Dr Mitzi Bolton

Save the CSIRO

Our national science & research agency is now facing more job cuts than under Tony Abbott

Call on the Albanese Govt to fund the scientists & research we need to tackle big issues we face from climate to food security and everything in between

www.davidpocock.com.au/save_our_csiro

#Momademia is working on rejoinders on the weekend (thanks coparent!) because you don’t have a full contingent of weekdays to do so, while listening to your toddler play in the next room and occasionally seeing a small face and hands peer around the door.

Details here dataforpolicy.org/data-for-pol...

Watching the livestream of the #DataForPolicy conference on Twin Transitions for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future, &very much wishing I were in The Hague to take part in the great conversations taking place. Lots of ideas and actions being presented on #AI for #SustainabilityTransitions

I’m tired of the academic road to nowhere – but it’s too late to exit For one mid-career academic scientist, precarity is becoming unbearable. But they are too experienced for entry-level industry jobs and not experienced enough for senior ones. They’ve stayed too long,...

This hit hard.

I’m tired of the academic road to nowhere – but it’s too late to exit www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/im-tir...

Hurray a day of peace and quiet to write that paper. Finally!!!

Computer: I have other plans.

#Momademia

a cookie monster is sitting on a tray with plates of food ALT: a cookie monster is sitting on a tray with plates of food

Holiday or overseas conference with a 2yo?
Can’t do both
#momademia #AcademicSky

Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis City of Madrid significantly boosted the takings of its shops and restaurants last Christmas by banning cars from the CBD, finds an analysis by Spain's second largest bank.

Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.

There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.

Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople

Australian governments remain silent on massive coral bleaching right now on both sides of Australia.

Instead, the Commonwealth and State governments in QLD and WA continue to expand fossil fuels - ignoring the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Tawny Frogmouth checking out the sunset 🥰

If you’re a primary carer &work PT, you work 16hrs less/week.
If a grant window is open 6.5 weeks & you can’t see applications forms prior, you officially have 104hrs/2.7 weeks fewer to compile it than FT competitors.
Funders could leave past forms up &change them less often to ⬆️ equity #momademia

Cover sheet of a journal article: "Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity" by Ian Walker and Marco te Brömmelstroet

HOT RESEARCH NEWS!

Motonormativity ("car brain") is a bias that stops people making rational judgements about driving en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motonor...

Our new study shows where this bias comes from AND how it makes people think they're odd for supporting changes to the transport system 🧵

Boom

A lot of people who have no idea what government actually does for their lives are about to apparently find out real quick.

My colleagues at NOAA fear for their jobs.

Their satellite observation today of accumulating heat stress (already above mortality thresholds) on the northern Great Barrier Reef: Yet again a deadly mass coral bleaching event is underway.

Without NOAA, climate & reef scientists will be blind.

Lotte Gallagher Melbourne singer/songwriter Lotte Gallagher firmly stepped onto the local scene in 2023. Her punchy debut single ‘Adam’ saw Lotte named a triple j Unearthed High finalist, earn a #1 most played spot a...

Can’t get enough of this teenager from Melbourne’s music. Hope other’s further afield can get to hear her!

youtube.com/@lottegallag...

Australian nature: if our laws don’t radically change, environmental degradation will continue | Adam Morton Australia has a long history of taking its unique wildlife and landscapes for granted, but what has happened in this term of parliament is remarkable

“There is something significant missing from most of the political and media discussion about the Australian government’s promised, and now abandoned, nature protection laws: the environment. Logically, it should be a focus of the debate. In practice, it barely gets a look in.”

Cartoon with scene of alien arrival. Alien: Take me to your media moguls, tech broligarchs, major donors & fossil fuel companies! Person: what about my leader? Alien: I’m looking for the people who really run the show

ICYMI yesterday’s Guardian cartoon on *gestures broadly* all of this

two men are dancing on treadmills in a gym with the words make gifs at gifsoup.com ALT: two men are dancing on treadmills in a gym with the words make gifs at gifsoup.com

Spends morning editing presentation on what AI will mean for the public sector, making point about intensity of current race, turns on news et voila #DeepSeek Never a dull moment when doing #ResearchOnAi #AcademicSky

A computer screen with a display showing output from an xray diffraction spectrometer.

Close up view showing fraction of metals. Fun stuff.

Just had a sample of the Eaton Fire ash that is in my driveway run on the department XRF. Is there titanium (new house paint)? Yup. Lead (old house paint)? You betcha. Heavy metals? Check. Treat that ash like it's toxic folks (because it is)

Snap! Went through a whole ‘how old is old enough to leave them while I fly overseas for a conference?’ thought process a while back, and have come to accept that if it’s out of town and no hybrid mode, I won’t be going for a while.

Altadena Wildfires My house in Altadena burned down in the wildfires on Wednesday. It all happened quickly.

“My house is one of many that burned down. This event, for me, has destroyed any boundary between my work as a climate scientist and the rest of my life.”

Read more from NASA JPL scientist Ben Hamlington:

At my son’s swim class, they’re swimming through a short tunnel. The girl in front keeps screaming as she enters, making it seem like something to be fearful of, but with a big grin on her face.

Sometimes it makes sense to respond to the noise, sometimes it’s just noise.

“…even if reincarnation were a fact,
given the inherent cruelty of the world
where beautiful things and people
are blasted apart all the day long,
I would never want to come back, knowing
I could never be this lucky twice..” - Bruce Dawe

I do a yearly wrap up for the New Yorker on where we stand on climate and energy.

Short version: the planet is very hot and so is the pace of solar growth

Any "avid cyclist" who claims that the solution to road safety for cyclists is simply to be more skilled and assertive should be required to demonstrate that they are more skilled and assertive than Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel who was, this week, doored.

My colleagues at NOAA fear for their jobs and are rushing to publish their data on climate change before Trump silences them.

NOAA collaborates with researchers around the world to understand coral bleaching, including on the Great Barrier Reef.

cell.com/current-biol...

The time you've all been waiting for has finally arrived - announcing the winners of our Ecology in Action photography competition! 👏 #ecology #WildOz

Information screen shows that all 8 cars of the train have capacity.

Train information screen reads "In Darug language, the emy is Mariyung"

Train information screen reads "Like Mariyung this train runs through ancient lands"

Train information screen reads "from from Awabakal to Gadigal countries"

Catching the new Mariyung train from Newcastle to Sydney. In addition to next station etc, the information screen tells you if there's more seats on other carriages, and acknowledges the traditional owners.