Colin Schultz

it me

How to Kill a Million Sea Stars - bioGraphic Synthetic pheromones offer a promising new means of controlling troublesome crown-of-thorns starfish.

Scientists have "a new way to help control crown-of-thorns starfish—one that co-opts the animals’ own communication systems to lure them to their deaths. "

www.biographic.com/how-to-kill-...

Australians “have been fighting against [COTS] for 50 years,” Cummins says. “It’s an exciting time.”

Environmentally, Offshore Wind Is … Fine | Hakai Magazine How often can you say that about an energy generation system?

Environmentally, Offshore Wind Is … Fine

How often can you say that about an energy generation system?

hakaimagazine.com/news/offshor...

I love when people who are professionally wrong for a living describe it as being really into "nuance"

The Great Quake and the Great Drowning | Hakai Magazine Mega-quakes have periodically rocked North America’s Pacific Northwest. Indigenous people told terrifying stories about the devastation but refused to leave.

Three hundred and twenty-six years ago the Earth rang like a bell. And the ocean woke up mad and climbed up on the land all around the north Pacific. Forests drowned. But the people survived. And the people remember

hakaimagazine.com/features/gre...

Hi I'm a visual forensics reporter at The Washington Post. Do you have any footage of today's ICE shooting? Please reach out. DMs open.

Ping, You've Got Whale - bioGraphic A new artificial intelligence-powered detection system is giving ship captains real-time alerts when a whale is in their path.

A new artificial intelligence-powered detection system is giving ship captains real-time alerts when a whale is in their path www.biographic.com/ping-youve-g...

Critical Minerals? There’s a Plant for That - bioGraphic Could phytomining—using plants to pull metal out of the soil—put the green in “green transition”?

"Several phytomining startups have already begun commercial operations."

Like GenoMines, a French firm, that's using a genetically engineered plant in the daisy family to farm nickel in South Africa.

www.biographic.com/critical-min...

Critical Minerals? There’s a Plant for That - bioGraphic Could phytomining—using plants to pull metal out of the soil—put the green in “green transition”?

"Several phytomining startups have already begun commercial operations."

Like GenoMines, a French firm, that's using a genetically engineered plant in the daisy family to farm nickel in South Africa.

www.biographic.com/critical-min...

YouTube video by Rage Against the Machine - Topic The Ghost of Tom Joad

Today's mood:

The Ghost of Tom Joad - Rage Against the Machine www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-8B...

Aw congratulations Mr. Sharkman!

A good example of a native species becoming “invasive” (having a runaway impact on the ecosystem) when human influence (eutrophication, climate change, …) disrupts a complex ecological network.

France seizes suspected Russian 'shadow fleet' tanker in the Mediterranean The vessel, named Grinch, was stopped by the French navy as it travelled through waters between Spain and Morocco.

"France says it has seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of Russia's sanction-busting "shadow fleet"." www.bbc.com/news/article...

United States Completes WHO Withdrawal WASHINGTON —  January 22, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of State today announced the United States’ completion of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.

The United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization.

This is a shameful move that puts both Americans and people all over the world at greater risk from disease outbreaks, which require international collaboration to contain.

YouTube video by fromjoy - Topic theseus

Today's mood:

Theseus - fromjoy www.youtube.com/watch?v=f98k...

Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it Scientists have long focused on quantifying fear and other negative emotions in animals. Now they’re trying to measure positive feelings — and it’s a challenge.

"If scientists had better tools to measure positive emotions they’d be equipped to more deeply investigate the causes of happiness and how animals communicate it, with major implications for mental health among captive animals." www.sciencenews.org/article/scie...

Given how hard it is to stop people from doing stuff like that, it seems worth having some back-up plans

How to Kill a Million Sea Stars - bioGraphic Synthetic pheromones offer a promising new means of controlling troublesome crown-of-thorns starfish.

Scientists have "a new way to help control crown-of-thorns starfish—one that co-opts the animals’ own communication systems to lure them to their deaths. "

www.biographic.com/how-to-kill-...

Australians “have been fighting against [COTS] for 50 years,” Cummins says. “It’s an exciting time.”

🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.

YouTube video by AOF OneTwoOneSix Sons Of Privilege (HQ) (with lyrics) - Alexisonfire

Today's mood:

Sons of Privilege - Alexisonfire www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBgR...

This is a great looking staff editor job at @quantamagazine.bsky.social

www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Trump Administration to Speed Up Permitting for Deep Sea Mining, Even Beyond U.S. Boundaries - Eos NOAA has finalized a rule that will expedite the permit and license application process for deep seabed mining and allow companies to mine beyond U.S. jurisdictional boundaries.

"NOAA has finalized a rule that will ... allow companies to mine beyond U.S. jurisdictional boundaries."

eos.org/research-and...

Question: Who the fuck gave NOAA any power beyond U.S. jurisdictional boundaries?

Are zoos still arks—or are they becoming nursing homes? As reproduction slows and populations gray, scientists warn that many zoos are losing their capacity to function as effective conservation tools.

"Rather than breeding new, young generations of animals, zoos with limited space are restricting reproduction and becoming defacto retirement homes for everything from zebras to wildcats." www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/01/are-...

This handprint is the oldest known cave art Beating the previous record for the oldest known cave artwork by at least 15,000 years, a hand stencil in an Indonesian cave might shed light on when early humans migrated to Australia

"A new chemical analysis of the stencil reveals that it dates back at least 67,800 years, an astonishing 15,000 years older than the next-oldest cave art found on the same island, Sulawesi."

www.scientificamerican.com/article/olde...

US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.

This does a great job putting a bunch of key numbers in context

US science after a year of Trump

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

My @propublica.org colleagues traveled to South Sudan and Kenya to report first-hand on the damage being done by the gutting of USAID. They'll be answering questions about their investigation in a reddit AMA on Thursday👇👇

"Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu," Carney said."

'The old order is not coming back,' Carney says in provocative speech at Davos | CBC News Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a frank assessment of how he views the world in a provocative speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, where he said the longstanding U.S.-led, rules-based intern...

"The longstanding U.S.-led, rules-based international order is over and middle powers like Canada must pivot to avoiding falling prey to further "coercion" from powerful actors" says Canadian Prime Minister Carney

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Just as Delmar Boulevard carves a socioeconomic line through the city, it also splits St. Louis’s squirrels in two. “The same way that 23andMe can tell if you’re from Scotland versus England, we can tell, ‘Oh, these squirrels are from North City; these squirrels are from South City,” Carlen says.

The Best Science Stories and How They Work: A Collection with Commentary - The Open Notebook An invitation to engage with some of today’s most respected science journalists as they take readers beneath the surface to tell the stories behind eleven of the best science stories.

Taken together, these pieces and annotations reveal the detailed, technical narrative work required to tell science stories well. You can preorder today from @uchicagopress.bsky.social (get 30% off with code UCPNEW) or a host of other booksellers. See more 👇