Masha Levene
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mashalevene.bsky.social
Masha Levene
@mashalevene.bsky.social
260 followers 490 following 150 posts
Nature and science enthusiast, here to learn and discover
She/her
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Masha Levene
saimihanma.bsky.social
I just shared the first post of my Japan Adventures, starting with the nudibranchs I met at the beginning of my trip, only for my patrons. You can become a member for $1/month if you want to see my photos and posts.

www.patreon.com/posts/japan-...
Japan Adventures: Nudibranchs of Japan | Saimi Hanma (aka Kelly Brenner)
Get more from Saimi Hanma (aka Kelly Brenner) on Patreon
www.patreon.com
February 4, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
medmilmedicine.bsky.social
Mother and baby ‘elephants done by a medieval artist that had never seen one’ - 14th century, BSB Clm 6908, f. 79v
January 26, 2026 at 5:41 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
beebrookshire.bsky.social
In times of stress, it turns out that even plants need to touch grass.

Plant to plant contact helps them resist damage!

I've always tried to keep my houseplants sort of spaced out but now I clearly need to let them hug. www.science.org/content/arti...
Plants cope with stress by touching each other
Behavior could help them respond to environmental challenges
www.science.org
January 22, 2026 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
angrygooseberry.bsky.social
Ho—hooo 🦉
January 22, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
aehillam.bsky.social
fascinating thread!
kitwhitfield.bsky.social Kit Whitfield - fantasy writer @kitwhitfield.bsky.social · 23d
Had an intriguing editorial discussion recently: how did people in the past talk about 'minutes' when they didn't have watches or standardised times? How does that affect your thinking?

Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me.

1/
January 17, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
drspacejunk.bsky.social
Just think: the ancestors of birds and elephants may have seen the last volcanoes on the Moon, 50 million years ago. #PlanetSci 🧪
January 20, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
evaamsen.com
This is very cool: An ebook about the science of colour, by science communicator Cristina Rugutto. #scicomm www.scicomm.it/colour-guide/
Colour free ebook – SciComm Trainers
www.scicomm.it
January 19, 2026 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
alanjstedman.bsky.social
This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,

The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance

Iconic imo
Photograph from 1911 taken by Herbert Ponting whilst with Scott's Antarctic Expedition The monochrome photo is taken from within a cave. The walls of the cave are made of ice. The cave entrance is in the mid distance with two figures standing looking out towards a distant ship. Between them and the ship there is first a 'beach' of ice before the sea itself. The ship could be up to 800 metres away What makes the photo so special is that where the figures are at the cave entrance there is a band of very white snow and ice (contrasting with the comparatively dark inside of the cave) that creates a stark framework in which the men and the ship are captured. It is made even more dramatic by the fact that the cave entrance is at least 30 metres high and is in the shape of a distorted elipse with the tail sloping off to the right at the top of the elipse The photo being in monochrome in a largely white environment makes the photographers skill all the more laudable
January 17, 2026 at 7:12 AM
mashalevene.bsky.social
Well I’m definitely buying a copy of that 😍
zachweinersmith.bsky.social Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 25d
Shot in the dark:

My new kids' book is loosely based on PG Wodehouse, and... among, like, media people I have no idea who to send it to, outside a circle of acquaintances! Any ideas?
January 14, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
zachweinersmith.bsky.social
Shot in the dark:

My new kids' book is loosely based on PG Wodehouse, and... among, like, media people I have no idea who to send it to, outside a circle of acquaintances! Any ideas?
January 14, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
berneri.horse
today's friend is... a platypus!
#art ✧ #painting ✧ #platypus
Photo of a 20x20cm square acrylic marker painting. There is a stylized platypus in the middle. Around the animal there are bubbles and some seaweed on a dark turquoise background. That image has very thick light grey frames that have some kelp or vines in both of the sides, the upper and lower parts have both three platypus eggs.
January 14, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
schmidtocean.bsky.social
The #ArgentinianDeepSeeps team completed 1st comprehensive study of Argentina’s cold seeps. Their goal: to understand how the animal communities live and interact with localized physical, geological, and chemical conditions as well as with surrounding deep-sea ecosystems.

youtu.be/KvJewhMvrIQ?...
Life in Extremes — Cold Seeps of Argentina | 4K ROV Highlights
YouTube video by Schmidt Ocean
youtu.be
January 13, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
jackdashby.bsky.social
My favourite fact from reading this is that some populations of Labord's #chameleon hatch in November, start mating in January, then lay eggs by March, when all adults die. They then only exist as eggs until thy cycle restarts. They're the shortest living of any reptile, bird, amphibian or mammal.🦎
The cover of The Sloth Lemur's Song by Alison Richard A photo of Labord's chameleon by Christopher Raxworthy. (Public Domain)
January 13, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
taylornprice.bsky.social
backyard dandelions in the sketchbook
January 13, 2026 at 3:48 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
katiefullerart.bsky.social
✂️ Yesterday I finally responded to @agakowalska.bsky.social’s challenge to make a collage from a single piece of packaging. I present to you a green (tea) woodpecker, made from a big Yorkshire Tea box. It was fun and I’ll be rooting through our recycling bin for more materials later on ♻️
Green woodpecker collage, made from a Yorkshire Tea cardboard box. Collage assembly in progress - scissors used to dismantle box and cut pieces to form woodpecker shapes, and Pritt-stick used to fix pieces to paper
January 12, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
kendrawrites.com
Friendly reminder that we call eggplant eggplant because the "normal" eggplant used to look like this
viney plant with white eggplants that loo, well like, eggs.
January 12, 2026 at 5:42 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
astrowright.bsky.social
The book really makes her come through as a person, not just from her own words but from recollections of those who knew her, including her daughter.

Check it out and read it!

archive.org/details/ceci...
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin : an autobiography and other recollections : Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Bibliography, p239-255. - Includes index
archive.org
January 11, 2026 at 3:09 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
brackenlab.bsky.social
#PhycologyFriday #MarineLife #SciArt 🌊🦑🐡
January 10, 2026 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
older.bsky.social
gah look at this! Look at the photos! and then read the interview because it's also amazing: globalvoices.org/2026/01/08/w...
Where myth turns to form and fragility to power: An interview with Turkish artist Melis Buyruk
“Porcelain lives in our collective memory — we grow up with it in our homes and daily rituals — so it already carries meaning before I touch it.”
globalvoices.org
January 9, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
obialik.bsky.social
Jellyfish sleep, which is already bizarre given they have no brains. DNA damage accumulates in their neurons when jellyfish are awake, and it gets repaired when they sleep. This might be something fundamental, evolutionarily, to the role of sleep. 🧪🌊

Link: nature.com/articles/s41...
a,b Average sleep time during 36 h under LD in C. andromeda (a) and N. vectensis (b). White, black, and red horizontal bars represent light, dark, and SD periods, respectively (C. andromeda: ZT17-23, N. vectensis: ZT20-ZT4). c, d Sleep time accumulation of the previous 12 h (sliding average) in C. andromeda (c) and N. vectensis (d) during 36 h under LD. Black arrowheads indicate sampling time for the DNA damage assay presented in (i–l). e Confocal z-projection of a C. andromeda rhopalium and adjacent peri-rhopalial tissue. White squares mark representative single nucleus in the mesoglea. Red asterisk indicates rhopalium. Scale bar 150 μm. f Confocal z-projection showing the mOrange-positive endodermal nervous system in tg(-2.4NvElav1b:mOrangeCAAX) N. vectensis. White squares mark representative single neurons. Scale bar 100 μm. g Representative images of cells in the peri-rhopalial tissue of C. andromeda sampled at ZT11, ZT23, and the following day (Day2 ZT11). Nucleus stained by DAPI (gray), and γH2AX foci (magenta) are stained using immunohistochemistry. Scale bar 4 μm. h Representative images of γH2AX staining (magenta) in mOrange-positive neurons (green) of tg(-2.4NvElav1b:mOrangeCAAX) N. vectensis sampled at ZT17, ZT8, and the following night (Night2 ZT17). Nucleus stained by DAPI (gray). Scale bar 2 μm. i, k Normalized number of γH2AX foci per nucleus of control and sleep-deprived C. andromeda under LD. i Control: Day1 (n = 24, 1.00 ± 0.64), Night (n = 22, 0.55 ± 0.55), Day2 (n = 26, 1.31 ± 0.63). k Sleep-deprived: Day1 (n = 27, 1.00 ± 1.09), Night (n = 31, 2.11 ± 1.13), Day2 (n = 28, 1.42 ± 1.12). Values are mean ± s.d. (n=rhopalia from 8-10 animals per time point).
January 8, 2026 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
daniel-barker.bsky.social
It's the 3rd of January 1939, your name is professor James Smith and you are staring at a drawing of a fish. It's not a regular fish. It is a completely impossible fish.
January 6, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
boothicus.bsky.social
Wow! This is probably the closest we are ever going to get to finding something equivalent to Excalibur!
January 7, 2026 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by Masha Levene
wa-moths.bsky.social
A fascinating story about the endangered Purple Copper Butterfly (Paralucia spinifera), it’s mutualistic relationship with a species of ant, and the efforts of one primary school to save it 🦋🐜

#ausinverts #wildoz #butterfly #caterpillarscount #conservation #nature

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...
Tiny school works to save extremely rare 'flying jewel' butterfly
It's the size of a 10-cent piece and matures under the guard of protective ants, but the purple copper butterfly needs more help to survive — and a group of NSW primary school students has stepped up ...
www.abc.net.au
January 6, 2026 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Masha Levene
kueda.net
I quit my job at #iNaturalist, the product I co-founded. If you'd like me to keep working on natural history software, support me on Patreon: patreon.com/kueda. FWIW, I'm building an iNat backup tool and an app for viewing geologic maps.

Or, if you think you'd like to hire me, get in touch!
Ken-ichi Ueda | Patreon
Natural history software
patreon.com
January 6, 2026 at 7:33 PM