Polar researchers are so often great storytellers. Here's a compilation of stories from the field by polar scientists, including @aberdlsagb.bsky.social 's @tir5.bsky.social apecsnetherlands.nl/tales-from-t...

A great read on saving endangered microbes (and not just from glaciers) “The world is at a critical inflection point,” says @gilbertjacka.bsky.social “If we don’t do something now, shit’s going to get real, and microbiology needs to be considered in this space.” www.noemamag.com/saving-the-l...

If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff

Excellent commentary, but I think we mustn’t lose sight that tourists are not the only visitors to glaciers. Last-chance glaciology also has its impacts and paradoxes.

Hi Bluesky microbiology/limnology/hydrology/field folks! Has anyone used this style of cordless drill peristaltic pump for sample collection or field filtration? The design checks a lot of our boxes (replaceable tubing, decent suction height, compact batteries), but doesn't seem widely available.

Remember, a fish sunsets from the head down…

A new era of bioclimatic extremes in the terrestrial Arctic www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Poor bears. First the climate change and now the fatshaming. #svalbardtillegget www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Announcing a new tool for "denoising" long-read amplicon sequences: savont. Savont enables amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) directly from nanopore (or HiFi) long reads. Tested on 16S nanopore amplicons -- seems to work okay. 1/4 github.com/bluenote-157...

Looking for a tool to estimate abundances of aerobes versus anaerobes directly from metagenomes? Here you go: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Some unorthodox ice coring techniques… #fieldphotofriday #fieldworkfriday

New blog post with some thoughts on @nanoporetech.com and their recent announcement that the P2 Solo will be discontinued: rrwick.github.io/2026/01/21/p...

Big news in one of those weeks where decades happen.

Copenhagen town hall square, Denmark right now. Massive solidarity with Greenland demonstrations. Source: dr.dk

How do new soils develop after glaciers vanish? ❄️🧬🦠🏔️ The first microbial colonisers use flexible chemoautotrophic strategies to overcome nutrient scarcity, including scavenging H2, CO and CH4 from the air! ⛅ Led by Francesco Ricci, Sean Bay @greening.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I’m so greatful to #PAM26 for the opportunity to present some of my work on identifying deep Antarctic subglacial populations. This was my first experience of an extended presentation, and a great first day. I’ll take away so much from this presentation and the conference as a whole.

Fabulous start to 2026 - it’s been great fun to share some surprises from our sampling of Arctic glaciers as well as meet old friends and new at polar & alpine microbiology. Haribo served in whirlpaks is definitely on-brand if you’re a veteran fieldworker... #PAM26

I am calling for a complete and total boycott of the Mercator projection in all news stories about Greenland until every member of the American public has seen this

Article in the Guardian by @mountainogre.bsky.social Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing www.theguardian.com/environment/...

TBT Fieldwork, Spring 2025 Arrived at a distant hut — first open the hut, fire and snow clearing. Slowly, warmth returns after a day in minus 20. Svalbard fieldwork blends presence of harshness, long hours with awe. Even with a busy mind, the beauty is hard to be unnoticed.

Very rare shot of the Arctic Platypus

Heading up for the @aberdlsagb.bsky.social Festival of Research today. I’m looking forward to hearing lots of exciting talks, and this afternoon I’ll share the story of how a literal “snow day” on Arctic fieldwork in 2019 evolved in to two (2!) NERC projects.

Check out the Microbial Primers page. Short articles written to help people new to a field to get quickly up to speed. @microbiologysociety.org www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/micr...

The number of glaciers disappearing worldwide each year is projected to sharply increase, peaking at 2,000–4,000 per year around the middle of the century, depending on the level of warming above pre-industrial levels, according to a study in Nature Climate Change. go.nature.com/4pEfbP5 ⚒️ 🧪

Last day of term, first day of DOING research not just administrating it this term #hammertime

Come to Birmingham and do a PhD with myself and @wvschaik.bsky.social!

Turns out one of the more pereceptive things said to me near the end of the pandemic's restrictions was that we would either start treating COVID like flu, or ending up treating flu like COVID. And here we are.

Glacier biogeochemical cycling and downstream impacts www.nature.com/articles/s43... #jcampubs

Glacial microbes might be tiny but their message is huge: climate change is erasing ecosystems we never knew existed. ❄️🔥 Have a read of this article about our own @arwynedwards.bsky.social 🔗https://www.the-scientist.com/the-ice-is-alive-uncovering-the-vanishing-world-of-glacial-microbes-73825

Ancient metagenomics reveals subglacial microbiomes driven by oxygen availability www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #jcampubs

Lovely to feature alongside the brilliant Birgit Sattler & Tom Battin in this story about life in Earth's dying ice. www.the-scientist.com/the-ice-is-a...

Lectureship in Zoology at Aberystwyth University! jobs.aber.ac.uk/en/vacancy/l... Come join our fantastic team at @aberdlsagb.bsky.social @aberuni.bsky.social in beautiful Wales. Application deadline: 14 Dec 2025.

Host–virome associations in the weathering crust of a rapidly retreating temperate Alpine glacier. Published Open Access and fee-free in MGen using a Publish and Read agreement: doi.org/10.1099/mgen... #MGen #PublishAndRead

Diving through the purple sulfur bacteria layer of Fayetteville Green Lake with our ROV last month. This is the most intense density of PSB that I've seen in many years!

New publication: A framework for assessing global health impacts of polar change: An urgent call for interdisciplinary research Open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

We’re delighted that Aberystwyth has been named a UNESCO City of Literature – the first in Wales! More: tinyl.co/3u04 @librarywales.bsky.social @uwtsd.bsky.social @prifweinidog.gov.wales @unesco.org

The collateral benefits of the Covid pandemic response was a marked decrease in airborne and aerosol-transmitted infections via masking and non-pharmaceutical interventions @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Beautiful piece about microbes, buildings, and health 🤩 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Next time an institution tells you how seriously it takes research misconduct, ask them if it's *this* seriously. www.bmj.com/content/297/...

Excited to advertise a new interdisciplinary PhD opportunity at @geogdurham.bsky.social - "From ice to ecosystem: assessing the risk of glacier melt and legacy contamination for reindeer in Sápmi (Lapland)" ❄️ 🦌 To learn more about the project and how to apply visit: iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

New article on equitable reuse of public sequencing data, published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! Led by the Data reuse core team @lhug.bsky.social @environmicrobio.bsky.social Cristina Moraru, @geomicrosoares.bsky.social, @folker.bsky.social and with Anke Heyer and The Data Reuse Consotrium!

Just signed up to peer review an application for one of the largest science funders in the world. Asked to confirm I was at least 13 years old. Might explain a lot about the grant review process if it's secretly dominated by teenagers.

Long-buried layers of saline permafrost seem to be accelerating climate change’s transformation of the Arctic. https://scim.ag/46AxH2E

Our scientists are leading research into how a widely used vaccine can boost overall immunity in livestock 🐮 More: tinyl.co/3iC7 @aberdlsagb.bsky.social @ukri.org #AberTB#bovineTB#bTB#TB

2 Postdoc vacancies: Microbial dormancy in the cryosphere @erc.europa.eu #ERC_SIESTA 📢 PLEASE RT Experimental: 🧬 Single cell microbial activity measurements, flow cytometry, omics, biogeochem Modelling: 🖥️ Bioenergetics, thermodynamics, ecological, biogeochem ☀️ Marseille, France ‼️ Apply by 30 Sept

Real pleasure to be part of the Helminth Eco-Health Hub UK. A real opportunity for experts to forge new connections. Information on the network will follow. @aberdlsagb.bsky.social @aberuni.bsky.social www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/univers...

Reminder that we are recruiting an Assistant Professor Bacterial Genomics @imibirmingham.bsky.social. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOO184/a... Deadline 24 Sept.

Sad views from southern #Svalbard 30.8.25 - melt has reached high up the mountains. From Hornsund to Amundsenisen barely any snow left… how should glaciers build mass like this? Svalbard is heating fast. Only steep mountain walls seem to help accumulate a bit and catch blown snow 📸from✈️ #Glaciology

Met Office stats confirm summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. The UK’s mean temp of 16.10°C surpasses the previous record of  15.76°C and pushes the summer of 1976 out of the top 5 warmest summers. www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Temporary lecturer in Microbiology post available at Bangor University. Apply by 15th September: jobs.bangor.ac.uk/details.php....