2 back to back tours today at #Whitby. What will we find? Here's a lovely Peronoceras #ammonite some one found last time. #Geology #Paleontology
Sean McMahon
@seanhmcmahon.bsky.social
Astro/geo/palaeo/biology @ UK Centre for Astrobiology: https://www.astrobiology.ac.uk/mcmahon-group
Fossil microbial colonies: some spectacular 800 million-year-old stromatolites photographed this week in Spitsbergen.
Up in Svalbard for the next couple of weeks on fieldwork. Did not expect to find fossil plants on the glacier above Longyearbyen!
Another ammonite from North Yorkshire, this one found (and proudly displayed) by my young niece!
Just back from North Yorkshire Jurassic coast. Few things satisfy like opening one of these!
Dish update, she made it through.
DutchSpace@dutchspace.bsky.social · 2w agoDish update, although the looks are pretty dystopian, so far she seems ok, but the wildfires are raging and encroaching on the area. More importantly, I hope all the people in the area are safe. However I really hope she survives...
This is really, really bad. This is one of the complexes we use to communicate with spacecraft in deep space. The effects of climate change are extending out into the Solar System.
Andy Scollick@andyscollick.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex at Robledo de Chavela municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain on fire. Burgohondo wildfire. 📷 via Infues Avila
🚨 Extremely interesting postdoctoral research vacancy just appeared in Mark van Zuilen's group at Naturalis in Leiden, NL: www.naturalis.nl/en/about-us/.... Application deadline August 15th! #geology #geobiology #geochemistry #astrobiology
Postdoctoral Fellow to study pattern formation in hot spring silica sinters under early Earth conditions (ERC project PROTOS)
Have you completed your PhD? Are you eager to enrich knowledge on biodiversity as a postdoc?
naturalis.nl
Here's a taster from my segment on Monday's episode of The Sky at Night, now available on BBC iPlayer:
This is a really really good episode. #skyatnight
Sean McMahon@seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 4w ago"Aliens Next Door?" — You can see me chatting to @chrislintott.bsky.social on the BBC's Sky at Night next Monday about some of our experiments @theukca.bsky.social to understand recent observations by Perseverance Rover on Mars. @severinhryn.bsky.social gets a shout-out! #astrobiology
"Aliens Next Door?" — You can see me chatting to @chrislintott.bsky.social on the BBC's Sky at Night next Monday about some of our experiments @theukca.bsky.social to understand recent observations by Perseverance Rover on Mars. @severinhryn.bsky.social gets a shout-out! #astrobiology
Most interesting thing about this (“Farage says he's 'done no wrongdoing'“) is the word choice. A denial not of doing wrong but of doing wrongdoing. If this usage catches on, perhaps the next generation will deny doing wrongdoing-doing… and so on. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Nigel Farage says 'no wrongdoing' after benefits from ally not declared
The Liberal Democrats have asked the Reform UK leader to be "straight with the British people".
bbc.co.uk
🤔 Can a concept widely used in economics help us recognise alien life, from fossils on Mars to molecules in the outer solar system? A quick thread to explain a new paper from my research group : Can Pareto Optimality be Evidence of Life?, by Rodgers et al. 🧵 1/10 doi.org/10.1177/1531...
Who doesn't love a nice set of preserved trilobite appendages?
Kenneth De Baets@djbirddanerd.bsky.social · last mo.#Three-dimensionally preserved #appendages of the early #Cambrian #trilobite Yunnanocephalus yunnanensis @peerj.bsky.social peerj.com/articles/21095 #Biodiversity #Evolution #Paleobiology #Paleontology #Taxonomy #Fossils
On this topic and immigration, the current Labour government has been steering in the rear view mirror. When immigration plummets and hits OBR estimates and they have to bail out Russell Group universities it might finally dawn on them.
Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · last mo.Higher education policy under the last few UK governments seems to be shaping up into an experiment in how you sustain a knowledge economy without knowledge
Marchi et al. report results from the the flyby of asteroid Donaldjohanson (DJ) by the Lucy spacecraft. They find DJ has a bi-lobed shape and is in a tumbling spin. The crater density is consistent with an age of about 150 million years. ☄️🔭 #planetsci www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
>renames it to the Department of War >names himself the Secretary of War >fights one war >loses
At the base of Greenheugh pediment - sol 2671 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2izujCZ
Really proud to be part of this @natastron.nature.com study led by Peter Vickers. Astrobiologists are not yet confident we've found extraterrestrial life — but are measurably more swayed by recent evidence from Mars than by the case for exoplanet K2-18b!
Comparing astrobiologists’ confidence in extraterrestrial life claims for K2-18 b and Cheyava Falls - Nature Astronomy
Following two major 2025 announcements of possible extraterrestrial life — on exoplanet K2-18 b in April and in the Cheyava Falls rock on Mars in September — we surveyed the astrobiology community to ...
nature.com
Just for a moment, imagine you're hiking up the outer slopes of Jezero Crater on Mars... Turning, you see this sweeping Big Country view stretched out before you... Stitched & processed panorama of Perseverance Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson (Like this? Please Share!)
What does the new OMB proposal mean for science? How can we STOP VOUGHT and SAVE SCIENCE together? All of these questions and more to be discussed at the Emergency Science Meeting, TODAY at 4PM ET, hosted by Stand Up for Science! Register at the link in our bio, or go here: zurl.co/oCIDw #OMB
Assistant Professor position in paleontology @uugeo.bsky.social 🤩 🐚 🌊 🧪 ⚒️
Assistant Professor in Paleontology
Are you a team player and proactive innovator in an emerging field of paleontology? Please apply!
uu.nl
This is a newly processed view of the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons. It's 21 km tall. It's as wide as Arizona. Metropolitan LA fits inside its summit caldera. Its basal cliff is 7 km high. And it started to grow ~3.5 billion years ago but has lavas only 2 million years old.
As far as I know, NASA has never put the contract to run the Jet Propulsion Laboratory out for competitive bid. Caltech has run the Lab since the 1930s. In the "up-is-down" times we live in, I'm VERY concerned for the Lab's future. This could go sideways, fast. www.nasa.gov/news-release...
NASA to Compete Contract for Jet Propulsion Laboratory Management - NASA
NASA announced plans Friday to compete the next contract for managing and operating the agency’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in
nasa.gov
I was lucky enough to hold a fragment of Mars the other day. Sometimes the fourth planet feels very close.
