I’ve written here and here about how the flawed windscreen phenomenon is not scientifically testable. It’s a popular social media anecdote, but not actually an accurate measure of insect decline. A paper that is often cited as evidence to support Continue reading
Generative AI tools are openly accessible, increasingly normalised, and mostly inequitable. They’re a great example of a marketing success benefiting a specific industry that has quickly ignited a dumpster fire for society. These tools should not be open source, or Continue reading
I’ve missed writing. It’s been just over four years since I became a parent and almost two years since I wrote an actual blog. Priorities change, emotions change, life changes. Absolutely normal. When I was pregnant and contemplating my career Continue reading
Saunders, Lees, Grames (2025) Understanding and counteracting the denial of insect biodiversity loss Science denial is one of the greatest threats to humanity. Denial of climate change and public health threats is unfortunately well established. Greenwashing, where environmentally destructive companies Continue reading
New paper published in Austral Ecology: Rapid on-ground assessment after the 2019–2020 megafires reveals new information on rare and threatened plants in northern New South Wales, Australia Back in 2020 we won a grant from the Commonwealth Government Bushfire Recovery Continue reading
There are many reasons that academics may unexpectedly find themselves at a research career crossroads. This is different to the ‘other’ academic career crossroads, i.e. whether to stay or leave academia generally, which we all reach at some point in Continue reading
AI is here (and has been for a while). It provides hope and potential solutions to many scientific problems, but also raises many ethical problems that can’t be ignored. For insect biodiversity and conservation research, AI tools can support ID Continue reading
At the end of 2022, we all thought Twitter (now called X) was about to break. In my broader twitter network of mostly academia and ecology/enviro interested folks, I started losing connections by the day as many people deleted or Continue reading
In a fitting end to the ridiculous year of misinformation that it was, this fake news story on spiders being attracted to a particular brand of body butter caught my eye. It’s clickbait, it’s misinformation, it’s disinformation…and it’s a great Continue reading
It’s grant rejection time again for far too many Australian researchers. Many will have to jump straight on the application treadmill again, only to find out in 12 months’ time that it too was unsuccessful. The problems with the ARC Continue reading