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AAAS: "Mouse with a mammoth's pelt makes superfuzzy debut." Scientifically sophisticated but perhaps ethically murky. No tusks, No tusks, but 'like the woolly mammoth that inspired it.'

submitted 5 hours ago • 0 comments

Earth.org: "Sea Level Rise Projecton Map - Miami." This wonderful city is indeed notoriously vulnerable to Sea Level Rise [SLR]—due to changes in coastal currents, subsidence issues following Last Glacial Maximum further north only 22,000 yrs ago, and a rising ocean.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

PNAS U.S.A. (2025) 10.1073/pnas.2413855122 "Blue and brown states." And this is not a political statement, rather an observation that warmer temperatures and abundant rainfall have changed the color of lakes in West Greenland from “blue” to “brown.”

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Curr. Biol. (2025) 10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.025 Kelp forests are integral + critical to aquatic ecosystems, but species such as giant kelp + bull kelp have experienced population bottlenecks in recent decades.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Yale Climate Connections: "The National Hurricane Center set an all-time record for forecast accuracy in 2024. "The explanation for this progress stems from the 'Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project, or HFIP...established within NOA.A'

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Grist: "US Forest Service firings decimate alrady understaffed agency: 'It's catastrophic.' Anders Reynolds with the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit that litigates environmental issues in the southeastern U.S., says, “We are losing an entire generation of talent and passion.”

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Unusual 'soda lakes' may have kick-started life on Earth by concentrating key compounds." The element phosphorus is a key component of DNA, RNA + other critical biochemicals.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

US Energy Information Administration: "Solar, battery storage to lead new U.S. generating capacity additions in 2025." The EIA 'anticipates 63 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity to be added to the U.S. power grid in 2025.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Yale Climate Connections: "Colorado and Connecticut saved residents hundreds of thousands of dollars on their utility bills." Most 'methane gas' and electricity customers are unaware that their monthly bills often contain charges for inappropate expenses.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Threats to peatlands mapped." In water-rich, acidic soils, Earth’s peatlands store an estimated 600 gigatons [Gt or billion tonnes] of carbon, more than all the world’s forests—despite taking up just 3% of land.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

In Bellingham, WA last year, Whatcom Writers and Publishers held a unique Book Sale, unusual in that took place right in the center of Bellis Fair Mall. About thirty of us signed up to set up tables to market our own books, and it was great fun.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS:"Farm fertilizer could suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere." A new study reported in Nature suggests a way to accomplish [in]direct air capture [DAC] of carbon dioxide using natural minerals. Mimics the natural entrapment of CO2 by what is usually slow but inexoraable process of weathering.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Canary Media: "Rural Ohioans oppose solar farms, right? Not so, developer finds." Open Road Renewables is the developer seeking a permit to build the Grange Solar Grazing Center in Logan County. They reviewed > 2,500 comments submitted to the Ohio Power Siting Board regarding its permitting case.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "'Wrecking ball': RFK Jr. moves to fire thousands of health agency employees." Ordinarily I don't post about stories widely available in traditional, mainstream media.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Silk Road merchants may have introduced cats to China 1400 years ago." Though our 'feline friends' spread widely after being domesticated from wild cats in the Middle East thousands of years ago, how and when they got to East Asia has long remained mysterious.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Cows get second bird flu virus." Dairy cattle in Nevada have now experienced documented infection with a 'second variant of the bird flu virus that has decimated poultry and wild birds, a finding that could complicate efforts to control the disease + prevent it from spreading to humans.'

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "NIH, FDA picks back 'open' journal." For once I will not bury the lede: A new journal was announced last week, co-founded by President Donald Trump’s pick to direct the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), [which] aims to “promote open and transparent scientific discourse.”

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

Yale Climate Connections: another cartoon from Tom Toro. Personally, I am a lot more optimistic about the fate of the world. But I do love this cartoonist. And I confess I'm short of time to post anything more substantive this morning.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "This moth appears to turn into a leaf." We've all seen pictures of butterflies + moths with wing markings that look—for example—like eyes, which serve to disuade predators. But carefully examine the photograph + see how the forewings apparently actually have a 3-dimensional depth.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Climate Brink: "January sets an unexpected temperature record." Putting the local into the context of the global, i's important to comprehend the reality that we just experienced a warmer January than even climate scientists anticipated.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Geophys. Res. Lett. (2025) 10.1029/2024GL112002 "Temperature first." Start with the majestic photo of the arrival of Hurricane Isaac. Bercos-Hickey and Patricola performed regional model simulations to determine which is the dominant causal agent of hurricanes.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Warmer, more crowded cities bring out the rats." First, for those of you who missed these posts recently, welcome me back, since we just returned from cross-country skiing in eastern Washington for a week. A week without email access I should add.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Yale Climate Connections: Tom Toro is one of my favorite cartoonists, with over 200 cartoons published in The New Yorker since 2010. And his latest kids book Crocodiles Need Friends, Too! will be launched in May of this year.

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Polar bear fur has a built-in deicing feature." Physicist Bodil Holst of the University of Bergen thought the anti-icing effect might be related to the bears’ hair structure,.

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

Climate Central: "Year of the Glacier." I like the bar chart because it starts in my birth year, but lament it for not incorporating 2024 data, almost certainly because of the lag time in accruing all the data.

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

InsideClimateNews: "How to buy a piece of a lawsuit and impoverish a country." A secretive system, called Investor-State Dispute Settlement or ISDS, disrupts climate action + forces big payouts to fossil fuel companies.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Odd, fingerlike appendage helps this orchid reproduce." Understanding plant reproductive strategies is vital for conserving endangered species.The intricate pollination strategies within Orchidaceae have fascinated naturalists for over a century (Darwin, 1862).

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "These nanoscale 'soccer balls' make leafhoppers antireflective—and waterproof." The photo is a scanning-electron micrograph of nanoparticles from a ringspot leafhopper, Curtara insularis.

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

The initial book in the Dragon Trilogy series is CLIMATE DRAGON, published last February by Sidekick Press. The next book—set to be released in June—is CLOUD DRAGON, with a storyline picking up about 5 months after the denouement of the first novel.Clim

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Grist: "California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy." New study in the journal Renewable Energy that looked at California’s deployment of renewable power 'found that last year, from late winter to early summer, renewables fulfilled 100 percent of the state’s electricity demand.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Watch these 'walking' corals strut their stuff." The conventional wisdom is that coral larvae are mobile up until the moment they attach themselves to a spot where they will spend the rest of their existence.

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

Wikipedia: "Straight out of a mystery: The winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2024." Who knew that Wikipedia—an organization I have supported for yrs—had a foundation. And that the foundation had an annual photo contest. Both statements are true.

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Fat cells 'remember' being bigger—and act like it." There continues to be intense focus on the multiple types of human [neurologic] dementia, but at least we don't have to worry about our fat cells or adipocytes, because they don't seem to forget prior overindulgence.

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

CleanTechnica: "Ultra-fast chargers for electric staddle carriers coming to London Gateway Port." Most EV news is about personal + commercial transportation, almost all of it on roads: cars, SUVs, trucks, ebikes, + more. Let's look at straddle vehicles as an example of a key industrial application.

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Why do these curious sea spiders bury themselves in the sand?" The Southern Ocean’s frigid Antarctic waters are cold + hostile. But they provide a niche for one type of sea spider (Nymphon australe).

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "These salamanders get around on 'lakes of blood.'" What appears to be a still photograph is actually the beginning of a 30-second video [you may go the the link hidden in the title]. Animals may have at the ends of their extremities a variety of features: nails, claws, talons.

submitted 44 days ago • 1 comment

Canary Media: "Chart: EV sales grew slowly in 2024—but still set new records." The orange bar, or 'borange' to finally figure out a word to rhyme with orange, depicts American EV sales last year.

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "AI could help develop cheaper, faster, and more effective snake antivenoms." Yet today, "venomous snakebites kill upward of 100,000 people every year around the world and maim countless more." Yet antivenoms, the most effective treatments, are still produced much as they were a century ago.

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

AAAS: "Why the 'Ferrari of viruses' is surging through the Northern Hemisphere." Albert Kapikian at US National Institutes of Health discovered first norovirus in 1972 from an outbreak of “winter vomiting disease” that occurred at an elementary school in Norwalk, Ohio—hence the “noro” in the name.

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Stanford Med: "Blood test can predict how long vaccine immunity will last, Stanford medicine-led study shows." After kids receive their second dose of measles-mumps-rubella [MMR] vaccine, 'they gain protection against all three viruses for all or most of their lives'.

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments

Climate Brink: "Exploring the drivers of modern global warming." How can a guy with a name like Zeke Hausfather not be a geek, an actual climate scientist? One of the best substacks around IMHO.

submitted 50 days ago • 1 comment

AAAS: "Price-winning image showcases protein diversity." The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology announced last week their annual BioArt Awards.

submitted 52 days ago • 0 comments