Excellent piece by Sharon Squassoni in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, on how Trump's bizarre Saudi nuclear deal drags the world into "nuclear quicksand." thebulletin.org/2026/07/the-... The Bulletin keeps going from strength to strength. They deserve your subscriptions.

The US-Saudi nuclear deal isn't dead—It's dragging Washington into nonproliferation quicksand

A condition that Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel hasn't killed the nuclear agreement—it has only masked the fine print. Behind official claims that uranium enrichment is off the table, th...

thebulletin.org

In a generally good dialogue on the fallacy of endless growth, the respondents punt on what is actually a very simple question www.theguardian.com/community/se...

From reports I hear on recent A.I. meetings, it sounds to me like A.I. has become a cult. An outrageously over-funded cult, but a cult nonetheless.

I've posted about a lot of grim stuff, but to partly offset that, I want to say how much I've enjoyed reconnecting with Oxford folk music friends in sessions. I played quite a lot when in Cambridge, MA, but the Oxford folk scene is really special, with Ed's Scandi session, the Lamb and Flag open

Very excellent postdoc opportunity, at U. of Geneva, with collaborations across a very exciting Swiss exoplanet and life network. www.unige.ch/sciences/cvu...

This thread highights a subtle and difficult messaging problem. Achieving netZero will not reverse the impacts of the current climate, which has been heated up by historical CO2 emissions. It is too late for that. The point of netZero is to prevent the future situation from getting even worse. ..

Kees van der Leun@sustainable2050.bsky.social · 3d ago

The nasty little thing with climate change is that the situation progressively gets worse as long as we emit greenhouse gases, and that is irreversible. So there's no happy message "Let's bring emissions to zero and then everything will be alright" Nope, everything will be worse than it is now. 1/

Since 1989, the CO₂ from #Norway 🇳🇴 oil has outweighed everything the country has emitted at home in its entire history. Now at 13.8 Gt from the crude, against 2.8 Gt of national emissions since 1751. Counting gas too, it is 20 Gt.

Intéressant article sur les "scientifiques de Vichy" aux USA, "prêts à collaborer avec le trumpisme, croyant à tort que l'obéissance leur sauvera la vie." par Gregg Gonsalves, correspondant du magazine Nation & professeur associé d'épidémiologie à l'École de santé publique de Yale shorturl.at/5h2mP

The Rise of the Vichy Scientists

Too many scientists are willing to collaborate with Trumpism in the mistaken assumption that obedience will save their own necks.

shorturl.at

When I look at what Infantino and Trump have made of World Cup football, my mind turns to the immortal lyrics of "Hatar Sport" in the Swedish film by Lucas Moodysson, "Vi är bäst": Människor dör varje dag Och du bryr dej bara om ditt fotbolls lag

If we can go this far, we can go the rest of the way and get to zero in the power system. And we absolutely don't need any more North Sea drilling. It will take somewhat longer to get fossil fuels out of ground transport, but renewable electricity is the key to that, too. Burnham, hear that?

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 5d ago

In fifteen years, the UK has deleted coal power from their power system, halved fossil gas use, replaced most of that with wind and solar, and the country has not suffered the hellish blackout apocalypse conservatives and media outlets promised would happen. ember-energy.org/data/electri...

But sadly, now in the US, insulin belongs to big pharma not the world, and owing to the government's refusal to negotiate prices, the insulin tri-opoly is charging hundreds of dollars for a dose that costs maybe $5 to make, using a bunch of patent gimmicks to do so.

Ariaa®@ariaa.bsky.social · 5d ago

Trump's latest attack on nature: this time revoking protection for the incomparable Boundary Waters Canoe WIlderness. eos.org/articles/one... This feels even more personal than most, since some of my Midwestern forebears (by marriage) were instrumental in establishing protection.

One Billion Years Ago, Northern Minnesota Nearly Split Apart. Now, Two Companies Want to Mine the Aftermath. - Eos

A continental rift created valuable mineral deposits beneath a remote wilderness beloved by recreationists.

eos.org

Is “pragmatic” the new, “grown up” word? Andy, there’s nothing “pragmatic” about drilling for more oil & gas - to even consider it with the planet literally on fire is total madness. How many times must we say it will do nothing for energy bills or security? It would be an act of utter recklessness

Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas

PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’

theguardian.com

Defending himself against Trump's version of what Burnham said about N. Sea oil in their meeting, Burnham, quoted in The Guardian today, said he was going to take a "pragmatic" approach to the N. Sea, and that "you can't ignore the energy resource when people are struggling." This is really

I was at the Proms last night and was struck by a silly thought: If you are on the arena floor, and especially like the performance, do you give them a sitting ovation? Or if it's really, really good (like the violinist in the concerto last night) maybe you express that appreciation by lying down?

A new direction for Harrison.

Harrison Nicholls@nichollsh.bsky.social · last wk.

New paper on arXiv today! On the efficacy of using novel Bayesian machine learning to dispatch 'expensive' forward models of planetary evolution. This connects with #PLATO ageing and can help solve degeneracies in current static-retrieval approaches which treat #exoplanets as snapshots.

Another good example of how curiosity-driven science yields the out-of-the-box breakthroughs that drive the economy of the future. The US (and even UK) have turned their backs on this kind of science.

altNOAA 🇺🇸@altnoaa.bsky.social · last wk.

Physicist Ed Purcell was studying outer space when he discovered nuclear magnetic resonance. Years later, scientists would take his discovery and invent the MRI, one of the most important inventions of 20th Century. When people say we shouldn't go to space, they're speaking from ignorance.

More insightful commentary from The Atlantic's Adam Serwer.

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · last wk.

Manosphere grifters have figured out that some men are easily manipulated by making them feel insecure about their masculinity. The GOP has turned this sales pitch into both an ideology and a campaign strategy. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

This is a useful introduction to WBGT, which is the most direct measure of the energy balance of a mammalian body, esp. humans, that determines whether cooling to maintain body temperature is possible. One must recognize that WBGT is hard to measure, and there are only sparse measurements ...

Space City Weather@spacecitywx.bsky.social · last wk.

Wet Bulb Globe Temperatures are useful at this time of year to help differentiate “hot” weather from the “extremely hot” weather you need to avoid. We’re going to see some of the latter this week. #houwx

Great article on heat stress physics. Very smart. Hats off. Entrainment‐Based Framework for Understanding Extratropical Moist Heat Extremes - Jha - 2026 - Geophysical Research Letters - Wiley Online Library agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Entrainment‐Based Framework for Understanding Extratropical Moist Heat Extremes

Dry-air entrainment in the lower free troposphere intensifies extratropical moist heat extremes Entrainment-based framework explains breakdown of moist convective neutrality during extratropical ...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

ABC News pumped out a horrific piece of anti-Ukrainian, pro-russian propaganda. It printed the lies of the Gauleiter of russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya region about an attack that never occurred. @ABC used a photo of the aftermath of a russian attack on Kyiv to worsen their crime against public trust.

Very interesting study, relevant to recent discussion of trends in the top of atmosphere energy budget.

Kevin Anchukaitis@thirstygecko.bsky.social · last wk.

High-resolution simulations reveal positive global warming feedback from Pacific low clouds www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

More vacuous Atlantic clickbait that's just there for the purpose of showing they're willing to annoy the libs.

The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 2w ago

A lot of people in public health believe that MAHA is “nothing more than a subversive anti-vaccine, anti-science syndicate,” but the movement is an opportunity that the public-health sector “cannot afford to squander,” Craig Spencer argues:

Very true about this book. It's a gem. A family member got it for me last Christmas.

Jack Ashby@jackdashby.bsky.social · 2w ago

I'm late to the party, but @andreawulf.bsky.social's masterpiece is utterly brilliant. I knew almost nothing about Humboldt, but his impact on how we see nature in the West - both ecologically and emotionally - was nothing short of immense. But more than that, the story is brilliantly told. Read it!

Another great song from Andy.

Andy Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ revkin.substack.com@revkin.bsky.social · 2w ago

Clip from my updated video for my new song on the dangers facing those who harvest seafood – the second most dangerous occupation in America, and the top one in Canada. No AI in my songwriting, folks. Full song and background: open.substack.com/pub/revkin/p...

Raffi is on Bluesky! I'm singing Baby Beluga right now in celebration.

Raffi_RC@raffic.bsky.social · 2w ago

🌟 within the 50th anniversary celebrations for my Singable Songs album, this new picture book by Jon Klassen of my song “I Wonder If I’m Growing” will be published in October. can be pre-ordered now. #singablesongs #belugagrads

Terrific insights and analysis by terrific journalist at @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

The Art of the Giveaway

The Trump administration is giving Saudi Arabia exactly what it wants. For what?

theatlantic.com

I think this thread by @pwnallthethings.bsky.social unjustifiably soft-pedals what is wrong with what OpenAI did. It tries to portray it all as just "business as usual," for commercial research, but in fact it shows how sloppy OpenAi was, and how weak the guardrails. OpenAI did harm

This article is very interesting from the standpoint of Eukaryotic evolution during the middle Proterozoic -- one of the key steps on the way to multicellular life. The main line of evidence still seems to be molecular clocks, so uncertain to my thinking.

Miguel Méndez Sandín@sandinmm.eurosky.social · 3w ago

Apparently the "boring billion" was actually exciting! We provide molecular evidence of complex Mesoproterozoic eukaryotic communities. So happy to see this out 🥳 Thanks to @phoebefossil.bsky.social , Hélène Morlon & @fburki.bsky.social for a lovely collab! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Congratulations to Dr Mei Ting (Martha) Mak on the publication of her paper, "Flow-Driven Limb-Asymmetry of Haze Distribution Part I: An Analytical Framework for Predicting the Size Distribution of Photochemical Hazes Across the Two Limbs of hot-Jupiters" Read it here: arxiv.org/abs/2607.14845

Flow-Driven Limb-Asymmetry of Haze Distribution Part I: An Analytical Framework for Predicting the Size Distribution of Photochemical Hazes Across the Two Limbs of hot-Jupiters

Photochemical haze, a common aerosol type expected to form in the atmospheres of hot-Jupiters, can become concentrated to different extents between the morning and evening limbs depending on the balan...

arxiv.org