Joanna Bagniewska

I put together a new starter pack: all colleges and permanent private halls at Oxford University @ox.ac.uk in one place. Eleven are still missing, so if you know of one that's not part of the list, but is on Bluesky nonetheless, please get in touch. Enjoy! go.bsky.app/8221Lma 🎓

Feather accessories were really fashionable - until they weren't. While conservation campaigning was important, it was the changing fashion, women’s lives, war, legislation & wider social attitudes that changed the trends. Paper by @diogoverissimo.bsky.social www.eci.ox.ac.uk/news/what-re... 🧪🪶👒

Most snakes: instil deeply-ingrained fear and reverence. 🐍 Arabian sand boa (Eryx jayakari): i googly-eye sock puppet 👀 🧪small, nocturnal, egg-laying sock puppet that spends its days buried in sand looking like those things that kids drew badly and someone 3D-printed for laughs.

Amazing footage - and what beautiful framing!

How much money do PhD candidates get across Europe? It really depends. Yes - taxes, purchasing power, benefits, etc., all come into play, but the differences are still staggering. #academicsky 🧪🎓 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Can you even see the info about the Nobel prize in chemistry on @theguardian.com's website? I had to use the ctrl+F option to find it. WTF does a scientist need to do to get some publicity, if a NOBEL PRIZE isn't enough? By contrast, remember how much Jason Arday we saw over summer? #academicsky 🧪

Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize? 🧪🔬🧬⚛️ Since the Nobel prizes were first awarded in 1901, few women have been recognized in the categories of physics, chemistry & physiology or medicine. Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates here: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Most birds that grow breeding plumage might look a bit fancy, but are at least recognisable as the same species as before. Enter the Malagasy pond heron, Ardeola idae. Nothing's too fabulous for that one. (Left: non-breeding/juvenile, right: breeding individual) 🧪🪶🦚

Wonderful to see poems by @brianbilston.bsky.social in Florence Park today. I hope they become a regular fixture! #oxford

Spotted Lanternflies… should you squish ‘em? 🧪

A few weeks ago I realized that it has been almost 29 years since I started the #fiddlercrab information webpages. This mind-blowing realization gave rise to some introspection about how/why the site was created, which I have now explained on a new About page: www.fiddlercrab.info/about.html 🦀🧪🦑

I think most academics relate and celebrate. 🧪 #academicsky

Insect declines threaten wildlife far beyond insect world. Apart from being food, insects provide other species with homes, protection, chemical defence and sanitation - to name a few things. Great review article by @r-cooke.bsky.social with BEAUTIFUL visuals. 🧪🪳 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

🦉🧪🌎 The Palomarin spring banding summary is here! The season brought spring migrants, the return of summer residents, and a few exciting captures! Some highlights: Black-headed Grosbeaks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and juvenile Black Phoebes. Learn more: shorturl.at/X7ymm

A nice surprise from Google for #FatBearWeek! 🐻 Vote for your favourite chonky bear here: explore.org/fat-bear-week 🧪

What have ants ever done for us? "Green roofs, living walls, biophilic cities: we talk about these as though pairing architecture with living tissue were a modern idea. It isn't. Ants had it first." Ants, architecture and ambition - read more here: livingarchitecturemonitor.com/articles/bef... 🧪🐜🌍

The nerdiest, most beautiful scarves for your labbed ones. Loved ones.

You've heard of Wordle and Squardle - but do you know Birdle? Six guesses to identify the bird of the day. Nine games per day based on the species' geography. 🧪 🪶 🐦 www.play-birdle.com/af/

What time of the year is it? It's FAT BEAR WEEK! It's been so popular that their website is having issues - but check periodically to see if you can vote for the chonkiest chonk on @fatbearweek.bsky.social 🐻 🧪 explore.org/fat-bear-wee...

🐺 Wolves eat blueberries (this is not news). But it turns out that going through a wolf gut helps the berry seeds germinate - and disperse. A tasty win-win. 🧪 Article: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... 🫐 Also, footage of wolves chomping on berries: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Qz...

The GCSE in Natural History has been long brewing - and here are our thoughts on it. This qualification is especially pressing now, in the light of the climate catastrophe and a crisis of mental well-being among young people. Doing fieldwork and being closer to nature can only benefit society. 🧪🌏🍃

Today, I put on my science communication hat and talk about being a good citizen of the social media community. #scicomm #AcademicSky

Our cohort of @lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk Ecological Survey Techniques students are saying hello to a Natterer's bat at Wytham Woods as part of their field methods training. PSA: don't handle bats without a license (or without gloves). 🧪🦇

A huge loss to the botanical community. @drmgoeswild.bsky.social was an incredibly talented science communicator and a wonderful colleague. My 3yo corresponded with him, and said that "her friend Finn wants to be a BOTTOMIST, like Dr M". 🧪🥬

Darwin having a good ol' moan in his letters. So rel. #AcademicSky 🧪

We saw Jason Arday in the news every day for the past two weeks, linked to a misconduct case that should have been handled internally. I don't remember any academic getting such sustained media attention, not even Nobel Prize winners. This is hounding at its absolute lowest. RIP. #academicsky

Monkeys make friends with other species, and that can tell us a lot about how keeping pets came about. Great article by @cyrilgrueter.bsky.social et al., reporting friendly primate interactions with a whopping 55 non-primate species! 🧪🐒🐕 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

If that lecturing gig I do falls through, there's still modeling (not the computer kind) to fall back on... #AcademicSky

Echo chambers Inaccuracy tolerance LLMs replacing search engines & encyclopedias ... and other possible effects of creeping normality of AI. #AcademicSky

🧪 🐵🫂

🧪 Investigate biodiversity in urban green spaces 🎓 Support graduate access 🦊 Take videos of cute species Just a regular day in the office at @ox.ac.uk ♥️ @biodivoxford.bsky.social #academicsky

Read my book, remain scarred for life. I present the tongue-eating louse. 🧪 😝 👀

Geologists have a higher death rate in movies than Sean Bean 💀 Of the 202 geologists in 141 movies released between 1919 and 2023, 69 die or are found dead, resulting in mortality rate of about a third. Movie geologists were mainly male, white and in khaki. 🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Orangutans are solitary species, so, theoretically, opportunities for early socialisation are scarce. What do orangutan mums do? They go out of their way to arrange playdates for their kids. Research by @oddjacobson.bsky.social @bjjbarrett.bsky.social et al: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧪🌏🐵

Could be a good early stage #scicomm opportunity. #AcademicSky 🧪

It's been ten years since the #Brexit referendum. I'm still waiting to find a single positive thing that came out of it. Anyone? #academicsky

Do you know about the Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social? A great resource for nature-related collaborative work, with biodiversity literature and images made publicly available. www.biodiversitylibrary.org Drawing of a dusky titi monkey, from Description des mammifères. 🧪🌍🪶🦊

Oh look, a girl spider, and her private bits look like the most adorable fox pawprint! 🐾 🦊 Yes, arachnologists spend way too much time looking at epigyne (🕷️ lady parts). Mammalogists, on the other hand, get excited when something looks like a track. 🧪

Exciting stuff - British pounds are getting a revamp and will feature wildlife. You can pick two animals in each category (mammals, birds and what looks like "creatures without eyelashes"). Vote here until July 3: www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/he... 🧪💷🌏

🪶 Birds masturbate. 🦜 This is normal, and not (as often is believed) a maladaptive behaviour only found in captivity. 🍑 Pet bird owners - chill, and let your budgie have some fun. 🧪 Study of masturbation in 120 bird species, by @matildabrindle.bsky.social: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Have you heard of OneZoom Tree of Life Explorer? It's a great tool for visualising how all biodiversity in the world is related. And since it's #BiodiversityDay, well... Find yourself a friend whose love language is "I sponsored a slime mold for you". www.onezoom.org 🧪🌏 🦊🐦🐝 #biodiversity