Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️
@obialik.bsky.social
Sediment, climate change, and impostor syndrome | Science and SFF for the win | Writing for a living and fun | Opinions are my own (or the characters' in my head).
Academic stuff: https://obialik.weebly.com
Non-academic writing: https://ombialik.weebly.com
Academic stuff: https://obialik.weebly.com
Non-academic writing: https://ombialik.weebly.com
Pinned
BECAUSE MY MOM SAID SO
Meet Ismat and follow them as they try to navigate their identity, workplace romance, their mom, and somehow also thwart a conservative conspiracy.
itch.io: obialik.itch.io/because-my-m...
Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSG7WBLY
B2R: books2read.com/u/31oj9W
🌈📚🪐 | 📚💙 | 🌈🚀💫
Meet Ismat and follow them as they try to navigate their identity, workplace romance, their mom, and somehow also thwart a conservative conspiracy.
itch.io: obialik.itch.io/because-my-m...
Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSG7WBLY
B2R: books2read.com/u/31oj9W
🌈📚🪐 | 📚💙 | 🌈🚀💫
Another cruise comes to an end (effect of cold seeps on the overlaying water column).
The #sunrise catching us up on the way back to port after days at sea.
Now to store all the gear and get going on processing all those samples. 🌊📷
The #sunrise catching us up on the way back to port after days at sea.
Now to store all the gear and get going on processing all those samples. 🌊📷
November 11, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Another cruise comes to an end (effect of cold seeps on the overlaying water column).
The #sunrise catching us up on the way back to port after days at sea.
Now to store all the gear and get going on processing all those samples. 🌊📷
The #sunrise catching us up on the way back to port after days at sea.
Now to store all the gear and get going on processing all those samples. 🌊📷
Magnus is mostly done (the base still needs a bit of work), so that means I can start a new project, right?
November 8, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Magnus is mostly done (the base still needs a bit of work), so that means I can start a new project, right?
The concept of the arsenal ship (a large vessel carrying a huge amount of missiles) has been around since the mid-1980s, and every once in a while, someone is talking about building some.
Last ones were the South Koreans... but there really hasn't been much news in the West about it since 2024.
Last ones were the South Koreans... but there really hasn't been much news in the West about it since 2024.
November 8, 2025 at 4:19 PM
The concept of the arsenal ship (a large vessel carrying a huge amount of missiles) has been around since the mid-1980s, and every once in a while, someone is talking about building some.
Last ones were the South Koreans... but there really hasn't been much news in the West about it since 2024.
Last ones were the South Koreans... but there really hasn't been much news in the West about it since 2024.
About 33.4 million years ago, one of the major shifts in the Earth system occurred: the Eocene ended, and the Oligocene started. With that, sea level dropped globally, resulting in a massive truncation worldwide, an unconformity in the record. 🧪⚒️
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
About 33.4 million years ago, one of the major shifts in the Earth system occurred: the Eocene ended, and the Oligocene started. With that, sea level dropped globally, resulting in a massive truncation worldwide, an unconformity in the record. 🧪⚒️
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
I'm looking at the manuscript, there are one and a half chapters left to wrap up this book, and it is looking back at me. The characters are at their happy (for now) end, the plot has been resolved, just need to get it to the final note... and I can't get my head clear enough to write.
#Writing
#Writing
November 8, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I'm looking at the manuscript, there are one and a half chapters left to wrap up this book, and it is looking back at me. The characters are at their happy (for now) end, the plot has been resolved, just need to get it to the final note... and I can't get my head clear enough to write.
#Writing
#Writing
No, #Reviewer2, I haven't cited that chapter from 1979 that was never digitized fully, from a limited print book on a completely different topic I would never have known to look for.
I can't even get it!
Do you really want me to cite something I can't read?
I can't even get it!
Do you really want me to cite something I can't read?
November 8, 2025 at 11:59 AM
No, #Reviewer2, I haven't cited that chapter from 1979 that was never digitized fully, from a limited print book on a completely different topic I would never have known to look for.
I can't even get it!
Do you really want me to cite something I can't read?
I can't even get it!
Do you really want me to cite something I can't read?
Sometimes we have to present the observations with a model you can't test all the way because time/resources/tech that doesn't exist yet, then the community can build on that.
I don't get reviewers who say, "You can't publish that, it's only a hypothesis, it wasn't sufficiently thoroughly verified".
I don't get reviewers who say, "You can't publish that, it's only a hypothesis, it wasn't sufficiently thoroughly verified".
November 8, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Sometimes we have to present the observations with a model you can't test all the way because time/resources/tech that doesn't exist yet, then the community can build on that.
I don't get reviewers who say, "You can't publish that, it's only a hypothesis, it wasn't sufficiently thoroughly verified".
I don't get reviewers who say, "You can't publish that, it's only a hypothesis, it wasn't sufficiently thoroughly verified".
I guess we need to talk about self-reinforcing feedback loops. That is, when a process kicks off, and induces its own continuation in some way.
Like Antarctic ice melt, which allows warm water into the shelves, which in turn accelerates ice loss. 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Like Antarctic ice melt, which allows warm water into the shelves, which in turn accelerates ice loss. 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 8, 2025 at 8:31 AM
I guess we need to talk about self-reinforcing feedback loops. That is, when a process kicks off, and induces its own continuation in some way.
Like Antarctic ice melt, which allows warm water into the shelves, which in turn accelerates ice loss. 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Like Antarctic ice melt, which allows warm water into the shelves, which in turn accelerates ice loss. 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It's been a minute since I got any traction with a Sword & Sorcery title (other than the Drizzt books, but I have long-term character investment there). Will @refeist.bsky.social's Rides a Dread Legion be the first one I finish in a while? The grumpy old folks in the 1st chapter are promising.
💙📚🪐
💙📚🪐
November 7, 2025 at 4:03 PM
It's been a minute since I got any traction with a Sword & Sorcery title (other than the Drizzt books, but I have long-term character investment there). Will @refeist.bsky.social's Rides a Dread Legion be the first one I finish in a while? The grumpy old folks in the 1st chapter are promising.
💙📚🪐
💙📚🪐
There are very few energy sources in the deep sea to support biology. Seeps (hot and cold) are one of the primary ones, forming local hotspots. The cold seeps form pokemarks, which can expand into channels if a current catches them. 🧪🌊
Link: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Link: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
November 7, 2025 at 2:58 PM
There are very few energy sources in the deep sea to support biology. Seeps (hot and cold) are one of the primary ones, forming local hotspots. The cold seeps form pokemarks, which can expand into channels if a current catches them. 🧪🌊
Link: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Link: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#WeekendReading: Something topical for a change, Mohamed et al., on climate change and migration dynamics, with Somalia from 1990 to 2020 as a case study. 🧪
Link: www.frontiersin.org/journals/cli...
Link: www.frontiersin.org/journals/cli...
November 7, 2025 at 8:29 AM
#WeekendReading: Something topical for a change, Mohamed et al., on climate change and migration dynamics, with Somalia from 1990 to 2020 as a case study. 🧪
Link: www.frontiersin.org/journals/cli...
Link: www.frontiersin.org/journals/cli...
One of the reasons to move out of Twitter is that they set things up so no one was seeing my posts. Kind of suck that this is now happening here now.
Go, check your settings, and get the feed YOU want.
Go, check your settings, and get the feed YOU want.
Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default.
Here's how to turn it off.
First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner
Here's how to turn it off.
First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner
November 6, 2025 at 10:59 PM
One of the reasons to move out of Twitter is that they set things up so no one was seeing my posts. Kind of suck that this is now happening here now.
Go, check your settings, and get the feed YOU want.
Go, check your settings, and get the feed YOU want.
Read a long piece today about AI companions and AI porn. Not the first one on the topic, but was a bit more depressing than usual. The adult industry models seem to have some interesting learning features, but the end result might just be more lonely people, having a harder time making connections.
November 6, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Read a long piece today about AI companions and AI porn. Not the first one on the topic, but was a bit more depressing than usual. The adult industry models seem to have some interesting learning features, but the end result might just be more lonely people, having a harder time making connections.
Possibly, the only correct way of serving Mentha (نعناع, נענע) tea.
(This was the only reason my late Libyan grandmother allowed any Bierkrugen in the house)
(This was the only reason my late Libyan grandmother allowed any Bierkrugen in the house)
November 6, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Possibly, the only correct way of serving Mentha (نعناع, נענע) tea.
(This was the only reason my late Libyan grandmother allowed any Bierkrugen in the house)
(This was the only reason my late Libyan grandmother allowed any Bierkrugen in the house)
One of the things I really like about #SFF is that the rules of our reality do not need to be adhered to. I retrospect, how that interacts with detective fiction was not something I considered, which is an interesting place this analysis goes to.
🧪 | 📚🪐
🧪 | 📚🪐
New article published! I’m so thrilled to share my article in Science Fiction Studies, included in its November 2025 issue, is now available to read online: doi.org/10.1525/sfs....
(if you don’t have access and want a copy, let me know)
#academicsky
(if you don’t have access and want a copy, let me know)
#academicsky
November 6, 2025 at 1:18 PM
One of the things I really like about #SFF is that the rules of our reality do not need to be adhered to. I retrospect, how that interacts with detective fiction was not something I considered, which is an interesting place this analysis goes to.
🧪 | 📚🪐
🧪 | 📚🪐
Hi, @bsky.app, whenever you get to it, a feature I would greatly appreciate would be "save draft" for a post or even autosave... for all those times one works on a threaded post, and the browser decides to shut itself down.
November 6, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Hi, @bsky.app, whenever you get to it, a feature I would greatly appreciate would be "save draft" for a post or even autosave... for all those times one works on a threaded post, and the browser decides to shut itself down.
This is one of those papers that I don't fully agree with (issues of perspective), but I'm still very happy that exists. Taking the time and looking at a discipline like carbonate sedimentology and how it evolved is important for perspective. 🧪⚒️
Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Carbonate sedimentology: An evolved discipline
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:08 AM
This is one of those papers that I don't fully agree with (issues of perspective), but I'm still very happy that exists. Taking the time and looking at a discipline like carbonate sedimentology and how it evolved is important for perspective. 🧪⚒️
Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
One of my favorite, semi-invisible, worldbuilding aspects - naming conventions for ships (the hours that went into that for my own works...)
On this weeks Spacedock we're looking at the patterns that are used (and often ignored) when naming ships, of both the wet and dry varieties.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaXo...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaXo...
Naming Your Sci-Fi Ships With STYLE
YouTube video by Spacedock
www.youtube.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:02 PM
One of my favorite, semi-invisible, worldbuilding aspects - naming conventions for ships (the hours that went into that for my own works...)
How, the F@#k, did this happen twice in one day?
Reviewer 1: Very interesting data, valuable contribution, needs a bit of work.
#Reviewer2: I have some comments 📜, but could be very important paper.
Editor: Reject.
🤷
#AcademicSky
#Reviewer2: I have some comments 📜, but could be very important paper.
Editor: Reject.
🤷
#AcademicSky
November 5, 2025 at 7:32 PM
How, the F@#k, did this happen twice in one day?
A chat with a friend about learning that one of the local schools here canceled a field trip tomorrow due to the heat (it's been 29°C today) got me to go on the Meteorological Service website to check their long-term predictions... It's going to get so much worse.
November 5, 2025 at 6:20 PM
A chat with a friend about learning that one of the local schools here canceled a field trip tomorrow due to the heat (it's been 29°C today) got me to go on the Meteorological Service website to check their long-term predictions... It's going to get so much worse.
Bright side - someone read my PhD work, and papers, and found an application to it.
Dark side - it's in O&G exploration.
It's still an interesting paper about the subsurface structure of the region and its tectonic evolution. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/aapg/aapgbul...
Dark side - it's in O&G exploration.
It's still an interesting paper about the subsurface structure of the region and its tectonic evolution. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/aapg/aapgbul...
November 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Bright side - someone read my PhD work, and papers, and found an application to it.
Dark side - it's in O&G exploration.
It's still an interesting paper about the subsurface structure of the region and its tectonic evolution. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/aapg/aapgbul...
Dark side - it's in O&G exploration.
It's still an interesting paper about the subsurface structure of the region and its tectonic evolution. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/aapg/aapgbul...
Reviewer 1: Very interesting data, valuable contribution, needs a bit of work.
#Reviewer2: I have some comments 📜, but could be very important paper.
Editor: Reject.
🤷
#AcademicSky
#Reviewer2: I have some comments 📜, but could be very important paper.
Editor: Reject.
🤷
#AcademicSky
November 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reviewer 1: Very interesting data, valuable contribution, needs a bit of work.
#Reviewer2: I have some comments 📜, but could be very important paper.
Editor: Reject.
🤷
#AcademicSky
#Reviewer2: I have some comments 📜, but could be very important paper.
Editor: Reject.
🤷
#AcademicSky
We are getting better and better at convincing cells that actually, they want to be other types of cells and differentiate into roles we want to give them.
Like here, stem cells were isolated from fatty tissues, cultured, and used to help regrow bone. 🧪
Link: boneandjoint.org.uk/Article/10.1...
Like here, stem cells were isolated from fatty tissues, cultured, and used to help regrow bone. 🧪
Link: boneandjoint.org.uk/Article/10.1...
November 5, 2025 at 8:02 AM
We are getting better and better at convincing cells that actually, they want to be other types of cells and differentiate into roles we want to give them.
Like here, stem cells were isolated from fatty tissues, cultured, and used to help regrow bone. 🧪
Link: boneandjoint.org.uk/Article/10.1...
Like here, stem cells were isolated from fatty tissues, cultured, and used to help regrow bone. 🧪
Link: boneandjoint.org.uk/Article/10.1...
Active cemo - here we come!
Xanthommatin is the pigment that allows octopus to blend with their environment and vanish. We now figured out how to make it in the lab (with genetical engineering and biosynthesis) and manipulate its color.
#SciFiScience 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Xanthommatin is the pigment that allows octopus to blend with their environment and vanish. We now figured out how to make it in the lab (with genetical engineering and biosynthesis) and manipulate its color.
#SciFiScience 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 4, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Active cemo - here we come!
Xanthommatin is the pigment that allows octopus to blend with their environment and vanish. We now figured out how to make it in the lab (with genetical engineering and biosynthesis) and manipulate its color.
#SciFiScience 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Xanthommatin is the pigment that allows octopus to blend with their environment and vanish. We now figured out how to make it in the lab (with genetical engineering and biosynthesis) and manipulate its color.
#SciFiScience 🧪
Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It's labeling time.
(context, preparing vials for water sampling on an upcoming cruise, since we won't have time to do that on the boat)
#OutToSea
(context, preparing vials for water sampling on an upcoming cruise, since we won't have time to do that on the boat)
#OutToSea
November 4, 2025 at 2:06 PM
It's labeling time.
(context, preparing vials for water sampling on an upcoming cruise, since we won't have time to do that on the boat)
#OutToSea
(context, preparing vials for water sampling on an upcoming cruise, since we won't have time to do that on the boat)
#OutToSea