Lauren

Microbes are collectively one of the biggest forces shaping Earth, and yet undergraduate #geology students typically receive little training in microbiology. My new open access textbook seeks to help. “Microbiology for Earth Scientists” is freely available here newprairiepress.org/ebooks/53/

Moving mountains: grazing agents drive terracette formation on steep hillslopes Terracettes, striking, step-like landforms that stripe steep, vegetated hillslopes, have puzzled scientists for more than a century. Competing hypotheses invoke either slow mass-wasting or the relentl...

New favorite preprint, both for the topic and the figures arxiv.org/abs/2504.17496 #geomorphology #terracettes #landscapemodeling

Good gravy. You don't see this tack from a conservation department very often 🤣 www.instagram.com/reel/DPKvKTV...

Speaking of which, look what just arrived from my library today. 1979 babey

Exploring {ggplot2}’s Geoms and Stats – Stat’s What It’s All About

New blog post!

Ever wonder what geom_histogram is actually doing? How about geom_boxplot?

In celebration of the release of #ggplot2 4.0.0 (ggplot8?), I explore the relationships between the “geoms” and “stats” offered by the core {ggplot2} functions.

#rstats

Anyone in #rstats #quartopub #quarto land know of any good instructional content about making custom callout blocks using Lua filters for absolute Lua noobs? I have a mighty need.

Gould was absolutely right about this. For a sobering thought, how many people on the planet now are competent taxonomists for any group of organisms? Certainly fewer than 10,000. 🧪🌍🌿⚒️🐟 #TeamFish

Woohoo, big new SMap update is out! smap.landcareresearch.co.nz/maps-and-too... we've all been working our butts off on this one.

If you need me, I'll be clicking around the web map and second guessing myself at every turn 🙃 #pedology #nzsoils #solmapping

Christ, it's even worse after getting into bed.

An Art. Orange gradient background highlights an entirely black, turtlenecked figure with perfectly spherical head and...a checkerboard halo? Is it the shade of Steve Jobs? Who knows. Both soulless and unsettling in the context of a mid range hotel room. I don't care for it.

I'm sure this won't have me shrieking in alarm when I wake up for a 4am doomscroll.

Announcing Withdrawal of NSF Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems Proposal In September 2024, The Carpentries submitted a proposal to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) Program. This project would position The Carpentr...

ICYMI: In September 2024, The Carpentries submitted a proposal for 1.5 million USD to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) Program, and were extremely pleased to learn that the proposal was recommended for funding.

However...

Image of NZ Post's upcoming release of soil themed stamps. The four stamps highlight key ecosystem services and are super cute.

Soil stamps alert! collectables.nzpost.co.nz/soil?page=1 #soilscience #philately

I'm enjoying playing spot-the-actor. Ripped through the first two books right before watching so I have Some Thoughts but I'll keep them to myself until I'm fully across the source material

Watchdog warns of ‘grave danger’ if science reform botched The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment thought the Government could hamstring NZ's research capability by ignoring the advice it commissioned.

The state of NZ science and research. Grossly underfunded. Watchdog warns of ‘grave danger’ if science reform botched newsroom.co.nz/2025/05/09/e...

📢 New pub: Defining #soil science: Balancing fundamental research and societal needs, in Soil Science Society of America Journal doi.org/10.1002/saj2...
@teamrat.bsky.social & I argue, soil science, though crucial for solving environmental challanges, should not be defined solely by its applications

Crucially, not the same site

Can't believe I made it all the way to March without having a work day that left me contemplating a new career in the merchant marine. Things are looking up 🙃

Less than ten minutes to deletion lmao

Classic tweet from @notabigjerk, now on Bluesky! "I'm not falling for that hot take. that's clearly someone with a fetish for being yelled at. i refuse to participate in that kind of perversion."

One for the perennial

Exciting #science leadership positions now open at Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research.

For detailed information on each role, please see our Careers webpage:
careers.sciencenewzealand.org/landcare-res...
#scijobs #scicareers

Really astonished at how low awareness of libgen appears to be among academics here. Its hardly new and it's basically scihub++. I can understand fiction authors etc not knowing about it, but anyone teaching students should have long been aware of it.

Sounds like it might have been returning the underlying nodata value instead of NA sometimes? Can happen if the input metadata is faulty mapscaping.com/nodata-raste...

Does anyone know what's happening with old.iuss.org? The PDFs of past World Congress of #soilscience are starting to randomly 404 and there doesn't seem to be much migration of content onto the new website.

Those are perfectly understandable philosophical reasons to step out of the market. I just don't think that showing off the short term fluctuations evidenced in that graph are necessary to justify that choice. I could pull up a similar line shape from many periods over the few years.

I get that things are unsettling rn but that's a fund with a minimum 7 year suggested timeframe, this seems like really irresponsible posting.

A successfully assembled and tastefully backlit standing desk. Ignore the cables, I sure will

Sickos.jpg, etc

The disassembled parts of a standing desk in an empty office. A Project!

This'll have to do until we finally get an NZ Ikea

I can appreciate scite emailing me a month ahead of deleting my account for misuse, fine. I can even appreciate 2-3 warnings. But every day? With the subject line 'hi'? No! Stop it.

Why is there never a floor drain nearby? Baffling.

The introductory paragraph to a 1952 article about soil nodules, in which the author despairs of the contemporary lack of regard shown to the >2mm particle size fraction.

I should start referring to more terms I don't like as 'singularly infelicitous'. Its got a good ring to it.