Sean McMahon

No asteroid impact into the Moon?

AI=B+ - Public Books “The essays ChatGPT produced in mere seconds are quite plausible as the last-minute work of a rushed undergraduate.”

”…meaning does not just sit in a literary text like a prize at the bottom of a cereal box”. AI makes the humanities more necessary than ever. www.publicbooks.org/aib/

Exceptionally preserved 551-million-year-old site suggests Avalon biota lasted longer Researchers studying the soft-bodied Ediacaran biotas of the world generally accept that there are three distinct assemblages. The 575–560-million-year-old (Ma) Avalon Assemblage is best known from th...

phys.org/news/2026-02...

Glob-glob! Absolutely magical sea anemone larva (about 7 mm) from The Lombok Strait, Indonesia 🇮🇩

Sup chat this is Slouching Towards Bethlehem with your boy The Rough Beast, and it looks like today’s stream could be a big one, as some of you might’ve already seen there are rumors going around social media that the hour has come round at last, so we’re gonna get right into it

The Palaeontological Association has written to the President of the University of Leicester, requesting that the concerns of the PhD community over the planned redundancy of their supervisors are addressed.
[1/3]

Excellent explainer

Quite rare to see a chart that says quite so overtly that no one involved has the slightest clue what’s happening here

So proud of my @theukca.bsky.social PhD student @astr0mia.bsky.social for her public engagement award! Check out our Tartan Tardigrade podcast that Mia hosts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

I find it hard to believe you have had no vertebrate-related incidents in 65 million years!

Does this only refer to non-avian dinosaurs?

Proposed Ediacaran meiofaunal burrows from Brazil are pyritized algal/microbial consortia The Ediacaran Period marks the first appearance of animal body fossils in the rock record. While the metazoan affinities of many late Ediacaran macrof…

Today for #FossilFriday a lovely example of science in action:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A bunch of us described structures in 2017 that we interpreted as very small burrows. This great new paper describes new material, and throws an impressive range of analytical /

⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

4x4” acrylic painting of Perseverance rover with Ingenuity underneath

Perseverance celebrates 5 years on Mars! This is a painting of the day Ingenuity unfolded (rip 🥲🚁)

#space #astronomy 🔭🧪🐡

Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!

"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."

... a high concentration of organics in sediment does not necessarily imply an efficient mechanism to deliver organics — it could equally suggest inefficient delivery of sediment. Concentration is a ratio; you can get a high ratio from a high numerator but also from a low denominator.

NASA Study: Non-biologic Processes Don’t Fully Explain Mars Organics - NASA Science In a new study, researchers say that non-biological sources they considered could not fully account for the abundance of organic compounds in a sample

A new article in the journal Astrobiology argues that high concentrations of organics in a rock on Mars cannot presently be explained non-biologically. It's an interesting and valuable paper, but I think a bit one-sided because... science.nasa.gov/blogs/scienc...

sigh

🎉 Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science 🔬

On 11 February, we celebrate the important contributions of women to the STEM disciplines.

Find out more about CERN’s #WomenInScience2026, where we feature six scientists: home.cern/news/news/kn...

seeking investors for my new project to suck all of the oxygen out of the atmosphere. it's going to be pretty expensive to build, but the finance guys are saying we'll be able to sell oxygen back to any remaining people at a breakeven price by 2032

"A modern-day concentration camp ... People have been killed by the staff here." Irish citizen Seamus Culleton has been in ICE detention since September, despite having a valid work permit and his own business in the US.

Extremely (ahem) cool: "The first measured sea temperature from a snowball Earth episode: −15°C ± 7°C. If this figure holds up, it will be the coldest measured sea temperature in Earth’s history."

good thread

For me it was day one of undergrad. Quite a shock. Been thinking about it lately because the whole of humanity may soon have to deal with not being the smartest in the room (AI)…

DAY 245
SPECIES 245 - Ca. Parvarchaeum acidiphilum
STAGE: Archaea
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek, HWC & QoR watercolor. Sakura pen

NOTES: First day using rough grain paper, decided to give it a try

#sciart #watercolor #archaea #painting #art #paint

The volcano erupted, spraying linoleum and carpeting into the air.

"Oh my god," the geologist gasped. "The lava is floor!"

Rachel Reeves: "It is not right that people who don't go to university bear the cost for others to." I don't use local leisure centres and I don't drive, so will I be made exempt for taxation that pays for all that stuff? Or is it only education we'll be going after

Life on Mars? how a muddy Scottish pond adds to the case #astrobiology #science #mars YouTube video by multiverses

An excellent explainer of our new preprint from James Robinson of the multiverses.xyz podcast!

A crescent moon shining above Edinburgh castle, that is lit up with floodlights. In the foreground the dark outline of Arthurs Seat, the mountain in the middle of Edinburgh city. In the background, whispy clouds and the distant mountains of Fife. Credit: https://www.tomduffin.com

"It is the moon, I ken her horn,
That's blinkin' in the lift sae hie;
She shines sae bright to wyle us hame,
But, by my sooth, she'll wait a wee!"

Lots of despair & sadness watching the 🇺🇸news today.
I'm hoping Burns can lift your spirit today.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Happy #BurnsNight🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
📷@tomduffinphotos.bsky.social