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Zach Simmons

@zjsimmons.bsky.social
784 followers 2.3K following 932 posts

Physics, teaching, politics, craft

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Reposted by Zach Simmons
David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
World Octopus Day: new discoveries about the world’s smartest invertebrates
news.mongabay.com
World Octopus Day: new discoveries about the world’s smartest invertebrates
Happy World Octopus Day!  Every Oct 8, the world celebrates one of the more unusual creatures of the sea. Octopuses are well-known for their eight legs and ability to squirt ink when frightened.…
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Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 24/08/2026
Underappreciated: US farmland *already substantially produces energy, not food*, and does so very inefficiently. Corn ethanol (~40% of all US corn) requires about 100 times more land per vehicle-mile driven than solar photovoltaics -> electric vehicles. Shifting corn to solar *would free up land*.
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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Today is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:
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eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week." -Willa Cather (from The Professor's House, 1925)
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We Geek Girls @wegeekgirls.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
‘Aliens’ was released on this day 40 years ago! (July 18, 1986) Directed & written by James Cameron. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Mark Rolston, Al Matthews, Ricco Ross, Daniel Kash & Colette Hiller. #OnThisDay
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
It's pretty clear we have a breakdown in what students consider cheating if most all of them are doing it. Goes without saying, "take-home" exams are untenable. TBH I am more worried about projects like research papers. How do we get students invested in complex tasks that can't be done in class?
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Chonk
A parsley worm hanging out on a lovage plant.
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Reposted by Zach Simmons
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Spain’s electricity bills have decreased due to its commitment to renewable energy, reducing the influence of fossil fuels on electricity prices.
euronews.com
Why Spain’s electricity bills have fallen during an energy crisis
Homes and business are benefitting from Spain's commitment to clean energy.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
It probably doesn't help fossil fuel's image that those companies also happen to rake in enormous profits and benefit from that uncertainty
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
There is a through line from "If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases" Trump, Allentown, June 2020 to the ongoing steps by a know-nothing administration to dismantle instruments of measurement, because data poses a threat to its grievance-driven political priorities.
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Alex Elizabeth Byrne McMillan @undeniablyalex.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
YOU’RE LISTENING TO SISYPHUS FM, THE HOME OF NON-STOP ROCK
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Tom Phillips @tom-phillips.com · 03/04/2026
It's honestly kind of mind-blowing that this is the first time in over fifty years that anybody has been able to take a picture like this. Images of the earth are completely familiar to us, but a human hasn't pointed a camera at the whole planet for half a century.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Soul of a New Machine is a gripping read, can't recommend it enough. Mountains Beyond Mountains will grab you as well and it's a totally different type of story, biography of Paul Farmer. I need to read more of Kidder's work.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
So interesting-
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tomate 🍅 @jascha.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026
When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Sporophytes from moss can survive in the vacuum of space. The sporophytes were affixed to the exterior of the ISS for over nine months; 80% survived, and 89% of the surviving population was able to germinate back in the lab. buff.ly/xe85lJ2 #ShareGoodNewsToo
buff.ly
Moss in space: spores survive nine-month ride on outside of ISS
Scientists say plant’s resilience suggests it could help with oxygen generation or soil formation on space missions
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Birna Anna Björnsdóttir @birnaanna.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Icelandic uses various animal poop in insults. Examples: Sparðatíningur (lamb poop picking) = you’re nitpicking. Kríuskítur (arctic tern poop) = you’re super pale. Tittlingaskítur (small bird poop) = doesn’t matter/small fry. Taðskegglingur (horse poop beard) = you’ve such a bad/nonexistent beard.
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 20/01/2026
we're getting all the downsides of cyberpunk (social alienation, ruthless hyper capitalism, digital mass surveillance state) but none of the promised upsides (cheap street food, cool jackets, super drugs that make you really fast and strong before they kill you)
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
It’s increasingly clear that social media is a net social evil which shreds attention spans, and this is why the only appropriate remedy available in this space is spending time observing Morris company wallpaper patterns
Compton’ was previously thought to have been William Morris’s last design for a wallpaper (and adapted as a pattern for fabric). This was confirmed by May Morris in her ‘Collected Works of William Morris’. However, following Linda Parry’s research it is thought to have in fact been designed by Morris & Co.’s Chief Designer Henry Dearle.  Morris and Co. redesigned the residence of Laurence W. Hodson, Compton Hall near Wolverhampton in 1895-6, although Morris had a hand in some of the designs (this is confirmed in surviving letters), there is no evidence that he was sole designer for any of the house designs. Rather, he and Dearle worked together, sending designs back and forth and correcting each other’s work. The evidence to suggest this is in fact Dearle’s design, is further strengthened by its similarity to his other work, particularly ‘Leicester’ wallpaper.
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
it's Christmas Eve but it's also the 16 year anniversary of the time an art historian for the Hungarian National Gallery spotted a long lost painting while watching Stuart Little with his 3-year-old daughter, recognizing it in the movie set
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 15/12/2025
Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.
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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
This Worm Was Chilling in a Lab for Years. Turns Out It’s a Record-Breaker gizmodo.com/this-worm-wa...
gizmodo.com
This Worm Was Chilling in a Lab for Years. Turns Out It's a Record-Breaker
His name is B, and he lives in Virginia.
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SKELLYTON @pizzalawyer420.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Idk if this is the quintessential Onion headline but I've thought of this at least once a week for almost a decade
Man knows he must ride unexpected urge to clean as far as it will take him
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Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Another example of what we call "hunter- gatherers" being much more: rather landscape and #biodiversity managers phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org
Ancient wolves on remote Baltic Sea island reveal link to prehistoric humans
Scientists have found wolf remains, thousands of years old, on a small, isolated island in the Baltic Sea—a place where the animals could only have been brought by humans.
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Whitney Merrill @wbm312.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
It's my favorite day! It's the 38th anniversary of the Max Headroom signal broadcast intrusion! 1st incident lasted 25s during the 9PM news on WGN-TV in Chicago; The 2nd, 2hrs later, lasted ~90s on PBS affiliate WTTW during Dr. Who. You can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqge...
youtube.com
Max Headroom 1987 Broadcast Signal Intrusion Incident
YouTube video by andrew867
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Hannah Bowman @hannahnpbowman.com · 21/11/2025
This is an amazing fact
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 19/11/2025
Autocorrect has become our worst enema.
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
I'm so jealous of this writer. A beautiful paragraph here.
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Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Six species of North American bats glow under UV light, adding to growing list of fluorescent mammals www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...
ctvnews.ca
Six species of North American bats glow under UV light, adding to growing list of fluorescent mammals
Glowing bats may sound like Halloween decor, but researchers in Georgia have discovered certain species of North American bats that are capable of the unusual trick.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
School buses would make so much sense for V2G.. hope the technology continues to be developed.
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Jonathan C Slaght @jonathanslaght.com · 03/10/2025
super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉
popsci.com
Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts
Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Can confirm.. wonderful thread. We would all benefit from sniffing more trees I think.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Are there any outlets that are smart and worth reading on the right? I used to find the perspective of somebody like Noah Rothman worth listening to, but his recent appearance on the Commentary podcast, man just total intellectual bankruptcy.
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Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
"i asked grok" "i asked chatgpt" yeah well i asked carl sagan and he said the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge 🧪
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Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
I didn't do it, but I wish I had.
Picture of bird. Text is

Plain Chachalaca. Ortalis vetula. To 2 ft. (60 cm)

Comment above reads "Les flamboyant relative of the Boom Chachalaca"
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
I gotta say I find a lot of AI discourse around higher ed very confusing. "if ChatGPT can write your essays is college even worth it?" did people think math teachers were assigning problem sets because *they* couldn't figure out the answers?
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Nature is amazing
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Nigella Lawson @nigella.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Stanislav Petrov, the man who saved the world, died on this day in 2017. If you don’t know the story, just read this www.theguardian.com/world/2017/s...
theguardian.com
Soviet officer who averted cold war nuclear disaster dies aged 77
‘Gut instinct’ told Lt Col Stanislav Petrov that apparent launch of US missiles was actually early warning system malfunction
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Chris Hadfield @cmdr-hadfield.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Imagine starting a car that hadn't run in 21 years, that's 15 billion miles away in interstellar space. That's what the NASA team just did with Voyager's thrusters. People are amazing. jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-v...
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Weird rabbit holes where you learn some real like this are the epitome of good social media IMO.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
"Wisconsin man" is way cooler than "Florida man"
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The lie in tamer @iamreddave.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Bat, Literally Translated into English. Map by me
Map of bat in European languages
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🎮 Dr. Gremlin 😈 (they/she/any) @colorless.green · 21/04/2025
so they're mycoblogging
Headline that says mushrooms may talk to one another with up to 50 words
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Good to amplify these examples of good Internet amid all the trash.
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
The best antidote to scrolling the Internet imo
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Wish we could replace the terminology "vaccine skeptic" with the more precise "credulous dingleberry" in the discourse
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
These are amazing, such a unique intersection of different realms
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Zach Simmons @zjsimmons.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
This is a fun thread, social media can be good:)
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