Finally out! For biology instructors who want to move towards a more intersex and trans inclusive biology curriculum, here are students’ own perspectives on what supports them.
Very proud of this perspective that came out of some really interesting and difficult conversations with friends and colleagues!
TLDR: how do scientists define sex? why does it matter??
#EcoEvo #Ecology #Evolution 🧪
Just pre-ordered too!
I’m happy to help with intro bio, plant biology, ecology, education research/social science qualitative research methods, as well as about biological complexity of sex, gender, and reproduction, including through using plants and modular metazoans as a reference point.
Do you know of a way we could build a network to make offers more accessible? I’d be happy to make this offer too, for ecology and intro bio and plant bio.
@sayjaysloane.bsky.social @greeniezona.bsky.social
A picture of two California condors that says Weird Sisters and Emancipation overlaying the image. The bottom corner says January/February 2026, Volume 18, number 1. The top edge says grassroots, queer, progressive, feminist.
I am very excited to share that the January/February issue of Weird Sisters magazine is posted! This is the first new issue since January 2009. Please share with those you think would be interested!
weirdsistersmagazine.wordpress.com/january-febr...
Include that humans are cooperative breeders (see Sara Blaffer Hrdy’s work) and therefore in humans (and other animals) reproduction is not required to be evolutionarily important. Non reproducing humans (and others) are evolutionarily important!
As an ICB Assistant Editor, we would love to have you review for us! We had some great symposia this year!
Logo for the Sex Across Origins symposium. A round cell looks like it’s about to divide, with spindle fibers. In the middle there are two rainbow-colored phylogenies. Outside the cell, it says “Sexes Across Origins” on top, and “SICB 2026” on the bottom
It’s happening!!
#SICB2026 Tomorrow, from 8AM to 3:30PM come to C120/121/122 for ✨Sex Across Origins: Questioning animal-centric assumptions and developing integrative frameworks.✨
Also! 3 fantastic complimentary sessions Tuesday in B113, with a special focus on education in the morning.
Sex and the repeated origins of sexes are key sources of biological diversity, contributing to enormous variation in how organisms reproduce. Yet our conception of sex/es is disproportionately shaped by animal models. We need broader comparative approaches and collaborations across organismal silos to develop more general, inclusive frameworks. This symposium convenes researchers working on protists, plants, fungi, animals, and theoretical models to engage with the complexities of sex and reproduction, aiming to distinguish shared principles from taxonomic idiosyncrasies, highlight fundamental differences and open questions, and generate new frameworks for understanding sex in biology. By fostering integrative dialogue across disciplines and taxa, we hope to advance a more inclusive and accurate understanding of reproductive diversity across the tree of life.
Going to #SICB?
attend s4
www.xcdsystem.com/sicb/program...
Sex across origins: Questioning animal-centric assumptions & developing integrative frameworks
Organized by
M. Aramati Casper,
aramaticasper.weebly.com
Jay J. Falk
jayjinsing.github.io
Karen M. Warkentin,
sites.bu.edu/warkentinlab/
In our newish building all of the inside walls for offices are frosted glass to increase light infiltration into the rest of the building (the old biology building had almost no windows). But it also means you can almost always tell if someone is in the room and the wall is made of glass.
The Mapping Black Language project is working to document how Black Americans speak, and how their language shifts and varies—and they’re looking for people to interview
Agreed!
Wolves
Blandings turtles
Fairy shrimp
Grizzly bears
Wood storks
I echo bethynyc and also send you good wishes for today.
The front page of the June 1998 issue of Weird Sisters, with the headline Alison Bechdel is Indelibly Ours.
The first three years of Weird Sisters magazine are now available in an online archive. As Arminta Skip Neal used to say, here tis.
weirdsistersmagazine.wordpress.com
Wham bam CAM!
These are beautiful!
I agree, as I’m preparing to teach about all the definitions of sex in biology (including design from your paper - thank you!) and how we will use them with plants. And I teach papers that include plants with sexes such as strong hermaphrodite, weak hermaphrodite, and female.
This is a wiiiiiiild system!
Iberian harvester ant queens clone ants **of a different species** to maintain a supply of their sperm. “They then mate with those ants to produce hybrid workers that take care of the colony... In effect, M. ibericus has domesticated M. structor and its genome”
There's a reason why sports teams don't chant "I believe that we will lose" before a game, a reason so obvious that I'm pretty sure it needs no explanation. Which is why it makes my head explode when people surrender in advance verbally, which they do all the time about politics.
I think the shame list reframed - books you think are important to get to soon?
Heads up 🧪science folks. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to generate some examples of issues in how Chat-GPT 5.0 answers intro bio type things. I'll stick at least some of them here in a thread so you're free to use them, rather than having to waste resources asking it stuff we know it gets wrong
"The rise of fascism in the United States convinced the Guthrie family and their associates that the music scene needed a dose of Guthrie’s anti-authoritarian, anti-racist, Nazi-punching ethos." #woodyguthrie #folkmusic #antifascist
Could you please post the information instead of a link to Instagram? Anyone without an instagram account cannot access the information. Thanks!
Cannot stop laughing at this
MAHA ignores the real causes of poor health in the US, but Defend Public Health doesn’t.
Our report has 11 pillars of actions for Improving the Health of Americans Together, like reducing gun violence, combating scientific misinformation, and removing RFK Jr. from office.
Just to give the TL;DR on this one:
*The* main purpose of the EO is to move funding priorities and decisions away from experts and career professionals over to political appointees. With the ultimate power held by Vought / OMB.
Yes, and along with that, this misses things like critical thinking skills. Having a PhD isn’t about being able to spit out facts, as much as it might seem like it when I try to explain succinctly the ecosystem reasons for why there is no swimming in the lake we live near (at 8,000’).
