iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 10h

Thank you! I hope you enjoy the book!

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 12h

...guide to the possibility of past life on Mars and how we might find evidence for it. The descriptions are vivid and compelling; the science is up to date and balanced. I really like this book!"

230

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 12h

I'm enormously chuffed that the mathematician Ian Stewart — who wrote some of the first grown-up books I ever read (e.g., "Does God Play Dice?", a beautiful intro to chaos theory) — has said kind things about my book, How to Find a Martian, which he calls, "An imaginative and informative...

140

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Glad the idea is catching on! Building on work by Cockell, Horneck, and others, Jack Matthews (presenting in the GSA session to which you refer) and I developed this argument in: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Exogeoconservation: Protecting geological heritage on celestial bodies

Geoconservation is an increasingly widely adopted theoretical, practical and administrative approach to the protection of geological and geomorphologi…

010

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Were animal tissues once non-biodegradable? Congratulations to @philvixseboxse.bsky.social and team for this fab paper (to which my contributions were surely the least of all the authors). See Phil's thread for full story.

130

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.

7070411928

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Fabulous new preprint from some of my favourite scientists

121

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Interesting postdoctoral fellowship opportunity in the origins of life at the University of Chicago. See details here: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32894

Job advert with the following text: The Chicago Center for the Origins of Life at the University of Chicago invites applications for the Origins of Life Research Fellowship program. We seek exceptional early-career scientists to join our interdisciplinary research environment focused on understanding how life developed on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere in the universe. Successful applicants will be appointed to renewable, one-year terms for up to four years. Fellows will receive a competitive salary and benefits, along with an independent fund to support their research and professional development.
The Chicago Center for the Origins of Life brings together scientists of all career stages across the University of Chicago – primarily from the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chemistry, the Geophysical Sciences, and Physics – to promote, encourage, and support fundamental research in these origins-related fields, train early-career scientists in cross-disciplinary scientific exploration, and foster a community of innovative thinkers that will push traditional disciplinary boundaries to answer questions regarding the history and future of life in the universe.
This Fellowship is designed to support early-career scientists who wish to carry out cutting-edge research in collaboration with our existing groups and programs. Ongoing research activities include studies in the broad areas of prebiotic chemistry, the development and evolution of the first protocells on Earth, and the formation and characterization of potentially habitable environments in our Solar System and beyond. While we support work in these general areas, we are particularly interested in scientists who are interested in expanding their expertise by working at the intersection of different research programs. Application information and submission can be found online at AcademicJobsOnline.org:
https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32894 or scanning the QR code

000

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 28/09/2026

pretty sure "lands" is the wrong word here for at least two reasons

441078139

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I give up. I’m moving into a cave.

743491677

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 28/09/2026

This is a photo of our home planet taken only a few hours ago! So what? We have photos of Earth taken from space every day. Ah, but *this* photo was taken by a spacecraft ON ITS WAY TO JUPITER.

From the source: "Mostly black space, most of Earth visible at the top right of the image. Part of a spacecraft visible on the left."

461849424

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I'm striking this week. A real pity to have to do this again.

010

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Oh my god it’s beautiful! Look at that lovely golden colour!

110

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

... and UK higher education, which is similarly imperilled.

020

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 23/09/2026

Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site not because it was remarkable in its prime, but because it survived to our era untouched: one moment, preserved for all time. But future generations won't know what OUR world was like unless we do the same. This is why we MUST bury Toronto with a volcano

Picture of the streets of Pompeii, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompei_-_panoramio_(26).jpg. Taken by Tanya Dedyukhina, used under CC

11768681651

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Thank you very much, Duncan! :-)

010

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Mars has some spectacularly insanely huge features - towering volcanoes, deep valleys, vast deserts - but kneel down in the cinnamon-hued dust and you'll also see it has exquisitely beautiful smaller features on its surface too... Sept 14th Curiosity images credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

03212

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Emma @emmasartworks.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Never mind the Bayeux Tapestry, look at the Seaton Snail Weaving! (I believe the script is known as Molluscule, but researchers have been unable to interpret the meaning 😉

Snail trails on a sandy beach in northeast England

0232

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Scientist here but I feel the same. We are supposed to write "learning outcomes" that say what our students "will be able to do" at the end of each course. But the outcome I care about most is just that they understand the topic better, and we're not supposed to write that!

1101

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Book launch tech rehearsal at Dynamic Earth complete! @spacedoot.bsky.social is officially amazing: his planetarium show is going to be awesome! Sound check with the 🎸Sound Rays was fantastic. There are only a few tickets left - come - it's going to be🤩 Fri 11th: dynamicearth.org.uk/event/how-to...

Catherine reading from a lecture on stage, amazing graphics of the Australian outback behind her

A base guitar sits under a galaxy-filled sky.

2419

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Here's another pic from our fieldwork in Svalbard this summer. Polar bear and Arctic fox tracks. Someone told me the foxes follow the bear tracks hoping for scraps from bears' meals but I don't know if that's true!

Trails of animal footprints approaching the camera in grey sand on a beach with driftwood. There is one big set of bear prints and several smaller sets of prints.

020

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

🚨Cover reveal🚨: My first non-academic book: How to Find a Martian: A Fossil Hunter's Guide to the Red Planet. Published Spring 2027 by @oneworldbooks.bsky.social (UK/Ireland/Commonwealth, this cover) and @uchicagopress.bsky.social (North America, other cover). 100% human-authored!

2167

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Marking can be a drag... but reading the dissertations by our astrobiology/planetary science MSc students in Edinburgh is also a joy and a privilege. There is talent, hard work and insight on every page. These young scientists give me hope for the future.

040

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I loved this book. So original and challenging in the best way... What if the dream of reason ends in madness? What if the proper response to the true nature of reality is not wonder but horror? Etc.

020

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Greene’s best in my view. A deeply wise and humane book

010

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I enjoyed the sheer weirdness of it!

110

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Natalia (娜塔莉) @wrycritic.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Metal (or sedimentary) rocks. Did you know, bats roosting in caves, led to generational accumulations of fossilised bat remains. There are entire rocks, composed almost entirely of fossilized dead bat bodies. 📍Late Quaternary Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico

"Accumulation of skulls and disarticulated skeletons of bats" from https://www.caves.org/wp-content/uploads/Publications/JCKS/v87/87_4_265.pdf

718646

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

"Scientists" believe life began in underwater hydrothermal vents 4 billion years ago. I believe it began at the Denny's off the interstate in Toledo Ohio in 1956. I don't make fun of their theory and yet they constantly ridicule mine. And that's what's wrong with our so-called elites

272612364

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Still thinking of a biology lecture I attended years ago where the scholar made it clear that “survival of the fittest” is fundamentally incorrect, and the correct phrasing is more like “survival of the fit enough”

4525

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

My colleague & pal Charles Cockell , renowned astrobiologist at Univ of Edinburgh, just spent a month teaching in Ukraine. Bravo Charles. And bravo to the students in Kyiv who keep showing up to class, as the drones buzz and the bombs fall. Slava Ukraini! edinburgh-global.ed.ac.uk/stories/teac...

edinburgh-global.ed.ac.uk

Teaching through wartime: Professor Charles Cockell reflects on a month in Kyiv | Edinburgh Global | Global

Professor Charles Cockell shares his experience teaching at Taras Shevchenko National University (KNU), and the vital role international partnerships play in sustaining teaching and learning, research...

0303

Reposted by Sean McMahon

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

When you don't listen for *years* to what loads of us who actually understand universities say, when you listen to a load of know-nothing frauds from think tanks and consultants and media loudmouths instead, this is the university disaster you make. Govts could have listened. They didn't.

42754223

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

“Life… finds a way”. Freshly broken rock reveals green microbes hiding inside, sheltering from the harshness of the Arctic desert. Svalbard.

Held in a gloved hand, a freshly broken fist-sized rock showing bright green strip 1 cm below what was the outer surface. Photographed outdoors; snow patches visible in background.

160

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Climate change is revealing new geology in Svalbard. This layer of fossil microbial colonies (stromatolites), tilted almost vertical, formed nearly 800 million years ago in a tropical sea. Until just a few years ago, nobody had seen this view: ice covered everything here.

081

Reposted by Sean McMahon

GHOULology Johnson @geologyjohnson.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

2 back to back tours today at #Whitby. What will we find? Here's a lovely Peronoceras #ammonite some one found last time. #Geology #Paleontology

Photo of a piece of grey mudstone with a dull golden brown coiled ammonite fossil with closely spaced ridges.

39912

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Fossil microbial colonies: some spectacular 800 million-year-old stromatolites photographed this week in Spitsbergen.

Orange rock with strange blobby bulbous protuberances on top surface, somewhat like mushrooms or lichens in shape but part of the rock. A scale-bar indicates that he blocks are 5–20 cm across. Rock is a boulder resting on mossy tundra.

Orange boulder on black tundra with blue fjord in the background and snow-capped mountains/glaciers on the horizon. The boulder shows pale vertical stripes crossed by finely etched curved parallel lines. A glove for scale shows that these stripes are a couple of fingers' width. They are fossilized columnar stromatolites.

020

Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Up in Svalbard for the next couple of weeks on fieldwork. Did not expect to find fossil plants on the glacier above Longyearbyen!

A photograph from the Longyearbreen glacier, Svalbard. Foreground: a boulder with dark fossil fern leaves resting on the glacier ice. Middle distance: some scientists and snowmobiles. Background: The glacial U-shaped valley leading down to the coast where the town of Longyearbyen hugs the shore. There are mountains beyond the water in the distance.

A photograph from the rocky debris around the Longyearbreen glacier, Svalbard. Foreground: a boulder with a fossil leave, clearly showing veins. Background: higher up, the glacier nestled in a valley.

Scientists traipsing between streams on the glacier, below an overcast sky.

290