Updates from Inkhaven 2 + a brief treatise on fish sex
Also, I contributed to THE LOOP, a delightful science zine from Slime Mold Time Mold.
Eukaryote Writes Blog
Risk, research, and life as a membrane-bound organism
Latest posts
Lichen as the common ancestor of all life on earth
The alternate "Lichen as last universal common ancestor" model, which I will refer to for convenience as “Big Lichen”, does not expect so little of mother nature.
Good posts from the Inkhaven blogging residency
Cannot stress this enough: literally everyone at the writing residency was good at this. Maybe you'll find a new favorite blog among these.
23 lessons you will learn living in a very snowy place
6. Snow is heavier than you think. You might think physical strength is useful for lots of things, like overall health or familiar household tasks or picking up dudes (literally or metaphorically.) But actually, the main thing physical strength is useful for is letting you shovel more snow.
Speciesquest 2026
A multiplayer distributed game where you find as many species in a year as you can.
Why people like your quick bullshit takes better than your high-effort posts
Those new bloggers, who are kind of upset about the internet's bad taste, might benefit from reading artist Dimespin’s essay: “Why people like your doodles better than your finished works.”
The rare, deadly virus lurking in the Southwest US, and the bigger picture
If you live in this one county in California, you might be more likely to die from Sin Nombre Virus than in a car crash.
Did photos of the 1917 Miracle of the Sun at Fatima prove the sun was at an impossible place in the sky?
I do agree that if these photos showed that the sun was at an odd angle, that would be evidence for a miracle. But I read Dalleur (2021) and I’m really not sold that the photos indicate anything celestially weird going on.
Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant: a review of Skibidi Toilet
Art has died and been reborn a thousand times now. Join me at its graveside once again. Let us speak a few words for what once was. Let us imagine the inconceivable and hollow future ahead without it. If you weep, I will pass you my handkerchief. And let us all pretend to be surprised once more when it bursts out of its coffin, on fire, and singing.
Book review: Air-borne by Carl Zimmer
Man, it’s embarrassing to be part of a field of study (biosecurity, in this case) that had such a public moment of unambiguously whiffing it.