Delphine Farmer

Hej CATCH community!👋 Don't miss our next seminar by Jennifer Murphy @envchemjen.bsky.social (Uni Toronto) on March 18th, 15:00 UTC on "Sources and fate of atmospheric ammonia in the Arctic". Zoom link & calendar entry as usual on 👉 www.catchscience.org #CATCHscience @igac-ecr.bsky.social

NSF officials break silence on how AI and quantum now drive agency grantmaking Leaders acknowledge White House role in controversial moves

The National Science Foundation is systematically being converted to the National AI and Quantum Research Foundation.

“I see it as the administration exerting political control over what has traditionally been NSF’s ability to fund the best science.”

Mine in this week’s @newyorker.com

The (Canadian) Gen X urge to wish I was I was in Sherbrooke now…

Only if they get shipped really, really quickly before some new law is misinterpreted, starting the whole process over again…

Also, soybean plants get stressed at O3 levels far below regulatory limits: exposures equivalent to a weekly 8 hours average of 40 ppb was sufficient to cause significant stress and clear reductions in crop productivity... More reasons to keep limiting O3 precursor emissions!

After torturing plants for several weeks, Luka found that the timing of O3 episodes matters more than cumulative dose, and that SIF can detect strain-phase stress early. Linking leaf-level experiments with regional-scale satellite data allowed us to think about mechanisms across spatial scales

Luka looked into how soybean plants respond to chronic O3 exposure using satellite solar induced fluorescence data over agricultural regions. With some ideas about repeated O3 exposure, he hopped into lab to explore leaf-level response with Mj @chemj.bsky.social and Rose Rossell

Mechanisms of ozone effects on plant stress in soybean across growing season: from leaf to regional perspective Ground-level ozone (O3) is a major constraint on agricultural productivity, yet most knowledge comes from controlled fumigation experiments using chronic exposures that differ from the episodic condit...

I am so excited about this paper! Luka Mamić was a visiting PhD student who studied remote sensing and data tools at Sapienza U in Rome - he was curious about air pollution interactions with crops and game to try some experimental science...
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

A line curve showing number of awards for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Directorate for Geosciences. The fiscal year 2026 curve lies well below curves for other fiscal years.

Directorate for Geosciences

5/11

Indeed. One should only invest in trucking companies for ‘the long haul’ (sorry, couldn’t help myself)

We worked with @dbm.bsky.social and @mvermeuel.bsky.social using their PTR and our leaf chambers to see RH effects on monoterpenes, MBO, organic acids, and MVK+MACR. While not previously explored in the literature, we think RH effects may explain the variability in previous VOC emission studies

Combined Effects of Air Humidity and Temperature on Biogenic Volatile Organic Compound Emissions and Photosynthesis Temperature is the primary driver of biogenic volatile organic compound emissions, but humidity also enhances emission rates Biogenic volatile organic compounds have different sensitivities to hu...

Really excited to share this paper from Mj Riches @chemj.bsky.social showing a humidity dependence on VOC emissions from ponderosa pines. At higher RH, emissions increase substantially - and we explore a few possible mechanisms in the paper.
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Movie review from Guardian on Melania.

Headline: "Scientists discover emperor penguin colony in Antarctica using satellite images"

Yesterday it was cows using tools, today its penguins using satellite imagery.

Finally, some good news!

I am most definitely Forestic Science!

Oh my god she uploaded a slow motion video and it's amazing. He's just like me fr running as best he can and still going backwards over and over!

Among all the eye-popping numbers in the December summary linked below, it's also the first public appearance of this annual weather/climate visualization which I am quite fond of.

Larger version at climate.colostate.edu/co_cag/index... in case resolution here isn't so good. #cowx

On the lamb: 50 sheep break away from flock and storm German supermarket Ewes and lambs coaxed out of store in Burgsinn after about 20 minutes, leaving trail of destruction in drinks section

everything about this is delightful (except the trail of destruction left behind): www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

I usually love seeing my friends quoted in the NYTimes, but the reasons for @marinavance.bsky.social being the focus of this story are so sad. The damage to US science is terrible.

The winds in Colorado/Wyoming are insane.

@mikezaccardi.bsky.social

well… your skin lipids undergo ozonolysis pretty much continuously with ambient ozone, creating an array of ketones and aldehydes that you then breathe.

(Us indoor chemists can ruin anything. You’re welcome.)

Not quite the same, but as a grad student, I once ordered a cylinder of nitrogen oxide - or as I wrote it on the purchase order, “NO cylinder“. Cue much confusion about how I would get my calibration standard without a cylinder….

I dare you to change the proofs of your next paper to New Yorker style…

Bobcat walking across rocks of water feature

It’s not Black Friday, it’s Bobcat Friday!! Greetings from a rare backyard visitor…

ok this one’s a little niche but if you get it, you get it

Dust life cycle: sources, elimination, exposure

Thanks to Erica Hartmann for leading a newly published paper, "Ten questions concerning indoor dust."

What is it?
Where does it come from?
How does it mediate environmental exposures?
How does it affect chemicals indoors?

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫