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Jillian Buriak

@jillianburiak.bsky.social
1.4K followers 932 following 108 posts

Old school academic; @UAlberta; chemistry, nanoscience; executive editor @ACS Nano; running addict for a billion years. A.B. Harvard; Ph.D. Université Louis Pasteur/Université de Strasbourg; postdoc The Scripps Research Institute. FRSC (Canada, UK).

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Jillian Buriak
Dr Satoshi Akima, FRACP @toshiakima.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
The surgical mask shown in this article will do almost nothing to reduce particulate inhalation because it's just a splash guard. Wear a well-fitted respirator N95 or better
cnn.com
What you need to breathe easier when the air is full of smoke | CNN
Millions of Americans and Canadians are breathing bad air right now due to wildfire smoke. Here’s what you need to know masks, ventilation and staying healthy.
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Forget terraforming Mars. Just stop venusifying Earth.
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Reminder that Carney has cut funding for Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and Indigenous Services. And he has rolled back climate protections, abandoned emissions targets, and is building more pipelines.
Carney:

"The wildfire situation has escalated significantly over the last three weeks across the country, and particularly in Northwestern Ontario. 

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their communities, not knowing if their homes will survive.  
 
On behalf of Canadians, I want to thank the brave firefighters, first responders, Indigenous and local leaders who are working tirelessly to keep people safe.
 
Our government is in close contact with provincial, municipal, and Indigenous partners and stands ready to provide any additional support as needed."
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I was born and raised in Northern Ontario and I am absolutely boiling with rage at the ways in which people elsewhere are talking about the forest fires there as though this is a common occurrence. The air thick with smoke for kilometers, entire communities wiped out - this shit is not normal.
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
But just as soon as we make Alberta happy and make oil shareholders even richer and invest heavily in gas-powered data centres and greenwash with carbon capture, we'll be able to think about fighting climate change again. Maybe. www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/weat...
ctvnews.ca
Toronto air quality ranked worst in the world, orange alert in effect
An orange haze has washed over Toronto’s skyline as wildfire smoke drifts into the region, leaving Toronto with some of the worst air quality in the world this morning.
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Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦 @watershedlab.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
"In my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term..." As a Canadian environmental scientist focused on climate impacts, I have a very different opinion on what is sustainable over the long term, @mark-carney.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
cbc.ca
Carney says Trudeau-era climate plan was 'too expensive' and 'divisive' | CBC News
Prime Minister Mark Carney echoed critics of the previous Liberal government's climate plan in a video posted on Tuesday, saying the plan he inherited was too expensive and divisive.
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Max Fawcett @maxfawcett.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
This is SUCH a cool report. Data nerds will love playing with the sliders and toggles. The takeaway is clear, though: solar + batteries are coming for *everything*. www.electrotech-revolution.com/p/harnessing...
electrotech-revolution.com
Harnessing the Sun: The Solar + Battery Atlas
How batteries turn variable solar into firm power
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
“Paris has embarked on a grand transformation, planting 155k trees, adding hundreds of kms of bike lanes, pedestrianising 300 school streets and banning cars from the banks of the Seine. Parking has been turned into green space…Fewer parents fear their child being run over when they walk to school.”
theguardian.com
How Paris swapped cars for bikes – and transformed its streets
Under Anne Hidalgo – mayor for 12 years until last week – the French capital added bike lanes, cut traffic and reclaimed public space, but not without resistance
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Paul J. Dauenhauer @pauldauenhauer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
#HealthTip
Teams joke
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Outstanding opportunity for @avilewis.ca to push for a better system of science funding in Canada that would massively increase productivity. Give every qualified researcher a baseline operating grant. More as reward for productivity or through competition. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Cost of the NSERC Science Grant Peer Review System Exceeds the Cost of Giving Every Qualified Researcher a Baseline Grant
Using Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Canada (NSERC) statistics, we show that the $40,000 (Canadian) cost of preparation for a grant application and rejection by peer review in 200...
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Sean Mullen, Ph.D. @drseanmullen.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
1/ Please put aerosol scientists and engineers back in charge of public health. We built infectious disease policy around outdated droplet assumptions while ignoring aerosol physics, ventilation, and indoor air quality.
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Paul J. Dauenhauer @pauldauenhauer.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
How to read scientific literature
Apples
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🇨🇦Joe Vipond🇨🇦 @jvipondmd.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
On Canada and the clamour for more nuclear. www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/b49fedf...
theglobeandmail.com
Nuclear power means backing yesterday’s horse while sacrificing Canada’s future
Governments are committing to nuclear at a time when electricity systems are shifting toward renewables, storage and digitally managed grids
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Linsey Marr @linseymarr.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
It's widely accepted that hantavirus transmits from rodent excreta to humans via inhalation of aerosolized virus, so I don't understand why we're so reluctant to acknowledge the inhalation route for human-to-human transmission. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/h...
nytimes.com
Hantavirus Doesn’t Spread Easily, but Officials May Be Downplaying Risks
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Chemjobber @chemjobber.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
hey, if you're into Olympic weightlifing of any sort, this is actually some pretty cool science around the barbell
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🇨🇦Joe Vipond🇨🇦 @jvipondmd.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
I'm seeing multiple MDs, including those high up at the WHO, repeatedly say the public need not worry about hantavirus, you need close prolonged contact to get the illness, it's not airborne, and most worryingly, the WHO advising HCWs to use inadequate respiratory protection. Here's the problem. 1/
static.klipy.com
Kitten Headpats Duckling: Feel Better
ALT: Kitten Headpats Duckling: Feel Better
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Trolls: "No one knew what to do about a novel coronavirus in 2020." Reality: There was a provincial commission in Ontario following the botched response to SARS-CoV-1 in 2003. It had specific recommendations for dealing with such a virus. Those were ignored in 2020. www.cbc.ca/news/health/...
cbc.ca
How Canada failed to heed a key lesson from SARS when COVID-19 hit | CBC News
Experts say if the lessons learned from the 2003 SARS outbreak had been better applied early on, Canada could have fared much better in the coronavirus pandemic.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 05/05/2026
Maybe it’s a bad time to eliminate epidemiology in the United States.
statnews.com
The cruise ship hantavirus outbreak is a warning sign to the U.S.
Leaving the WHO means the U.S. lacks access to necessary information about infectious disease.
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The Vertlartnic @thev.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Experts Confident World Is Ready For Next Pandemic, As Long As The Pandemic Pathogen Responds Well To Handwashing
Some people
Headline:
Experts Confident World Is Ready For Next Pandemic, As Long As The Pandemic Pathogen Responds Well To Handwashing
Story by Neville Balderdash and Helena Handbasket

Photo from Unsplash
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Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Module 3 of the UK COVID Inquiry is out. Encouraging to see explicit recognition of the "widespread failure" of clinical leaders to understand aerosol science, and the "clear failure" of IPC leaders to understand that they might be wrong. #medsky #scisky covid19.public-inquiry.uk/reports/modu....
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Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
This hits hard because it talks about how institutional medicine breaks people. The surface story, but also the deeper problem of a culture that normalizes *never* accepting blame - which medicine's empire-building management class uses to excuse themselves for wasting an enormous number of lives.
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
For more than 2000 days, we have had the power to stop Covid transmission in healthcare facilities with adequate respirator masking, and we haven’t, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of disabilities. It can stop anytime we decide to stop making bullshit excuses.
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Sam Kaufman @uhwuhna.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
The Human Cost of Failing to Name COVID 'Airborne' via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...
thetyee.ca
The Human Cost of Failing to Name COVID ‘Airborne’ | The Tyee
Safety laws are being sidestepped. One doctor’s nightmare shows how health-care workers pay the price.
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Johan Nohr @nohr.se · 01/02/2026
Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly
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André Picard @picardonhealth @picardonhealth.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
COVID-19 Is Six Today. What We've Learned. To start, we need cleaner air, which requires a change in medical culture, by @crof.bsky.social thetyee.ca/Analysis/202... via @thetyee.ca
thetyee.ca
COVID-19 Is Six Today. What We’ve Learned | The Tyee
We need cleaner air, which requires changes in medical culture.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
New York Times story with profiles of researchers whose grants were terminated. [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | America First? Not When It Comes to Your Health.
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Chemjobber @chemjobber.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Lol
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Mary Fernando M.D. 🇨🇦 @maryfernando.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
I judge people on how they treat animals. And children. How people treat the less powerful, more vulnerable and those who can do nothing to help them get ahead, is the greatest testament to character.
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Patrick Canning 🇨🇦 @patrickcanning.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
"History is best told as a story of organised crime." - I've always felt this way, that in fact the ascension of societies or peoples was not really progress as much as those willing to betray, lie, or kill overtaking those who felt bound by other norms. Our society as a case in point.
theguardian.com
‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse
An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished
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Jared Wesley @jaredwesley.ca · 01/08/2025
Prime minister. Judge. Chief Electoral Officer. Mayor. Your child's doctor. And now city planner. There's no end to the jobs Danielle Smith wants to do. www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/art...
ctvnews.ca
Alberta’s bike lane discussion might be coming to Edmonton
As Alberta takes notes from Ontario’s battle over bike lanes, Edmonton and Calgary are poised to be the centre of a similar debate in the foreseeable future.
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Lauren McKenzie @themckenziest.gay · 15/07/2025
;)
Person in a party hat giving a presentation and it says The greatest research skill you can have is being a nosy bitch who wants to find out
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Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
One of the biggest problems with the world is that fools are always so sure and certain about everything and intelligent people are so full of doubts and uncertainties.
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Jillian Buriak @jillianburiak.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
It was a few decades ago that I arrived as a dumbass kid with an F-1 student visa - I am forever grateful for that opportunity.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 22/05/2025
everyone with undue power is playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students
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James Andrew Smith @drsmith.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
On CBC Radio we're hearing about the #CAUT travel advisory for Canadian academics. They are warning us not to travel to the US. #ElbowsUp www.caut.ca/latest/2025/...
caut.ca
CAUT advises academics against non-essential travel to the U.S.
Given the rapidly evolving political landscape in the United States and reports of individuals encou
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Chantzy @chantzy.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Excellent op-ed on why Dr. Henry is not the right person for the next Chief Public Health Officer of Canada role 👏🏼 Cc. @mark-carney.bsky.social @chiefscican.bsky.social canadahealthwatch.ca/2025/04/13/w...
Headline in Canada Healthwatch from today, April 13 - What makes a good public health leader?
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David Fisman. @dfisman.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
canadahealthwatch.ca/2025/04/13/w...
canadahealthwatch.ca
What makes a good public health leader?
Canada is searching for a new Chief Public Health Officer. Leadership matters, especially in a crisis.
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Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Screamingly huge red flag. If elected, Poilievre will interfere in Canadian science funding policies. With everything going on in the US right now, this is a comment that you only make very deliberately.
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Jillian Buriak @jillianburiak.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Interesting piece in today’s Scholarly Kitchen on peer review. AI here we come? Fricking hope not, but something has to give, namely the overworked “altruistic superheroes” (peer reviewers) who work for free for the publishers. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/04/09/p...
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org
Peer Review Has Lost Its Human Face. So, What’s Next? - The Scholarly Kitchen
I think human-dependent peer review has lost its human element, thus its relevance, so what we can do to install a new system by abandoning the present one?
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🇨🇦Joe Vipond🇨🇦 @jvipondmd.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
"Ban fossil fuel advertising. Remove lobbyists from negotiations. End subsidies. The science is clear, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s time to treat fossil fuels like Big Tobacco." www.nationalobserver.com/2024/12/01/o...
nationalobserver.com
We need to treat fossil fuels like Big Tobacco
To reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and stem disinformation that blocks effective climate action, a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of fossil fuel products and indust...
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Maxim Greenberg @maxvcg.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
This is a devastating and essential read. Here is a gift link for those without subs. The part about outside perceptions of scientists compared with almost a blue-collar reality is spot on (without even mentioning meager salaries). www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Uncertain Fate of the Young American Scientist (Gift Article)
Young researchers are choosing between staying in science and staying in the United States.
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Vichy.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
"The COVID-conscious people have not abandoned science, It’s the opposite: They’ve come to think that science has abandoned them." People who are taking precautions, some of whom are immunocompromised, should not be mocked or discriminated against www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
theatlantic.com
The Evermaskers
The isolation of people who take precautions against COVID has only gotten more intense.
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Wandering Scientist @wandsci.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Wired just published something but I haven't read it yet www.wired.com/2017/02/guid...
wired.com
How to Enter the US With Your Digital Privacy Intact
Crossing into the United States has become increasingly dangerous for digital privacy. Here are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of Customs and Border Protection accessing your data.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved
graph of NIH basisfor new drugs
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Senator Paula Simons 🇨🇦 @senatorpaulasimons.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Just in case anyone needed this context. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_...
en.wikipedia.org
Vidkun Quisling - Wikipedia
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Charlotte Moore-Lambert @charlottereads.com · 22/03/2025
timely books we are constantly out of: -Parable of the Sower -On Tyranny -Poverty, By America -James -Babel -The Serviceberry books I sell often/have sold recently: -I Who Have Never Known Men -The Hundred Years' War on Palestine -How to Be an Antiracist -Caste -Freedom is a Constant Struggle
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Max Fawcett @maxfawcett.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
Collaborating with the Trump administration to own the Libs.
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