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Rachael Taylor

@rachaeltaylor.bsky.social
201 followers 620 following 30 posts

Huge fan of Mineral Cup. Also interested in science, art, climate change, environment, disability rights, social justice, and more. Work in research funding for climate change and health.

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Reposted by Rachael Taylor
Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Did you play Mineral Cup this year? We’d love to hear from you in our annual Players Survey! www.mineralcup.org/2026/players... #MinCup26
mineralcup.org
Annual Mineral Cup Players Survey — Mineral Cup & Ore Cup
As always, we’d love to get your feedback on what worked, what didn’t, and ideas on what to do differently. We’d also like a better idea of who our players are (and how that’s changed) and where to…
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Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
What’s really miffing me about the #MinCup26 bot nets is that what seems like a close match suddenly flips to a blowout over its cleaned up. Same for the inverse: What seems like a runaway winner suddenly shrinking to a close match but we never got the excitement and hype of frantic campaigning.
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Fernando Salvaterra @salvaterra.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Mineral Cup 2026: the complete set of 32 minerals in the sketchbook. #sciart #minerals #mincup26 #sketchbook
A collage of 16 photos os my minerals sketchbook, each photo a double-page spread with two different minerals inked, the ones who participated in the 2026 Mineral Cup.
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This entire thread, plus so many more reasons, are why you should vote #calcite, today and always. www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...
mineralcup.org
Vote in Round 1 Match 11 — Mineral Cup & Ore Cup
Vote in Calcite vs Julienite Credit: Harold Moritz and David Hospital
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
After a full audit triggered by the extreme disparity between campaigning vs apparent votes, #Quartz won by a margin of 2 votes over #Asagiite. Please don’t ballot-stuff. #MinCup26 is about about joy, curiosity, & shared enthusiasm. Forcing a win is unfair to the minerals.
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Vote quartz! Many indigenous cultures have used quartz variously for vision quests, to store ancestor's memories, and to communicate with spirit guides. Alchemists in mediaeval Europe thought quartz bridges physical and spiritual worlds. #Quartz #MinCup26
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Vote quartz! In Japan it was believed clear quartz was the breath of a white #dragon! Elsewhere in Asia it was believed to be pure dragon's essence. Pliny the Elder thought clear quartz was ice that had been frozen so long it became permanently frozen. #Quartz #MinCup26
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
#OreCup is our first mini-Cup and our first collaboration. Give us feedback?
mineralcup.org
Ore Cup Players Survey — Mineral Cup & Ore Cup
This is our first Ore Cup, our first week-long mini-cup, and our first collaboration with the International Mineralogical Association. We’d love to get your feedback on what worked, what didn’t, and…
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Twiddling your thumbs after already voting in #MinCup25? Why don’t you take our annual Players Survey and help us improve for next year! www.mineralcup.org/2025/players...
mineralcup.org
Annual Mineral Cup Players Survey — Mineral Cup
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Hark! What’s that we see on the horizon? Is it something new? Something mostly metallic, quite heavy, and essential to society? It’s an all-new collaboration with IMA! Ore Cup: www.mineralcup.org/about-ore-cup Voting starts Monday November 3. Winner crowned IMA Ore Mineral of the Year
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
#MinCup25 Please vote only once per match. Don't ruin the fun for everyone else. If you're cheating the amazing admin team spot the suspicious voting pattern and delete your votes so they don't count anyway. Have fun, vote once, and campaign for more votes.
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
FAQ: What if I hand my phone to my kid? What if I forgot that I voted late at night & voted again in the morning? What if I share my internet connection with a whole dorm? 😭 A: It’s ok! We love those real-life connections & deliberately don’t lock down so they happen. Spam-cheating is distinctive.
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Fernando Salvaterra @salvaterra.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
First round losers in the #MinCup25 (is this rude?) #sciart #minerals
a poster with illustrations of 16 minerals eliminated in the first round of the 2025 mineral cup: chrysotile, okenite, jeremejevite, calcite, silver, leucite, sanidine, pollucite, azurite, wavellite, thortveitite, zunyite, topaz, ikaite, nontronite, and paddlewheelite. They have a large range of colours and shapes going from blue and green to yellow and red.
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Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
#MinCup25 #Ikaite 1. is the melting mineral that disappears above the icy seas 2. is the ghosts of drown Viking invaders 3. whispers in the geologic record as oddly-shaped calcite & opal 4. hides on cheese rind & frozen shrimp 5. is a powerhouse of a carbon sink
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Charlotte Weatherill @ckweatherill.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
New article! I'll do a thread / blog soon, but it's out, and it's Open Access! 'Colonial fantasies of invulnerability to climate change' doi.org/10.1080/1461...
screenshot of first page, abstract reads: Despite an ever-growing critical literature, vulnerability retains its place as a dominant concept in climate politics. What is less heavily researched is the concept of “invulnerability,” an idea that feminist and decolonial theory has many tools to critique. After unpacking the material and discursive elements of vulnerability politics, this article focuses on invulnerability as a concept that is an influential yet unexplored set of masculine and colonial fantasies. These fantasies – of modernity, mastery, and continentalism – are critiqued through different critical traditions, which are brought into conversation with climate politics literature. I then discuss the counternarratives of Oceanic thought, following Teresia Teaiwa’s prompt to “island the world.” I argue that this can be done through a focus on care, relationality, and a decolonial politics of resistance. I conclude that resisting the politics of vulnerability requires an engagement with critical feminist and decolonial thought to enable an imaginative piercing of the fantasies of invulnerability.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I'm really excited about this one. We've opened a new @britishacademy.bsky.social call offering up to £150k for researchers to work with peers around the world to strengthen evidence informed policymaking in different contexts. Deadline 19th Feb. www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/evid...
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
Evidence-informed policymaking grants
This programme gives ODA-eligible early-career to senior researchers the opportunity to work with peers around the world to inform policymaking through quality evidence and research.
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Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 18/11/2024
Happy #LgbtqStemDay! I'm very excited to be launching these enamel pins, featuring the progress pride flag on my study organism of choice: Trees! 🏳️‍🌈🌳 www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1...
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 03/10/2024
Now this is worth waiting for. Here in all its glory is Mineral Cup 2024 champion! ⚒️🧪🖖🏼geology
mineralcup.org
Champion Rhodochrosite — Mineral Cup
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 29/09/2024
"Stationarity" is the belief that past climate is an accurate predictor of future conditions. Sounds silly, right? But we've baked this false sense of stability into all our human systems. From building codes to water systems to infrastructure, it's all designed for a planet that no longer exists.
media.tenor.com
a man is standing on the side of the road holding a shovel and a sign that says this would be us .
ALT: a man is standing on the side of the road holding a shovel and a sign that says this would be us .
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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 27/09/2024
Calcite gets the science vote. The U of Arizona used calcite in foraminifera shells in ocean sediment and climate models to find that future extreme El Niño events could become more prevalent as the planet warms. #MinCup24
Ernst Haeckel Kunstformen der Natur 1904 Thalamphora Foraminifera Illustrated Plate 2. From Wikimedia
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 23/09/2024
People, what is wrong with you? Why choose a mineral that comes in only one color when you can have a mineral that can come in all colors? #TeamCalcite ⚒️
Calcite in thin section, source: https://www.reddit.com/r/geology/comments/fh269j/calcite_under_the_microscope/
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J. Raasch @jraasch.bsky.social · 15/09/2024
A #MinCup24 vote for Calcite is a vote for Trilobite Eyes! Voting for calcite. Go vote for calcite. Thanks. beatymuseum.ubc.ca/2017/10/26/t...
beatymuseum.ubc.ca
Trilobite Eyes Have Lenses Made Of Calcite
Let's focus on one of the most fascinating things that evolved in trilobites that helped them survive over the course of all those millennia: their eyes.
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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 13/09/2024
🍎 Teachers, if you are looking for an activity for your students, you may want to take a peek at the Mineral Cup feed. We are posting a bracket style competition that pits two minerals against each other daily during September. There are opportunities to learn (cont.)👇🏼
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Rose Canardly @ahaikulife.bsky.social · 09/09/2024
Lizzo's Boys but it's #MinCup24 I like big rocks Itty bitty rocks Mississippi rocks Undercity rocks I like hard rocks And the soft guys You can scratch them With your nail, try!
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
If you're still reeling from the defeat of #Copper, now is your chance to keep copper in the running in #MinCup24. Vote for #Atacamite, a copper chloride hydroxide which in some locations can be a minor ore for copper. Vote #Atacamite! www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1...
mineralcup.org
Round 1 Match 7 — Mineral Cup
Stibnite vs Atacamite
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
#Atacamite -used as a green pigment since antiquity on ancient Egyptian paintings, illuminated manuscripts, sculptures, oil paintings or here in ancient Buddhist Kizil Caves in China (3rd-8th century) pulls ahead of #Stibnite -used as kohl as cosmetics since ancient Egypt for my #MinCup24 art vote.
As an example of kohl: My linocut of Peseshet, ancient Egyptian woman physician dispensing medicine with hieroglyphs in dark red and blue spelling out her name and profession. Peseshet has dark black kohl around her eyes. Kohl was also viewed as medicinal so apt for this physician.anterior wall of the main chamber of Kizil Cave 38, Xinjiang, China with blue‒green pigment from atacamite (or now lavendulan which was likely generated by the transformation of atacamite under the influence of arsenates. Though damaged, several Buddhist figures seated in lotus positions are visible with white, black, pale blue, dark blue are gold paints used on back wall and barrel ceiling.

Image via:
 

Shen, L., Yang, J., Wang, J. et al. Atacamite discolouration under the influence of arsenates in wall paintings in the Kizil Grottoes, Xinjiang, China. Herit Sci 12, 292 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-024-01406-y
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FrankenGardner @glacierpique.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
#Atacamite crystallizes around seafloor vents, in arid environments, and even sublimates around subaerial volcanic vents. It is also a biomineral 🤩, a natural composite that forms bloodworm jaws. 🧪⚒️ #MinCup24
Dark green tabular crystals of Atacamite contrast with rounds of white clay. Image from mindat.org.
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
#Stibnite is well known to have been used in cosmetics by the Ancient Egyptians, but so was #Atacamite. Stibnite has had its chance in past MinCups. It's time to give the green beauty your vote. Vote Atacamite! www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1... #MinCup24
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
Recognise this? Yes, that's #Atacamite! Atacamite can form as a corrosion product of copper alloys so is found coating many bronze statues including the Statue of Liberty. Vote Atacamite today! www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1... #MinCup24 @MineralCup Image: commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St...
A photo of the head of the Statue of Liberty
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Dr. Kelley Hess @khesser.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
I usually vote late in the day so I can see everyone’s interesting #MinCup24 facts and pretty mineral photos, but as an astronomer I think I’m obliged to vote for the one named after the Atacama dessert: home to ALMA, one of the most important telescopes in the world. #Atacamite
Big white telescopes in a high desert landscape. Dark blue sky with whispy clouds.A pile of rocks (this is MinCup after all) marks the center of the telescope array. Large white dishes scattered over the high desert receded into the horizon. Tall hills on the horizon jut above the already high desert plain.
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
Atacamite has been used as a green-blue pigment in cultural artefacts for millennia and across continents. #Atacamite wins the art vote for today! Vote Atacamite today! www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1... #MinCup24 @MineralCup
mineralcup.org
Round 1 Match 7 — Mineral Cup
Stibnite vs Atacamite
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 07/09/2024
What connects the driest place on Earth, the volcano that smothered Pompeii, and our memorials to the great and good? That's right! It's #Atacamite! Vote Atacamite today! www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1... #MinCup24 @mineralcup.bsky.social
mineralcup.org
Round 1 Match 7 — Mineral Cup
Stibnite vs Atacamite
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 06/09/2024
How have I not seen this before? Mineral illustrations by James Sowerby, lovingly scanned & arranged by @rougeux.bsky.social www.c82.net/work/?id=384 It might be of interest to @mineralcup.bsky.social #mincup24
Published between 1802 and 1817, British Mineralogy and Exotic Mineralogy comprise 718 illustrations by James Sowerby in an effort to illustrate the topographical mineralogy of Great Britain and minerals not then known to it. Sowerby’s plates are some of the finest examples of hand-drawn mineral illustrations ever created. The detail and care with which these illustrations were created is incredible and worthy of close examination.

Most of Sowerby’s 718 illustrations contained multiple drawings, totaling 2,242 individual images which were arranged by color into a large interactive collage and poster celebrating Sowerby’s work.
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Rachael Taylor @rachaeltaylor.bsky.social · 04/09/2024
Is it just me that thinks radiating #Wavellite crystals look like slices of kiwi fruit? #MinCup24 Image sources: commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wave… commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kiwi  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wave 
A sample of Wavellite with a cluster of circular radiating crystals with a dark green centre radiating out to a bright green.A slice of kiwi fruit with a pale centre, a ring of black seeds, surrounded by radiating green flesh.A sample of Wavellite with circular radiating crystals with a dark green centre, radiating out in rings of different shades of paler green.
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Ed Yong is offline @edyong209.bsky.social · 27/09/2023
An excellent excerpt from @ashleyshoo.bsky.social’s book AGAINST TECHNOABLEISM, which I highly recommend. www.wired.com/story/ashley...
wired.com
Why Aren’t Disabled Astronauts Exploring Space?
Journeying into the future will require embracing disability—and recognizing its power in our changing world.
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