Catherine Hulshof

Legumes are one of the most successful plant families in the tropics. In this paper we unpack why. Incredibly fun paper to write. scienmag.com/beyond-nitro...

I've needed a database for 10 years, so I finally just built it myself. Synthesizing data, trends, and patterns requires a birds eye view of thousands of studies. A database of databases. It's not perfect or complete, but it works. acg-atlas.org/en/

Great bday present! Science Prayer Candle From the manufacturer : “100% AS EFFECTIVE AS PRAYER You've tried everything else, what harm could it do?” The container can also be made into a whisky glass, just in case is needed. Thanks @rominadimarco.bsky.social ❤️ 🧪🗺️

Without thousands of years of indigenous food systems there would be no polenta or tomatoes in Italy, no potatoes in Ireland, no chili peppers in Thailand, and no chocolate in Belgium. #IndigenousPeoplesDay

Your periodic reminder race is the worst human invention. 'Mixed-race' people confront its unrealities every day. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/p...

And with the current funding situation... collaboration is the only way we are collectively going to get through this. Especially those of us at smaller, non-flashy, non-flagship unis.

You can't take your data with you when you die. Careers don't last very long...30 years goes by in a blink of an eye. Will you be remembered through your data? Or will your data die with you? We have a number of datasets getting dusty. Work w/ plant traits?...contact me...happy to collaborate.

Air sampling in airports found SARS-CoV-2 and flu in 98% (!) and 17% of samples. Presence of flu virus in air correlated with positivity of travelers' nasal swabs, but not for SARS-CoV-2. journals.plos.org/globalpublic... HT: my postdoc Mahender Rawat

Can we drop imported seasons? Celebrating otoño in the tropics? Instead: 🌀 Chak Iik'al (Mayan): season of furious winds/storms. 🌧️ Yoka-Hu’s Rest (Taíno): fading solar energy gives way to torrential rains and not pissing off Guabancex (Lady of the Winds/Hurricanes) y claro aguacates.

A creative life: 1) Gathering quality data/ideas 2) Combining them in novel ways 3) Choosing a handful of the most promising/rewarding to work on 4) Doggedly, and nimbly, pursuing them. All require judgement and craft. Don’t mistake tools for judgement and craft.

Tofu is $2.59/pound. Inflation proof protein?

Oof the kids aren't alright y'all. Wtf is going on with the eco-evo job board? Please use those free university resources. Therapy is for everyone. Human-ing is hard. The economy is shit. Find your people and keep them close. We have one wild and beautiful life. Things WILL work out. They have to.

And at 10% funding rates, I'm guessing many people got their discourage notices too today. I'm right there with you! Seguimos.

Rejection is the rule for my NASA Biosphere proposal. BUT I do appreciate the 2-step format b/c it 1) helped me organize ideas Ive been floating around and 2) saves many people many hours on full proposal. I still believe in my little proposal idea just need to find the right home and spin.

Robots asking humans if they're robots, humans asking robots if they're humans what are we even doing lol this sucks

First time submitting to NASA ROSES: does anyone know when we will be given green light for Step 2? Is it worth starting now on the full proposal?

At VCU, you can't delete Gemini chat history (using institutional Google account). Count me out.

🌿 New paper! The forest herb layer can account for up to 80% of plant diversity, yet remains understudied. I’m glad to have contributed to this Yale-led collaboration identifying 100 questions to advance forest herb-layer ecology. What did we miss? 🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

New NSF BIO solicitation is live.... this replaces the previous IOS, MCB, DEB solicitation www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

The unbroken seal on King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. That piece of rope and clay remained entirely untouched for 3,245 years before this photo was taken. Original post

No extra credit, low stakes assessment, early/frequent feedback, clear rubrics, and ungrading has made my teaching a well oiled (but v high effort) machine. Though every semester there's still that one student.... Happy teaching prep! open.substack.com/pub/notesfro...

The last 8 of 9 hires in my dept have been men. The lone female filled a teaching position. We are on track, right?

"Independence would shift the question from “How do we gain entry?” to “What forms of knowledge become possible when we are not organizing ourselves around entry?” This all requires what the imperial center covets and hoards from the margin: resources." lareviewofbooks.org/article/univ...

The bigger Q is why *cant* U.S. PhDs be completed in 4 years? Europe certainly proves it's possible. Are US PhD programs too course heavy, inflexible, should require Masters, outdated? A lot of what we do in academia is b/c 'that's how its always been done'. What would a 4 year program look like?

What does it take to land a faculty position? No single metric is best but number of citations is more important than number of publications. Quality >> quantity. From @facjobmktcollab.bsky.social canadacentral.displayr.com/Dashboard?id...

Huge congrats to @pablolopezbust.bsky.social on successfully defending PhD! His work on dry forest seed dispersal at local to macro spatial scales provides new insight into these complex systems (even gomphotheres make a cameo!). Enhorabuena Dr. López-Bustamante!

ICYMI: New online! How to run a language-inclusive international conference

Data in unexpected places: the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

This isn't just a paper about insects. It's a demonstration of what decades of biodiversity inventory, conservation, and scientific collaboration can achieve. Congratulations to Dan & Winnie, the parataxonomists, and all the authors on this remarkable PNAS publication. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Does anyone have a current email for Liz Blood, former NSF extraordinaire? Please connect DM.

My quote of the day You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable. Ta-Nehisi Coates

Happy to co-develop ideas related to machine learning, AI and tropical phenology for NSF's PRFB call. We are part of @cu-esiil.bsky.social tropical phenology working group VERDE, and have excellent starting resources, data, and questions to explore. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Finally, a piece on Bad Bunny + botany / environment / empire! This whole @edgeeffectsmag.bsky.social Botanical Imaginations series is fantastic, and this is no exception. edgeeffects.net/bad-bunny/

👀Behind the Paper👀 Author Caitlin Terry discusses drought and thermal tolerances in tropical tree species, freezing leaf samples in a bedroom transformed into a lab, and their love for maggot research!🌳🌡️ Read it here👇️ buff.ly/nhjn76f @caitlin-ento.bsky.social 🧪🌍️

Has anyone uploaded an NSF Data Management Plan under the new format? Any advice? It looks scary. www.research.gov/research-web...

Up to 15k! Keep going. Dale. Can submit anonymously.

Starting now!

"If the word hope doesn’t work for you, try ‘Never *ucking surrender.’" openenvironmentaldataproject.substack.com/p/questions-...

There are 9k comments posted so far. Let's double it!

You don't need to be a PI, have funding, or use your name. regulations.gov takes anonymous comments. Closes July 13. Skip it, and this gets finalized by and for people who already have tenure. Your PI has job protection. You don't. Info: www.bioniclab.org/news/OMB #NIH #SciencePolicy #EarlyCareer

Yes to this. Right to repair! Learn to sew and repair (analog) appliances, two skills that save lots of $$$. Thrift stores and junkyards are the new (old) next thing. "Mad-maxxing"?

Our new paper is out in Ecosphere! 🪻🐝 Network rewiring and species turnover stabilize plant–pollinator interactions across habitats and seasons in dry forests on Caribbean Islands 🦋 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Caribbean Pollination Networks Project-2026

sandia fermentada. or when summer dreams die.

Still thinking about this (from @ferrisjabr.bsky.social 's Becoming Earth): "a single gallon of gasoline represents 100 tonnes of ancient life, roughly equivalent to 20 adult elephants". I knew it was big, but never worked it out. A tank of petrol is a LOT of ancient life. +1 reason to electrify!

Yes and...can we stop using the term 'para'biologist, parataxonomist...bc they are THE world expert in and of their communities..more than any PhD I've ever met. Nothing para about that. They *are* biologists. Words matter.

It's great to see an organization like this set a new standard for multi-lingual access. There's no reason for scientific societies to not follow suit.

Important and thoughtful write up about how open data stewardship will need to evolve for AI. Whether companies can monetize data they didn't even collect (like field data, environmental data). open.substack.com/pub/openenvi...

"I’m choosing to make the margin the center of the story." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/s...