:32 AM
I'm finally unveiling the #activitypub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #orcid bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂

It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community […]
Original post on fietkau.social
fietkau.social
March 5, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Session and workshop submission deadline extended for #LivingData2025!

📌New deadline: Friday 14 February 23:59 GMT-5

🔗www.livingdata2025.c...

#DatosVivos2025

@tdwg.org @gbif.org #OBIS @geobon.org BON #InstitutoHumboldt
February 13, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Want cutting-edge digital research? Then you want Research Software Engineering. Only a couple of days left to contribute to the evidence base for Research Software Engineering and the impact it brings
🚨 Calling all who care about digital research! 🚨 Share examples of the impact Research Software Engineering or RSEs have had on (your) research. Help us build an evidence base and a bright future for the field. Deadline: Fri, 14 Feb ⏰. Share & spread the word! 🙌 forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
February 13, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
Do you work collaboratively (in any discipline) with Research Software Engineers? Please contribute your experience (or knowledge of colleagues' experiences) to this evidence bank that @davidbeavan.bsky.social is building to ensure there is support for more of this kind of collab!!
🚨 Calling all who care about digital research! 🚨 Share examples of the impact Research Software Engineering or RSEs have had on (your) research. Help us build an evidence base and a bright future for the field. Deadline: Fri, 14 Feb ⏰. Share & spread the word! 🙌 forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
February 5, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by nicky nicolson
⏰Time is running out to submit session and workshop proposals for #LivingData2025!

Join @‌tdwg.org @gbif.org, @‌obisnetwork.bsky.social & @‌geobon.org at #Inst_Humboldt in Bogotá #Colombia to connect with global biodiversity networks.

Deadline: 📌12 Feb 2025
February 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM