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sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-23 10:00 am
In a new book called Slither, Stephen S. Hall takes a deep dive into the biology and history of one of the most reviled animals.
otw_news_feed) wrote2025-04-23 12:17 pmAre you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Are you a good wiki editor? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
Do you enjoy spreadsheets, self-paced projects, and helping protect fanworks from getting lost over time? Are you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Do you still guiltily—or not so guiltily—love the first fanwork that opened your eyes to fandom?
Open Doors is a committee dedicated to preserving fanworks in their many formats, and we’re looking for volunteers to support this goal. The work we do preserves fan history, love, and dedication to fandom: we keep fanworks from offline and at-risk archives from being lost, divert fanzines from the trash, and more.
Our import assistants contribute to our goal by:
The training is self-directed, and so is the work for the most part, though we also have weekly working meetings/parties for people to all chip in and work on tasks together! Import assistants can generally alternate the types of tasks they work on. At any one time, we usually have several tasks of different types available.
To apply for this role, you must be at least 18 years old and legally of age to open explicit fanworks in your local jurisdiction.
If you’re interested, click on through for a longer description of what we’re looking for and the time commitment. For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within 3 days of submitting your application.
Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 35 applications]
Apply for Open Doors Import Assistant at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Do you have an interest in preserving fannish history? Do you have an interest in wiki editing, or writing help documentation? Fanlore is recruiting for Policy & Admin volunteers!
Fanlore’s Policy & Admin volunteers are responsible for dealing with all the behind the scenes stuff to ensure that Fanlore runs smoothly. We respond to questions and complaints; shape Fanlore’s policies, tutorials, and guidelines; and assist Fanlore gardeners and other editors. No extensive experience is required—just a strong interest in documenting and preserving fandom, good communication skills, and a willingness to work with a team and further Fanlore’s mission. Join us!
Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 40 applications]
Apply for Fanlore Policy & Admin at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-22 10:00 pmThis week the secretary of health and human services announced plans to remove eight more food dyes from the U.S.’s food system
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-22 08:30 pmThe popular fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering has a new card related to prime numbers. Now fans are trying to use it to tackle one of the biggest problems in mathematics
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-22 07:05 pmMuch of the U.S. uses single-stream recycling, where plastic, glass and paper go into one bin. Here’s what happens to that material and ways engineering is trying to improve the process
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-22 04:00 pmBaby warty birch caterpillars vibrate when threatened—before swinging away like Spider-Man
otw_news_feed) wrote2025-04-22 07:05 pmGarlic Press and Poison Pen Press, publishers of Star Trek: The Original Series fanzines including Spockanalia and Masiform D, are importing the zines’ fanworks to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
In this post:
Spockanalia (1967-1970) was the very first all-Star Trek fanzine ever published, and Masiform D (1971-1998) was the longest running Star Trek fanzine, so Open Doors is delighted to be preserving these fanzines’ works as part of the AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP).
The fanzines to be imported are:
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) is to assist publishers of fanzines to incorporate the fanworks from those fanzines into the Archive of Our Own. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with publishers who want to import their fanzines and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press to import the fanzines listed above into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the fanzines in their entirety, all art in the fanzines will be hosted on the OTW’s servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines to the AO3 after April. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the task. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collections in the meantime.
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your creator pseud(s) and email address(es), if:
Please include the name of the publisher or fanzine in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account the publishers have a record of, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press to confirm your claims.)
Please see the Open Doors website for instructions on:
If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.
We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press and their fanzines on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.
We’re excited to be able to help preserve Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines!
– The Open Doors team and Devra Langsam
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-22 03:45 pmPresident Trump has ordered agencies to act “urgently” to curb asthma—a goal at odds with moves to roll back air pollution limits and with RFK, Jr., cutting CDC experts
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-22 12:00 pmMany children choose to follow peers with more narcissistic tendencies—and self-esteem may be part of the complex power dynamics involved
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 07:52 pmMore tornadoes than usual have already struck the U.S. in 2025—and many of them have been touching down farther east than they had in the past
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 05:00 pmThe Trump administration has proposed gutting NOAA’s cooperative institutes, which study everything from improving lifesaving weather forecasts to monitoring fish stocks
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 04:00 pmThe late Pope Francis supported global climate agreements, advocated for Indigenous people and inspired activism
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 03:00 pmLowering blood pressure through medication can reduce someone's risk of developing dementia
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 02:30 pmQuantinuum’s 56-bit trapped-ion computer has succeeded in demonstrating randomness in quantum circuits to establish secure, private connections
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 11:30 amSome experts say oral versions of popular weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy could offer people more flexibility and accessibility. What’s keeping the pills from taking off?
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 11:00 amAs children get older, their understanding of science and being a scientist changes. The words adults use are a critical part of keeping them engaged in discovery
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-21 10:00 amThis week’s news roundup covers measles and whooping cough cases, evidence of a carbon cycle on Mars and the first glimpse at a colossal squid in its natural habitat.
sciam_feed) wrote2025-04-18 08:00 pmMost people know weed gets you high—but do you know how THC actually does it?
