This International Day of Women and Girls in Science I'm celebrating all the amazing women in robotics that I've had the pleasure of chatting to on Robot Talk. Their achievements have made the world a better place. #WomeninScience #February11

Major soy traders including Cargill, ADM and Bunge are exiting the Amazon Soy Moratorium — a move that could raise deforestation by 30% by 2045. Observers warn it sends a “green light” to land speculators, even as forest loss threatens rainfall, yields and long-term market stability.

📢 New Episode Alert! This week, I chatted to Dr. Amir Patel from @ucl.ac.uk about designing robots with the agility and manoeuvrability of a cheetah. 🤖 Listen now: www.robottalk.org/2026/01/16/e... #Robots #Robotics #BioInspired #Environment #Wildlife

The #editorschoice for this month is Forum Article: Leaving academia: insights from evolutionary biologists on their career transitions and job satisfaction Betancourt et al. @claireasher.bsky.social @liverpooluni.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

UPDATED – Factcheck: How ‘scary-sounding numbers’ are being used to mislead the UK about net-zero | @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org Read here: buff.ly/Be7nHfA

After Kenyan authorities seized 5,000+ endemic ants, conservationists warn ants are now part of a growing global wildlife trade. Traffickers target rare species for hobbyists, risking ecosystem damage and invasive outbreaks — yet no ant species are protected under CITES.

📢 New Episode Alert! This week, I chatted to Dr. Christine Evers from @unisouthampton.bsky.social about helping robots understand the world around them through sound. 🤖 Listen now: www.robottalk.org/2026/01/09/e... #Robots #Robotics #Sensing #MachineLearning

After a three-year hiatus, Project ICARUS has resumed operations. The satellite-based system aims to create an “internet of animals,” using advanced trackers to monitor wildlife movements, behavior and interactions with ecosystems worldwide.

📢 New Episode Alert! This week, I chatted to Prof. Stefano Mintchev from @ethz.ch about robots to explore and monitor the natural environment. 🤖 Listen now: www.robottalk.org/2025/12/19/e... #Robots #Robotics #Environment #UAV

Beautifully said: “They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness [and] empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer. I felt I couldn’t pamper myself with the luxury of silence.” www.theguardian.com/media/2025/d....

A team of 43 scientists says pesticide and plastic regulation needs a major overhaul. Full commercial formulations—often containing petrochemical waste and heavy metals—can be far more toxic than the tested active ingredients. They call for stricter limits, full-formulation testing, & public data.

How the solar storms that cause the Northern Lights can wreak havoc on Earth. 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti...

And this week's episode of @boldpolitics.bsky.social is with @femi-oluwole.bsky.social Loved this conversation and welcome to the party, Femi! youtu.be/UTmCzWMalWA?...

📣 This festive season, I'm offering 50% off your first month's membership of the Robot Talk community on Patreon! Just use the code 🎟️ WINTER25 to apply the discount to your chosen membership tier: www.patreon.com/ClaireAsher

I really loved this conversation with @georgemonbiot.bsky.social - I've thought about it lots ever since. Hope you enjoy it too! youtu.be/3xx6lNFx8tI?...

Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler reflects on 25 years of impact-driven journalism — from a hand-coded site in 1999 to a global newsroom today. Butler says the next 25 years of Mongabay will focus on strengthening impact and empowering the next generations of leaders in environmental journalism.

NEW: Not long after Earth formed, it received a giant sucker punch when an object named Theia crashed into it, unleashing debris that made the Moon. But where did Theia come from—the outer solar system? Nope. The Moon-making impact was an inside job. Me @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/s...

🎂 It's #ScienceSocks 6th anniversary! 🥳 Celebrate with me by raising money for #STEM! 🤑 For the next 48h I will donate: * 20% of sales on sciencesocks.co#ScienceSocks👈 * $1 per repost Get a head start on #holiday shopping 😎 Please like, repost and let's party🕺💃 🔭🐡🧪🎨#bsnm

What would you love to know about bio-inspired #robot movement? 🤖 Later this season, I'll be chatting to Dr. Amir Patel from @ucl.ac.uk about designing robots with the agility and manoeuvrability of a cheetah. Send me your questions for Amir in the comments below! #Robotics

From thermal cameras to deep learning AI, researchers are reinventing how they study primates in the wild. What began with Jane Goodall’s observational notes has evolved into artificial intelligence that identifies chimpanzees and decodes their social lives.

Halloween costume ideas for birders.

Looking for recommendations! Pls send me your favourite science / nature-themed gifts suitable for a 1-year old 🔭 🧬

✨ New Bonus Episode! ✨ This month I've got a very special bonus episode to share with you! I was invited to attend the Smart City Robotics Competition 🤖 where I chatted to competing teams, exhibiting companies, and members of the public. 🎧 Listen here: www.patreon.com/posts/140772... #Robotics

Antarctica may have passed a climate tipping point of no return, scientists are warning, with mounting evidence that a sudden slump in sea ice formation since 2016 is linked to human-induced ocean warming.

In 2024, the Amazon Rainforest underwent its most devastating forest fire season in more than 20 years. According to a new study, the fire-driven forest degradation released an estimated 791 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2024, a sevenfold increase compared with the previous two years.

Roses are red The wind makes the trees jostle climateages.com/the-126000-y...

Just extraordinary to witness this nature-hating government sabotaging Labour’s own legacy. And for absolutely no reason: nature protection isn’t blocking development - it’s a necessary prerequisite for it (& for everything else, come to that…)

WOW. Posting also to the 🧪 feed

🧪 NEW STUDY: Pregnant women with higher levels of microplastics in their placenta are at increased risk of miscarriage. Also: Microplastics were found in all placentas tested. Also: Miscarriages are involuntary abortions. 1/5 www.ehn.org/miscarriage-...

Would you eat the ant-yoghurt? 🧪🏺🐜

Data from the Cassini spacecraft shows that there is complex organic chemistry happening in the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus. It took 17 years to get the result! The finding boosts the case that life could possibly exist inside this little ice-covered world. 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

On the cusp of launching Season 6, Robot Talk has reached an exciting milestone: 50,000 downloads! 🎉 At this point, I'm running out of superlatives 😂. It's just amazing to see the podcast grow beyond what I ever imagined. Thank you to everyone who's listened! #Robots #Robotics #AI #Tech

The Amazon’s “tipping point” refers to the transition of the rainforest into a drier, savanna ecosystem. The rainforest’s ecological balance depends on the transport and recycling of moisture, but deforestation has been shown to disrupt the region’s water cycle.

Curious about environmental robotics? 🤖 🌳 Later this season, I'll be chatting to Prof. Stefano Mintchev from @ethz.ch about robots to explore and monitor the natural environment. Send me your questions for Stefano in the comments below or on the Robot Talk website: robottalk.org/ask-a-question/

Climate warming could cause much greater soil carbon losses in the tropics than previously predicted, with potentially dire consequences for the global climate, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.

The buff-tip moth (Phalera bucephala) has mastered a very particular kind of camouflage. When they close their wings up, they resemble a broken twig. Native to large parts of Europe, there's regional pattern variation that reflects the local tree species. This one best resembles birch twigs?

📢 I'm excited to announce that I'll be attending the Smart City Robotics Competition in Milton Keynes later this month! I'll be chatting to competitors, exhibitors, and attendees about the latest innovations in robotics. 🤖 Find out more: www.patreon.com/posts/robot-... #Robotics #SmartCity

Tropical soils are more sensitive to warming than previously thought. In a field experiment in Puerto Rico, warming understory plants and topsoil by 4°C increased CO2 emissions by between 42% and 204%, depending on the terrain. 🧪 My latest for @mongabay.com: news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warm...

New Quanta Magazine series on climate science. I was one of the people interviewed for this months ago and happy to start digging in now! www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...

The Brazilian Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland and home to the highest density of jaguars anywhere. Thousands of tourists arrive every year to see the animals in their natural habitat But the boom in tourism has created new problems.

The daily destruction of nature’s carbon stores is happening right before our eyes, as forests are ravaged by catastrophic wildfires and vast tracts of wildlands are cleared for agriculture. But even greater stores of carbon lie hidden beneath our feet, and they too are under threat.

In my latest feature for @mongabay.com, I look into the current state and future outlook for the #soil carbon sink. It stores an astonishing 2.5 trillion metric tons of carbon (in just the top 2m!), but is at risk of becoming a net CO2 source as the climate warms 🧪 news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil...

I'm absolutely thrilled to see my lovely and very talented friend Matthew Hutchinson interviewed in the @theguardian.com this week about his experiences as a black doctor in the NHS. I'm really looking forward to reading his book when it comes out! www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Alright, you all have to stop and appreciate this stunning little dude. The blue eyes, fuzzy sideburns, and cute little bee feet. These longhorn bees are typically energetic and skittish, but Mr. Handsome must've been napping. A great opportunity for a nice portrait. (Melissodes denticulatus) PA

‘The forgotten forest’: how smashing 5.6m urchins saved a California kelp paradise

Despite a federal protection law, Brazil’s Atlantic Forest lost a Washington, D.C.-sized area of mature forest every year between 2010 and 2020, with most of the deforestation occurring illegally on private lands for agriculture.

Two for one invertebrates for #InverteFest. Here is the nudibranch Hypselodoris tryoni, in Komodo Indonesia, where you can see the purple eggs of a parasitic copepod sticking out from the slug's gill pocket. #sluglife #nudibranch🧪🦑

Researchers in Scotland created a robotic fiddler crab to study the claw-waving contests that males of the species use to attract a mate. But the robot, nicknamed "Wavy Dave", didn't come out of the experiments unscathed. 🤖 www.livescience.com/animals/crus... #Robots #Robotics

Treehoppers are such perfect creatures. 💚 🌿 🦗 #InverteFest

Ever wondered how scientists would solve a crime in zero-G? My latest story for @sciencefocus.bsky.social looks at how forensic science might work on the ISS. 🧪 www.sciencefocus.com/space/heres-... #CSI #Forensics #Space