What's ridiculous is that it's become a marker in the first place. People with zero understanding of punctuation decided the presence of the em dash is statistically significant, then proceeded to make it a universal rule that its presence proves the text is generative slop. em-dash-appreciation.org

Sunflower justifiably unsure about 2026, and will not be making any solid commitments at this time

Pleased to report that after a great deal of wildly unsubtle hinting, I scored a beautiful illustrated edition of Alchemy by @philipcball.bsky.social 😍

‘The goodly nose-cartilage glittered and glowed’…

🏔 Happy #WorldMountainDay! Check out our latest article on @scienceanu.bsky.social students using AMRF's Mobile Laboratory, purchased with support from TERN, that's now a central part of ANU’s Advanced Field Studies in Functional Ecology course. Read more: www.tern.org.au/news/reachin...

Puffins have returned to Northern Ireland’s Isle of Muck (seriously, that’s its name) for the first time in at least 25 years. Tales of puffins on the island “felt more like folklore,” said nature reserves manager Andy Crory, but now they’re coming back. buff.ly/oBQlH6r #ShareGoodNewsToo

One morning, during isolation, an entire chorus of birds showed up and started making a huge ruckus — kookaburras, currawongs, crows, butcher birds, a long list. I looked out the window and saw that an owl had landed in the backyard. I brought my daughter to the window to watch.

The future's green for turtles. Once on the brink of extinction, green sea turtles are making a comeback in the Pacific: nest counts on Australia’s Heron Island have risen tenfold since the 1970s, and populations across the Pacific now meet IUCN recovery thresholds. https://f.mtr.cool/uzimhivdld

Bafflingly there are still people out there in the world who think being passionate about nature is “kind of weird”. or “a niche interest”. These people have it all wrong. Nature isn’t some quirky sideline to the main business. It IS the main business.

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

“science is bad for tyrants, and always has been”

Rest in peace, Dr. Jane Goodall💚

Apparently, they have also banned the word ‘green’

Footpath emoji

🏆 A huge milestone! The TERN team surveyed our 1000th field plot—a huge achievement in our mission to support ecosystem science across Australia.This occured in WA during a GEO-TREES field campaign, which provides high-accuracy ground data for satellite-derived biomass mapping.

Work in progress… pretty sure moss grows faster than I paint but I’m ok with that

Lunar eclipse fans, there's a total lunar eclipse this weekend! All of Australia (and a bunch of other countries) will be able to see all the best bits. The eclipse will be in the evening of Sunday the 7th or the morning of Monday the 8th of September 🧪🔭🌝 www.abc.net.au/news/science...

There are interdimensional portals all over the British countryside. You just have to look.

The recent DOE climate science report misrepresents the work of many researchers. Carbon Brief asked those cited to review the parts of the report where their work was used, and we collectively found 100+ misleading or false statements: interactive.carbonbr...

180 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in Gaza. @withmeaa.bsky.social members remember them. Stop killing journalists.

👇

Two new studies in @antiquity.ac.uk show that people with mixed ancestry lived in early medieval south England. 🏺🧪

Good morning lovely people #nature #wetlands #keepgoing

Persistent mysteries of the universe: 1) what did the Big Bang expand into? 2) where the he’ll did I just put my coffee?

Over 120 mRNA cancer trials are now at risk as the Trump admin cuts funding & tells researchers to scrub “mRNA” from grant proposals. What started as COVID fearmongering is now derailing life-saving cancer research. Hope remains - but scientists say time is running out. zurl.co/YBGNy

Geology folks, what’s going on here? I took these photos recently in Port Hacking (coastline south of Sydney, Australia). Mostly sandstone and is that shale wedged between layers? What story does this tell? #geologysky

INNOCENT

Good things can have tipping points, too.

One of the reasons I love this piece is that, in clearly showing why the administration’s attacks on medical research funding are so devastating, it also makes one of the clearest cases for why that funding has always mattered. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding. It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

Influencers plead that they are raising awareness. “Raising awareness of incorrect information is called lying”, @whysharksmatter.bsky.social reminds us at #ssp2025 while talking about the importance of clear messaging around science

As a political economist and historian, I know how powerful fossil capital is. I know we're going to blow past our COP targets. I know that liberal net zero politics is insufficient. I know that there is a huge global fossil fuel production gap. But its still a gut punch to see it play out.

The fact that antihistamines can be used to relieve itches and also as sleep aids has led me to the conclusion that Consciousness is a Form of Itch

Genuinely delighted that @unbreaking.org is now doing our work in public. I cannot tell you what it means to be a part of it, or how much its already helped me. If my Meeting the Moment newsletter has helped you, Unbreaking is going to bowl you over. So much more ambitious and helpful. Join us!

99.9% of Americans won’t hear that Trump killed this program. And at 2,000 additional dead kids or so each year, most people will have no idea what was lost.

Just listened to this last night and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the breathtaking level of willful ignorance... germ theory denialism takes lethal foolishness to a whole new level

This is definitely worth a listen 🤯🤯🤯

same, tbh

How I arrived on Bluesky

Yes. I really like to know stuff; to learn stuff. It seems to have escaped *their* attention that many do this for fun - that using our brains is such an important way of being human. We don’t want to be reduced to reflexes.

My PhD student's NSF grant was terminated today. Her dissertation investigates why air pollution monitoring, metrics, and regulations don't properly capture the harms experienced by marginalized communities--esp in the most polluted Detroit neighborhoods. She and I are happy to talk with press etc.

“Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. 1/3

Some good news:

😊☺️ Widening the autism spotlight | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A great discussion on autism in girls and women with @newscientist.com and @ginarippon.bsky.social youtu.be/N1X8__QutRI?...

Staple this to RFK Jr’s forehead.

African Elephants are my favorite land animal species, by far. During yesterday’s earthquake, my babies at the San Diego Zoo reacted to the quake, immediately protective of their most-vulnerable Community members. Humans could learn SO much from these beauties, if we’d just humble ourselves. 🐘🐘

I’m going to take a bit of a break and step out into the sunlight and take a deep breath… then I’m going to go dive into the sea and scream underwater. Please let me know if you would like me to scream on your behalf while I’m there. Apologies in advance to any fish in the vicinity.

I tell these stories because I think we are all on edge, watching the atrocities and outrages of the Trump Administration, and feeling that something more than the current protests must happen, something decisive, something transformative. I tell them because....