Joanna Rifkin they/them
@joannarifkin.bsky.social
Computational biologist, plant geneticist, gardener, SFF enthusiast, rock climber, not that kind of doctor, transplanted to Toronto, nonbinary, trans, Jewish, and more! Opinions my own.
Yeah, and BTN is rather lacking in citations - not sure what the best place would be to look for a corpus / database of attested Yiddish names. (And, of course, Yiddish is less spoken now than a century ago, and the records are somewhat gappy.)
November 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Yeah, and BTN is rather lacking in citations - not sure what the best place would be to look for a corpus / database of attested Yiddish names. (And, of course, Yiddish is less spoken now than a century ago, and the records are somewhat gappy.)
It's such a pretty name!
November 19, 2025 at 5:48 PM
It's such a pretty name!
No no, some things are just bashert 😉
[Bashert: Yiddish for fated / meant to be]
[Bashert: Yiddish for fated / meant to be]
November 19, 2025 at 5:47 PM
No no, some things are just bashert 😉
[Bashert: Yiddish for fated / meant to be]
[Bashert: Yiddish for fated / meant to be]
Vibes of the Yiddish name Velvl (little wolf) for me - which apparently comes in both masculine and feminine forms, though I've only seen the masculine and apparently one adds an extra "e" in English www.behindthename.com/names/search...
Name Search - Behind the Name
The etymology and history of first names.
www.behindthename.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Vibes of the Yiddish name Velvl (little wolf) for me - which apparently comes in both masculine and feminine forms, though I've only seen the masculine and apparently one adds an extra "e" in English www.behindthename.com/names/search...
Saaaaaaaaaaame.
November 8, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Saaaaaaaaaaame.
Okay hear me out, does it HAVE to be animals? Because plants are RIGHT THERE. And there are SO MANY and they're SO STRANGE.
If it's gotta be animals, then maybe Annelids? There are some very weird worms.
If it's gotta be animals, then maybe Annelids? There are some very weird worms.
November 6, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Okay hear me out, does it HAVE to be animals? Because plants are RIGHT THERE. And there are SO MANY and they're SO STRANGE.
If it's gotta be animals, then maybe Annelids? There are some very weird worms.
If it's gotta be animals, then maybe Annelids? There are some very weird worms.
Oh that's fucked up! In a very cool way!
November 3, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Oh that's fucked up! In a very cool way!
It's this beautiful example of how one biological relationship (the ant-acacia mutualism) creates a totally improbable nice. It's everything I love about ecology in a single species!
November 3, 2025 at 2:55 PM
It's this beautiful example of how one biological relationship (the ant-acacia mutualism) creates a totally improbable nice. It's everything I love about ecology in a single species!
Google definitely HAS gotten worse ...
November 2, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Google definitely HAS gotten worse ...
OMG I ALWAYS FORGET THAT'S THE SPECIES NAME
November 2, 2025 at 10:11 PM
OMG I ALWAYS FORGET THAT'S THE SPECIES NAME
Going from Latin dextrose ... the word must be sinistrose!
November 2, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Going from Latin dextrose ... the word must be sinistrose!
biologist here we got mf'in' vegetarian spiders it's spectrums and exceptions all the way down
(also why would you WANT to ignore the complexity that's the FUN part)
(also why would you WANT to ignore the complexity that's the FUN part)
November 1, 2025 at 9:29 PM
biologist here we got mf'in' vegetarian spiders it's spectrums and exceptions all the way down
(also why would you WANT to ignore the complexity that's the FUN part)
(also why would you WANT to ignore the complexity that's the FUN part)
(Context: I have no context. I just had the idea and couldn't stop giggling so I made the meme.)
October 30, 2025 at 4:28 PM
(Context: I have no context. I just had the idea and couldn't stop giggling so I made the meme.)
And because we cite our friends' science: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reproductive Interference Alters Species Coexistence in Nematodes due to Asymmetric Sperm‐Induced Harm
We test how reproductive interference from inter-species mating between sympatric Caenorhabditis nematodes can influence species coexistence and exclusion. We demonstrate that females from the specie...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
And because we cite our friends' science: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
It was tremendously fun! Just also deep and abiding body horror. (I mean, a lot of science is body horror for nematodes but ...)
October 28, 2025 at 1:56 PM
It was tremendously fun! Just also deep and abiding body horror. (I mean, a lot of science is body horror for nematodes but ...)