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Tom Iwanicki

@iwanicki.bsky.social

200 followers 680 following 45 posts

Visual ecologist with The Earth Commons Institute at Georgetown University studying light and vision on the high seas. Opinions my own. 🐟🪼🐦 tomiwanicki.com

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · Jul 11

Just called the at-large council members of DC to urge them to fully implement initiative-82, the phase-out of a tipped minimum wage supported by almost 80% of DC voters! As a treat, here is a pair of ship wrecks: a By-the-wind sailor run aground next to the Wreck of the Peter Iredale, Astoria, OR

Photo from the beach in Astoria, Oregon. In the foreground, a blue jellyfish call by-the-wind sailor, in the background the Wreck of the Peter Iredale, a hulking mass or rusted iron firmly stuck in the sand.

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 1h

Dazzling photos of a couple lefty velella!

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 2h

Thanks! I hope to stink up your living room with these and other neuston in the new year, if you'll have me 😅

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 2h

Common misconception, the Zooniverse volunteers even caught a few misidentified man-o-war flagged as by-the-wind sailor 🤭

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 2h

Thanks for your interest! Here it is: doi.org/10.5334/cstp...

The High Seas at Your Fingertips: A Case Study of the Living Sailor Leveraging Community Science to Answer Decades Old Questions in High Seas Biogeography | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

doi.org

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 7h

I love finding chonky sailors! Biggest I've personally seen is ~10cm. iNat can offer an incomplete record. The seven from Perdido are all from early in the season, Feb-Apr, were you there later in the year? That would allow them more time to eat copepods and fish eggs and cladocerans and grow big 😋

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 7h

Perdido Key! Looks like there are seven iNat observations from that beautiful stretch of beach, mostly teeny tiny left-handed sailors 🥹

Sailor sting doe not typically effect us, we're too thick skinned, but if you were a wayward copepod on the other hand... steer clear!

Screen capture of iNaturalist observations page depicting seven observations of by-the-wind sailor at Perdido Key, Florida.

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

As for Savilov’s hypothesis, we are excited to share more soon. In our upcoming analysis, we include The Living Sailor data, other community science data from inside the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, and genomic and oceanographic analyses. From one jelly admirer to another: it is worth the wait!

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

We show you can get high quality data on a globally distributed high seas species using iNaturalist and Zooniverse. Many (sandy) hands make for great science! 😤🤲 For more info see: The Living Sailor project page and read the paper out now in Citizen Science Theory & Practice doi.org/10.5334/cstp...

The High Seas at Your Fingertips: A Case Study of the Living Sailor Leveraging Community Science to Answer Decades Old Questions in High Seas Biogeography | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

doi.org

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

Sometimes the photos proved challenging for Zooniverse volunteers to decipher, due in part to the angle of photography, whether debris obscured the sailor, too many sailors photographed, or even other species photobombing; all of these offer insight for gathering good data. Overall...

multi-panel image showing a variety of challenging iNaturalist images. Photos at an oblique angle, sailors photographed upside down, sailors covered in debris, many sailors photographed, or multiple species.

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

With the power of community science: literally thousands of people from around the world, we were able to gather a heaps of data from the iNaturalist observations spanning the entire planet to tackle this decades old hypothesis...

four panel figure, upper left shows a world map with dots of iNaturalist observations of by-the-wind sailors spanning the whole globe, the remaining panels are histograms: upper right, count: most observations were of one sailor; lower left, sail direction: about 6000 left, 1000 right, 100 both, the rest unknown or NA; bottom right, the vast majority of sailors were photographed alive.

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

That the sail direction was key for by-the-wind sailor’s global distribution. In the Northern Hemisphere, based on wind and currents, lefties are pushed out towards the coast and righties are concentrated inside oceanic gyres, with the opposite pattern in the South...

a cartoon depiction A.I. Savilov’s hypothesis showing the world map with ocean gyres depicted in black for the North Pacific, North Atlantic, South Pacific, and South Atlantic. The fate of left and right handed sailors are shown as described in the main text.

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

By-the-wind sailor are a spiraling mystery: the sail can either point to the left or to the right and this has puzzled scientists for more than a century. What is known: lefties move to the left of the wind, righties move to the right. In the 1950s a Soviet scientist named A.I. Savilov predicted...

photo of two human hands each holding a left- and right-handed by-the-wind sailor

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

Ask a thousand volunteers on @zooniverse.bsky.social the largest crowd-sourcing science platform to help us determine for each iNaturalist observation: count, how many? condition, dead or alive? and sail direction, left or right? But wait, sail direction, what?
www.zooniverse.org/projects/reb...

The Living Sailor | Zooniverse - People-powered research

Help us understand how these living sailors navigate the vast global ocean

www.zooniverse.org

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

By-the-wind sailors are cataloged: what, when, where... all around the globe! Right now iNat has more than 18,000 sailor observations! This treasure trove of data allowed us to...

screen-capture of the iNaturalist page for by-the-wind sailor with top observers, identifiers, and total observations (18,100) listed. Thumbnails of by-the-wind sailors and a histogram of observations through time are also depicted.

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

iNaturalist downloaded at the ready! @inaturalist.bsky.social is the largest community (citizen) science repository for documenting life on Earth. With a camera click, those beach walking naturalists can upload their by-the-wind sailor observations where... www.inaturalist.org/taxa/59698-V...

By-the-wind Sailor (Velella velella)

Velella is a monospecific genus of hydrozoa in the Porpitidae family. Its only known species is Velella velella, a cosmopolitan free-floating hydrozoa that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It i...

www.inaturalist.org

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

The wind blows *just right* countless sailors wash ashore within the gaze of people enjoying a walk on the beach. A numbers game: Some of those beach-goers have their phone in their pocket, some of those phones have...

perspective of a beach with a mirror-shine from the receding tide, frothy brown bubbles, and dots on by-the-wind sailors as far as you can see. In the background there is the Wreck of the Peter Iredale, the rusted remains of a boat in Astoria Oregon.

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

Excitedly snapped this photo of the sand beneath my feet. That is an experience I - a greying and sun burnt marine biologist - share with literally thousands of people around the world! By-the-wind sailor are beautiful blue jelly like animals that drift by the wind and waves, and when...

photo of a sandy background with a relatively small and partially sandy by-the-wind sailor in the center of the frame

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 23h

Kailua Beach, Hawai’i: The first time I laid eyes on a By-the-wind sailor, I stopped dead in my tracks, dusted the sand off my hands, grabbed my iphone and...

close-up of a by-the-wind sailor on a white background

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 2d

There might be SEASONS in the ABYSS?! Fall may be here on land, but in some period of time and through 5 vertical kilometers of water, the Benthic Boundary Layer larvae may feel it too 🍂

Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 2d

University of Hawaiʻi researchers caution deep-sea mining due to understudied ecosystem

University of Hawaiʻi researchers caution deep-sea mining due to understudied ecosystem | Big Island Now

A study by oceanographers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa provided the first in-depth look at a poorly understood area of the ocean, revealing a dynamic community that is sensitive to seasonal c...

bigislandnow.com

Reposted by Tom Iwanicki

Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 7d

🧠 Alzheimer’s reversed in mice

A new study found that injecting nanoparticles can 'remind' the blood–brain barrier to function properly again, restoring normal brain activity in mice. Human trials could follow within years.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#SciComm #Alzheimers 🧪

Rapid amyloid-β clearance and cognitive recovery through multivalent modulation of blood–brain barrier transport - Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy - Rapid amyloid-β clearance and cognitive recovery through multivalent modulation of blood–brain barrier transport

www.nature.com

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · 22d

A great read, Femi. Makes me think about how effective the "weird" discourse was before the Harris camp shut it down in the name of decorum.

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · Jul 28

Field work in Bamfield, a lecture with Tom Reimchen, this is hitting me right in the ca. 2010 nostalgia - how time flies - BMSC is beautiful as ever

Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · Jul 28

Attending #Stickleback2025 at Bamfield Marine Science Center with ~100 researchers from around the world. A few highlights from the first day….

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · Jul 25

I am mostly a marine biologist, but I do happen to be a published spider eye guy too 👁️. Their colour vision is FASCINATING! Here's the receipt: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Secondary not subordinate: Opsin localization suggests possibility for color sensitivity in salticid secondary eyes

The principal eyes of jumping spiders (Salticidae) integrate a dual-lens system, a tiered retinal matrix with multiple photoreceptor classes and muscu…

www.sciencedirect.com

Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · Jul 25

In the cacophony of crap news, I recalled seeing this lil' bug. A good reminder that nature is beautiful. Here's a female Sylvan jumping spider, clearly dazzled (or maybe pissed off) at the spider-like eyes of my iphone cameras. Pick an issue, get involved, AND pay attention to the beauty all around

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Tom Iwanicki @iwanicki.bsky.social · Jul 24

Do. Not. Lick. Got it. This track is going to play every time I look at the cabinet now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzk0...