Tristan Caro
@tacaro.bsky.social
Microbiologist and geochemist | Postdoc @ Caltech | Formerly @ CU Boulder, NASA, Berkeley | Isotope, dataviz, and pottery enjoyer
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Seen online: ProPublica is hiring a data reporter, 5 yrs data journalism exp req'd. Salary $110K-$135K. Knowledge of Python or #RStats.
US remote or option to work in NY, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix or Berkeley
More info:
job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
#DDJ #JournalismJobs
US remote or option to work in NY, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix or Berkeley
More info:
job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
#DDJ #JournalismJobs
Data Reporter
Remote, United States
job-boards.greenhouse.io
February 19, 2026 at 11:49 PM
Seen online: ProPublica is hiring a data reporter, 5 yrs data journalism exp req'd. Salary $110K-$135K. Knowledge of Python or #RStats.
US remote or option to work in NY, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix or Berkeley
More info:
job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
#DDJ #JournalismJobs
US remote or option to work in NY, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix or Berkeley
More info:
job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
#DDJ #JournalismJobs
Reposted by Tristan Caro
The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it.
#PeerReview #academicSky
theconversation.com/the-peer-rev...
#PeerReview #academicSky
theconversation.com/the-peer-rev...
The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it
Peer review is so integral to the scholarly system that research would grind to a halt without it.
theconversation.com
February 17, 2026 at 10:08 PM
The peer review system is breaking down. Here’s how we can fix it.
#PeerReview #academicSky
theconversation.com/the-peer-rev...
#PeerReview #academicSky
theconversation.com/the-peer-rev...
Reposted by Tristan Caro
How #NextgenGeothermal could bring clean power to more of the planet. A PNAS Core Concept piece: https://ow.ly/lCRF50Yf3Z9
#GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #AlternativeEnergy #ClimateChange #OilandGasIndustry
#GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #AlternativeEnergy #ClimateChange #OilandGasIndustry
February 13, 2026 at 6:02 PM
How #NextgenGeothermal could bring clean power to more of the planet. A PNAS Core Concept piece: https://ow.ly/lCRF50Yf3Z9
#GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #AlternativeEnergy #ClimateChange #OilandGasIndustry
#GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #AlternativeEnergy #ClimateChange #OilandGasIndustry
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Most microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others
academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities
Spatial structure naturally emerges in microbial communities, shaping growth, interactions, and evolution, and revealing how microscale processes scale up
academic.oup.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:46 PM
Most microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others
academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
Reposted by Tristan Caro
NSF's graduate research fellowship (GRF) program is designed to teach aspiring scientists how to write a winning grant proposal. So why are so many applicants being denied that learning experience? www.science.org/content/arti...
NSF’s flagship fellowship program is rejecting applicants without peer review
Students seeking graduate research scholarships speculate that biology is being disfavored
www.science.org
February 12, 2026 at 6:31 PM
NSF's graduate research fellowship (GRF) program is designed to teach aspiring scientists how to write a winning grant proposal. So why are so many applicants being denied that learning experience? www.science.org/content/arti...
Astrobiology and extreme microbiology is not just about searching for life on other planets – it also helps society and life on *our* planet! Check out our new early career perspective www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...
Astrobiologists search for alien life, and help life on Earth in the process
A team of early-career researchers say that exploring how life may have evolved on far-away worlds could lead to advancements on Earth—from new sources of
www.colorado.edu
February 12, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Astrobiology and extreme microbiology is not just about searching for life on other planets – it also helps society and life on *our* planet! Check out our new early career perspective www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...
Reposted by Tristan Caro
For those familiar w/ "ARkStorm/ARk2.0" flood scenarios for California, a comparable event has been unfolding on the Iberian Peninsula. These ridiculous rainfall accumulations, caused by a long series of extremely moist atmospheric rivers, have brought widespread severe flooding to Spain & Portugal.
Grazalema, Spain, received over 2,000 mm (78 inches) of rain in just the last 20 days.
Over a year’s worth of rain — and it’s only early February. This is hydrologically absurd.
Over a year’s worth of rain — and it’s only early February. This is hydrologically absurd.
February 10, 2026 at 5:03 AM
For those familiar w/ "ARkStorm/ARk2.0" flood scenarios for California, a comparable event has been unfolding on the Iberian Peninsula. These ridiculous rainfall accumulations, caused by a long series of extremely moist atmospheric rivers, have brought widespread severe flooding to Spain & Portugal.
Reposted by Tristan Caro
It turns out we’re wrong about what makes ice slippery for 200 years.
We thought ice was slippery due to pressure or friction. New research reveals the cause is molecular dipole interactions. These electrical forces disrupt ice's crystal structure, creating a liquid layer even at extreme cold.
We thought ice was slippery due to pressure or friction. New research reveals the cause is molecular dipole interactions. These electrical forces disrupt ice's crystal structure, creating a liquid layer even at extreme cold.
Cold Self-Lubrication of Sliding Ice
The low kinetic friction between ice and numerous counterbodies is commonly attributed to an interfacial water layer, which is believed to originate from preexisting surface water or from melt water i...
link.aps.org
January 19, 2026 at 8:19 AM
It turns out we’re wrong about what makes ice slippery for 200 years.
We thought ice was slippery due to pressure or friction. New research reveals the cause is molecular dipole interactions. These electrical forces disrupt ice's crystal structure, creating a liquid layer even at extreme cold.
We thought ice was slippery due to pressure or friction. New research reveals the cause is molecular dipole interactions. These electrical forces disrupt ice's crystal structure, creating a liquid layer even at extreme cold.
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Soil microbes grow, respire, die. Because their biomass eventually becomes necromass, and necromass can be stabilized in soil, growth rate emerges as a powerful predictor of soil carbon: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Microbial growth rate is a stronger predictor of soil organic carbon than carbon use efficiency - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Microbial carbon use efficiency is a strong predictor of soil organic carbon stocks. Here the authors reveal that the microbial growth rate is a more reliable and informative predictor, and that model...
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Soil microbes grow, respire, die. Because their biomass eventually becomes necromass, and necromass can be stabilized in soil, growth rate emerges as a powerful predictor of soil carbon: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Folks interested in soil carbon and microbes, you may want to check these two papers recently published in @natecoevo.nature.com: Xianjin He et al., Microbial growth rate is a stronger predictor of soil organic carbon than carbon use efficiency... (1/4) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Microbial growth rate is a stronger predictor of soil organic carbon than carbon use efficiency - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Microbial carbon use efficiency is a strong predictor of soil organic carbon stocks. Here the authors reveal that the microbial growth rate is a more reliable and informative predictor, and that model...
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Folks interested in soil carbon and microbes, you may want to check these two papers recently published in @natecoevo.nature.com: Xianjin He et al., Microbial growth rate is a stronger predictor of soil organic carbon than carbon use efficiency... (1/4) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Reposted by Tristan Caro
In addition to the 2 postdoc jobs posted yesterday, we’re recruiting 2 PhD students (environmental microbiology/ molecular ecology) to join us from April. The projects will map microbial populations across niches in bioelectrochemical systems relevant to biomethanation & link them to performance.
Two fully funded PhD candidate positions in Electromicrobiology (3 years)
Application deadline: 4 March 2026 at 23:59 hours local Danish time
fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
February 4, 2026 at 4:17 PM
In addition to the 2 postdoc jobs posted yesterday, we’re recruiting 2 PhD students (environmental microbiology/ molecular ecology) to join us from April. The projects will map microbial populations across niches in bioelectrochemical systems relevant to biomethanation & link them to performance.
Reposted by Tristan Caro
"Make sure you cook them thoroughly or you'll start seeing tiny people."
Me: 𝗡𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗜𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 ᵗᵘʳⁿˢ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ʰᵒᵇ
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
Me: 𝗡𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗜𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 ᵗᵘʳⁿˢ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ʰᵒᵇ
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans
Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 29, 2026 at 5:43 PM
"Make sure you cook them thoroughly or you'll start seeing tiny people."
Me: 𝗡𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗜𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 ᵗᵘʳⁿˢ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ʰᵒᵇ
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
Me: 𝗡𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗜𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 ᵗᵘʳⁿˢ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ʰᵒᵇ
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Excited to join the Editorial Board of @plosbiology.org, the #PLOS flagship journal in the Life Sciences, that's blazing a trail in support of selective, equitable #OpenScience and reaching global audiences to help advance science faster 📝 🤓 🌱
January 29, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Excited to join the Editorial Board of @plosbiology.org, the #PLOS flagship journal in the Life Sciences, that's blazing a trail in support of selective, equitable #OpenScience and reaching global audiences to help advance science faster 📝 🤓 🌱
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Multi-omics reveals nitrogen dynamics associated with soil microbial blooms during snowmelt www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Multi-omics reveals nitrogen dynamics associated with soil microbial blooms during snowmelt - Nature Microbiology
Soil microbial populations bloom and then die-off in ecosystems with seasonal snowpack. This study showed that distinct taxa utilize different N sources for growth or energy during the microbial bloom...
www.nature.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:29 PM
Multi-omics reveals nitrogen dynamics associated with soil microbial blooms during snowmelt www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Entering the Permafrost Research Tunnel is like walking through a time machine, says microbiologist @tacaro.bsky.social. Surrounded by mammoth bones, ancient vegetation, and 40,000 year old permafrost, researchers study the effects of thaw on our planet. bigpicturescience.org/episodes/col...
January 28, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Entering the Permafrost Research Tunnel is like walking through a time machine, says microbiologist @tacaro.bsky.social. Surrounded by mammoth bones, ancient vegetation, and 40,000 year old permafrost, researchers study the effects of thaw on our planet. bigpicturescience.org/episodes/col...
I was thrilled to be featured on this week's episode of Big Picture Science "Cold to Hot"! Wonderful reporting on permafrost thaw, greenland ice sheet, NCAR, and more!
The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world, and the consequences extend far beyond the icy north. What happens when the world's refrigerator heats up? This week, it's "Cold to Hot" bigpicturescience.org/episodes/col...
January 27, 2026 at 8:58 PM
I was thrilled to be featured on this week's episode of Big Picture Science "Cold to Hot"! Wonderful reporting on permafrost thaw, greenland ice sheet, NCAR, and more!
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Congrats to @noahhoupt.bsky.social for this massive effort (1000 generation!) evolution experiment demonstrating the importance of organism-derived environmental modifications in shaping adaptive evolution. A great example of how bacterial evolution only makes sense in the light of phage :)
Interested in eco-evolutionary feedbacks? Microbial experimental evolution? Pleiotropy? Filamentous phages??
Check out our latest preprint, now up on BioRxiv!
biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
For a quick summary, peep the thread below...🧵 (1/10)
Check out our latest preprint, now up on BioRxiv!
biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
For a quick summary, peep the thread below...🧵 (1/10)
biorxiv.org
January 23, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Congrats to @noahhoupt.bsky.social for this massive effort (1000 generation!) evolution experiment demonstrating the importance of organism-derived environmental modifications in shaping adaptive evolution. A great example of how bacterial evolution only makes sense in the light of phage :)
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Excited to see this published! A big part of why SAR11 is so tricky to grow like "normal" microbes.
January 22, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Excited to see this published! A big part of why SAR11 is so tricky to grow like "normal" microbes.
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Happy to talk to @olliemilman.bsky.social about the potential impacts IF people followed the new dietary guidelines. We’re talking potentially 100M acres of additional ag land and 100s of millions of tons of more CO2e. But if we instead ate more plants, we could have our protein and forests, too.
Huge amounts of extra land needed for RFK Jr’s meat-heavy diet guidelines
Even 25% increase in meat and dairy consumption would require 100m more acres of agricultural land, analysis says
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Happy to talk to @olliemilman.bsky.social about the potential impacts IF people followed the new dietary guidelines. We’re talking potentially 100M acres of additional ag land and 100s of millions of tons of more CO2e. But if we instead ate more plants, we could have our protein and forests, too.
Reposted by Tristan Caro
Like so many, I’ve been affected by the new US federal stance against science. As a result of this and seeking a better life balance, I have accepted a new Full Prof position at the University Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮🤩
I will miss CA deeply, but a new adventure awaits 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
I will miss CA deeply, but a new adventure awaits 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Shattered’: US scientists speak out about how Trump policies disrupted their careers
Researchers lay bare the human toll of lay-offs, funding cuts and attacks on science one year after the president’s return to the White House.
www.nature.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Like so many, I’ve been affected by the new US federal stance against science. As a result of this and seeking a better life balance, I have accepted a new Full Prof position at the University Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮🤩
I will miss CA deeply, but a new adventure awaits 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
I will miss CA deeply, but a new adventure awaits 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Tristan Caro
New preprint up on airborne fungi across the US with a focus on fungal allergens - would love feedback.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Spatiotemporal dynamics in airborne fungi and fungal allergens across the United States
A broad diversity of fungi can be found in the near-surface atmosphere, with both the amounts and types of airborne fungi varying across space and time. However, the specific spatiotemporal patterns i...
www.biorxiv.org
January 8, 2026 at 7:21 PM
New preprint up on airborne fungi across the US with a focus on fungal allergens - would love feedback.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Tristan Caro
do you ever randomly think about the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption while pouring a cup of coffee or are you normal
January 5, 2026 at 10:07 PM
do you ever randomly think about the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption while pouring a cup of coffee or are you normal
Reposted by Tristan Caro
New paper alert!
tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater.
Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit.
A thread:
tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater.
Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit.
A thread:
January 6, 2026 at 5:55 PM
New paper alert!
tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater.
Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit.
A thread:
tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater.
Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit.
A thread:
Reposted by Tristan Caro
New paper up - inspired by the periodic table of the elements, we attempted to organize bacterial diversity in genome-inferred trait space academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
Constructing a “periodic table” of bacteria to map diversity in trait space
Abstract. Despite an ever-expanding number of bacterial taxa being discovered, many of these taxa remain uncharacterized with unknown traits and environmen
academic.oup.com
January 6, 2026 at 7:31 PM
New paper up - inspired by the periodic table of the elements, we attempted to organize bacterial diversity in genome-inferred trait space academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
