Erin Hotchkiss

Key Questions on the Role of Technology in the Expanding Middle East War Tech Policy Press asked experts working at the intersection of technology policy, security, and international affairs to share what they are watching.

The expanding war in Iran brought to the fore questions about the role of technology in armed conflict, including the controversial use of new artificial intelligence technologies. Tech Policy Press invited perspectives from experts on what they are watching for as the situation unfolds.

The Nature Record Now it’s our turn to shape what comes next. A new project. A mission years in the making.

The DRAFT Nature Record national assessment has dropped and is ready for comment! I'm proud to be one of the authors. This is the first comprehensive, independent, evidence-based assessment of how nature is doing across the U.S.
Come read. Come comment. Come shape the record.
naturerecord.org

It's the funding of taxonomic research & training that's dying out. Without an ability to identify life forms, we can't recognize/quantify invasions & extinctions and their impacts on ecosystems. Imagine trying to repair a complex steel structure if you can't distinguish different types of bearings.

a calendar that says today a day you can vote early on it ALT: a calendar that says today a day you can vote early on it

Today March 6 is the first day of early voting in Virginia for the redistricting referendum

All voters can cast ballots at their local election office and satellite locations in some places

Make your voice heard Virginia!

Link w more information below

www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ba...

Data Visualization A Practical Introduction

Here’s a full draft of the upcoming second edition of my “Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction”: socviz.co

If you took $1 billion and gave it to the endowment of a different small college each day, they could each provide a free college education to several hundred students per year in perpetuity. Instead we are using that money to bomb schools and kill students in Iran, for no clearly stated purpose.

USAID’s Emergency Food Security Program spent $4 billion in FY2022 to feed 114 million people in 55 countries. We just blew that much money in four days of this war.

Big Tech Signs White House Data Center Pledge With Good Optics and Little Substance “Data centers … they need some PR help,” said President Donald Trump at the event.

NEW from me: the pledge big tech companies signed at the white house today is supposed to protect ratepayers from high utility bills due to data centers — but the WH actually has little ability to make that happen

"this is theater," @aripeskoe.bsky.social told me

Hydrology Paper of the Day @hollykirk.bsky.social on a Nature-Water Design framework for ensuring urban and landscape design in the context of ecological services, systems, and climate change: a combination of frameworks; design principles; ensuring connectivity and stewardship; and five principles.

Science Advocacy 101 The Union of Concerned Scientists invites scientists and experts to a training webinar to discuss what science advocacy looks like today. Learn how you can advocate on key issues such as climate chang...

4/ Are you interested in becoming a science advocate? Join our webinar and learn how you can use your voice and expertise to advocate on key issues such as climate change or public health policies.

📅Thursday, March 12, 3pm ET.

📍RSVP↘️

Even putting aside the implications for the laws of war, someone who describes mass killing in this way is not well, nor is the society that empowers that person to kill.

the state of public history, 2026:

with one eye on the Trump administration, NPS staff worries that describing the murder of an abolitionist "might denigrate the murderers"

Hi friends - I'm working on article about efforts to measure, track, and adjust WORKLOAD in higher ed, both for staff and faculty.

I'm interested in talking to people who have experiences w/:
-Workload management gone wrong
-Exemplars of workload measurement
-True tales of workload being adjusted

Anybody who has tried to take photos in the perpetual twilight of the tropical forest understory knows how frustrating it can be.
This is where you need an artist.
Debby Cotter Kaspari is a whiz with pen and ink. And this is one of her understory drawings from Isla Barro Colorado, Panama, 2001.

Three American soldiers killed as U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran continue into 2nd day Another five soldiers were critically injured, according to the U.S. Central Command. They mark the first American casualties since the start of operation 'Epic Fury' on Saturday.

UPDATE:

Another five soldiers were critically injured, according to the U.S. Central Command. They mark the first American casualties since the start of operation 'Epic Fury' on Saturday.

Paleoclimate pattern effects help constrain climate sensitivity and 21st-century warming | PNAS Paleoclimates provide examples of past climate change that inform estimates of modern warming from greenhouse-gas emissions, known as Earth’s clima...

Really excited to see this paper out!! Led by @vtcoop.bsky.social we show that if you use cold and warm paleoclimates together, you can reduce uncertainty in Earth's climate sensitivity by quantifying the pattern effect and more precisely constrain future climate change www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace.

This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.

We have seen this before. We know how this ends. It doesn't end well.

Extant mollusks Phalium bandatum (top left) from Nakayama, Japan; Cymbiola imperialis (top center) from the Philippines; Muricanthus radix (top right) from the Pacific coast of Panama; Pteria penguin (center) from Palau; Chama lazarus (bottom left) from Guam; and Fimbria fimbriata (bottom right) from Palau. CREDIT: Tracy J. Thomson

Early mollusks evolved a new skeletal feature every 2 million years. Since the Ordovician, that rate has slowed to one per 9 million years—suggesting that despite growing diversity, molluscan evolution has become substantially more predictable. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/IHSt50Ymv1s

I’m grateful for faculty with expertise and track record on prevention & response plans for targeted harassment. I’m most familiar with @rebekahtromble.bsky.social’s projects researchersupport.org & expertvoicestogether.org - I’m sure she can recommend others for everyone who needs help now

"...essentially shifted NSF away from its role as an independent agency that funds all fields outside clinical medicine using input from the research community into a vehicle for administration priorities."

🫤

The Password That Lets Caterpillars Hide in an Ant’s Lair

For some butterflies, only those with a sense of rhythm can survive.

That's because they need to be adopted by ant colonies as caterpillars to make in. Caterpillars mimic ants' sounds to get carried inside, and a new study explores rhythm's role in that.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/s...

@elenabennett.bsky.social and team on 'The future of Global Environmental Assessments: 20 years after the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 'Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 79: 101618.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2026.101618
O.A. link:
urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

"the old conferences did not care about diversity. I suggest you not either,” Jeffrey Epstein wrote... “The women are all weak, and a distraction sorry." #WomenInSTEM 19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...

Piles of bright teal rock salt below and on a few steps that are relatively dry and totally ice-free.

Piles of white rock salt surrounding a drain on a concrete walkway. There is a trail of meltwater draining from a small old snow pile outside of the photo frame, but the concrete is otherwise completely dry

Things that make me sad on campus. Especially while measuring 900 - >1000us/cm (a proxy for salt concentrations) in the same Stroubles Creek watershed, including the campus 'Duck Pond'. The stress threshold for many freshwater organisms is ~350us/cm 😔💧🌎

Grasping Soil: A Syllabus and Essays for the Environmental Humanities Full open-access volume Grasping Soil: A Syllabus and Essays for the Environmental Humanities (2026), edited by Emily Brownell.

New #EnvHum book! Read Grasping Soil: A Syllabus and Essays for the Environmental Humanities by Emily Brownell for free on our Environment & Society Portal. This is sure to come in handy for lecturers in the field.

Scientists: for a new story, I have one big question—>

What is a “good day” in the lab?

I’m looking for epic examples of the best day ever to general criteria for what constitutes a “good day” compared to a nothing-burger day.

Ping me if you have examples to share!

Re-posts appreciated!

Editor’s Note | Reflections From a Museum Pew: Teaching Our Children the Work Is Theirs Torsheta Jackson reflects on legacy, parenting and confronting modern racism through history.

OPINION: "These experiences are still just as present as they were when segregated schools littered towns," Torsheta Jackson writes. "It’s more veiled now, but it still holds court in the minds and homes of many."

How to help — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

We’re always on the lookout for researchers, writers, and editors to pitch in and help us make and maintain these pages. Here’s how to join us: unbreaking.org/how-to-help/