Researchers - has your work been covered well in the news? Nominate the journalist for a Golden Tardigrade! Entries close on Sunday:
www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2026/03/09/s...
How to lose friends and support for your cause 101. @itiscolossal.bsky.social CEO Ben Lamm saying "the worst part of conservation is conservationists...". π€¦ββοΈ @forestandbird.bsky.social @birdsnewzealand.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Also love the multiple copy & pasted Δ there - they're de-extincting stuff but configuring keyboards to type macrons is too hard.
Want to work with a dynamic team helping connect scientists with the media? Applications close at 5pm tomorrow (12 Feb).
www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2026/01/27/w...
Wikipedia Education found that 178 out of ~3,000 articles created since 2022 via their outreach were written by AI (not bad per se), but almost all statements in these articles did not actually align with the cited source. Lots of effort to spot and undo - big implications for academic writing.
This guide to making reports in #Quarto with #typst by @rfortherestofus.com is super in-depth and useful. Great for anyone wanting to publish dynamic and polished documents that make use of #rstats and #Python code to analyse data.
Not sure I'd describe Plan S as disruptive - it further consolidated market share to the big 5, entrenched APCs, and failed to flip (any?) hybrid journals to fully OA. The new strategy is an admission of failure and a lukewarm collection of goals. Or am I missing something?
"Weβve got $55 million, roughly, per year to spend on basic science. And if you open up the news, what you hear about is Chris Luxon spending 320 times that on a single road."
Looks like CC BY NC 4.0 - great. Very cool image!
Cool image - what is the licence? Can it be reused?
"The trouble with the governmentβs idea for a simple, more efficient science fund is that itβs trying to be a Ferrari on tin can funding."
Screenshot of first page of slidecrafting-book.com website
I'm exited to announce a new resource about making slides with quarto and revealjs. This book is the combination of all the work I have done in this area, reordered and polished up
There isn't a lot of new information yet, but this format allows me to add more easily
slidecrafting-book.com
#quarto
The verbal gymnastics don't change the fundamental reality that whatever they create will not be a dodo. Fun to watch them try though.
I'll mark it on my calendar: birds that superficially resemble dodos in 5-7 years.
Just in time for a major new release of ggplot2! www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/09...
The Art of Data Visualization with ggplot2: A free online book by @nrennie.bsky.social that guides us through the entire process of creating plots, including why certain decisions were made, using real datasets that have been part of #TidyTuesday. Very excited to get stuck into this one. #rstats
Nice! The second edition of 'R for Data Science' (free online book) is great for a refresher and all round amazing resource, in case you hadn't heard of it. It's helped me a lot.
"A lot of people have this throw away attitude that the dogs can just be disposed of and they can get another one for free on Facebook."
Irresponsible dog ownership has exploded post-covid, Animal Management doing what they can while taking abuse for looking after other people's dogs.
Would love to see researchers properly incentivised and rewarded by funders/institutions to publish fewer papers. One of the many interventions needed to untable the web of problems with academic publishing.
If you're a researcher in NZ please do our very short survey on the Vision MΔtauranga policy! We are keen to hear your opinions. DM for the survey link
Great article! One of my favourite non-Aotearoa examples is Ampulex compressa (emerald cockroach wasp). Pretty amazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ySw...
You've run workshops for media orgs before, right? Why don't these points about CC in particular make it into the handbooks or documentation used by the journos?
This is absolute shameful bullshit from all parties concerned. Peter Jackson is being scammed, Colossal are total frauds (5β8 years? Give me a break), and I have no idea what NgΔi Tahu think theyβre doing. There are clear and simple reasons why this is impossible. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/south-isl...
THE SMC IS HIRING!
We're looking for someone to join our dedicated team working to improve the reach, relevance and accuracy of news media reporting on science and related topics in Aotearoa New Zealand.
More info and apply here: www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/06/26/w...
FYI iNaturalist have added an update to the post, including: "We are not giving Google special access to your iNat data, and we have no obligation to use Googleβs infrastructure as part of this grant. Google is providing funding and advice on how to potentially leverage AI."
πΊοΈ Ever wander to a new place and think, "Hmm I wonder what birds/plants/[insert favourite taxonomic group] I can find here?" π
We built {infinitylists} π to help nature lovers create personalised, location-based taxon lists! π
Yes - retraction should be encouraged when issues surface, not punished. Surely one of the biggest bang-for-buck moves would be for institutions/funders to lower the # of pubs they judge/evaluate/reward researchers on each year. Many of these integrity issues are symptoms of demanding quantity.
Most concerning to me is the attempt by the VC to frame it as a win for 'academic freedom', even though University lawyers repeatedly argued that academic freedom was a 'privelege' and that Wiles should stop talking about her expertise.
Nice one, congrats on the new role Fonti!
Some great examples here of how researchers can partner with MΔori to co-develop research projects in ways that give effect to CARE principles alongside FAIR.
