Sean McMahon

Completely charming and what a great tradition

Some lovely writing and relatable content (for astrobiologists) here by @miquai.bsky.social

A Unique Martian Mineral Offers Fresh Clues About Planet’s Past - Astrobiology New research published in Nature Communications identifies an iron sulfate on Mars that may represent a brand-new mineral.

A Unique Martian Mineral Offers Fresh Clues About Planet’s Past
astrobiology.com/2025/08/a-un... #astrobiology #Mars #astrogeology

Planetary Science MS/PhD Positions for Fall 2026 Crowd sourced list of people who are looking for MS/PhD students to help connect prospective students with advisors so we can do even more fabulous planetary science! (Submitting a response indicates ...

I am community sourcing a list of people who are actively in search of MS/PhD students in planetary science/astrobiology/exoplanets for Fall 2026. If you are such a person, please fill out the following google form:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Lepidaspis by Nobu Tomura

New palaeo-PhD opportunity! Will you be the one to figure out the anatomy and function of fossil jawless fish? Come join the team! Application Deadline August 22nd, funding for UK student only (sorry)
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The Columbia deal is a tragic wake-up call Last week, Columbia University entered an agreement with the US government to restore federal funding for research in exchange for actions by the university to address complaints by the Trump administ...

This is a MUST READ from Editor in Chief of Science, Holden Thorp, especially for anyone in higher education. #AcademicSky

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Making America Great Again, by gutting the space program that planted an American flag on the moon.

This is what the Republicans want

Finally watched Oppenheimer, which turns out to be a less thoughtful, less intelligent film than Barbie. Bizarre.

Interesting work, but could astrochemists please stop calling two-carbon molecules "complex"? Thank you for your attention to this (simple organic) matter.

Palaeocampa, unlike its unarmoured aysheaiid relatives, was protected by thousands of tall sclerite bristles, with a thorny, crenellated tip. In many fossils, the sclerites have a discoloured halo of fluid emerging from the tip - we investigated this with a technique called FTIR.

Resignations and a ‘dissent’ letter suggest Trump has put NASA’s future in doubt It remains an open question as to whether NASA and the U.S. space program will survive the Republican president’s second term.

Maddow Blog on NASA’s endangered future:
🧪🔭

www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The Search for Natural Hydrogen: A Hidden Energy Giant or an Elusive Dream?

Pleased to have contributed to this viewpoint article on the prospects for natural hydrogen as relatively clean energy source: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Thank you so much to @astr0mia.bsky.social and our MSc Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences students for putting this together. It's a privilege to teach these students and lovely to get feedback like this!

‘We dissent’: NASA staff declare opposition to Trump cuts Declaration of dissent, which warns that science and safety are at risk, joins similar documents from staff at the EPA and the NIH.

‘We dissent’: NASA staff declare opposition to Trump cuts www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Looks gorgeous, Russell, thanks for your service!

Hello palaeontologists. After a bunch of work @thepalass.bsky.social has a new website. We're still fiddling to get emails working, but if anyone wants to check it out and report e.g. broken links, feedback would be warmly welcomed

palass.org

🫡🧪⚒️

Playing around with a close-up B&W edit of the best footage I have ever captured on this Earth. Hoping compression doesn't prevent y'all from seeing the incredible rain of debris.

Volcán de Fuego, Guatemala (March 2023)

I really enjoyed this. Beautiful writing from Marcia Bjornerud.

Subtweet threads, but in the 16th century.

"All evidence suggests that expansions in genomic and molecular complexity [are] consequences of a reduction in the efficiency of selection in organisms experiencing high levels of random genetic drift." — Complexity myths and the misappropriation of evolutionary theory: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Take a look at my group's new paper on distinguishing biological and non-biological tubules of iron-oxide, led by Melanie Podbielski. Yes, the title is a Star Trek reference...

A field photograph of a heavily fractured Cambrian blue-grey limestone, containing multiple, reasonably large (up to 20cm across) peach-pink silicified stromatolites in cross section. The largest dome, in the centre of the photograph, shows evidence of internal laminae.

Delighted to share that from mid-August, I’ll be joining @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social School of GeoSciences as a PDRA studying bacterial taphonomy with @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social and Bryne Ngwenya!

- this silicified stromatolite isn’t a specimen I’ll be studying, but is a suitably bacterial photo 🧫🦠

A great pleasure to meet collaborators from @naturalis.bsky.social the other week to kick off our @hfspo.bsky.social -funded collaboration on biosignatures and life detection!

Left: Diego Velázquez – Portrait of Pope Innocent X + Taphonomy = Right: Francis Bacon – Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X. Two pictures of the pope, one a traditional painting, the other something of a cry for help...

Putting together a talk, and I really like this slide. But I wonder if, uh, current events make this a bit close to home...

🧪⚒️

Apropos of nothing, just a reminder that DMS has been found in a comet and in the interstellar medium. It is not a robust biosignature except in well understood environments where abiotic synthesis can be ruled out.

Lovely to see this! :-)

Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found On Mars - Astrobiology Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the Red Planet to date.

Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found On Mars
astrobiology.com/2025/03/curi... #astrobiology #Mars #biosignature #astrogeology

What's more important? Being closer than ever to finding life on Mars? Or being closer than ever to the collapse of liberal democracy in the Western world? The latter sure makes it hard to concentrate on the former. Anyway, just for the record, I'd like to drop Trump on Mars without a spacesuit...

I would love to share on social media my excitement about what Perseverance has found on Mars - some of it presented at the LPSC meeting this month. On the other hand, a French scientist has allegedly been blocked by border agents from attending LPSC because they had privately criticised Trump.