The 2024 winners of Astronomy Photographer of the Year are out...and they are spectacular.

Here's the overall winner: a time-sequence of a solar eclipse that shows deepening shadows from mountains on the Moon. (Credit: Ryan Imperio)

rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-p…. #science #space #photography #nature

Brand-new pics of planet Mercury, just in from the European Space Agency's BepiColombo spacecraft!

esa.int/Science_Exploration/Sp… #space #science #astronomy #ESA

I really love this description of a retracted study: not only does it explain what was retracted (turns out men don't generally divorce their sick wives), but also it covers what the error was (a coding problem treated people who left the study as divorced) how it all went down (someone tried to replicate, asked for data and didn't get the same analysis. Contacted the authors and they were horrified and immediately worked to retract).

It's a really nice story of why replication matters and how to be good at science. This is how I was taught science should work, but I rarely come across such good retrospectives.

retractionwatch.com/2015/07/21…

#science #PeerReview

“To our horror”: Widely reported study suggesting divorce is more likely when wives fall ill gets axed

A widely reported finding that the risk of divorce increases when wives fall ill — but not when men do — is invalid, thanks to a short string of mistaken coding that negates the origina…

^{Retraction Watch}

Roger Hallam is one of the founders of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, and a leader in the fight against global climate change. I would like you to read this statement he posted yesterday… 🧵1/4
_______________________

I've just been sentenced to 5 years in prison.

The longest ever for nonviolent action.

The 'crime'?

Giving a talk on civil disobedience as an effective, evidence-based method for stopping the elite from putting enough carbon in the atmosphere to send us to extinction.

I have given hundreds of similar speeches encouraging nonviolent action and have never been arrested for it. This time I was an advisor to the M25 motorway disruption, recommending the action to go ahead to wake up the British public to societal collapse.

I was not part of the planning or action itself.

In the trial, I swore before God to tell the truth. The truth is the science. The science is clear. We're heading for billions of deaths and ecological collapse. To prove this, I presented the jury with a 250-page dossier of leading scientists' research as evidence in my defence. This was denied by the judge as an invalid - climate science is now illegal in the British courtroom.

I then began to speak about the apocalyptic conditions humanity faces - floods, wildfires, mass heat deaths - and was silenced by the judge. He sent out the jury and threatened to arrest me if I didn't stop. Instead, I stayed in the dock and argued that until I was given the right to complete my defence – I would not move. Even the prosecution tried to argue in my defence and the judge let me continue.

When the jury had shuffled in again, I spoke about the legal concept of “equality of arms” – that as the prosecution had had a right to lay facts over a whole week, I also wanted an equal opportunity. I spoke of various cases where juries had acquitted defendants when they had heard the facts, such as the Extinction Rebellion cracking of Shell's windows in 2018 as a reasonable action against criminal destruction. The Dutch Supreme Court has even said that all governments have a legal obligation to prevent the emission of greenhouse gases. Whilst the prosecution accepted that emissions pose an existential threat, for the first time in British history no less, they still tried to convict us for public nuisance rather than praise us for trying to stop those emissions. Given the objectivity of existential threat, there were overwhelming grounds to be involved in a plan to cause some disruption to the M25.

In the British law on public nuisance, there is a ‘reasonable excuse’ clause. Science says there is an overwhelming threat to my life, my children, you and your children. To argue there is not a reasonable excuse directly defies the wish of this legislation. Things are happening that cause harm – people are engaged in physical acts to stop that harm – it doesn’t matter whether it’s a protest or not.

As I began to offer up some case law, the judge kept intervening telling me I was “wasting my time” and ordering the jury to disregard me. To illustrate that I was not talking about my motivations but speaking about real necessity, I referred to a famous case over a decision to operate on conjoined twins with the likelihood that one would die. In this dilemma, I quoted the 19th Century principle that the action was necessary if the threat faced was inevitable and irrevocable, that no more should be done than essential, and that it must be proportionate. I argued that there was a “duress of circumstances” including the objective danger I’ve experienced as a farmer unable to grow food, and the global significance of “food insecurity” – a euphemism for famine and starvation.

There has never been a moment in history where ‘necessity’ has been more supported by objective facts – more than 10,000 scientific and peer-reviewed papers, indicating an outcome of mass starvation and death from man-made climate collapse.

In response, Judge Hehir called for an early lunch and dismissed the jury. He turned to me and warned that I wasn't a lawyer and that “this is not the Roger Hallam show”.

He then gave me just 15 more minutes to put forward my “beliefs” - a totally fucking incoherent statement. This isn’t belief - it’s the objective threat of destruction of property and livelihoods of billions of people and the secondary effects of famine i.e. war, rape, and torture.
_______________________

That's Part 1 of 4. Read the next below...

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

I come from a business / digital background, so digital accessibility has always been big on my radar. When I started in science a few years back, I was very surprised to see that arXiv - a service that allows scientists to put their pre-prints (papers before peer review) was not accessible.

This meant that all science papers that were open access (away from journal subscriptions) were only available as PDFs - which means people with digital accessibility needs could not access them.

Access to science should be open to everyone (the pandemic showed us how important this is), and whilst there is a need for papers to undergo the formal peer-review process, that does not mean we can't adhere to global digital accessibility standards.

So, I am extremely glad to see that arXiv is now moving toward digital accessibility, with its second accessibility forum in Sept. 2024. They've also been moving to make papers in HTML format (instead of PDFs only) which adheres to these standards.

If you are interested in accessibility and science, you might consider attending this forum. It's free to all and only requires remote participation.

accessibility2024.arxiv.org/in…

#science #accessibility #digital #astrodon #arxiv

Stunning images of Jupiter captured by the Juno spacecraft during a close flyby in October 2018.

Video credit: NASA/​JPL-Caltech/​SwRI/​MSSS/​Gerald Eichstädt
#space #science #nasa

Here's a very calm, well researched video analyzing the facts and data about AI technology progress. And all the stunning tech demos that were faked.

I really like the scientific approach to this and I feel like I'd want to adapt this kind of analytical process to other things in my life.

youtu.be/VctsqOo8wsc?si=XcuufC…

#AiRant #AI #fAIl #tech #science

AI Hype is completely out of control - especially since ChatGPT-4o

Now that ChatGPT4o is out, it's time to revisit my previous thoughts on AI, and discuss what might be happening in the future, and what evidence we have of w...

^YouTube

#PPOD: This stunning photo was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. Phobos is the larger and closer of Mars's two moons, the other being Deimos. One hypothesis of their origin involves the possible capture of primitive asteroids. Unfortunately, Phobos is being pulled apart and closer by Mars's tidal forces and gravity. Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/ @andrealuck CC BY (flickr.com/photos/192271236@N0…)

#mars #phobos #space #science #scicomm

Even with all the eclipse photos circulating right now, this one made my eyes pop. Great shot of jet contrails breaking up the edge of the eclipsed Sun. Quick calculation: The Sun is about 30,000,000 times wider than the jet.

(Photo by Bobby Goddin, Bloomington, IN) #eclipse #nature #science #photography

I had a couple things come across my timeline that made me think about how far science, especially space science, has come during my lifetime.

For example, when I was younger, Pluto was not much more than a few blurry pixels of a planet, now it is a richly detailed world (and dwarf planet).

When I was a kid, there were 9 planets, now we know thousands, most exoplanets outside the solar system. Wild to think about. 1/3 🧵

#science #space

I am sharing this here because of the title of the article but also everything else in it I guess:

"Scientists studied how cicadas pee. Their insights could shed light on fluid dynamics"

npr.org/2024/03/20/1239529315/…
#insects #science #urine (for your tag filter purposes)

This is the surface of a comet! Dust is swirling around the surface of Comet 67/P -- captured in 2016 by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, processing by Jacint Roger Perez.

Still one of the most remarkable scenes in space exploration.

#space #science #astronomy #ESA

Centuries old European-centric American history debunked by archaeology and advanced genomics

The Pueblo, Pawnee, Comanche and Lakota traditional owners gain confirmation of what they have always being saying, that they'd been using horses centuries earlier than what the Western narrative have claimed.

This is incredibly exciting. Not just this case, but how there’s the potential for history to be rewritten in many other periods of history, provided science is given the opportunity to explore
amp.abc.net.au/article/1035261…
#AusPol #AusEdu #Science #Archaeology #Genomics #IndigenousX

How the horse exposed a mistake in the history books but confirmed what First Nations people have known for generations

Authors of an award-winning US study that incorporated First Nations traditional knowledge say there are lessons for Australian researchers.

^{ABC News}

Just finisihed this & it's brilliant: Katalin Kariko's story of her life. She was convinced that mRNA therapies could work decades ago & did the foundation work, all while being ignored, never promoted & struggling for jobs.

Today, millions are vaccinated with mRNA vaccines & she has a Nobel prize.

It's a great story, and leaves a lot for the scientific system to think about. Highly recommended.

#books #mRNA #science #biography

Klára Dán von Neumann died #OTD in 1963.

Hungarian mathematician, self-taught engineer and computer scientist, noted as one of the first computer programmers. She was the first woman to execute modern-style code on a computer. Klára made significant contributions to the world of programming, including work on the Monte Carlo method, ENIAC, and MANIAC I. She was introduced to a lot of her work through her husband, John von Neumann. via @wikipedia

#science #mathematics

We have a new post in our Blog article series illuminating 🪔the #science background 👩🏻‍🔬 👨🏾‍🔬 of ##ESAEuclid 🛰️ and the techniques we'll employ for high-precision #cosmology: "Measuring the Universe with Baryon Acoustic Oscillations?"

👉 euclid-ec.org/measuring-the-un…

#astrodon #astronomy #DarkEnergy #DarkMatter #space

A large group of scientists has collaborated to produce the "2023 State of the Climate" report. And guess what, it's not pretty...
_________________________

Life on planet Earth is under siege. We are now in an uncharted territory.

For several decades, scientists have consistently warned of a future marked by extreme climatic conditions because of escalating global temperatures caused by ongoing human activities that release harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, time is up. We are seeing the manifestation of those predictions as an alarming and unprecedented succession of climate records are broken, causing profoundly distressing scenes of suffering to unfold. We are entering an unfamiliar domain regarding our climate crisis, a situation no one has ever witnessed firsthand in the history of humanity.

In the present report, we display a diverse set of vital signs of the planet and the potential drivers of climate change and climate-related responses. The trends reveal new all-time climate-related records and deeply concerning patterns of climate-related disasters. At the same time, we report minimal progress by humanity in combating climate change.

Given these distressing developments, our goal is to communicate climate facts and policy recommendations to scientists, policymakers, and the public. It is the moral duty of scientists and our institutions to clearly alert humanity of any potential existential threat and to show leadership in taking action.

The effects of global warming are progressively more severe, and possibilities such as a worldwide societal breakdown are feasible and dangerously underexplored. By the end of this century, an estimated 3 to 6 billion individuals — approximately one-third to one-half of the global population — might find themselves confined beyond the livable region, encountering severe heat, limited food availability, and elevated mortality rates because of the effects of climate change.

Big problems need big solutions. Therefore, we must shift our perspective on the climate emergency from being just an isolated environmental issue to a systemic, existential threat. Although global heating is devastating, it represents only one aspect of the escalating and interconnected environmental crisis that we are facing (e.g., biodiversity loss, fresh water scarcity, pandemics). We need policies that target the underlying issues of ecological overshoot where the human demand on Earth's resources results in overexploitation of our planet and biodiversity decline.

To address the overexploitation of our planet, we challenge the prevailing notion of endless growth and overconsumption by rich countries and individuals as unsustainable and unjust. Instead, we advocate for reducing resource overconsumption; reducing, reusing, and recycling waste in a more circular economy; and prioritizing human flourishing and sustainability. We emphasize climate justice and fair distribution of the costs and benefits of climate action, particularly for vulnerable communities. We call for a transformation of the global economy to prioritize human well-being and to provide for a more equitable distribution of resources.
_________________________

It's wonderful to see these scientists boldly calling for system change in the face of a planetary overshoot emergency. Now if only someone will listen...

FULL REPORT -- academic.oup.com/bioscience/ad…

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth

Be ungovernable, like birds who make nests OUT OF ANTI-BIRD SPIKES. A new study describes resourceful Dutch & Belgian corvids besting evil architecture by stealing metal anti-bird strips and using them like thorny twigs, to construct their homes.

Like thorns, the spikes may protect their nests from predators.

Lead author Auke-Florian Hiemstra wrote an epic 🧵 about his research that's worth a read: twitter.com/AukeFlorian/status…

Paper: hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/organis…

#science #SciComm #birds #netherlands

At a meeting in Germany that attracts dozens of Nobel prize winners, one of them objected to its focus on diversity, saying “as a male scientist, I have a feeling of discrimination when I am here, in the climate that this meeting is being held.” Science magazine reports that a visibly nervous early-career researcher stood up to respond….

science.org/content/article/no…

Link to video, her response is at 46:39
mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/r…

#stem #science #Nobels #womeninstem #womeninscience #lindaunobel

"The Illusion of Moral Decline"

I'm appreciating this study by Adam Mastroianni today. The next time someone waxes poetic about "the good old days" and how people were so much kinder and more virtuous in the past, I think I'll send them this link. 😁

experimental-history.com/p/the…

---------
#morality #science #history

The illusion of moral decline

The short version of the paper I just published

^{Adam Mastroianni (Experimental History)}

Explore the extraordinary eons-old details of the moon’s surface in an astounding 1.3-gigapixel composite #photography #science #space

thisiscolossal.com/2023/05/and…

Not long ago, the enormous Haast's eagle soared over New Zealand.

Weighing almost 40lbs (18kg) with a wingspan up to ~10ft (3m), they likely feasted on the gigantic moa birds I described in an earlier post. Maori oral tradition also suggests they may have attacked human children.

So what happened to this fierce apex predator? Once the moa disappeared due to excess hunting after the arrival of people, Haast’s eagle followed around 1400. nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/h…. #SharedPlanet #science #nature

Open letter from Scihub and Library Genesis:

custodians.online/

Fuck copyright, and fuck the capitalist vultures that hoard knowledge at the world's expense.

#copyright #OpenAccess #science #knowledge

In Solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-hub

Share this letter - read it in public - leave it in the printer. Share your writing - digitize a book - upload your files. Don't let our knowledge be crushed. Care for the libraries - care for the metadata - care for the backup.

^{http://custodians.online}

Physicist John Tyndall is often credited with discovering the greenhouse effect, which he wrote about in 1859.

But female scientist Eunice Foote published a paper - 3 years earlier - demonstrating how atmospheric water vapor & CO2 affected solar heating. She theorized that heat trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere warm its #climate.

Tyndall was widely read. And Foote, being a woman, wasn't even permitted to present her own work. climate.gov/news-features/feat… #history #science #ClimateChange

Fission is in the news, but few recognize that a woman physicist was behind the discovery.

Lise Meitner’s brilliance led to the discovery of nuclear fission. But her long time collaborator Otto Hahn, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry w/o her in 1944, even though she had given the first theoretical explanation.

Albert Einstein called Meitner “our Marie Curie." She also adamantly refused to work on the atomic bomb during WWII. aps.org/publications/apsnews/2… #women #history #science #energy

Starfish walk using hundreds of tiny tube feet on the underside of their arms, as seen in this fascinating timelapse by Juliette Horn at the Frost Museum of Science.

#animals #science #starfish #feet

There is a certain beauty in when this happens. The geometry of the mutual event, eclipse, conjunction, whatever you want to call it. It's just... 🤷 😭

Images:
NASA/JSC/Artemis 1
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

#Space #Science

Hello #Mastodon, if you know a Black woman student (HS/College/Graduate School) or early career, I am going need you to lend me your ears.

The Sadie Collective, a nonprofit bringing resources and community to Black women in quantitive and social science fields, is award $6000 AWARDS and all expense paid trips to their annual conference.

As someone who participated in this inaugural program, PLEASE PLEASE share widely. #econtwitter #economics #sociology #science #academia #academic

Hi, fellow #journalists ... in an attempt to make the Twitter diaspora a little easier, I'm compiling a list of #journalism types on mastodon. Currently it's biased toward #science / #scicomm types, but there are others in there.

I'll post the names, but the ongoing project is available on Github here: github.com/cgseife/mastodonpeo…

From the top:
Jason Abbruzzese
@JasonAbbruzzese

Hilda Bastian
@hildabast

Alan Boyle
@alanboyle

Bethany Brookshire
@beebrookshire

Siri Carpenter
@SiriCarpenter (+)

GitHub - cgseife/mastodonpeople

Contribute to cgseife/mastodonpeople development by creating an account on GitHub.

^GitHub

> The ecology of fear, the idea that the presence of a predator causes a cascade of ecological effects across a landscape, is a fundamental concept in wildlife ecology. In recent years, ecologists have come to appreciate how much animals, even apex predators, fear humans, with myriad effects on animal behaviors and, in turn, ecosystems.

Ecologist Asia Murphy writes about humans' role in the "ecology of fear" and the implications for wildlife management & conservation: americanscientist.org/article/…

#SciComm #ecology #biology #science #anthropocene 🐘