Ferris Jabr
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ferrisjabr.bsky.social
Ferris Jabr
@ferrisjabr.bsky.social
NYT bestselling author of Becoming Earth (Random House, 2024), being translated into 12+ languages ✵ Contributing Writer, New York Times Magazine ✵ Gardener, baker, naturalist ✵ 🇱🇧🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 ✵ Surname rhymes with neighbor ✵ https://www.ferrisjabr.com
From the same video, a closeup of an ancient leaf gingerly peeled from rock and suspended between acetate sheets. You can see its colors, veins, and even blemishes that might be spots of damage from weather or insects.

A relic from a different Earth, another world, yet instantly familiar.
November 19, 2025 at 5:55 PM
In Idaho's Clarkia fossil beds, ~15-million-yr-old leaves are sandwiched between rock. When exposed, the leaves momentarily retain their original colors—red, copper, sometimes even a chlorophyllic hue—before oxidizing and fading.

A sedimentary scrapbook. Reverse polaroids from Earth's deep past.
November 19, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Working from 1886-1936, the Blaschkas used innovative techniques to emulate the colors, forms, & textures of real plants, meticulously joining numerous individual parts on wire frames, melting glass on glass, and often coating and adorning the glass with resins, gelatins, cotton fibers, and paint.
November 14, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Recently visited the Glass Flowers at Harvard, a collection of 4,300 extraordinarily realistic glass models of plants crafted by the Blaschkas, a father and son team of sculptors

That’s right, these are all made primarily of GLASS — a fact difficult to accept given how accurate & lifelike they are
November 14, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Every now and then I remember that sponges are ANIMALS — that these seeming hybrids of plant and rock; these sessile, porous, tissue-and-organ-less barrels, tubes, and blobs are just as much an animal as a falcon, wolf, or shark — and marvel once more at the wonderful weirdness of life on Earth.
November 14, 2025 at 3:10 PM
The first ever images of baby planets forming in the discs of dust and gas surrounding their respective stars. How thrilling that we can actually observe the birth of other worlds from so far away!

www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
www.eso.org/public/unite...
HT @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social
November 8, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Join me Sat Nov 8, 1PM at Boston's @museumofscience.bsky.social for a family-friendly presentation about our living planet, based on my book Becoming Earth. We'll learn how life transformed Earth over billions of years, making it the world we've known. Blue Wing Stage (w/ a view of the giant globe!)
November 7, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Wednesday Nov 5 I’ll be at my alma mater Tufts with Pulitzer winner and MIT KSJ director @usha.bsky.social discussing the importance of science journalism in this moment and the lessons and tools it offers us all

Free and open to public w/ registration
www.tuftstickets.com/event/lighti...
October 28, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Luminaries, bats, spider web, kraken (paper, yarn, paint)
October 27, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Broomsticks (foraged branches, rattan, string)
October 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Window silhouettes (black poster board)
October 27, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Monster door (poster board, paint)
October 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
We recently hosted a spooky season celebration. I tried to make most of the decor from recyclable / repurposed materials to reduce waste.

🎃👻🦇🧵of a few favorites:

Spell book (paper, clay, mod podge, fake eye, paint)
October 27, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Made some Miyazaki soot sprite cake bites. Chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream, chocolate shell, and sprinkles.

Susuwatari (ススワタリ, 煤渡り), also known as soot gremlins or dust bunnies, are fuzzy, golf ball-sized sprites, featured in My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.
October 25, 2025 at 9:12 PM
PSA: There's a relatively new and super useful Gmail feature: a "Manage Subscriptions" tab in the lefthand menu under
More. It instantly shows you all the email lists you're subscribed to, including spam, and allows you to unsubscribe from most with the click of a button
October 23, 2025 at 5:09 PM
We grew a squash. An heirloom called sweet meat that grows particularly well in the PNW. It is very large 😳 Just 1/4 filled up my biggest roasting tray.

Fortunately we are hosting a celebration of autumn / spooky season this weekend. I’ll be making a stew, pie, cake, and savory sides.
October 22, 2025 at 11:09 PM
It's pub day for the latest edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing! Honored to have my work featured along so many other writers I admire, incl @rossandersen.bsky.social @rebeccagiggs.bsky.social @bengoldfarb.bsky.social @sarahzhang.bsky.social Emma Marris & more. Congrats to all!
October 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
October 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
The absolutely stunning Red Rock Canyon, featuring rusted cliffs, shaggy green desert springs, shadow-walking tarantulas, stained glass butterflies, ancient rock art, and neon sprays of lichen
October 17, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Saturday Oct 18, I'll be at the Las Vegas Book Festival on a panel about nature writing w/ essayist & author Barret Baumgart, moderated by Dierdre Wolownick (who happens to be the mother of climbing legend Alex Honnold)

Historic Fifth Street School: Empowered Tent: 12:15 PM
lasvegasbookfestival.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
The world’s first Cactarium and one of its resident tortoises, Tank. Palm Springs, CA.
October 16, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Views from the 8,516 ft high Mountain Station on Mount San Jacinto, which is accessible by aerial tram
October 14, 2025 at 9:04 PM
October 12, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Stargazing in dark sky areas of Joshua Tree National Park
October 12, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Spotted a roosting Western screech owl
September 9, 2025 at 9:07 PM