Choropleth map of fertilizer application per hectare of cropland in 2023, measured in kilograms of total nutrient per hectare, where East and South Asian countries and Brazil show the highest application rates while much of Africa and some other regions show low application. Data source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025). License: CC BY.

📊 Billions of people depend on synthetic fertilizers. Track how they're produced, traded, and used.

Fertilizers have played an essential role in feeding a growing global population. It's estimated that just under half of the people alive today are dependent on synthetic fertilizers.

I think this was a fundamental misstep by AI platforms. A more clear demarcation of model limits would help build trust.

To be clear- what should have happened is this software should have returned ERROR - LANGUAGE MODELS CANNOT PERFORM CALCULATIONS, instead of using several watt hours of energy to fabricate an answer

The reason it didn't is because it's more profitable for Anthropic to burn energy to fake capability

Opinion | Just Because I Wrote This Doesn’t Mean I’ll Be On Your Panel About A.I.

“Everybody’s using AI for everything nowadays, and if you don’t, you’re a misfit outsider who should be stoned to death in the town square, and then resurrected virtually from your data so you can be stoned to death in the virtual town square, for infinity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

Important.

This drives a lot of climate action fights on social media. Some folks think anything but “reduce fossil CO2” is a distraction. Meanwhile, 1/3 of emissions are from food systems.

Also beware “solutions” that reduce fossil CO2 but increase land use CO2 even more (eg crop-based biofuels).

Almost 7 years later he finally has an answer and I think that’s beautiful

The Living Seed Banks of the Alps Fourteen botanical gardens across the Alps collectively grow a third of the region's flora, including species found in no seed bank anywhere.

The Living Seed Banks of the Alps
www.botany.one/the-living-s...

Fourteen botanical gardens across the Alps collectively grow a third of the region's flora, including species found in no seed bank anywhere.
#Botany #PlantScience

This happened to my friend when she did her post-doc in astrophysics. In office assignments, not seats, but it was explicit and she fought it.

Yes come join please! RSVP below if you want to talk rice and methane on April 21 👇

How decarbonization hits your dinner plate: Growing more rice with less methane · Luma Rice is a staple for over half the global population, but it holds a hidden climate cost: traditional flooded paddies are a leading source of agricultural…

DC folks - I'm on a panel for DC Climate Week moderated by @waiterich.bsky.social

Register at the link below!
luma.com/ikt0gkmh

Image from the New York Times showing USDA data on the snow pack depth in areas feeding the Colorado River. March 2026 is the lowest on record.

The US heatwave melted much of the already thin mountain snow cover, leading to a snowpack that is the lowest on record across much of the Western USA.

This will undoubtedly lead to reduced water availability for agriculture and other uses in coming months.

18/

can i repost this 1000x please?

learning to develop "good" research questions is so important, and so undercut by the "move fast break things" vibe coding mentality.

(yes, i also vibe code... for weekend projects!)

shameless plug for my recent paper on this: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My white whale is fixing the UI/UX of DC's Metro System. Yesterday had to help a man in a motorised wheelchair find the elevator as he was about to go up the escalator because the signage was so unclear.

Don't get me started on navigating L'Enfant station with the stroller.

Vessel with rodents! Vessel with rodents! Vessel with rodents!

We've been in DC almost a year and I can definitely saw that it feels way more dangerous as a pedestrian here than Bangkok. Walked by this crash this morning on the way to meet a friend. Super scary and really lucky the restaurant was not open for brunch yet.

"i have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working."

The Astronauts truly representing us all up there.

I hope that nothing critical relies on searching for old emails 😬

Omg I should try that!

Baby has lots of toys, but her favourites are: toy box lids, the furnace grate, my house slippers, and the cat door on the baby gate 😂

‘This feels fragile’: how a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control Today, the space around Earth can no longer be considered empty. More than 30,000 objects are in orbit, and that figure is rising exponentially

‘This feels fragile’: how a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control

- More than 30,000 objects are now in orbit, and that figure is rising exponentially

Great animated article by @ashleyjkirk.bsky.social et al

www.theguardian.com/science/ng-i...

How meat became a measure of manhood And what happened when a nutrition influencer dared to eat tofu.

How meat became a measure of manhood www.vox.com/future-perfe...

IMO whether using 20 or 100 yrs there are always going to be tradeoffs when using GWP and comparing gases.

If you use a 20-yr global warming timescale methane's impact appears higher, therefore would be prioritized. I hear people now calling methane the climate emergency brake.

In youngest US kids, uptake drops for flu, hepatitis B, 3 other vaccines

I just spoke to a pediatrician who confirmed this:

In youngest US kids, uptake drops for flu, hepatitis B, 3 other vaccines
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

Adding it to my baking wish list 😀

Looks amazing!

Watch as two bumblebees throw a pollen party on a magnolia petal, showcasing their vital role in pollination and plant reproduction. It's nature's celebration!

I like the new Harry Styles album so far (also like the previous 2) but partly because it is VERY 2010s indie-electronica. Heavily influenced by LCD Soundsystem it seems.

Some ways to reduce fertilizer prices & demand:

- Increase nitrogen use efficiency (eg precision application, shifting fall applications to spring, nitrification inhibitors incl. thru crop breeding)
- Reduce excess crop demand (minimize food waste, eat less meat/dairy, cut crop-based biofuel use)

We burn ~100 million barrels of oil every single day. 🌍

The good folks at @rockymtninst.bsky.social have been saying we can cut that by 20% — without switching fuels, changing behavior, or retiring any infrastructure early.

We can. Here's how — and what it would cost.