afternoonbuzz

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Alertmouse, Yandex, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 30, 2025

NEW RESOURCES

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh: Global biodiversity research boost from the archives. “Made available on completion of a five-year project at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the [1,831] papers cover everything from the mycology of Beatrix Potter to the first research paper of Edwardian plant hunter George Forrest and early concerns around plant health issues.”

Brought to my attention by Lily Ray on LinkedIn: Alertmouse. From the About page: “We make alerts. Really. That’s our whole thing. We’re not trying to upsell you. We don’t have a sales team. We’re just here to show who’s talking about you, make pretty graphs for your client/team/boss, and classify mentions so you can take smart next steps.” As always the pricing is a nightmare for solos like me (there is a free account which will let you set up ONE alert, which for me is like eating ONE Dorito), but if you’re part of a company it’s not too bad.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: Russia’s Yandex reports 32% rise in Q3 revenue. “Russia’s largest internet-company Yandex reported a 32% increase in third-quarter revenue to 366.1 billion roubles ($4.50 billion), with its 9 months revenue exceeding 1 trillion roubles for the first time.”

Engadget: YouTube Shorts will integrate Adobe Premiere’s video editing tools. “Adobe Max kicked off today with a slew of announcements — mostly in the world of AI. But the company also used its creative conference to share that Adobe Premiere’s video editing tools are being integrated into YouTube Shorts.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Capital B News: From Mississippi to Maryland, Black Communities Are Taking On Big Tech. “In more rural communities, residents near data centers are reporting that the water in their taps is brown and murky or does not drip out at all. The centers are also leading to at least 200 new power plants being built to meet the new energy demands of AI, according to an analysis of permit applications. Studies show that power plants are most likely to be constructed in Black neighborhoods and worsen the risks of cancer and respiratory disease.”

Mashable: IShowSpeed slams AI deepfakes after watching Sora 2 videos of himself. “During a recent livestream, the streamer with more than 45 million YouTube followers watched several Sora 2 videos featuring deepfakes of himself laughing, coming out as gay (‘No no chat, this is not real. This is actually AI’), kissing a fan, racing a cheetah, and visiting Nepal (‘Look, bro. I haven’t even been to Nepal yet’). Reacting to the videos, he said he was ‘turning this shit off.’”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ABC News (Australia): Federal government rules out changing copyright law to give AI companies free rein. “The government has definitively ruled out introducing a copyright exemption for artificial intelligence companies training their models on Australian creative works. Such a carve-out has been fiercely rejected by the creative sector, after it was floated in a Productivity Commission report.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Poynter: One third of all journalists are creator journalists, new report finds. “A third of journalists are creator journalists, independently publishing news, commentary or other content outside of a traditional media organization, according to a Muck Rack study published Tuesday.”

Johns Hopkins: Researchers watched students’ brains as they learned to program. “After the students took a programming course, parts of their brain activated as they read code. Inside these areas, groups of neurons represented the meaning of code. Surprisingly, before the students took the class or knew anything about programming, the same groups of neurons also fired when the students read the programs described in plain English.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Korea’s cardboard drones address UAV shortages and climate crisis — inspired by the Ukraine war, drone inventor looked for the most easily sourced and repairable materials. “A South Korean firm called WOW Future Tech made waves at the recent Boom-Up Festival 2025 – a sizable networking event for Korean startups and investors. The headlining new product was the AirSense UAV drone, constructed from eco-friendly packaging boards and paper fiber. The material choice makes these drones easy to fabricate using resources widely available around the globe, reports Digitimes, and this can cut drone material pricing tenfold (vs carbon fiber).” Good afternoon, Internet…

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