We now know what the Denisovans looked like www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🚨 NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya is testifying before the US Senate Appropriations Committee today. The hearing is bound to be spicy, after more than 300 agency staff wrote him a letter decrying his leadership and actions as director. 🔥 I'll be live-posting the hearing, so follow along here.

Freelance journalists are not being supported by the mastheads that rely on their hard work. Sign on to help get fairer rates for freelancers. www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/fr...

Sexual harassment allegations linked to drop in citations But numbers remain steady for researchers who commit scientific misconduct. @dyanilewis.bsky.social reports @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This is outrageous. Great reporting by @mikedigirolamo.bsky.social news.mongabay.com/2025/02/an-a...

So disheartening to read about this and so many other similar changes. I know I'm not alone. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Gardening level up! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

Despite the headline…. “Only Australia arrested climate and environmental protesters at a higher rate than UK police.”

Look at the root base on this giant Tasmanian blue gum that fell - this tree was a victim of bad forest management in Tas, having suffered from forest fires lit by the loggers and eventually being wind-thrown because its neighbors were cut down. 5 years ago swift parrots were nesting in this tree

This is such sad news. STAT consistently publishes great work by top-notch science and health journalists.

You can read the whole story here:

6. Finally, a note on the targets. The 2030 targets will require lots to be done (like building transmission and a workforce) to ensure the renewables can be ramped up sufficiently, in line with the projections. And then for 2050... well... something will need to happen in the rest of the economy.

5. Now for the projections... Labor's 2030 target will me met mostly by cuts in the electricity sector. But you need to read the projections with caution. They actually simply *assume* that the cuts are made, and pop them on the chart. (Also, those cuts peter out after 2030.)

😥

3. Another problem with that (aside from not representing a shift in how our economy is functioning) is that the measure of land use emissions is very unreliable. The government changes its mind every year about it. And each time, it seems to be revised to make things look better.

2. The majority of the cuts since 2005 have been in the land sector - not doing things like, erm, stopping burning fossil fuels...

So, I did a bit of a dig through the quarterly emissions update and the projections, and pulled out a few things. Much of this won't surprise those who follow this closely. But all this stuff deserves continued attention. 🧵 1. Our emissions reductions have basically flatlined since 2020.

“Since switching over to Bluesky, I noticed that you could not see the stats in the app, so I decided to build an app myself.”

It’s finally arrived! This year’s Best Australian Science Writing anthology, edited by @drjr.bsky.social and Carl Smith. Super proud to have a piece in there about the plight of the world’s oldest storytelling scene, which is tucked away in a Sulawesi limestone cave.

Wonderful little write up about Best Australian Science Writing 2024 reflecting on science, the pieces we included and science writing in The Saturday Paper. My thanks to James Bradley, himself an extremely talented writer. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2024/11/30/t...

“Although science might not be partisan, it’s political” Calling science apolitical is a political statemnet A greater awareness & recognition of the inherently political nature of science is a key step towards restoring public trust in science By @sabs.bsky.social defector.com/do-not-accep...

It’s very funny how much the current narrative around The Greens is about how extreme they are, and how much more sensible Bob Brown was… when Bob Brown is pleading with them to stop rolling over on issues as fundamental as environment policy

‘I fly, I drive. We’re all complicit’: Richard Flanagan on vanishing species and refusing the Baillie Gifford prize money

I've just created the "Climate Change Downunder" starter pack for all things climate change related in Australia. Here you'll find scientists, academics and professionals who work in the climate change space in Oz. Hit me up with new accounts to add! go.bsky.app/TK2pwCz

Can it really be called a ‘documentary’ if the claims don’t pass a fact-check (or even a smell test, tbh)? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Plastic is evil. We need to stop using it when alternatives exist. Five firms in plastic pollution alliance ‘made 1,000 times more plastic than they cleaned up’ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Colombia has renewed its push for other countries to join the Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty, which calls for ending the expansion of new fossil-fuel projects. - Bloomberg

What an obit!

I’ve decided to leave Scientific American after an exciting 4.5 years as editor in chief. I’m going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching), but for now I’d like to share a very small sample of the work I’ve been so proud to support (thread)

This new social media thing is extra painful for freelance journalists who don’t have a built-in promo team. Here’s a starter pack of freelance environmental reporters. Follow us — then hire us? (And lmk who I’m missing!) go.bsky.app/LEwiBCr

Australian science journalists starter pack is here. I am slowly adding more as more people filter over... Get at me if you want to be included. go.bsky.app/NWgkRXb

They finally have an award for coverage of science and the environment... that no self-respecting science or environment reporter would want to enter. dhttps://www.crikey.com.au/2024/05/07/walkley-foundation-awards-fossil-fuels-ampol-boycott/

My latest for #Nature - publishers have retracted 12 papers on ethnic populations including Uyghurs and Tibetans over ethical concerns. But there are dozens more that remain under scrutiny. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Brilliantly visualised #Nature essay by @dyanilewis.bsky.social, photography by Ulet Ifansasti, on the stunning 45,000 year-old #CavePaintings 🏺 in #Sulawesi, Indonesia - now threatened by dissolution and irretrievable loss: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

My latest for Nature. I travelled to South Sulawesi in Indonesia to visit the oldest hunting scene in the world. It was painted 45,000 years ago during the last ice age, but is now flaking away. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Two years after our reporter @john-cannon.bsky.social revealed a secretive “nature conservation agreement” between a Singaporean company and the government of Sabah--the widespread press that followed seemingly scuttling the deal--its backers are trying to revive it, but details remain elusive:

Beware what you buy in Bali. If it was made using animal products, there's a decent chance the animal was endangered. "We found items from >500 individuals of 20 CITES-listed species, including primate skulls, ivory carvings and decorated shells." www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Cool feature by Meredith Wadman www.science.org/content/arti...

This is why we only celebrate independently measured and persistent changes to reality, not commitments, promises and pledges 🍻🍻🍻✅✅✅

A friend has started up an online children's bookshop in New Zealand. All books are selected to be socially concious, inclusive and celebrating diversity. She is an awesome human and this venture has come from her own parenting journey and difficulty in finding such things online. Pls check it out!

Kale

“TIFR’s hiring policies and evaluation processes for scientists and academicians are completely gender-neutral,” they said. Their base rate is 8.8% Are these 'gender-neutral processes' working? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Many thanks to my co-conspirator @vaishananth.bsky.social and to @dyanilewis.bsky.social for writing this up! #WomenInStem

Good move. We shouldn't blindly allow the destruction of an environment we know so little about. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

seriously though, what is the explanation for the ABC's wildly incurious boosting of this seaweed-for-ag stuff? This article reads like PR copy on the company website. It's so wild www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10...

Born in 1896, Ida Noddack was the first to suggest nuclear fission. But Hahn won the Nobel prize. Noddack discovered rhenium (atomic #75) & predicted #43, but couldn’t confirm it, so Segrè & Perrier were credited. She tried to speak up that the ideas began with her, but it lost her credibility.

This form was created to facilitate the sharing of invitation codes for "Global South" scholars who may not have the same network privileges as scholars in the "Global North". Scholars who are geographically located in the "Global South" will be given priority. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Great talk @edyong209.bsky.social

The feral horse situation in the Australian Alps has been allowed to grow to frightening proportions. Another report… this time there needs to be action. www.nature.com/articles/d41...