Science Feed FAQs š§Ŗ
What is the Science feed?
The science feed is a feed for professional scientists and science communicators to share factually accurate science themed material.
All posters must abide by our feed rules, which can be found under .
How do I post in the science feed?
Step 1
If you are here you probably already did this but the first step is to find the pinned post in the Science feed with the link to the FAQs and feed rules (this will be the second post down in the feed).
Under the pinned post, and linked here in the FAQs below, you will find links introductory posts from subject specific moderators.
Ask (preferably politely) the moderator most relevant to the topic you work in to be added by replying to their introductory post. You also need to provide evidence you are a professional scientist or science communicator. For a list of moderators and links to the posts to ask under, please see 'Which moderator do I ask?', below.
Please provide evidence of your work.
Please click through to the introductory post of the relevant moderator and reply to that post to be added. Replies directly to the pinned post will be ignored because they get out of control and make Dani cry.
Examples of some acceptable forms of evidence are below, but we will generally be reasonable in accepting relevant stuff:
Professional scientists (including postgraduate students):
- Staff page
- Scholar profile
- ORCID number
- ResearchGate profile
- A link to a paper or thesis
Science communicators:
- Link to your website
- Link to books or articles you have written
- Link to your shop
- Link to an event you are running
Because we get so many requests a day, we have limited time to search for people. We much appreciate people posting a direct link rather than saying āsee the link in my profileā or āgoogle meā. When you are adding 50-100 people at a time having the link directly speeds up the process a lot. Thanks!
Step 2
Once someone has confirmed they have added you to the list of contributors, you can use a test tube emoji on posts you want to appear in the feed.
Once you are added, it takes around 15 minutes before your posts start appearing in the feed.
Which moderator do I ask?
You can find a list of subjects and links to the moderator and posts to ask under below.
Biological Sciences
Ecology
Evolution
Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience
Zoology
Biology - other
Environmental Sciences
Geoscience
Ocean/Atmosphere
Chemistry
Physics
Quantum physics & engineering
Other Physics
Other
Social sciences
Science communication/Photography/Journalists & other miscellaneous science topics
Other Languages
German, all topics
If you post in German please ask @svenjalohmann.bsky.social
How long until I get added?
There are A LOT of requests daily, so please bear with us. However, posts do get lost sometimes, the app is quite early days after all, so if you havenāt been notified that you have been added within 10 days of asking, feel free to nudge.
What are the rules of the science feed?
No misinformation
This means everything you post should be appropriately fact checked.
Keep it relevant to science
Part of the beauty of only posts with the emoji appearing is the feed is you can continue to post your baking, unhinged memes, non science related jokes and even nudes on your main feeds. If your post isnāt science relevant, please donāt put it in the feed*
Use alt text
Please add alt text to all your images. This means the visually impaired can still engage with our content. For advice on how to do good alt text, please see this thread: https://bsky.app/profile/oedipusnj.bsky.social/post/3jywm7v5vtl2y
You can also use @alt-text.bsky.social to auto generate alt text for screenshots of text.
Credit images
Please do not share images without crediting the person who took/drew/made them. Where possible, tag the creator on bluesky.
Give context to links to external websites
If you are sharing links to scientific articles or popular science articles please explain a bit about what they are about in your post.*
Have fun!
If you donāt have fun you will be mercilessly ejected from the feed. I do make the rules, and this is our second most important one.
*for more details see āwhat can I post in the feed?ā below
What can I post in the science feed?
We welcome the following types of posts, also probably some others that I canāt think of right now but you get the vibe:
- Scientific papers
- Popular science articles
- News articles about sciency things
- SciArt
- Photography
- Job ads
- Book/merch plugs (as long as they are science related)
- Science memes
- Sciencey dad jokes
- Crab š¦
Please donāt post papers or articles with no context. We want the feed to remain accessible and engaging.
For example instead of skeeting:
āCool new paper about African wild dogs https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.16890 š§Ŗā
You should instead skeet something more along the lines of:
āThis paper modeled the impact of climate change on a population of African wild dogs in Kenya. Once temperatures reached a certain threshold, the population collapsed š¤Æ š§Ŗ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.16890ā
You are welcome to post in languages other than English, but be aware that only people with the language you are posting in turned on will see them**
**if you are interested in helping recruit people and moderate posts in other languages, please see āhow can I help?ā
Who can post in the science feed?
What do you mean by professional scientists and science communicators?
If you make any sort of money doing science, talking about science or creating sciency things then this feed is for you. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Lab techs
- Industry scientists
- Nature and space photographers
- Grad students
- Sciencey artists
- Journalists covering science, tech and/or the environment
- Journal accounts
- Scientific societies
- Authors
- Academics
I am not a professional scientist or science communicator but want to contribute
In some cases we are happy to welcome people who fall outside this criteria, particularly those who are out of work due to disability or because they are retired. If you are an amateur nature or science photographer or artist you are also welcome to join, as long as you fact check any content shared alongside your photos/art.
Please tag @danirabaiotti.bsky.social if you fall outside the core criteria and she will be happy to chat to you and add you should you turn out to not be a weird flat earther or anything.
If you donāt meet these wider criteria we would love it if you would engage with posts in the feed by sharing and replying to them - just because you arenāt on the contributor list doesnāt mean you canāt have cool chats with those that are :) This is a public resource for everyone to be able to find and communicate with people in the scientific field.
What subjects are included under Science?
Basically all of the things from Maths to Linguistics. Social scientists welcome.
What if I want to remain anonymous?
People can join the feed anonymously by providing their details through a contact form, but please flag your wish to do that under the pinned post to help with admin. You will then be provided with a link and what you need to submit.
What happens if I break the rules?
Dani will cry.
Also:
We operate on a good faith policy, you will get a reminder (or two) but if you continue to break the rules you will be removed from the feed. We take the no misinformation rule particularly seriously. Basically just donāt be a jerk.
How did the feed come about?
Dani wanted to bring the awesomeness of Science Twitter to Bluesky. This was early days so it was super hard to make a feed. She said āWouldnāt it be great if someone made a science feed!ā until @bosset.bsky.social kindly stepped in and did all the hard work.
Bosset continues to maintain all the tech bits of the feed, while Dani builds and curates the community of scientists and scicommers that contribute.
Why the test tube?
Bossett chose the test tube. I (Dani) will fight anyone who moans about the test tube. This lovely person made a whole feed for us and hosts it FOR FREE. We will not be criticising his emoji choice.
How do I follow the feed?
- Go to āFeedsā (left hand menu)
- Search āScienceā under āDiscover new feedsā
- Select the feed
- Hit āsaveā
- To add it to your home feeds select āpin to homeā
How can I help?
Please like and subscribe to our feed! Liking the feed keeps in the top feeds on Bluesky, making it more searchable.
You can do this via the following:
- Go to āFeedsā (left hand menu)
- Search āScienceā under āDiscover new feedsā
- Select the feed
- Go to āaboutā
- Press the heart
Please help us keep a look out for misinformation and other rule infractions. If you see any, let danirabaiotti.bsky.social know.
If you speak languages other than English, and would be interested in moderating and curating a list in your language, please let Dani know.
The feed is broken - what do I do?
Report it to Bossett and Dani and then Dani will go āoh noā and Bossett will fix it when he has time.
Dani/one of the other mods is a pain in the ass so I blocked them - can I still post in the feed?
Sure, just let @bossett.bsky.social or one of the other mods know the situation and give evidence to him as above. They will probably share it with Dani but she wonāt be an ass about it - all legit scientists and scientists welcome regardless of their like or dislike for Dani and/or the other moderators. If you have blocked us all that's really on you at that point.
This also goes for people that have been blocked by Dani/the most relevant feed moderator to them.
What other feeds should I check out if I am into sciencey stuff?
You can find a list of science themed feeds, maintained by @markrubin.bsky.social, here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tJw1r_Dif9AN6lVNNaZ-nwDdbM7tPemobo5_S2aEl_U/edit#gid=0
Special mention to the crab feed:
@daryllmarie.bsky.social maintains numerous taxon specific feeds, including mammals, birds, reptiles and marine life.