New paper out in Earth’s Future by lead author @xueyingyu.bsky.social 🧪 Multi-species constraints resolve methane source versus sink changes: lessons from 2020 doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Sorry, I was busy not watching the knicks. Who won CA governor? did my write in campaign work?

think I fixed things. Proposing a law that makes all LLMs write in Comic Sans.

I’m so happy to see “engender” is not on this list. By far a favorite word of one of my grad school advisors I still show special affection towards to this day. (I will never forgive the stealing of the em dash)

The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean observation system that was put in place a decade ago to monitor coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful currents that affect the global climate.

Breaking: Judge Jackson blocks NSF from dismantling NCAR. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

Good morning

Breaking: California becomes the latest blue state to retreat on climate goals amid affordability concerns as regulators Friday evening voted to revamp its landmark carbon market to ease costs to the oil industry with $4 billion in incentives. Free link. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Vermeer’s Girl With The Pearl Earring will be shown in Osaka, later this year, and the press conference was as Japanese as you’d expect #Vermeer

Particle physicists in Europe intend to build a 91-kilometer-long circular collider—the largest accelerator ever—to smash electrons into positrons. https://scim.ag/4tZAFr3

The other week I was on the Capitol Corridor and had full (through the seat) access to a document marked "confidential" for one of the major AI companies.

Caltech could lose control of JPL for first time in decades

And has been for the past decade

I generally agree, but I think there is a sliding scale depending on the expertise of the writer and the stakes of the publication (if the writing is even public). A poorly formatted source in a student paper by an undergraduate is not the same as a scholarly or magazine article by a professional.

"Though 10,000 Maniacs were always more studied and less artful than their friends in R.E.M.—R.E.M. didn’t print their lyrics, while the Maniacs laid them out in prose like little short stories—both bands inhabited the same literate, history-conscious landscape, and cultivated [similar fans]"

Published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Peer-reviewed. Large sample size. Sound methodology. An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Ensitrelvir blocks the enzyme coronaviruses need to make new copies of themselves.

It's widely accepted that hantavirus transmits from rodent excreta to humans via inhalation of aerosolized virus, so I don't understand why we're so reluctant to acknowledge the inhalation route for human-to-human transmission. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/h...

This really is *fantastic* science But note to apt-dwellers who’ll freak at the headline: this is based on a style of shared ducts that was outdated in Spain (where this took place) for buildings built in the 1970s & after, & is uncommon in the US But broader lesson holds: pay attention to air!

I spoke about the potential for airborne transmission of hantavirus, and Josh Santarpia talked about the National Quarantine Unit. I visited it last year; it's a critical resource for the country. @virginiatech.bsky.social @pppda.bsky.social

"I’m not saying I don’t care about human suffering; I just care more about my immediate self-interest because I’m the kind of person who contributes to society by starting companies that leverage technology to build smart tea kettles that brew themselves while you sleep at night."

part of me believes that if every American could have a gap year in which they experience functional mass transit, including high speed trains, it would transform the way we get around in this country inside a generation

I'm a climate expert. I know 1000s of climate experts. One fact we all know: poor people care about climate more than rich people. Hardly surprising when you can't afford AC, work outside, etc. A few issues in the article... /1

Gonna go vibe code my own version of Canvas. BRB

This website shows you what your browser is leaking about you. sinceyouarrived.world/taken

I feel like this is trying to start a fight. Everyone knows that the ugliest building on their campus is the ugliest anywhere.

While the forecasts for a strong El Nino remain more uncertain than the press suggests, such an event will (for a year or two) give us a taste of the future. It will almost certainly taste foul. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/o...

wandering the Sonora desert in a carefree fashion like

This is so, so true. Great roasters. Great (and friendly!) baristas. Many options.

“Not for rinsing or washing,” they said. (Seen at Union Station.)

While I never had Gil as a classroom teacher, I learned so much from him in so many ways and he gives the most dynamic, exciting p-chem seminars that you’ve ever seen. Congrats to Gil!

🚨 The Spring 2026 issue of Particulars is here! Find key deadlines for #AAAR2026, updates from AAAR leadership, and a new Aerosol Scientist Spotlight—plus highlights and research from across the AAAR community. 👉 Check it out: aaarpubs.org/issues/sprin... #AerosolResearch

This is coming from a place of warmth and acceptance… -It’s ‘sleight of hand’ -It’s ‘bated breath’ -It’s ‘lo and behold’ -It’s ‘one fell swoop’ -It’s ‘brass tacks’ -It’s ‘free rein’

This is truly mind-blowing: Norway has gone from near-zero sales of non‑emitting battery electric vehicles to now close to 100% of all new passenger car sales - achieved in about 13 years. More in my next substack newsletter. Sign up here: substack.com/@janrosenow

The Columbine massacre was on this date in 1999. Instead of energizing our country to get gun violence under control, it kicked off a new normal. One of the best explanations ever of journalism's destructive impact on mass shootings came from Roger Ebert in his review of Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant.”

Mine is, of course, κ.

What a waste of time and effort to see BA degrees in Chemistry being eliminated. They are still offering the BS. Nothing will change in terms of the courses offered since the BA is a subset of the BS. (ibid to many other STEM BA degrees.)

Welcome to the CA governors race

If they interviewed a single 15 year old from the Midwest in the 90s the entire article would have been about Olive Garden breadsticks.

From early Nirvana to Phish, a Chicago fan’s secret recordings of 10,000 shows are now online. blockclubchi.co/4t6zW7R

Okay CTA. This is a good sign.

Took me four years to finally get the local Thai place to believe I meant “hot.” Didn’t realize they were mining the surface of the sun for their spice.

I challenged the local Thai place not to be afraid when setting the spice level of my lunch. I would like to announce that I hereby regret that decision.

Tabasco is not a hot sauce.

This is the same thing I keep saying about that paper I just haven’t published yet.

i think we should be clear that just because the astronauts did not immediately declare the moon haunted, does not mean it is not haunted it may mean that the astronauts are now themselves haunted have we prepared for this eventuality and if so how

Hello my name is Alex Goldman and I used to host the Reply All podcast. A lot of people liked that show. Now I make @hyperfixedpod.bsky.social which if you liked reply all you’d probably like well. The thing is that a lot of people who liked Reply All don’t know my new show exists.

Lasers were a huge scientific breakthrough and now we use them to play with cats. Computers were also a huge scientific breakthrough and now we use them to look at pictures of cats. In other words, science was made for cats.

This. Real thinking happens when you try to form the mush in your head into something others can understand.

Take ten minutes and scroll this to make your day better