Northern lights in deepest Cornwall!

Playing against my youngest. He is ruthless

Cat is exemplifying how to relax, at the end of a not very relaxing week I think I need to pay heed.

What is UKRI for, and do the people in charge know? Breaking up UK Research and Innovation could be the way forward, says John Womersley. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

Excited to have started a year of fun at Research Professional News as opinion editor, standing in @johnwhitfield.bsky.social 's hard-to-fill shoes for a bit. If you have an opinion let me know!!

cute story: for this 2007 piece we needed a photo of Omar Yaghi, but he was visiting family in Jordan. So he gatecrashed his little step brother's school science lab and asked his nephew to take a picture for us!

These intriguing materials - the world's most porous sponges - won today's Nobel Prize in Chemistry go.nature.com/3VVjXug

of course not forgetting the perennial problem with these huge prizes.... www.nature.com/articles/d41...

And I also wrote about MOFs for Nature back in 2007! www.nature.com/articles/448...

the 2025 #Nobel prize in Chemistry for MOFs! Delighted to have dug into the potential of these amazing materials earlier this year www.nature.com/articles/d41...

So excited for this Nobel! Fabulous. And do read my feature unpicking what these materials are being used for.

Had a break from this site for a bit. I'm back and raring to go! To prove it here is my crew racing at the weekend

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were the next big thing in chemistry when invented three decades ago. Finally, these intricate sponge-like powders are hitting the market, to capture carbon dioxide, harvest water, and more. by @kms163.bsky.social | @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Are you a journalist writing about a current heatwave? The images you choose are critical to the story. The @climateoutreach.bsky.social team have shown some ideas here which help stress the risks rather than the typical ice creams: www.climatevisuals.org/how-do-you-p...

short and sweet by me but what amazing things caterpillars are! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Beach treasure

Freelancers! Is there data around productivity for freelancers around menopause? I have had awful brain fog these past several months and got to thinking that at any one time swathes of self employed women must be seeing their earnings plummet as a result of the 🧠🌫 #menopause #freelance #juggle

it was crazy that day!

this photo tells a story! The 2025 World Pilot Gig Championships. We have raced our guts out to try and get 10th place. 11th and we were out of the competition. 10th and we made the final. After a nail-biting hour we were declared 10th. So proud of this bunch of warriors. Credit: Smile and Turn

It was an honour to be a judge for this year's #ABSWawards. What an epic lineup of the brightest and best in science journalism. Congrats to all finalists!

And the winner of Invertebrate of the Year 2025 is… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Uan Minop Our favourite sign for the village

Mother's day

NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes

I felt sick listening to this exchange tonight. Well said @number10cat.bsky.social

#ABSW #ConfictZone Studies in Survival - Science and Conflict in Gaza and Beyond 📆 Thursday, February 27, 18:00-19:30 GMT Chaired by @andyextance.bsky.social 🎤 Meet our speakers 🔗zurl.co/Pe8z4

Oh good. heatmap.news/adaptation/t...

This was what many of us had suspected would happen. I guess that means US scientists who would like to be authors of the next 7th assessment working group reports (WGI-III) will have to find alternative affiliations to make sure their applications can be considered.

Half term. Trampoline park for them. Work for me.

Extreme weather is our new reality. We must accept it and begin planning

Cat

at last the sun hits my little north-facing garden.

From a journalist friend: Just spreading the word. The CDC is purging data, so people should archive their favorite CDC datasets today, namely ones around race/ethnic diversity, LGBTQ, and reproductive health. Also health data involving climate. The youth risk behavior survey has already gone down.

Bike ride in the sun 🌞 at last!

Wonderful man and a huge loss to science and all his many friends and his family. Fraser was hugely supportive of me early in my career. I also spent happy years as a student with both his daughters.

Crazy times here in my north facing garden. #Winter is finally moving on and the sun is almost back in the garden

I love this figure 🌍🌡️🔥💚👇

Cartoon in today's Times... ...which, notably, has its own challenging history on its op-ed pages of being in a la-la-land over the realities of climate change

On this day 12 years ago, @kcg.bsky.social posted the “This is Fine” comic.

First www.nature.com/briefing/ant... newsletter of 2025 hitting inboxes soon.... anyone with any fascinating #anthropocene content please do send it my way!

My very literal child watching Sound of Music for the first time. "Who are the nuns singing about?" "Maria" "Why are they calling her a child?" "She's probably meant to be about 20." "But that is technically an adult" "Yes. Yes it is." If only Facebook were keeping factcheckers she'd have a job

Hapy noo yir

How genetics works

This graph from Strava showing how much exercise I did this week is, err, confusing. What are those data points between 0 and 1? Did I do a fraction of a run? It just makes no sense.

I live in a fishing community in the farthest reaches of Cornwall. We are a tiny village but we go big on our Christmas lights! #cornwall #nadeliklowen

I heard a lot of different opinions at #AGU24 about how US climate scientists are preparing for Trump 2.0. It wasn't all freaking out (though there was plenty of that). People are also really re-thinking their climate communications. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

We've just joined Bluesky 🎉 Follow us for research, news, comment and opinion from Nature journal 🧪

I made it onto Google street view. I'm surprised they managed to get me, I was going so fast.... whoosh maps.app.goo.gl/PMY7mePSefpm...

Can't remember if it was on the cover but this feature where some young cub reporter went to hang out with Heston B was pretty good I seem to remember😇... www.chemistryworld.com/features/coo...

Pretty stunned to get featured as Quote of the Week in the @natureportfolio.bsky.social Anthropocene briefing.