Dinosaur Space Program

Berkeley’s Cosmic Breakthrough and the Alvarez Discovery That Rewrote Earth’s History A father-and-son quest at UC Berkeley uncovered the cosmic cause of the dinosaurs’ demise—and reshaped our view of Earth’s tumultuous past.

A very nice, neat, and vivid article on the discovery of the Chicxulub extinction event — with a lot of conventional California coastal self congratulation, but hey, what are you gonna do?

“Magnesium, iron, and calcium isotope signatures of Chicxulub impact spherules: Isotopic fingerprint of the projectile and plume thermodynamics”
— lead author from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

The origins of the dino-killing asteroid, and remapping the scientific enterprise On this week’s show: where the impactor that killed 75% of life on Earth came from, and a new series on postcolonial science

You know that asteroid that killed the dinosaurs? Where exactly did it come from?

A light purple flower that looks like a frowning face.

This Allegheny Monkeyflower seems sad and disgusted with me.
#flowers #nativeplants #photography

Four featherless and blind baby birds reach up with mouths open waiting for food.

Baby birds always look like Muppets to me.
American Robin
#birds #nature #photography

A small light green bird with a long beak flies by at super speed.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird
#birds #nature #photography

A painting of a bird next to the words "how did you fuck this up"

This Dinosaur Probably Tweeted More Than It Roared

In my latest for the @nytimes.com, I wrote about an adorable new dinosaur with something extremely rare: fossilized vocal organs!

Can’t possibly be one iota worse than the trash-heap meat shrinks that … uh, a friend of mine … has met over and over and over, one dumber and less ethical than the last.

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)'s crest is a pointed tuft of feathers on the top of the head that can be raised or lowered, indicating the bird's emotional state. Photo © Enrique Shore
#bird #birds #nature #birding #birdphotography #naturelovers #wildlife #titmouse #beauty #feathers #portrait

A Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) flapping down its wings. Photo © Enrique Shore

#birds #nature #birding #flying #birdphotography #naturelovers #wildlife #birdsinflight #beauty #chickadee #birdwatching #bird #dancingintheair #wings #feathers

Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) have 9 functional primary feathers and 9 secondaries (including three tertials), along with 12 rectrices (tail feathers). Photo © Enrique Shore
#birds #nature #birding #birdphotography #birdsinflight #chickadee #birdwatching #bird #wings #feathers

A Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) typically weighs around 0.74 ounces (21 grams). Photo © Enrique Shore

#bird #birds #nature #birding #birdphotography #naturelovers #wildlife #titmouse #beauty #feathers #birdsinflight

By Reza Farazmand Badly Drawn Lines

Priorities, people

Thanks to Stephen Ellcock
An early, untitled , eerily prescient work by Glen Baxter (ca. 1970s)

Who’s is the dinosaur here?

Cartoon image of an asteroid heading toward the surface of a planet. The text says, "Asteroid Day, June 30, 2025"

Asteroid Day AZ has just announced the full list of events for June 30, 2025, and I'm even more excited to be participating with a talk and book signing. It's not every day one gets to meet Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart. See you in Flagstaff! www.asteroiddayaz.com/activities

If you’ve never seen one before, this is a strawberry finch.

Rate it! This stunning owl camouflage.

dinosaur park, rapid city, south dakota, 1987

dinosaur park, rapid city, south dakota, 1987

The Matriarch & Rose

A little #WalkingwithDinosaurs fanart :)

Illustrators call out journals and news sites for using AI art Bot-made art undermines research and public trust in science, say illustrators frustrated by inaccurate and outlandish depictions.

"AI images don’t succinctly or accurately communicate scientific concepts & could undermine public trust in science... inaccuracies wouldn’t fly if they were created by a person, “but for some reason, having this sheen of fake polish that comes with AI kind of erases all of those standards” 🧪#sciart

Asteroid impact – the dinosaurs had no space programme

The Nördlinger Ries impact crater — made when an asteroid with a diameter of approximately 26 kilometres struck southern Germany — is still visible from space today, with its rim indicated by the dark green, curved forested areas.

The Dinosaur Space Program is calling BS on this one.

The Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula is about 200 km wide and 20 km deep, the second-largest impact structure on Earth. It caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, from a 10-km-wide meteorite that exploded with energy equal to 100 million megatons of TNT.

Just a reminder that Zeus/Jupiter wiped out the dominant species once before and can do it again.

(Also, the only dinosaurs the spared were the ones who, you might say, “got high.”)

fancy KY for dinosaurs -- call that chicxulub(e)