Whimsical Wavelengths
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whimsicallambda.bsky.social
Whimsical Wavelengths
@whimsicallambda.bsky.social
I Dr Jeffrey Zurek (volcanologist/geophysicist) am the host for this science podcast whimsical wavelengths! Also juggling day job, fatherhood & a “normal” life 😅. Pod found everywhere!
https://open.spotify.com/show/62yumbmTFvGAAsX2aQVTTj?si=0dbca8884aa949
Pinned
I am Dr Jeffrey Zurek and your host of Whimsical Wavelengths! A #science #podcast!
Brining some social media to here to hopefully reach more people offering a #scientific escape from a messed up world with scientific dad #jokes and #puns
“Whimsical wavelengths” everywhere pods are found
1/3🧪⚒️
Before birds ruled the skies, pterosaurs did. A newly described Australian species — Haliskia peterseni — offers a fresh look at how these ancient reptiles once soared over the Early Cretaceous seas, revealing more about flight, evolution, and life in a vanished world.
November 10, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Whimsical Wavelengths
This is a horror story for Jamaica. Climate change is making storms like #HurricaneMelissa more intense.

www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/sector_...
October 28, 2025 at 10:40 AM
🧪Plastic and the environment — and what you think you know.
It’s not as simple as “good” or “bad.” The first plastics were made to solve real engineering problems, not create new ones.
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p...
#Science #Podcast #Plastic #Environment
Plastic, science, and environmental trade offs - interviewing an industrial scientist
Podcast Episode · Whimsical Wavelengths - A Science Podcast · 2025-10-27 · 59m
podcasts.apple.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I have a data conundrum. The podcast in on a ranked Apple List! Amazing! In Indonesia 🇮🇩! The issue? I don’t have any data suggesting I have any listeners from there!! It is very strange and I don’t know what it means….
October 22, 2025 at 9:25 AM
UVIC Alumni Association put together a wonderful profile of my (the host) career thus far!

www.uvic.ca/alumni/read-...
The sounds of science - Alumni - University of Victoria
Geophysicist Jeffrey Zurek became hooked on Earth science, particularly the mysteries of volcanoes, as a child. Now, he shares his passion for discovery in a lively science podcast.
www.uvic.ca
October 15, 2025 at 4:20 AM
🧪🔭1/3 we’re diving into the deep end of the universe: supermassive black holes!
Dr. James Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History and City University of New York, comes to explore the strange physics and luminous surroundings of the darkest objects in the cosmos.
October 14, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Got the next few episodes loaded and ready to go and now I the host am off to Saudi Arabia! Day job time in Geophysics! Hopefully new pics on geology and the like in a few weeks!
October 5, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Whimsical Wavelengths
The Department of Energy has added these terms to its growing “list of words to avoid” because words are dangerous:

climate change
green
decarbonization
emissions
energy transition
sustainability
sustainable
clean energy
dirty energy
carbon footprint
CO₂ footprint
tax breaks
tax credits
subsidies
Energy Dept. adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list
It is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to dispute, silence or downplay climate change.
www.politico.com
September 29, 2025 at 4:44 PM
1/3 I scream U scream we all scream for Ice cream #science?
🕘for sweet delicious 🧪delivered here
#love the breath here. We investigate the 🧪that goes into the greatest frozen dessert🍦!🍦like other materials (like magma) melt, freeze & deform in complex ways depending on structures within the material
September 29, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Is a scientific #oxymoron on your #crisis bingo card for the year? Basaltic plinian eruptions are rare and weird. (Ie clickbait headline for something interesting but rare enough not to worry about)🧪⚒️🌋
Learn about them and Masaya Volcano on this week's episode!

open.spotify.com/episode/0vmK...
Masaya Volcano is a Strange Volcano - The science Journey Towards Understanding Masaya's Basaltic Plinian Eruptions
open.spotify.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:10 AM
🧪⚒️🌋1/2 #bluesky Time for Season 2! Time for Basaltic plinian eruptions, melt inclusions, viscosity and more. Today we going to head into one of my papers so volcanology!
When planning my #PhD, I wanted to do more at Masaya #Volcano. Masaya is #complicated...
#beliveitornot #scicomm
September 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM
1/2⚒️Friend of the pod, Dr. Rebecca Pearce gave a TEDx Talk on an exciting frontier of 🧪: ultradeep #geothermal.
Tapping into the heat beneath our 👣 — #energy that’s always on, #renewable, & able to provide baseload #electricity for generations.

Watch her talk here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMDe...
Geothermal energy: Hope for our energy crisis lies inside the earth | Dr. Rebecca Pearce | TEDxRRU
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
www.youtube.com
September 12, 2025 at 2:02 AM
1/2⚒️🌋 Season 2 starts on 15th! I feel a bit hopelessness with what is taking place South of me. The anti 🧪actions and rhetoric … I am political. The pod? Not so much. It’s about the 🧪process & repeatable results with researchers that did the work or through historical storytelling. So if you are a
September 11, 2025 at 1:31 AM
⚒️🌋I was a guest on a podcast! On
Going In Blind with Zach Tidwell

Not a science podcast but we talked about 🧪. The university system and the Tenure system, volcanology, water in the mantel. And more
podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/4...

Zach Tidwell is blind, & a US veteran & I recommend this pod!
#44 Dr. Jeff Zurek: Geophysicist and Volcanologist
Podcast Episode · Going in Blind with Zach Tidwell · 2025-09-05 · 1h 26m
podcasts.apple.com
September 5, 2025 at 7:43 PM
🧪⚒️
September 5, 2025 at 4:17 PM
🧪
While sea ice melt accelerated last month across the Beaufort Sea, higher areas of sea-ice concentration continued in the East Siberian Sea. No new records will be set again this year

+ Data: nsidc.org/data/g02202/...
+ Concentration = fraction of sea ice
+ Graphic from zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...
September 5, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Reposted by Whimsical Wavelengths
Incredible story about an ant that lays eggs of another species (!) to create cloned males (!!) that go on to father all of the workers in the colony (!!!) www.newscientist.com/article/2494...
Queen ant makes males of another species for daughters to mate with
Bizarrely, Iberian harvester ant queens lay eggs that turn into male builder harvester ants, and some of her offspring are hybrids of the two species
www.newscientist.com
September 4, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Whimsical Wavelengths
If all of your car’s electric windows except the driver’s suddenly stop working, and regardless of the dire repair scenarios that Teh Google provides, check to see if you accidentally engaged the child safety window lock before taking it to your mechanic.

Trust me on this . . .
September 4, 2025 at 1:13 PM
1/2 🧪⚒️Why is this happening? The data is clear. Global climate is changing at a speed that is due to us humans. And it will not be good for us. (that is a mild way of putting it)
www.latimes.com/environment/...
I see the same🤬parioted by the Fraser Institute. 🍁has it's anti science people too. More
‘Not scientifically credible’: Scientists repudiate Trump administration climate report
A group of more than 85 leading climate researchers on Tuesday publicly repudiated a Trump administration report that questions the severity of global warming.
www.latimes.com
September 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
1/3 Last encore ep before season 2 starts in 2 weeks! Here the pod showed its fitness with im-peck-able wordplay. It is for the 🐦s. At least those which have a raven-ous appetite for 📖
podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...
If you like 🧪listen to the #podcast!
Whimsical Wavelengths - A Science Podcast
Science Podcast · Updated Biweekly · A whimsical journey through science topics hosted by Dr Jeffrey Zurek, who is a volcanologist and geophysicist. A passion for science communication, teaching, hear...
podcasts.apple.com
September 1, 2025 at 4:08 PM
1000 download barrier ✅in the 1st season!
BEST NEW🧪PODCAST?
Hosted by Dr Jeff Zurek.
Season 1 it squeaked into top 50% of ALL podcasts!
& Season 2 is nearly here! Will start with an episode about #volcanology & basaltic plinian eruptions! Show the show some Lava!
open.spotify.com/show/62yumbm....
August 19, 2025 at 12:10 AM
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August 18, 2025 at 5:27 PM
🧪⚒️🦖Encore episode just launch all about theropods - Ie T-REX! Digging into some wicked cool research with Dr François Therrien. It is actually pt 2 of the conversation where we discuss diet etc
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Still in ☀️mode! Season 2 Sept 15!
podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...
Exceptionally preserved stomach contents of a young tyrannosaurid reveal an ontogenetic dietary shift in an iconic extinct predator
A young tyrannosaur ingested two yearling dinosaurs, showing such predators hunted small prey but shifted to large prey as adults.
www.science.org
August 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Whimsical Wavelengths
Congrats on this very nice article about the effects of the infamous 1988 Yellowstone wildfires 🔥 on 🌲 forest recovery (or the lack of it in places)- the doctoral research of @nathankiel.bsky.social, currently a postdoc in my lab @sunyesf.bsky.social. Published in Ecological Monographs-well done❗️🧪🌎🌐
In 1988, wildfires razed one-third of Yellowstone National Park. While most park woodlands are regenerating, some have turned into meadows. A new study digs into why. 🧪🌿🌎
Yellowstone’s 1988 Fires Eviscerated Forests. Will They Ever Recover? - Mountain Journal
While most park woodlands are regenerating, some have turned into meadows. A new study digs into why.
mountainjournal.org
August 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM