Notices by Megan Lynch (she/her) (ml@ecoevo.social)

Universities Hiring Student Expression Specialists

"The new staff members will focus on creating, explaining and enforcing college speech policies following years of escalating campus protest activity."

You can bet your bottom (and able to fall lower in value) US dollar that these people will not be controlling the student expression of astroturfed groups like Turning Point USA. It will be about suppressing any anti-fascist and/or union demonstrations.

UCSC

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2026/06/17/universities-hiring-student-expression-specialists #USpol

I can research university websites, G Scholar, webinars on YouTube, etc. and I learn about the research interests of potential PIs, but nothing tells me about whether they're anti-ableist, anti-sexist, anti-ageist, etc.

If you have experience with a PI outside the US that you think I should be looking at for a doctorate in Botany, Pomology, Plant Science, Horticulture and related fields, please do let me know!

#AcademicChatter #Botany #Horticulture #PlantScience

A Great White Shark in the Mediterranean during a Ghost Net Recovery Mission

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6l4sZRyuuE #MarineBiology #Mediterranean #Pollution

Living with bears: A Romanian town and its wild neighbors | DW Environment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw9zHf4p66o #Romania #Bears #Ecology

You can tell how "philanthropic" multi-millionaires and billionaires are partly by seeing how many are eagerly stepping up to create or fund an existing non-profit fallback for all the vital scientific resources the regime is defunding and closing right now.

#USpol #Science

If you're in easy travel distance of Winters, CA, you can experience one of the cool things your tax dollars do (and very few of your tax dollars because both parties have been cutting funding to this over the years).

USDA collects and cares for plant germplasm. Cultivars, heritage breeds, and crop wild relatives. And a couple times a year, the locations that store germplasm for fruit have tastings. The mulberry and early Prunus tasting is coming up. VERY limited attendance possible and they

Goddamned near every PhD opportunity in my fields and adjacent ones:

"preferred background: Computer science"

I don't know about you, but I got into horticulture, agronomy, and botany BECAUSE I LOVE PLANTS, not computers.

Are there some people who do both well? Sure.

Does nearly every funded plant science/ag PhD being skewed towards computation and away from in-person observation and macro knowledge lead to a good balance of what we need right now for climate emergency?

IMO, no.

Palantir Hosts ‘Invite-Only’ Recruitment Event at Cornell, Requires NDA, ID to Attend

"More than five Cornell University Police Department officers were stationed in the hallway, moving in and out of a private room separate from the event."

There's better reporting at some student newspapers now than at the major US flagships that were bought by billionaires.

https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2026/03/palantir-hosts-invite-only-recruitment-event-requiring-ids-and-ndas #Fascism #HigherEd

🧵 Today I got to indulge an intersection of my interests in botany and accessibility - visiting the Botanical Garden of the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. I've been critiqueing botanical gardens on accessibility since volunteering at The Huntington Botanical Gardens.

Gardens are mental health oases for people, which means they should be accessible to disabled people too, but they often are not.

I was low on spoons today so I only visited the

#Botany #Accessibility

Breakthrough moment in octopus care: How Birch Aquarium helped baby red octopuses settle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEKXhfnV34Y #MarineBiology #Cephalopod

Seeing a conference advertise itself using genAI trained on stolen works by creatives had me dashing off a passion toot because I know someone involved with this conference is getting paid and who gets paid and who doesn't is an issue.

But instead of me burning a conference I don't know all the financial planning details for, let me say:

If holding an in-person conference is so expensive you stiff artists whenever you can AND you have disabled and/or BIPOC volunteer to make things accessible

Ah, yes. Cromulent scientific requirements for an academic job posting.
#Ageism

Thank you to everyone who boosted and tried to help me reach USians doing PhDs in the EU with my informational interview request. I really appreciate you trying to help.

Unfortunately, reaching more people than my toots usually reach brought out the kind of "well, actually" replies, ageism, ableism, sexism, and xenophobia that are uncalled for and corrosive.

As BIPOC folks have pointed out before, the design of Mastodon makes this easier to fester unnoticed by others. We have to improve.

Are there folks from the US who've done PhDs in Europe and then gone on to find a path to an EU country citizenship (within the last 10 years) who'd be willing to grant me an informational interview?

I have a lot of tough decisions ahead of me and would rather go into things as informed as I can manage.

#AcademicChatter

I just saw another scientific account boosting a toot with genAI "art". And, of course, the info is inaccurate and in some parts just outright lies...AI trying to mimic the things you'd see in real primary sources.

Just because the image is appealing, don't skip asking questions. Just because a big account is posting it, don't assume they've made the image nor that they have authority on the subject.

I'm not perfect at spotting AI, either, but I think we need to add classes to STEM on it.

New bee species discovered in Washington

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dswEnJzW9c #Entomology #Washington

Here in Bilbao, I've seen 'Reinette Grise (du Canada)' in two stores. I bought it at both.

In the second store, I saw other apples that were not worldwide apple cultivars but they didn't have labels so I asked. I'm not sure I remember the whole answer, though!

One is 'Rosetti', which I can't find much information on. He called another 'Reinette Verte'.

https://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?varid=5264&&acc4=1956065

UC Berkeley has a "Future of Work" podcast that for months has been like one long publicly-funded advertisement for AI.

#FuckAI

As a disabled woman who lost most of her stuff exiting the US to look for a funded PhD in Europe, I am actually broker than I seem. I'm SO GRATEFUL for the help of Mastodonians so far in helping me in this journey and survival.

I got late notice of a Mediterranean Forest conference/ Carob workshop right up my alley. The fares to go were already high, but I felt I had to take the risk. Other things have happened since to keep the costs high. So I'm looking for some way to make this work.

I’m trying to make a slow trip from Spain to #Spezi2026 in Freiburg as affordable, accessible, and joy-inspiring as I can given the circumstances.

I’m in my 60s and taking risks I was too cautious to take in my 20s, including asking Mastodonians if they know of or can offer ways I can make this month-long sojourn more affordable (and hopefully academically rewarding…got a good Pomology/Botany Department at your local university or research institution?)

Things I can present on: