The meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), International Partner – BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library) and National Partner – NatSCA (Natural Sciences Collections Association) took place in Edinburgh from June 5 ^th -10 ^th 2022.

Our WHO-sponsored series of articles describing biodiversity data relevant to vector-borne diseases has now been published in GigaByte . This special issue presents a wide variety of data relating to the presence, spread, and diversity of organisms that are transmitting viruses, bacteria and parasites to humans.

Citizen Scientists collect and share enormous amounts of data on invasive mosquitoes from the Mosquito Alert project as part of our GBIF and WHO-supported series on vector-borne diseases. Just out in GigaByte is the latest data release from Mosquito Alert, a citizen science system for investigating and managing disease-carrying mosquitoes, and is part of our WHO-sponsored series on vector borne human diseases.

A fundamental goal of conservation is to prevent species from becoming extinct, be it regional or global. But how do we define a species’ risk of extinction? A species can be described as Critically Endangered if the probability of extinction in 10 years or three generations is considered to be more than 50%; endangered if there is more than a 20% chance of extinction in 20 years or five generations;

UPDATE: GigaByte and GBIF webinar video added below.

UPDATE: Deadline extended until 30 March 2022 or until maximum of 15 accepted manuscripts is reached—only a few slots remain! GigaScience Press partnering with GBIF are supported by TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, hosted at the World Health Organization, to release a special issue for publication of new datasets presenting biodiversity data for research on vectors of human diseases.

Genomics is a powerful technology that helps us understand the Tree of Life. Biodiversity Genomics 2021 was a virtual conference that took place on 27 ^th September-1st October 2021 that demonstrated how genomics can inform conservation and food security, and can additionally help us understand evolutionary novelties such as symbiosis.

Cell Bio 2020 Virtual – the online ASCB|EMBO Meeting – took place on 2-16 December 2020 and offered many invaluable insights on the structural and evolutionary basis of biological systems.

Came across Microsoft's announcement of a "A planetary computer for a sustainable future through the power of AI", complete with a glossy video featuring Lucas Joppa @lucasjoppa (see also @Microsoft_Green and #AIforEarth). On the one hand it's great to see super smart people with lots of resources tackling important questions, but it's hard not to escape the feeling that this is the classic technology company approach of framing difficult