Yes, everyone should be free to have opinions and we should all be free to listen to all opinions. But if you weigh conflicting opinions, some are better supported by fact. Covid-19 has killed over 7 million people: ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumu...
It would have been many more without vaccines.
Thank you for this thread, George. Very nicely put, especially when you talk about feeling fortunate to be part of a minority able to speak out. Seeing how hamstrung most people are in terms of speaking or acting generally leads me to the same question: what should people actually do about this?
A lovely, articulate argument
Can we finally agree that burning wood for energy is a terrible idea and won't be carbon neutral, let alone carbon negative, in our lifetimes? BECCS using wood certainly shouldn't qualify as CO₂ removal (CDR).
A significant amount of warming is baked in thanks to existing emissions. But there's no need to be fatalist about it.
“We are not on an unstoppable trajectory towards a tipping point where sea ice disappears for good,” Louise Archer told me. "It’s absolutely in our hands how the future plays out.”
However, ultimately, the odds of these iconic bears surviving beyond the end of the century will depend mainly on the world reducing emissions.
As the climate warms and the ice recedes further and further north, the likely thing is still that polar bears will disappear from much of the Arctic. But there are potential refuges where the bears could hold out for longer
Polar bears in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean (which many people have heard of thanks to Philip Pullman's Northern Lights), have been seen taking hundred of eggs from ground-nesting birds like ducks and geese and even catching reindeer
It was great to talk to experts in polar bear science including Jon Aars, @aederocher.bsky.social, Louise Archer and @alicegodden.bsky.social about this
Some polar bears in Svalbard are fatter than expected, and others in Greenland are showing signs of genetically adapting to climate change. Will it be enough to save them? 🧪 #arctic #climatechange
It was fascinating digging into this for @livescience.com
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...
Click on the link in the first post for a blog by @wildlifephoto.com with more info and pictures.
It's part of a project done in collaboration with rangers for monitoring the Maasai Mara’s endangered black rhino population.
Lion at night caught by a camera trap in Kenya’s Maasai Mara. Credit: Will Burrard-Lucas
Some of these photos from Will Burrard-Lucas's Kenyan Maasai Mara camera trap are stunning. 🧪 🦁 #nature #photography #wildlife
Lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, giraffe, elephant, kudu, hippo - this river crossing is a regular wildlife corridor
blog.burrard-lucas.com/2026/04/secr...
ooh yes, that's it, thank you
![Comic. [Person and person with white hat facing two boxes stacked with $80 price tag and sale tag on each box.] PERSON 1: They want $80 for this? I could make one myself for $10 in parts, an hour of work, a trip to the hardware store, another $30 in parts, another few hours of work, two more trips to the store for $20 more in parts, another hour of work to redo the first hour of work because I messed up, and $80 to buy this when the one I made breaks.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreifdsd32pjwefxji33c5eferlek4o6kkadoosqisb5uatqjmrq4q4q)
Comic. [Person and person with white hat facing two boxes stacked with $80 price tag and sale tag on each box.] PERSON 1: They want $80 for this? I could make one myself for $10 in parts, an hour of work, a trip to the hardware store, another $30 in parts, another few hours of work, two more trips to the store for $20 more in parts, another hour of work to redo the first hour of work because I messed up, and $80 to buy this when the one I made breaks.
Make It Myself
xkcd.com/3233/
Wild flowers in northern Tuscany. One probably a pale pink orchid
Can anyone help ID this delicate pinky orange flower I saw in northern Tuscany yesterday? I was wondering if it was a Serapias wild orchid. #plants #flowers #wildflowers 🧪 🌷
Fascinating. Are you from Umbria?
An Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) sporting vivid green and black markings.
Made friends with this lovely Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) today. 🧪 🦎
Statue of Leonardo da Vinci by sculptor Filippo Tincolini. It is made of White Carrara marble, weighs 5 tons and is 2.2m tall.
Sneak peek of a new statue of Leonardo da Vinci in white marble set to be unveiled in Vinci in Tuscany, Italy, the birthplace of the great artist and inventor, on 15 April.
It's by sculptor Filippo Tincolini.
museoleonardiano.it/en/comunicat....
The larvae hitch-hike on a bee and get airlifted back to its nest. Then they feed on the bees’ eggs and supplies of pollen and nectar.
And here's one for @sciam.bsky.social on the amazing biology of the European blister beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus). The larvae, which clump together in an orange mass, are the first animals known to mimic flower scent - they do it to attract bees. 🧪 🪲 🐝 🌼
www.scientificamerican.com/article/beet...
I've got behind with posting articles I've written. Here's one on the first well-observed "civil war" in wild chimpanzees. 🧪 #primates #chimpanzees #animalbehavior
www.livescience.com/animals/prim...
A tabby cat lies on a stone floor, looking up asking for attention
Ha! That's more like the behaviour (and look) of my other cat, Tiggy, as she demands attention
Lovely as Derry Street is, the view from my office today is hard to beat.
Some proofs on a table outside in the sun. Behind is a view over the countryside and a tortoiseshell cat
Today is one of those days when freelance life is awesome #freelance #proofreading #editing #science 🧪
My crazy cat Twix also thinks so 🐈
Have you ever licked someone who went to Turin?
The original research is on bioRxiv so not yet peer reviewed
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We're still a long way from knowing if it will work in humans, but as Jia Li at Guangzhou Medical University in China told me, “We’re hoping it can finally reverse Alzheimer’s.”
There are now hints it could be involved in the pathology of Alzheimer's, too. It seems to work earlier in the pathways we normally target, and tests in mice hint that focusing on DDR2 can not only reduce the formation of protein plaques (a key feature of Alzheimer's) but also clear existing ones
