Paul Harnik

"And even in a business-as-usual scenario that assumes no new climate policies, IEA projections suggest that renewables will overtake coal, gas and oil to become the largest source of energy on the planet by 2050. By that point, however, the world will have sailed well past 2 ºC of warming."

Can the clean-energy revolution save us from climate catastrophe? Seven charts show the remarkable growth in renewable power and the challenges to ending the fossil-fuel age.

"One way or another, however, energy experts say that there’s a certain inevitability to the clean-energy transition because of market forces... the cost of clean-energy technologies has plummeted, and renewables are now the cheapest form of energy in many places." www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Purplish-colored mussel shell with pencil for scale. Interior of shell has tiny circular pits which are traces of trematode parasites.

Traces (pits) of digenean trematode parasites on the interior of a mussel shell, Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand

We'll be hosting a joint Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (CPEG) meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium @ucl.ac.uk in London in August 2027, which aims to bridge spatial and temporal gradients between palaeontology, ecology, and conservation: www.ucl.ac.uk/mathematical...

Finishing off 2 days of remote beamtime with Rebecca Metzler here at Colgate University. Lots of great data on the microstructures of past and present marine animals from the Gulf of Mexico, and even a couple of catnaps over the past 48+ hours. Thankful for support for science and for collaborators!

Was just advocating for this approach earlier today with a stude tackling grad school statements

A PhD opportunity to work with me, @spissatella.bsky.social and our friends through CENTA - biogeography and vulnerability of exploited bivalves, with possible spin-offs about fishery sustainability and environmental economics: centa.ac.uk/studentship/...

Earth Systems Scares #Halloween #GlobalChange

Ocean acidity has increased by ~30% over pre-Industrial levels due to the uptake of anthropogenic CO2. Pteropods, “sea butterflies,” are planktonic snails that are sensitive to these changes. Scientists have found that their shells are getting thinner & are dissolving, especially at high latitudes.

Thank you!

I am so grateful to all the teachers & students who have participated in the NSF-funded Postcards from the Past project & to my collaborators Tina Miller-Way, JoAnn Mitchell Moody, Nancy Raia, & Linda Hill. Examples of student Postcards are currently on display at the Alabama Aquarium!

These talks are next week. It would be good to see you all there bsky.app/profile/nicr...

Just in time for #FossilFriday 🦖 What are the big questions in #paleontology today?

dx.doi.org/10.1017/pab.2025.10042

Nearly 200 scientists worldwide came together to map where our field is headed. Here’s the story 👇

2025 Peter C. Schaehrer Memorial Lecture: Jason De Leon

Central NY folks: Jason De León will be speaking this Thursday @colgate.edu on “Soldiers and Kings: Survival, Hope, and Empathy in the World of Human Smuggling.” For details: calendar.colgate.edu/event/2025-p...

Communing with trematode parasites! Trematode pits on the interior of a bivalve shell, glimpsed this week in @realhuntley.bsky.social’s office

Whelp, wrote too fast before. Perhaps the large specimen is a carditid. There are some rather large paleogene venericardia that are quite similar

#NameThatBivalve

I would also go for cardiidae for the large one and either veneridae or possibly astartidae for the smaller one on the left. I love #NameThatBivalve!

Looking forward to visiting @realhuntley.bsky.social and the U Missouri geo/paleo crew this week!

Here is another Devonian sea star fossil on display in @colgate.edu’s geology museum

Imprint of a sea star that lives approximately 380 million years ago exposed on the surface of a rock

Students standing in a quarry surrounded by piles of broken shale and siltstone

Imprint of a trilobite fossil

Brachiopod (Shell) fossils and a fossilized piece of ancient driftwood

Swimming in ancient seas this afternoon with my paleo class here in Central New York and the students found some jaw-droppingly cool fossils, including a sea star! #Devonian #Wundergrads

A Starfish Has Captivated Argentina. It Didn’t Ask to Be Political.

I love livestreaming the deep sea, especially before class as my undergrad students filter into the room, seeing things they've never seen before. This is possible through the use of ROVs & through federal funding of public-facing science. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/w...

💔 Remembering Marilyn J. Suiter 🌍—a leader, mentor & champion for diversity in geoscience. Her impact will inspire for generations.

🗓 A remembrance will be held Aug 20 (hybrid).

Learn more: www.americangeosciences.org/news/press-r...

#STEM #WomenInScience

It is with a heavy heart that I share the passing of colleague & friend Marilyn Suiter. Marilyn worked steadfastly to support the development of geo colleagues of all career stages, consistently connecting people & highlighting opportunities. She will be greatly missed.

Spending a few days in the Triassic-Jurassic of south Wales

Microstructure of a cupuladriid bryozoan (Discoporella depressa) collected on the continental shelf offshore Dauphin Island Sea Lab in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Imaging using photoemission electron microscopy at Diamond Light Source; field of view is approx 28 microns.

Image of interior of Diamond Light Source (large curving building with lots of cables)

Two women and one man standing in front of the PEEM beam line at the Diamond Light Source

Two women standing in front of the PEEM beam line at the Diamond Light Source

PEEM image a portion of a bivLve shell at high resolution (approx 23 micron field of view)

A glimpse into our day at the Diamond Light Source in Chilton, England. Several members of the Paleo Lab are here this week gathering data on the shell microstructures of different marine animals in order to better understand the biotic impacts of anthropogenic climate change.

Congrats to Paleo Lab alum, Charlie Filipovich, who defended her masters thesis today! Fun to learn about her work on Lake Tanganyika benthic communities!

Congratulations to Meredith Shapiro and Allison Wen who presented their summer research in the Paleo Lab this afternoon on campus!

Pilot work this week in the Gulf Of Maine with scientists from the Maine Department of Marine Resources