Dr Rebecca Williams

America was winning the race to find Martian life. Then China jumped in. The Mars Sample Return mission got off to a promising start, hunting for potentially humanity-changing space rocks. How did it fall off the rails?

Is there life on Mars? For decades, America was in pole position to find out with its multi-mission Mars Sample Return program.

But MSR is now officially dead. And in the race to find alien life on Mars, it’s now China’s to lose.

Me @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/26/1...

In case you’re just waking up, the U.S. has teamed up with Israel overnight to start an illegal war of regime change, apparently on a presidential whim with no involvement of Congress, and they are already committing horrific atrocities.

Nothing like a deadline to sharpen the mind! You can do it!

A zoomed in look at 4 scientists working with the a lava fountain covering the entire background.

A very tall lava fountain with tiny dots (people) near the base. The image is a bit forced perspective and we are not as close as it looks

Someone captured my colleagues an I servicing the cameras during Kīlauea’s episode 42. We stopped to discuss what we were seeing, but because I talk with my hands it looks like I’m fixing to push someone in…

Credit: Volcano Hideaways

Why even bother existing anymore if this is your choice? If you don't want to learn, don't want to create, don't want to engage, don't want to think... what are you even doing here?

My presentation was based off a paper I wrote with members of CSER & the University of Birmingham through the Global Volcano Risk Alliance: "Assessing Volcanic Hazards and Financial Exposure: A Closer Look at Insurance Industry Preparedness". Preprint available here: doi.org/10.31223/X5C...

I love this podcast! It's such a joy and tickles my history nerd itch perfectly.

This episode has the most movingly hopeful Nuance Window, probably my favourite of all the You're Dead To Me episodes.

A pensive reflection by @moudhy.bsky.social on what we can take from the Epic of Gilgamesh for today's world and our societies challenges.

🧪⚒️ A big eruption occurred at a mud volcano in Colombia on the night of the 25th February 2026.

Thread…

Video from @fluxfolio_

WE’RE HIRING! Please spread the word 📣
Prof. Cheryl McEwan is looking for a 30-month Postdoctoral Research Associate to support “Plants out of place: entanglements with ‘invasive weeds’ in the Anthropocene”. Start date 1 September. Application deadline 6 April durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

We found NZ was awesome for playgrounds. And loads under cover so great even in the sun. Unlike Portugal and Malta where you risk 3rd degree burns in the slide.

Does it stop then? Please tell me this won't be a brain glitch for life.

Do all parents make a mental note whenever they see a playground, regardless of whether they'll ever be in that location with a kid? Just in case?

Or is it just me who has built a national GIS of playgrounds in their head?

I love this. Thank you 🥰

In a library?! This is my first library sighting and I'm delighted!

Thank you for making my day.

Books in a library. One is "Volcanoes: 10 things you should know."

In #Horsham 's library...
"Volcanoes: 10 things you should know", by @volcanologist.bsky.social

A very nice book, if you ask me.

#geology ⚒️ 🧪

I've even met someone with the same name and same birth date.

One year I'd love to get into BM100 - I reckon I would be completely unidentifiable. No one would expect a less than mediocre runner from Bedfordshire.

‘A joyful day’: final piece of Sagrada Familia’s central tower put in place Completion of glass cross brings Antoni Gaudí’s church to maximum final height of 172.5m, 144 years after work began

Don't feel bad about that unfinished paper on your computer.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Here's a little nugget too: I made a video for this comic (one of very very few so far)

I feel the same about publishing about volcanoes and volcanic eruptions.

UK employers less likely to recruit disadvantaged ethnic minority graduates Ethnic minority graduates from a low socio-economic background are 45% less likely to be offered entry-level professional roles compared to more advantaged White applicants, finds a new report led by ...

roles, even when they have similar qualifications and apply in the same numbers.

This isn’t about aspiration or talent. It’s about discrimination in the workplace. Higher education has widened access. But if the labour market doesn’t change, we risk creating access without mobility.

UCL have set a precedent of settling. With a no disclosure agreement, we'll never see the reasons -was there a failure in delivery? Did the complaints process fail? What is the legal basis for the complaint? What lessons can be learned?

What it has done is recruited thousands more for the lawyers.

Stories in the UK media continue to run and run.

In any matter where a student feels something has gone wrong, there is a well established complaints process. And it works! With no need for no-win-no-fee lawyers!

No where is it reported whether they have tried this proper route to resolution.

UN distances itself from International Women’s Day website winning corporate partnerships Sainsbury’s, Barclays and University College London have all drawn on themes created by IWD site run by London business with no link to UN

And more

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

International Women's Day: Feminist movement or gender-washing… In this article, Professor Laura J. Spence and Dr Lauren McCarthy discuss what is really needed for organisations to make a commitment to gender equality.

#IWD2026 🧵

The #GiveToGain '.com' site is run by a private limited company with no apparent links to the UNWomen's campaign or feminist movement

They unilaterally decide a theme. It's different to the UNWomen's campaign

They seem to profit from the merch they sell

www.kcl.ac.uk/internationa...

In some ways I'm philosophical about The End these days. It is what it is. But for the final wave to hit because of the crisis when we worked the hardest we possibly could, we nearly broke ourselves, and did exactly what the govt told us to do? It seems.. painful.

UCL students win £21mn over Covid disruption in watershed settlement Move involving 6,500 claimants is set to put pressure on other universities to compensate graduates

21 MILLION? Oh. 😱 That's the end of some universities then. It's as simple as that. I'm sorry, I tried.
www.ft.com/content/a0cf...

No, it didn't reach me. Sorry that happened to you.

Oh wow. I want to work in your lab.