Helen Czerski
@helenczerski.bsky.social
Physics, bubbles, oceans, hot chocolate and curiosity. Professor at UCL, writer, broadcaster. Author of Storm in a Teacup and Blue Machine https://linktr.ee/helenczerski Co-host of BBC Radio 4's Rare Earth
Paper here: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Mutualism on the deep-sea floor: a novel shell-forming sea anemone in symbiosis with a hermit crab | Royal Society Open Science
Interspecific species interactions are fundamental evolutionary forces that shape
the traits and adaptive strategies of biological communities. However, their diversity
and dynamics in deep-sea ecosys...
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Paper here: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
As a Trustee, I've seen the plans developing over the past few yrs and it's really exciting that it's now getting started. The Meridian Line is still open, but in March 2026 our astronomers will temporarily move down the hill to a really exciting interactive exhibition of space, exploration & more.
November 8, 2025 at 11:53 AM
As a Trustee, I've seen the plans developing over the past few yrs and it's really exciting that it's now getting started. The Meridian Line is still open, but in March 2026 our astronomers will temporarily move down the hill to a really exciting interactive exhibition of space, exploration & more.
They don't. Evolution will have made seeds that accidentally smelled slightly like dung, which might have interested a beetle ever so slightly, and if it increased the number of offspring those genes will have been passed on, and incrementally the seed came to resemble actual dung more.
November 5, 2025 at 9:49 PM
They don't. Evolution will have made seeds that accidentally smelled slightly like dung, which might have interested a beetle ever so slightly, and if it increased the number of offspring those genes will have been passed on, and incrementally the seed came to resemble actual dung more.
He wrote it pretty much at the peak of the problem, and it did take actual action after he wrote it to fix things, at least mostly. But we still have polluted cities today, just not nearly as bad (and see data for Delhi on this plot, so lessons were not universally applied).
October 31, 2025 at 1:34 PM
He wrote it pretty much at the peak of the problem, and it did take actual action after he wrote it to fix things, at least mostly. But we still have polluted cities today, just not nearly as bad (and see data for Delhi on this plot, so lessons were not universally applied).
Oh, and the final line of that chapter: "Remember! We claim to be a people of high civilisation, of advanced science, of great humanity, of enormous wealth! For very shame do not let us say 'We cannot arrange matters so that our people may all breathe unpolluted, unpoisoned air!'"
October 31, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Oh, and the final line of that chapter: "Remember! We claim to be a people of high civilisation, of advanced science, of great humanity, of enormous wealth! For very shame do not let us say 'We cannot arrange matters so that our people may all breathe unpolluted, unpoisoned air!'"
"The huge & ever-increasing cities, the vast manufacturing towns belching forth smoke & poisonous gases, with the crowded dwellings, where millions are forced to live under the most terrible insanitary conditions, are.. witnesses to this criminal apathy, this incredible recklessness & inhumanity"
October 31, 2025 at 1:25 PM
"The huge & ever-increasing cities, the vast manufacturing towns belching forth smoke & poisonous gases, with the crowded dwellings, where millions are forced to live under the most terrible insanitary conditions, are.. witnesses to this criminal apathy, this incredible recklessness & inhumanity"
"Yet it is among those nations that claim to be the most civilised... that profess to be guided by...the laws of nature, those that most glory in the advance of science, that we find the greatest apathy [and] recklessness, in continually rendering impure this all-important necessary of life"[2/3]
October 31, 2025 at 1:23 PM
"Yet it is among those nations that claim to be the most civilised... that profess to be guided by...the laws of nature, those that most glory in the advance of science, that we find the greatest apathy [and] recklessness, in continually rendering impure this all-important necessary of life"[2/3]
Sodium extraction is easy and relatively cheap because there's much less "unmixing" to do - far more of seawater is sodium ions than lithium. More dilute things are harder to extract, because of the laws of thermodynamics. And you have to process much more water to get a decent amount of lithium.
October 17, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Sodium extraction is easy and relatively cheap because there's much less "unmixing" to do - far more of seawater is sodium ions than lithium. More dilute things are harder to extract, because of the laws of thermodynamics. And you have to process much more water to get a decent amount of lithium.
And do we therefore risk turning into the planet of Krikket? [That’s a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference, for non Arthur Dent fans]
October 15, 2025 at 8:42 AM
And do we therefore risk turning into the planet of Krikket? [That’s a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference, for non Arthur Dent fans]