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Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD

@breriverwater.bsky.social
250 followers 230 following 0 posts

Environmental science KU, CEAE Kstate & Okstate geology alum

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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer. He is a computer safety researcher. And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine. In under 1600 words. aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

I Want You to Understand Chicago
Politics Chicago
2025-11-08

I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.

Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again.

An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next.

Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st.

Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Lyle Lewis @race2extinct.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Gates’s argument mirrors modern society….a false separation between human welfare and ecological stability. Poverty and disease only grow on a dying planet. apnews.com/article/bill...
apnews.com
Bill Gates calls for climate fight to shift focus from curbing emissions to reducing human suffering
Bill Gates thinks climate change is a serious problem and that scientific innovation will curb it. In a memo released Tuesday, Gates argues for a strategic pivot in the global climate fight.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.
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MS Kohut @mskohut.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
It’s absolutely devastating. People are simply disappearing all over the place. We have fallen to authoritarianism. open.substack.com/pub/mdavis19...
open.substack.com
Reddit Thread Details Horrific ICE Encounters
These stories are happening all over the country. We CAN'T look away and we must share them.
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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
🚨🚨 If I could just summarize 1 sentence from the new National Academy of Sciences study on climate, boldface, flashing red, it would be: "the evidence for current and future harm to human health and welfare created by human-caused GHGs is beyond scientific dispute." BEYOND SCIENTIFIC DISPUTE 🚨🚨
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Society for Freshwater Science @freshwaterscience.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
We’re thrilled to announce the Society for Freshwater Science 2026 Annual Meeting! 💡Gathering to Build Resilient Watersheds and Communities 📍 Spokane, WA 📆 May 17–21, 2026 Explore our meeting website for program details, travel, accommodations, field trips & more: 🔗 www.sfsannualmeeting.org
ociety for Freshwater Science (SFS) 2026 Annual Meeting Spokane, WA May 17-21 logo featuring a mountains, a waterfall, and a bridge in the background and salmon and aquatic insects in the foreground. Around the edge is the meeting theme: Gathering to build resilient watersheds and communities
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
This may explain why there’s an aggressive response to people who merely post Kirk’s own words. It threatens the existence of the alternate Kirk - the motivational speaker that had been marketed to young kids and white Christian groups through selective quotation & clips.
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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 13/09/2025
The fact that Matthew Dowd lost his job for pointing out Charlie Kirk’s hate speech, while Brian Kilmeade openly suggests we should euthanize the homeless and there is zero outrage, shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
🚨🚨🚨 In the worst tradition of the McCarthy-era anti-communist House Un-American Activities Committee, the GOP House Oversight Committee has just launch a massive, grotesque, ad hominem, partisan assault on the US National Academy of Sciences. oversight.house.gov/wp-content/u...
oversight.house.gov
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 08/09/2025
Nearly 6 billion people live in the 101 countries that a recent study has identified as confronting a net decline in water supply — signaling enormous challenges for food production and a heightening risk of conflict and instability. By @abrahm.bsky.social, w/ graphics by @lucaswaldron.bsky.social
propublica.org
“Staggering” Water Loss Driven by Groundwater Mining Poses Global Threat
A new study finds that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating arid “mega” regions and causing sea levels to rise.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Simon Rosenberg @simonwdc.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
2 bits of data from new Economist/YouGov poll..... 13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
The Trump administration has announced that the US will rewrite past climate reports, in a clear attempt to erase scientific history and undermine the consensus on human-caused climate change.
france24.com
US to rewrite its past national climate reports
US President Donald Trump's administration is revising past editions of the nation's premier climate report -- its latest move to undermine the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.
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Dr Charlie Gardner @charliejgardner.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Social movements play an essential role pushing for action on climate and nature, and it’s now widely recognised that support from scientists can make them more effective But not everyone can take to the streets or risk arrest That’s ok – there’s lots we can do in other ways 🧵1/
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Sarah Flynn @ecosarahflynn.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Thanks to state legislation, state universities are compelling their employees to suppress their identities. Rather than prioritizing dignity, autonomy, and respect, Kansas leaders have demanded employees comply by erasing a piece of themselves. What message does this send to students?
kshb.com
KU staff, employees must remove gender pronouns from e-mail signatures by July 31
University of Kansas officials notified staff, employees and student employees Tuesday of a slew of changes meant to align with a recently adopted change passed by the Kansas Board of Regents.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
“Water is the messenger that’s delivering the bad news about climate change to your city, to your front door.”
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Lyle Lewis @race2extinct.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Glyphosate was the “safe” replacement for atrazine. Now diquat is the “acceptable” fallback for glyphosate. We’re not managing risks—we’re trading poisons and calling it agriculture. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Weedkiller ingredient widely used in US can damage organs and gut bacteria, research shows
Diquat is banned in the UK, EU, China and other countries. The US has resisted calls to regulate it
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
So they’re basically laundering our federal science budget over to the for-profit prison and concentration camp industry? NSF’s 2024 budget was $9.06 billion. NASA: $24.875. NIH: $47.7 billion. Fund science, not cruelty.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Tori Foote @toriatheisttori.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 22/06/2025
We’ve bombed Iran. And dismantled our joint terrorism task force. And sent a third of the FBI to help ICE. And gutted the National Security Council. And a drunk guy is in charge at the pentagon. And our intelligence allies probably won’t share intel with us. Because people couldn’t vote for a woman.
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Dr Charlie Gardner @charliejgardner.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Environmentally friendly farming sounds great but if it's lower yield it means more land is needed - and that's worse for the rarest species So we need high yield but sustainable farming I think smallholder agroecology, rather than industrial agriculture, offers more potential for that
royalsocietypublishing.org
Sustainable high-yield farming is essential for bending the curve of biodiversity loss | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Food production does more damage to wild species than any other sector of human activity, yet how best to limit its growing impact is greatly contested. Reviewing progress to date in interventions tha...
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Dr. Robert D. Bullard @drrobertbullard.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Sharing A new app details where your food comes from — and just how fragile the global food system really is | Grist grist.org/food-and-agr...
grist.org
A new app details where your food comes from — and just how fragile the global food system really is
A “first of its kind" tool could help untangle the complex global web of food supply chains and make it more resilient to climate shocks.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 20/06/2025
“The Resistant Palestinian Pens is an independent media platform committed to amplifying Palestinian voices from Gaza and across occupied Palestine.” resistant.blog
resistant.blog
Gaza News & Palestinian Voices: Unfiltered Field Reports, Justice & palestinian reality | The Resistant Palestinian Pens
Delve into the Palestinian reality with in-depth field reports and political analysis. Our platform amplifies silenced voices, advocates for justice and humanitarian rights, and drives global awarenes...
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Chasten Glezman Buttigieg @chastenbuttigieg.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
They've got enough money to throw us into another war, but not enough money to fund the suicide prevention hotline. Very "pro-life." Very "pro-family." So "GREAT."
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
For those who asked: this article is now temporarily open access for everyone.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Dr. Rebecca Barnes (she/her) @waterbarnes.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
🧪 This is such a cool paper -- @wallyfulweiler.bsky.social & colleagues estimate that inland & coastal waters contribute 15% of global terrestrial & ocean #nitrogen fixation - despite their relatively small aerial extent 🤓https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt1511
science.org
Global importance of nitrogen fixation across inland and coastal waters
Biological nitrogen fixation is a key driver of global primary production and climate. Decades of effort have repeatedly updated nitrogen fixation estimates for terrestrial and open ocean systems, yet...
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
assassinations, handcuffing a senator at press conference, marines detaining a civilian, and a military parade for the president’s birthday. rough week for democracy.
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United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
We feed you. They hunt us.
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Reposted by Bre Rivera Waterman, PhD
Isako Di Tomassi @isakoditomassi.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
#DefendResearch
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Martha W. Alibali @marthaalibali.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
"Imagine the auto industry without 3D printing. NSF funded that. Artificial intelligence? NSF. MRI machines that help doctors diagnose you? NSF. Doppler radar technology that makes aviation safer by conquering wind shear? NSF. Duolingo‘s underlying programming? NSF. The internet itself? NSF."
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 14/05/2025
☀️THE SUMMER FIGHT FOR SCIENCE☀️ 🫵 WHO: You + all our friends 🧪 WHAT: Share science with your neighbors and tell them about the impact of proposed budget cuts. 🇺🇸 WHERE: Your local community 🏖️ WHEN: Now to Sept 30th 🔬 WHY: The 9/30 budget vote will determine the future of science in America.
The summer fight for science. The time is now. Join the fight at standupforscience.net.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14/05/2025
DeLAURO: Are you planning to break the law by impounding appropriated funds? RFK Jr: If you appropriate the funds, I'm going to spend them D: We have! You're cutting the NIH by $18b. Congress appropriated those funds. How can you justify cutting billions from the biomedical research budget?
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 11/05/2025
NSF is undergoing a massive shake-up: over 80 senior staff cut, remote work banned, the equity-in-STEM division eliminated, and hundreds of research grants scrapped. This isn’t budget efficiency—it’s a direct attack on U.S. science, education, and equity. www.eenews.net/articles/nsf...
eenews.net
NSF initiates more layoffs amid major agency shake-up
The agency will also reassign all remote employees to in-person work at its Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 06/05/2025
NEW: The Trump administration’s slashing of budgets and staff have Great Lakes scientists concerned that they have lost the ability to protect the public from toxic algal blooms, which can kill animals and sicken people. By @annaleighclark.bsky.social
propublica.org
Millions of People Depend on the Great Lakes’ Water Supply. Trump Decimated the Lab Protecting It.
The Trump administration’s slashing of budgets and staff have Great Lakes scientists concerned that they have lost the ability to protect the public from toxic algal blooms, which can kill animals…
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
When the topic is women the conflict is that women are failing society. When the topic is men it's that society is failing them.
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Alida Cantor @alidacantor.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Over the past weeks I've had 2 major grants terminated, from EPA and NSF. Over $1 million of funding for human-enviro geography research lost. These terminations have negative impacts for myself, my graduate students, my university, community partners, and society. #withoutNSF #geosky 1/9 🧪
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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com
Welcome to Save The U.S. National Science Foundation
A Girl Looking at a Physics Model
TAKE ACTION
Save NSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the U.S. National Science Foundation.

 

Our mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation in various scientific fields. NSF funding is critical to this work.

 

 Join us in our endeavor to ensure a sustainable future for scientific exploration and discovery.
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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
With all GOP senators voting in lockstep, the Senate has overturned environmental rules cutting seven major, toxic air pollutants, including mercury, lead, and dioxins. This is the first time Congress has cut protections under the Clean Air Act in 55 years. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
washingtonpost.com
Senate overturns EPA rule on seven highly toxic air pollutants
If also passed by the House as expected, the action will be the first time Congress has weakened protections under the Clean Air Act.
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Emily St. John Mandel @emilymandel.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
“And I’m like, what do you mean, you ‘do your own research’? You running a double-blind study in your living room, dawg?” - A guy walking ahead of me with his friends on a NYC sidewalk in 2021, also my favorite overheard dialogue of the entire pandemic
NYT headline: “Kennedy Advises New Parents to ‘Do Your Own Research’ on Vaccines” 
Subheader:
“In an interview with Dr. Phil, the health secretary offered false information about vaccine oversight and revealed a lack of basic understanding of new drug approvals.”
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itati santamaria de Collins @itativcs.latinsky.app · 30/04/2025
Unless US scientists stand up en masse it’s going to be the end of the American scientific century.
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Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe @aaberhe.com · 25/04/2025
doi.org/10.1002/saj2... Most transformative scientific solutions often emerge from curiosity-driven research, not just problem-focused/use-inspired approaches. #Soil science's greatest contributions will come from maintaining intellectual freedom to truly understand 1 of Earth's most complex systems
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Benjamin Sulman @bsulman.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
NOAA’s chief economists estimate that the agency’s El Nino outlooks alone boost the U.S. agricultural economy by $300 million a year, and that corn growers save as much as $4 billion in fertilizer and cleanup costs based on optimizing to NOAA forecasts.
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Marco A. Maximo Prado @maximoprado.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
If you think research is expensive check how much diseases cost
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William C Phelps, PhD @wcphelps.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
A compelling letter from Nobel Laureate, William Kaelin, MD about the looming loss of US leadership in science and innovation. 🧪 www.amjmed.com/article/S000...
amjmed.com
Killing the Science Golden Goose
In the 1970’s I was probably one of the last American high school students who was told that if you wanted to go to medical school, you should learn to speak German. This was because in the late 19th ...
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Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
"Clearly cool: A transparent paper-based material could replace single-use plastics! The mm-thick paperboard behaves just like plastic; it's strong, transparent, shapeable & can hold boiling water. But it degrades within a year on the ocean floor!" www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/clea... 🧪 🌊 🦑
anthropocenemagazine.org
Clearly cool: A transparent paper-based material could replace single-use plastics
The millimeter-thick paperboard behaves just like plastic; it's strong, transparent, shapeable—and can hold boiling water. But it degrades within a year on the ocean floor.
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 17/04/2025
Oh no! Several of the Regional Climate Centers have had their funding lapse through DOC/NOAA. These institutes are critical for connecting weather and climate data and services to local communities across the United States. Spread the word to drive attention and support!
Funding for the Regional Climate Center program lapsed on April 17, 2025 due to a suspension of federal funding from NOAA through the Department of Commerce. It is unknown if or when funding will resume. All data and services offered under the HPRCC contract, including this website, are unavailable.

If there are particular products and services you rely upon, please fill out this form so we can identify products to prioritize for continuance. Unfortunately, some products will be discontinued indefinitely because of their association with the Regional Climate Center program.Support for all MRCC-hosted products and services is currently suspended as of April 17, 2025, due to a lapse in federal funding from the Department of Commerce through NOAA.Federal funding for the Regional Climate Center program lapsed on April 17, 2025.  It is unknown when or if funding will resume, pending decisions by NOAA and the Department of Commerce. If there are particular products and services that you rely upon, please contact us at sercc@sercc.com or reach out to your federal representatives and communicate their value and why you need them.
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Jenna C. Hill @chillocean.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
NOAA just announced a long list of datasets that are going away🧪⚒️🌊: www.nesdis.noaa.gov/about/docume... Download what you need asap and send comments to: ncei.info@noaa.gov
nesdis.noaa.gov
Notice of Changes
Notices of changes are formal public announcements of planned services changes to applications and other products.
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 17/04/2025
120 light years from Earth, there's a planet that may be covered in a living ocean. Here's my story on a tantalizing hint of life beyond the Solar System. Gift link: nyti.ms/3GbrEaZ 🧪
nyti.ms
Astronomers Detect a Signature of Life on a Distant Planet (Gift Article)
Further studies are needed to determine whether K2-18b, which orbits a star 120 light-years away, is inhabited, or even habitable.
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Keith Trujillo @neurochicano.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
After wreaking havoc at NIH and other critical agencies, Musk, Trump and minions are dismantling NSF. Where is congress and when will they intervene? 🧪
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
🚀🚀
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