Today a group of remarkable young people in Montana won a landmark lawsuit when a judge ruled that the state’s failure to consider #ClimateChange when approving fossil fuel projects was unconstitutional.

Judge Rules in Favor of Montana Youths in a Landmark Climate Case (Published 2023)

The court found that young people have a constitutional right to a healthful environment and that the state must consider potential climate damage ...

I haven’t been sharing interviews here, but it was an absolute delight to join Kate Lister on #BeTwixtTheSheets to talk about the #history & #science of kissing. Yes, I’m a scientist focused on policy, sustainability & communication, but 12 years ago, I wrote a book called The Science of Kissing. We contain multitudes.

History of Kissing: Why do we lock lips? | Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

Listen to History of Kissing: Why do we lock lips? from Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A good old smooch. It’s somet...

Physicist Lise Meitner’s brilliance led to the discovery of nuclear fission. But her long time collaborator Otto Hahn, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry without her in 1944, even though she had given the first theoretical explanation. Albert Einstein called Meitner “our Marie Curie." She also adamantly refused to work on the atomic bomb during WWII.

WHYY

Essay: Lise Meitner – the forgotten woman of nuclear physics who deserved a Nobel Prize

Left off publications due to Nazi prejudice, this Jewish woman lost her rightful place in the scientific pantheon as the discoverer of nuclear fiss...

#science #history

An observation on how #Mastodon is growing 👀 Over the past month, multiple journalists from top outlets have contacted me related to content I’ve shared. While this was not uncommon on #Twitter when I was active there, it’s relatively new for me in the #fediverse. I suspect this suggests professional news outlets are becoming more comfortable here & posts have increasing impact. Good.

Explore ~14 billion years of time in this fascinating graphical summary of events from the Big Bang to the present day by talented artist Pablo Carlos Budassi. Beginning at center of the spiral, every billion years is represented by a 90-degree stretch, with the exception of the last 500 million years represented as the last 90-degree stretch for greater detail.

Visual Capitalist

Nature Timespiral: The Evolution of Earth from the Big Bang

This spiral timeline shows the events that led us to our modern world, from the Big Bang to the present.

#art #science

A cost-effective, scalable & available solution to reduce the #climate impact of flying? Yes please.

Google

How AI is helping airlines mitigate the climate impact of contrails

We used AI to help airlines choose routes that are less likely to cause contrails, minimizing the environmental impact of flights.

Contrails - those thin, white lines behind airplanes - account for ~35% of aviation's #ClimateChange impact. New research reveals how #AI & satellite imagery can help us reduce their warming effects.

NYT’s opinion writer Paul Krugman is declaring #climate is now a culture war issue 🤔 I worked in the U.S. Senate ~20 years ago. Covered climate as a journalist. Cofounded an NGO focused on science policy issues during elections. Am finishing a dissertation on how Congress has made decisions about #science policy for the last 1/2 century - with climate as a central theme. This isn’t new. #ClimateChange has *always* been a culture war issue.

I see a lot of posts here about why the other social media platforms are terrible & #Mastodon is the one to rule them all*. Personally, Mastodon is my favorite & I prefer the #fediverse with decentralized servers & open source standards. But I also don’t mind coexisting with the others. Rather, I think it’s a good thing. All of us should settle in where we feel comfortable & find community. * Overstatement, but a Tolkien reference always seems appropriate.

Did you know the most abundant vertebrate on Earth often starts life as a male & transitions to female? Scientists estimate the number of bristlemouth fish range from hundreds of trillions to quadrillions(!) of individuals.

An Ocean Mystery in the Trillions (Published 2015)

Much is still not known about the bristlemouth, the planet’s most plentiful vertebrate. What’s more, the ocean, making up 99 percent of the bio...

#science #nature

#Nature