Dr Craig O'Neill
@thecraigoneill.bsky.social
Planetary science, geophysics, science writing... and single malts.
I love the wave physics in this.
My first job was a transit and rail engineer/planner.
Civil engineering is cool and it's a cool college major even if you don't end up working in engineering.
Civil engineering is cool and it's a cool college major even if you don't end up working in engineering.
Now this is Content
September 27, 2025 at 11:03 PM
I love the wave physics in this.
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
The "Cloud" is physical and mostly located in the DC area.
Thank you! Here's the source for what I said on #WITHpod: "There are six states in the United States where data centres already consume over 10% of the electricity supply, with Virginia leading at 25%." www.iea.org/reports/ener...
Listen to the podcast here: open.spotify.com/episode/32ps...
Listen to the podcast here: open.spotify.com/episode/32ps...
September 27, 2025 at 10:35 PM
The "Cloud" is physical and mostly located in the DC area.
Today was a weird day. I woke dreaming I was promoted (there was a rollercoaster ride, which is both an accurate analogy and also should be real), farewelled my 94 yo grandmother and gave the eulogy.
September 16, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Today was a weird day. I woke dreaming I was promoted (there was a rollercoaster ride, which is both an accurate analogy and also should be real), farewelled my 94 yo grandmother and gave the eulogy.
I was thinking about an old friend this morning. How we’d hit the bar at Newcastle airport on work trips. Found out at lunch he’d passed. Watch out when people fall off the radar. The little world of Australian engineering geophysics lost a mentor and a friend. RIP Mick.
August 5, 2025 at 9:12 AM
I was thinking about an old friend this morning. How we’d hit the bar at Newcastle airport on work trips. Found out at lunch he’d passed. Watch out when people fall off the radar. The little world of Australian engineering geophysics lost a mentor and a friend. RIP Mick.
A sobering read on AI and productivity, and especially on why productivity is not progress.
Fabulous post by @randomwalker.bsky.social & Sayash raising the same concern many of us have about whether we're on the right track with how we're using AI for science. Everyone should read it, take a deep breath & think through the implications.
www.aisnakeoil.com/p/could-ai-s...
www.aisnakeoil.com/p/could-ai-s...
Could AI slow science?
Confronting the production-progress paradox
www.aisnakeoil.com
July 18, 2025 at 2:13 AM
A sobering read on AI and productivity, and especially on why productivity is not progress.
Just back from a geochemistry conference in Prague, having visited the Terezin concentration camp on a spare day. Amongst the incarcerated (which included Dvorak’s protege and a heartbreaking number of kids), I found a fellow earth scientist, who somehow survived the killings.
July 16, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Just back from a geochemistry conference in Prague, having visited the Terezin concentration camp on a spare day. Amongst the incarcerated (which included Dvorak’s protege and a heartbreaking number of kids), I found a fellow earth scientist, who somehow survived the killings.
This seems pretty reasonable. Although getting any apartment in most Australian cities is challenging.
“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”
It costs a lot less to house people.
It costs a lot less to house people.
Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me
In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.
thebetter.news
June 29, 2025 at 10:54 AM
This seems pretty reasonable. Although getting any apartment in most Australian cities is challenging.
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
We're gonna need the Solar System ephemeris models updated on a regular basis!
Really hoping we have better constraints on the masses and distances of KBOs so these models account for this in more detail.
Really hoping we have better constraints on the masses and distances of KBOs so these models account for this in more detail.
In addition to these never-before-seen cosmic neighbors, Rubin detected another ~1800 previously-known asteroids, bringing the total detections to just under 4000 in just 10.5 hours!🔭🧪
In other words, over half of Rubin's first detections are new discoveries☄️
In other words, over half of Rubin's first detections are new discoveries☄️
June 23, 2025 at 4:04 PM
We're gonna need the Solar System ephemeris models updated on a regular basis!
Really hoping we have better constraints on the masses and distances of KBOs so these models account for this in more detail.
Really hoping we have better constraints on the masses and distances of KBOs so these models account for this in more detail.
They'll show this at the post mortem for planetary science.
Inspired by @jtuttlekeane.bsky.social and @ohdearz.bsky.social, here's what the White House proposed budget cuts to NASA would do to the entirety of the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
Bloodbath is right.
Bloodbath is right.
June 1, 2025 at 8:58 AM
They'll show this at the post mortem for planetary science.
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
🚨 We’re hiring at UCC! Two roles in energy systems research with our Energy Policy & Modelling Group (MaREI, Cork). Work with us on Ireland’s energy transition 🧵
May 30, 2025 at 3:02 PM
🚨 We’re hiring at UCC! Two roles in energy systems research with our Energy Policy & Modelling Group (MaREI, Cork). Work with us on Ireland’s energy transition 🧵
I think I’m loosing some students to this phenomena.
…okay, yeah, I didn’t see this one coming, though in retrospect it seems really obvious.
“The whole thing feels like Black Mirror.”
“He would listen to the bot over me.”
“It gave my husband the title of ‘spark bearer’ because he brought it to life.”
Relationships are being destroyed thanks to spiritual mania, supernatural delusions, and arcane prophecy — all fueled by AI chatbots:
“He would listen to the bot over me.”
“It gave my husband the title of ‘spark bearer’ because he brought it to life.”
Relationships are being destroyed thanks to spiritual mania, supernatural delusions, and arcane prophecy — all fueled by AI chatbots:
May 6, 2025 at 12:30 AM
I think I’m loosing some students to this phenomena.
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
Proposed NASA cuts in context, courtesy of the Planetary Society #astronomy #science
May 2, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Proposed NASA cuts in context, courtesy of the Planetary Society #astronomy #science
What came first, the echidna or the egg? A: the platypus.
Early Cretaceous fossil of a humerus from a monotreme indicates semiaquatic burrowing lifestyle as in platypus (and echidna):
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Bone microstructure supports a Mesozoic origin for a semiaquatic burrowing lifestyle in monotremes (Mammalia) | PNAS
The platypus and four echidna species are the only living egg-laying mammals and the
sole extant representatives of Order Monotremata. The platypus...
www.pnas.org
April 29, 2025 at 10:10 AM
What came first, the echidna or the egg? A: the platypus.
There was a whale on Brisbane river tonight. But, like, 30m above it.
April 29, 2025 at 9:48 AM
There was a whale on Brisbane river tonight. But, like, 30m above it.
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
Reading our paper copy of the NY Times I came across Xavier Le Pichon’s obituary! What a loss. A pioneer of plate tectonics. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/s...
April 12, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reading our paper copy of the NY Times I came across Xavier Le Pichon’s obituary! What a loss. A pioneer of plate tectonics. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/s...
⚒️ Could use some more Kangaroo Point ignimbrite like QUT but it’s alright.
The original University of Queensland buildings on the St Lucia campus are built of a handsome sandstone from near Helidon QLD.
Beautiful brown, yellow and purple swirls in the late Triassic-early Jurassic sst, with some jolly gargoyles of Australian wildlife and notable people for good measure.
Beautiful brown, yellow and purple swirls in the late Triassic-early Jurassic sst, with some jolly gargoyles of Australian wildlife and notable people for good measure.
April 10, 2025 at 10:24 AM
⚒️ Could use some more Kangaroo Point ignimbrite like QUT but it’s alright.
Alec Guiness reading TS Eliot’s The Wasteland. I suppose this was why the internet was invented. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcj4... #poetry
The Waste Land (TS Eliot) read by Alec Guinness
YouTube video by modelsandjuniors
m.youtube.com
April 10, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Alec Guiness reading TS Eliot’s The Wasteland. I suppose this was why the internet was invented. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcj4... #poetry
Something we have up to recently published in Nature: The Hadean Protocrust
If anybody would like to read our @nature.com paper "Formation and composition of Earth’s Hadean protocrust", led by Simon Turner, you can do so here...
rdcu.be/ef9MB
#geology #science #early_earth #impacts
rdcu.be/ef9MB
#geology #science #early_earth #impacts
Formation and composition of Earth’s Hadean protocrust
Nature - A modelling study shows that the trace-element composition of Earth’s Hadean protocrust is similar to that of the current average continental crust, severely compromising geochemical...
rdcu.be
April 4, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Something we have up to recently published in Nature: The Hadean Protocrust
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
My god—a major earthquake (a Richter ~7.7) causes a skyscraper to collapse in Bangkok. Hope all the construction workers made it out.
March 28, 2025 at 12:54 PM
This is just bonkers.
Powerful earthquake causes skyscraper under construction to collapse in Bangkok, Thailand.
March 28, 2025 at 3:48 PM
This is just bonkers.
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
A new episode of Strombolian activity occurred on 24 March 2025 at the Southeast Crater of #Etna. It started on the morning and culminated around noon, and then diminished; some explosive activity was still going on at nightfall. Seen from Nicolosi, on the south flank of the volcano
March 24, 2025 at 7:06 PM
A new episode of Strombolian activity occurred on 24 March 2025 at the Southeast Crater of #Etna. It started on the morning and culminated around noon, and then diminished; some explosive activity was still going on at nightfall. Seen from Nicolosi, on the south flank of the volcano
⚒️⚒️ Yet again those Indonesian volcanos causing havoc to Australasian air travel.
Flights leaving Bali cancelled after volcanic eruption shoots ash plume 8km into sky
Flights leaving Bali cancelled after volcanic eruption shoots ash plume 8km into sky
Indonesia’s 1,700m Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted for 11 minutes on Thursday, causing ash cloud but no damage to nearby villages on the island of Flores
www.theguardian.com
March 21, 2025 at 7:52 AM
⚒️⚒️ Yet again those Indonesian volcanos causing havoc to Australasian air travel.
I am, possibly, a little late to the game, but really enjoying this book by @moudhy.bsky.social. Sumerians 5000 years ago sound a lot like my neighbours. I get these guys. A lot more than I get some people today. Also, they were fixated with beer.
March 21, 2025 at 7:50 AM
I am, possibly, a little late to the game, but really enjoying this book by @moudhy.bsky.social. Sumerians 5000 years ago sound a lot like my neighbours. I get these guys. A lot more than I get some people today. Also, they were fixated with beer.
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
Chances the poem here is responsible for at least one HP Lovecraft story?
John Joly, Irish geologist and physicist. In 1909 he published "Radioactivity and Geology". He also wrote a sonnet about the ichnogenus Oldhamia ⚒️🧪
wp.me/p3ihHu-Ke #histsci #paleopoems #ichnology #HappySaintPatricksDay 🍀
wp.me/p3ihHu-Ke #histsci #paleopoems #ichnology #HappySaintPatricksDay 🍀
March 17, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Chances the poem here is responsible for at least one HP Lovecraft story?
Reposted by Dr Craig O'Neill
