Sarah Smith

Our paper on the need for field studies to test ocean iron fertilization as a climate solution is out - please read it, share widely, and let me know what you think!

This would give every human alive a refrigerator-sized pile of diamonds

I’m talking about converting the ~10GtC after it’s already been released. This isn’t a real suggestion - lots of reasons it would be a ridiculous thing to do, but it’s a helpful visualization for the scale of the pile of atmospheric waste we will have to deal with (to clean up, or cope with as is)

Each person on earth could have 6.25million 1-carat diamond rings each year

If we turned all the carbon we burn every year into a giant pile of diamonds, it would be as big as 1,100 Great Pyramids of Giza. Every year.

Re-upping this piece by @mrmattsimon.bsky.social in @grist.org back in August about #OIF for #mCDR. Good work @smith8272.bsky.social and @eschwaab.bsky.social for your quotes in the article.
@cafethorium.bsky.social

🙌🎉🙌🙏👏 keep the hits coming!

Half of microbial eukaryote literature focuses on only twelve human parasites Abstract. Although microbial eukaryotes comprise the majority of eukaryotic phylogenetic diversity and inhabit nearly all ecosystems globally, most researc

Half of microbial eukaryote literature focuses on only twelve human parasites

-in #ISMEJournal by Joanna Lepper, @hbrappap.bsky.social and @oliverio.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

My vote in during plankton 102 was #2, but I won’t give away whether I learned I was right or wrong!

Please vote!

Genome-resolved biogeography of Phaeocystales, cosmopolitan bloom-forming algae Nature Communications - Phaeocystales are ecologically significant nanoplankton whose evolutionary history and functional diversity remain incompletely characterized. Here, the authors integrate...

Study reveals the hidden genomic diversity & global distribution of Phaeocystales — bloom-forming algae with surprising mixotrophic strategies, viral integrations, & adaption to polar vs temperate zones. #protistsonsky
Big step forward for marine ecology & biogeochemical models. 🧬🌊
📖 rdcu.be/eI4nv

Jane Goodall with monarch butterfly scarf

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall

💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

Energy Department Announces Termination of 223 Projects, Saving Over $7.5 Billion The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the termination of 321 financial awards supporting 223 projects, resulting in a savings of approximately $7.56 billion dollars for American taxpayers.

"Following a thorough, individualized financial review" DOE is terminating 223 awards worth $7.5 billion.

Excited and honored to be a part of this cohort and work to advance strategies to stabilize the climate. Stay tuned for more

Time series of monthly Northern Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature anomalies from 1850 to August 2025 alongside multi-model expectations of the warming in this area (scenario SSP2-4.5).

The Northern Pacific Ocean is currently smashing temperature records.

And it is reaching these levels far earlier than the current generation of climate models had expected.

A short thread 🧵

Trump administration to add $100,000 fee for H-1B visas The Trump administration is targeting a visa widely used by tech companies and other employers to hire foreign workers.

Of all the stupid things that this regime has done, this is right up near the top. Postdoctoral researchers come to the US on H-1B visas. This will further destroy the US science enterprise. Stupid stupid stupid.

Phosphorus constrains global photosynthesis more than nitrogen does - Nature Ecology & Evolution Nitrogen and phosphorus limitations are both key to spatial patterns and temporal trends in primary production. This global analysis indicates that phosphorus limitation on terrestrial primary product...

“Phosphorus constrains global photosynthesis more than nitrogen does [*on land*]” - there… fixed it

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is a nice piece covering how adding iron to the ocean can help stabilize the climate - the time for action is here #oceaniron @exois-oceaniron.bsky.social

🌊 If you plan to attend OSM26, please consider submitting an abstract to our session

“Biogeochemical and Ecological Insights for Evaluation of Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR)”

agu.confex.com/agu/osm26/pr...

OSM: 22-27 February 2026 Glasgow

Abstract submission deadline: 20th August 2025

Why work at UVic? - Faculty & staff - University of Victoria Get information on the working environment at the University of Victoria.

🌊🧪 1/ Job Alert! Are you a world-leading researcher in climate change solutions? UVic’s Canada Excellence Research Chair offers 8 years of support for groundbreaking research. Join our interdisciplinary team @seos-uvic.bsky.social Learn more & apply by Aug 29: www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...

‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels “There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research,” one Ph.D. student says

I can't stress enough how close U.S. science is to the cliff.

"Numbers released in May by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicate that if Congress approves the cuts to the agency proposed by the White House, the number of early-career researchers it supports could fall by 78%" (@science.org)

#ECR input needed! Help SCOR serve early-career scientists better by contributing to the survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/SCOR-ECOP

Losing support to continue this dataset would be absolutely devastating for science and humanity. #carbon #mCDR #climatechange

Terpenoid production can be engineered and optimized in Phaeodactylum tricornutum - a promising chassis for bioproduction. Excellent keynote by @michelefabris.bsky.social @ #MLD8

I’ve assumed that the diatom fossil record was more helpful in resolving early diatom evolution than it actually is. Karolina Brulka sets the record straight at #MLD8, revealing that Lower Jurassic Pyxidicula fossils were most likely calcareous nannofossils

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Day 3 of #MLD8 started with an awesome plenary by @sinkingdiatom.bsky.social - identifying the “slow burning fuse” of diatom evolution, punctuated by three pulses of accelerated evolution. Definitely a seminal and must-read pub if you haven’t come across it yet www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

ASAFind 2.0: multi‐class protein targeting prediction for diatoms and algae with complex plastids Many photosynthetic eukaryotes possess complex plastids, which are surrounded by four membranes, and by a space known as the periplastidic compartment (PPC). ASAFind is a software for the prediction ...

A new version of ASAFIND (2.0) is out! @asafind.bsky.social. Ansgar Gruber introduced the updated tool at #MLD8 doi.org/10.1111/tpj....

The “big and beautiful” diatom Coscinodiscus granii makes girdle bands with regular pores spaced 285 nm apart. Felicity Ashcroft presents a new set of candidate biomineralization genes from a transcriptome of chemically-synchronized cells. #MLD8

Missing you, and wishing you were here!

The oil-producing diatom Fistulifera solaris had an interesting evolutionary trajectory. Two species that diverged from the last F. solaris common ancestor millions of years ago, re-hybridized ~0.12MYA which underlies the current allodiploid genome. Hikaru Tago at #MLD8