Roger Turner

Applications for 2026–2027 Beckman Center Fellowships Now Open Researchers can apply by January 15 for various long- and short-term programs, including two-year curatorial fellowships.

Absolutely delighted to announce that applications are now open for our 26-27 postdoc, dissertation, distinguished, and short-term fellowships at @sciencehistory.org! 📚 🎉

Details and application info on our website; questions welcome here!

www.sciencehistory.org/about/news/a...

How AIP is Giving a Name to Mrs. Scientist Our librarians and archivists are working together to recognize more Faces of the Physical Sciences

"How AIP is Giving a Name to Mrs. Scientist" -> www.aip.org/mrs-scientist Excited to see this overview of some of the reparative description work that AIP's Niels Bohr Library and Archives team is doing with our photo collections.

The Endangerment Finding: The Local Perspective Matters Right Now (Template Comment Letter Linked) - Climate Law Blog [Here and at the end of this post, a template comment letter is linked for local governments to adapt for their own comments in the Endangerment Finding rule making process.] On August 1, 2025, the U....

Deadline for comment on EPA endangerment finding extended to 22 Sept. Please send a comment. Here's a good piece with some ideas, and you don't have to be a scientist to comment.
blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

Trump Is Dismantling Climate Science at a Dangerous Pace The White House has blocked efforts to measure, respond to and fight global warming. That puts all Americans at risk.

I know there's a lot of news rn but @eroston.bsky.social, @zhirji.bsky.social and I wrote a full accounting of the Trump administration's war on climate science and clean energy. Putting it all in one place was a lot!

Here’s the @eandhwhp.bsky.social link on new plastic bag #envhist from Nils Johansson — develops R&D, early adoption of plastic carrier bags in Sweden, adding to the impt work from Johan Hagberg, Andrea Westermann
h/t @elsadevienne.bsky.social

www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/epdf/10....

Is the Plastic Bag History? This digital and outdoor exhibition explores the history of a familiar object from a surprising number of angles.

And if you're looking for more on #envhist plastic bags, How to Read Plastic Bag from the @sciencehistory.org 's @rogerturner.bsky.social is fun: www.sciencehistory.org/visit/exhibi...

BalancedWx Special: NOAA releases its FY26 budget justification document It's still the OMB budget - but now with all the gory disastrous details

The NOAA budget justification doc that finally was posted today didn't contain a lot of surprises - but as the first time all of the cuts were listed in their destructive detail, it is a depressing read. I tried to distill and explain the weather part, sad as it is.

substack.com/@balancedwea...

Farmers win legal fight to bring climate resources back to federal websites “It feels good to win one, right?”

USDA says it will return information about climate change to its webpages after the Trump administration took it down www.theverge.com/news/666150/...

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."

Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.

I wrote about my decision in TIME.

time.com/7285045/resi...

If you are also worried about tariffs and supply chain shortages, and have the financial means to prepare, here is what I have stocked up on and plan to buy soon, plus what I would get if I had kids, a car or a larger home, based on reporting I've read or done myself in the last several months (🧵):

United Airlines Cancels Newark Flights After FAA Staff Walks Out United has been urging the government to limit the number of flights to what an airport can realistically manage based on staffing, CEO Scott Kirby said.

WSJ: After tech to manage air traffic failed several times in recent days, 20% of the FAA controllers at Newark Airport walked out.

Now, United has canceled 35 daily RT flights from Newark. FAA staffing at Newark is too low to handle the planes scheduled, United's CEO said. Gift link!

My PhD student's NSF grant was terminated today. Her dissertation investigates why air pollution monitoring, metrics, and regulations don't properly capture the harms experienced by marginalized communities--esp in the most polluted Detroit neighborhoods. She and I are happy to talk with press etc.

I hope other university alliances start pooling resources and engaging in the kinds of collective action Rutgers is proposing here for the Big Ten.

senate.rutgers.edu/report/resol...

I found these insights helpful in guiding a colleague’s powerful but undirected need to do something in response to… everything.

📷 Excavator load lithium sulfate, as seen in Chile’s Atacama Salt Flat on July 29, 2024. Photographer: Aguayo Araos / Anadolu via Getty Images

The rush for renewable energy minerals has a dark side—environmental harm & human rights abuses. Clean energy’s path must be smarter & more responsible.

A Quick thread from our new mining series 🧵...

#Mining #Renewables #EV #Solar #Batteries #Climate

Your excellent story mentions a weather research lab that will be merged with a climate center in suburban Maryland. Is this the Air Resources Laboratory?

Review | As scholars tried to flee the Nazis, U.S. universities closed their doors Laurel Leff sets out to correct the myth of the “welcoming American academy.”

This thread led me to this book. “The story of refugees from Nazi Europe has been told many times, but Laurel Leff’s focused, well-researched book sheds new light on part of it: how academic refugees struggled to find safety in the American university system.” www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/as-s...

Another example of the crucial public services provided by government that only government can plausibly do. So destructive to cut this, but will take a few years for the damage to manifest.

Special BalancedWx Update: NWS announces reduction in upper air flights Reduction is on top of previously announced cuts

Special Balanced Weather substack article about the announced reduction to NWS upper air weather balloon flights, h/t to @coweatherman.bsky.social and @stormscale.io for the info they shared today

open.substack.com/pub/balanced...

On the anniversary of my father's death, I usually try to donate to some people making trouble he would have liked.

I couldn't march today, but who should I donate to to push back on these attacks on science?

Layoffs and potential closures of key facilities raise worries about NOAA's future The Trump administration may end leases for some of NOAA's offices while the agency terminates several advisory committees at the important weather and climate agency.

The Trump administration may end leases for some of NOAA's offices while the agency terminates several advisory committees at the important weather and climate agency.

NOAA firings hit the birthplace of weather and climate forecasting Dismissed researchers were improving severe weather predictions

Hi - I'd like to share this story of what is happening at NOAA GFDL, where some of my colleagues and I worked until the mass firings at NOAA last week.

"...the birthplace of weather and climate forecasting"

Image of a scientific poster titled "science for governing: NOAA's Air Resources Laboratory." It includes a map of nuclear fallout, a photograph of meteorologist Lester Machta, and charts showing the growth and applications of the HYSPLIT computer model.

For a quick overview of the ARL, I did a poster at AGU in December 2024. I was surprised to learn that HYSPLIT can be used to predict the spread of locusts. Truly, NOAA protects people from biblical curses. Here's an image version.

The Weather Scientists Who Can Forecast a National Security Threat | Essay The Federal Air Resources Lab Quietly Helps Prevent Plane Crashes and Chemical Attacks.

The ARL has also been essential to national security for more than 75 years: locating Soviet nuclear tests in 1949, supporting civil defense planning in the 60's, and studying how bioweapons or poison gas might move thru cities after 9/11. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/weather-scie...

In case the ARL's gov't webpage goes down, here's a good article about HYSPLIT published by the Lab's director and staff in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

The Air Resources Lab builds and updates HYSPLIT, the computer model that helps emergency responders know where ash from forest fires like those in LA or South Carolina is going to go. That model also tracks volcanic ash to keep intercontinental air travel safe. www.arl.noaa.gov/hysplit/

Reading Trump’s NOAA Budget — Picturing Meteorology The escape plan hidden inside a kidnapper’s manifesto.

The first Trump admin tried to eliminate the Air Resources Lab in the 2019 budget, because ARL monitors toxic mercury deposition released when coal is burned. But the ARL also...

picturingmeteorology.com/home/2018/3/...

DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases at critical forecasting centers NOAA's nerve center of national weather forecasting is on a lease cancellation list.

The College Park building holds the Plume Prediction and Response Center, run by NOAA's Air Resources Laboratory. It's an emergence response node that goes into action when there's a nuclear accident or major atmospheric toxic release.

www.axios.com/2025/03/03/d...

Federal Firings Threaten Great Lakes’ $5 Billion Fishery - Inside Climate News Cuts to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could unintentionally thwart efforts to control populations of the destructive sea lamprey.

Sweeping layoffs of federal employees have struck the program responsible for controlling the invasive sea lamprey that threatens fish across the Great Lakes, the earth’s largest freshwater ecosystem.

Yup.

The strain on air traffic controllers is getting attention for air safety. Deservedly.

But in terms of overall danger, in general and specifically for aviation, assault on weather knowledge is worse.