Ploppa
@ploppa.bsky.social
PhD chemist, amateur geologist, science teacher, feminist, atheist, CGillustrator sometimes and everything natural sciences.
"Uncivilized and boring science educator".
"Uncivilized and boring science educator".
Reposted by Ploppa
A supposed dormant volcano erupts in Ethiopia after being inactive for at least 12.000 years.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/hayl...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/hayl...
November 26, 2025 at 6:44 PM
A supposed dormant volcano erupts in Ethiopia after being inactive for at least 12.000 years.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/hayl...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/hayl...
Reposted by Ploppa
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
November 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨
Reposted by Ploppa
Here’s an actual metal version of Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, which I think the original is pretty metal anyway.
Source: YouTube share.google/NkLz28HcYhXJ...
Source: YouTube share.google/NkLz28HcYhXJ...
In the Hall of the Mountain King Metal Version
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
share.google
November 7, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Here’s an actual metal version of Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, which I think the original is pretty metal anyway.
Source: YouTube share.google/NkLz28HcYhXJ...
Source: YouTube share.google/NkLz28HcYhXJ...
Tough choice:
#carpathite bc I'm an organic chemist
#tugtupite bc of tenebrescence (when a mineral changes color after exposure to UV light)
Tugtupite from Greenland,
left: after exposure to SW-UV;
right: the pink color faded after ca. 1 day in its box.
(this sample has been stolen 2023 😭)
#carpathite bc I'm an organic chemist
#tugtupite bc of tenebrescence (when a mineral changes color after exposure to UV light)
Tugtupite from Greenland,
left: after exposure to SW-UV;
right: the pink color faded after ca. 1 day in its box.
(this sample has been stolen 2023 😭)
September 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Tough choice:
#carpathite bc I'm an organic chemist
#tugtupite bc of tenebrescence (when a mineral changes color after exposure to UV light)
Tugtupite from Greenland,
left: after exposure to SW-UV;
right: the pink color faded after ca. 1 day in its box.
(this sample has been stolen 2023 😭)
#carpathite bc I'm an organic chemist
#tugtupite bc of tenebrescence (when a mineral changes color after exposure to UV light)
Tugtupite from Greenland,
left: after exposure to SW-UV;
right: the pink color faded after ca. 1 day in its box.
(this sample has been stolen 2023 😭)
Reposted by Ploppa
The red tetrahedrons of Iranian #Zuniyite with the hematite inclusions won me over. Abundant crystals look like stars in the galaxy when they fluoresce.
September 12, 2025 at 3:48 AM
The red tetrahedrons of Iranian #Zuniyite with the hematite inclusions won me over. Abundant crystals look like stars in the galaxy when they fluoresce.
As an organic chemist, I can only choose #Carpathite.
Pls vote for the aromatic mineral!
Pls vote for the aromatic mineral!
#MinCup25 Round 1 Match 6: Brace for oddness in a match between one of the very few hydrocarbon minerals #carpathite and the temperature-flipping mineral #leucite.
Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r1...
Results: www.mineralcup.org/2025/results...
Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r1...
Results: www.mineralcup.org/2025/results...
Vote in Round 1 Match 6 — Mineral Cup
Click here to vote in Carpathite vs Leucite Photo credits: Michael C Roarke (Carparthite) and Smithsonian Institution (Leucite)
www.mineralcup.org
September 6, 2025 at 10:04 AM
As an organic chemist, I can only choose #Carpathite.
Pls vote for the aromatic mineral!
Pls vote for the aromatic mineral!
Reposted by Ploppa
Here is a nice mushroom
August 13, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Here is a nice mushroom
Reposted by Ploppa
Magnified orange coneflower with my 2:1 macro lens paired with the Raynox 250 adapter. The magnification is wild! #flower #macrophoto #photography
📷 Fujifilm X-T4 | Pergear 60mm f2.8 II
📷 Fujifilm X-T4 | Pergear 60mm f2.8 II
August 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Magnified orange coneflower with my 2:1 macro lens paired with the Raynox 250 adapter. The magnification is wild! #flower #macrophoto #photography
📷 Fujifilm X-T4 | Pergear 60mm f2.8 II
📷 Fujifilm X-T4 | Pergear 60mm f2.8 II
Reposted by Ploppa
Reposted by Ploppa
Reposted by Ploppa
I was thinking with a friend about how to describe the harms of AI, especially in a teaching and labor context, and came up with calling it a “coordinated campaign of mass deskilling” and I feel like that succinctly describes a lot of the problem.
August 5, 2025 at 1:25 AM
I was thinking with a friend about how to describe the harms of AI, especially in a teaching and labor context, and came up with calling it a “coordinated campaign of mass deskilling” and I feel like that succinctly describes a lot of the problem.
Reposted by Ploppa
Tsunami video allegedly taken at Pionerskaya bay after the M8.8 Kamchatka #earthquake. HOLY SHIT! This guy and his dog are unbelievably lucky. 🧪⚒️ #geology
youtube.com/shorts/LhFQ2...
youtube.com/shorts/LhFQ2...
MASSIVE Tsunami Hits Pionerskaya Bay, Kamchatka, Russia (HQ)
YouTube video by 2025 Kamchatka Earthquake & Tsunami Archive
youtube.com
August 4, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Tsunami video allegedly taken at Pionerskaya bay after the M8.8 Kamchatka #earthquake. HOLY SHIT! This guy and his dog are unbelievably lucky. 🧪⚒️ #geology
youtube.com/shorts/LhFQ2...
youtube.com/shorts/LhFQ2...
Reposted by Ploppa
The pole shouldn't really affect the continent. There have been plenty of other times when a different continent (or no continent) has end up at the South Pole.
See this reconstruction for the last 1.5 billion years by Scotese for example (latitude is much better constrained than longitude):
See this reconstruction for the last 1.5 billion years by Scotese for example (latitude is much better constrained than longitude):
1.5 billion years of Plate Tectonics by C.R. Scotese
YouTube video by Christopher Scotese
www.youtube.com
June 5, 2025 at 4:43 AM
The pole shouldn't really affect the continent. There have been plenty of other times when a different continent (or no continent) has end up at the South Pole.
See this reconstruction for the last 1.5 billion years by Scotese for example (latitude is much better constrained than longitude):
See this reconstruction for the last 1.5 billion years by Scotese for example (latitude is much better constrained than longitude):
Reposted by Ploppa
Finally…a simplified periodic table of the elements for geologists and earth scientists!
⚒️🪨🧪🌎🌋
railsback.org/PT/815Period...
⚒️🪨🧪🌎🌋
railsback.org/PT/815Period...
May 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Finally…a simplified periodic table of the elements for geologists and earth scientists!
⚒️🪨🧪🌎🌋
railsback.org/PT/815Period...
⚒️🪨🧪🌎🌋
railsback.org/PT/815Period...
Reposted by Ploppa
So…about AI’s energy use…
“…to create a five-second video, a newer AI model uses ‘about 3.4 million joules, more than 700 times the energy required to generate a high-quality image’. That's the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour.”
“…to create a five-second video, a newer AI model uses ‘about 3.4 million joules, more than 700 times the energy required to generate a high-quality image’. That's the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour.”
Report: Creating a 5-second AI video is like running a microwave for an hour
That's a long time in the microwave.
mashable.com
May 22, 2025 at 5:04 PM
So…about AI’s energy use…
“…to create a five-second video, a newer AI model uses ‘about 3.4 million joules, more than 700 times the energy required to generate a high-quality image’. That's the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour.”
“…to create a five-second video, a newer AI model uses ‘about 3.4 million joules, more than 700 times the energy required to generate a high-quality image’. That's the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour.”
Reposted by Ploppa
Made a cocktail for my wife and she put it in the freezer, inadvertently creating a new superorganism please hel—*glurk*
May 2, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Made a cocktail for my wife and she put it in the freezer, inadvertently creating a new superorganism please hel—*glurk*
Reposted by Ploppa
Another one from further back.
Bearded iris, watercolour on VCPO handmade watercolour paper, approximately 87 × 150 mm, 2019.
Again, the scan has considerably homogenised the blues and lost the subtle variations.
Bearded iris, watercolour on VCPO handmade watercolour paper, approximately 87 × 150 mm, 2019.
Again, the scan has considerably homogenised the blues and lost the subtle variations.
May 9, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Another one from further back.
Bearded iris, watercolour on VCPO handmade watercolour paper, approximately 87 × 150 mm, 2019.
Again, the scan has considerably homogenised the blues and lost the subtle variations.
Bearded iris, watercolour on VCPO handmade watercolour paper, approximately 87 × 150 mm, 2019.
Again, the scan has considerably homogenised the blues and lost the subtle variations.
Reposted by Ploppa
Happy Giant Phallus Shaped Iceberg Floating In Conception Bay of Dildo, Canada Day to all who celebrate.
May 2, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Happy Giant Phallus Shaped Iceberg Floating In Conception Bay of Dildo, Canada Day to all who celebrate.
Reposted by Ploppa
Reposted by Ploppa
Mossy leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus sikorae, Madagascar. These lizards have some of the most amazing camouflage in nature. I especially love the fractal fringing on the bottom jaw, feet, and body, which helps break up the lizard's outline. 🦎🌿 #herps
March 28, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Mossy leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus sikorae, Madagascar. These lizards have some of the most amazing camouflage in nature. I especially love the fractal fringing on the bottom jaw, feet, and body, which helps break up the lizard's outline. 🦎🌿 #herps
Reposted by Ploppa
Warning sign about geologists ⚒️
Warning! If our favorite rocks fall off a cliff, we will chase after them.
Warning! If our favorite rocks fall off a cliff, we will chase after them.
March 25, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Warning sign about geologists ⚒️
Warning! If our favorite rocks fall off a cliff, we will chase after them.
Warning! If our favorite rocks fall off a cliff, we will chase after them.
Reposted by Ploppa
Fresh impact crater on Earth!
This impact occurred on 25 July 2024 in Prince Edward Island, Canada, when a small ordinary chondrite meteorite impacted Earth (someone's driveway, specifically) at about 200 km/h.
The impact formed a set of crater rays.
This impact occurred on 25 July 2024 in Prince Edward Island, Canada, when a small ordinary chondrite meteorite impacted Earth (someone's driveway, specifically) at about 200 km/h.
The impact formed a set of crater rays.
January 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Fresh impact crater on Earth!
This impact occurred on 25 July 2024 in Prince Edward Island, Canada, when a small ordinary chondrite meteorite impacted Earth (someone's driveway, specifically) at about 200 km/h.
The impact formed a set of crater rays.
This impact occurred on 25 July 2024 in Prince Edward Island, Canada, when a small ordinary chondrite meteorite impacted Earth (someone's driveway, specifically) at about 200 km/h.
The impact formed a set of crater rays.
Reposted by Ploppa
