29 June 2023

The Company of Biologists has launched a new server on Mastodon: biologists.social. It is a space for biologists to discuss science, research, teaching, life and more.

Who is the server for?
We are operating the server in support of the biological community, with a particular focus on developmental biology, cell biology, microscopy, and comparative physiology. The server (or instance as it’s also called) is intended primarily for those working in, or with a keen interest in, biology and related fields. We welcome researchers, labs, societies, and other organisations or individuals who would like to join us in our discussions.

On the server you will find our Company account, our peer-reviewed journals — Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open — and our community sites the Node, preLights and FocalPlane. We invite others to join us on this server, to build a community and to engage in lively discussions. These discussions will of course involve science but are by no means restricted to this topic. We look forward to being part of your conversations about research, outreach, life in the lab, but also other fun and engaging stories you would like to share with our community. We have a keen interest in supporting early-career researchers and promoting sustainability in science.

Why a Mastodon server?
The Company of Biologists exists to support and inspire the biological community. We do this through various channels, such as our websites, community platforms, and other initiatives. We actively engage with our community members through different social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Like many others, we have been keeping an eye on recent developments at those platforms and have taken an interest in the positive things we heard about Mastodon. Mastodon is different from other social media platforms in that there is not one central hub. There are many servers to choose from, all run by different groups or people, with their own focus and subset of rules. So once you have decided to join Mastodon, the next step is to decide which server you would like to join. After dipping our toes in the water and exploring the platform for a few months, we have decided to set up our own server that is all about and for biology and biologists.

Completely new to Mastodon?
That’s okay – so were we only a few short months ago. We are still learning too and growing our community and engagement as we go along. We would like to share some useful resources that explain Mastodon in more detail:

• What is Mastodon? – by Mastodon
• Everything I know about Mastodon – by Danielle Navarro
• About biologists.social

If you’d like to set up an account, you can do so on biologists.social. You can also migrate your account if you are currently on a different server and you would like to switch. And importantly, you can still follow us and communicate with us from other servers. There is a vast array of interesting, more general or topic-specific, servers out there. So whichever way you choose, we hope to see many of you soon in the fediverse.