Karen James

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premier techno-superpower may be over.

This is an excellent explainer about the US scientific ecosystem. It covers a lot of points I often hear non-scientists asking about: about talent, the dynamics of the academic research environment, Germany, the USSR, history of NSF, NIH. Worth a read.

1/

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.

By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

Frog and Toad hide the cookies in a box. From "Cookies" In *Frog and Toad Together*

Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”

“But we can open the box,” said Toad.

“That is true,” said Frog.

'The Moon possesses fundamental rights, which arise from its existence in the universe, including:
(a) the right to exist, persist and continue its vital cycles unaltered, unharmed and unpolluted by human beings;
(b) the right to maintain ecological integrity; ...'
🧪

Wow that’s great!

Is that a doggy wetsuit!?

Call the House Appropriations subcommittee now: DEMAND NO CUTS to NSF funding in the 2026 Budget Tell the Congressional members of the House Appropriations subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: NO CUTS to NSF funding in the 2026 Budget!

🚨ACTION OF THE DAY🚨
@standupforscience.bsky.social

Day 4! We are welcoming our legislators home for recess!

Use this link to call your legislators. Put in your info, answer the call to your phone, and follow the script for your 3 calls!

act.standupforscience.net/call_campaig...

#31Days

Having a proud moment because my partner’s postdoc advisor Robin Lovell-Badge was Peter Sinclair’s co-discoverer (and I think his advisor? I’ll need to confirm). Anyways, bravo, Professor Sinclair.

Key point: The losses are so large bc the economic benefits of universities to their communities and our country are so great.

That's why possible NIH budget cuts--expertly visualized by SciMAP--are so damaging. Check out their maps ⤵️

scienceimpacts.org

Yeah, if we *must* have cleansing fire, now is not a *bad* time, you know?

Preach

It's important to note here that we're not just talking about faculty & university staff. 100s of U.S. colleges are in towns or small cities where they form the major industry & lifeblood of the community. Loss of students -> loss of rent $, restaurant $, bars, bookstores, gaming stores...

And that’s *just* because of declining enrollment. Research funding cuts will make it even worse.

A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.

Ten lessons the Aztecs can teach us today | Sebastian Purcell You don’t need to solve your soul before setting your house in order. In fact, the outer path might just be the way to reach your inner peace

Ten lessons the Aztecs can teach us today | Sebastian Purcell

John Tyndall, Irish physicist, mountaineer & science popularizer, was born #OTD c. 1820. We've published 13 vols. of his letters thus far, 14 this fall & 15-21 in the works: bit.ly/4fluhVd

@upittpress.bsky.social @rolandjackson.bsky.social @ri-science.bsky.social @royalsociety.org

#HPS #histsci

Job Opportunity at Lancaster University: Senior Research Associate - Decolonising the Deep Seabed: Countermapping Territory, Heritage and Knowledge Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) is pleased to announce a Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position as part of a Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘Decolonising the Deep Seabed: Counterma...

3-year postdoc @lancasteruni.bsky.social w/ Dr's John Childs & Nicola Firth

Decolonising the Deep Seabed: Countermapping Territory, Heritage & Knowledge

Offering an alternative t0 mainstream approaches to understanding the political geography of the deep seabed

hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

YouTube video by NBC Montana Montana Moment: Seeley Lake's 1,000-year-old Gus is world's largest Western Larch tree

The larch (a.k.a. tamarack) trees in Montana’s Seeley-Swan valley south of Kalispell are well over twice as tall as any I’ve ever seen. Biggest of them all is Gus: youtu.be/oo8mg92KsOg?...

A sunflower blowing in the wind in a dry field with out-of-focus mountains in the background

Apparently yesterday was national sunflower day, so here’s a sunflower I photographed in Helena, Montana (yesterday, as it so happens).

Skyline cleanse.. his name is Emmanuel Savary…🔥🔥🔥

Photo from Brussels of cobblestones. One is carved with the words: I used to be a mountain

Photo: Maarten Inghels

YouTube video by NBC Montana Montana Moment: Seeley Lake's 1,000-year-old Gus is world's largest Western Larch tree

If you ever pass through, it’s very special habitat for larch trees youtu.be/oo8mg92KsOg?...

It really is. The larches alone are astounding.

Meadow, Forest, mountains and sky

Wait, no, I do have one pic.

But if you ever drive it, be vigilant for deer. I saw three dead ones (one fawn, bless it) and one live in the middle of the day, not even twilight or nighttime.

Topographic map of northwestern/north-central Montana

I have zero photos to back this up because I was busy driving but Montana’s Seeley-Swan valley (the long green swath in this map) is frickin’ spectacular.

she posts videos of them trying to get away from her on tiktok that are sped up yakety sax style and scored by norteno music, theyre hilarious

Map of the state of Montana decorated in LGBTQ+ colors.

I went to a drag show last night in Helena, Montana. Yes, you read that right. And it was magnificent.

Newly fledged and out of the hollow Powerful Owlet sleeping.

Oh my god. THE FLOOF.