Mariek Schmidt

My 7-year old son is jumping up and down and chanting for the blue jays

A true honor to perform “American Tune” with #PaulSimon and the incredibly talented students at Juilliard. As I said in the article, I remember first looking at the lyrics of “American Tune” and going “Oh, my God — did you write this yesterday?”

Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars - Nature A geological, petrographic and geochemical survey of distinctive mudstone and conglomerate outcrops of the Bright Angel formation on Mars reveals textures, chemical and mineral characteristics, and or...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... great to see this paper out about potential biosignatures in one of Perseverance’s samples! and it’s making quite a splash! What an amazing discovery and I am lucky to have played a small part.

John Brown’s grave

John Brown’s body lies amouldering in his grave. His truth is marching on!

A lesson on abolitionists and truth-tellers and good trouble.

Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.

Just finished rereading a favourite book, To Say Nothing of the Dog. And the cat! A fun escape #booksky #penwiper

Indigo milk cap beauty

Fe-phosphates in Jezero Crater as evidence for an ancient habitable environment on Mars - Nature Communications The Perseverance rover has made the most definitive identification of Fe-phosphate minerals on Mars to date. High-resolution chemical and textural PIXL analyses suggest they originally formed after vi...

Look at those little blue green minerals! They tell us a lot about the environment where they formed. On Mars! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fe-phosphates in Jezero Crater as evidence for an ancient habitable environment on Mars - Nature Communications The Perseverance rover has made the most definitive identification of Fe-phosphate minerals on Mars to date. High-resolution chemical and textural PIXL analyses suggest they originally formed after vi...

Look at those little blue green minerals! They tell us a lot about the environment where they formed. On Mars! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We have a plug in Santa Fe that we like a lot - bigger than our old Forrester but we almost never have to buy gas

Stingray feeding #stingray #zoo #fortwayne

dipper from gravity falls is screaming with his mouth open and his eyes closed . ALT: dipper from gravity falls is screaming with his mouth open and his eyes closed .

So, if you enjoy volcanoes and my writing about them, you have options: the Eruptions Newsletter (eruptions.beehiiv.com), the 5 Minute Volcano podcast (5mv.buzzsprout.com) or just follow along here on Bluesky. Who knew you needed all this volcano?

Pride mineral display 🌈

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... New article by @geochemystery.bsky.social! What might evidence of life on Mars look like? These tuffs in Idaho with putative biosignatures might hold the answer.

Just finished reading this to my son! He was skeptical at first, expecting it to be scary, but laughed so hard and now says it’s one of his favourite books.

Sometimes you find a trilobite

Red trillium, Ontario

Hey there, Jack-in-the-pulpit! These flowers are such fun to photograph and peek inside.

Interviewing a tenure-track candidate as Department Chair today. Wish us both luck!

Oh hello, Lilly!

Upper Balls Falls, Ontario

Upper Balls Falls

Martian Magmas Live Long and Prosper - Eos The depths, longevity, and potential to generate silicic compositions of magma chambers are linked to crustal temperature, which varies across Mars and over its geological history.

eos.org/editor-highl... I wrote a highlight for a cool study

Heard but not seen today: owl, turkey, woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, frogs

Donald Trump’s policies are more than dumb — they’re stupid, according to stupidity researchers The actions of the Trump administration on several fronts exhibit scientifically defined features of stupidity of many kinds.

Donald Trump’s policies are more than dumb — they’re stupid, according to stupidity researchers

A brain drain would impoverish the United States and diminish world science Europe is advertising itself as a destination for embattled US scientists. It seems many are considering leaving.

Europe is advertising itself as a destination for embattled US scientists

https://go.nature.com/4cdKKcx

Canada and Europe have been squeezing academic institutions for years. In Ontario we have a freeze on tuition that has limited revenue and led to serious budget shortfalls at nearly all universities. The difference for the US is how rapid and choking the squeeze has progressed.

Trump issues executive order to eliminate ‘anti-American ideology’ from Smithsonian The order directs the vice president to eliminate what he finds “improper” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.

www.washingtonpost.com/history/2025... Because this is antithetical to its mission, I hope that when it is all over, the Smithsonian will create an exhibit about how this example of authoritarianism is bad for museums and us all.

Anthropocene Deserves Official Recognition, Some Experts Maintain - Eos The International Union of Geological Sciences chose not to designate a new geologic epoch, but the matter is not yet settled.

An argument for the Anthropocene.

Oh hello there. Welcome back #crocus