Being a PI is an intricate juggling act that requires tough decisions – intellectual, financial, strategic. Yet we are expected to navigate these dangerous waters with very little support. The solo PI model is deeply problematic. My latest blog post #AcademicSky occamstypewriter.org/mindthegap/2...

Big demo assembling, Exhibition Road, London #standuptoracism

Remember, it’s perfectly acceptable if your weekend plans consist of nothing other than reading a good book, drinking multiple cups of tea, and indulging in a scandalous amount of chocolate croissants.

Bit of good news for people who like evidence

A reminder that there is no profit model for solar geoengineering other than capture of government appropriations. In the absence of systemic governance and policy, VC investors can get their return only through public corruption, not technological innovation.

Today, the University of Maine's Vice Chancellor for Finance and Strategic AI Integration (who made $243,000 last year) sent UMaine campuses an announcement that we have partnered with OpenAI with a contract for ChatGPT Edu. I sent him the following questions:

Good explainer of the destruction of science funding under the billionaire space tourist “administering” NASA. Funding and publishing certain science would prove that the pro-petrochemicals agenda of Trump is destroying the environment—and we can’t have that proof out and about.

This should be applied to proposals too.

I wrote some more about COVID, but also about the value of per-capita adjustments when making maps: open.substack.com/pub/thesarap...

T'is true...and I'm not even a marine biologist

Once upon a time, I studied the processes leading to the electrification of thunder clouds for my PhD. I moved on to other things around the time the other end of storms - discharge processes - were getting weird, with the discovery of sprites & elves. It's kept getting weirder...

At the end of all these cuts, will Linguistics actually be taught outside of a few 'elite' Universities? (and even at those institutions, the field will be much smaller than it once was) If you aren't seeing this as a Widening Participation issue, then you really don't get what's going on.

Fascinating.

As a scientist, this is my worst nightmare. There are one-of-a-kind instruments that you spend your life perfecting. When they’re lost, no amount of time or money will bring them back. My thoughts are with @oceanandclimate.bsky.social @ashevenell.bsky.social and others @cmarinescience.bsky.social. 🥺

Some useful public speaking tips from Freud here.

Preventing trans people from joining a Parkrun? The only reason for that is the wish to hurt trans people as much as possible and exclude them from events, make them feel like a pariah. Please write to your MP to ask them to make the ADF go away. protectparkrun.uk

Last Friday, Trump fired the National Science Board. The NSB is made up of distinguished scientists whose job is to oversee the National Science Foundation, setting research priorities by thinking beyond election cycles. It was designed to be independent. We don't know what this means, but it's bad.

'Outcrop, Hindle Glacier' - acrylic ink on paper - 60x35 cm. It is a long, long time since I made any finished work as anything other than etchings...it was fun, I should do it again! The Hindle Glacier descends into Royal Bay on the north coast of the island of South Georgia.

I’m trying to convince my institution that’s it’s worthwhile to be on Bluesky, so I volunteered to setup an account and posted at @soest.hawaii.edu. Please do me a favor and follow the account, share and like some posts before my meeting to discuss the account tomorrow. @joshuajfriedman.com

I understand that science is busy curing cancer and all, but I simply desire —and I feel this is not outside the bounds of human ingenuity— a home fire alarm that can distinguish between a piece of toast and a raging inferno

Keep getting sent job ads by companies offering very good rates for writers etc to review and refine AI generated material so it's fit for human consumption I see we're at the 'having to pay creatives to avoid having to pay creatives' stage of the AI boom. Can't imagine a more efficient system.

Another solar generation record set today in Britain. 14,426 megawatts were being generated at 11.30 today, delivering 37% of GB’s electricity and contributing to a record low reliance on fossil fuels. Gas accounted for just 2% of electricity generation at that time.

Imagine if this were the steel industry? The press and govt would be all over it like rash. Why does no-one care?

We've known for a while that the USA's current regime have been out for science, but I never though they would try to mess with math(s)! You can't just redefine how you calculate percentages. 1/2

Svalbard is thawing in April, and it’s not supposed to. 2026 ground temperatures at 0.2m depth in Svalbard spiking to 0°C in April, far exceeding the 1998-2025 median and maximum

On the drawing board...

🧵❄️🌊🧪 Technofixes ("geoengineering") approaches intended to slow ice loss from Thwaites Glacier, the Antarctic glacier that's losing ice most quickly, are not a viable option to combat sea-level rise. www.theenergymix.com/geoengineeri...

One for the polar climate crowd - new paper from the MOSAiC meteorology team on radiative states of the Arctic atmosphere and their impact on the surface energy budget of sea ice: online.ucpress.edu/elementa/art...

Dangerously undemocratic

Said it before: we need to make that Cambridge computer scientist the prime minister

Bloody hell. Researchers invented a disease, published two fake papers to see if LLM’s would ingest them and kick them up as fact — and then it broke containment and all the major AI’s bought in. Information pollution. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Look for a dinner spot in Berlin...not sure about this one.

I have most of next Saturday free in Berlin - anyone got recommendations for galleries/museums/whatever I ought to see?

Suddenly wondering if it's really a good use of my time to accept a request to review a paper for a (different) Nature journal.

get my book The Gathering Cloud (on the environmental impact of cloud storage) direct from the intrepid @uniformbooks.bsky.social here: www.uniformbooks.co.uk/thegathering...

If you're working in the climate science space, please sign and share this open letter calling out the insanity of exploiting more oil & gas when we need to eradicate dangerous fossil fuels. Letter here: docs.google.com/document/d/1... Sign here: forms.gle/DexNszLJjaRe... Pls share far & wide!

I wrote on AI trashing literary life, and spoke to Alex Preston about the NYT book review scandal

I had a feeling this was going to happen. Sad news, especially given the poor state of sea ice after this winter. Looks like we won't be getting any more data for Arctic sea-ice thickness and volume for a while from PIOMAS. See: psc.apl.uw.edu/research/pro...

river poems and mudlarking finds. today and tomorrow. 1pm.

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

Man I bought this was only a US problem! 😲 Our brilliant local library had a table where you could borrow books banned in other countries: looks like it needs a boost!

good citizens of West Yorkshire. there will be a book launch event for my new poetry collection p a u s e. @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social this evening 5pm in the School of English foyer, University of Leeds, FREE all are welcome. also available online: www.ticketsource.co.uk/university-o...

New study in @commsearth.nature.com highlights how #Arctic sea-ice ridges are biological hotspots in summer. Nearly 80% of ice algae biomass could then be in ridges. They've largely gone undetected because ridges are very seldom studied. Data was collected during the @awi.de MOSAiC expedition.

I'm a sucker for really good interactive science visualizations. Check out this one that lets you explore a map of the known universe. It's beautiful, engaging, and very well done. mapoftheuniverse.net

"How can one well-meaning scientist counter scientific misinformation? Or even a million? The other side is bankrolled by dead-eyed billionaires." My latest blog post #AcademicSky occamstypewriter.org/mindthegap/2...

If we learned nothing else from 2025, it’s that we shouldn’t take for granted that what we love will continue to be funded If people and libraries don’t buy a certain kind of book, publishers will stop investing in them That’s also one reason the library book bans are so scary

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

"We believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place." Britain continues its rapid descent towards fascism.