Mindy Weisberger
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laminda.bsky.social
Mindy Weisberger
@laminda.bsky.social
31K followers 1.8K following 3.9K posts
Science writer/editor, bylines at CNN, Live Science, SciAm. Previously at Scholastic and the American Museum of Natural History. WGAE member. She/her.

And I wrote a book! Rise of the Zombie Bugs: https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/53677/rise-zombie-bugs
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laminda.bsky.social
Ridiculously fancy!
Two fancy pigeons lying on the ground, fanning out their wings Glamour shot of a fancy pigeon, its feathery crest defying gravity.
November 17, 2025 at 9:23 PM
laminda.bsky.social
I met these Victoria crowned pigeons in Pittsburgh at the National Aviary, they are without a doubt the very fanciest pigeons I’ve ever seen irl
Two pigeons with bright red eyes, blue heads and backs, purple chests and a frothy confection of feathers on their heads.
November 17, 2025 at 9:14 PM
laminda.bsky.social
I kinda feel like if someone were to throw this d4 at my table I'd scream no matter what they rolled www.etsy.com/listing/4351...
Closeup of two d4 dice that are carved and painted to look like bloodstained molars
November 17, 2025 at 4:43 PM
laminda.bsky.social
No matter how well you think you know the gods & heroes of Greek mythology, you won't be prepared for how thoroughly they will break your heart in @wiswell.bsky.social's Wearing the Lion. I finished it as the sun was coming up & am utterly smitten with his found family of beautiful monsters #booksky
A hardcover book standing upright on a wooden table. An illustration shows a blue, starry sky, with a bearded man in a toga holding a lion on his shoulders, framed by two pillars. The cover reads "Wearing the Lion" by John Wiswell.
November 17, 2025 at 1:38 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Heckuva sunset sky out there today
High-angle view of pink and gray sunset clouds over a city, with yellow and orange light over the horizon.
November 13, 2025 at 10:07 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Live birth is toads is pretty incredible. Does your son know about mouth-brooding frogs? They're also pretty great! embryo.asu.edu/pages/southe...
Illustrations of two frogs on a white background. Text at the top reads "The Southern Gastric Brooding Frog, Rheobatrachus silus." The frog on the left is drawn so that the young inside it are visible; the frog on the right has a froglet climbing out of its mouth. Text at the bottom reads: "Illustrator - Anna Guerrero"
November 13, 2025 at 4:07 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Same here! The pillows are very obviously NOT embroidered, but I haven't been this inspired about needlework since I found that online generator for scenes in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry htck.github.io/bayeux/#!/
A square that looks like muslin stitched with a scene in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth showing the 1066 Norman invasion of England. A caped figure stands on the right with legs spread, left arm akimbo and right arm extended, and a bird is flying away, seemingly released from the person's reaching hand. Embroidered text reads: "Thar Goes! Last Fvck I Giveth"
November 13, 2025 at 3:28 PM
laminda.bsky.social
I truly had no idea that goats DID NOT HAVE FRONT INCISORS and now I am shook
A white goat with long horns and an ear tag, its mouth open and its eyes closed. It. has no upper incisors, which is normal for goats (and a thing I did NOT know until about five minutes ago). Instead, it has a pinkish, tough dental pad at the front of its upper jaw. Photo: https://cals.cornell.edu/nys-4-h-animal-science-programs/livestock/goats/goat-fact-sheets/teeth-and-age-of-goat
November 12, 2025 at 12:08 AM
laminda.bsky.social
Please help, I've fallen down the Temu screaming goat throw pillow rabbithole
A quartet of throw pillows illustrated with embroidered screaming goats, each more deranged-looking than the last.
November 11, 2025 at 11:13 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Totally! I've bought a few pairs of oversize pants from Shein for work and they're fantastic (I usually include "cotton" in searches to weed out weaksauce polyester junk). I'm still kicking myself for not buying these overalls when I had the chance, they're the most hilarious pants I've ever seen
A model standing against an off-white wall wearing a pair of tan overalls that are designed to look like a really, really big pair of pants, with the waistband at her underarms and the rise being her entire torso.
November 11, 2025 at 7:55 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Look, I know that fast fashion is terrible and I try to buy nothing new and repair what I have whenever possible. But my normal resistance to Temu ads is utterly undone by this objectively incredible item
A black pillow on a white couch. The pillow is embroidered with the face of a screaming goat, eyes bulging and mouth wide in an expression of unmitigated horror.
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Got some new Steve Keene art from the @wfmu.bsky.social record fair! Day Two is tomorrow, if you’re in the NYC area and love vinyl, you may want to visit Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion and check out the scene. Be sure to grab some art while you’re there, they’re just $2 each wfmu.org/recordfair/
Two paintings on a yellow wall, very roughly painted approximations of the album covers for “Genesis” by Wendy and Bonnie and “From All Sides” by Bola Sete and Vince Guaraldi
November 9, 2025 at 1:42 AM
laminda.bsky.social
All my library holds came in at once 😱
A pile of books on a white check-out table at a library. From bottom to top: Black Hole by Charles Burns, The Canterbury Tales translated by Peter Ackroyd, The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell, The Potency of Unforgettable Impulses by Malka Older, The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw, The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, and Hounded by Kevin Hearne.
November 7, 2025 at 10:59 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Tonight! Fill your brain with zombie science at NYPL's Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 6:30pm ET, and get to know some of Earth's tiniest zombie-makers, including ant-decapitating flies, fly-destroying fungus, and caterpillar-melting viruses 🧪

It's free! RSVP here: www.nypl.org/events/progr...
A spooky cemetery background with a book in the center: "Rise of the Zombie Bugs," by Mindy Weisberger. The top third of the graphic shows two small headshots of two white women wearing glasses. Text between the photos reads "Friday, October 24 at 7:00PM, Mindy Weisberger in conversation with Paula Croxson." Text over the lower third of the graphic reads: "New York Public Library, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, mindyweisberger.com/events"
November 5, 2025 at 2:12 PM
laminda.bsky.social
TW: Anti-semitism

St Joseph Catholic School in Hanover, PA created a sickening display for a float in their town's Halloween parade, reconstructing the gate at the entrance to Auschwitz, where ~1 million Jews were murdered ("Arbeit Macht Frei"="work makes you free")

local21news.com/news/local/h...
Photo of the St. Joseph's Catholic School Parade float that shows a gate with the words "Arbeit Macht Frei". (Credit: Nicole Sellers)
November 1, 2025 at 6:38 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Remember, remember
The fifth of November
Zombies and fungi and rot
I see no reason
Why zombie bug season
Should ever be forgot

Next week! RSVP: www.nypl.org/events/progr...
A spooky cemetery background with a book in the center: "Rise of the Zombie Bugs," by Mindy Weisberger. The top third of the graphic shows two small headshots of two white women wearing glasses. Text between the photos reads "Friday, October 24 at 7:00PM, Mindy Weisberger in conversation with Paula Croxson." Text over the lower third of the graphic reads: "New York Public Library, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, mindyweisberger.com/events"
November 1, 2025 at 2:44 PM
laminda.bsky.social
We’re not big on themed couple costumes, which is how we ended up going to a party in a graveyard dressed like Elle Driver and An 18th-century Gentleman #HappyHalloween
A white woman with long blond hair wearing a black suit, white shirt and black eyepatch, holding a katana over her shoulder. Next to her is a white man with a mustache wearing a black tricorn hat, coat and vest, and a white cravat.
October 31, 2025 at 8:17 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Not only is zombification more common than you may expect—it's also older than you think. And Ophiocordyceps and ants are just one example of this ancient relationship! There are lots more in Rise of the Zombie Bugs, now 30% off from @hopkinspress.bsky.social

www.press.jhu.edu/books/spooky...
An overhead view of three hardcover books on grass covered with colorful fall leaves. The books are "Rise of the Zombie Bugs," "Preserved: A Cultural History of the Funeral Home in America," and "Death and Rebirth in a Southern City"
October 31, 2025 at 3:32 PM
laminda.bsky.social
There are 29 death-grip scars punched into that fossil leaf, along its veins (arrows below point to some of them). Scientists found that in Thailand, certain forest areas had lots of dead, infected ants—more than 2 dozen per square meter. Some spots, apparently, are more attractive to zombie ants 5/
Closeup of a fossil leaf, with red arrows indicating scars of "death grip" scars resembling those left on modern leaves by ants infected with Ophiocordyceps. Text at the bottom reads: "“Ancient Death-Grip Leaf Scars Reveal Ant–Fungal Parasitism,” Biology Letters 7, no. 1 (August 18, 2010): 67–70"
October 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Check out this fossil leaf from Germany's Messel Pit, dating to ~48 million years ago! Scars in the fossil line up along the leaf's major veins, and closely resemble the death-grip marks left in modern leaves by carpenter ants infected with Ophiocordyceps pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... 4/
A grid of nine images labeled (a) to (i). Some photos show a fossil leaf with scars along its veins. A few photos show similar scars on modern leaves, left by ants infected with Ophiocordyceps fungus. One photo shows a dead, infected ant clinging to a leaf, a fungal stalk sprouting from behind its head. Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3030878/
October 31, 2025 at 3:19 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Because #Halloween is for zombies and this year it falls on #FossilFriday, let's talk about fossil signs of zombification! Ophiocordyceps, the ant-zombifying fungus that inspired the last of us, compels an infected ant to leave its colony, climb a leaf and bite down, leaving distinctive marks 1/
Ants biting the underside of leaves as a result of infection by O. unilateralis, photo credit David P. Hughes & Maj-Britt Pontoppidan. The top panel shows the whole leaf with the dense surrounding vegetation in the background and the lower panel shows a close up view of dead ant attached to a leaf vein. The stroma of the fungus emerges from the back of the ant's head. The photograph has been rotated 180 degrees to aid visualization. Fungus species: Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. Ant species: Camponotus leonardi. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004835.g001
October 31, 2025 at 3:07 PM
laminda.bsky.social
I'm kvelling SO HARD over this photo of my book on display at NYPL's Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library! I just sent over some creepy slides in preparation for next week's talk on Weds 11/5, 6:30pm ET, in conversation with @paulacroxson.bsky.social. Who's in?

RSVP mindyweisberger.com/events/

🧟‍♀️🐜🧪
Three books on a red table. From left to right: "Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing," "Rise of the Zombie Bugs," and "Lamentations of Nezahualcóyotl" A spooky cemetery background with a book in the center: "Rise of the Zombie Bugs," by Mindy Weisberger. The top third of the graphic shows two small headshots of two white women wearing glasses. Text between the photos reads "Friday, October 24 at 7:00PM, Mindy Weisberger in conversation with Paula Croxson." Text over the lower third of the graphic reads: "New York Public Library, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, mindyweisberger.com/events"
October 30, 2025 at 4:59 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Someone explain to me like I’m five how using AI slop images of products that don’t exist is supposed to convince me to click on a gift guide (presumably for real products, but WHO KNOWS)
Screenshot of a phone screen showing a closeup of a small cuboid gadget atop someone’s fingertip. The gadget has a lenslike shape at the front and buttons with incomprehensible markings.
October 29, 2025 at 6:41 PM
laminda.bsky.social
Taking a quick break & then resuming zombie facts. If you want to hear more about zombie bugs in person and you're in the NYC area, I'll be at NYPL's Stavros Niarchos Library on Nov 5, talking to the supremely talented @paulacroxson.bsky.social! It's free!

Details/RSVP: mindyweisberger.com/events/
A spooky cemetery background with a book in the center: "Rise of the Zombie Bugs," by Mindy Weisberger. The top third of the graphic shows two small headshots of two white women wearing glasses. Text between the photos reads "Friday, October 24 at 7:00PM, Mindy Weisberger in conversation with Paula Croxson." Text over the lower third of the graphic reads: "New York Public Library, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, mindyweisberger.com/events"
October 29, 2025 at 5:52 PM
laminda.bsky.social
9. Parasitic flatworms in the genus Leucochloridium make snails wander into the open. They also produce larvae-stuffed broodsacs, which migrate into the snail's eyestalks and pulse there like caterpillars, attracting hungry birds (the worms' definitive host) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le...
Closeup of a snail on a leaf, its eyestalks stretched by colorful broodsacs striped with brown and green (and bulging with Leucochloridium larvae)
October 29, 2025 at 5:14 PM