Assoc Prof Robyn Pickering

Researchers thought inbred koalas were at risk of extinction—what they discovered upends genetic conventions If you follow media coverage of koalas, you could be forgiven for feeling confused. Recent stories describe a "koala paradox": endangered in the north of Australia, abundant in the south; genetically ...

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I'm going to add to this... A good and valuable literature review also makes an argument. It's not a summary of every paper ever, it's a selective discussion from a position of expertise that does specific field defining work

Open Access Comment on Nixon, A. L. et al. (2022) on Intracontinental Fault Reactivation in High Heat Production Areas of Central Australia: Insights From Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology A. L. Nixon, S. Glorie e2025GC012887 | First Published: 24 February 2026 Key Points We have identified an error in Imro values leading to values calculated as ~4% too high

More of this please; people commenting on and correcting mistakes *in their own papers from a few years back* 👏🏾

4/5 of these talented young researchers are in my group 🤩🤩🤩

It’s so rewarding to see all these projects making it to publication.

#brag #proudsupervisor

Schließung des Instituts für Archäologie an der HU-Berlin Die Archäologie gehört seit fast 200 Jahren zur wissenschaftlichen Tradition der Humboldt-Universität. Ihre Schließung bedeutet den Abbruch einer gewachsenen Forschungstradition und eine dauerhafte Sc...

Please support the petition against the planned #closure of #Archaeology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Archaeology has been a part of Humboldt-Universität academic tradition for almost 200 years, so closing it would break a long-standing research tradition

weact.campact.de/petitions/sc...

I’m honoured and excited to be the GSSA 2026 Du Toit lecturer!! Only the second woman since 1949 🥴

I’ll be doing 5 lectures all over South Africa 🇿🇦 and 1 in Botswana 🇧🇼

So save the date!!

Image description: Earth and the moon connected by a slackline. Text reading:' Peer support programme Registration is now open for experienced attendees! No worries, I’m here to help! It’s my frirst time at #EGU26 Register NOW! 31 March 2026.'

Are you attending #EGU26 and remember how overwhelming your first conference felt? Why not apply to the Peer Support Programme and help first-time attendees feel supported?
👉 More information about the programme: egu.eu/3YUO9G
📆 Register by 31 March 2026.

HERI Co-Directors Rebecca Ackermann and Robyn Pickering invite contributions to the symposium “New Directions in Palaeoanthropological Research in Southern Africa” at IPC7.
To submit an abstract, please email the convenors.
Details and information on all 29 symposia are available at: www.ipc7.site

Image description: A group of people during a field. Text reading: "Apply for funds to run a training school or conference series in 2027!" with a deadline of "15 May 2026." The EGU logo is in the bottom left corner.

Interested in running a training school or conference series? Apply now and receive #EGU funding!

💰 Funding opportunities:
✔️Training schools: up to €6000!
✔️EGU Conference series: up to €8000!

📅 Apply by 15 May 2026: egu.eu/7MIIAO
📸: Kalyani Nayak on imaggeo.egu.eu

This season our goal is to reach 5,000 new readers — and you can help. Invite one or two friends to subscribe and bring this kind of reporting to more people.

Read Issue 228 here: www.thecontinent.org/_files/ugd/2...

Don't miss our wonderful new @EmpirePodUK series on
THE BRONZE APOCALYPSE

@anitaanand.bsky.social & I dive into the most dramatic imperial collapse in history.

Girls don’t want flowers for Valentine’s Day.

They want you to reauthorize the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions ⛽️ ☠️ 💙 🌎

🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration.
All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts.

JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New paper to reflect on during the International Women in Science Day.
🧪⛏️⚒️🦕🦖
"Barriers Affecting Mexican Women in Paleontology: Challenges and Proposals for Building a Women’s Support Network"

paleontologiamexicana.geologia.unam.mx/index.php/pa...

Lucia Perez Diaz: Expressing Earth with Art - Eos A geoscientist and illustrator finds artistic inspiration in plate tectonics and geodynamics.

“Science is full of inspiring stories,” says @drlperezdiaz.bsky.social. “Art is a really great vehicle to tell them.”

eos.org/features/luc...

I second that!!

Well done @Marang Keebine✨🎊

Big congratulations to my MSc student who won the best poster prize 🏆 at the BIOGRIP conference!

🌍✨ Know someone whose work is changing the world for the better?

🌟 AGU Honors recognizes individuals making lasting impacts in science—from research and discovery to sustainability and education.

👉 Nominate a colleague, student, mentor, or peer today: buff.ly/0gyjMIW

A “QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions Backlash against ICE is fueling a broader movement against AI companies’ ties to President Trump.

Quit, cancel, never sign up.

"Whiteness" isn't really about sunlight or skin, it is the category that was created to constitute a legally and socially privileged group of European immigrants in contrast to enslaved Africans and indentured Asians.

Two!! On the streets!! This feels huge

A woman wearing a cardigan with oversized wing-like sleeves, it is patterned to look like a monarch butterfly

A woman wearing a cardigan with oversized wing-like sleeves, it is patterned to look like a luna moth

I have acquired the best sweaters ever

I have nothing of substance to add re: the condemnation of paleo associations with Epstein, but as the initiator of one of the more recent high-profile SVP ethics cases who spent months going through their process, I have some thoughts re: SVP's handling of ethics cases/reports.

A thread 🧵:

If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff.

Democracy dies in oligarchy.

THE WONDER OF LIFE ON EARTH - published today www.panmacmillan.com/authors/henr...

Job alert in Malta on my ERC funded IslandLab Project for a post excavation research assistant. A bachalor's degree in Archaeology, or related fields is required, ideally with experience working on faunal assemblages and handling bones/fossils, and curating finds.
www.um.edu.mt/media/um/doc...

How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

‘We found that using AI assistance led to a statistically significant decrease in mastery. On a quiz that covered concepts they’d used just a few minutes before, participants in the AI group scored 17% lower than those who coded by hand’

Blog on Anthropic’s site
www.anthropic.com/research/AI-...

Screenshot of a statement from SVP that they find “no policy violations” in having members appear in the Epstein letters

Really SVP? You’re just going to ignore decades of sexual and academic misconduct, marrying a student AT one of your conferences, and every report I’ve filed (implying that’s what you do with reports) to defend famous Horner? You’d rather have pedophiles than students is your message?

#WomeninScience in #SouthAfrica ⚒️

HERI Master’s student Marang Keebine studies past #climate & environmental change using sediments from an ancient lake in the Karoo.

Her work sheds light on how dry landscapes responded to drought and rainfall – and how we can respond today.