Jeff Catalano

Just submitted a session proposal to @goldschmidt-confer.bsky.social. Sought to be topical but broad. Narrow session topics leave members of our community with no place to submit. #EveryoneNeedsAHome at Goldschmidt!

A future round includes Cuproskodowskite, a copper uranium silicate mineral named for the brilliant Nobel Prize winner, Marie Skłodowska Curie.

Vote in Quarterfinal 1 — Mineral Cup Click here to vote in Haüyne vs Hematite Photo credits: Jean-François Ferrandon and John Sobolewski

Mineral cup is on and my dear friend Hematite is in a close race with a crappy sodalite-group mineral, Haüyne. Please consider voting!
www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r3...

Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) of Soil Chemistry

We are looking for an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in the area of Soil Chemistry. Please spread the word! Application deadline is September 30.

ethz.ch/en/the-eth-z...

Well, if they don't know that AI is making up information, then its hard to prove misconduct. People are still discovering AI hallucinations. But using AI without disclosure is definitely misconduct, refs are just a sign of AI usage. Bad all around!

Fabrication is research misconduct. National Academy report on RCR says this needs to be deliberate to be considered research misconduct (I agree). This is probably negligence not misconduct. Still bad, clearly some sort of negative outcome is needed.

Just received a survey from "Simon Baker, Chief Editor, Nature Index". The survey has MC questions requiring three picks. Many options are like "I do high-impact research to improve my reputation" or "High-impact research gets me more grant money". I'm out. Shows zero interest in scientific impact.

That seems to be from a Broadening Participation section of the budget. Still awful but if you get the full table it looks like this is a tiny component of both GRFP and CAREER. Still awful cuts, but programs will still exist. GRFP is explicitly a 55% cut elsewhere is budget, not set to 0 overall.

Welcome @mineralsocamerica.bsky.social to Bluesky!

Tornado passed just south of my building on campus. Trees snapped but otherwise fine. But it strengthened after that. Went through neighborhoods people are trying to reinvigorate after decades of disinvestment. Like a scar across 20-30 square blocks.

United Way of Greater St. Louis has activated a Severe Storm/Tornado Relief Fund to support residents across the bi-state region who were impacted by the recent storms. The fund will help support the immediate and long-term recovery efforts as well as crisis response partners that are equipped and trained to respond in times of natural disaster. 100% of storm relief funds collected will be deployed in response to activities to this crisis and in partnership with Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) and Long Term Recovery Committees (LTRC).

If you want to help, donate to recovery efforts at: uwgsl.tfaforms.net/4603472

There is a long path of damage through residential and commercial areas. Big, beautiful trees that lined many streets have now fallen, often destroying parked cars. Substantial damage to homes and businesses. Wood, brick, or steel, they all lost roofs and walls to a likely EF3 tornado…

The tornado in St. Louis yesterday started near my campus @washu.bsky.social. We were spared the worst, with mostly tree damage and power outages but the dormitories may have some roof damage. Semester is over, students are gone. We’ll recover quickly. But for the rest of St. Louis…

Ever wondered what the Hadean ocean looked like? 🌊🌊🌊

Come work with us on 🧪silicate weathering experiments🧪 simulating the geochemistry of the first ocean and be part of a large consortium investigating the origin of life #prelife.
@ingeloes.bsky.social

Apply here: www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

And people wonder why papers sometimes get rejected without review...

WTF?

I'm sure Elsevier has a clause like "We can do whatever we want with your paper and you have no choice but to comply."

That is the expected declaration statement for the use of AI. Far better to require disclosure than for this to be in the dark. Further, some scientists lacking English proficiency used to pay for language editing of their papers. AI can do this for free. Disclosure is a good thing!

As a US scientist, I also agree with this. France, and Europe overall, has abundant scientific talent that needs more support. There may be specific opportunities to encourage a few individuals with unique expertise to move, especially those originally from Europe, but those cases should be limited.

Any US-based folks have recommendations for best place to rent a satellite phone for international travel? A colleague is taking a course to Madagascar. They are using a network of sites operated by a local partner, and each location has phone service, but university wants them to have a sat phone.

People like this are frustrating, and we all want to say "Look what you caused with your vote!" But in the bigger picture, the Tesla driver showing even a tiny bit of empathy is an opening. We need to create as many cracks in Republican support as possible.

Super shitty! They had an old system like this and spun it off into a company. Elsevier kept using the original system and never improved it. Then they spent $$$ buying the company back a few years later and migrating to this “new” system, which was still shitty. Cyclic corporate waste.

Elsevier system doesn’t allow a reviewer to be invited without first having an account for that journal. No universal accounts across all journals. If no account exists, a new one is created. Delete your account, some editor will eventually make a new one to then invite you. This is their design.

Fully support this! Disequilibrium is a fundamental chemical property of planetary systems with liquid water. Reaction rates are slow. In now way is that an indicator of life. In fact, life catalyzes movement away from disequilibrium and towards equilibrium. That is how it obtains energy.

Is this about the DMS exoplanet thing? Or Trump’s orange bronzer? Agree on either account.

How Cara Spencer Won The Mayor’s Race—and What Comes Next | St. Louis Magazine On Tuesday, Cara Spencer was elected mayor of the city of St. Louis in an avalanche, winning nearly two-thirds of the vote. Spencer’s victory was expected,

New at @stlmag.bsky.social: City Hall insiders share their thoughts on what went wrong for Mayor Tishaura Jones this election -- and what comes next for Mayor-elect Cara Spencer www.stlmag.com/news/won-car...

Jeffries: "It was a terrible week. So what happens on Sunday? Trump says, intentionally, 'I'm serious about running for a third term.' He can't run for a third term! ... why does he say it? ... to distract from the terrible week that they've had. We're not gonna take the bait."

The President talking about a third term has proven to be an effective strategy to move on from his team releasing classified military plans to a reporter on Signal. Everyone needs to stop falling for this! Just ignore him, it is purely a distraction. Don't let him move on from tariffs and Signal.

This is really great! Looking forward to all of the new iron oxide work that will come out of this!

Ooof, that sounds like a leading indicator of a contraction or recession.