Rachel O'Brien

Kīlauea, Episode 42

YouTube video by USGS [V1cam] Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii (west Halemaʻumaʻu crater)

Kilauea's erupting, too. Dramatically.

National Academy of Engineering Elects 130 Members and 28 International Members The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) today announced the election of 130 members and 28 international members to its Class of 2026, said NAE President ...

Congrats to Doug Worsnop for being elected into NAE!

www.nae.edu/345149/NAENe...

Transitioning NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center operations The U.S. National Science Foundation has informed the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) that management and operations of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center are expected to…

www.nsf.gov/news/transit...

I wish I had a good read on this, but I don’t and neither does anyone else right now. Definitely not good, but not clear how bad and how fast things could change now. Still time to respond to the DCL and say NCAR must stay together. If not for NCAR’s sake, for yours…

What Americans Lose If Their National Center for Atmospheric Research Is Dismantled - Eos Five ways dismantling NCAR will cost the American people, and two ways to save it.

On a busy day for science policy, it looks like oversight and operations of NCAR’s supercomputing center are transitioning to a third-party operator. www.nsf.gov/news/transit...

Lean more about the costs of dismantling NCAR with this opinion from @carlonimbus.bsky.social.

Good outcome from that really icky Super Bowl commercial.

Two new faculty openings at U. Minnesota 🧪

Assist. Prof. in Climate Science
hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/372...
Questions: Tim Griffis, tgriffis@umn.edu

Assist. Prof. in Soil Physics / Ecohydrology / Hydropedology
hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/372...
Questions: David Mulla, mulla003@umn.edu

Due March 13

This is really cool! I like how the atmospheric chemists have their own little cluster :)

bluesky-map.theo.io

I love that it was a real wedding!

I didn't realize how much I miss the muppets.

Miss Piggy and Sabrina Carpenter

I'm impressed at how logistically, Sabrina Carpenter is like the perfect height to host the Muppets

Comic. [Person talking to person with black hat.] PERSON 1: Historically, it refers to a ceremony to predict the weather using a rodent. But nowadays people often use it to mean “a time loop experienced by one person.” PERSON 2: …What. [caption] Easily our weirdest holiday.

Groundhog Day Meaning

xkcd.com/3202/

Congrats Hongmin, that was a wonderful defense!!

Proud Paul with Maria. Maria gave me a red flowers - a tradition in China.

Congratulations to Hongmin (Maria) Yu who successfully and expertly defended her thesis "Exploring Atmospheric Autoxidation of Organic Emission from Volatile Chemical Products". Thanks to @jessekroll.bsky.social, and @caltech.edu Profs Mitchio Okumura, and Rick Flagan for serving on her committee.

This is who runs this account

This made me cry, no lie. Complicated reasons, one being its fuck you to the baked-in structures and strictures of the world that consider harm to be inevitable.

What Americans Lose If Their National Center for Atmospheric Research Is Dismantled - Eos Five ways dismantling NCAR will cost the American people, and two ways to save it.

eos.org/opinions/wha...

"106,636 years of federal work experience were lost across the 10,109 employees with Ph.D.s who departed STEM or health roles 1 January–30 November."

It isn't just the scientific knowledge but the *institutional* knowledge that's been lost. Rebuilding federal science will be a generational effort.

We knew the NSF letter about NCAR would come. I think this is an occasion that will require great coordination and strategical thinking. UCAR should respond as a block, coordinating a response across universities (especially in the South, and large public universities that use NCAR data a lot)

"What we’re … seeing is the toll of the uncertainty."

My latest story for @science.org—part of a package that explores how the U.S. scientific community has changed under Trump—includes new numbers on graduate enrollment and faculty hiring.

www.science.org/content/arti...

‘Shattered’: US scientists speak out about how Trump policies disrupted their careers Researchers lay bare the human toll of lay-offs, funding cuts and attacks on science one year after the president’s return to the White House.

This is so grim. Science isn’t just something nerds do, but the foundation of the modern world. What the Trump regime has done to US science will harm Americans for generations.

I'm quadization 💯

Spaghetti and meat cubes sounds like it could be such a thing right now 🤣

The worst climate and weather news you’ll see today.

Hibiscus flower on UMich campus with sun shining through.

Peony at Arboretum with sun shining through the petals.

Hibiscus flower after rain with sun shining through.

I love the color of the petals when the sun is shining through them.

Senator Susan Collins killed the amendment to protect the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) -- perhaps the world's premier research center for work on #weather, #climate, models, and remote sensing. Remember that.

Saint Paul schools will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare for optional online learning.

I’ve seen schools close for snow, for pandemic, for natural disaster. I’ve never seen schools close because of threat from our own government.

Screenshot of a thread from @internet hippo that says "There should be public dialogue from Dem leaders about what the medium-long term political strategy against Trumpism is. They don't want impeachment (not enough votes) so what can a Dem congress do that's more effective? Is there a philosophy other than "Vote for us and hope something good happens?" "The voters are stupid" isn't useful analysis or political strategy. They will continue being stupid! You either need a plan to make them not stupid or a plan to win despite that. If the reality is that these are unprecedented times and nobody inked what to do, ok. Let's say that out loud and start thinking. But pretending like we're all living in 1998 and we can wait this out seems suicidal to me

I really appreciate this one, especially the last statement.

Ozone-derived carbonyls indoors could pose a risk to heart health High concentrations of carbonyls are produced when indoor ozone reacts with skin oils. Researchers correlated the molecules with raised blood cell indices in people living on the Tibetan plateau

The unique location of Xizang University in Lhasa, Tibet, China (seen here from afar) allowed researchers to disentangle the health effects of ozone-derived carbonyls from ozone itself. cen.acs.org/environment/...

#chemsky 🧪

This is unbelievably stupid. By doing this, the EPA would completely run away from its mission to protect human health and the environment. Reducing air pollution saves lives, plain and simple.