New piece just out: industrial forestry devastates the underground fungal communities that trees need. This startup is trying to restore them — at scale.
Wild microbial diversity might become a potent tools for eco restoration -- a theme I'll explore further in my upcoming book
shorturl.at/kUe0y
“When I started working here in 2001, these ideas were regarded as very radical, even laughable. That is no longer true. Within a human generation, we could feed millions while repairing soils that took millennia to form." Read more from
@mountainogre.bsky.social in @theguardian.com
"Soil is more important than oil!" My latest @theguardian.com dian.com: the perennial grain revolution
Kernza's 3m roots BUILD soil vs DESTROYING it. Wheat yields could be matched in 15 years. It works for rice
Most hopeful story I've reported 🌾🌳🎄
@thelandinstitute.bsky.social tinyurl.com/34m2cnwf
Really important topic. Please read 🙏 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
This is a laser weeder. I saw it while researching an article about regen farming
It kills millions of weeds with zero nasty chemicals that kill microbes and wreck soil health
(out today👇)
A powerful piece by @mountainogre.bsky.social on #microbes and #Arctic change, featuring our work on glacier ecology @aberdlsagb.bsky.social and work on methane cyclers by colleagues at UNIS
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
A really lovely little review by BookTrust of @mountainogre.bsky.social and my book ‘The Brain’.
www.booktrust.org.uk/book-recomme...
This is painful. But please read. Please share.
Please consider what else you might do? It can be hard to feel as if you can make a difference. But every voice adds up.
Silence is not neutrality. Silence is complicity.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Meet the coral holobiont: a powerhouse of teamwork between corals, algae, & microbes, recycling nutrients to sustain life.
These creatures evolved over millennia to create nature’s finest circular economy. Yet, #ClimateChange threatens this delicate balance.
@mountainogre.bsky.social #CoralReefs
The piece was inspired by recent trip to the Red Sea, where I saw both thriving reefs and those killed by heatwaves last year. I met Raquel Peixoto and team, who develop coral probiotics that boost reef resilience. Vital work in the race against climate crisis
#CoralRestoration #MicrobiomeScience
My new piece in Guardian: 🪸How corals conjure magnificence from nothing! 🪸
Corals build massive reefs in wet deserts by working with microbes to create the ultimate circular economy
They've survived mass extinctions but now face dire climate threats
#CoralReef #EarthsMicrobiome
This week I’m guest on Now Go Create podcast about the neuroscience of creativity. From the magic of incubation, to why exercise and awe are essential, it's a fun chat and, i hope, a useful one
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n...
open.spotify.com/episode/3Unf...
#neuroscience #creativity
🐺 Can’t wait to chat with the #Rewilding legend that is Derek Gow at Wild Writers Festival in Peebles on Sunday!
The man who brought beavers back to Britain now tackles wolves in his gripping new book HUNT FOR THE SHADOW WOLF. Come! eastgatearts.com/events/hunt-...
📚 Excited to talk #Rewilding at Wild Writers Festival, Peebles this Friday!
Pupils from my old high school will grill me on:
🐺 Scotland's wolf-readiness
🦣 Mammoths
🐋 Whale poo
How to rewild the 🌍
and who knows what else
Join us! eastgatearts.com/events/rewild/
@dfbstoryhouse.bsky.social
I have a new piece in The Guardian
Bravo to @rewildingbritain.org.uk for this push to keep youth at the heart of rewilding and to the Scouts for jumping aboard
Totally delighted REWILD has a prize!
I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.
And it’s about the most urgent issues of all: humankind’s relationship with nature - including ideas on how to fix it
EXPLODAPEDIA THE BRAIN (
@DFB_storyhouse
): Available now, from all good bookshops
waterstones.com/book/exploda...
amazon.co.uk/Explodapedia...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/expl...
Enjoy!
I spent over 10 years as a neuroscience researcher — so I’m especially delighted to be publishing this book. There’s loads in it for curious minds of all ages, from 11 to 111. Cos let's face it, there's no better time than a new year to understand your own Brian a bit better
As super star brain surgeon and bestselling author Henry Marsh put it, #Explodapedia The Brain is "Splendid" ⭐️
Read this book and you'll never see your brain the same way again. Even when you're feeling truly rotten you'll hopefully remember that your skull contains a brain that is — in a very literal and cosmically improbable sense — mindbogglingly awesome.
You'll discover:
-Why yuro barin cna slitl raed tihs sntencee jsut fnie
-Why pain only exists in your head
-Why your brain is hell bent on predicting the future
-Why your brain often ends up arguing with ITSELF
-How AI and brain implants might transform our world
-And much more!
That said, Brian's brain does feature — you'll venture inside his brain, no less, and get to grips with how it's built and how it weaves its breathtaking wonders, day and night.
Er, sorry, your 🧠 BRAIN 🧠, although I did make that typo so often that this book very nearly was called THE BRIAN. 😅
...the very one that squats between your ears looking like a pinkish-grey cauliflower, while silently getting on with controlling your past, present and future. Yes, indeed: it's all about your Brian.
🎉 Happy New Year, Happy New BOOK! 📖📕
It's out TODAY, illustrated by the awesome
@MooseAllain
and it's about the most extraordinary object in the universe...
Rackham the wise. Let’s just hope the EAB beetle doesn’t make it here.
But even then, early signs are that dieback tolerant genotypes may handle the beetle better too
Thanks to @mattcombes1.bsky.social Prof Lynne Boddy and The Woodland Trust’s Rebecca Gosling for expert comment
🌳 Shoots of hope for UK's ash trees. My piece for @theguardian.com is not quite 'good news', but ash dieback isn't the apocalypse first feared. This microbe nerd's excited by possible microbiome solutions 🦠
Let's control 🦌 too, so natural regen works
shorturl.at/s717W
#ashdieback #microbiome
