Brigitte Nerlich
@bnerlich.bsky.social
Metaphor hunter, linguist, social scientist, blogger blog: https://makingsciencepublic.com/ also sorted into categories at https://wakelet.com/@bnerlich https://bnerlich-lang.github.io/ ORCID: 0000-0001-6617-7827
Truly biodegradable plastic exists now: #ShareGoodNewsToo www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours
Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife.
reuters.com
Here’s a bank saying the thing that everyone else in the EU can see with their own eyes. If you weaken climate action because you want better economic outcomes, your economic outcomes get much worse because of the bad climate change you could have acted on.
Rosamunde Van Brakel@rosamundevb.bsky.social · 3d agoA Dutch bank has warned that Europe risks falling into a “doom loop” in which climate damage slows economic growth, prompting governments to weaken climate policy, and so leaving the continent even more exposed to future heatwaves. euobserver.com/232026/eu-fu...
Dear @economist.com, More disclosure of risks (unknown but possibly substantial) & effectiveness (at best very low even in the 1 2019 article you cite & perhaps not to improve much) won't help the embryos involved make better decisions about their futures. Caution needed. I regret your position.
Timothy Caulfield@caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 3d agoIn praise of designer-ish babies www.economist.com/leaders/2026... cc @hankgreely.bsky.social Once upon a time I studied these kinda issues. At that time, the idea of doing this was viewed (rightly or not) as clearly questionable... Social normalization is sneaky, especially when $$$ involved.
Far too absent from public debate is a basic truth: until we actually mobilize to dramatically expedite the transition off fossil fuels, we will never get ahead of the curve. No amount of fire preparation will save us from an escalation in these horrors. sethdklein.substack.com/p/we-mobiliz...
We mobilize to put fires out, but not yet to prevent them
While many leaders are comparing the wildfire crisis to the Second World War, most fail to adopt the real lessons of pre-emptive wartime action.
sethdklein.substack.com
Now that it's a bit cooler, some personal reflections on the #wildfires that have affected people's lives across the globe makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/16/m...
Making extreme weather personal, again: Wildfires in the US, the UK and Germany
On 4 August a wildfire started near where my twin sister lives in New Mexico. This was not unprecedented. Indeed I have written here on the blog about fires there in 2011 and in 2022. What was unpr…
makingsciencepublic.com
A quick and rather personal reflection on #wildfires, here there and everywhere makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/16/m...
Making extreme weather personal, again: Wildfires in the US, the UK and Germany
On 4 August a wildfire started near where my sister lives in New Mexico. This was not unprecedented. Indeed I have written here on the blog about fires there in 2011 and in 2022. What was unprecede…
makingsciencepublic.com
A quick and rather personal reflection on #wildfires, here there and everywhere makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/16/m...
Making extreme weather personal, again: Wildfires in the US, the UK and Germany
On 4 August a wildfire started near where my sister lives in New Mexico. This was not unprecedented. Indeed I have written here on the blog about fires there in 2011 and in 2022. What was unprecede…
makingsciencepublic.com
A neighbour is jetwashing their camper van. Looking at my desiccated lawns and shrubs, that makes me feel quite angry....
“The Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in a phase of intense transmission. It is the largest Ebola outbreak ever reported in the country and expanding faster than any previous Ebola outbreak.” www.who.int/emergencies/...
Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus - Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in a phase of intense transmission. It is the largest Ebola outbreak ever reported in the country and expanding f...
who.int
Just heard the first ever national emergency message blaring out my phone about wildfires!!!!
Burnham: "We have to face up to the changing climate. I think we need a different debate about that. There’s no point denying where we are. We need to face up to it. We need more clean energy. We need to see that transition accelerate." Climate silence broken 🧵 www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
UK a ‘tinderbox’, says Burnham, as he calls in military and bans disposable barbecues – UK politics live
PM also says fire and rescue services will be given more cash
theguardian.com
Over 50 green groups are calling out PM Andy Burnham for his total silence on the climate crisis during Britain’s 5th heatwave. Focusing on disposable barbecues while heat cripples transport and the NHS is an unacceptable failure of leadership. How long can No 10 avoid reality? 🌡️ #ClimateCrisis
Green groups urge Andy Burnham to break silence on climate crisis
More than 50 organisations say PM urgently needs to show leadership and prepare British people for scale of change needed as UK struggles through another heatwave
theguardian.com
The one thing we had that was world leading, systematically destroyed. 100s of redundancies. This will surely finish off more universities. Hoping @lucympowell.bsky.social will act now. ❤️ @ucu.org.uk for fighting to save higher education. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
UK universities face ‘financial crisis’ amid collapse in international students
Higher education figures call on Labour to reverse tax on fees and warn institutions at risk of ‘going under’
theguardian.com
Today's post is about the past, returning to my work on the history of linguistics and to the work of a linguist I loved, Philipp Wegener who studied speech acts, metaphor, and the co-construction of meaning #linguistics #metaphor #hisphilang makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/14/r...
Remember Wegener?!
This blog post was first published on the History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences blog on 26 July 2026 and is republished here with permission. *** My old book Change in Language: Whitney, …
makingsciencepublic.com
Treating AI models as “systems from nowhere” that “go rogue” or “break contain” abstracts away the reality that these are products made by companies that bear responsibility for their deployment. @eryk.bsky.social refuses to relent on this point, thankfully.
Dr Zena Assaad@zenaassaad.bsky.social · last wk.New #ResponsibleBytesPodcast episode is now live, chatting with @eryk.bsky.social about the myths of AI & his work on "systems from nowhere". We also chat about his critiques of the recent report from the UN Scientific Panel on AI. 🎧 Listen anywhere you get your podcasts.
Mini human brains are being grown in labs all over the world. Soon, they could outthink neural networks. www.wired.com/story/organo...
AI Is Dead. Organoids Are Alive
Mini human brains are being grown in labs all over the world. Soon, they could outthink neural networks.
wired.com
On train. Dad opens book. Child: we are on holiday - we don't HAVE to read that! 😢
Large wildfire in Exeter near where I live. This afternoon has been sounds of helicopters and emergency vehicle sirens. Yesterday I was looking at my garden thinking what needs to be cut back to reduce fire risk. www.devonlive.com/news/devon-n...
Huge fire at popular Exeter park as 16 fire engines battle blaze
Smoke can be seen from across the city
devonlive.com
Guy Shrubsole@guyshrubsole.bsky.social · last wk.“As the prime minister tours every region of the UK, it will be hard to miss the impacts of this extraordinary summer: wildfires, drought, parched farmland & people struggling to work in extreme heat" - Emma Howard Boyd Now Burnham must act on the climate crisis www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
If it’s good enough for the courts, it should be good enough for everywhere else in the country… Meta should try marketing a sketchpad and pencils instead.
Meta glasses banned from courts in England and Wales
Exclusive: Court service says anyone trying to enter buildings with glasses will have them confiscated and returned when they leave
theguardian.com
This is what the #ClimateCrisis looks like in Shanghai
fife4europe #FBPE #RejoinEU@fife4europe.bsky.social · last wk.1/2 Shanghai logging a record 313mm of rain in 24 hours—its heaviest downpour in over 150 years—proves that historical climate baselines are officially obsolete. Over 1m people evacuated as supercharged storms hit Asia. How much more evidence do we need? 🌧️ #ClimateCrisis #FBPE
"Anthropic’s commitments under the EU AI Act’s Code of Practice" A reminder that these things are not really that complicated. We are not the serfs of tech billionaires. We can regulate to get the world we want to live in. And it is easier to regulate if you operate at scale, as the EU does.
Jo Michell@jomichell.bsky.social · last wk.This is interesting: Claude is going to add 'watermarks' to its output. support.claude.com/en/articles/...
All-time low water flow in the river Rhine! Where it enters the Netherlands, only 614 m³/s yesterday, breaking the November 1947 record of 620 m³/s. In summer, this is unheard of: normally it's around 1700 m³/s. Little or no rain upstream.
Dream job alert for many people!!!! 👇
Veronika Koller@veronikakoller.bsky.social · last wk.I'm really happy that there is now a job opening for a Lecturer in Discourse Studies at @lancslinguistics.bsky.social. Closing date 4 September, interviews 21 September. This is a great opportunity for an early-career researcher, so get your application ready! hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
"Restructuring research funding as a choice between discovery and application gets the economics wrong, the evidence wrong and the people wrong." Great piece. I suspect Richard Jones (on Bsky?) will have views. arxiv.org/abs/2608.00172
Discovery is not the opposite of application
Restructuring research funding as a choice between discovery and application gets the economics wrong, the evidence wrong and the people wrong.
arxiv.org
I went looking for old anti-vaccine propaganda and expected an interesting historical curiosity. Instead I found arguments from 1802, 1885 and 1920 that would barely need rewriting to circulate online today. That raises a rather disconcerting question.
WTF, NYer. "If we agree that college primarily serves a credentialling process that stamps select young people as worthy of work..." We do not. So much for the bastion of erudite journalism. This is sensationalism, damaging our most vital institution: education. www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...
