Bri Johns

mothbox shell setting next to its own brain

putting wires into stuff with fingers

a bunch of mothboxes on a crazy person's floor

Man, documenting something while you build it makes it take like 100 times longer! But i finally finished the steps for how to build the latest "Mothbox Pro."

Now, when I put them together, it's a breeze!

digital-naturalism-laboratories.github.io/Mothbox/docs...

We're bringing back Open Science Shop + Mothbox meetings in 2026! Interested in manufacturing Mothboxes locally? Then these meetings are perfect for you! New meeting times: 1am and 3pm UTC. @dinalab.bsky.social

Some big diffs between citizen science observations (from iNaturalist) and specimen records (from digitised museum collections) - cit. sci records biased towards large inverts & exotic spp. Great MSc project with recommendations 🌏🧪@nzhymenoptera.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fun news! Our post about finding the caterpillar of the White Witch moth (while we were on our big mothbox expedition) is listed on the front page of the @inaturalist.bsky.social recap of posts of the year!

www.inaturalist.org/stats/2025?u...

New Vendor Information Information and resources for new Open Science Shop vendors

The Open Science Shop is working to develop a distributed manufacturing network of open science hardware. I am excited to share that the Open Science Shop has now documented the steps you can take to become an open science hardware vendor. Check it out here: www.openscienceshop.org/new_vendors/

DIGITCORE - The Digital Toolkit for Collaborative Environmental Research

We’re excited to release the DIGITCORE Toolkit! The Digital Toolkit for Collaborative Environmental Research (DIGITCORE) outlines challenges, problems, and situations experienced in collaborative environmental research.

Access the toolkit at digitcore.openenvironmentaldata.org

You can’t reboot the planet if you crash it What Gates is putting forward aren’t legitimate arguments that can be made in good faith. They are shopworn fossil fuel industry talking points.

"You can’t reboot the planet if you crash it" | My commentary on Bill Gates' flawed new climate missive for @thebulletin.org: thebulletin.org/2025/10/you-...

🎉 @opensciencehw.bsky.social has named @griffey.bsky.social its 1st Executive Director! A leader in 🔓 open infrastructure & the 🔍 research ecosystem, Jason will guide OSHF to build sustainable community-driven systems for #openscience worldwide.

opensciencehardware.org/2025/10/oshf...

#opensource

title card saying sharing berries and tools. creating gift economies with inspiration from open source movements and Robin Wall Kimmerer

I wrote a little comic about #opensource hardware and serviceberry foraging!

I'll post all the panels here, but you can also read the whole thing on @archive.org :
dinalab.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?...

Vampire moths might sound more horror film than natural world, but they’re 100% real! 😱

See why some moths pick human blood over fruit juice in this week’s Surprising Science. 🩸🦇

🌍 Languages of Life | Línguas da Vida | Bahasa Kehidupan 🗣️🌱

Biodiversity doesn’t speak only English. 🌳🐒
If species cross borders, our words should too.
New paper in @ConLetters : why saving life also means using more languages

🔗https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.13139

Italy, Spain Deploy Naval Ships After Drones Repeatedly Attack Gaza-Bound Flotilla Spain and Italy are sending naval vessels to protect the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla after activists said drones repeatedly attacked their boats near Greece on Wednesday. Activists said the most ...

"We are not here to drop the aid and go home and pat ourselves on the back. We are here to establish a humanitarian corridor for states themselves to assume their responsibilities."

Nepal’s Violent Gen Z Uprising Fed up with élite corruption and widening inequality, a youth-led movement toppled the government in forty-eight hours. Now what?

very informative, if not very optimistic, piece on Nepal’s upheaval this month, its background and context:

www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Our entirely localized open source processing scripts for The mothbox now have a cool new UI!

JUST SELECT YOUR FOLDERS AND START FINDING COOL BUGS!

@briannaljohns.bsky.social even made nice documentation to show you how to do it!
digital-naturalism-laboratories.github.io/Mothbox/docs...

Some dude showing some critter to folks

Anolis lizard

Group photo!

Amblypigid on a cheek

Queer Night Hike!
We took the local queer activist group, Salva El Grillo, on a fun nocturnal adventure in the rainforest!

Saw so many creatures including: Olingo, caiman, red eyed tree frogs, scorpions, and more!

Flowers by the roadside. Text overlay says: Citizen-led nature strip gardens attract more insects than lawn, study finds.

✨Science Spotlight✨ A Melbourne study shows gardened nature strips attract more insects than lawn - boosting bees, beetles & butterflies 🐝. Providing habitat and resources in urban spaces can make a big difference for biodiversity 🧪🌍
@philippabell.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Testing the MEGA MOTHBEAM. It kicked ass tonight and didn't melt itself!
With @briannaljohns.bsky.social

An embroidery hoop containing a sewn aerial view landscape. The landscape depicts green-blue water, piers and kayakers with fluffy wool trees and rich green grass.

An embroidery hoop containing a sewn aerial view landscape. The landscape depicts green-blue water, piers and kayakers with fluffy wool trees and rich green grass.

An embroidery hoop containing a sewn aerial view landscape. The landscape depicts green-blue water, piers and kayakers with fluffy wool trees and rich green grass.

'All paths lead to water' - my newest aerial embroidery, inspired by the grounds of Antony House, Cornwall! I loved the radiating paths through the trees leading to the water edge so here's my take on the landscape... with kayakers! Now available here: victoriaroserichards.co.uk/collection/a...

‘If I Live to 25, I’ve Lived a Good Life’

Hard to read but just one example of the human cost of wildfires - with climate change increasing the number of fires each year.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

Network power: the humanities and data science in collaboration

So @theturing.bsky.social has decided they no longer need Humanities (!) - so the The Alan Turing Institute’s Humanities and Data Science Interest Group are having one final event: "Network power: the humanities and data science in collaboration" In person and online, Oxford, 25th Sept. Pls share!

Glowing lady testing LEDs

A bunch of totally not suspicious looking electronics

Making super low cost moth attractors with Dinalab crew: @wellreadpanda.bsky.social @briannaljohns.bsky.social

Unfortunately, Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now, due to a new state law that requires age verification for all users.

While intended for child safety, we think this law poses broader challenges & creates significant barriers that limit free speech & harm smaller platforms like ours.

Join the Mothbox Working Group for our first meeting! We're kicking off the Mothbox Working Group with our first meeting on August 28th at 14:00 UTC.

Interested in building & selling Mothboxes locally? We're starting up a working group of vendors across the globe interested in manufacturing Mothboxes ✨ Join us for our first meeting on August 28th at 14:00 UTC! @dinalab.bsky.social
www.openscienceshop.org/join-the-mot...

A huge stick insect has been discovered in Australia. Here’s why that’s important | Gwen Pearson Yes, they can be hard to spot – but this find in Australia highlights how little we know about creatures crucial to our ecosystem, writes entomologist Gwen Pearson

So this is what I needed the "neutral face" author photo for :) I'm pontificating about why big sticky animals are hard to find. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Mothbox - Wildlabs Award 2024 YouTube video by Digital Naturalism Laboratories (Andrew Quitmeyer)

Here's a super cool documentary about the Mothbox!

Learn about the development and use of this fun #openscience #opensource tool for DIY biodiversity monitoring!

youtu.be/1LGz3aWpeVE?...

We’re hiring: Executive Director - Open Science Hardware Foundation Job Summary The Open Science Hardware Foundation (OSHF) is a U.S.-based 501c3 not-for-profit organization working to foster enabling ecosystem for open-source development of scientific instruments, eq...

🚨 REMINDER: We're #hiring a new Executive Director!
📍 Remote ⏰ Full-time 💰 USD 100–115k
Help grow the OSHF, lead programs+fundraising, and support #openscience & #openhardware:
opensciencehardware.org/2025/07/were...

#job #opensource #sciencejob

Have you wanted a mothbox? But didn't have time to build one yourself? We have a rare opportunity of a couple extra moth boxes in the USA that we could potentially ship to people at cost.

It's basically $375 in parts plus shipping!

Mothbox Undersea Tests YouTube video by Digital Naturalism Laboratories (Andrew Quitmeyer)

Doing Mothbox surveys in Indonesia during Dinacon led to serendipity where we could quickly see if the mothbox could be used as an undersea monitor for the coral restoration projects. Turns out it's pretty easy to do! youtu.be/-0oF8C5FCJU?...

Soon to be open kaleidoscope

Andy and bri celebrate with shirts snd people making pcbs

Happy Gosh Gathering from Dinacon!! 10 years ago @goshcommunity.bsky.social made a goal to make open science hardware ubiquitous by 2025!

The time has arrived and we are celebrating #opentools here with 53 people at Dinacon!
#openscience #opensource

Fulbright Board Quits, Accusing Trump Administration of Political Interference The board of the prestigious program told the State Department it had no right to cancel scholarships for nearly 200 American professors and researchers.

Fulbright board members are resigning “rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission"
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/u...