Okay, how about we do one more review before the year is out? Coming soon to https://inquisitivebiologist.com
#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Dinosaurs #Fossils #Evolution #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Scicomm @bookstodon
scicomm
The Inquisitive Biologist looks back at 2025 and picks his five favourite books. Palaeontology, aerobiology, speleology, degrowth, and geomicrobiology top this year's list.
#Books #BookOfTheYear #BookReview #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Aerobiology #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Speleology #Caves #Lechuguilla #Economics #Degrowth #Microbiology #Geology #Geomicrobiology #EdgarAllanPoe #EAPoe #Biography #Literature #Goth #Gothic #Horror #ScienceConvention #ScienceFair @markwitton @princetonupress @princetonnature @Carl_Zimmer @timparrique @TetZoo @bookstodon
This week's #NewBooks at the library: Some more unusual acquisitions from 2025.
- I purchased the last copy of the definitive retrospective on the #palaeoart of Zdenek #Burian from Albatros Media. Volume 3 focuses on his artwork of prehistoric humans. All these books are written in Czech, but the artwork is just lavish, and I'm a sucker for period palaeoart.
- I found a second-hand copy of the reissue of #AlexanderVonHumboldt's Views of Nature, released by the University of Chicago Press.
- #Spookslot - 44 jaar te gast bij de geesten, a Dutch book I hunted down via a friend, which was released to commemorate the closure of one of the most beloved attractions, Het Spookslot (a haunted house), in De #Efteling, a well-known Dutch amusement park I used to go to quite often as a child. I know they have completely rebuilt it into a new ride now with nods to the classic panoramic show, but I haven't visited it yet.
#Books #Paleontology #Palaeontology #HumanEvolution #Anthropology #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon
This week's #NewBooks at the library: An early review copy of the 3-volume The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. What will you be doing with your January? Well...
#Books #Bookstodon #FossilFriday #Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Dinosaurs #Scicomm @princetonupress @bookstodon
New review: A nicely balanced collection of essays with long-lived trees from around the globe that provides ten different answers to the question: "And what else can you learn from tree rings?"
#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Dendrochronology #Trees #Wood #Forests #Plants #Botany #Scicomm @bookstodon
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I bought a second-hand copy of #Isotopes: Principles and Applications, published by Wiley. Isotopes are hugely important in various branches of science, and I have it in mind to get to grips with the finer details at some point.
- I found a copy of Simon Lamb's Devil in the Mountain: A Search for the Origin of the Andes at a local charity shop, a classic from @princetonupress
- And I bought a copy of Paul Thagard's Bots and Beasts: What Makes Machines, Animals, and People Smart? from @themitpress for basically the price of a packet of crisps.
#Chemistry #Physics #Geology #EarthSciences #Orogeny #CognitiveScience #Cognition #Intelligence #Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon
Edited 37d ago
https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_kaltenegger_are_we_alone_in_the_universe_we_re_close_to_finding_out
Astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger explores the thrilling possibility of discovering life beyond Earth, highlighting how cutting-edge technology like the James Webb Space Telescope lets us analyze distant planets for signs of life in unprecedented detail. Could examining these "alien earths" uncover evidence of new life forms and transform our understanding of the cosmos? We may be closer than ever to finding out.
PRESS RELEASE: https://www.seti.org/press-release/meteorites-geologic-map-asteroid-belt
Where do meteorites of different types come from? Astronomers trace the impact orbit of observed meteorite falls to several previously unidentified source regions in the asteroid belt.
“This has been a decade-long detective story, with each recorded meteorite fall providing a new clue,” said Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. “We now have the first outlines of a geologic map of the asteroid belt.”
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I finally bought #TerryGoodkind's "The Children of D'Hara" bundle from Head of Zeus to replace the individual novellas I had.
- Plus a second-hand copy of James Delbourgo's "Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of #HansSloane" from Allen Lane.
- and a second-hand copy of "Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose?" by the ever-thoughtful Michael Ruse, published by Harvard University Press.
#Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon #Fantasy #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Evolution #EvolutionaryBiology @bookstodon
PRESS RELEASE: A research team led by Dr. Sofia Sheikh of the SETI Institute, in collaboration with the Characterizing Atmospheric Technosignatures project and the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center, set out to answer a simple question: If an extraterrestrial civilization existed with technology similar to ours, would they be able to detect Earth and evidence of humanity? If so, what signals would they detect, and from how far away? https://youtu.be/Pdg2x3NP2ds
This week's #NewBooks at the library: I adopted damaged copies of The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Plants (look out for a review in the near future) and David Attenborough's Life Trilogy Boxset.
#Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon #Paleobotany #Palaeobotany #Plants #Botany #NaturalHistory @bookstodon @princetonupress
This week's #NewBooks at the library: I bought second-hand copies of Animal Anomalies: What Abnormal Anatomies Reveal about Normal Development and The Correspondence of #CharlesDarwin, Volume 14: 1866, both from Cambridge University Press. I also adopted a damaged copy of the large-format English/German Elefantenreich: Eine Fossilwelt in Europa from Verlag Beier & Beran, which features some amazing fold-out plates. I hear it is basically out of print now.
#Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon #Evolution #DevelopmentalBiology #EvoDevo #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Fossils #Mammoths #Paleontology #Palaeontology @bookstodon
PRESS RELEASE: https://www.seti.org/press-release/seti-institute-honor-contributions-exoplanet-research-its-carl-sagan-center-directors-award
The SETI Institute will recognize Dr. Joseph Twicken, Senior Data Scientist at the SETI Institute, with its 2025 Carl Sagan Center (CSC) Director’s Award. The CSC Director's Award honors SETI Institute scientists for outstanding achievements in astrobiology, technology, and exploration of life in the universe.
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I expanded my collection of #Tolkien books with The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation from W.W. Norton
- I used my employer's Christmas voucher to buy a copy of Simon Parkin's The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege from Sceptre (look out for a review in due course).
- I also found a second-hand copy of What Is Regeneration? from the University of Chicago Press.
#Books #Scicomm #Tolkien #Literature #DevelopmentalBiology #SeedBank #Botany #Bookstodon @bookstodon
Did you ever gild #moss? I did! Look behind the scenes of producing my podcast episode about moss and how moss took revenge (I don't know why): https://steadyhq.com/en/naturematchcuts/posts/5d8402be-ad02-4d23-8c3b-4e42daf6a9b0 Of course you can listen to the episode now! And I interviewed a quite seditious tardigrade!
Just search #NatureMatchCuts on your podcatcher.
#NatureMatchCuts #podcast #ReconnectWithNature #mosstodon #MossMonday #tardigrades #carbonSink #climate #biodiversity #plants #gardening #lawn #nature #sciComm #natureLovers
#ICYMI: The Kaçar Lab, led by Dr. Betül Kaçar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is challenging the assumptions about life as we know it, its origins, and its future. Beth chatted with Dr. Kaçar in this week's #SETILive, and wow, we all learned a lot! Watch the full interview: https://youtube.com/live/hLw4olNyBng
#PPOD: Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 52,000 kilometers. The oval features are cyclones, up to 1,000 kilometers in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced color, and stereographic projection. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles
In a new study using #JWST, scientists have discovered a hidden population of tiny asteroids in our solar system. These objects might be a more significant threat than we ever realized.
In a recent #SETILive episode, Senior Planetary Astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis and the study's lead authors, Dr. Artem Y. Burdanov and Dr. Julien de Wit, discussed the role of minor asteroids and what they can reveal about potential threats to Earth.
Learn more: https://www.seti.org/tiny-asteroids-big-threats-how-jwst-uncovering-hidden-worlds-our-solar-system
South Florida meteorologist John Morales told his viewers live on air that he can no longer accurately predict hurricane season, due to federal government cuts.
Dr. Wael Farah is a radio astronomer interested in studying the universe on short timescales. Interestingly, the cosmos exhibits activity across various timescales ranging from milliseconds to seconds, hours, and days. Wael is the project scientist for the Allen Telescope Array and is actively involved in upgrading the instrument and maximizing its scientific throughput.
Radio interferometry is a technique in radio astronomy where signals from two or more radio telescopes are combined to simulate a much larger telescope, allowing astronomers to achieve higher resolution than a single dish could provide.
Here’s how it works, in simple terms: https://www.seti.org/signal-and-image-processing-foundations-radio-interferometry
#PPOD: Two large, pale discs can be seen in today's PPOD: one of them in the Atacama Desert, the other orbiting the Earth 384,000 km away. The latter is our ever-present Moon, faintly hanging in the clear blue sky. Next to it is the real star of the image: one of the antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Credit: Y. Villalon/ESO
In this in-depth interview, Camille Bergin dives into humanity’s quest to discover intelligent life beyond Earth with SETI Institute CEO Bill Diamond. From scanning the skies for distant radio signals to unpacking the origins of life, this conversation covers the science, the tech, and the human urge to figure out if we’re alone in the universe.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQasqnKWZMM&ab_channel=CamilleBergin
PRESS RELEASE: https://www.seti.org/press-release/whaleseti-curious-humpback-whales-approach-humans-and-blow-bubble-smoke-rings
A team of scientists from the SETI Institute and the University of California at Davis documented, for the first time, humpback whales producing large bubble rings, like a human smoker blowing smoke rings, during friendly interactions with humans. This previously little-studied behavior may represent play or communication.
IMAGE: Bubble ring created by a humpback whale named Thorn. CREDIT: © Dan Knaub, The Video Company
PRESS RELEASE: https://www.seti.org/press-release/unusual-stellar-nurseries-near-our-galaxys-center-puzzle-scientists
New research led by Dr. James De Buizer at the SETI Institute and Dr. Wanggi Lim at IPAC at Caltech revealed that, although the central part of our Galaxy has a much higher density of star-forming material than the rest of the Milky Way, in the Galactic Center, the current rate of formation of massive stars (those larger than 8 times the mass of our Sun) appears to be lower compared to the rest of the Galaxy.
