Stephen Heard
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stephenbheard.bsky.social
Stephen Heard
@stephenbheard.bsky.social
7.8K followers 3.7K following 2.5K posts
Evolutionary ecologist & Boggle aficionado. Author: The Scientist's Guide to Writing; Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider. He/him.

Blog and book links: scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
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stephenbheard.bsky.social
My timeline has far too much of things that are not this.

View from family cottage, Round Lake, Ontario.
View across a sand beach onto a frozen lake. The top half of the photo is white pine boughs that hang across the field of view.
January 3, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
vangogh.bsky.social
Still Life with Three Books - 1887
https://botfrens.com/collections/46/contents/14167
January 2, 2026 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Light holiday blogging, final part: where do plant (Latin) names come from? What do they mean?
Latin Names for Gardeners, Part 4: Four major themes for plant names
I often write articles for the newsletter of our local Botanic Garden. Recently, it’s been a 4-part series (so far) on Latin names, intended for gardeners who don’t necessarily have any background …
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
andrejpaleo.bsky.social
Geologizing biology. Faults over folds.
Geologizing biology. Faults over folds.
December 31, 2025 at 3:58 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
It's official - my new book is officially published today! If you mentor science students who write - grad or undergrad - you're the reason we wrote this. Mentoring/teaching writing is hard; but we can make it easier!
It’s publication day! “Teaching and Mentoring Writers in the Sciences”
Ok, we’re seriously excited – not for tonight’s fireworks, but because after several years of work, our new book is officially published today! That’s right – Teaching and Mentoring Writers i…
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 31, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
dawnymock.bsky.social
Sorry. Haha
Lady meeting Dad and child , child has foot growing fr ahead. Lady says “Look at you, Johnny, you’ve grown a foot since I law saw you”
December 30, 2025 at 1:54 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Light holiday blogging, final part: where do plant (Latin) names come from? What do they mean?
Latin Names for Gardeners, Part 4: Four major themes for plant names
I often write articles for the newsletter of our local Botanic Garden. Recently, it’s been a 4-part series (so far) on Latin names, intended for gardeners who don’t necessarily have any background …
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 30, 2025 at 2:29 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Nice example. LLMs can be useful in some ways; but providing information is not one of those ways, because they are simply not designed to do that (except sometimes by accident).
janerosenzweig.bsky.social Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 6d
This is a great example of how google AI overview generates probable rather than factual text. I could potentially have a newsletter of this name that focuses on those topics. But I do not. (But check out Writing Hacks and The Important Work!)
Jane Rosenzweig is a professional writer and educator. She is the Director of the Writing Center at Harvard University and is known for her newsletter, "The Itinerant Scribbler," where she discusses writing, grammar, and contemporary communication.
December 29, 2025 at 2:14 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Light holiday blogging, part 3: more about plant Latin names for gardeners dreaming of NOT being under snow
Latin Names for Gardeners, Part 3: Who gives a plant its name?
I often write articles for the newsletter of our local Botanic Garden. Recently, it’s been a 4-part series (so far) on Latin names, intended for gardeners who don’t necessarily have any background …
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
drskyskull.bsky.social
I still have my blog on physics, history of science and weird fiction! Been going 18 years now. skullsinthestars.com
December 28, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
fossilhistory.bsky.social
Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle began #OnThisDay in 1831. The five-year trek around the world profoundly shaped his ideas about the natural world; he later said the journey was "by far the most important event in my life." #histsci
A black-and-white illustration of the HMS Beagle at anchor in calm water, its two masts fully rigged with sails. High, rugged cliffs and mountains rise in the background under a cloudy sky, while several small boats with figures paddle nearby in the foreground.
December 27, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
mattsheridan.bsky.social
This is a great expression of the thing I keep saying about text-generating algorithms: “Hallucination” isn’t some kind of glitch. ALL their responses are hallucinations. Sometimes they align with reality, sometimes they don’t.
barrydeutsch.bsky.social Barry Deutsch @barrydeutsch.bsky.social · Aug 14
The only thing ChatGPT ever does.
Andrew Kadel @DrewKadel@social.coop My daughter, who's had a degree in computer science for 25 years, posted this about ChatGPT on Facebook. It's the best description I've seen. Something that seems fundamental to me about ChatGPT, which gets lost over and over again: When you enter text into it, you're asking "What would a response to this sound like?" If you put in a scientific question, and it comes back with a response citing a non-existent paper with a plausible title, using a real journal name and an author name who's written things related to your question, it's not being tricky or telling lies or doing anything at all surprising! This is what a response to that question would sound like! It did the thing! But people keep wanting the "say something that sounds like an answer" machine to be doing something else, and believing it *is* doing something else. It's good at generating things that sound like responses to being told it was wrong, so people think that it's engaging in introspection or looking up more information or something, but it's not, it's only, ever, saying something that sounds like the next bit of the conversation.
December 27, 2025 at 8:07 AM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Took a bit of time the other day to visit the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton). Two different exhibitions include work by Lawren Harris, who is possibly my favourite Canadian artist. This one is typical of mid-career Harris. 'Mountain Sketch', 1924.
1/9
A small painting of some mountains, rendered as smooth steep soft purple shapes. The light is from the right; lower green hills in front, rendered similarly smoothly
December 27, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
kejames.bsky.social
Make a Bond movie academic

A View to a Kill: Evolutionary trade-offs in owl sclerotic ring development
nuclearanthro.bsky.social 🇵🇸Martin “Doomsday” Pfeiffer🖖🏳️‍🌈 @nuclearanthro.bsky.social · 8d
Make a Bond movie academic

Goldfinger: Bitcoin & the Semiotics of Digital Goldbugs
nickjbrumfield.bsky.social Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 8d
Make a Bond movie academic

The World Is Not Enough: Oil, Empire, and Infrastructure in the Post-Soviet Caucasuses
December 26, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
arctomet.bsky.social
#FossilFriday Wiped out from delivering presents, little Cambrian arthropod Sanctacaris (aka "Santa Claws") takes a very long (508 million year) rest. Specimen at @romtoronto.bsky.social
December 26, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
wa-orchids.bsky.social
I reckon the closest we’ll get to seeing snowflakes in Western Australia at this time of year is seeing our endemic Flannel flowers (Actinotus leucocephalus), which bloom through December.

Wishing everyone a safe, happy, and restful festive season 🎄⛄️🎅

#ozflora #wildoz #nativeplants #Christmas
Ire of a white flower with petals that appear fluffy
December 24, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Light holiday blogposting, part 2: More in my series on Latin names for gardeners. scientistseessquirre... It's -15C outside my window - great day to think about gardening??
Latin Names for Gardeners, Part 2: Latin names aren’t really Latin (they’re much more interesting than that)
I often write articles for the newsletter of our local Botanic Garden. Recently, it’s been a 4-part series (so far) on Latin names, intended for gardeners who don’t necessarily have any background …
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
My wife is a taxonomist.
An empty packet of mixed nuts. Arranged around the packet are four ziploc sandwich bags: one of hazelnuts, one of cashews, one of pecans, and one of almonds
December 24, 2025 at 4:44 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
The nichest philosophy of science joke ever. I am almost embarrassed that I got it...
lastpositivist.bsky.social lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 11d
Where we send you if we catch you inferring future events on the basis of resemblance to past occurrences. Or, at least, where we've sent people so far.
An arch labelled "Hume Court"
December 24, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
jacquelyngill.bsky.social
There is an unfortunate error in this newly published @globalchangebio.bsky.social paper.

The caption for this image reads "upper panel with dragon icon symbolising all tetrapod" but this is incorrect. That is either a wyvern (with two wings and two legs) or it is not a tetrapod (6 limbs).
A graph depicting five panels with downward trends in suitable habitat area by year, with symbols indicating that each panel represents reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and birds. The symbol, in the top panel is a dragon.
December 24, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
christhorogood.bsky.social
Today on a desert slope, I found frosted Christmas stars: a rare succulent (Apteranthes burchardii) that produces starbursts of blossom after it rains:
December 23, 2025 at 10:20 AM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
In 'The Scientist's Guide to Writing', I offer this as an example of writing that's fairly technical (for public-facing writing) but also beautiful. Reading copyedits and just struck again by how lovely this passage is.
Screenshot of text: "The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music. . . . Each of the muta-tions that have brought us along represents a random, totally spontaneous accident, but it is no accident at all that mutations occur; the molecule of DNA was ordained from the beginning to make small mistakes. If we had been doing it, we would have found some way to correct this, and evolution would have been stopped in its tracks. . . . But there it is: we are here by the purest chance, and by mistake at that. Somewhere along the line, nucleotides were edged apart to let new ones in; maybe viruses moved in, carrying along bits of other, foreign genomes; radiation from the sun or from outer space caused tiny cracks in the molecule, and humanity was conceived."
December 23, 2025 at 1:46 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Light holiday blogposting, part 2: More in my series on Latin names for gardeners. scientistseessquirre... It's -15C outside my window - great day to think about gardening??
Latin Names for Gardeners, Part 2: Latin names aren’t really Latin (they’re much more interesting than that)
I often write articles for the newsletter of our local Botanic Garden. Recently, it’s been a 4-part series (so far) on Latin names, intended for gardeners who don’t necessarily have any background …
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Stephen Heard
dawnymock.bsky.social
Nerd alert! Here’s a last minute gift idea- just sayin 🎄🎉 Chapters - all NB and PEI locations, A&LMcCain Gallery, Florenceville-Bristol, Dog Eared Books Oromocto, and on Amazon. A collection of climate cartoons
December 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM
stephenbheard.bsky.social
Light blog-posting for the holidays: Part I in a series of short posts on Latin names for gardeners. Yes, it's winter where I am; but gardeners never stop thinking about their plants!
Latin Names for Gardeners, Part 1: Why Latin names?
I often write articles for the newsletter of our local Botanic Garden. Recently, it’s been a 4-part series (so far) on Latin names, intended for gardeners who don’t necessarily have any background …
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 22, 2025 at 1:22 PM