Gavin Foster
@thefosterlab.bsky.social
Palaeoclimatologist and isotope geochemist at the University of Southampton. Love/hate relationship with mass spectrometers. Researcher of climate science, coral reefs, biomineralisation, laser ablation, isotopes and geology. Views my own
Pinned
!New Paper Alert! Matrix independent and interference free in situ boron isotope analysis by laser ablation MC-ICP-MS/MS pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a.... In it we use our Neoma MC-ICPMS/MS to overcome the complexities of measuring boron isotopes by Laser Ablation in carbonates and other minerals. ⚒️🧪🌊🪸
Reposted by Gavin Foster
These sorts of personal attacks demonstrate that Polanski's messaging is cutting through (look at recent poling). More power to him.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The right can mock my teeth all it wants – it shows the Greens have struck a nerve | Zack Polanski
As a politician, I expect opposition and debate. But when it centres on personal insults, not policies, something else is going on, says the leader of the Green party, Zack Polanski
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:17 AM
These sorts of personal attacks demonstrate that Polanski's messaging is cutting through (look at recent poling). More power to him.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This is great news: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n.... Not least because it removes one of the common denialist retorts “what’s the point if China aren’t doing it” - they clearly are and so should we
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:00 AM
This is great news: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n.... Not least because it removes one of the common denialist retorts “what’s the point if China aren’t doing it” - they clearly are and so should we
Reposted by Gavin Foster
A COP30 reality check:
Warming is 50% faster than early 2000s
Sea-level rise accelerating
Coral collapse = first climate tipping point
The next 10 years? Make or break
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Warming is 50% faster than early 2000s
Sea-level rise accelerating
Coral collapse = first climate tipping point
The next 10 years? Make or break
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com
November 9, 2025 at 5:01 PM
A COP30 reality check:
Warming is 50% faster than early 2000s
Sea-level rise accelerating
Coral collapse = first climate tipping point
The next 10 years? Make or break
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Warming is 50% faster than early 2000s
Sea-level rise accelerating
Coral collapse = first climate tipping point
The next 10 years? Make or break
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Simple rule: Stop setting carbon on fire to make energy. It ain't sustainable.
Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say
Exclusive: report by Stand.earth says subsidiary of power plant received truckloads of whole logs at biomass pellet sites
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Simple rule: Stop setting carbon on fire to make energy. It ain't sustainable.
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Meanwhile, CEOs make 280 times the typical worker today.
The system is rigged.
The system is rigged.
November 8, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Meanwhile, CEOs make 280 times the typical worker today.
The system is rigged.
The system is rigged.
Reposted by Gavin Foster
I'm guiding the review process of this interesting @Biogeosciences manuscript about trace element incorporation into fish otoliths. Feel free to check out the preprint and contribute to the open review discussion if you're interested!
egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...
egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...
Ideas and perspectives: Mineralizing Fluid Control on Minor Elements in Biogenic CaCO3: Insights from Otoliths
Abstract. The minor element composition of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) biominerals from marine calcifying organisms leaving a sedimentary record has been used for decades to reconstruct various biogeoch...
egusphere.copernicus.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:03 AM
I'm guiding the review process of this interesting @Biogeosciences manuscript about trace element incorporation into fish otoliths. Feel free to check out the preprint and contribute to the open review discussion if you're interested!
egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...
egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Huge paper for the Arctic Ocean published today in @science.org - a new 30,000 year history of Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover reconstructed from the accumulation of cosmic dust-derived helium-3! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (1/n)
Cosmic dust reveals dynamic shifts in central Arctic sea-ice coverage over the past 30,000 years
Arctic sea-ice loss affects biological productivity, sustenance in coastal communities, and geopolitics. Forecasting these impacts requires mechanistic understanding of how Arctic sea ice responds to ...
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Huge paper for the Arctic Ocean published today in @science.org - a new 30,000 year history of Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover reconstructed from the accumulation of cosmic dust-derived helium-3! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (1/n)
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Lovely. 👏👏👏
November 7, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Lovely. 👏👏👏
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Expert retrospective on a decade of the Paris Agreement
The world’s on track for 2.5–2.9°C
👉Emissions still rising
👉Pledges improving, not delivering
👉1.5°C dream fading - but 2°C is still possible if ambition doubles
…and the next decade will decide everything
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The world’s on track for 2.5–2.9°C
👉Emissions still rising
👉Pledges improving, not delivering
👉1.5°C dream fading - but 2°C is still possible if ambition doubles
…and the next decade will decide everything
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Expert retrospective on a decade of the Paris Agreement - Nature Climate Change
To mark the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Nature Climate Change asked experts to reflect on the progress of and barriers to several of its key Articles. They share their thoughts on import...
www.nature.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Expert retrospective on a decade of the Paris Agreement
The world’s on track for 2.5–2.9°C
👉Emissions still rising
👉Pledges improving, not delivering
👉1.5°C dream fading - but 2°C is still possible if ambition doubles
…and the next decade will decide everything
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The world’s on track for 2.5–2.9°C
👉Emissions still rising
👉Pledges improving, not delivering
👉1.5°C dream fading - but 2°C is still possible if ambition doubles
…and the next decade will decide everything
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Serious organisations need to delete their X accounts e.g. x.com/GOVUK.
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Serious organisations need to delete their X accounts e.g. x.com/GOVUK.
Reposted by Gavin Foster
One week to go for the national demonstration called by UCU (@ucu.org.uk) against the planned redundancies at the University of Leicester.
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
November 5, 2025 at 1:14 PM
One week to go for the national demonstration called by UCU (@ucu.org.uk) against the planned redundancies at the University of Leicester.
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
Reposted by Gavin Foster
for all y’all Brits out there, please consider for a moment what it’s like for your Black and Brown friends to hear this sort of stuff being said by *elected representatives*
In posts responding to Saturday’s mass stabbing attack on the Doncaster to London King’s Cross train, Reform councillor Alexander Jones explicitly attributed the crime to “individuals” who were “not English” and instead “Black and of Caribbean descent” – despite the alleged killer being British
Nigel Farage's Chosen Reform Mayoral Candidate Suggested Black Britons Can’t Be English
The party's candidate for Mayor of Doncaster claimed being English requires Anglo-Saxon 'lineage' and attacked 'third world cultures' in now-deleted posts
bylinetimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 3:09 PM
for all y’all Brits out there, please consider for a moment what it’s like for your Black and Brown friends to hear this sort of stuff being said by *elected representatives*
Earth's crust extracted from the mantle post-3.5 Ga - revealed by these exquisite Laser Ablation Sr isotope maps. Great example new technology yielding new information about the Earth. Also the lowest 87/86Sr ever measured on Earth (0.700050)!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 5, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Earth's crust extracted from the mantle post-3.5 Ga - revealed by these exquisite Laser Ablation Sr isotope maps. Great example new technology yielding new information about the Earth. Also the lowest 87/86Sr ever measured on Earth (0.700050)!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
We see something similar in the UK.
Most benefits go to people IN WORK.
Because there are not enough properly paid jobs.
Rather than insisting employers pay decent wages, governments use taxpayers’ money to subsidise employers who don’t.
Welfare was not meant to support employers.
This is wrong
Most benefits go to people IN WORK.
Because there are not enough properly paid jobs.
Rather than insisting employers pay decent wages, governments use taxpayers’ money to subsidise employers who don’t.
Welfare was not meant to support employers.
This is wrong
The fact a *single* Amazon full-time employee requires SNAP benefits should be a crime. The fact Amazon is the largest employer of SNAP recipients is a disgrace. Jeff Bezos shouldnt be that rich; he should be in jail.
November 4, 2025 at 9:36 AM
We see something similar in the UK.
Most benefits go to people IN WORK.
Because there are not enough properly paid jobs.
Rather than insisting employers pay decent wages, governments use taxpayers’ money to subsidise employers who don’t.
Welfare was not meant to support employers.
This is wrong
Most benefits go to people IN WORK.
Because there are not enough properly paid jobs.
Rather than insisting employers pay decent wages, governments use taxpayers’ money to subsidise employers who don’t.
Welfare was not meant to support employers.
This is wrong
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Benefit facts:
Most people who receive benefits are in work.
Taxpayers support employers who don’t pay decent wages.
The welfare system was not set up to benefit employers who don’t pay decent wages.
Most people who receive benefits are in work.
Taxpayers support employers who don’t pay decent wages.
The welfare system was not set up to benefit employers who don’t pay decent wages.
November 3, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Benefit facts:
Most people who receive benefits are in work.
Taxpayers support employers who don’t pay decent wages.
The welfare system was not set up to benefit employers who don’t pay decent wages.
Most people who receive benefits are in work.
Taxpayers support employers who don’t pay decent wages.
The welfare system was not set up to benefit employers who don’t pay decent wages.
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Let's just take a moment to reflect on the self-sacrifice and hope this person embodies - not the evil, hateful monsters thirsting for violence.
November 2, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Let's just take a moment to reflect on the self-sacrifice and hope this person embodies - not the evil, hateful monsters thirsting for violence.
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Image of the Sun.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
November 1, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Image of the Sun.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
Taken at night.
Not looking up at sky but down through 8000 miles of rock to the other side of the Earth.
Not with light but neutrinos.
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Wishing you a deep-sea Halloween! 🎃
It may be spooky season, but really, the only thing scary about the deep sea is how little we have explored it.
We’ve figured out the tricks on how to get down there, now it’s time to find the treats!
It may be spooky season, but really, the only thing scary about the deep sea is how little we have explored it.
We’ve figured out the tricks on how to get down there, now it’s time to find the treats!
October 31, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Wishing you a deep-sea Halloween! 🎃
It may be spooky season, but really, the only thing scary about the deep sea is how little we have explored it.
We’ve figured out the tricks on how to get down there, now it’s time to find the treats!
It may be spooky season, but really, the only thing scary about the deep sea is how little we have explored it.
We’ve figured out the tricks on how to get down there, now it’s time to find the treats!
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Tool reveals how your dinner affects risk of 30,875 species land-dwelling animals going extinct
"If everyone in the UK switched to a vegetarian diet overnight, we could halve our biodiversity impact."
phys.org/news/2025-10...
"If everyone in the UK switched to a vegetarian diet overnight, we could halve our biodiversity impact."
phys.org/news/2025-10...
Tool reveals how your dinner affects risk of 30,875 species land-dwelling animals going extinct
University of Cambridge researchers have developed a new way to measure the impact of our food production on other species' survival around the world.
phys.org
October 31, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Tool reveals how your dinner affects risk of 30,875 species land-dwelling animals going extinct
"If everyone in the UK switched to a vegetarian diet overnight, we could halve our biodiversity impact."
phys.org/news/2025-10...
"If everyone in the UK switched to a vegetarian diet overnight, we could halve our biodiversity impact."
phys.org/news/2025-10...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
⏰New paper⏰
Proud to be part of this work led by Alex Quizon & Sierra Petersen where we show that most snails (we tested) precipitate their shells in isotopic equilibrium with seawater, enabling climate reconstructions like the one published earlier this week.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Proud to be part of this work led by Alex Quizon & Sierra Petersen where we show that most snails (we tested) precipitate their shells in isotopic equilibrium with seawater, enabling climate reconstructions like the one published earlier this week.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Clumped isotope thermometry (Δ47) measurements in marine gastropods suggest equilibrium precipitation
The clumped isotope paleothermometer (Δ47) has been used to reconstruct temperatures from various biogenic carbonate archives. Calibration studies dem…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:30 AM
⏰New paper⏰
Proud to be part of this work led by Alex Quizon & Sierra Petersen where we show that most snails (we tested) precipitate their shells in isotopic equilibrium with seawater, enabling climate reconstructions like the one published earlier this week.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Proud to be part of this work led by Alex Quizon & Sierra Petersen where we show that most snails (we tested) precipitate their shells in isotopic equilibrium with seawater, enabling climate reconstructions like the one published earlier this week.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
Southampton’s West Bay, early 1900s. Southampton West (now Central) railway station can be seen on the left. The bay disappeared when the land was reclaimed here in the 1920s and 1930s in order to create the vast Western Docks.
1/2
1/2
October 31, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Southampton’s West Bay, early 1900s. Southampton West (now Central) railway station can be seen on the left. The bay disappeared when the land was reclaimed here in the 1920s and 1930s in order to create the vast Western Docks.
1/2
1/2
Reposted by Gavin Foster
UCU (@ucu.org.uk) has called a national demonstration against the planned redundancies at the University of Leicester.
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
October 30, 2025 at 9:11 AM
UCU (@ucu.org.uk) has called a national demonstration against the planned redundancies at the University of Leicester.
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
Please come and march alongside us in Leicester on 12 November.
All welcome!
Reposted by Gavin Foster
So either Labour need to ask candidates to step aside for the Greens to take on Reform....
Or actually bring in a fair democratic process where everyone's votes count equally.
It's time for Proportional Representation.
www.thenational.scot/news/2558507...
Or actually bring in a fair democratic process where everyone's votes count equally.
It's time for Proportional Representation.
www.thenational.scot/news/2558507...
'Just getting started': Zack Polanski reacts as Greens SECOND in new poll
ZACK Polanski has welcomed a new poll putting his party in second place at Westminster.
www.thenational.scot
October 30, 2025 at 5:50 PM
So either Labour need to ask candidates to step aside for the Greens to take on Reform....
Or actually bring in a fair democratic process where everyone's votes count equally.
It's time for Proportional Representation.
www.thenational.scot/news/2558507...
Or actually bring in a fair democratic process where everyone's votes count equally.
It's time for Proportional Representation.
www.thenational.scot/news/2558507...
Reposted by Gavin Foster
New - Harvey & Wheeler, the estate agents used by Rachel Reeves to rent out her property have apologised for an "oversight" after they did not apply for a licence on her behalf, having offered to do so.
October 30, 2025 at 5:34 PM
New - Harvey & Wheeler, the estate agents used by Rachel Reeves to rent out her property have apologised for an "oversight" after they did not apply for a licence on her behalf, having offered to do so.