This week I finished listening to Is a River Alive?, written by Robert Macfarlane. He also narrated it, so the parts kayaking thru rapids - That's his actual excitement. (I waited in my car until the end of that bit.) How do you figure out if a river is alive? 💙📚

Amidst the gloom, a small shaft of light: Large tortoiseshell butterflies confirmed no longer extinct in the UK! Lovely piece by @patrickbarkham.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

for fuck’s sake

Our oldest Monks Wood Marsh Tit has survived his 11th winter, and is singing again on his territory, 40 m from where he was colour-ringed in 2015. He's been widowed again so is advertising for a new female. He's probably in the top 5 oldest Marsh Tits recorded in Britain. #ukbirding #ornithology

Let me start a belated thread of Aotearoa New Zealand silvan birds. To lead things off, a New Zealand Bellbird photographed on Kapiti Island.

Despite hundreds of thousands affected, to this day, there are no commissioned NHS services for those at the severe end of the spectrum - though patient advocates, charities and some MPs (especially @tessamunt.bsky.social @joplatt.bsky.social) are working hard to change this.

Just over a year ago, I left my 25 year NHS career to dedicate my life to a group of patients who remain largely unseen and unheard by the NHS - people with severe #LongCOVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (#ME). 🧵 youtu.be/pk00btt7CVs?...

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.

A victory for hope over hate. Excellent to see. More please.

Now there is hope! It's no longer a choice between grim and grimmer. We can vote for who we want and win. Anywhere. It's just one constituency, but the Green victory in Gorton and Denton is an electric shock to our political system.

“In a battle between hope and hate, hope has won.” Congratulations to new MP Hannah Spencer! bylinetimes.com/2026/02/27/h...

And so, an even BIGGER win than projected for Hannah Spence and @greenparty.org.uk ! She got 41%, well ahead of Reform 29% and Labour 26%. Greens GAINED 28% and Labour lost 25%. That's a loud message to Starmer and local party that fear-mongering attacks are NOT wanted, but hope instead. 💚👏🏻

Hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahha. That’s just not at all close. Well done everyone.

Three weeks ago I spent a few days in one of our global dark sky sanctuaries in Rakiura Stewart Island New Zealand. Never has deep time felt so real or so close. But every now and then one of Elon's dumbfuck satellites would interrupt the eternal rhythms of the stars. Let's not let it get worse.

"SpaceX rocket fireball linked to plume of lithium" Daily meteor deposits of lithium are 50-80g. A single Falcon 9 rocket contains 30kg of the metallic element, and Elon Musk wants to launch a million satellites in coming years. 🧪

More handy new research thoughts. Nature has this report on #AutisticElders and how we know just about nothing about our lives, from the research so far. www.nature.com/articles/d41... Very good to see various teams trying to correct this, given the health conditions that may affect us, etc.

😫 I can’t even…

This whole thread is a must-read. P.S. Christopher Pike! ♿️

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: sign.moveon.org/petitions/co...

We are proud to unveil the world’s longest underwater timelapse, starting May 1st 2023 and running 1,000 days through January 28, 2026. This 10fps period covers summer 2023’s coral bleaching mortality event, but then recovering and growing through ‘24 & ‘25 into ‘26 #coralcitycamera

NZ shorebird and seabird thread. I'm going to go ahead and post some shots before carefully editing and sorting; I'm already falling hopelessly behind. Let's start with a variable oystercatcher chick and parent. 🪶

Photos of the Day: Gharial teeth All photos on the repository are free-to-use for artists creating derivative/transformative works (sans AI).

Why I love the #Greens, what I like about @zackpolanski.bsky.social & folks like Hannah Spencer is that they mightn't be perfect, they mightn't be polished, they mightn't be always right, but what they do have is pots of humanity & integrity. In Epstein Files/Trump era those qualities are golden.

“Brooks radically exposes us to the hidden queerness of Georgian and Victorian science—and shows how nature has always been more sexually diverse than we’ve been told.” This book sounds like a great read! Looking forward to it! 🏳️‍🌈🌍

“When we see the hazel catkins turn yellow, we know that spring is not far off” Writer: EL Grant Watson Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

"Volunteers for Butterfly Conservation this winter counted 276 brown hairstreak eggs on blackthorn hedges... west of Llandeilo and 117 eggs on the south verge – both record counts and a 50% increase on the previous year." 🥳🧪🦋 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Goodmorning! My world is all snowy today. Have a beaver dam to celebrate!

And I think this is the one strength of large language models. They let us instruct computers in our own natural language, instead of having to learn to speak their language. Quote below from our lesson 4: thebullshitmachines.com/lesson-4-com...

"The reason these aspects of our jobs have been so challenging to automate is that they rely on something even more precious than our time: namely, our capacity for scientific decision-making. It is worth considering what we lose when we cede that—and our agency—to machines."

"Everybody - wake up! It's the #BigGardenBirdwatch!" Will you be taking part today? 👀🌳

And just like that, the US has left the World Health Organization. Link goes to the official announcement—lies pretending to justify a decision that will kill countless numbers—from people too stupid to even include a proper twittercard. www.hhs.gov/press-room/u...

Other work of the Ladybird artists. ‘Goldfinch’ Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

Female scientists have to wait longer for their articles to be reviewed than their male colleagues. An analysis of 36.5 million papers in the life sciences shows that for females it took 115 days to reach a decision, compared to 101 days for men journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... @plosbiology.org

This UK government report was just published yesterday. 🌍 High confidence in several areas including: Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity. Moderate confidence in some others including risks to UK food security. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Not the most important move in the world…. BUT it *is* significant when commercial companies also decide to leave X. Next: all airlines using Amsterdam airport also saying 👋🏼 to X ??

How to get into nature.

TIMELINE CLEANSE When's a time that a stranger helped you in an unexpected, maybe even small way?

Amazing visual. I'll only add that this species is holding on by a THREAD. 🧪

Register now for the Big Garden Birdwatch 23-26 January to take part in the world's largest garden wildlife survey Who will be this year's garden faithfuls and traitors? One hour to sit, chill & watch the birds, recording the highest number of each species seen at any one time Link in the comments

Nature needs urgent action. Right now, 1 in 10 UK species is at risk of being lost forever. You can help reverse nature's decline 💚 Act swiftly! Time is running out to secure 50% off membership for the whole year. Join from just £1.75: https://pulse.ly/fdfgx5xdon #WilderDerbyshire

Many words are written about the calm & peace from being in ‘nature’ But in this part of the world, nature is has been hugely modified & simplified A wilder nature would be more edgy & even have dangers Still restorative to be in, but less sanitised

At the @metoffice.gov.uk we are very consistent in the language we use to convey certainty & uncertainty. But we also do social science research on what users think as we articulate or illustrate, for example, chance of rain or attribution of extreme events to climate change. The quiz is worth a go!

Why do some leaves of deciduous species,such as beech, persist overwinter? Here I discuss this curious process of marcescence youtu.be/hBsStDpfxIE?...

Darren Jones saying repeatedly the Labour Government won't comment on a hypothetical. It's not hypothetical - Trump is saying very loudly repeatedly what he's done and boasting about it. And yet the UK Government won't even say it's a breach of international rules. Shameful.

Not one word of condemnation by our government of Trump's illegal act of war in Venezuela. Not one word.

Pictures that explain things. Trees in Winter (back endpapers) Artist: SR Badmin, 1963

can someone stop making this merchandise so fucking relevant please eatf.art/usa

Photos of the Day: carefree Arctic foxes www.animal-photo-references.com/arctic-foxes This and all photos on the repository are free-to-use for artists creating derivative/transformative works (sans AI).

If you’re in need of some cute today, the repository has a whole page that’s just photos of different baby animals (and there’s many more photos of them if you click on the link for each species). Gorillas, lions, penguins, dik-diks, lemurs, rhinoceroses, cranes, snow leopards, and more!

Whatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.