Tristan Caro

What Is The Antidote to Capitalism? Economic Democracy | Jason Hickel With democratic control over our productive capacities we can stop climate breakdown in short order. We can overcome the capitalist law of value, and organize production around social and ecological o...

✍️The climate crisis isn’t a tech problem — it’s a system problem.

👨Jason Hickel (ICTA-UAB researcher): capitalism keeps fossil fuels profitable and blocks the transition.

The alternative? Economic democracy 🌍

www.filmsforaction.org/articles/wha...

@jasonhickel.bsky.social

Uncertainties of enhanced rock weathering for climate-change mitigation - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy that converts atmospheric CO2 to stable carbonates by applying minerals to agricultural land. This Perspective discusses the p...

Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) on agricultural soils is being considered as a carbon dioxide removal strategy. However, uncertainties remain regarding feedstock availability, plant-soil impacts, CDR efficiency, and socio-economic considerations, limiting large-scale deployment. 🧪

Bacteria Decide the Ocean’s Dissolved Organic Carbon Abundance - Eos Dissolved organic carbon prevalence follows from how many bacteria are around to eat it, modeling suggests.

Owusu et al. say that either top-down control (e.g. grazing) or nutrient limitation (e.g. N) shape bacterial communities which in turn set DOC levels in the oceans. The EOS piece by @saimamay.bsky.social is a good summary.

eos.org/research-spo...
@saimamay.bsky.social

Our perspective on ERW -Uncertainties of enhanced rock weathering for climate-change mitigation- was featured in the New Scientist

Here is the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

👇a highlight for all alphaproteobacteriologists, don't miss it! #MicroSky

Would it be possible to plot all directorates on the same plot, normalized to 2024 funding rates (so we get a sense of which directorates may be prioritized?)

‘Unbelievably dangerous’: experts sound alarm after ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases

Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

We want your input! Join one of our community workshops to learn and share your thoughts on geothermal energy in Washington:
📆 Today, Feb. 26: Mount Baker
📆 March 4: Mount St. Helens
📆 March 5: Wind River Valley
Learn more at ecology.wa.gov/geothermal

The Biden Admin directed hundreds of billions to clean energy/manufacturing.

Did these investments shift public opinion?

We find that these projects are visible but not traceable: People notice nearby investments, but connect them to Governors, not Biden.

Thread 👇
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

As someone who was, I think, an effective note-taker in college, this discourse about LLM note-takers is alarming. For me, the act of *taking* notes is the important part. If I had thrown the notes away immediately after a lecture or reading a chapter I'd still have gotten 80% of the value.

New preprint! We propose "anergiobiosis" to describe microbial life at thermodynamic limits as a way of separating the physiological state from questions about aeonophilic extremophile specialization. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
#Microbiology #Extremophiles #SubsurfaceMicrobiology #MicroSky

Data Reporter Remote, United States

Seen online: ProPublica is hiring a data reporter, 5 yrs data journalism exp req'd. Salary $110K-$135K. Knowledge of Python or #RStats.
US remote or option to work in NY, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix or Berkeley
More info:
job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
#DDJ #JournalismJobs

The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it Peer review is so integral to the scholarly system that research would grind to a halt without it.

The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it.
#PeerReview #academicSky

theconversation.com/the-peer-rev...

Illustration of a conventional geothermal system. Enhanced geothermal creates deeper fractures in hot rock, often at depths of 5 kilometers or more, and circulates water to pick up heat and so generate power. Image credit: Shutterstock/Papia Majumder.

How #NextgenGeothermal could bring clean power to more of the planet. A PNAS Core Concept piece: https://ow.ly/lCRF50Yf3Z9

#GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #AlternativeEnergy #ClimateChange #OilandGasIndustry

Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities Spatial structure naturally emerges in microbial communities, shaping growth, interactions, and evolution, and revealing how microscale processes scale up

Most microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others
academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇

NSF’s flagship fellowship program is rejecting applicants without peer review Students seeking graduate research scholarships speculate that biology is being disfavored

NSF's graduate research fellowship (GRF) program is designed to teach aspiring scientists how to write a winning grant proposal. So why are so many applicants being denied that learning experience? www.science.org/content/arti...

Astrobiologists search for alien life, and help life on Earth in the process A team of early-career researchers say that exploring how life may have evolved on far-away worlds could lead to advancements on Earth—from new sources of

Astrobiology and extreme microbiology is not just about searching for life on other planets – it also helps society and life on *our* planet! Check out our new early career perspective www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...

For those familiar w/ "ARkStorm/ARk2.0" flood scenarios for California, a comparable event has been unfolding on the Iberian Peninsula. These ridiculous rainfall accumulations, caused by a long series of extremely moist atmospheric rivers, have brought widespread severe flooding to Spain & Portugal.

It turns out we’re wrong about what makes ice slippery for 200 years.

We thought ice was slippery due to pressure or friction. New research reveals the cause is molecular dipole interactions. These electrical forces disrupt ice's crystal structure, creating a liquid layer even at extreme cold.

Microbial growth rate is a stronger predictor of soil organic carbon than carbon use efficiency - Nature Ecology & Evolution Microbial carbon use efficiency is a strong predictor of soil organic carbon stocks. Here the authors reveal that the microbial growth rate is a more reliable and informative predictor, and that model...

Soil microbes grow, respire, die. Because their biomass eventually becomes necromass, and necromass can be stabilized in soil, growth rate emerges as a powerful predictor of soil carbon: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Microbial growth rate is a stronger predictor of soil organic carbon than carbon use efficiency - Nature Ecology & Evolution Microbial carbon use efficiency is a strong predictor of soil organic carbon stocks. Here the authors reveal that the microbial growth rate is a more reliable and informative predictor, and that model...

Folks interested in soil carbon and microbes, you may want to check these two papers recently published in @natecoevo.nature.com: Xianjin He et al., Microbial growth rate is a stronger predictor of soil organic carbon than carbon use efficiency... (1/4) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A digital illustration of Skeletor as depicted in the 80s He-Man cartoon. For those unfamiliar he is a a blue man with a fantasy bodybuilder physique. He wears a cross-body harness with some little bones at the center and a matching purple hood that frames hood face which is somehow just a yellow skull. Here he is seen yelling up to the sky and shaking his little blue fists at the heavens. Cutting him off at mid-abs is some gleaming 3D lettering in the style of the Masters of the Universe logo that reads ‘Maybe it will happen today’.

Two fully funded PhD candidate positions in Electromicrobiology (3 years) Application deadline: 4 March 2026 at 23:59 hours local Danish time

In addition to the 2 postdoc jobs posted yesterday, we’re recruiting 2 PhD students (environmental microbiology/ molecular ecology) to join us from April. The projects will map microbial populations across niches in bioelectrochemical systems relevant to biomethanation & link them to performance.

Leave a comment on PubPeer so others down the road don't have to do the guesswork! pubpeer.org

'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions.

"Make sure you cook them thoroughly or you'll start seeing tiny people."

Me: 𝗡𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗜𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 ᵗᵘʳⁿˢ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ʰᵒᵇ

www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

It's a mistake to assume ignorance at this point. It is certifiable malevolence.

Excited to join the Editorial Board of @plosbiology.org, the #PLOS flagship journal in the Life Sciences, that's blazing a trail in support of selective, equitable #OpenScience and reaching global audiences to help advance science faster 📝 🤓 🌱

Multi-omics reveals nitrogen dynamics associated with soil microbial blooms during snowmelt - Nature Microbiology Soil microbial populations bloom and then die-off in ecosystems with seasonal snowpack. This study showed that distinct taxa utilize different N sources for growth or energy during the microbial bloom...

Multi-omics reveals nitrogen dynamics associated with soil microbial blooms during snowmelt www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Entering the Permafrost Research Tunnel is like walking through a time machine, says microbiologist @tacaro.bsky.social. Surrounded by mammoth bones, ancient vegetation, and 40,000 year old permafrost, researchers study the effects of thaw on our planet. bigpicturescience.org/episodes/col...

I was thrilled to be featured on this week's episode of Big Picture Science "Cold to Hot"! Wonderful reporting on permafrost thaw, greenland ice sheet, NCAR, and more!