This WWI documentary from Peter Jackson has some of the best restoration work I've ever seen. Colorisation, interpolation from hand-cranked 13-17 fps to 24, 4:3 to 2.39. Really cool. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irab...

My top 5 philosophy of science papers for 2025. I am too old to be reading walls of texts about hypotheticals and edge cases, so all of these are very grounded in the realities of scientific work, and normally wouldn't really be classified as philosophy. My lists, my rules.

My top 10 palaeontology papers of 2025. Not being in the field anymore gives me a great big pool of stuff to read, but I can't go far beyond my roots so half of it is Cambrian Radiation stuff.

My top 10 history of science papers from 2025. You've got material about scientists navigating their academic institutional systems and intellectual frameworks, about how science used the tools available to it to organise reality, and material practices of science.

My top 10 geology papers of 2025. As always, it's half palaeo-derived. Several papers on the Ediacaran-Cambrian interval, some taphonomic perspectives, but there's also some good old-fashioned geology and space shit.

My 10 favourite evolution and evolutionary theory papers of 2025. A collection that validates my own conception of evolutionary theory, which differs a bit from the mainstream, but boils down to taking macroevolution seriously as macroevolution.

My top 10 ecology, conservation, and biogeography paper of last year. Several papers examine refugia and range shifts. Others tackle the mechanics of biogeographic change. Also some attention given to recent human impacts.

Like every other sane person, I always skip the ads that my adblockers miss. But every so often, some ads come along that are just excellent. Here are my favourites from last year, from a poll done around the office at ABL Films.

One of my more enjoyable duties at ABL Films is keeping a close eye on new film tech, and every new year I do a little look back. Despite the ceaseless bleating of clueless AI-tech-SaaS-bros, what I saw was consolidation and very little disruption. In fact, there are three trends

My top 10 developmental biology papers of last year, and of course they focus on it as an autonomous driver of macroevolution, from individual ontogeny to deep phylogenetic splits.

My top 10 climate papers of 2025. These papers are all about understanding how Earth's climate system actually works at a mechanistic level, not boring stuff like documenting recent warming or making predictions.

My top 10 botany papers I read in 2025. Generally, these papers all tackle big-picture questions about how plant form and function have shaped (and been shaped by) Earth's climatic and ecological history.

These are my top 10 entomology and related papers of 2025. Reading them together will give an idea of how morphology, physiology, and behaviour integrate to solve ecological challenges.

My top 10 anthropology papers I read in 2025. The fundamental throughline is that many hallmarks we associate with humanity (symbolic behaviour, environmental flexibility, sophisticated tool production) emerged multiple times across the hominin family tree.

My 10 favourite movies of 2025. It was a strange and unexpectedly good year, in retrospect. It feels like we're finally turning a page and going back to cinema that demonstrates clear authorial vision or technological intent, which is a refreshing turn from the past decade or two.

Need Christmas presents for a cool person but are yourself too uncool to know what to buy? Here are my five favourite books this year (links and descriptions in thread)

Here is my eclectic Halloween movie list for this year. 8 great movies to keep you in the mood for 16 waking hours.

Hot take: Rumble Fish should be ranked higher than the Godfather and Apocalypse Now in Coppola's filmography.

I recently rewatched Tokyo Story and while it's an amazing movie, I noticed a lot of defects that are different from other analog film. Bad contrast, flickering halos, a lot of weird grain, other stuff that's really unexpected in a movie that is made with so much precision.

There's a general misconception that American creationism as a movement is some kind of default religious stance, just a continuation of what religious leaders were saying back in the late 1800s, but it actually has historical reasons for existing that are separate from this.

My top 2 phylogenetics papers of 2024.

Only one philosophy of science paper this year.

My top 3 palaeontology (sorry, only Ediacaran and Proterozoic this time) papers of 2024 in the thread.

My top 30 (yes, 30!) primate and human palaeontology, anthropology and archaeology papers of 2024 in the thread.

My top 3 history of science (well, only bio and geo) papers of 2024 in the thread.

My top 2 historical geology papers of 2024 in the thread.

Top 2 evolutionary biology and theory papers of 2024 in the thread.

Top 10 arthropod, entomology and arachnology papers of 2024 in the thread.

Top 5 climate and environmental papers of 2024 in the thread.

Top 4 botany and plant science papers of 2024 in the thread.

It's that time of the year again, the time to start dumping top of 2024 lists. First up, academic books (only 2 this time, I'm not even in academia anymore why am I doing this).