Living a moral life in an age of bullies requires collective action; it cannot be done alone. Each of us must organize and participate in a vast network of moral resistance. From this solidarity we will grow stronger. This is what our current moment requires.

My first NASA position, as a contractor in the Kepler Science Office, was on a H-1b visa. NASA ended up giving me a medal and now I’m the Chief Scientist of NASA Exoplanet Science Institute and an American citizen to boot. Seems like a net win for the US, no? But now this:

If not stopped. This will effectively finish killing the research and teaching infrastructure of universities in the US

Rick introduced me to the world of research and environmental work. He believed in me and encouraged me at many times when it felt that no one else did, and I still look to him for wisdom and advice. And of course he is a hugely creative and inspiring pioneer in aerosols research. Cheers to Rick!

In the US, PM₂.₅ from wildfire smoke already kills about the same number of people as guns and cars (~40k each), but this will increase significantly with climate change. 😐

Kīlauea is showing some intermittent small eruptions that look very pretty in the dark! Live feed from USGS: m.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0t...

A great new position in my department. Please share with folks who may be interested!

Sometimes I look back through my photos and think about all the incredible plants/animals etc. we have on this planet. Why are we not doing everything we can do to protect them and our ecosystems?

🧪 New National Academies report concludes that rising greenhouse gas levels imperil public health and the 2009 endangerment finding “has stood the test of time.” Game on. Gift link: Top Scientists Find Growing Evidence That Greenhouse Gases Are, in Fact, a Danger www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/c...

Whoever wrote this question has had a bit too much laughing gas...

Today we joined Natalie Mahowald, Lead Author of the IPCC 1.5SRE, to have a wide-ranging discussion on the topic of geoengineering, from the science to the governance challenges and ethical implications. Thanks to @cornelluniversity.bsky.social for organizing! www.youtube.com/watch?v=o15F...

At the arboretum today enjoying the colors and views at the end of the summer.

"Manufacturers, regulators and airlines have said these types of incidents are too infrequent, levels of contamination too low and scientific research on lasting health risks too inconclusive to warrant a comprehensive fix." There should not be such a high bar to enact change.

Happy #Caturday! Here's to weekend naps in the sunshine on a heated pad.

New, from me: It was a terrible week, one that inspired some truly awful takes. The worst was the effort by Bari Weiss and The Free Press to smear universities as "the biggest culprits" to blame American political violence, with faculty training "jihadis." donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-worst-...

Tofino Elyse Dodge n.d.

UC-Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names “related” to anti-semitism, mostly for voicing support for Palestinians. Judith Butler is among them, she calls this “McCarthyism” UC Berkeley gives Trump administration 160 names in antisemitism probe www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

I'm hiring a postdoc to join the Climate, Pollution, and Solutions group at UC Irvine's Earth System Science Department! Flexible start date + research on one of three tracks in climate, pollution, and solutions. More info on the position and how to apply in the ad here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09874

Atmospheric Physics faculty position at Univ of Toronto - help us make use of satellite and aircraft capabilities that are on their way in Canada! jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Everything is a bit crazy so I wanted to share a timeline cleanse. Here are a few more of my favorite shots from last weekend. I love flowers that are blooming at the end of the summer, you get such a cool variety of colors.

The UK and Ireland Annual Aerosol Society meeting in in York on 28th-28th October. Abstract submission is open. Come along to this great meeting, with some excellent plenary speakers @johnwenger9.bsky.social @chiaragiorio.bsky.social and Hugh Coe aerosol-soc.com/events/annua...

Are you a doctoral student planning an academic career? The application deadline for the prestigious University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for 2026-2027 is November 1, 2025. Read more: ppfp.ucop.edu/info/

The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.

Good news for firefighters who want to protect themselves from the harmful effects of breathing smoke: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/u...

I don't think I'm spoiling the last line by quoting it, from this fine essay: "We need to get up from under our desks and persuade our fellow citizens that the institutions that they have helped create with their tax dollars are incredibly precious and important." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

We had a visit from a ruby throated hummingbird this evening! I love how you can see the feet tucked up under her body while she sips.

I am so tired of AI being shoved into everything. I just found it in the online version of the book I'm using for class. I don't want my students using a "research assistant" to read the book, I want them to read the book!

I love how fuzzy bumblebees are, and that they can use their entire body to collect pollen.

Out as preprint, we have some very interesting results looking at the radiative forcing impacts of the 2022 Hunga eruption. Based on the outcomes of the related OMIP, with many models from all over the world participating in this effort, we find a robust cooling signal from the Hunga volcanic plume.

Another reason to stop setting all forms of carbon on fire, including fossil fuels and trees.

In April, the AAUP & our Harvard chapter sued the Trump admin for demanding that Harvard censor speech & restructure core operations or else face $8.7 billion in funding cuts. We hope this decision clarifies to Harvard’s administration that bargaining w/ tyrannical authoritarians is unacceptable.

Kīlauea is doing its thing again! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqmp...

🚨I’m recruiting 1-2 PhD students for my Air Quality Data Science 🌐 group @utah.edu (start Fall ’26), working on multimodal machine learning applications for atmospheric chemistry (wildfires, ozone, dust). How to apply below. Please repost & ping me with recommendations!

Tragic. This is how heat deaths are occurring in Arizona and elsewhere. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

How does lava sound when it comes to the surface of the Earth? Listen to a lava flow oozing out of its effusive vent high on the southwestern side of #Etna, 28 August 2025. That day no visits by tourists were allowed on the site, which permitted this (relatively) clean recording

The Matthaei botanical gardens are very pretty at the end of the summer!

I sometimes wonder if there are conversations happening between different pollinators.

I'm practicing bird photography and I tried to get a picture of this pigeon, but he turned his back to me at the last second. It's my favorite bird picture so far 😂

The last GOTHAAM flight was bittersweet and also my favorite. Measuring the trees wake up felt special.

Part of me wonders if we should have added a note to the start of police procedurals like CSI and SVU that this is a dramatization to entertain -- not an accurate portrayal of life in major cities.

"Every AI-software company is in the same boat: low prices, small revenues, big losses and expectations that they will raise prices."

I didn't realize that calls for the removal of lead in gasoline started in the 1920s with Alice Hamilton, first woman to join the faculty at Harvard. It took 70 years until lead was finally banned from gasoline. She was a trailblazer for occupational health! www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/05/hist...

Are you interested in biosphere-atmosphere interactions, global modeling, and living in Zurich? If so, this postdoc position might be for you! Please share with any interested colleagues: jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

It's incredible that this is oil on canvas, she caught the spray and the play of light so well!

Eastward Swell Katharine Burns 2024

"Twenty-three Democratic attorneys general now gather on near-daily Zoom calls at 8 AM Pacific, which means the East Coast officials are already on their third coffee. They divide responsibilities and share templates for lawsuits they’ve been drafting since last spring."

No, no, no. Use them all the more. Surrender neither words nor their meaning to the fascists.