Victoria Peechatt
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vpeechatt.bsky.social
Victoria Peechatt
@vpeechatt.bsky.social
230 followers 300 following 17 posts
PhD graduate assistant at the University of Nevada, Reno studying chemically mediated plant - caterpillar - natural enemy interactions 🌱🐛🪰🦠
(she/hers)
writer | dancer | philomath
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
dradriansmith.bsky.social
New video today: CATERPILLARS!!! youtu.be/aJNaDyHARNw
Why Are Caterpillars SO AWESOME!?!
YouTube video by Ant Lab
youtu.be
October 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
ggcostoya.bsky.social
Check our new paper in @evolletters.bsky.social "Live birth in lizards: A process-based model for the roles of temperature, behavior, and life-history"

In this study, we develop and validate a model capable of accurately predicting gestation length in lizards!

academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
Live birth in lizards: A process-based model for the roles of temperature, behavior, and life-history
To mediate trade-offs between survival and fecundity, multiple groups have independently evolved live birth (viviparity), including 70 transitions in lizar
academic.oup.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
crvscience.com
Homie got 229 pairs of chromosomes

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
This tiny butterfly has the most chromosomes of any animal on Earth
Scientists have confirmed that the Atlas blue butterfly carries the most chromosomes of any animal, with 229 pairs. Unlike duplication, its chromosomes split apart, reshaping its genome in surprising ...
www.sciencedaily.com
October 5, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
astrokatie.com
That's quite the chart annotation.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A chart of "Major concerns of PhD candidates." The top text says, "Financial pressures top the list of concerns faced by PhD candidates, but concerns differ among the sexes. Those studying in the United States rank the political landscape as their main worry." The chart shows that in the full survey, political landscape is the biggest concern for about 20% of students (a bit higher for women than men) but there's an annotation saying "In US PhD students, this rose to 64%". Overall, the highest-rated concern was financial pressures at around 40%.
September 30, 2025 at 5:24 PM
vpeechatt.bsky.social
Here's the first library display I helped set up in Northwest Reno Library: the spectacular diversity of insect interactions in the Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, and beyond
Displays showcasing: 1) the interactions of the monarch-milkweed system and Jaap de Roode's book Doctors by Nature. 2) the diversity of lepidoptera in the Sierra Nevada. 3) the diversity of native bees in the Sierra Nevada and a small box showing differences between bees, wasps, and flies. 4) the diversity of insects in the tropics, small box showing parasitoid wasps. 5) The Carson Wandering Skipper and its host plant distacalus The diversity of life: there are ~2.1 million described species and insects are ~1.1 million of them. Estimates of the actual number of species range from 8-80 million and a good proportion of them are probably insects that will never be described. An example of a system of coevolution: the arms race between plants and insects. Plants like the Indian paintbrush produce specialized metabolites such as iridoid glycosides (base of an iridoid structure displayed) while larvae of the Variable checkerspots develop ways to overcome the toxicity of these chemicals by sequestering them. Display about the art of Maria Sibylla Merian, one of the first naturalists to document the life cycle of insects. Display includes call to action for anyone to become a naturalist with iNaturalist
September 7, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
trevorfaske.bsky.social
Very excited to have our study come out looking at multiple plant mosaic hybrid zones and their implications for hybrids to act as "sutures" of species ranges. We use genomic data to project shifts into future climates and discuss impacts on conservation/management.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
July 30, 2025 at 4:14 PM
vpeechatt.bsky.social
So cool to meet everyone, learn about the precedents set by UAW and Region 6, and plan the next actions for Nevada workers!
August 2, 2025 at 5:24 PM
vpeechatt.bsky.social
The absolutely beautiful Sicya macularia, sharp-lined yellow.
Cool to find both the adult in the Toiyabe range and the larva feeding on Ceanothus cordulatus in the Sierra Nevada #teammoth #coolcaterpillars
An attempt of a close up of the caterpillar's head Red and gold geometrid larva with two prominent spines and a blurred face cause we got a dancer! And also cause I'm still practicing my photography skills A bright yellow and gold geometrid moth on a sheet with a friend
July 12, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
bug-gwen.bsky.social
Just a little Sunday Morning Shitposting. The origin of Lepidoptera might be much older than we thought. www.science.org/content/arti...
Ancient poop yields world’s oldest butterfly fossils
Tiny wing scales suggest the proboscis evolved 100 million years before flowers
www.science.org
July 6, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
us.theconversation.com
In the past 2 decades, the U.S. has lost over 20% of its butterfly population. Other insects are declining too – bees, moths, dragonflies and more.
Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm
Insects are often under pressure from several threats at once, from pesticides to habitat loss to pollution.
theconversation.com
July 6, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
drcraigmc.bsky.social
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM
From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...
journals.plos.org
June 24, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
gelliottmorris.com
mamdani wins. gg
June 25, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
noamross.net
On average 45% of students qualify for Pell grants at these schools. They're minority-serving and rural institutions, many in red states and counties. In terminating these grants, the regime is choking off opportunity for a generation new scientists from the middle and working class. More details:
Airtable | Everyone's app platform
Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes. Get started for free.
airtable.com
April 14, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
hitchcockproject.bsky.social
🧠🔊 Mountain chickadees aren’t just chirping — they’re communicating! @unevadareno.bsky.social PhD student Sofia Haley produced this story for a Hitchcock Project course and it was now published by @us.theconversation.com!––with a video by reporter Jayanti Sarkar: theconversation.com/mountain-chi...
Mountain chickadee chatter: Scientists are decoding the songbird’s complex calls
Mountain chickadees follow systematic grammarlike rules to share important information, stringing together syllables like words in a sentence.
theconversation.com
June 2, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
unr-biologybuzz.bsky.social
"I hope to inspire even just one person to acknowledge insects, be more curious than fearful of them and appreciate them as we coexist on this planet together.”
www.unr.edu/nevada-today...
EECB student Victoria Peechatt at the 2025 American Beekeeping Federation Conference! 🐝
Pollinator scientists share with local schoolchildren how to 'bee' good environmental stewards | University of Nevada, Reno
The outreach visit was part of a beekeeping conference
www.unr.edu
April 18, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
natetice.bsky.social
the Knicks gameplan
May 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
keerthikau.bsky.social
21-2 run for the Knicks, the number one rule this postseason:

don't go up 20
May 8, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
scifri.bsky.social
Recently, entomologists reported the discovery of a prehistoric wasp that grabbed its prey with its butt flaps—capturing its booty in its booty. Dr. Lars Vilhelmsen from @nhmdk.bsky.social, joins to discuss the discovery and the wasp’s creative hunting technique.
This Ancient Wasp Might’ve Used Its Butt Flaps To Trap Prey
Taking a cue from a Venus flytrap, this prehistoric wasp had a creative way of getting its meal.
www.sciencefriday.com
May 2, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
dezene.me
Sill need to digest this new meta-review on insect decline.

Taxonomic bias: lots of research on bee/ant/wasp decline (mainly on a limited range of pollinator taxa). A fair amount on beetles and butterflies/moths. Virtually none on other groups of insects.

🧪 🌎 🪲🪳

academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
From the paper: "Figure 4.Taxonomic bias in the treatment of hypothesized drivers of insect declines from 106 articles containing taxon-specific hypotheses. (a) The distribution of hypotheses about broad classes of drivers of decline across insect taxonomic groups. (b) The distribution of higher resolution driver and outcome nodes across taxonomic groups. Each colored point shows a node in the network in figure 2 that was said to affect at least two different orders. The nodes are plotted in the taxonomic section where they are most frequently mentioned. Therefore, all taxon-specific nodes are most associated with Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, or Lepidoptera. The line length from the center indicates how biased a term is. The dashed lines indicate which nodes are mentioned about a given taxonomic group more than 50%, 70%, or 90% of the time. The nodes are colored the same way as in figures 1, 2, and 3 (see supplement for node labels). Insect icons were designed by Suyeon Jang."
April 28, 2025 at 4:30 PM
vpeechatt.bsky.social
Silvery blues dancing for attention
April 26, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
bug-gwen.bsky.social
I am loving this story; caterpillar scrounges from spiders and covers itself with leftovers as camo 🧪🐛 www.scientificamerican.com/article/carn...
Carnivorous ‘Bone Collector’ Caterpillars Wear Corpses as Camouflage
Nicknamed the “bone collector,” this newly confirmed caterpillar in Hawaii secretly scrounges off a spider landlord by covering itself with dead insect body parts
www.scientificamerican.com
April 25, 2025 at 1:10 PM
vpeechatt.bsky.social
So much going on in one photo
Spider (Mecaphesa?) and bee (Bombylius?) wrestling in a purple flower (Dipterostemon capitatus) in Redding, CA
March 24, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
cityofasylum.bsky.social
Check out these revolutionary featured reads and subscribe to Sliding Stacks to keep up with all things City of Asylum Bookstore!
44048774.hs-sites.com/03-20...
Read the Revolution 📕
44048774.hs-sites.com
March 21, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Victoria Peechatt
newseye.bsky.social
Extraordinary scenes in Serbia’s capital Belgrade right now.

Around 500,000 people are on the streets in what may be the biggest protest in Serbian history. All demanding the resignation of President Vučić & his government.

What began as a student protest is now a full democratic uprising.
🇷🇸
March 15, 2025 at 4:05 PM