Caitlín R. Kiernan

Trump’s Acting NASA Chief Wants to End Agency Science Focused on the Most Important Planet in Space - Ours The latest move in Trump's demolition of Earth-focused science

Still proud to be an EARTH scientist...Just saying. It is where we live (except perhaps for Elon)🧪

Trump’s Acting NASA Chief Wants to End Agency Science Focused on the Most Important Planet in Space - Ours open.substack.com/pub/revkin/p...

An ancient intrusion of magma (the striated rocks at center) in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt is 4.16 billion years old, researchers say. Credit: Jonathan O’Neil

This striped formation may contain the oldest intact rocks on Earth.* A new study suggests that they are at least 4.16 billion years old--relics from a time before plate tectonics, probably before oceans, even.

* The pocket knife is a more recent element. 🧪

www.sciencenews.org/article/eart...

Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit Documents with sensitive details about the meeting between President Trump and Russian President Putin were left behind on a public hotel printer.

Why spy, they just hand it out
tinyurl.com/4a8b9why

DC Union Station tonight. Unreal.

I shall take that as a compliment....

Scientists uncover new fossils—and a new species of ancient human ancestor A team of international scientists has discovered new fossils at a field site in Africa that indicate Australopithecus, and the oldest specimens of Homo, coexisted at the same place in Africa at the s...

This is super cool. New paper: "New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia," phys.org/news/2025-08... 🧪🏺

Huff Post White House correspondent 👇🏽

Every study about vaccines that comes out is like "this vaccine is 97% effective at preventing this disease & also 3 other diseases & it somehow helps you play the violin beautifully" and antivaxxers are doing their own research that's telling them they can cure measles by eating polar bear liver.

foundationally dishonest is a pretty good summary of ai tools

I developed mRNA vaccines. RFK Jr is endangering US public health Katalin Karikó says the health secretary’s decision to pull research funding for the technology is akin to ‘dropping a bomb on the US’

Katalin Kariko won the Nobel Prize for mRNA vaccine technology. She is certain that RFK Jr is endangering public health by killing $500 million in mRNA research www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

Women WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS SLAVERY CRAP! The hell with that drunk idiot. His TRUMPEDUP days are numbered, because we will not forget these scum & justice will be served by WE THE PEOPLE. I hope nobody but his hand is fuking that loser in the meantime.

Fresh hell.

How old is the earliest trace of life on Earth? A recent conference sees doubts raised about the age of the oldest signs of life.

My latest article 👇 gets into how hard it is to date stuff in some of the oldest rocks on the planet, and why it matters ⚒️🧪
arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Ignorance you'd not expect beyond first grade children.

A large slab with a fossil shark head and jaws, lots of clay pigeon sized and shaped shark vertebrae, and cranial elements and ribs of a giant toothy fish

Happy #FossilFriday from the BEST fossil shark specimen on display anywhere (it’s at KU)

This Cretoxyrhina mantelli skeleton has the bones of a big Xiphactinus audax mixed in with it, showing the shark died shortly after ingesting the absolute worst fish in the late Cretaceous seaway. 🧪🦈

Cornyn Says F.B.I. Will Help Find Texas Lawmakers Who Fled State

This is very, very bad.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/u...

Advancing science- and evidence-based AI policy Policy must be informed by, but also facilitate the generation of, scientific evidence

What kind of AI governance do we need? Our new piece in @science.org answers this: we need policy grounded in evidence and built to generate more of it. Evidence-based policymaking is not a slogan—it’s a design challenge for democratic governance in the age of AI www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵

An endorsement from renowned palaeontologist & bestselling author, Steve Brusatte. “THE SECRET LIVES OF DINOSAURS”, by @deanrlomax.bsky.social, illustrated by @bobnichollsart.bsky.social & published by @columbiaup.bsky.social, is out Sept 2025 (pre-order now!).

#SciArt #PaleoArt #Dinosaurs #Books

Paleontologists Unveil New Species of Plesiosaur | Sci.News Paleontologists have identified an unusual new genus and species of early-diverging plesiosauroid plesiosaur from a nearly complete skeleton found in the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, G...

www.sci.news/paleontology...

The great dismantling

What do fossils tell us about evolution? Kinda a broad topic...and I tried to give it a go in 20 minutes. Using dinosaurs and mammals as my guide (sorry foram and brachiopod fans!). Check out the video here:

Amy Sherald’s Trans Lady Liberty Painting Graces New Yorker Cover The artist withdrew her exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery over concerns that the artwork would be censored.

Take that, Tr*mp transphobes! @charliejane.bsky.social @annaleen.bsky.social @transgenderreport.com @cherylmorgan.bsky.social hyperallergic.com/1031893/amy-...

New Caitlin R Kiernan collection. #BrightDeadStar
I’m gonna need a bigger bookshelf.

#BrightDeadStar from @caitlinrkiernan and @subpress is featured in last week's #newbooks roundup on youtube!

watch the whole thing here: youtu.be/EeCQFfYm1z8
visit linktr.ee/locusmagazine for all things SFFH!
links in bio

TetZoo badges, t-shirts and more.

dinosaur-themed stickers by TetZoo.

Just some of the #TetZoo merch we'll be selling from our stall at @dinoconuk.bsky.social on Aug 16th-17th... available while stocks last! #DinoConUK #dinosaurs

Ah, very cool.

‘I’m interested in pushing the frontiers of science, not sailing my boat on calm seas. If you’re worried about storms, you shouldn’t be on the ship. Frankly, I find storms exciting.’
- Elizabeth Vrba

Trafik by Rikki Durcornet Ghost Signs by Sonya Taaffe The Glamour by Christopher Priest The Rise of Life on Earth by Joyce Carol Oates Zoetrope Bizarre by Caitlín R. Kiernan Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica The Man Who Murdered His Muse by James Champagne Miss Homicide Plays the Flute by Brendan Connell The Aristocracy of Weak Nerves by Justin Isis Ikaho by Quentin S. Crisp The Second Mask by Louis Marvick Aornos by Avalon Brantley

Read in July.

@caitlinrkiernan.bsky.social @jamesgchampagne.bsky.social @joycecaroloates.bsky.social @justinisis.bsky.social

A beautifully preserved bothremydid turtle from the Late Cretaceous Mooreville chalk of west Ala. We collected it in the late 1990s, and it's now on display at @Mcwane
w/many more wonderful fossils. (The specimen was found lying on its back plastron up.) Splendid specimen.