Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon. Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.

Bears vs. Trail cameras

A few lynx photographs to mull over while you peruse today's @bsky.app content.

New paper just out from my soon-to-graduate Ph.D. student Matthew Belyakov. He got JWST to look at 3I/Atlas in the mid-infrared. And there is water! and CO2! and CH4! and Ni! It's just a beautiful spectrum (and I love a beautiful spectrum). arxiv.org/abs/2601.22034 🔭

My wife and I had a conversation this morning where we sort of kind of realized that perhaps it is not particularly common to have a bear who comes to swim in your back yard pool sometimes weekly. I mean for the rest of you it only happens like once or twice a year, right?

Portrait of Mike Brown. His discovery of Eris forced a reckoning: if Pluto was a planet, the definition had to change. Now he’s chasing another disruption, Planet 9, a world inferred by gravity at the solar system’s edge. explorers.com/mike-brown-t... @plutokiller.com @nationalacademies.org #sciart

Patch alert! He must have made a New Year’s resolution to swim laps to lose weight. Made it across and back twice. Keep at it, bud.

Bears vs. Trail cameras

I have finally taken the leap and gotten rid of my car! Going to find out how hard it is to be a one-car family in sprawling LA. Trick one: e-bike (the commute and in-office parking are so much nicer than with a car). Trick two: employer-provided transit pass. Let’s see how this works.

What are the chances when I promise my daughter I will post more…. Patch shows up! He was clearly in the pool, based on all of puddles, but my cameras only caught him on the way to the trash cans (still locked, sorry bud)

My daughter just returned to college. Before she left she told me I was failing to post enough. Apparently reading bsky is one of the ways she keeps track of what is going on back home. I apologize. I will now try to do a better job for her sake.

We had a midnight visitor! He was rotund and covered in fur. It was PATCH! We haven’t seen him in months since his foot injury, which looks all healed now. It is a Christmas miracle.

Found a new friend in Berlin

📣 TONIGHT! @thewaroncars.bsky.social is coming to LA! I'm joining them onstage for a live show with @streetsforall.org to promote their new book. 🌧️ WE MUST SHOW THESE NEW YORKERS THAT A LITTLE RAIN DOES NOT SCARE LA AWAY! 🎟️ Tickets are available here: www.dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squ...

@brenttoderian.bsky.social if the Dodgers lose does LA have to become part of Canada (also if the Dodgers win can we also become part of Canada? Please?)

I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n]

Great numbers in California for Prop 50. Dems are turning OUT and people are fired up. Let’s go LA & OC, YES on 50.

I don't watch much baseball but I watched a game last night. Are they usually like that?

Paaaaaaaaatch? Bear Breaks Into California Zoo to Mingle With Other Bears

Good news? Bad news? After opening up the toeboard there is no snake, but there is a hole.The snake found a crack in to walls of the house and is gone. Um. Where? Not quite sure what the next move here is. Wait until it gets bigger and can’t fit through cracks? Thoughts?

Home from work, baby rattlesnake still has not appeared on the camera I left in the bathroom. It’s either been holed up under the counter for 3 days or there is a different hole it escaped out of. Only way to find out it to remove the toeboard under the counter and have a look. Stay tuned.

Day three of baby-rattlesnake-hiding-in-the-bathroom: no snake. He is still holed up behind the toe board under the counter and was not enticed by the heating pad I left out. Or there is another hole behind the counter I don't know about? Sounding like I am going to have to remove that toe board.

I have set up a box with a heating pad next to the hole where the baby rattler is hiding. I also borrowed the bear camera from the pool and now have it pointing at the box so I can see if the snake ever wanders in. Come to the nice warm pad, little snake friend...

Day two of the baby rattlesnake holed up in our bathroom standoff continues. We sealed the bathroom door overnight and hoped the snake would come out from the little enclosed spot it found under the counter. No luck. It has to come out some time, right? I mean, I know it's dark and cozy, but come on

Weirdly this is the second time I’ve had a rattlesnake in my house.. The first time (different house!), I tried hard to usher him out and failed. I ended up having to decapitate him. And then, feeling horrible, I ate him. With Dijon sauce. Tastes like chicken. Really.Hoping to not fail this time.

Current issue: there is a baby rattlesnake hiding in my house. An hour ago I walked down the hall to see why a cat was making a fuss and it was perched over the snake. I went and grabbed a stick and guided the snake into the bathroom (nowhere to hide! [wrong]) and locked the cat away. Got a bucket..

[Exit pursued by a bear.]

Grew up with Schoolhouse Rock and maybe it should be revived again. No more kings.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R1t...

BEARS

Up pre-sunrise to get some early work done and there is a rustling in the tangerine tree outside my window. Usually that means a big deer eating my not-yet-ripe tangerines, the jerk. I turn on my feeble phone flashlight and look out and IT'S PATCH! Eat up, big bear friend! We missed you.

Hey planetary science PhD graduaters: I know thinking about applying to postdocs this year seems daunting, so I am here to remind you that we have some REALLY GOOD prize fellowship at Caltech. Come work with me. Or Katherine. Or Heather. Or Konstantin. Or someone. Seriously. These are good. 🔭🪐

There is a lot of discussion about Patch on the extended neighborhood chat group. And, apparently, in other parts of the neighborhood he is known as "Handsome Dan." I dunno, man, seems like a Patch to me. But glad to know that the whole neighborhood is concerned for him and keeping an eye out.

A little scary news. Patch is back but completely avoid stepping on his back right paw. I hope his injury is temporary. But we felt bad for him so didn’t even chase him out of the pool for chewing on hoses. Man, he loves to chew on those hoses. Sorry hoses. Get better big buddy.

Currently in Helsinki and I am a traffic problem. I can’t get used to the idea that every single car will stop for a pedestrian so I stand there at a crosswalk while the (few) cars wonder why I am not yet crossing and I glance around nervously — now? It’s ok? Are we sure? (Sig alert Helsinki style)

Currently in Berlin remembering what a place where fascism was defeated feels like

Hey if you're in LA tomorrow evening and looking to escape (some of) the heat, come on up to Mt. Wilson and listen to me tell stories about the search for Planet Nine then stay late and look through the telescopes to do a little searching yourself. www.mtwilson.edu/events/talk0...

My father died a couple of months after his 60 birthday. This was 26 years ago. I’ve thought about today’s date, August 5th, 2025, for these past 26 years. Today, I am the same number of days old he was on the day he died. Every day I live past today is a day he didn’t have. (1/5)

Patch is here. He is forgetting about his worries and his strife (yeah man)

Such a weird little earthquake here in Southern California this morning. Very very slight rattling but it lasted much longer than I would guess it would have for how close it was (close usually means short and sharp). Curious to hear the story of this one.

I'm getting better

You hear about Pluto? He's still not adopted - that's messed up! But so is Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Mercury and Saturn. What on Earth is going on? Make Seattle Humane part of your orbit and get these planetary puppies one giant step home!

Da bears explore.org

Patch is here. He is having a little swim.

Ok, but who taught it to box?

California congressional Republicans Young Kim, David Valadao & Ken Calvert just voted to kick millions off their healthcare. Ladies and gentlemen, we are coming for those seats.

Do not neglect the subhead.

YOU GUYS ITS PATCH! this is the first bear we have ever had visit for a third year in a row. He's still milk chocolate and rolly polly but honestly a little geriatric looking. Delighted to see the old man.

Happy Solstice everyone

OH NO! I have been told that any chemical that we use in our lab that is not on some per-approved list must be treated as hazardous. Even calcium carbonate? I asked. Yes, I was told. OK, but I now want the math building to be declared a super fund site because of all of the chalk dust present.

Andrea Ghez | Astrophysicist, born #OTD in 1965 Dr. Ghez became the 4th woman to be awarded the #Nobel Prize in #Physics (2020), for the discovery of a supermassive compact object (now generally recognized to be a black hole) in the Milky Way's galactic center. #WomenInSTEM