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Caroline Dean

@carolined2.bsky.social
181 followers 323 following 5 posts

Educator, scientist, mother

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Reposted by Caroline Dean
Daniel Benneworth-Gray @danielgray.com · 13/07/2026
Sam Neill on tackling depression and imposter syndrome when you’re between jobs.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
There's likely to be a significant spike in deaths of birds & mammals in Australia in the near future 💔. H5N1 is here & is likely to spread quickly in the coming weeks & months. I hope governments invest all the $ needed to ensure the worst outcomes, i.e. native wildlife extinctions, are avoided.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06...
abc.net.au
El Niño declared by BOM and it could become the strongest on record
El Niño is a state that can linger for up to 12 months and disrupt weather patterns across the globe, with Australia especially prone.
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Dr Dave @ecosystemunraveller.com · 31/05/2026
This #WorldParrotDay I pause to reflect on the 26 species of parrot we’ve encountered at our place. Familiar friends across Australia, many just as happy on farms as forests.
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Dr Monique Ryan @mon4kooyong.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Almost 3 million Australians have HECS debts: they’ll increase today. Compulsory payments made this year towards that debt won’t be counted before indexation is applied. We wouldn’t put up with this on our credit cards or home loans. We need to fix HECS.
theguardian.com
Students would save $3bn over a decade if Labor changed Hecs indexation date by five months
Exclusive: Costings commissioned by independent MP Monique Ryan show possible savings for university graduates, as Hecs debts increase by $1bn on Monday
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Caroline Dean @carolined2.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
‘Everyone got paid’: How Wippa’s pro-teen social media ban group cashed in on its success www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/09/3...
crikey.com.au
‘Everyone got paid’: How Wippa’s pro-teen social media ban group cashed in on its success
36 Months accused ban critics of being paid off by big tech. Meanwhile, it was lining up sponsorship deals, eyeing global expansion and coming up with its own AI tool to sell.
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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
This is the saddest day of my professional life.
Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage.
I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys.
I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show,
A show that I named and helped develop over all those years.
Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry.
These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenterIn a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices.
Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'.
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I chose the latter.
It broke my heart.
I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make.
I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer.
I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence.
One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career.I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more.
I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost".
James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice.
Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences.
I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness.
Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire.
I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal.
I am so sorry to let you down.
I hope that you can understand my reasoning.
I have to accept that I am not what the current
BBC expects of their freelance presenters.Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not
"just a job"
I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world.
From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too.
The strawberry is dead.
Long live the strawberry. B
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Harry Wallop @harrywallop.co.uk · 02/12/2025
Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
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Ngarrngga @ngarrngga.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Read our latest blog article which features a new publication, 'Ngarrngga: An Approach to Indigenous Education for all Australians', published by the Australian Educational Researcher. www.ngarrngga.org/stories-news/aer-…
ngarrngga.org
New Ngarrngga Publication for AER
Learn more about a new publication from Ngarrngga, 'An Approach to Indigenous Education for all Australians'.
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Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
🦇 Some animals, including the Brandt’s bat, seem to defy the rules of aging. Understanding how they do it could help us live longer, healthier lives: buff.ly/oiQsFRf
A photograph of a Brandt's bat face with a comic-style speech bubble reading, "Come learn my secrets."
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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
What could possibly go wrong
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Shayne Calliss @shaynecalliss.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
The sugar gums are flowering and the air smells like apples
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Caroline Dean @carolined2.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...
indailysa.com.au
SA experts launch own human health research over harmful algal bloom - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia
New website launched to tackle concerns over a lack of algal bloom human health data on sore throats, breathing issues and mental health.
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Ilaine S. Matos @ilainematos.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Growing old and tolerant? How Eucalypts and Acacias traits vary across life-stages. Come see my poster and talk at ESA 2025 conference. Monday, Nov 24 5:44 PM Tuesday, Nov 25 3:00 PM #ESA2025 #EcologicalSocietyOfAustralia #EcologyAustralia #BiodiversityOnTheBrink #KaurnaCountry #Adelaide
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Hugh Possingham @hugepossum.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
We donate $25,000 a year to Nature Glenelg Trust. They do remarkable on-ground work for biodiversity in the places that we love #ESA2025. Eaglehawk waterhole, an NGT property, south of Bordertown, probably has South Australia’s best woodland bird diversity.
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Megan Evans @megcevans.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
#esa2025 Keynote presentation from Tiahni Adamson #BushHeritage speaking about #FirstNations governance and #RightWay science. First Nations leadership is not only the right thing to do but leads to more effective #ecological outcomes
A First Nations woman standing at the main stage at the Ecological Society of Australia Conference with a large screen in the background
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Great Southern Reef Foundation @greatsouthernreef.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Spot the juvenile golden kelp on reef once stripped bare. Following the dedicated harvest of over 25 tonnes of longspined sea urchins, juvenile golden kelp are starting to grow along shallow rocky reefs within Sydney Harbour. This rehabilitation work is part of #ProjectRestore
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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Have you ever wanted to post a summary of a paper you published, but didn’t know where to do it? Or perhaps you thought about writing a blog? 🧪 🔭 #PlanetSci
blog.planetary-research.org
Introducing: The Planetary Research Blog - The Planetary Research Blog
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Hugh Possingham @hugepossum.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Looking for a nice bird, flower, Rakali, reptile, frog walk at #ESA2025 this week - head to the St Peter’s billabong @ecolsocaus.bsky.social - darter, water skink, c30 bird species, and lots of native plants. Little grassbird and reed warbler nesting.
Map of billabong siteDarterEastern Water Skink, I think? I know nothing about reptilesThe restoration of the billabong
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PedsHemeDoc @pedshemedoc.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Vaccines DO NOT cause autism - there is extensive research showing this. Resurrecting old, discredited, fraudulent work is shameful. Vaccine-preventable illnesses are serious - this is going to cause real harms. This is dangerous & disappointing.
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Dr David Hamilton @drdevildave.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
A dangerous(ly adorable) predator approaches…
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Felipe Gaona @felipegaonar.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Open AI loses copyright case in Germany. Judge Elke Schwager summarized the case saying that if you want to build something and need components, "then you purchase them and do not use the property of others."
yahoo.com
Blow for OpenAI in Germany as court rules song lyrics used illegally
A German court ruled on Tuesday that OpenAI violated copyright on nine popular songs in a lawsuit that marked another attempt to prevent the free use of artists' content online. The Munich Regional Co...
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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Happy birthday to the only two women with elements named after them on the periodic table: #MarieCurie & #LiseMeitner. As I do every year, I will once again repeat my proposal that November 7 should be International #WomenInSTEM Day! #histSTM #chemistry #physics #OnThisDay #OTD #PeriodicTable👩‍🔬🗃️📜
The squares for Curium and Meitnerium from periodictable.com, featuring portraits of their respective namesakes, are presented above a caption "Only two women have chemical elements named after them.
Both were born on November 7th."

(I'm aware that there was some ambiguity surrounding Lise Meitner's birthday, but Ruth Lewin Sime's biography notes that Meitner celebrated the occasion on November 7.)
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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
What is space archaeology? 🏺 🧪 🔭 #PlanetSci
link.springer.com
Space Archaeology
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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Eight lessons from island archaeology to optimise success in refining (1) targets for space colonisation and (2) the composition and behaviour of the colonist group. 🧪 🏺 #PlanetSci #SpaceArchaeology
sciencedirect.com
How to Successfully Colonize Space: Lessons from Island Archaeology,
Humans will soon attempt to colonize astronomical bodies within, and perhaps eventually beyond, our solar system. This is intrinsically dangerous, and…
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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
One year ago, I started posting observations on BlueSky, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey. I've put all 196 observations from the last year into a little book called "What I noticed along the way". I hope you enjoy it. drive.google.com/file/d/1w0zL...
drive.google.com
What-I-Noticed-Along-The-Way-David-K-Butler-Oct-2025.pdf
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
"Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved." - Dr Jane Goodall Our tribute to Jane's incredible career and profound legacy 👇
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CSIRO Publishing @csiropublishing.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
In the lead up to #ThreatenedSpeciesDay, we're reflecting on the species that we have lost, and the future we need to protect. These poignant artworks depict some of the unique Australian animals that are now extinct, as well as one species we can still save. 1) Kangaroo Island Emu (Extinct)
Painting of a Kangaroo Island Emu standing by a coastline, with the crashing sea behind it. The bird is standing half in profile, and appears to be making eye contact with the viewer. Art by Terry Matassoni.
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Wonder of Science @wonderofscience.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
A ladybird beetle spreading its wings captured with a high-speed camera. In real-time wing deployment from the fully folded state takes less than 0.1 seconds. Credit: University of Tokyo / Saito et al.
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Robert Kaplinsky @robertkaplinsky.com · 22/08/2025
Here's a challenging Open Middle problem to help students develop conceptual understanding of quadratics in standard form: www.openmiddle.com/maximum-...
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NPR @npr.org · 22/08/2025
Seaglass can take decades or centuries to be formed by the motion of the waves. Morning Edition's Chad Campbell and his daughter have tips on how beachgoers can search for these small treasures.
n.pr
Looking for seaglass: A guide to finding your beach's hidden treasure
Seaglass can take decades or centuries to be formed by the motion of the waves. Morning Edition's Chad Campbell and his daughter have tips on how beachgoers can search for these small treasures.
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Caroline Dean @carolined2.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
bigthink.com/starts-with-... ‘even if NASA’s budget is entirely restored, the loss of personnel, expertise, and mission continuity …is going to set science back by years or even decades…’ AND
bigthink.com
NASA chief to defy agency's charter, terminating science
NASA's 1958 charter's top priority was, "the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space." Is this how it ends?
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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
A visualisation of major large-language models (LLMs), ranked by performance, using MMLU (Massive Multitasks Language Understanding) a benchmark for evaluating the capabilities of large language models.
informationisbeautiful.net
The Rise of Generative AI Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT — Information is Beautiful
ChatGPT, BingChat, LaMDA, LLaMa, PaLM - the rise and rise of AI-based Large Language Models & their free alternatives visualized in one chart.
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Science News @scinews.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Scientists’ role in defending democracy The ability to tell the truth, especially when it does not suit any particularly partisan aims, is an essential prerequisite for a free society. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 06/08/2025
🧪 Who’s writing your science paper? A new study analysed over 1 million research papers and found growing use of large language models, especially in computer science, where up to 22% show signs of LLM editing. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #SciComm
nature.com
Quantifying large language model usage in scientific papers - Nature Human Behaviour
Liang et al. estimate the prevalence of text modified by large language models in recent scientific papers and preprints, finding widespread use (up to 17.5% of papers in computer science).
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David Astle (alias DA) @dontattempt.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Boozy Book Clubs Reading Between The Wines “Here’s Cheers Dog-Ears!” Prose & Prosecco Tequila Mockingbird Get Lit Ink & Drink Bookaholics Sots Who Swot Shelf Esteem Issues The Masters of Margarita
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Sandy Horne @sandyhorne.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Terns and gulls feeding out in the Gulf St Vincent just on dawn. I know this doesn't look like a photo - but it is.
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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
On August 6, 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It's 80 years since this devastating and unnecessary event, and the threat of nuclear weapons is growing again.
apnews.com
Hiroshima marks 80 years since atomic bombing as aging survivors worry about growing nuke threat
Hiroshima is marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japanese city. Many aging survivors express frustration over growing global support for nuclear weapons as deterrenc...
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Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Women have never been to the Moon. But in one way, they were responsible for the iconic first footsteps. #InternationalMoonDay 🧪 🏺 #WomeninSTEM
zoharesque.blogspot.com
'A man's foot and a woman's hand': the cultural significance of the Apollo 11 bootprints
In this previous post , I considered how we might make a feminist map of the Moon. Why does a feminist map of the Moon matter? Well, soon th...
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The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 09/07/2025
The balance of different varieties of atoms inside a person’s teeth can reveal a week-by-week record of rainfall and protein consumption during their infancy.
theconversation.com
Teeth record the hidden history of your childhood climate and diet
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Dr Karl Kruszelnicki @doctorkarl.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
"For the first 25 years of his career, Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease physician, never saw a child with Hib meningitis. But this spring he was an author of a report on two cases of severe disease in unvaccinated New York infants." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I’m a Pediatrician. I’m Afraid of Diseases I Thought I’d Never See.
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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
These Peritrichia were a popular organism at yesterday’s zooplankton workshop! These stalked ciliates are especially cool because they contract quickly when disturbed. #plankton 🦑
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Union of Concerned Scientists @ucs.org · 02/07/2025
How much energy does it take to generate one ChatGPT request? What about water use and the broader climate impact of generative AI? UCS’s José Pablo Ortiz breaks it down, and explains why we need smart policy to guide this tech. Read the blog:
blog.ucs.org
What Are the Environmental Impacts of Artificial Intelligence? 
A single AI-focused data center can use as much electricity as a small city and as much water as a large neighborhood. 
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Morganiseit @morganiseit.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Resource guide: Countering Disinformation in Your Community, Union of Concerned Scientists www.ucs.org/sites/defaul...
ucs.org
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Insta Science @instascience.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
A flyby of Earth from the International Space Station. Credits: NASA
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Sandy Horne @sandyhorne.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Tonight's moon. Waning Gibbous 95.4%
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Erick Lee @theericklee.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Week 2 of #MathPhoto25 is here! This week look for symmetry, patterns and designs. Take photos and share using hashtags #MathPhoto25 and #symmetry. #ITeachMath
Take a math photo that shows symmetry! Where do you see symmetrical shapes, patterns and designs?
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 12/06/2025
Good Science xkcd.com/3101/
5-panel comic. (1) [teacher with long hair next to whiteboard] TEACHER: I’m supposed to give you the tools to do good science. (2) [teacher addressing students] But what *are* those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? (3) TEACHER: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important: [embedded list in sub-panel, cut off at end] Outcome variable: correct scientific results. Predictors: collaboration; skepticism of others’ claims; questioning your own beliefs; trying to falsify hypotheses; checking citations; statistical rigor; blinded analysis; financial disclosure; open data (4) TEACHER: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide. (5) STUDENT: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? LONG HAIR: ...And now you’re doing good science!
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David K Butler @davidkbutler.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
There is a huge difference between understanding the idea of a thing and being able to write a precise solution to an exam question involving the thing.
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Shayne Calliss @shaynecalliss.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
It's a beautiful day Some sort of public holiday here. Don Dunstan's birthday or something. Anyway enjoy your day wherever you are
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