OTD in 1881, Charles Darwin published his last book, on earthworms. It reflected a long interest in animal minds: “One alternative alone is left, namely, that worms, although standing low in the scale of organization, possess some degree of intelligence.” 🧪 🌱🐋🦋🦫 #HistSTM #philsci #pschsky #cogsci

This earthquake in Panama is the 12th earthquake of magnitude 7 or greater this year. Is this an unusual number of large quakes? No. This graph shows M7+ earthquakes over the last 30 years. This year is very average.

my BIGGEST flooding pet peeve on full display. DO NOT DRIVE ON FLOODED ROADS. PERIOD. Not for your car's sake I couldn't give a fuck about your car. But every little wake you send out to the roadside could make the 1 or 2 inch difference between someones house getting water inside or not.

Arachnophobic spiders, in case you needed something else to think about.

Spiders can have arachnophobia! : Short Wave

If you're not so fond of spiders, you may find kindred spirits in other spiders! Researcher Daniela Roessler worked with jumping spiders and found that they know to get away from the presence of othe...

npr.org

I wld read a book abt this puzzle. Peruse th whole thead: how do we and CAN we coordinate 1000s of astronomers studying 100s of ideas with ONE big assed instrument?¹

Bruce Macintosh@bmacastro.bsky.social · last wk.

This graph represents probably more than a hundred thousand hours of work by our community. Every year when I look at it I think our current proposal model is broken.

They still haven’t published the original data set yet. Some cycle 1 data are still not published, but those teams are still getting data for different targets.

#MinCup26 Yay quartz. Here r some tiny 'herkimers' growing with calcite in a seam. Helderberg formation Coeymans NY, usa

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.social · last wk.

Congratulations, Quartz! After a decade of #MinCup, this key rock-forming mineral of optical tricks is the #MinCup26 Champion! Due to intense manipulation attempts in the final hours, the exact winning margin is still being audited. Please join us tomorrow for celebration!

The arXiv limit Putting my community service hat on, I thought I would relay an announcement on the an announcement on the arXiv blog that it is introducing a limit on the rate that any individual can submit papers to arXiv. To start with, the limit will be two per month. This limit applies to the…

The arXiv limit

Putting my community service hat on, I thought I would relay an announcement on the an announcement on the arXiv blog that it is introducing a limit on the rate that any individual can submit papers to arXiv. To start with, the limit will be two per month. This limit applies to the submitter, not to all the authors, so I think large collaborations will find a way around it by having different co-authors do the submissions.

telescoper.blog

Has your school connected with a scientist yet this year? Skype a Scientist offers free connections with scientists for virtual Q&As with classrooms, libraries, clubs, and more! Sign up for a match at www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html 🖼️ by @hanfranstudio.bsky.social

STUPENDOUS INTELLIGENCE!

David Kaib@davidkaib.bsky.social · 2w ago

Oh you are only doing Super Intelligence? I am already at Super Duper Intelligence.

TMT turns down €1 billion and the offer of a host site (La Palma) where they can actually build 🤷‍♂️ The project prefers to stick with Mauna Kea, so remains stuck in legal limbo and without sufficient funding. ☄️🔭

Daniel Clery@danclery.bsky.social · 3w ago

Giant telescope project rejects La Palma as backup site | Science | AAAS 🔭🧪 @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

I will be attending #SICB2027 this year! I am also actively looking for a postdoc position and would love to connect with PIs looking for postdocs! I have interest/expertise in behavior, mate choice/sexual selection, host-parasite interactions, and disability/neurodivergent advocacy in biology.

...it's name parses to something like "Head Take-Away-er"???

Alex Wild@alexwild.bsky.social · 2w ago

A parasitic Apocephalus ant-decapitating fly closes in on her target, a Camponotus chromaiodes carpenter ant. Sand Ridge State Forest, Illinois.

This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.

no no we need to bend like the willow. what mineral does that #MinCup26 ??? you can dissolve it erode it melt it and it just reforms? at surface conditions...

Daniel A. Walker@danwalker9999.bsky.social · 2w ago

In times like these, quartz is the mineral we need. It can't be scratched. It doesn't back down and it doesn't break down. It is unchanging and unyielding.

I'm obviously biased because I study Mimas (and Herschel specifically), but this little moon really is incredibly interesting and unique. There's a lot we can learn from its cratering record about whether it may actually be a "stealth" ocean world (one whose ocean seems missing at first glance).

Planetary Crater Consortium@planetarycraters.bsky.social · 2w ago

Crater Fact Friday ☄️DID YOU KNOW☄️ that Saturn's moon Mimas looks like the Death Star? The iconic crater that gives it this appearance is Herschel, and its sharp central peak and steep walls may tell us about the age of a potential ocean deep beneath the surface!

@brandontbishop.bsky.social do you know who is good at mineral id? the 2nd mineral gave wonky scratch tests... hardness... 4-7? can't remember. i have more photos..

Barry Goldman@barrygoldman1.bsky.social · 2w ago

#MinCup26 graphite??? wait wait wait i have collected a cool graphite! these two samples were from Warwick NY, in the far north end of the famous Franklin marble location. first is marble with graphite flakes. never had found graphite before. 2nd is a mystery mineral. hardness tests wonky.

#MinCup26 graphite??? wait wait wait i have collected a cool graphite! these two samples were from Warwick NY, in the far north end of the famous Franklin marble location. first is marble with graphite flakes. never had found graphite before. 2nd is a mystery mineral. hardness tests wonky.

In our analyses, gene expression predicts only part of this landscape, so membrane composition has to be measured directly rather than inferred from the transcriptome.

We are hiring! Come join us in the Straw Lab at the @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social . Seeking a scientist to work on the neural and computational mechanisms of visual navigation in honey bees. uni-freiburg.de/en/job/00005...

Ooh! @nickybay.bsky.social has posted photos from his joint biodiversity survey in Angola on his site: www.nickybay.com/cassai-life-... Check out this amazing mantis www.flickr.com/photos/nicka...

Grass mantis (Pyrgomantis sp.) - P2092580

www.nickybay.com

flickr.com

I’m so tired of US politics, I propose we abolish existing states and make new ones based on the ancient Cicada brood territories.

thread:

Simonetta Gribaldo@sgribaldo.bsky.social · 3w ago

While peptidoglycan (PG) is an essential and near-universal feature of Bacteria, it is largely absent in Archaea. A notable exception is a large clade of methane-producing archaea, which possess a cell wall with a distinct type of PG (also known as pseudomurein) 2/9

While peptidoglycan (PG) is an essential and near-universal feature of Bacteria, it is largely absent in Archaea. A notable exception is a large clade of methane-producing archaea, which possess a cell wall with a distinct type of PG (also known as pseudomurein) 2/9

@alexwild.bsky.social do you think this waspy looking critter is a fly, something like Sphiximorpha? from Mariela | Neurodocente 🧠 @neurodocente account. Mexico, i believe.

Interested in #archaea, #methane, #cell-envelopes? New paper out @nature.com ! We discovered an enzyme that specifically cleaves the cell wall of methanogens, revealing a new chemical structure of archaeal peptidoglycan, 50 yrs after its first description www.nature.com/articles/s41... #MicroSky 🧵👇

"Why would you need more than 32,000 points on a path?" you might ask? Because to make maps and figures from geographic information systems data, GIS software often spits out vector files with paths having that many points. I don't need to *print* that many but I need the file to *open*

The answer is “samples from sites specifically chosen as having young lunar basalts (as estimated from crater counts) to serve as benchmarks to make the lunar dating system, and thus inner solar system age estimates, more accurate and robust”. (cc @barbylon.bsky.social)

In Situ Geochronology for the Next Decade: Mission Designs for the Moon, Mars, and Vesta

In Situ Geochronology for the Next Decade: Mission Designs for the Moon, Mars, and Vesta, Cohen, Barbara A., Young, Kelsey E., Zellner, Nicolle E. B., Zacny, Kris, Yingst, R. Aileen, Watkins, Ryan N., Warwick, Richard, Valencia, Sarah N., Swindle, Timothy D., Robbins, Stuart J., Petro, Noah E., Nicoletti, Anthony, Moriarty, Dan P., Lynch, Richard, Indyk, Stephen J., Gross, Juliane, Grier, Jennifer A., Grant, John A., Ginyard, Amani, Fassett, Caleb I., Farley, Kenneth A., Farcy, Benjamin J., Ehlmann, Bethany L., Dyar, M. Darby, Daelemans, Gerard, Curran, Natalie M., van der Bogert, Carolyn H., Arevalo, Ricardo D., Scott Anderson, F.

iopscience.iop.org

robynhitchcock.bsky.social@robynhitchcock.bsky.social · 3w ago

“Giant ___ are what you take, walking on the moon” - what word do you think would fit best in the blank space above? A) Crabs B) Flippers C) Heirloom Tomatoes D) Breaths E) Henchmen F) Prongs G) Liberties or F) Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roths?

(feat. SwRI’s own Raluca Rufu, Alyssa Rhoden, and Kevin Walsh)

@cosmos4u.bsky.social · 3w ago

The role of disruptive impacts on ocean generation and longevity in icy moons: www.nature.com/articles/s41... -> Scientists Simulate Cosmic Crashes to Test Whether Icy Moons Gain or Lose Their Ability to Sustain Life: www.astro.umd.edu/news-events/...

Beta pic b is really young, if that matters, and probably somewhat degenrate in its core.