mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Science journalist, podcaster, author. Book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. Here for the trash pandas.
It's NOT the first Fido, but a new pair of papers shows humans across Europe were paling around with Some Very Good Dogs more than 14,000 years ago, pushing a domestication even back another 5,000 years.
TY to @wwrfd.bsky.social for keeping my puns.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dog-domestication-genetics-bones-europe
Why did spotted lanternflies do SO well when they got to the US?
Turns out they picked up some genetic tricks in other cities first. https://brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com/p/the-spotted-lanternfly-was-streetwise-before-it-ever-flew-to-nyc
Growing a garden makes you realize when you eat a vegetable, you're eating TIME.
You're eating 80 days in the sun, 80 days of water and soil and growth.
And you just wolfed that down as a salad in 30 min. https://brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com/p/on-eating-time?utm_source=brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=on-eating-time&_bhlid=bd56cac7f40f8d960e424867bfbff77cfb3b1b18
Y'all I'm IN THIS STUDY!!!
Really I'm in it! I haven't been unblinded and I still don't know what I got but there's ME! Just a tiny little data point.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lyme-disease-vaccine-ticks-infection
Hi please make this your weekend read because I ruined every single one of my social media algorithms to do this reporting.
I'm now suffering through constant side by side images of "reta face" https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-behind-the-peptide-craze/
Ooo this looks truly fascinating https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00881-6?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nature&linkId=61022133
Red-breasted nuthatches coat the edges of their nests in sap, keeping out pesky squirrels or other birds! By @rheisman.bsky.social
But wow can you imagine getting all this resin and spreading it and then trying to get it off your BILL with no HANDS. URGH. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/why-nuthatches-coat-nest-entrances-sap/
The next time a person says they're afraid of commitment, don't call them a cockroach. Roaches are better than that.
Because the wood-eating cockroach is SO COMMITTED they chew the wings off their mate and remain with them for life, and they live up to 5 years.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cockroach-eat-wings-bond-fight-together
Did you know that bowhead whales are as long as a 4.5 story building is tall.
And also they are 1/3 mouth (we really don't talk about that enough) and ALSO that some populations recovered form whaling because the HID behind sea ice! https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/bowhead-whale-migration-arctic-sea-ice
You're heard of toiletries yes.
But have you heard of toilet-trees?
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cloud-forest-mammals-poop-tree-hub
"....the possum first arrived in the US disguised as a children's toy and purchased duty-free. As it happened, that possum was expecting, and now possum eradication efforts in the lower 48 cost upwards of $218 million per year" - us in 30 years, probably. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/19/possum-hobart-airport-gift-shop-soft-toys
Where does a tree-dwelling mammal take a poo? A la-treen.
I'll be here all week.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cloud-forest-mammals-poop-tree-hub
"If you are a professional writer, I want you to use AI. Because this industry is competitive. I’ll take any advantage I can get. And if you want to make your writing suck, that’s all the better for me. One less person outshining me." https://defector.com/go-ahead-and-use-ai-it-will-only-help-me-dominate-you
When I picture "rat birth control" I cannot help but imagine a bunch of rats carefully learning to put tiny condoms on tiny bananas.
Thank you @bittelmethis.bsky.social for calling me up to talk about what we can ALL learn from rats.
“One of the things I’ve learned from rats is to thrive where you are and not where you wish you were,” says Brookshire. https://bigthink.com/science-tech/how-rats-conquered-earth/
My FIL just alerted me to the existence of THIS. LOOK! A lovingly illustrated book about pests for kids.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/787999/pests-and-other-friends-by-halsey-berryman/
Sniff. It's so beautiful.
Super fun to cover this pair of papers, one from @lachiescarsbrook.bsky.social about early dogs!
I esp love how they paired genetics with archaeology, to show that dogs were not "used" they were PART of human culture, and got similar funeral practices. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dog-domestication-genetics-bones-europe
“That sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean.”
Thank you
@wwrfd.bsky.social
for letting me nerd out on the best movie monologue ever. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/cerulean-blue-color-history-chemistry
I've a whale of a tale to tell you lads.
A whale of a tale or two.
About the bowhead whales that moved behind thick areas of sea ice whaling vessels couldn't penetrate and which scientists learned about by studying logbooks from 700 whaling voyages. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/bowhead-whale-migration-arctic-sea-ice
When you eat a plant, have you ever thought how much TIME you're eating?
How much time a carrot took to grow, and you just munch it down in 30 minutes? It's wild, how fast we eat time. https://brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com/p/on-eating-time
In which @roxannekhamsi.bsky.social gives me a new way to think about mutations. Not as something as something positive or negative, as some sort of curse. They simply ARE. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/beyond-inheritance-book-khamsi-mutation
"The District of Columbia currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 6.7 percent, in large part because of major reductions in the federal work force, including U.S.A.I.D., and cuts to government grants and contracts." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/us/politics/usaid-former-employees.html
The way the reporting for this piece has ruined my algorithms I can't even tell you.
My feeds are now all bald dudes in backwards baseball caps in front of large mics, hyping their "living like elite athletes" when they don't believe in leg day. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-behind-the-peptide-craze/
Tree-dwelling mammals in Costa Rica head to a strangler fig when they need to take a dump.
The entire time reporting this piece I wondered if it was because you know, figs have fiber and maybe there's just a VERY constipated sloth... https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cloud-forest-mammals-poop-tree-hub
Humans sometimes say "if you love someone, set them free"
Wood-eating cockroaches, however, would say "if you love someone, eat their wings" https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cockroach-eat-wings-bond-fight-together
Listen I need to talk to you all about DC putting the rats on birth control.
Because their plan might work.
But the birth control will NOT be why. https://brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com/p/on-giving-birth-control-to-rats?utm_source=brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=on-giving-birth-control-to-rats&_bhlid=4324dd38f6b850e96418700975d11e474c6ec115
Evolution is slow.
But life comes at you fast.
What picks up the slack? Epigenetics, and it's epigenetics that may have tweaked the crucial parts of our brains to make us who we are. https://www.templeton.org/news/the-evolution-of-the-human-brain
Adults are super worried about kids these days turning to chatGPT to do their homework, for dating advice...
...what about NUTRITION. It's not good! https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ai-teen-nutrition-advice-chatbot-diet-food
OTOH I'm also remembering when I was a teen and the mags I turned to for nutrition advice....
“we took the sensor out of the chamber, and we were like, ‘Screw it. We’re going to try to measure a fart.’” So Hall stuck the device down his own pants and let rip. “And the signal was enormous.”
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/smart-underwear-human-fart-frequency
"People who use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT...to find news seem to prefer them over clicking on individual stories, despite being conscious that chatbots have limits when it comes to accuracy." 😭
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/ai-versus-accuracy-willing-trade-off-northwester-gain-cnti-studies.php
Why have accuracy when you can have (checks notes) "convenience."
"The enemy of curation is algorithms. In many areas of our lives, we are now being force-fed content by unthinking, unreflecting mechanical systems."
Love this from @charliejane.bsky.social's newsletter. It's all too easy to mistake an algorithm for curation https://buttondown.com/charliejane/archive/im-still-not-over-losing-my-book-review-gig/
This made me realize that strangler fig trees are the like, truck stops of the forest.
They've got holes for cheap 'lil hotels, food, and TOILETS https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cloud-forest-mammals-poop-tree-hub
In reporting this piece on the epigenetics of ancient humans, I got to find out what happens when archaeology guys get to work with fresh bone for the first time. 😂
Because you see, fresh bone still has marrow...which makes BLOOD.
https://www.templeton.org/news/the-evolution-of-the-human-brain
"The second dark truth is how easy it is to simply go along. Most Berliners — and even Buruma's own father — did their jobs, took their pleasures and preferred not to think about the evils under their noses."
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/02/nx-s1-5763755/stay-alive-berlin-ian-buruma-review
Via @science.org's newsletter, can you imagine being the tree that all the mammals species around poo on?
Anyway it's the strangler fig. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.72964?et_cid=5920044&et_rid=51388002
You know how if you put your tongue on a freezing cold pole it'll stick?
It is called "tundra tongue"
And there's RESEARCH about it. With images of disembodied pig tongues that you will never unsee, thank you @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/03/exploring-the-science-of-tundra-tongue/
Humans might show commitment with a ring, penguins offer prospective mates rocks and some beetles gift a ball of dung. Wood-feeding cockroaches show commitment with a nibble of cannibalism.
You will never see a harder-core pre-nup.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cockroach-eat-wings-bond-fight-together
youuuuu are getting sleeeepppyyy
sleeeeeeppyyyy
Your eyes are getting heavyyyyyy
And now you're going to think about that one problem you're dealing with....
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-problem-solving-tool-lucid-dream
Humans have sugar in their blood.
Nectar-eating birds like hummingbirds might as well have blood in their sugar. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/birds-sugar-diets-metabolism
We all have our heroes.
RIP Jeff Galloway, who inspired so many of us to lace up our shoes for the first time, and find out why running feels really lovely actually. https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a70444018/jeff-galloway-dies-at-80/
As I hauled myself upstairs this morning, I wondered what my ortho would do if he got to try my body on for size for a day. Like would he then believe me when I tell him how much it hurts, even if I don't show it?
Based on this I think he'd collapse in a puddle: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.adx0292
This is painful, and beautiful, and sad, and hopeful, all at once.
How do we feel awe and wonder at space (or science in general), when we are seeing ICE kill people, seeing funding get slashed? https://www.sciencenews.org/article/moon-landing-minneapolis-ice
By @astrolisa.bsky.social
Measles is NOT "just like chickenpox". It can kill years later. This woman was so brave for coming forward with her story.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/opinion/measles-child-britain-vaccination.html
