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Mark Hopwood

@markinchina.bsky.social
558 followers 539 following 311 posts

Scientist living in Shenzhen, China. Associate Professor in Marine Biogeochemistry at SUSTech, Associate Editor at JGR:Oceans. Father to a baby dragon. www.hopwood-marine-science.com He/him 🌊 🐻‍❄️ 🐧

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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
American Museum of Natural History @amnh.org · 07/10/2026
Ever feel like a fish out of water? Meet the giant mudskipper (Periophthalmodon schlosseri). Found on the muddy shores of mangroves in parts of Southeast Asia, it uses its pectoral fins to “skip” or “walk” across mudflats. Photo: wcyongwc, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist
A photo of a mudskipper hauled out of water and onto a branch. The fish is brownish in color and has unusual facial features.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Over the holidays my teaching activities are confined to the sandpit and the lego box 😆 Today we mastered the art of wetting dry sand to make better castles 🏖️
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
USF College of Marine Science @cmarinescience.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In this episode, Assistant Prof.@margaretbrisbin.bsky.social Margaret Mars Brisbin explores the hidden world of marine microbes. From storm-driven flooding to the long-term effects of changing ocean conditions, learn how these communities support marine ecosystems. shows.acast.com/the-rising-t...
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The Keeling Curve @keelingcurve.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
425.14 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in air 02-Oct-2026 keelingcurve.ucsd.edu
keelingcurve.ucsd.edu
The Keeling Curve
The Keeling Curve is a daily record of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration maintained by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
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Scott Doney @scottdoney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
🌊 SWMS www.swmsmarinescience.com
swmsmarinescience.com
Society for Women in Marine Science | Join and Empower Today
Join the Society for Women in Marine Science to support gender equity, celebrate research, and connect with professionals in marine science.
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A chinstrap penguin makes its way through the snow in Antarctica. [📹 Alex Stead] Original post
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Sea bunnies are actually a species of sea slug called Jorunna parva. They became an internet sensation because they look exactly like tiny, fluffy white rabbits. Original post
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In 2013 Margaret Owen was awarded a medal (OBE) by the Queen for her outstanding work as a lawyer. She was arrested this week, for terrorism. She's 94. Is she a terrorist? Obviously not. But such is the UK's absurd handling of leading advocates for #FreePalestine 🕊️
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Enjoying the fireworks over Hong Kong to celebrate China's 77th birthday 🎆
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
Carlos Moffat @carlosmoffat.com · 29/09/2026
🌊 Here's a great opportunity to participate in the Southern Ocean Observing System initiative. If your work is relevant to the West Antarctica Peninsula-Scotia Arc region, please apply!
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
Natalia (娜塔莉) @wrycritic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you really care about retaining women and other non-traditional groups. Don't be a bystander.
nature.com
Toxic workplaces are the main reason women leave academic jobs
Women feel driven out by problems with workplace culture more often than by lack of work–life balance.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We've forced 3000 children through amputations without anesthesia, and we must now deny them wheelchairs-because they're terrorists. (They're not terrorists of course, but if we just said we were ethnically cleansing them, you'd understand what monsters we've become) #Israel #Gaza #FreePalestine
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The Skeleton Panda Sea Squirt (Clavelina Ossipandae) is a translucent reef-dwelling creature whose rib-like structures and panda-like markings give it a spooky, animated look. Found in Southeast Asia, it harmlessly filters seawater and helps keep coral ecosystems healthy. Original post
Image 1
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
After careful consideration, we have decided not to charge you to come and see all the valuable cultural relics and artefacts that we permanently "borrowed" from your ancestors after turning up with guns and saying we really, really liked them. You're welcome 🙃 www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
lemonde.fr
UK decides against charging foreigners for museums
The government announced in March it would explore the idea of charging foreign visitors to boost funding. But after months of consultation, the culture ministry decided against the move, saying it co...
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Since the 1970s, rivers have been dismissed as negligible sources for ocean Fe budgets. Yet the reality is in the Arctic & parts of the Atlantic, they are the dominant Fe source! Time to rewrite the textbooks? Comments on our preprint are very welcome 🌊 egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
Cephalopods Daily @cephalopodsdaily.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I guess diamonds are forever... Diamondback squids (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) are one of the few cephalopod species that are monogamous and not polyandrous. They pair up as juveniles and stay together until death. They also lay their eggs in what look like giant pink slinkies. #SQUIDtember
A close up of a small diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus), with the focus on its face. A person is holding it by the mantle for the photo. Its arms are raised up, and you can can see the webbing on its arms, especially on two of them. Its tentacles are visible with the suckers on the club. The tentacles have no webbing. It has black beady eyes, so it does actually look cute. The squid has a stunning golden orange/red colour.An egg mass of a diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) floating in the sea just below the surface of the water. The egg mass is magenta and is a coiled thread of squid eggs, forming a tube that looks not unlike a slinky. It is making an S bend.A diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) swimming just below the surface of the ocean. Its skin is reddish pink and its mantle and fins make a kite shape.An egg mass of a diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) floating in the water. It is a large tube made out of thousands of tiny pink eggs that are in a coiled thread, forming a tube that looks not unlike a slinky. The photo as taken from one of the ends, and the coil goes into the background and to the right. It is just below the surface of the water, and you can see the reflection above it.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Peak student numbers are expected in the early 2030s followed by rapid decline. What does this mean? For Chinese students, it's probably good news- top universities will be competing more and more to attract top students. For Chinese universities, there may be a period of consolidation in the 2030s.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Under COVID and Trump, the number of Chinese students heading abroad has declined, with more seeking opportunities at home. But in the longer term, population decline matters. Last year 10 million students graduated from Chinese Universities, but only 8 million babies were born....
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
China's university sector is in for a rollercoaster of a decade. The number of universities and enrolling undergraduates has climbed rapidly since the 1990s. Peak student numbers are expected in the early 2030s, after which student numbers will quickly decline... www.economist.com/china/2026/0...
economist.com
Why ever fewer young Chinese study abroad
Those who do are more likely to return home afterwards
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I jumped this morning when the telephone on my office desk rang. For the first time in 5 years, I received a landline call. It was the directory coordinator checking that the phone numbers are correctly listed 😅. I cannot help but feel this may be an obsolete job 🤔
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) @soosocean.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
🌊 State of the Southern Ocean in 2025 SandyThomalla and other SOOS members contributed to this year's @ametsoc State of the Climate: buff.ly/yp2oEDD 🌡️ Widespread warming 🔥 Record-high upper-ocean heat content 🌊 Enhanced ocean heat uptake 🌱 Elevated summer chlorophyll 🫧 Surface O2 anomalies
buff.ly
State of the Climate 2025: Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
Special Online Supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Vol. 107, No. 8, August, 2026
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
#Misalignment is a new term used by #AI companies to describe where AI did something it was not trained to do or was otherwise unintended. Yet it's not a new concept, sci-fi fans are familiar with "misalignment" as key to the plots of many dramas. The concept is found in Asimov's work in the 1940s.
The terminator film franchiseThe Battlestar Galactica seriesI, Robot, based on work by Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov’s 'Three Laws of Robotics' derived from his 1942 work of fiction
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A meme featuring the "Agatha Harkness Winking" scene from the show WandaVision, showing Kathryn Hahn's character wearing a dark sweater over a light collared shirt while making an exaggerated, sarcastic winking face with her mouth wide open. Overlaying the bottom of the image is white capital text reading, "NO, AS A CLIMATE SCIENTIST, MY PROJECT DOESN'T INVOLVE ANY WORK THAT COULD BE INTERPRETED AS CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH," satirically implying the exact opposite of what is stated.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
我们祝大家中秋节快乐! Wishing everyone a happy mid-autumn festival 🥮
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
She gets it...
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My elective biogeochemistry course is so popular it causes problems with low student numbers on other courses in the same program/semester. My department has solved this problem by scheduling it at the same time as a mandatory course in the same subject. Who needs enemies when you have colleagues? 😅
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
Karin Kvale @kkvale.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Very glad to see this decision not to bend the rules for this secretive company exploiting partnership with government researchers for false credibility
rnz.co.nz
Start-up Gigablue denied law change to push ahead with controversial marine carbon storage
An international start-up wanting to carry out controversial carbon storage research in New Zealand waters has had its request for regulation changes turned down.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Early in all postgraduate classes I get students to comment on each other's writing/presentations: "How much of this content do you understand?" When told to present to a BSc educated audience, students often overestimate comprehension (on average students understand 50-75% of each other's work).
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
If the UN Secretary-General can’t motivate world leaders to action on climate, who can? 🤷🏻‍♂️
theguardian.com
Outgoing UN chief says polluters have treated atmosphere like an ‘open sewer’
António Guterres laments world leaders’ inaction and says oil and gas firms ‘must pay’ for climate devastation
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AGU (American Geophysical Union) @agu.org · 16/09/2026
AGU's volunteer peer reviewers help advance the Earth and space sciences and maintain the integrity and accountability of the scientific record. 🚀 If you are interested in joining AGU's pool of reviewers, please fill out our interest form: bit.ly/4yx8H8L #PRW2026 #AGUPubs #PeerReviewWeek
Graphic that reads: Sign up to join AGU's pool of peer reviewers.
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
JGR: Oceans @jgroceans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Impactful datasets are one of the foundations upon which quality @agu.org science is built. Today @aguadvances.bsky.social releases the "Impactful Datasets" collection, highlighting datasets through the dimensions of People, Planet, and Prosperity. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Impactful Datasets in Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences: Highlighting the Data That Transform Research
American Geophysical Union announces the new living collection “Impactful Datasets in Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences” Nominators submit datasets impactful to their work along with perso...
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.” Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability and quality of life. Common sense. Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.
washingtonpost.com
Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.
Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.
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Reposted by Mark Hopwood
Doc Sportello ❌👑 @digyoursoul.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Iceland is moving to end commercial whaling permanently. That would leave just Japan & Norway as the 2 nations which legally allow whaling uk.whales.org/2026/09/11/i...
uk.whales.org
Icelandic government to introduce bill to end whaling - Whale and Dolphin Conservation
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Let's not take sides. Let's listen carefully to those committing genocide about how they feel. Let's listen carefully to the 21,000 children they murdered. Then let's all hold hands and make sure nobody feels uncomfortable. #FreePalestine #Gaza #Genocide palestine.un.org/en/317244-is...
palestine.un.org
Israeli violence is subjecting Palestinian children to catastrophic levels of harm: killed, maimed, displaced, and living in perpetual insecurity
Sam is one of 241 children killed by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023, as verified by the UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCH...
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
There's a lot publicity surrounding negative CO2 emissions, or CO2 removal technology. It's extremely important that we do not forget the basics. As long as humanity is putting gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually from fossil fuels, cutting those emissions is the number 1 priority -by far 🌊
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
4 science journalists wanted to discuss the ocean in a changing climate. 4/4 linked the idea of removing CO2 from the atmosphere to "solving climate change". 0/4 understood that this is meaningless without cutting fossil fuels. The concept of #NegativeCO2 is being dangerously miscommunicated 🌊
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This week I appeared not once, not twice, but three times on TV 😅 Yesterday our 2024 polar work was broadcast on "Cutting edge science". In a 20 minute documentary we answer questions about the fate of pollutants like Pb and Hg in the ocean 🌊
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Just got mistaken for a new PhD student on campus. I'm 37 😅. Either I've discovered the fountain of youth, or someone needs a new glasses prescription. 😅 #ForeverYoung
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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Crabs!!! In a slight change of pace from the shark content, we also saw a tiny crab hiding in a fuzzy, bacteria-covered extinct vent and spider crabs walking through a giant field of chemosynthetic clams at Axial Caldera International District Vent Field. 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; J2-1788; V26
Tiny crab inside a basalt formation covered in fuzzy bacteriaOrange crab next to worms and clams covering a white crack in black rockwhite clamshells and an orange crab
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
One of the greatest stickers in my Wechat collection 🌊
Make Ocean Great Again!
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
3 years ago we started taking our new students to kayak and sail; combining outreach, sports and inshore science observations. Last year 30 students signed up. This year >300 students signed up in 24 hours (10% of all SUSTech's new undergraduates) 😅 Making ocean science great again! 🌊
Kayak lessons at Xichong Sports CentreKayak4Science, a program funded by the School of Ocean Science and Engineering to get undergraduates out and aboutBriefing the new team at the sports centre on this year's activitiesNew students join us on paddleboards at Donchong mangrove, helping survey an inshore region which is too shallow for boats and too muddy to sample on foot
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
'Crazy Thursday' in China is a popular discount by KFC, so every Thursday many students can be seen tucking into deep fried chicken. This Thursday was also Teachers' Day, so the largest takeout order I've seen was delivered for our staff and students to celebrate together 🍗 😅
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Whenever I have to deal with micromanagers who insist on reports for everything, I reply to every irrelevant question with NSTR ("nothing significant to report"). Reports get finished quickly. I'm happy. They're not happy. I don't care.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
One of my friends when I was a student was often in tears. Their boss insisted on a detailed report every week on their progress. If the report was late, they were shouted at. I would be suprised if these weekly reports achieved anything other than wasting 10% of the group's time.
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Ruth Mottram @ruthmottram.eurosky.social · 09/09/2026
Publication day! Our finalised paper on melange processes at Greenland glacier fronts is out now! I wrote about what we did, what we found and what it means for Greenland ice sheet retreat..
sternaparadisaea.net
A jumble of broken ice, and what it means for Greenland’s calving glaciers.
Ice mélange — sometimes known as sikussaq in Greenlandic — is that chaotic jumble of icebergs, bergy bits and sea water that sits in front of marine-terminating glaciers. It’s been described …
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Indeed. The 3rd most used currency in the world. But you may find also it commonly referred to as 'yuan' in English.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
There are Easter Eggs scattered throughout the course materials I teach. Some years nobody finds them 😅! Other years some students quickly figure out there are prizes for reading carefully. (And others sit there in class wondering what on Earth is going on...) #AcademicChatter
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A long-overdue statement from the UK Foreign Secretary finally recognizing that ethnic cleansing is happening in Palestine www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Paul Adams: British-Israeli relations at lowest ebb in decades
Israel's response to London's trade ban with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank shows how important this moment is.
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A nice piece in @jgroceans.bsky.social looking at the effects of meltwater on carbonate chemistry in Svalbard. Glaciers not only dilute TA but can also induce strong vertical mixing which alters DIC:TA 🐻‍❄️ 🌊 agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Radiocarbon and Stable Carbon Isotopes Constrain Rapid Mixing and Deep Meltwater Influence on Dissolved Inorganic Carbon in an Arctic Fjord
Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) correlates with salinity in Kongsfjorden, reflecting the influence of freshwater inputs Δ14C and δ13C measurements of DIC show weak vertical gradients in Kongsfjo...
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Mark Hopwood @markinchina.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Imagine running a school where children are regularly shot at by religious extremists trying to intimidate families to leave their land and homes. Three students from this school were murdered this year by Israeli settlers. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Palestinian parents fear for children's lives at school as settler attacks grow
A headteacher in the occupied West Bank has installed new barbed wire fencing after three pupils were killed this year.
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