Matthew A. Barnes

Fascinating time to be an American teaching abroad in Spain...

The Texas Academy of Science is seeking passionate Texas scientists for the following leadership roles:

• Non-Academic Director
• Student Representative
• Academic Director
• Executive Secretary

Read about these roles here: www.texasacademyofscience.org/volunteer-jo...

‪Tell me the truth...I'm ready.

New IPBES report finds that $220 billion were directed to conservation & restoration of biodiversity in 2023...

yet $7.3 trillion flowed toward subsidies that directly harm nature.

IPBES Business & Biodiversity Assessment www.ipbes.net/business-imp...
@ipbes.net

🔬 Calling scientists & data managers

We need your expertise to:
✔️ Identify workflow gaps
✔️ Prioritize interoperability
✔️ Align data standards

Turn #eDNA potential into policy-ready solutions for #OceanDays!

📅 Deadline: 06/03/2026
🔗 tinyurl.com/5n7phwdd

#Science #Data

📣 New Publication Alert! 📣 Lee C, McIntyre NE, Barnes MA, and Luan X. 2026. Effects of land use on Eurasian otter presence in northeast China. Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity 19: 193-200. linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2287884X25001189

📢 An ✨ONLINE FIRST✨ Call for Collaborators!

Xin Sun & colleagues seek collaborators in #eDNA of #urban #soil

Check out the call HERE ⬇️

soil-organisms.org/SO/article/v...

One of the worst things about AI, for me, is that it takes away from people the sheer joy of writing. Schools don’t often make this point, but writing should be fun. Putting words together, finding ways to express yourself, the pure pleasure of a well-crafted sentence. 1/5

Aquatic reflectance derived from Sentinel‐2 Multispectral Imager data for inland waters in the conterminous United States Satellite-based earth observation is a robust tool for tracking change in ecosystems. While terrestrially focused applications of remote sensing have empowered wide adoption for research and manageme...

A challenge to remote sensing of #lakes #wetlands #rivers is that many of extant satellite products are corrected for land, making water signatures muted because water is dark. We constantly hear about how we need an aquatic reflectance product. So, we made one. doi.org/10.1002/lol2...
@aslo.org

USA wins Hockey Gold! 🦅🏒🥇

Opinion | Higher Education’s Compensation Charade We’ve come to accept illogical, unjust, and occasionally insulting pay practices. Why?

"Too many of us have become so inured to inexcusable and illogical practices that we’ve stopped asking questions." www.chronicle.com/article/high...

Doing things the "right" way, burning out and then realizing there is another option, coming back and winning it all with no fucks given? Yes please tell me that story forever.

Dear Kristi Noem: you’re tracking down ICE critics? I’m one of them | Robert Reich The homeland security department is reportedly seeking information on critical social media accounts. Look no further

Excellent public letter and reminder that not only is it not illegal to speak up against unconstitutional acts by our government, it's patriotic www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Did you know that because roly polies are terrestrial crustaceans and not actual bugs they breathe through adapted gills even though they live out of water.

Congrats to Team USA! What an exciting finish!

Keep fighting back! The culture warriors have spread themselves too thin (just too much to be frightened of!) and are losing the #WarOnScience. #AcademicSky

#WarOnScience

But wait, there's more

go.bsky.app/4wMsfX4

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

Follow these awesome women ocean scientists, many of whom I'm proud to call colleagues and delighted to call friends.

🧪🦑🌍🐟

go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo

Texas Tech struggles with new policy on gender, race The system’s chancellor meant to instill clarity and accountability, but three weeks into the spring semester, some instructors say the standards have led to “censorship.”

Really feels like we are doing a huge disservice to our students here www.texastribune.org/2026/02/04/t...

The Threshold The right used to attack athletes who protested. Now they attack athletes who express feelings at all.

Amber Glenn won Olympic gold on Sunday. That same day, she left social media because of death threats. Her offense: she'd told reporters the queer community is going through "a hard time." The headline called it "backlash." www.readtpa.com/p/the-thresh...

Lee Silva Ferguson ’95 and Matt Barnes ’06: Shared Connections

Fun story about lifelong connections with two of my most important scientific role models, HS biology teacher @thebiospace.bsky.social and undergraduate research mentor @profromi.bsky.social : www.southwestern.edu/live/news/17...

The American academy is currently suffering from a severe and potentially fatal lack of leadership

Took me way too long to realize that its super easy to just merge pdfs in R rather than fussing with Adobe #rstats

library(pdftools)
pdf_combine(
input = c("file1.pdf", "file2.pdf"),
output = "merged.pdf"
)

I won’t stop reporting the truth. The First Amendment is the bedrock of our democracy, and I’ll continue to fight to protect it 🤝🏾🇺🇸

If you are a student whose NSF GRFP application was returned without review for vague 'eligibility' reasons:
1) Let your department chair & Graduate School know. Encourage them to contact NSF & congress
2) Write to your congressional reps.
3) Write to grfp@nsf.gov to request re-consideration;

There is a cost to science denial.

For every new STEM PhD hired by the US Government in 2025, 11 quit/retired/fired. Eleven.

This number doesn't include manuscripts I have handled as an editor, which as you might guess I have found particularly draining lately.

It's annual review time, so I was looking at my CV and decided to add up total, formal manuscripts reviewed in my approximately 10 years of reviewing. Without double-counting times I reviewed a revised manuscript, my total is 121. There are sooo many PhDs; why is it so hard to find reviewers?

#eDNA