Had a chance to chat with @akktwriter.bsky.social on her Alaska Climate and Aviation podcast about this past spring and the upcoming summer outlook. www.buzzsprout.com/951223/episo...

🚨New paper alert! Former UMaine M.S. student, Jill Herlinger (now at Northwestern), led a brilliant paper that utilizes Mg/Ca and δ¹⁸O on foraminiferal calcite in the Gulf of Maine to show that that the Laurentide Ice Sheet was melting and retreating like crazy during Heinrich Stadial 1... 1/

(Likely) El Nino update for Alaska.

The Central Asian species tulips are blooming on our hillside! I have obviously lost track of what we’ve planted, but they are glorious!

We could, though, demand it is proportional, as the framers intended. Winner-take-all was a bastardization of that plan to allow Jefferson to win in 1800, and once Virginia did it everyone else had to follow suit. Madison wanted to amend the Constitution to make it clear WTA was not acceptable.

On NSF’s postdoc page, the biology and earth science fields have been completely eliminated; the only remaining fellowships are in math, astronomy, engineering, and “entrepreneurship.” Weird choice not to support research on the life support system for 8 billion people. www.nsf.gov/funding/post...

An epic webcam capture of the sun skirting the horizon at Utqiaġvik, Alaska, this morning. @alaskawx.bsky.social

Good points in this piece from Chris Rapley: "Not once in the history of human spaceflight has an astronaut been known to tamper with their life support system... Sabotage is unthinkable – socially intolerable... We are doing to our planetary life support what no astronaut has done to theirs. "

Welp, I just got the paperwork that I need to fill out to reimburse the University for a $0.24 ‘personal expense’ from a recently submitted travel expense report. After about seventeen steps and a hand-delivered check, I should be able to reconcile this infraction.

Perennial, and perhaps transcendent,Toad quote.

The bloodroot blossoms opened this morning…

May the Fourth be with you. And… It is 5/4 Day in honor of Dave Brubeck.

Toad went back into the house. He got into bed and pulled the covers over his head again.

“I've always tried to present a positive view of the world in my work. It's so much easier to be negative & cynical & predict doom for the world than it is to try & figure out how to make things better. We have an obligation to do the latter." - Jim Henson

Accurate reporting from The Onion.

Facts.

I love phish.

I believe that in order to take some small step forward, the word “bird” should be replaced with “saur” in all common names. Mockingsaur. Secretarysaur. Red-winged blacksaur. HUMMINGSAUR

Not baseball-sized but big enough to do some damage. More and bigger on the north side, I'm told. And it's all quickly moved past us.

Two postdoc fellowships now open at @brown.edu Dept of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences. One in ocean sciences (apply.interfolio.com/183855) and one in any field of geoscience (apply.interfolio.com/183852). Deadline May 1.

Some simple truths about methane vs. CO2. I've said this before, in various ways, in various peer reviewed papers, but I keep repeating it with variations hoping the message will get through somehow. (1) CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere. If you introduce a new CO2 emission source into the system

Dear Friends, Please send this to your networks. Project Drawdown is offering full-time, paid (with benefits) fellowships to scientists and engineers working on climate solutions in the public interest. Deadline is April 17. drawdown.org/careers/clim...

Origins of Earth's most powerful ocean current revealed phys.org/news/2026-04...

Check out this video documenting our recent ‘Sea-to-Sky Experience’ course trip to Iceland! youtu.be/Xm2DFHRBzMg?... 🧪🌊⚒️

Time series of elevation and storage for Lake Powell (1963 to March 2026)

Given Trump’s Easter threats to carry out new war crimes in Iran, we should think one or two steps ahead about a coup attempt connected to the war. And then deter it. (1/17)

U.S. Blues is playing on In Tune with Sara Willis on Maine Public Radio. Feels relevant.

Excellent view of Earth’s atmosphere in this photograph taken by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman. Amazing what that thin envelope of gases has meant for Earth’s habitability. 📸 from NASA website.

UMaine Earth and Climate Sciences grad students made a good showing at the spring Geology Society of Maine meeting today. Our M.S. student Ria Raval (middle) won the award for best presentation! Zander Roman (left) and Katie Westbrook also gave a great talk and a great poster, respectively.

Millennial-scale Atlantic overturning circulation led by the Southern Ocean www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊

🧪🌊⚒️

🚨New paper alert: Check out our new paper led by @gordonbromley.bsky.social on the timing of deglaciation of the Burren, western Ireland, in the Journal of Quaternary Science... 1/ onlinelibrary-wiley-com.wv-o-ursus-proxy02.ursus.maine.edu/doi/10.1002/...

On the way out from work, passing through the lobby of the Green Building at MIT. I was lucky enough to catch the Artemis launch on the big screen in the lobby. The lobby was packed with enthusiastic undergraduates. It took me back to when my elementary school used to cancel classes so we could all

Many of us don’t work directly in space science, but we were inspired to become scientists by NASA. Today was an inspirational day, and I hope Artemis II galvanizes the public to recognize the importance of having a strong science program for our identity, not to mention our security and prosperity.

Hasn’t it been about six years since this President told us that Covid would magically go away? History repeating, etc.

Spring is springing…

Here’s some positive science news: researchers at MIT have shown that messenger RNA can activate a biological pathway that triggers the immune system to attack tumors. news.mit.edu/2025/turning...

No Kings in Utqiaġvik (Barrow) Alaska!

1/ It's not just that unilaterally paying TSA agents is illegal. It's that Trump has now repeatedly undermined the core of the congressional power of the purse. He's not spending money that has been appropriated by law (impoundments) and he's spending money that has not been appropriated.

And so it begins, or at least the next chapter. As the reality of global climate disruption becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, even for MAGA, is the MAGA administration now starting to position solar geoengineering -- hacking the planet -- as the favored solution?

We had a ‘families dinner’ tonight (usually on Sunday, but we postponed b/c of snow). We made Samin Nosrat’s Joojeh kabob chicken and crispy rice. This is in honor of the Iranian people, especially Iranian women, who are caught in the crossfire.

It is the 43rd annual Maine Maple Sunday today! We visited Williams Family Farms in Clifton and got to see their impressive operation. We also undertook a thorough sampling of maple syrup varieties and candies! #mainemaplesunday #maplesyrup

We’re terrible stewards of our planet.

If we made the green energy transition this war would be unthinkable and these authoritarians wouldn’t be in power — not in the US, not in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia, not in Russia. Hydrocarbons are killing our freedom and just plain killing us.

Happy Pi Day, to all who celebrate. ❤️π

The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.

Check out my PhD research, finally published! New polar bear research gives insight into human-animal encounters - News | University of Saskatchewan share.google/warmThD0d2YD...

I would like to interrupt your doomscrolling for an important announcement: This figure from Ellen Dymit et al., 2025, depicts the proportion of vertebrate prey in felid scat, recorded as a Proportion of Occurrence (PoO). 💩

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.

What can you do with all the sensors on your smartwatch? Here are some ideas to get you started. - Build a Wave Buoy - Measure Tidal Inundation - Deploy as a stream gauge - Classify road quality while bicycling and 10 additional projects below. www.tiniscientific.com/field-projects