Stephen Heard's avatar

Stephen Heard

@stephenbheard.bsky.social

1226 followers 1204 following 564 posts

Evolutionary ecologist & Boggle aficionado. Author: The Scientist's Guide to Writing; Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider. He/him.

Blog and book links: scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Ever wonder what the life history of a book is like? Burn fast, fade quickly, vs. long quiet persistence? Consider 4 years' data for 'Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider' here: scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/2024/07/02/t...

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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All these years I've been doing it wrong. I use flagging tape and tweezers, and apparently Fisher Scientific sells field-installable Whirling-Blade People Crushers!

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Daniel Bellingradt's avatar Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social
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My footnote is bigger than yours.

Greetings from Christian Philipp Leutwein's 1691 pamphlet featuring a very space-consuming footnote on page 18. In fact, the footnote started on page 17... #bookhistory #academia #academicchatter

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Patrick 's avatar Patrick @watchinthesky.bsky.social
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Peekaboo! A Tarantula hawk wasp is nectaring on milkweed blooms at the local Park.
#inverts Southern California
1 of 2

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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I'm glad you fine it useful! Plenty more elsewhere on my blog...

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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I would rephrase to "AI used by those who don't know or care what it does is bad for science". But otherwise: yes, this is happening; yes, it's bad. I've taken to randomly verifying a few citations in any MS I read...

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Ferris Jabr's avatar Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social
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Today is the day! My debut book, Becoming Earth, is officially published and out in the world!

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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There's actually some (mixed) evidence that critter names affect public interest in their conservation! There's definitely evidence that critter names affect media coverage (and thus public awareness).

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spacetelescope.bsky.social's avatar spacetelescope.bsky.social @spacetelescope.bsky.social
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Need to reset? Trace the diffuse brown pillars in Hubble’s image of star-forming region Westerlund 2. Each pillar is a few light-years tall. For context, one light-year is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion kilometers). Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI. 🔭 🧪

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Catherine Sheard's avatar Catherine Sheard @sheardcat.bsky.social
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I am reviewing the most BEAUTIFULLY written manuscript holy cow. Whoever you are, I want to write science like you, please and thank you. (Earlier today I was reviewing a different manuscript, which I'm like 80% sure was written by AI. Swings and roundabouts.)

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Glad you enjoyed it! It was highlight for me on TWO different visits, about 30 years apart.

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Reposted by Stephen Heard

Ele Willoughby 's avatar Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social
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Happy birthday to #botanist Isabella Aiona Abbott (1919-2010), renown algae expert, celebrated seaweed cook, devoted teacher & mentor, expert on Hawaiian ethnobotany, 1st Indigenous Hawaiian woman to earn a doctorate in science & 1st woman or person of colour to become a full prof 🐡🧪👩🏻‍🔬#histsci 🧵1/n

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Thanks, Dennis. I ALWAYS forget the test tube...

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Agradable sorpresa ahora saber que ya está disponible la traducción al español de "The Scientist's Guide to Writing" ="La guía científica para la escritura", de la Prensa de La Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia fondoeditorial.cayetano.edu.pe/tienda/la-guia -de-escritura-cientifica/ 🧪

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Which is a deeper question than it seems at first blush, right? Since they're mostly nocturnal and find mates by pheromones. "Camouflage" only gets you so far. What do you think?

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Only because your book reminded me to look closely at moths, and for this one it really paid off! (And since it's a North American species, it's one you won't see in your own traps)

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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This one's for you and the jewel box, @mothyblackburn.bsky.social! Pink-shaded fern moth, Callopistria mollissima, visiting our screen porch. Our yard has abundant ostrich fern and several other ferns, so this is likely a local.

Sure, some birds are pretty, but LOOK AT THIS GUY.

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Bryson would be awesome! Pratchett too (assuming we get to bring him back to life) although he might insert EVEN MORE FOOTNOTES into my writing!

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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BRB, seeing if Barbara Cartland will give my next paper a go-over. <voice from offstage reminds me she's dead>

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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So if I stop posting, you'll know that Murderbird finished the job.

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Finally Murderbird picks up the worm and looks toward me again. "This could have been you", her silent glare says very clearly. "Next time it may be, and I'll be back." Murderbird flies away.... and three minutes later, the whole threatening saga repeats. 4/n

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Murderbird then hauls a worm out of the ground. She moves it onto a flagstone where its fate is obvious to all onlookers. Like me. She stabs it with her steely beak, but unlike the Eagles*, she can definitely kill the beast. *(gratuitous Hotel California reference) 3/n

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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When it gets nice and close, MurderBird struts back and forth a bit to make sure she has my full attention. Then - and only then - she gets serious about worms. 2/n

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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This is MurderBird. I have a big (by city standards) back yard. This robin could hunt worms anywhere in it. But that is not what she does. Instead, she hops closer and closer to me. After each hop she straightens up, makes sure I'm watching, and glares fiercely at me. Then hops again. 1/n

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Hildur Knútsdóttir's avatar Hildur Knútsdóttir @hildur.bsky.social
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Once my mother went to a bakery and tried to buy a cake, but the woman working there said no, because it was the last one and if she sold it she wouldn't have any cake left to sell later. I think about this a lot, it is a metaphor for something but I haven't quite figured out for what yet.

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Markus Eichhorn's avatar Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social
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Last night I was sat with an old friend on a hill outside Bangor, overlooking the Menai straits, when a couple of lads walked past. One double-backed and introduced himself. Turns out I taught him 15 years ago. These moments are very rare but they always make my day.

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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This is fascinating: the friendship, with writing advice, of Cormac McCarthy and Roger Payne (the whale biologist). But I wonder: McCarthy's writing was quite distinctive, and not to everyone's taste. Would McCarthy's advice improve all biologists' writing?? www.nytimes.com/2024/06/15/b...

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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To be clear I'm not blaming my wife! I am....something of a challenging subject

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Needed some headshots (most immediately, for Spanish translation of my writing book). How hard can that be? Hand phone to wife, smile, done - right?????

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Handsome smol fren on the bathroom mirror today. Look at those pedipalps!!! (Whole spider about 2.5 mm long)

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Lol, I know the feeling. No worries and no rush, reach out to either of us when you're ready!

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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Regretting I never kept data in one of these!

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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It was time for xkcd to loop back to population ecology! As an ecologist, I find this model intriguing xkcd.com/2945/

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Stephen Heard's avatar Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social
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This picture has been taken 1,000,000 times. But this time, *I* took it. Pacific Spirit Park, Vancouver.

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