In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

Don’t sex.

As the first reanalysis data become available, I think I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that the March 2026 heatwave will go down as the most anomalously extreme heat event ever observed at any time of year in the southwestern U.S.

Microscope images of Ryugu samples collected from the first and second touchdown sites of the Hayabusa2 mission, respectively. Credit: JAXA / JAMSTEC

The complete set of nucleobases found in terrestrial DNA and RNA — adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil — have been detected in samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu, according to research in Nature Astronomy. go.nature.com/3P9A9YN 🔭 🧪

Ok fair.

Project Hail Mary

Most accurate depiction of how a biologist works and thinks.

Kind of a shitshow but we get stuff done.

A deadly fungal disease that has put at least one bat species on the Endangered Species List has been detected in Oregon.

theoregonian.visitlink.me/_mDTmI

📸: NY Department of Environmental Conservation

#animalconservation #whitenosesyndrome #bats #oregon #theoregonian #fungaldisease

Hoatzin - digital art

The Apple Pen does work.

“The Hoatzin” - 2026

#sciart 🐡 #birds 🦉

Venus! Now becoming an evening planet, rising higher throughout spring. Look to the west after sunset.
#astronomy #astrophotography @stormhour.com @photohour.bsky.social

Tonight's Jupiter and moons line up. L to R: Ganymede, Europa, Io, Mother, Callisto
#astronomy #astrophotography @stormhour.com @photohour.bsky.social 1/2

The Rebel Alliance logo as a Celtic knot

Happy St. Patrick's Day, my rebels

If you live in Oregon, you may get a chance to see the northern lights Wednesday night A geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for 21 states, including Oregon, Washington, and across the northern U.S., as solar material heads toward Earth.

A geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for 21 states, including Oregon, Washington, and across the northern U.S., as solar material heads toward Earth.

The American Dream should work for everyone, not just the wealthy. When CEOs make nearly 300 times what their workers earn, something is broken. I'm fighting for policies that give working families in Arizona a real chance at getting ahead.

National Weather Service forecast map with weather warnings 3/13/26

Bottom left - extreme heat
Middle - extreme wind + fire risk
Top - extreme winter weather

1. #Measles update:
The total confirmed cases so far this year has risen to 1362 as of 3/12. Key context: The 2026 total to date is 60% of the 2025 total for the entire year.
#CDC reports that among cases with known vax status, 92% weren't vaxed.
There've been 14 new outbreaks this year.

Great now I have to listen to Crab Race again.

Map snapshot depicting the predicted relative anomalousness of surface temperatures from the ECMWF ensemble over the Western U.S. in about a week from now. A a huge region of bright orange and red colors (depicting extremely high warm temperature anomalies) is centered right in the middle of the map, and covers essentially the entire region.

Lots of buzz online about an upcoming major March heatwave for the American SW & California. And in this case, it does indeed appear increasingly likely than an extremely anomalous and even record-breaking heatwave may envelop much of the SW about a week from now.

i estimate the chance of the national average reaching $4/gal in the next month is now 80%

Holy shit. Crude oil futures going nuts tonight.

Baturday
Bat World Sanctuary

If you're doomscrolling, guess what? So far there are 51 kākāpō chicks hatched and thriving this season, the same number of birds as we had in TOTAL in the 90s! Only one chick has died and there are still fertile eggs waiting to hatch!

Yellow bird with black face and red eye, all puffed out and slightly damp.

Let me start a belated thread of Aotearoa New Zealand silvan birds.

To lead things off, a New Zealand Bellbird photographed on Kapiti Island.

Israel & Saudi Arabia pushed the U.S. to attack Iran.

Netanyahu killed 72,000 people in Gaza, mostly women & children.

Saudi Arabia is a brutal dictatorship that allows no opposition.

These are the leaders who want to bring “freedom” to Iran?

Does anyone really believe that?

Orion in Kubu

AstroBin's Image of the Day: "Orion in Kubu" by vikas chander

www.astrobin.com/te7crp/

#astrophotography

They are basically the helicopters of fish.

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

The State of US Vaccine Policy — Feb 19, 2026

#publichealth The State of 🇺🇸 Vaccine Policy Feb 19, 2026 @cidrap.bsky.social
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

Altmetric from: https://nature.altmetric.com/details/187977106/twitter showing 1 X post from an account with 2,567 followers.

Altmetric for bsky from: https://nature.altmetric.com/details/187977106/bluesky saying Altmetric has seen 136 Bluesky posts from 126 Bluesky users, with an upper bound of 530,794 followers.

Some academic papers show everyone how people are posting about the paper, using a tool called Altmetric. Here's the how our new paper reached folks on twitter vs. bluesky. No comparison. Twitter is gone gone. Deader than the Monroeville Mall in The Dawn of Dead. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

A still satellite image of the blizzard of 2026 in the Northeast United States. This image contains the GeoColor product from the GOES-19 weather satellite from the evening of 2026-02-23.

A view we will not soon forget.

The Blizzard of 2026.

New York City hunkers down under blizzard warnings and a travel ban as winter storm hits northeast Millions of residents in parts of the northeastern U.S. are stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings as a fierce winter storm threatens the densely populated region overnight.

Millions of people in New York City and a large swath of the northeastern U.S. were stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings on Monday as a fierce winter storm barreled into the densely populated region with heavy snowfall and high winds.

A HOO image of a nebula called Thor's Helmet or Duck Nebula. The nebula resembles a classic depiction of Thor's helmet with wing-like structures coming up from the sides of the main body. The nebula primarily consists of a blue-teal body with red fringing.

An SHO image of a nebula called Thor's Helmet or Duck Nebula. The nebula resembles a classic depiction of Thor's helmet with wing-like structures coming up from the sides of the main body. The nebula primarily consists of a rich blue body with golden fringing.

I spent a couple more nights gathering light on Thor's Helmet. There are some bits that I'll want to change later and when I do, I'll update the thread with new versions.

Let me know which version you like more: the lighter blue HOO or the darker blue SHO.

#astrophotography #photography