I loath cats. There, I’ve said it. They are hateful little wildlife-guzzling monsters that crap all over your garden, even (especially?) if it’s not their garden. (Also not fond of dogs). I’ll see myself out…

We model the average. Reality delivers the extremes… Low-probability, high-impact scenarios at 2C can rival typical impacts at 3–4C Key risks: Crop failures, extreme rainfall and flooding, increased wildfires Key lesson: plan for the extremes, not the mean www.nature.com/articles/d41...

'The findings are uncomfortable. Students are submitting work they cannot fully explain, facing AI policies that do not function in practice, and responding strategically to assessment systems that reward production over understanding.' 1/3

Spring. Is. Sprung. #wildflowerhour #Cornwall

Trump does not think strategically, historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. Allied leaders know that if they help him in the Gulf, he won't be grateful, or even remember www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Enjoying* the geological aspect of this story - the US strategic oil reserve is stored in giant salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas, apparently. *as much as any sane person can ‘enjoy’ this current geopolitical shit-show.

One of the great things about having young sons is you get to say things like: “Oh don’t worry he’s fine, he just head-butted the fire extinguisher…”

Showed my students a version of this graph today in their final lecture in my paleoclimate module. A somewhat depressing talk about recent /future impacts of climate change, but wanted to leave on a positive note. The decarbonisation of the UK grid has been SPECTACULAR over the last 15 years 😮

Heard the first singing chiffchaff of the year today. One of the true sounds of early spring! 🌷🐦😊

Saw some lovely blooms on a soggy Mother’s Day walk in the old woodland at Lanhydrock. First wood sorrel of the year, a blaze of wild daffodils, and pretty celendines. Wild garlic and a carpet of bluebells are waiting to burst into flower next month. #wildflowerhour

Saw a fragment of the mid Holocene fossil forest at Portreath yesterday, revealed by winter storms and low tide. Impressive piece of truck on organic-rich clay filled with sticks and seeds. Probably 4000-6000 years old. Drowned when sea level rose following the end of the last glaciation.

Oil prices wouldn't be all over the news today if more of our economy was powered by local, secure renewable energy. This isn't an "energy crisis". It's a fossil fuel crisis. 44% of UK electricity came from renewables in 2025. More of that plus an electrified economy => no more oil shocks.

Job losses at UK research-intensive universities double in two years. Exclusive: Scale of redundancies branded a “disaster”. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Had a great day out with the Geology first years today, checking out recent sediments at Marazion and Hayle beaches. Lots of lovely ripples and dunes on the beaches, and beautiful reeds and squishy mud at the marshes. (And even a tiny bit of sun 😲) ⚒️🌍🧪

Day 49: still raining ☔️ Can safely say that the water butts are full!

Wow, I knew the swais2c team had bagged >200m of sediment, but hadn’t realised it spanned back to early Miocene. Super exciting!

So Control. Much Taking. Very Back #Brexit

Yup. This hurts. We worked ourselves to the bone during Covid to keep the show on the road. I ran virtual fieldtrips & recorded endless bite-size lectures, with a 2-year old balanced on my lap while the nursery was closed for 6 months. Our students were MAGNIFICENTLY patient and gracious 🙏

Antarctica isn’t one big tipping point. New research maps 18 separate ice basins, each with its own threshold. Some in West Antarctica may tip at just ~1–2C warming (i.e close to today’s levels). Cross the line, and you commit to m’s of sea-level rise over centuries www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Primroses, celandines, snowdrops and a multitude of pennyworts, ferns and mosses growing out of this ancient wall on campus today. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social (Day 46, still raining ☔️)

In this article about Manchester as an economic success story, the word ‘university’ comes up 5 times. So many people don’t understand what an important industry the UK university sector is. Contributing £265 billion a year 😮(www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/p...) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

My first oil beetle! Encountered today on my lunch break in Falmouth, trundling up the road like she owned it. I moved her to safety and she was kind enough not to oil me. 🪲

No I cannot be on your important panel, sorry. No I cannot review your exciting grant, sorry. No I cannot review your groundbreaking paper, sorry. No I cannot help you with your awesome outreach project, sorry. Because all of this^ is invisible on my uni workload model and therefore worthless. 🤷‍♀️

Day 42. Still raining. ☔️☔️☔️☔️ 😭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I know we shouldn’t encourage AI slop by sharing it, but my son’s (lovely) teacher keeps illustrating her messages to parents with these unintentional bangers 😂 Behold, a fun boardgames session… where the possessed blank-eyed children will rise out of the incomprehensible games with unbridled joy!

👏 Heroic effort to extract a H₂ record from ice cores 👏 The samples had to measured in the field immediately after drilling (i.e. fresh out the oven 🥮) to prevent the tiny H₂ molecules from leaking out. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In between torrential downpours (when will it end?? ☔️) managed to see some lovely blooms for #wildflowerhour today. 13 species in flower, including the first alexanders and three-cornered leek of the year. Lovely clump of snowdrops and dainty violets galore. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

“These latest attempts at environmental deregulation aim to tilt that balance ever closer to private gain, by fudging the lines and asserting that developer gain is the same thing as public good.” Excellent blog revealing the deceptions of dereg lobbyists. www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/public-...

And so the dominoes in UK higher education begin to fall. This closure will have a devastating impact on the city - on students, jobs, the wider economy (worth £100m a year), and social mobility for local youngsters. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I really hope this works - great for the region and UK in general. Also a great advert for how Geology and Geologists can have a really positive impact on shaping our Green Future 🧪⚒️ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti... Wet, wet, wet.

I can testify that it’s rained almost constantly for the last 10 days or so. Occasional gaps for a few hours before the next downpour 😬 Flooding all over, but at least we have some topography in Cornwall, unlike poor Somerset. (Relieved that we live at the top of the hill when it’s like this!)

This is another really cool trace fossil, but unfortunately there was no label, so I don't know where it's from. There is a trilobite resting spot and at least two starfish trace fossils. #FossilFriday

Today’s selection of esoteric questions from my 4-yo: “Mummy, how long is the sky?” -“Do you mean how high is-“ “No! How looonnnng is it?” “Mummy, when is tomorrow here?” -“Well, I guess it depends…” “Mummy, when will we all be dead?” -“Oh. Uh… well…” 🤷‍♀️

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

Breaking out the replica IODP cores to help with my third-year paleoclimate teaching this term. Showed them the excellent K-Pg section from Blake Nose last week, and onto the Walvis Ridge PETM today. You can borrow them from UKIODP for teaching/ display too! www.ukiodp.org/core-replicas 🧪⚒️

Another day, another storm causing havoc in the SW. The trainline by Dawlish is very picturesque but it’s a real weak point in our connectivity to the rest of the UK. And it’s washed away again 🤦‍♀️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Had a great day in the field showing our first year students the joys of Cornish Carboniferous sediments. Lots of beautiful flame structures, laminations, and water escape features in these Westphalian siliciclastics near Bude. (High tides and yellow weather warnings be damned!) ⚒️🧪🌍

Really excited to see this paper out!! Led by @vtcoop.bsky.social we show that if you use cold and warm paleoclimates together, you can reduce uncertainty in Earth's climate sensitivity by quantifying the pattern effect and more precisely constrain future climate change www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Thanks to Ben Lerwill for a lovely article on my #urbangeology walks in today’s @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

You know the aurora is strong tonight because it’s showing well in a place with palm trees! We live in a beautiful world ❤️ #aurora #cornwall 🧪⚒️

The fate of the planet’s coastlines depends on how fast Antarctica’s ice sheets melt. We don’t know what’s coming

Snowdrops in bloom. The countdown to spring is on! 🌱🌷🌼

We warmly welcome the Science Team of IODP³-NSF Expedition 501 to #MARUM and to kick off the onshore research here! Read more about the onshore operation and the expedition here ➡️ www.marum.de/en/Start-OnO... @ecord.bsky.social @bgs.ac.uk @anzic.bsky.social #ECORDScienceOperator #IODP3NSF #Exp501

End of the first week of (my heavy-teaching) term and I already feel a bit… Looking forward to a weekend of ::checks notes:: marking and lecture prep 👍

🚨New paper out with @alexauderset.bsky.social! We show that the Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) was better oxygenated during the warm Miocene Climate Optimum than today, but its path to full deoxygenation was slow and complex. Link to paper: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

It’s funny how Wikipedia used to seem relatively unreliable, because it was written by regular people instead of encyclopedia experts, and now it seems relatively reliable, because it’s written by regular people instead of glib CliffsNotes robots