Dr. Jason Loxton

Planning on applying for PromoScience for outreach activities through the Cape Breton Fossil Centre. Am hoping that some successful applicants might be willing to share their applications/budgets. In particular, I am curious how people made up the 2/3rds of $$$ that NSERC doesn't cover.

Another way of putting this: in the past 20 years or so, China and India *alone* have increased student places by about 70 million - that's roughly the same number of university places that existed in the entire world circa 1990.

Digitizing collections to unlock the full potential of palynology: A case study with the Smithsonian palynology collection Large palynological collections have been built over decades and contain vital information. However, they are often difficult to access and use effectively. What is the point of having such collectio....

Digitizing collections to unlock the full potential of palynology: A case study with the Smithsonian palynology collection

Carlos Jaramillo, Surangi W. Punyasena, Daurys de Alba, Roxana Alveo, Angelica Arcila, Jorge Bermudez, Jonatan Bustos et al

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Concept art for the upcoming show Surviving Earth depicting Dimetrodon in various orthographic views as well as details of the skin, the eye and the head

More exciting news! I am now able to share with you more of the concept art I did for the amazing upcoming NBC Universal show “Surviving Earth” premiering next year! This time for a fan favorite, Dimetrodon!

I can’t say much more than this for now 🙊

Bit confused by this. Is this for supervised thesis-based masters? I've only written a few for MSc programs, but in each, I've either had feedback/follow up from potential supervisor or the student has told me that their supervisor commented on letters' content.

For those still considering US academic positions, this is a great one!

The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything How carbon dioxide made planet Earth, shaped human history, and now holds our future in the balance.  Every year, we are dangerously warping the climate by ...

Wrote a long book that comes out August. It covers from the origins of life at alkaline hydrothermal vents some 4 billion years ago through the Volcker Shock. I'm told pre-orders help, so if that sounds like your thing, buy one, won't you? www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Geoscientists Nova Scotia threatens people opposed to uranium mining with fines, jail time - Halifax Examiner The provincial geoscientist associations were created in the wake of the Bre-X scandal to protect investors from defrauding exploration companies, not to protect the exploration industry from criticis...

As someone with a PhD in earth science, who is generally pro exploration/extraction, and teaches engineering and petroleum geology, it's hard for me to overstate how offbase I think APGNS is here. (It's also terrible optics.) www.halifaxexaminer.ca/dismantling-...

In the meantime the work happening right now is super interesting: study of ancient earthquakes preseved in the rocks. I can hook you up with contact if you want story.

Will be down to attempt to either extract or cast it in the next couple of weeks. Will keep you posted!

I have a colleague down there with a student and some other profs doing unrelated work, but... the fossil has emerged!

This is basically the basement of Nova Scotia or British Columbia (or really any accretion terrane province)!

Found while searching for merch for our museum gift store. The more you look, the worse it gets. :)

Cover of the issue, showing a fly killed by cordiceps.

First page of article Taxonomic trolling.

The summer 2025 ish of The Biologist is out and it includes my article on taxonomic vandalism. Massive thanks to those who helped in getting this piece together. #taxonomy #biology

The fourth one is actually part of the same slab as the third one. I should have noted that. I just photographed the portion that most clearly showed the geometry that struck me as biological.

The fourth is the same, I've just captured it at a different angle/lighting to emphasize the "feather" like geometry of central axis and secondary elements coming off. This one shows same.

Here's another.

What do you make of this, sedimentologists and ichnologists? Structure I've found periodically around Nova Scotia. Don't know if it's a trace or abiotic. One ichnologist said rill casts another suggested Phycodes. Thoughts? @ichnologist.bsky.social

A surface with multiple curving to straight raised ridges on a surface; ridges have grooves in their middles and finely defined chevrons. This surface is an epoxy-resin replica of a sedimentary rock surface from the Early Ordovician (~480 mya) of Portugal, and the ridges were natural casts of trilobite burrows. Replica was part of a "Fossil Art" display put together by ichnologist Dolf Seilacher.

For #FossilFriday, a dramatically lit replica (epoxy-resin cast) of an Early Ordovician (~480 mya) sedimentary-rock surface from Portugal with abundant trilobite burrows. Replica was part of a traveling display put together by ichnologist Dolf Seliacher that he titled "Fossil Art." 🧪🪨⚒️

Elon Musk’s AI firm blames unauthorised change for chatbot’s rant about ‘white genocide’ xAI’s Grok bot repeatedly referred to widely discredited claim about South Africa that has been touted by Donald Trump

They acknowledge the algorithm was tweaked and blame a rogue employee. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Sadly, as of now, it's gone. I went down a year ago to retrieve it and it seems to have been covered by gravel. I've tried several times since with no luck. Hoping a big storm will uncover it...

Scanner Price Accuracy Code On behalf of Canadian retailers, RCC manages the Scanner Price Accuracy Code, which has been endorsed by the Competition Bureau.

Just to clarify, this is a voluntary policy that many, but not all, major food retailers (and a few other types of stores) subscribe to. There will be a sticker by the cash if so. There's a list at the bottom of this link: www.retailcouncil.org/scanner-pric...

See these examples. First two prompts I tried.

I am not sure about the specific prompt, but as much as I hate to admit it, in experiments I've run with Grok, it's been excellent and fair on most issues, including Musk related ones. For example:

Wild that we not only have these 300 million year old forests in our backyard, but there's a reasonable chance every tree holds a brand species of vertabrate cradled within it. #CapeBreton

Set up basecamp and am conducting some important sedimentological research this morning in Eastbourne, UK.

My working hypothesis is this is a beach, but will need more investigation to confirm.

If you visit, make sure to walk the Sand Walk, Darwin's thinking path. (Sadly, I did not have any world changing epiphanies, but it's a lovely stroll.)

Visited Downe House, Darwin's home. As a Darwinophile, this was a lifelong bucketlist stop. English Heritage has done a lovely job of restoring and adding interpretation. Highly recommend even for casual science history fans.