The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard has become a key outpost for Arctic science. But geopolitical tensions are complicating research efforts. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3RiuWPK
Arwyn Edwards
@arwynedwards.bsky.social
FLSW. Reader in Biosciences, Aberystwyth University. Likes cool microbes in warming places. Posts in personal capacity, etc.
🌡️ Unprecedented June heat across Svalbard, led by extreme spikes at the highest latitudes! Final monthly data shows Karl XII-øya (80.65N) shattered its June record reaching 0.8°C (prev 0.2°C), while Verlegenhuken (80.05N) crushed its 2024 record by a massive 0.8°C, hitting 3.2°C.
Can we 'preserve' glaciers with geoengineering? 🚨 new article🚨 on AntarcticGlaciers: www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and...
Can we ‘preserve’ glaciers with geoengineering? - AntarcticGlaciers.org
Glacier geoengineering can be effective at reducing melt at small, local scales, but has significant environmental, governance and financial costs
antarcticglaciers.org
Latest work from my lab, in which @amycrobes.bsky.social probes the evolutionary consequences of prophages potentiating death at otherwise sublethal antibiotic doses
Amy Zamora@amycrobes.bsky.social · last mo.We're excited to share our work on how prophages influence the evolution of resistance against DNA-damaging antibiotics! This has been a fun project with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @theshreyaspai.bsky.social, @kepatitis-c.bsky.social, & @fernpizza.bsky.social biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/
So I'm finally thoroughly parsing through this preprint from @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social & Patrick Lypaczewski where they homebrewed targeted ONT library prep, and it's even more brilliant than at first glance. Plus they've been so generous in answering my questions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
#ShowYourStripes I've updated my Svalbard collage of beautiful Hjortfjellet in Longyearbyen with the warming stripes from Svalbard - showyourstripes.info Svalbard is among the fastest-warming places on Earth!
Ed Hawkins@edhawkins.org · 2mo agoAs is the annual tradition, we hope many of you will take the opportunity to use the Climate Stripes this week to start important conversations about the risks from, and solutions to, climate change. Officially, #ShowYourStripes for 2026 is on Sat 20th June. www.ShowYourStripes.info
I met a microbiologist yesterday. He was much bigger than I expected.
"So you expect every author to check every citation is real and accurate?" YES, in fact, we do. The very *best* explanation for having a fake or inaccurate citation is that you were misleading your readers by dishonestly padding your citations! That's unacceptable!
Dr. Holly Walters@manigarm.bsky.social · 3mo agoI'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?
I wrote about being inundated with AI writing at every turn, unwittingly turning my brain into the AI police, and how shitty AI writing is randomly showing up in my real life outside of the internet www.404media.co/your-ai-use-...
Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain
AI writing is impossible to avoid, is making everything sound the same, and is driving us crazy.
404media.co
"Stop messing with rumen microbes and focus on reducing ruminant populations for environmental and human health" There are nearly 4 billion domesticated ruminants on Earth. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Stop messing with rumen microbes and focus on reducing ruminant populations for environmental and human health - npj Sustainable Agriculture
npj Sustainable Agriculture - Stop messing with rumen microbes and focus on reducing ruminant populations for environmental and human health
nature.com
Congratulations to Lea Kneissle on successfully defending her Masters thesis at UNIS & University of Stuttgart!
See also #Greenland. Yesterday it was 11C in Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund), the average for april is -8.5C www.dmi.dk/vejrarkiv/no...
Ketil Isaksen@ketilisaksen.bsky.social · 4mo agoSvalbard 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
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
Svalbard’s weather is fickle, but one might expect highs of -9*C in April here, 1200 miles from the North pole. But over recent days it’s more like June. Max of +7*C, T shirt weather, and rivers starting to flow, snowmobiles stranded. In my student days +7*C would be a hot July day.
Still on a month long busman’s holiday to the Arctic 20 years later.
Simon Hammann@simonhammann.bsky.social · 4mo agoDon't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.
Polar bear walks in to a pub, goes up to the bar and says… Could I have a gin and … Tonic Sure, says the bartender. But why the big paws? #freshlyclicked #fieldphotofriday
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." Carl Sagan
Paul Byrne@theplanetaryguy.com · 4mo agoThis image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew. Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right. Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman
I have to give a big shout out to Aberystwyth University library for emailing us students with the message: Don't like/trust/approve of AI? Don't feel pressured into using it. You're not missing out if you don't. It's potentially wasting your time and eroding your confidence with false flattery.
Very cool job opportunity with us: CL3 lab manager and biosafety officer @aberdlsagb.bsky.social closes 22/03/26. Join a great team with fantastic facilities in a lovely corner of the planet: jobs.aber.ac.uk/en/vacancy/b...
AI has huge promise for genomics -- but it has consistently failed at microbiome-based prediction. My new post on why simple models keep winning, where deep learning actually earns its place, and where the field is headed blekhman.substack.com/p/ai-keeps-f...
AI Keeps Failing at Microbiome Prediction
Why simple models keep winning, where deep learning still shines, and where the field is headed
blekhman.substack.com
When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.
If you're interested in particle fluxes, sinking plankton and the Arctic, then the fantastic Emilia Trudnowska has a great 2.5 year position open for you: Work on data from our Arctic expeditions to study how microbial dynamics around Greenland and Svalbard are responding to climate change 🌊
A new era for #ONT amplicon sequencing? We show that #ONT #amplicon sequencing now achieves accuracy sufficient for #ASV resolution using standard Illumina-based pipelines. We validated this by sequencing identical amplicons on #ONT and #PacBio. @nanoporetech.com www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Polar researchers are so often great storytellers. Here's a compilation of stories from the field by polar scientists, including @aberdlsagb.bsky.social 's @tir5.bsky.social apecsnetherlands.nl/tales-from-t...
Tales from the Poles - APECS Netherlands
Tales from the Poles Tales from the Poles is a collaborative storytelling project organized by APECS Netherlands and the UK Polar Network. Its aim is to bring together diverse voices connected to th...
apecsnetherlands.nl
A great read on saving endangered microbes (and not just from glaciers) “The world is at a critical inflection point,” says @gilbertjacka.bsky.social “If we don’t do something now, shit’s going to get real, and microbiology needs to be considered in this space.” www.noemamag.com/saving-the-l...
Saving The Life We Cannot See | NOEMA
Conservation has traditionally ignored the planet’s smallest life forms. Microbiologists are trying to change that — before it’s too late.
noemamag.com
If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff
If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff
A debating society didn’t want to invite two figures connected to the party to speak. Cue an authoritarian response, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
theguardian.com