iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory @lamont.columbia.edu · 10/09/2026

📣 Job Alert! @lamont.columbia.edu's Geochemistry division seeks an Associate Research Scientist to conduct paleoclimate and ice core research, mentor students and junior scientists, write scientific papers and grant proposals, and more. ➡️ Learn more/apply/share: bit.ly/4cxco5U

Geochemistry building on the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus in Palisades, NY. Credit: Miriam Cinquegrana

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

The line between believing a scientific result strongly enough to advocate for it with zeal and becoming a zealot is a thin one!

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

All you foundations and wealthy universities should be funding the rejected proposals from NSF. Get rid of all the overhead associated with having your own funding process. There will be an abundance of highly rated and expertly vetted science that will not get funded as a result of these cuts 1/2

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Volcanoes are cool. Except when they erupt and then they’re really hot. Like really hot. And loud. And generally fucking awesome. Highly recommend.

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Scientists: Well our best guess for extinction-causing climate change from the Earth History is probably catastrophic cooling associated with stratospheric aerosols. Tech bros: Well that COULD happen but I could also save the world and become a gazillionaire! LFG! Fermi paradox answered.

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

It’s 😎 to wear helmets kids! Take it from this 😎 dad.

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Is Bluesky just LinkedIn light? Are there substantive scientific discussions to be had here? Or just a lot of horn tooting and finger wagging?

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Woop woop for N isotopes and a deeper understanding of the origins of Pleistocene glacial cycles!

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Serious FOMO over here in the USA while all the new data from Beyond EPICA. Whose got the 🫖 @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social?!

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Bob Kopp @bobkopp.net · 31/03/2026

One fun facts about GWPs: those passionately arguing for 20-year GWPs over 100-year GWPs probably would not passionately argue for a 7% discount rate over a 3% discount rate (and might, correctly, think 3% is too high for long-lasting societal risks) yet mathematically these are almost the same

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Today I learned what the expression 'soup to nuts' actually means. Makes a lot more sense now, but who eats nuts for dessert?!

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

My first NSF rejection of the year! The wheels must be turning! I'll have the chance to apply and get rejected again!

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Princeton University @princeton.edu · 06/04/2026

A new agreement between TCNJ and Princeton will allow eligible undergraduate and grad students to enroll in select courses at the other institution during the fall and spring semesters at no additional cost: bit.ly/4tqr2le

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Cristi Proistosescu @cristiproist.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Getting direct measurements of CO2 from Pliocene-aged ice has been a Holy Grail of climate science! A new paper by @jmarkspeterson.bsky.social provides a record of CO2 going back 3million years(!), with (let's say) intriguing implications for anthropogenic climate change doi.org/10.1038/s415... 1/

doi.org

Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years - Nature

Blue ice records from Antarctica are used to determine methane and carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 3 million years.

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Thomas Bauska @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

If this is your scene*, maybe this job is for you? Three-year PDRA in ice core gases at @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... *Scenes from the Beyond EPICA gas analysis in Copenhagen.

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

While everyone is (rightly) obsessed with levels of CO2 in the atmosphere 3 million years ago, don't sleep the observation that avg. atmospheric methane (CH4) DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE CHANGED AT ALL over the last 3 million years (1/4). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years - Nature

Blue ice records from Antarctica are used to determine methane and carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 3 million years.

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I very much enjoyed listening to this book. It does a great job capturing the links between CO2, climate, oxygen, plate tectonics, and Earth history which are both simple and incredibly complex! Recommend!

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Some cool science coming up so I guess it’s time to start posting again?

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Andrea Matranga @andreamatranga.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Would anybody like to read one of my long threads about a 2.5bn year old rock, bacteria that could produce oxygen but not consume it, and tank production in wwii

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Elizabeth Patterson @paleopatt.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

🚨 New manuscript! 🚨 We use speleothem calcium isotopes and Mg/Ca to reconstruct rainfall amount. Turns out central Vietnam was 50 % drier during the LGM 🤯. Climate models agree but most underestimate rainfall change. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Quantifying changes in central Vietnam rainfall amount since the Late Pleistocene

Paleorecords of the Southeast Asian autumn monsoon indicate that global sea-level change drove abrupt shifts in rainfall, yet the magnitude of these c…

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Mariana M. 🍉 @deerenoir.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

What’s it like doing fieldwork in Antarctica? 🥶 Sarah Shackleton and @blueicedude.bsky.social from @princeton.edu can answer that. They just found a 6-million-year-old ice core—a key piece to improve our current climate models! My story for @eos.org eos.org/articles/new...

eos.org

New Lessons from Old Ice: How We Understand Past (and Future) Heating - Eos

Fragments of blue ice up to 6 million years old—the oldest ever found—offer key insights into Earth’s warming cycles. Researchers are using these ancient data to refine models of our future climate.

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Eos @eos.org · 24/11/2025

New research from John Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social & Sarah Shackleton @princeton.edu, comments from Lidia Ferri, story by Mariana Mastache @deerenoir.bsky.social.

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

⛺️ up! Drill down! Just another day in paradise looking for Earth’s oldest ice.

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Princeton University @princeton.edu · 03/11/2025

We've got a new record for the oldest air ever discovered. 💨 Scientists led by Princeton's @blueicedude.bsky.social and Sarah Shackleton uncovered air trapped in ice that is 6 million years old.

space.com

Scientists discover oldest air on record trapped in 6-million-year-old Antarctic ice

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

The natural weathering of ALL THE ROCKS in the world removes almost 1 billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year. Enhanced rock weathering is an attempt to use a minuscule fraction of ALL THE ROCKS to remove many times more CO₂.

ft.com

How spreading rocks on fields could combat climate change

‘Enhanced rock weathering’ is a simple, but also hard to measure, way of capturing carbon

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

To be fair trilobites were around a lot longer than humans (250 million years give or take) and were wiped out in the by a great global catastrophe than has some parallels to anthropogenic climate change. They also preserve 😍 fossils. Not so niche to me!

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Seth Campbell @alpinesciences.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Today those of us funded by @NSF received this memo. Perhaps the most concerning statement: “Therefore, all review panels, new awards, and all payments of funds under open awards will be paused as the agency conducts the required reviews and analysis.”🧪

MESSAGE to the NSF PI Community,
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-25-13, issued on January 27, 2025, directs all Federal agencies to conduct a comprehensive review of their financial assistance programs to determine programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by the recent Executive Orders. Therefore, all review panels, new awards, and all payments of funds under open awards will be paused as the agency conducts the required reviews and analysis. NSF has created an Executive Order Implementation webpage to ensure the widest dissemination of information and updates. We will continue to communicate with you as we receive additional guidance.
All NSF grantees must comply with these Executive Orders, and any other relevant Executive Orders issued, by ceasing all non-compliant grant and award activities. Executive Orders are posted at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/. In particular, this may include, but is not limited to conferences, trainings, workshops, considerations for staffing and participant selection, and any other grant activity that uses or promotes the use of DEIA principles and frameworks or violates Federal anti-discrimination laws. Please work with your institutional research office to assist you in complying with the Executive Orders. You can also direct your questions through the form on this NSF webpage.
Thank you for your work advancing science, engineering, technology and innovation for our nation.
Sethuraman Panchanathan
Director

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Seth Campbell @alpinesciences.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Had a great visit to the summit of Mount Washington in NH this week to meet with Observatory staff & discuss science & education efforts we are working on together. Not a bad day for some windy weather as well! Peak gusts hit 86 mph. Check out this worthy organization! 🧪 mountwashington.org

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · 20/01/2025

Could your next job be in Antarctica? We're looking for carpenters, chefs, electricians, plumbers, plant operators and more to work at our research stations. These are jobs like no other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. ✅ Vacancies bas.ac.uk/vacancies 💡 Job alerts ow.ly/fWsu50UJHBP

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Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

An ice and rock core drilled 2.8 km deep on the antarctic ice sheet may tell us about the climate record for 1.2 million years - and perhaps even info on the planet going back 2.8 million years. www.sciencealert.com/oldest-unbro...

sciencealert.com

Oldest Unbroken Record of Earth's Climate Pulled From Antarctic Ice Sheet

A colossal ice core sample drilled in Antarctica may contain the oldest, unbroken timeline of Earth's climate, stretching back more than a million years.

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

James Rae @mudwaterclimate.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Super excited to share our latest on CO2’s role in geological climate change! Using boron isotopes in ~300 million year old brachiopod shells, we show that rising CO2 from volcanic emissions drove a profound change in climate that ended the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age ⚒️🧪🌊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 marked the end of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age - Nature Geoscience

A pronounced increase in atmospheric CO2 coincided with warming at the end of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, according to an 80-million-year-long boron isotope CO2 proxy record.

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

Seth Campbell @alpinesciences.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

ICE-DAY! Cool layers & melt/refreeze features in ice cores extracted from Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica. We drilled thru ice to collect subglacial bedrock to determine the last time the bedrock was exposed to the sun using cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating. Also, a beautiful ice crystal! 🧪❄️

An ice core resting on a core tray with Dr. Brent Goehring working nearby and the sun just barely rising over the mountains in the background.

Incredible tear-drop melt-refreeze spirals within an ice core sample. I had never seen anything like this in a previous core from Alaska, Canada, Antarctica, or Greenland, but we were in an area that experiences some melt and refreeze unlike most of the ice core sites I've worked at. Really beautiful structures!

Elliot (who happens to be working with our UMaine and New Mexico Tech team currently at Mount Waesche in West Antarctica currently to again collect subglacial bedrock samples) holding the bottom of an ice core sample from Thwaites Glacier. You can see the core has a ton of sediment in it where it contacted the bedrock. This sediment suggests that there is significant freeze, thaw, grinding up of bedrock at the bed, and sediment getting entrained in the ice as the glacier ice slides along the bed. You can also see lots of ice layers in this core.

This ice crystal was a very "small" piece of a 2-3 meter chandelier of ice crystals hanging from the ceiling of a giant crevasse I rappelled into at Thwaites Glacier. My goal of rappelling into this crevasse was to see if it reached bedrock so I could collect a sample of it for cosmogenic nuclide dating. Instead of finding bedrock, I found these incredible ice crystals. You can see my hand for scale, so this chunk of angular ice crystals is probably about 25 cm or 10 inches in size.

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The Marine Biological Association @thembauk.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Delighted to see that MBA Trustee Professor Rosalind Rickaby OBE FRS has been recognised with an OBE in the New Year's Honours List! Ros has been honoured with this high accolade for her services to Biogeochemistry.

buff.ly

Professor Rosalind Rickaby OBE FRS -Research Committee | Marine Biological Association

Ros is Professor of Biogeochemistry, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, having received her PhD from Cambridge University in 1995 and studied

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Santiago Gassó @sangasso.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

🧪🌋 Apparent mystery resolved : early 1800's global cooling was suspected to be cause by an unknown eruption. But it appears that such eruption has been identified. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

pnas.org

The 1831 CE mystery eruption identified as Zavaritskii caldera, Simushir Island (Kurils) | PNAS

Polar ice cores and historical records evidence a large-magnitude volcanic eruption in 1831 CE. This event was estimated to have injected ~13 Tg of...

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Do this especially if you’re at a place that can nominally afford to invest in creative folks with big ideas. Most academic institutions have a balancing act that doesn’t give a ton of flexibility on hiring (ie we have classes to teach), but some do! They should do better!

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

To all your ECRs out there….those who don’t do write reviews! Be a doer. 🧪!

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Bob Kopp @bobkopp.net · 11/12/2024

Tim Lenton is a friend, and it saddens me that he found our perspective saddening rather than constructively critical. But: despite his and colleagues efforts to “clarify what they meant by tipping points”, those efforts *have not worked* over the last 20 years, and we need to deal with that.

grist.org

Does talking about climate ‘tipping points’ inspire action — or defeat?

The phrase brings attention to the irreversible changes global warming might bring, but some scientists argue it's doing more harm than good.

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Reposted by John Andrew Higgins

John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

⛺ up, 🕳️ down! This 🧊 🏰 should be featured on MTV cribs! #COLDEX.

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

⛺ up, 🕳️ down! This 🧊 🏰 should be featured on MTV cribs! #COLDEX.

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Crypt Echo @corinnabechko.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

So many drawers, each filled with treasures

A long corridor filled stacks and stacks of drawers in cabinets, each with a label

My hand holding a fossil shell over a drawer filled with white boxes. There is a fossil shell or leaf inside each box

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Sad to not be down in 🇦🇶 with @coldex.bsky.social drilling Earth's oldest ice, enjoying ⛺ life and the 😍 scenery. Congrats team!

picture of scientists in antarctica wearing red coats and standing on rocks near a large blue ice field

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John Andrew Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Personally I have never found the ‘tipping point’ framework helpful for thinking about climate change or how society responds to it. Bob’s paper on this is illuminating.

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Gavin Foster @thefosterlab.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Happy Isotope Day everyone! 🥳On this day in 1913 Nature published Federick Soddy's paper "Intra-atomic Charge" www.nature.com/articles/092... in which he introduced the term "isotope" (coined after a dinner conversation in Glasgow with Margaret Todd the classics scholar). how will you celebrate?🧪⚒️🌊

black and white picture of Federick Soddy looking at the camera.

A plaque on a wall in Glasgow celebrating Federick Soddy the text says: At a dinner party held in this house in 1913 Federick Soddy (1877-1956) introduced the concept of "isotopes". He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1921 for his work on radioactivity. Photo from X account of @is_glasgow

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James Rae @mudwaterclimate.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Today my amazing colleague, lab mate, and partner @oceanicandrea.bsky.social officially became the first female Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences @uniofstandrews.bsky.social. Let’s make sure it doesn’t take another 611 years to get the next ⚒️🧪🌊👩🏻‍🔬

Andrea Burke stands outside a University building at St Andrews in some epic grey and red academic robes with a fun wee hat on top!

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