Many years ago, I wrote a blog post for @fqxi.org on my personal feelings about human spaceflight -- specifically, missions to the Moon. It's not accessible on their website now but as the author of it I feel I can share it here: web.archive.org/web/20130312...
Die Effeff vom Mond aus gesehen. Bild der NASA
Die Apollo-Missionen mit ihrem Earthrise-Foto haben ja anscheinend auch der Umweltschutz-Bewegung einen Boost gegeben. Vielleicht klappt es ja wieder.
Astronaut Jeremy Hansen is taking Indigenous culture past the Moon: his mission patch was designed by Henry Guimond, an Anishinaabe artist, incorporating one Indigenous perspective about the seven sacred laws, which are represented by animals.
🧪 #ArtemisII
Night shot of the Moon behind some light clouds, dark trees in the foreground
Watched the launch of Artemis to the Moon yesterday night. Space flight shows what we can accomplish working together, building upon our science, engineering, daring, and collaboration across borders. It gives us hope for a brighter future. Have a safe trip, Artemis II.
Me next to a sign saying „The CMIP Community Workshop 2026“
On the way home from the CMIP2026 Community Workshop in Kyoto. It was a very interesting week with lots of nice people. I presented our work on quantum computing for climate modeling, which was met with lots of interest.
If you are in the US and you would like to send a message to your elected representative about the proposed dissolution of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, @agu.org makes it easy with a template here: agu.quorum.us/campaign/151... #AGU25
"A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations...said that Trump’s attempt to break up a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a “stick of dynamite” that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending."
thehill.com/homenews/sen...
Stylized picture of the Earth with satellite tracks / electron orbits and images symbolizing a quantum computer and scientific graphs above it. The text says „Quantum computing for Earth Observations and Climate Modeling @EGU26 Submit your abstract until 15.01.“
We are organizing the first ever session on Quantum computing for Earth observations and climate modeling at the EGU General Assembly 2026! Abstract submission is open until January 15th! Come join us! www.egu26.eu/session/56366
Here's our reporting on the proposed dismantling of the jewel of US atmospheric science, @ncar-ucar.bsky.social.
The plan is to break NCAR apart and disburse some parts to other locations (like the research aircraft fleet) and eliminate others.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🧪 #AGU25 #climate
The administration dismantling NCAR is scientific vandalism, much like the Taliban demolishing cultural artifacts.
www.theguardian.com/world/2001/m...
Closing this world-leading climate research centre would be a disaster for the science of climate and our understanding of climate change - which gets more important to everyone, every day. I spent a formative couple of weeks there in 2013, it was welcoming, open, classy, excellent and beautiful.
The beautiful idea of NCAR, to improve understanding of our planet through a cooperative, shared and open intellectual team effort, is literally what has got me out of bed every morning for nearly two decades. This cannot, CANNOT be allowed to happen.
eu.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Russ Vought (piss man) tweet about doing piss man shit: The National Science Foundation will be breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country. A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.
NSF is about to dismantle NCAR at Russell Vought's direction to protect the fossil fuel industry. It's hard to communicate just how much NCAR does, so let's take a look: I've never worked at NCAR, and I've worked with NCAR researchers once ever. What scientific discoveries has NCAR made possible? 👇
Recently published position paper by
@mierksch.bsky.social et al.!
Opportunities and challenges of quantum computing for climate modeling
👉 https://bit.ly/4591Cyb
#climatemoedling #quantumcomputing
✨ Hello, Bluesky! ✨
We’re thrilled to join this amazing platform and connect with the scientific community in new and exciting ways. Follow us here at @qubitulm for cutting-edge physics research, inspiring collaborations, and all the latest from our institute! #Quantum
Welcome to Climate.gov & thanks for following us! Let us introduce ourselves. We provide timely & authoritative scientific data & information about climate science, adaptation, & mitigation. In short, our mission is to provide science & information for a climate-smart nation.
Hallo Bluesky!
Wir sind die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. #DFG Als Selbstverwaltungsorganisation der #Wissenschaft in Deutschland fördern wir erkenntnisgeleitete #Forschung. Hier erhaltet Ihr Infos u.a. zu Förderangeboten, Ausschreibungen und Anträgen. Wir freuen uns auf den Austausch!
Watching the fight to save Mt.Wilson Observatory. So much gratitude for the firefighting teams. This is considered the most important scientific observatory of the 20th century. #eatonfire #mountwilson
I read that the awful fires in the LA area have now reached #mountWilson. The observatory there is wonderful, it should be a world heritage site - it’s where Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe. I hope with all my heart that it survives, and that the firefighters there are safe. #
ABC, NBC & CBS dedicated about 16 minutes of airtime last night to the California wildfires without once mentioning climate change.
Since the news failed do it's job, here's a short summary of the role of climate change and wildfire risk:
www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfir...
If you've ever been frustrated by trying to access data from satellites like #Landsat or #Sentinel2, tune into our very first #OpenDataCube community talk next week by Caitlin Adams: how to easily load satellite data for anywhere on the planet using the #OpenSource #odcstac Python package! 🛰️🚀
If you’re at #AGU24 this week, check out this poster on Thursday by PhD student Janis Klamt in my group on Improving the boundary layer height with machine learning! agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/me...
It is always mind boggling at how massive @agu.org is every year. This is just one session of the poster room, which changes over twice daily for the duration of the conference. #AGU24
one of my Twitter bangers from 2021, reproduced here, with minor editing:
I've been collecting "lessons I've learned communicating climate on Twitter" over the last 8 years and finally thought I'd write a 🧵. This is mainly aimed at younger scientists, but others might find it useful.
On the way home from attending meetings of the DLR quantum computing initiative. Thanks to the organizers, it is exciting to see how hardware and software projects on quantum computing are progressing.
This is very cool. I’ve never seen this visualization. The magic of migrating birds - at a global scale.
It's great to see science migrating over here - @scottehensley.bsky.social posting the results on BlueSky and promoting the BlueSky post (but not the results) on X.
This is the way to do it.
(BlueSky thread: bsky.app/profile/scot...)
NEED SOME GOOD NEWS?
The EU now generates more electricity from wind and solar than from fossil fuels.
Graph from @natbullard.bsky.social using @emberenergy.bsky.social data.
Would you like to work on cutting-edge science in an extremely relevant field? We’re looking for a postdoc to explore how to accelerate #climate models with #quantumComputing. The position is located at the German Aerospace Center‘s Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich.
Broken Record Temperatures hit new highs, yet world fails to cut emissions (again) UN environment programme 。
this is a bloody great name for a climate report
www.unep.org/resources/em...
