"There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question." - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

The physics of light refraction through broken glass

Sick & tired of the heat & humidity & you need a cool, refreshing break? How about a free article on the polar vortex & how it's fickle nature is bringing surprising winter temperature trends to the US, including warming to some parts & cooling to others: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. - Carl Sagan

In 2018 I took part in the excellent BBC&STV #Scotland Expert Voices #mediatraining day. The next day I was on the telly talking about the life and scientific legacy of Stephen Hawking who had passed away overnight. The call is open for this year's programme - if you're in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 you should apply! 👇

Excited about our new review paper (Ye et al., 2025) on the relationship between snow/ice variability & weather extremes. I will highlight our analysis that shows a strong relationship between fall Siberian #snow cover & cold extremes in eastern North America: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really super talk from @nicholden.bsky.social this morning exploring all things E. coli #microbio25. Lovely to consider the big picture of our favourite bug!

2 nights ago in Malangen, Norway 🤯🤯

This looks like it will be a fun event - celebrating slow fermentation and real bread. Time to roll up the sleeves and get the sourdough cultures warmed up scotlandthebread.org/event/scotti... #foodstudies #foodsystems #urbanfood #urbanagriculture #foodconsumption

🔊 Exciting news! The 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scottish #DarkSky Observatory will live again! We were all so upset when it burnt to a cinder back in 2021, but yesterday we bought the land for its new home, deep within the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park! 🧵1/3 🧪🔭 #astrophotography

Well this is interesting - for fresh produce safety www.food-safety.com/articles/987...

Let's not forget another amazing person born #OTD - #HedyLamarr. The brilliant actress co-invented Spread Spectrum Technology, which would one day form the basis for today's #WiFi and #Bluetooth communication systems: https://buff.ly/4fkI2Tt 🧪 👩‍🔬 h/t Cady Coleman, astronaut