If you are like me irritated by how Chrome on MacOS refuses to be closed unless you hold ⌘+Q, here is Chrome → Settings → Appearance → turn off “Warn before quitting with ⌘Q” I bet they aren't doing it for me. I only use it for Google Scholar, which refuses to work with Private Relay.

This is both fascinating and extremely worrying interview about the threats of AI. Ajeya Cotra is an excellent communicator. youtu.be/X50zezLFWWI?...

Ajeya Cotra – "This might be the clearest warning shot we ever get"

YouTube video by Dwarkesh Patel

youtu.be

Great piece from @sciencebails.bsky.social and others! Support your local society journal!

AGU (American Geophysical Union)@agu.org · last mo.

In a new @eos.org piece, the 1st cohort of Early Career Editorial Fellows in JGR: Biogeosciences reflect on their experience and what they've learned over the past 2 years. 🔗 eos.org/editors-vox/... #AGUPubs #Publishing #Academia #STEM @jgrbiogeo.bsky.social

Our new paper on an interpretable pedotransfer function is out. Traditionally, PTFs predict the parameters of water retention models. This new model predicts water content directly and exposes its internal attention weights for interpretation. doi.org/10.1029/2025... #SoilScience #MachineLearning

Interpretable Soil Water Retention Prediction Using Hierarchical Attention Networks With Uncertainty Quantification

Existing pedotransfer functions cannot reveal which soil properties control water retention at different soil moisture states Direct prediction with attention mechanisms achieves superior accurac...

doi.org

New entry on my list of Claude tics: "say the word." As in, "say the word and I'll do X." Every time.

A teacher had a student who kept falling asleep in class; turns out she had no bed at home. So the teacher ordered a bed, installed it in the girl's home--and then got her food. My report: Trump's policies inflict pain, but here are the counter stories of hope: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/o...

Opinion | Where the Teacher Is a Hero (Gift Article)

The Trump administration is squeezing struggling Americans with benefit cuts, but ordinary people are stepping up to help.

nytimes.com

Abstract deadline is TODAY for #AGU26. Working on climate action in higher ed? Campus living labs, fossil-free pathways, students driving real solutions? Present your work and ideas in SY009: Climate Action in Higher Education agu.confex.com/agu/agu26/pr...

Yulissa led this continental-scale look at how temporal averaging warps modeled soil respiration. @yperezrojas.bsky.social is new to Bluesky, give her a follow.

JGR: Biogeosciences@jgrbiogeo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Jensen's Inequality Quantifies How Temporal Averaging of Moisture Inputs Affects Modeled Soil Respiration Across Continental Scales agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Yulissa's continental-scale dive into how temporal averaging warps modeled soil respiration was a delight to advise. @yperezrojas.bsky.social is new to Bluesky, give her a follow. #soil #soil-modeling #respiration

Ben Bond-Lamberty@benbondlamberty.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Interesting analysis led by Perez Rojas and @teamrat.bsky.social

"209. A particular responsibility rests on the shoulders of those who work in the field of research. All the key players in this field — scientists, business owners, investors, academic authorities, politicians and others — must work with a transparent and responsible mindset,... #ENCYCLICAL #AI

Teneille Nel’s presenting at EGU results from the collaborative work of Manisha Dolui @moreorloess.bsky.social @emsaurios.bsky.social @aaberhe.com and many others. Here is the paper fresh off the press: soil.copernicus.org/articles/12/...

New paper on destabilization of buried soil organic carbon under changing moisture regimes, based on incubation experiments with the Brady Soil, a prominent paleosol in the Great Plains loess sequence. Teneille Nel et al., soil.copernicus.org/articles/12/...

Destabilization of buried carbon under changing moisture regimes

Abstract. Paleosols formed by the burial of topsoil during landscape evolution can sequester substantial amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC) over millennia due to protection from surface disturbances...

soil.copernicus.org

A US service member is missing and this is the first we've heard from the president. Need I say more

TrumpReposter@trumpreposter.bsky.social · 6mo ago

KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?

So. Does the world feel better now?

#TansleyReview: #Soil organic matter dynamics under changing #precipitation regimes @aaberhe.com et al. 👇 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #LatestIssue @teamrat.bsky.social

This study shows the important connections between landscape evolution and soil organic carbon storage. It's the work of a great research team including Manisha Dolui, Teneille Nel, @aaberhe.com, @teamrat.bsky.social, @emsaurios.bsky.social, and many others.

Happy to share another paper from the loess tablelands of the Great Plains, on organic C in buried soils and how it becomes susceptible to decomposition. We sampled the Brady Soil along transects of decreasing depth of burial and increasing erosional exposure. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

(🧵 6/6) This review synthesizes current research on how climate change-induced alterations in precipitation patterns, both directly and indirectly, affect the amount, composition, and persistence of soil organic matter.

(🧵 5/6) Their collective expertise spans soil organic matter dynamics, nutrient cycling, soil chemistry, soil ecology, soil mechanics, and vadose zone hydrology.

🌱 The authors behind the paper 🌱 (🧵 4/6) The authors of this Tansley review consist of soil biogeochemists and an environmental soil physicist affiliated with universities across the United States and South Korea.

(🧵 2/6) The amount, intensity, and frequency of precipitation have been changing around the world due to climate change. Changing precipitation can impact interactions among plants, microbes, fauna, and soil minerals, altering soil organic matter dynamics.

✨ Paper spotlight ✨ (🧵 1/6) Soil organic matter dynamics under changing precipitation regimes nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @teamrat.bsky.social @aaberhe.com

#TansleyReview SOM under changing precipitation regimes Min et al. @teamrat.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #plantscience

"We spoke with nine C-level U.S. airline executives and senior officials across six U.S. carriers for this story. They expressed varying degrees of skepticism, but none felt the cuts were without some level of political interference."

The Air Current@theaircurrent.com · 11mo ago

With little recourse, U.S. airline leaders skeptical of DOT flight cut justification theaircurrent.com/airlines/air... (via @willguisbond.com & @jonostrower.com) #staycurrent

Grew up under a dictatorship, they attacked expertise first. This is alarmingly familiar. Trust in expertise is the foundation of modern civilization. Even as a researcher, I rely on expert knowledge I could never master in a lifetime. Rejecting that isn’t freedom, it’s how societies collapse!

Republicans Against Trumpism@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social · 12mo ago

RFK Jr: We need to stop trusting the experts... Trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy, it's a feature of religion and totalitarianism.

“Despots want science that has practical results,” said Paul R. Josephson, an emeritus professor of history at Colby College and author of a book on totalitarian science. “They’re afraid that basic knowledge will expose their false claims.”

Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s Attacks on Science

nytimes.com

The Soil Physics Kirkham Medal was given to Bill Jury at the Kirkham Conference in Fukushima. He had an illustrious career at UC Riverside before retiring as Distinguished Professor Emeritus. #soil #soilphysics #kirkhamconference #sssa

It’s official, JB Milliken will be the 22nd President of the University of California system. It was a privilege to represent UC faculty interests in this search. … he currently serves as Chancellor of the UT System, previously led the CUNY system, U of NE and was v. Pres of UNC

James B. Milliken named 22nd president of the University of California

The University of California Board of Regents today approved the appointment of James B. Milliken as the 22nd president of UC’s world-renowned system of 10 campuses, six academic health centers, and t...

universityofcalifornia.edu

Gardner (1991) argued that “if basic soil science did not exist, there is ample evidence that we need to invent it.” While practical applications are valuable outcomes of soil science research, they should emerge from a deep understanding of soil systems rather than define the discipline's scope.

Defining soil science: Balancing fundamental research and societal needs

Soil science's identity emerges from studying Earth's complex living and nonliving systems across scales. Defining soil science requires balancing practical impacts with fundamental scientific explo.....

doi.org

📢 New pub: Defining #soil science: Balancing fundamental research and societal needs, in Soil Science Society of America Journal doi.org/10.1002/saj2... @teamrat.bsky.social & I argue, soil science, though crucial for solving environmental challanges, should not be defined solely by its applications