What we talk about when we talk about the unbearable lightness of boring titles
Joe Brown
@j0ebr0wn.bsky.social
Professor, UNC Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering. Director, UNC Water Institute. Environmental health microbiology, pathogen transmission, environmental epidemiology, global health engineering. Art. http://tarheels.live/brown
The death rate among children under 5 is expected to grow this year for the first time in the 21st century, researchers say. A key factor, they say, is cuts to U.S. and other foreign aid www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
Child deaths under 5 believed to be rising for first time in decades
Cuts to development aid from several countries is a key factor, researchers said.
washingtonpost.com
The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the examined one is exhausting
Feeling festive? Why not deck the halls with @cvrinfo.bsky.social's papercraft #VirusSnowflakes and celebrate the science of viruses and the fight against viral diseases. Download for free: cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl... #scicomm #sciart #decorations
![An obituary for Rosalind Franklin, written by J.D. Bernal.
Excerpt:
Dr. Rosalind E. Franklin
THE news of the death of Rosalind Franklin on April 16 [1958] came as a shock to many workers in the field of biochemistry and virus studies. It is a special tragedy when a brilliant research worker is cut off at the height of her powers and when exciting new discoveries are expected from her.
...
As a scientist Miss Franklin was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook. Her photographs are among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken. Their excellence was the fruit of extreme care in preparation and mounting of the specimens as well as in the taking of the photographs. She did nearly all this work with her own hands. At the same time, she proved to be an admirable director of a research team and inspired those who worked with her to reach the same high standard. Her devotion to research showed itself at its finest in the last months of her life. Although stricken with an illness which she knew would be fatal, she continued to work right up to the end. Her early death is a great loss to science.
J. D. BERNAL](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lw3xw6b4qbkfbfw6as65kgbb/bafkreibs5lr7ot7qqbkz2bs6pim4drl3eic5hz35lq4c5otmnimxd2hy4u)
I sowed all my wild oats years ago. Now I am sowing thoroughly domesticated oats. I prefer these ones.
NSF GRFP is out 2.5 months late w/key changes 1. 2nd year graduate students not eligible. 2. "alignment with Administration priorities" 3. Unlike prior years, they DO NOT specify the expected number of awards... that is a BIG problem. a brief 🧵 w/receipts www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
nsf.gov
Water pollution doesn't necessarily stay in the water, and downwind communities suffer. Proud to have been a part of this study led by Ben Rico and the Prather team at UCSD, and hoping for some effective action to clean things up soon. @kprather.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Heavily polluted Tijuana River drives regional air quality crisis
Industrial chemicals and untreated sewage have polluted the Tijuana River for decades, recently causing >1300 consecutive days of California beach closures. In summer 2024, wastewater flows surged to ...
science.org
Horrific & stupid. Polio will come back to Florida. By the way, everyone should just follow WHO guidance on vaccines. They are there (despite recent funding losses as America leaves the chat) to guide everyone, including folks in fragile states or in other places that lack competent leadership.
States Go Their Own (and Contradictory) Ways on Vaccine Policy
nytimes.com
This is the sort of work this administration is halting with their ridiculous, backward policies. Public health scientists solve important problems and help people.
In a Lab, the Hunt for a Killer: The Legionella Germ Causing an Outbreak
nytimes.com
These monsters are undoing decades of progress. We will all be sicker. More people will die. Needless suffering brought on my willful ignorance, grievance, spite, & cruelty. I have no words to describe how distressing this all is. There is just no point. Never let the pigeon drive the bus.
Kennedy Sought to Fire C.D.C. Director Over Vaccine Policy
nytimes.com
Just assume flood water has poo in it, because it universally does, though human versus animal & the amounts differ a lot. But any flood water carries exposure risks. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/w...
The Unseen Dangers of Floodwaters
nytimes.com
Today on the sanitation beat: cave remediation www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/c...
A Miles-Long Cave in Kentucky Was a Smelly Disaster. Now It’s Spectacular.
nytimes.com
New Jersey scientists are testing mosquitoes after a resident may have contracted malaria locally, which health officials said would be the first known instance in decades of someone being exposed while in the state.
New Malaria Case Prompts Testing of Mosquitoes in New Jersey
A Morris County resident may have contracted the illness locally, which would be the first known instance in decades of someone being exposed while in the state.
nyti.ms
One of the students in my wife’s 3rd grade math class is headed for disappointment
Today on the sanitation beat: near constant shitting Birds have to top the list of daily defecation by body mass, as observers of Canada geese & chickens will attest. But some clearly top the league tables. "Streaked shearwaters ... [shed] about 5 percent of their body mass every hour."
These Majestic Seabirds Never Stop Pooping
nytimes.com
Today on the sanitation beat: sanitation as public art: "You don’t want to scream ‘sewer pipe’ at people" Actually yes, yes I do! www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
World’s swankiest manhole covers? A thrilling tour of the new embankments concealing London’s £4.6bn super sewer
Built to tackle 18m tonnes of rising excrement, the Tideway project has also generated dramatic new public spaces dotted with giant artworks. Our writer takes the ‘stink tower’ tour of the capital
theguardian.com
Back to real life from time away pondering the universe. Night sky in Idaho's Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness.
I am getting the sense that the people running the government oppose everything I have ever worked for Or, more generously, they fundamentally misunderstand & therefore do not appreciate the importance of environmental quality & public health, & so don’t care I don’t understand this
Inside the ‘Radical Transformation’ of America’s Environmental Role
nytimes.com
A looming global water crisis may be under appreciated as climate change takes hold. Today I report on a new study that finds the planet is quickly drying, with mega-regions of water loss now stretching across continents. www.propublica.org/article/wate...
“Staggering” Water Loss Driven by Groundwater Mining Poses Global Threat
A new study finds that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating arid “mega” regions and causing sea levels to rise.
propublica.org
Today on the sanitation beat: international cooperation
U.S. and Mexico Sign Deal to Stop Sewage Release Into Tijuana River
nytimes.com