As our coverage last year pointed to, using AI to combine SWOT-derived gravity measurements from space with seafloor sonar soundings is already producing stellar global bathymetry models. One new example here:

Today's the big day — we're officially on strike all day! We'll be picketing from 8am to 8pm at 1776 Massachusetts NW. Come show your support! @wbng.org @newsguild.org

Per NOAA/AOML/HRD’s Sim Aberson, the 219 kt reading will be the fastest wind ever measured by a dropsonde if it passes final quality-control checks.

ICYMI: NSF has followed through with its plan to end the lease on its Antarctic icebreaker, many years before necessary, with almost no congressional pushback. Now there's a mad scramble to fill the gap with less capable ships. @science.org's Jeff Mervis followed the story up:

If you listen closely enough, the sea can tell you how humanity is changing it. Like, literally. The sound of breaking waves can now be used to measure ocean acidification.

This is the second part of the work we covered here, highlighting that CO2 is the dominant forcer in temperature and sea level changes during ice age cycles. (It's also a great chance for others to cover; this has not been widely reported. There's even an old ice core now that can test this!)

So I've been away. For the past month and a half, my family and I have been navigating the end of my sister's life, from the ICU to, last weekend, interment of her ashes. She was wonderful and sharp, and I'm grateful for the 14 extra years that breakthroughs in targeted chemo gave us with her.

So very excited to share this news

Just in from the @planetarysociety.bsky.social: The counter CR proposed by the Dems to keep the government open includes language protecting NASA missions in "operation, including extended operations, or under development or formulation." This is not in the CR proposed by House Rs. So we'll see.

I've been asked a few times over the last few days what I think the chances are that the "leopard spots and poppy seeds" on Mars will turn out to be actual evidence of life. People are naturally skeptical given the history of possible signs of life on other planets. Strap in: long thread ahead...

I'd love to follow other early-career and early-ish-career science journalists on here. Who's out there? What do you write about? Please say hi and maybe post a recent story you're proud of — or shout-out someone who's writing great stuff. #scicomm

Online chatter suggests that the DOE Climate Change (Denying) Working Group has been disbanded and the report will be withdrawn. 😂 Seems that violating FACA and the Information Quality Acts have consequences. Not seen any official announcement though.

Sorry to miss the debunking and deflating fun on Mars rocks. But this story from last July on this same result is still as relevant today.

What's more newsworthy: a NASA briefing about analysis of a Mars rock sampled by Perseverance, or that the briefing will include Sean Duffy, who has not participated in any NASA pressers since being named acting administrator 2 months ago? www.nasa.gov/news-release...

In the 1st half of 2025, @climate.noaa.gov 's staff were terminated, shutting down daily operations. Now, former members have joined w/ nonprofit partners to launch Climate.us, where climate info can be safeguarded from politics. Check out our website and join the effort today.

Every climate model out there has a different AMOC sensitivity to the relatively freshwater introduced by the pacific water flowing in to the North Atlantic (it’s about a psu less). But wait - how does that scale with the freshwater input by arctic rivers. (Half as important PI) -

The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) put together an anonymous survey to better understand the challenges faced by Arctic researchers under the current U.S. landscape to determine how to best support researchers. Complete the survey here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

My latest looks at an audacious new geoengineering proposal: Damming the Bering Strait to save the Atlantic's overturning circulation from collapse. It would bring all the ecological, social, and political problems -- and it could cause the collapse it's trying to forestall. (Or not.)

This is incredible work. In a just world it would win some major reporting awards. I’m saying that now bc I don’t think it will. There’s a particular kind of scoop you only get by being a really effing good beat reporter for a long time who sources trust. Investigative reporting doesn’t prize that.

A lot of people are being misled by that paper. They separate the continents into areas getting dryer or wetter -- but then only emphasize the dry while leaving out how the wetter areas are subtracting from SLR. Look at this graphic from it.

My latest: Two studies in the past week have drastically reworked our understanding of the inside of Mars, showing it has a surprise solid inner core -- and the remanants of the cataclysmic collisions that formed it. (That is, if they hold up.)

You can reach out to us here or to @relindsey.bsky.social directly. We'd love to hear your endorsements!

NSF won't renew the funding for an academic center squarely focused on AI for weather forecasting, located right in the heart of US weather research in Oklahoma. (Notably, AI2ES was funded and created under the first Trump administration.)

The NSF-funded Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) will shut down at the end of Sept. ARCUS has been around since the late 80s; in recent years their staff had dwindled, and NSF said earlier this year that their grant would not be renewed. Another blow to polar science.

DOE report is now up to 2000 comments. Which I thought was a lot. Then I looked at the endangerment finding repeal docket. It has 78,000 comments! www.regulations.gov/document/EPA...

“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.” That’s from the resignation of CDC’s Demetre Daskalakis @drdemetre.bsky.social (on X) 🧪

Climate scientists, heads up! There's 12 hours left to submit publications etc to the National Academies committee doing the fast-track update on evidence that has emerged since 2009 on the dangers stemming from GHG emissions.

🌍 New today in Nature: Climate models need faster, more frequent data updates - here's how to do it 🌍 Today, a group of scientists, led by Vaishali Naik published a Comment in Nature calling for a major shift in how we support climate modelling. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

My latest: The Trump administration is not waiting for the next fiscal year -- or Congress -- to cut climate science at NOAA. A new document details the money it won't spend *this* year on climate research.

If you noticed a lot of Google DeepMind @googlelabs.bsky.social references in National Hurricane Center discussions for Erin, here's why. It had the most accurate forecast for track *and* intensity. One storm, but it's shown early promise and worth watching among the new class of AI models.

For those following at home: Looks like the docket for the DOE climate contrarian report has nearly 900 comments received -- though only 200 for us to see, all posted together on Aug 18. www.regulations.gov/docket/DOE-H...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Carbon dioxide may be the most important—and most misunderstood—molecule on Earth. @peterbrannen.bsky.social explains why in his brilliant, epic new book—and in this conversation with me. I hope you read both! www.scientificamerican.com/article/carb...

Planet Y? Maybe more Planet Y ... not.

Seeking science journalists: @quantamagazine.bsky.social is hiring a physics editor! A rare opportunity to join this great team and lead coverage of this foundational vertical. Please reach out with any questions and share widely simonsfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/simons...

Back to it after a couple weeks off with the fam. Surreal time to be away from home in DC. The world is still a beautiful place.

In one week my book about carbon comes out, and here's some nice things some nice people have said about it. If you feel moved to do so, the link below provides a means of purchase. Thank you, that is all. www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

ICYMI: The Endangerment Finding Repeal hit the Fed Reg today. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

For all the sea ice nerds, NSIDC has announced a new version of the sea ice index that replaces SSMIS data with AMSR2 (starting Jan 1, 2025 and continuing for all future updates). This new dataset was developed in response to the plans to kill SSMIS. nsidc.org/data/user-re...

🚨 If you're interested in working on a coordinated response to the DOE climate report, please enter your info on this google form 🚨 Please RT this so as many people see it as possible. forms.gle/BL9xUAfRxA...

The M8.8 off Kamchatka appears to be the largest earthquake ever recorded that apparently didn't kill anyone. That's really remarkable, if true. ⚒️

So what makes a climate assessment? In short: not this new Energy Dept report, which rehashes contrarian greatest hits with areas of known uncertainty -- that climate scientists talk about all the time. It's all a little grim. Who needs 721 authors when you have 5?

The timing of this post was almost prescient! If any researchers need to publish their work on the magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake and related tsunami, don’t forget that Seismica has rapidly peer-reviewed “Fast Reports” that average about a month from submission to publication.

Okay all, at our Science news meeting this morning I talked myself into doing a (rare) news analysis on the CWG report, thanks to all the helpful commentary on here. Out soon.

Fresh from the press, so to speak, a result of our #tsunami model based on the specifics of this earthquake (we will update it one we have more model runs). The color code is wave height in metres. The dotted line in the centre of the picture is the Hawaiian island chain.

Great quick run through the CWG report here.

The funny thing is, reading through the CWG report, they make it seem like climate scientists don't talk about some of their valid-if-cherrypicked issues. But climate scientists talk about this stuff all the time! Like, I see so many past story topics.

Honestly, this 8.8-mag quake and tsunami seems a fabulous demonstration of the capabilities that the US, Japan, and others have marshalled to protect their citizens. This doesn't just exist. It has to be built and maintained.

Beyond the obvious science denial, here's a subtle attack on the processes of scientific integrity in the endangerment repeal notice of proposed rulemaking.

And if you see a video, check if it's an old one! Google Lens does a great job. A quick search shows content scraper accounts trying to pass off old videos from Greenland, California, and more as new to this earthquake.