Howard Lee
@hlee.bsky.social
Geologist and Science Writer: If you want to see what climate change can do to the planet just look at Earth's past!
https://h-lee.com/
https://h-lee.com/
Pinned
Howard Lee
@hlee.bsky.social
· Aug 11
How old is the earliest trace of life on Earth?
A recent conference sees doubts raised about the age of the oldest signs of life.
arstechnica.com
My latest article 👇 gets into how hard it is to date stuff in some of the oldest rocks on the planet, and why it matters ⚒️🧪
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Howard Lee
Great. Let the 8 splitters unite with the rest of the party and elect competent leadership to keep the party united rather than tolerate these fractures.
The sooner we get past internal recriminations and back to fighting united, the better off we all are — the likelier our victory next November.
November 10, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Great. Let the 8 splitters unite with the rest of the party and elect competent leadership to keep the party united rather than tolerate these fractures.
Reposted by Howard Lee
Yesterday too bad to describe.
November 10, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Yesterday too bad to describe.
Reposted by Howard Lee
Inaction is contagious. My take as we head into COP30:
Governments and Billionaires Retreat Ahead of COP30 Climate Talks
Worldwide, every other week seems to bring a new climate-related crisis. Increasingly, the response has seemed to be a dulled acceptance.
www.newyorker.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Inaction is contagious. My take as we head into COP30:
Reposted by Howard Lee
![Comic. Someone is claiming to predict the exact date of a future earthquake. Should you listen? [flowchart: start] → NO (There are big earthquakes constantly, so if anyone ever *does* figure this out, it will be immediately obvious that their method works and then the world’s seismologists will not shut up about it. You won’t need this flowchart.)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreic7wdqg4w6qfevbqzzq4esd6237pojsnpwsrbb7gaxsxobqaiwazm@jpeg)
November 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Howard Lee
Ah. This will be the SA (with ICE being the SS). Or is it the other way round? All so very confusing. How could anyone detect signs of fascism in this mess? Maybe there is nothing to see here.
November 10, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Ah. This will be the SA (with ICE being the SS). Or is it the other way round? All so very confusing. How could anyone detect signs of fascism in this mess? Maybe there is nothing to see here.
Reposted by Howard Lee
Speaker Johnson has literally said he's "not promising anyone anything."
For once, I believe him.
For once, I believe him.
November 10, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Speaker Johnson has literally said he's "not promising anyone anything."
For once, I believe him.
For once, I believe him.
Reposted by Howard Lee
The new UNEP report is out with the latest estimates of 2100 warming outcomes under current policies, NDCs, and net-zero targets. Here is how it compares to both the IPCC scenarios and other estimates (CAT and IEA, who will release their own updates soon!).
November 4, 2025 at 6:05 PM
The new UNEP report is out with the latest estimates of 2100 warming outcomes under current policies, NDCs, and net-zero targets. Here is how it compares to both the IPCC scenarios and other estimates (CAT and IEA, who will release their own updates soon!).
Reposted by Howard Lee
New: The Supreme Court DENIES Kim Davis' request to overturn Obergefell, the marriage equality decision. No noted dissents. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
New: The Supreme Court DENIES Kim Davis' request to overturn Obergefell, the marriage equality decision. No noted dissents. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
Reposted by Howard Lee
Dems. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
November 10, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Dems. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
Reposted by Howard Lee
Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage
November 10, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage
Reposted by Howard Lee
A new post covering some recent work on estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and pregnancy from ancient skeletons. A window has just opened a crack but it’s another fascinating area where the lives of ancient people may be encoded in their bones and teeth.
www.johnhawks.net/p/finding-ho...
www.johnhawks.net/p/finding-ho...
Finding hormone biomarkers in ancient skeletons
The widening horizon of molecular biomarkers from ancient bones and sediments may open new doors to the biology of ancient people.
www.johnhawks.net
November 2, 2025 at 2:38 PM
A new post covering some recent work on estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and pregnancy from ancient skeletons. A window has just opened a crack but it’s another fascinating area where the lives of ancient people may be encoded in their bones and teeth.
www.johnhawks.net/p/finding-ho...
www.johnhawks.net/p/finding-ho...
Reposted by Howard Lee
“Well, so why don’t you retire?” someone asked. “The member literally looked at us and goes, ‘Well, what would I do?’” nymag.com/intelligence...
November 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM
“Well, so why don’t you retire?” someone asked. “The member literally looked at us and goes, ‘Well, what would I do?’” nymag.com/intelligence...
Seems like a good idea ⚒️🧪
When science is understandable, we all win. I've started a national petition calling on all institutions of higher education, and their accreditors, to require science communication and public engagement training for all STEM degrees. Share and sign today, it only takes a few seconds: bit.ly/3LbnfHB
November 10, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Seems like a good idea ⚒️🧪
Reposted by Howard Lee
The metamorphic mineral staurolite with its distinctive penetration twinning forming a cross. It’s positively delightful!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪
November 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
The metamorphic mineral staurolite with its distinctive penetration twinning forming a cross. It’s positively delightful!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪
Reposted by Howard Lee
Reposted by Howard Lee
Unfortunately still true bsky.app/profile/adam...
American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.
November 10, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Unfortunately still true bsky.app/profile/adam...
🤯
!New #OpenAcess paper alert!
Late Pleistocene atmospheric dust dynamics reconstructed from sediment included in ice wedges from #Batagay and Central Yakutia:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Late Pleistocene atmospheric dust dynamics reconstructed from sediment included in ice wedges from #Batagay and Central Yakutia:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
East Siberian ice wedges recording dust transport variability during the Late Pleistocene - Nature Communications
Dust preserved in Siberian ice wedges reveals shifts in wind patterns during the last glacial stage. Long-range dust transport from China to the Arctic operated under similar mechanisms as today but w...
www.nature.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:09 PM
🤯
Reposted by Howard Lee
🧪⚒️ Note how the alert level is ramping up ahead of any seismic waves reaching land-based instruments.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
The underwater seismometer network is so great, as evidenced from yesterday's EQ off-Tohoku.
Reposting unofficial visualization by x.com/kotoho76/sta...
Reposting unofficial visualization by x.com/kotoho76/sta...
November 10, 2025 at 12:12 PM
🧪⚒️ Note how the alert level is ramping up ahead of any seismic waves reaching land-based instruments.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
A sad/enraging contrast with the news of the cuts to even land-based instruments in Alaska yesterday. This is what a rich nation actually committed to its duty of care to its citizens does.
Democratic leadership - again - about as useful as a chocolate teapot 🍫🫖
NEW: House Democrats' text message chains lit up in anger as details of the deal to end the government shutdown began to trickle out into the public, with both progressive and centrist lawmakers venting fury.
Democrats go ballistic over Senate shutdown deal: "People need healthcare, damn it"
One House Democrat told Axios there is "near universal frustration."
www.axios.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Democratic leadership - again - about as useful as a chocolate teapot 🍫🫖
Reposted by Howard Lee
Tonight’s Senate vote on the federal government shutdown should have been a time for strength.
Instead we saw capitulation and a betrayal of working Americans.
The American people need more from their leaders.
Instead we saw capitulation and a betrayal of working Americans.
The American people need more from their leaders.
November 10, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Tonight’s Senate vote on the federal government shutdown should have been a time for strength.
Instead we saw capitulation and a betrayal of working Americans.
The American people need more from their leaders.
Instead we saw capitulation and a betrayal of working Americans.
The American people need more from their leaders.
Reposted by Howard Lee
I think that this @natgeosci.nature.com paper—now published in the November issue of this journal—is worth checking out:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧪 ⚒️ 🦣 🌊
#PaleoSky
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧪 ⚒️ 🦣 🌊
#PaleoSky
Earth system response to Heinrich events explained by a bipolar convection seesaw - Nature Geoscience
The onset of Southern Ocean convection following a slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during Heinrich events can help explain rapid CO2 increases and Antarctic warming during t...
doi.org
November 10, 2025 at 10:36 AM
I think that this @natgeosci.nature.com paper—now published in the November issue of this journal—is worth checking out:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧪 ⚒️ 🦣 🌊
#PaleoSky
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🧪 ⚒️ 🦣 🌊
#PaleoSky
Reposted by Howard Lee
again, the legal system, far from providing accountability, is marshaled to rewrite and reverse consequences for January 6
Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others who backed efforts to overturn 2020 election, official says
A Justice Department official says President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others accused of backing the Republican’s e...
apnews.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:45 PM
again, the legal system, far from providing accountability, is marshaled to rewrite and reverse consequences for January 6
Reposted by Howard Lee
seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous
November 10, 2025 at 12:50 PM
seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous
"I'm not sure that the tech industry has really thought through whether they want to be responsible for managing nuclear waste at their data center sites." ⚒️☢️
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/09/n...
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/09/n...
New U.S. nuclear power boom begins with old, still-unsolved problem: What to do with radioactive waste
As government and industry, from tech giants to utilities, commit to big nuclear power plants, there is still no clear solution for radioactive waste storage.
www.cnbc.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:51 PM
"I'm not sure that the tech industry has really thought through whether they want to be responsible for managing nuclear waste at their data center sites." ⚒️☢️
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/09/n...
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/09/n...
Reposted by Howard Lee
agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish
November 10, 2025 at 12:36 AM
agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish