Avery Russell
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draverbee.bsky.social
Avery Russell
@draverbee.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.3K following 79 posts
#RussellLab studies #bees #behaviour #microbes & #flower #evolution @MissouriState https://therusselllab.net/

| #PUI | #SciComm #DiversityInSTEM #BLM #WomenInSTEM #Humanities | he/him
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draverbee.bsky.social
Avery Russell @draverbee.bsky.social · 26d
I cannot believe our work is finally out there and in @journal-evo.bsky.social ! This was an enormous group effort!

We provide an updated estimate of the number of buzz pollinated angiosperm species, genera, and families, look at consequences for diversification, number of transitions, and more!
Circular phylogeny showing the branching pattern of 30k plant species with lineages with poricidal and non poricidal taxa indicated. A small subset of poricidal taxa are illustrated around the phylogeny.
Reposted by Avery Russell
propublica.org
American inspections of foreign food facilities — which produce everything from crawfish to cookies for the U.S. market — have plummeted to historic lows this year, a ProPublica analysis of federal data shows.

By @anniewaldman.bsky.social and @bxroberts.org
Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts
The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...
www.propublica.org
November 17, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
alexwild.bsky.social
Screen cap of the xkcd cartoon, "Welcome to the Biology Department. It has been three days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality."
November 17, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
jackiantonovich.bsky.social
"When we undermine our colleges, we are not “owning” some distant ivory tower; we are weakening our talent pipeline, our innovation capacity and our civic fabric."
joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 16h
Really lovely defense of higher education—focused on local colleges but applicable more broadly. Higher Ed is so crucial to economies, to people, to imaginations
Opinion: How higher education now powers the Lehigh Valley
Opinion: Colleges and universities function as anchor institutions in the Lehigh Valley
www.mcall.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
alielw.bsky.social
Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬

We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.

Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!
November 17, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
archive.org
Planning your week? Cory Doctorow’s #booktalk on ENSHITTIFICATION is your chance to learn who broke the internet & how we can fix it.

The concept was the 2023 Word of the Year & an inspiration for the 2025 season of Black Mirror.

📆 Nov 21st
🕙 10 AM PST
📍 Online
www.eventbrite.com/e/1839608451...
Cover for the book “Enshittification” by Cory Doctorow, featuring a poop emoji with symbols representing expletives. Text reads “Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.”
November 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
sonicscrewup.bsky.social
Hey the Nazis did this to my grandparents so this sounds cool @teamlabouruk.bsky.social
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d
The Sun has been told Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will on Monday propose confiscating jewellery, watches, necklaces from asylum seekers to meet asylum costs

This reflects the most controversial aspect of the Danish scheme - the Jewellery Law. The toughest Labour MPs thought this was OTT
November 17, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
irisvanrooij.bsky.social
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
pheronym.com
As the keynote speaker at the Women and Allies in Entomology Breakfast at Entomology 2025, @drfatmakaplan.bsky.social shared her path to becoming a scientist entrepreneur.

If you were unable to make it, you can read her keynote: ow.ly/VaR950XrR9R #entsoc25
November 14, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
erinbiba.bsky.social
Wonderful thread of writing by Alice Wong:
sesmith.lol s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 1d
A lot of people who look like me will have a lot to say about Alice in coming days and I stand by this: We take up too much space, something Alice and I talked about a lot. I'm focusing on letting Alice speak for herself, and uplifting those she asked to represent her.
November 17, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
bencollins.bsky.social
I feel sick when I find anyone adjusting his mind to the new tyranny which is succeeding abroad. Because of its fundamental strictures, fascism does not seem to me to admit of any compromise or any rationalization, and I resent the patronizing air of persons who find in my plain belief in freedom a sign of immaturity. If it is boyish to believe that a human being should live free, then I’ll gladly arrest my development and let the rest of the world grow up. He saw what was happening clearly but what he saw from others was alarming. “Where I expected to find indignation, I found paralysis, or a sort of dim acquiescence, as in a child who is duly swallowing a distasteful pill,” he continued. What then, was the answer, in the mind of the man who brought us Charlotte’s Web? The least a man can do at such a time is to declare himself and tell where he stands. I believe in freedom with the same burning delight, the same faith, the same intense abandon which attended its birth on this continent more than a century and a half ago. … I am in love with freedom and that it is an affair of long standing and that it is a fine state to be in, and that I am deeply suspicious of people who are beginning to adjust to fascism and dictators merely because they are succeeding in war. From such adaptable natures a smell rises. I pinch my nose.
November 17, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
franzanth.bsky.social
Hello internets, there's a paleontological museum in danger of being closed. Please help.
fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social Dr. Brendan Anderson @fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · 1d
Well it seems it is going to be to late for @lastweektonight.com to help with their hiatus. Any suggestions for a big sci com/science interested news account I should play with to help save PRI?

Tag them in the comments with your pitch for why they should help out this museum maybe
infographic about the Paleontological Research institution. 94 years of research here. One of the 10 largest fossil collections in the USA, with 7 million specimens. 1.2 million users of their online content annually, 30,000 in person visitors 1,500 teachers use PRI for continuing education each year link to donate: https://www.priweb.org/donate infographic explaining that PRI needs to raise 1 million dollars by December 31st to pay off their mortgage, be free of that debt and continue future operations. They have already raised 2.1 million of the 3.1 million needed to pay this unexpected expense due to a major donor being unable to fulfill a long-term pledge
November 17, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
derekhennen.bsky.social
Y'all wanna see a bot fly??? I hand collected this mothertrucker right out of the air when it was hovering at me at Natural Bridge State Park in Virginia. My first bot fly! No mouth parts cause the adults don't feed. Soooo wacky! www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Side profile of bot fly, which has red eyes and is very furry. Yellow setae covers much of its body and it has dark, smoky wings. Head on view of bot fly, which has red eyes and is very furry. Yellow setae covers much of its body and it has dark, smoky wings. Dorsal view of bot fly, which has red eyes and is very furry. Yellow setae covers much of its body and it has dark, smoky wings. Bottom view of bot fly, which has red eyes and is very furry. Yellow setae covers much of its body and it has dark, smoky wings.
November 17, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
biologicalrecording.co.uk
Some bees don’t just buzz—they bite the flower too! 🐝
By gripping the anthers, their buzz sends stronger vibrations that release more pollen.

Join @charliezoology.bsky.social on 13 Jan 2026 for a FREE entoLIVE talk on the biomechanics of bee buzzing.

Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1850820516...
November 14, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
biotay.bsky.social
What does it feel like to be a remora?

It seems that, despite the benefits they provide, whales do not like their presence and do everything they can to get rid of them. They observe them, jump several times, and check again to see if they are still there.

(blog) phys.org/news/2025-11...
November 15, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
privatechand.bsky.social
The NEH funded my current book. Winning it was a career highlight. I cannot tell you how infuriating this is. These right-wing DEI recipients could never win on a level playing field and they know it. Nepotism is the only way these clowns win and that is what they are doing to academia.
miriamposner.com Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 2d
When I think about how exquisitely careful NEH staff were to be fair, impartial, and rigorous, and how much work people put into grants so small they’re pocket change…I just want to scream.
Fired Scholars and Big Grants to Favored Projects: Inside Trump’s N.E.H.
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
jacquelyngill.bsky.social
Because international student enrollment is so often used as a cudgel in discussions about immigration, this is a good time to remind people that international students aren't taking up spaces for US students at state schools, they are paying full tuition that FUNDS SCHOLARSHIPS FOR US STUDENTS.
November 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Can I squeak excitedly at you bee-skees?

I finished my moth-inspired paint set wheee! It's here: www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4...

All proceeds after fees will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) again. Find out more/donate direct here: www.map.org.uk

It was this year's personal challenge set...
An eight colour set of watercolour paints in a rainbow of colours themed around moths. There's an A7 card swatch of each colour with an unwrapped half pan of the paint sitting on them. The colours & moths are: blue (clifden nonpareil), mint blue-green (small emerald), oak green (blotched emerald), yellow (brimstone moth), grey-brown (nut-tree tussock), pink (elephant hawkmoth), coppery red (rosy tabby), rellowish tan (scalloped oak.) The pans are sitting on a swatch card showing a stripe of each colour. A gloriously minty blue-green small emerald moth sitting on my hand. It has wide wings with thin horizontal white stripes, and a fluffy body, It is magnificent. A delightfully yellow brimstone moth sitting on my hand on the edge of a specimen jar, about to fly off. Its wings have small brown markings along the edge and a tiny blue eyespot on each forewing. A+ fuzzy moth pal.
November 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
moreperfectunion.bsky.social
BREAKING: The Trump administration is officially withdrawing a Biden-era plan to require airlines to pay passengers cash compensation when flight disruptions are caused by the airlines.
November 14, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Avery Russell
marspidermonkey.bsky.social
Many have heard of the “Trimates:” Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas.

But before any of them was Rosalie Osborn. But sadly, she, and her colleague Jill Donisthorpe, have been written out of the narrative. (1/16)

🧪#Primates
Photo of Rosalie Osborn, as an older woman. She's a white woman, with gray hair, in a gray sweatshirt, holding binoculars, as well as glasses clutched by her pinky finger. Behind her is grass. The photo is from her obituary at Animals 24-7: https://www.animals24-7.org/2015/10/07/rosalie-osborn-mentor-to-africa-network-for-animals-founder-josphat-ngonyo/
November 14, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
wolvendamien.bsky.social
A new state-by-state evaluation of the projected energy and water use of "AI" data centers in the US. Looks… real bad. Like, "undoing tech sector climate gains" bad.

Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA - Nature Sustainability
The rapid expansion of AI server installations in the United States poses sustainability challenges in terms of water usage and carbon emissions. A study now quantifies these potential impacts and out...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
rsubramanian.com
Chinese and Iranian students/postdocs are a significant fraction of international trainees in the US, I'm pretty sure.
environmicrobio.bsky.social Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 4d
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
skwinnicki.bsky.social
Just aching for colleagues and peers and students in Texas right now.

Also they’re setting up a hotline to report faculty, I sure hope that number becomes available
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 4d
Let me fix that for you:

Texas A&M is limiting how instructors may discuss gender identity and race in classrooms in an assault on academic freedom unseen in America since the Red Scare.
WHAT PROFESSORS CAN SAY Texas A&M is limiting how instructors may discuss gender identity and race in classrooms amid statewide debates over academic freedom.
November 14, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Avery Russell
pjlariviere.bsky.social
The Lariviere lab at UMiami is recruiting PhD students! Incoming students will join us in studying host-microbe interactions in the honey bee gut, using molecular and genetic approaches. Please see the attached flyer for more details.

#Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky #PhDOpportunity #AcademicJobs
November 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM