Science Mom

A screenshot of health insurance option for a family of 2 parents and 3 kids on the Alaska state marketplace without the ACA tax credit extension. The premium is $2,854 a month with a $15,000 deductible

A screenshot of another health insurance option for a family of 2 parents and 3 kids on the Alaska state marketplace without the ACA tax credit extension. The premium is $3,794 a month with a $4,000 deductible

To any other self-employed folks who had health insurance thru the state marketplace, WHAT DO WE DO? 🥺😭

The cheapest option for our family of 5 is $2,854 a month with a $15,000 deductible! #AlaskaSky #ACAtaxcredit

Kristi Noem is telling bald-faced lies about ICE arrests.

More than 70% of those detained have no criminal convictions.

170+ of those arrested or detained have been American citizens.

Hurricanes feed off of warm water. Watch how quickly the eye of #Melissa collapsed as it moved onto land and over the mountainous terrain of Jamaica, and how quickly it is reforming now that it has moved back over water! I will be adding this radar loop to my earth science lectures.

Amount of snow looks even better from that perspective. Thanks for sharing!

Snow topped mountains are visible reflected in Ward lake

Snow along the ridge and top of deer mountain

First snow of the season in Ketchikan! @alaskawx.bsky.social I’m guessing the snowline is between 2,000-2,500 ft

Pretty high up and not a lot, but I’m still happy to see it. 🥰

From Oil Fields to Mangroves Last week, I was in the United Arab Emirates for the IUCN’s World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, followed by the World Economic Forum's Global Future Councils meeting in Dubai. The WCC is a globa...

The Middle East is warming twice as fast as the globe thanks in no small part to its own oil + gas emissions—but from youth activists to engineers, people here are proving that even in the hottest places, change is happening.

Read on MailChimp: shorturl.at/SvFiy
Read on LinkedIn: shorturl.at/fjOiY

She Made Sure That Tsunami Warnings Reached the Public

The @nytimes.com climate section is profiling federal scientists who have been terminated and their work.

I spoke with tsunami expert Corina Allen, who worked to ensure tsunami alerts made it to the public. She was fired in February.

Read her story and others':

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/c...

Happy birthday!

White toothed jelly fungi grow from the cut end of a log

Lunch creek falls: a large wide waterfall

Salmon egg slime mold looks like bright orange spheres on semi-transparent stalks

Sunday Morning Botany Club highlights: toothed jelly fungus, lunch creek waterfall, and salmon egg slime molds 💜🫟💜

The #Tongass is displaying a fabulous diversity of fungi right now. #AlaskaSky

This was perhaps my favorite sign costume: cold water immersion suits + an SOS sign!

Very SE Alaska. 🥰 #AlaskaSky #NoKings

More than 300 gathered for #NoKings today in Ketchikan, Alaska. We held signs, marched, and then had speeches and great music.

6 tiny pale mushrooms are visible growing out of a Sitka spruce cone, which is laying in green moss

Today I found the cutest little mushrooms EVER! They only grow on spruce cones and are like something straight out of a fairy tale.

Strobilurus occidentalis, aka spruce cone mushroom or spruce conesprout.

A hand holds dozens of small red berries (bog cranberry and lingonberries)

Trees are reflected in the still waters of frog pond.

Do you pick bog cranberries and lingonberries before or after the first frost?

Haven’t had a frost here yet, but I found a great berry spot while enjoying the morning sunshine and they were too delicious to pass up!

Reindeer lichen grows among brown and red sphagnum moss

Tiny Moss bell mushrooms grow at the base of a tree

A shore line with mostly bare trunk and branches and needles just near the top grows at an angle over a pool of water in a muskeg on a cloudy day. Tree covered mountains are visible in the background.

Highlight #2:

Mosaics of moss and lichens
Tiny fungi
Sculpted shore pines reflected in water

3 bog cranberries (Vaccinium oxycoccos) lay among orange and red sphagnum moss and grass. The small green leaves of the cranberries are barely visible among the moss.

A close up photo of a red cranberry against a backdrop of moss. The thin stem and green leaves lead diagonally to the right side of the photo.

Sunday botany walk highlight #1:

Bog cranberries!

🌱They shine like ruby jewels in the muskeg.
🌱Crisp texture and wonderful flavor.
🌱A delightful ratio of plant to fruit.

If our blueberry bush adopted the same ratio, it would make berries the size of beach balls.

I haven’t tried it, but from what I’ve read, it doesn’t have much flavor. Better to look at and photograph than to eat.

That’s Apricot jelly! Super fun fungi to see.

Went out first thing this morning to try fishing from shore. Didn’t catch any fish, but a whale came by! Tossed the rod in the car and ran/watched along the highway for 20 minutes. What a great way to start the day 🥰

#AlaskaSky

Fabulous pictures!

I loved these pictures! They were on the front page of our weekend newspaper.

There aren’t too many days of the year where surfing can happen— we have to get pretty good swell coming in thru Nichols passage.

A small orange mushroom grows among green moss

A blue blueberry with red leaves is surrounded by evergreen heather.

A view of blue sky, blue ocean channels, and green islands. Hemlock branches frame the view on either side

Today’s Sunday morning botany hike was magical. #AlaskaSky #Tongass

Public comment on the reorganization is open through Sep. 30.

www.usda.gov/about-usda/n...

😅 team “write papers immediately!” If civilization survives, you’ll get published for SURE, lol

Get the facts. There’s no benefit to logging the Tongass. None.

At a certain point it appears MAGA just wants to destroy stuff because they can.

#SaveRoadless #ProtectTheTongass
#akleg #akgov

A screenshot of the Windy app weather forecast for Ketchikan showing wind speed gusts increasing from 23 mph (yellow) to 57 mph (red).

To those who say SE Alaska doesn’t have fall colors, I present tomorrow’s weather forecast.

#AlaskaSky
#Autumn

Trump’s CDC cuts could threaten chronic illness and national security, experts warn Public health leaders worry proposed 53% CDC slash would weaken disease prevention and pose a national security risk

Fully 80% of the CDC's budget goes out to state and local health departments. Slashing the CDC's budget is going to be felt by "every person in every community across this country, whether they realize it or not.” my latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Mark is right, Trump is pushing costs up, and driving us toward a shut down.

Let me teach you how to defend the Roadless Rule This is how I would explain it in my classroom

Hey, folks, there's still time to submit comments on the Roadless Rule. We have until Sept 19

Here's a great page I found that breaks it all down and provides the link at the end

nationalparkhistory.substack.com/p/let-me-tea...

Of the two boys with smallpox, the one who had been vaccinated has very few pox while the other is horribly disfigured.

1901, photograph by Dr. Allan Warner of two 13 year old boys both infected with smallpox on the same day, one vaccinated as an infant and one not.

Dark blue-black Salal berries hang in a line from fuzzy red stems

Muffins with red and dark purple berries

Red huckleberries are abundant among the leaves and branches of a bush

Salal and red huckleberry turned out to be a fabulous combo in tonight’s muffin experiment. #AlaskaSky