Mónica Medina
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momedinamunoz.bsky.social
Mónica Medina
@momedinamunoz.bsky.social

Mom. Coral reef scientist and environmentalist. Host-microbe interactions. Anthropocene coral holobionts. Diversity in STEM advocate. Former fencer. Diver. Sailor wannabe. medinalab.org, redcientificacol.org 🇨🇴, diversifyoceansciences.org, spawnwatch.org .. more

Mónica Medina is a professor of organismal biology at the Pennsylvania State University. She is known for environmental activism, such as fighting to protect Varadero Reef, and her research on the ecology and evolution of symbiosis by studying the relationships between cnidarian, endosymbiotic dinoflagellates, and other microbes. .. more

Environmental science 47%
Biology 19%

I have been bringing music into the classroom to discuss topics related to climate change and biodiversity loss. I find some of the songs quite helpful to engage in a positive way to address eco-anxiety among students. However, some songs are indeed quite negative and difficulty to share.

Reposted by Mónica Medina

I’ve watched at least two dozen reels, showing the terrible snow conditions in Colorado and Europe right now.

Guess how many of those videos mentioned climate change? And how many mentioned chemtrails?

The same number. ONE. 😱
The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it
How do you talk to someone who doesn't believe in climate change? Not by rehashing the same data and facts we've been discussing for years, says climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. In this inspiring, ...
www.ted.com

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Over the past 50 years the lyrics of popular songs in the US have become simpler, more negative, and contain more stress-related words, according to an analysis in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that their findings reflect the complex ways people use music to navigate stress. 🧪
Societal crises disrupt long-term increases in stress, negativity, and simplicity in US Billboard song lyrics from 1973 to 2023 - Scientific Reports
This study examines diachronic trends in stress-related language, sentiment, and lyrical complexity in popular music’s lyrics from 1973 to 2023, exploring how major societal shocks influenced people’s music preferences and offering insights into collective mood management through music. Over 20,000 lyrics of songs in the US Top 100 charts during this period were analyzed using Natural Language Processing techniques, with stress-related language assessed using a dictionary-based approach (LIWC), sentiment estimated via a rule-based sentiment analysis tool (VADER), and complexity via the LZ77 compression algorithm. Our analysis reveals a significant increase in stress-related language, alongside declines in positive sentiment and lyrical complexity over five decades. Surprisingly, societal shocks like COVID-19 coincided with attenuations rather than amplifications of these trends, indicating a preference for emotion-incongruent music, which may serve as a form of emotion regulation, such as escapism. When controlling for long-term trends, we found no significant relationship between income growth and stress or sentiment in lyrics. In contrast, periods of high-stress language corresponded with increased lyrical complexity. These results support the notion that music plays a dual role in collective mood management, functioning as mood management and regulation, depending on the context and intensity of societal emotions.
go.nature.com
Scientists are supposed to be happy when their predictions are skillful, right?

Why do I not feel happy?

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Another remarkable spike in temperature is ongoing across the northernmost portions of the #Arctic, with a poleward surge of heat and moisture from the Atlantic. Also note the clear warm Arctic, cold continent temperature anomaly pattern.

More graphics at zacklabe.com/arctic-tempe...

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Apply to join our team at @nhm.org ! We are hiring a Program Manager of Community Science- full time temporary for 4 months (on grant funds) and part-time permanent after that. Application review begins January 5.

tinyurl.com/NHMCS2025
🧪🌎
What's NCAR? and 8 ways it has helped you

www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...
www.forbes.com

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Science’s 2025 Breakthrough of the Year: The unstoppable rise of renewable energy | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪
Science’s 2025 Breakthrough of the Year: The unstoppable rise of renewable energy
Clean energy infrastructure is being deployed with unmatched scale and speed—and China is leading the way
www.science.org
If you are in the US and you would like to send a message to your elected representative about the proposed dissolution of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, @agu.org makes it easy with a template here: agu.quorum.us/campaign/151... #AGU25
Save NCAR from being dismantled today!
The Trump Administration has vowed to dissolve the center that provides critical extreme weather and climate data for our nation.
agu.quorum.us
NCAR is quite literally our global mothership.

Everyone who works in climate and weather has passed through its doors and benefited from its incredible resources.

Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.

Unbelievable.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
www.usatoday.com
This could be your dream job: working full time at the Friday Harbor Labs on marine invertebrate organismal biology. Nine month salary from an endowment, teaching and research faculty position.

apply.interfolio.com/178804
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Call for submissions to our Winter 2026 Creative Review! Seeking creative responses across genres to the global crisis of coral reefs and oceans.

#CallForSubs #WritingCommunity #poetry #fiction #photography

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Caribbean reefs have lost 48% of hard coral since 1980, study finds
‘Destructive’ marine heatwaves driving loss of microalgae that feed coral, says Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Caribbean reefs have lost 48% of hard coral since 1980, study finds
‘Destructive’ marine heatwaves driving loss of microalgae that feed coral, says Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
www.theguardian.com

The deadline has been extended through Dec 8th!

🧪🌎

🧪🪸

Reposted by Mónica Medina

1/5 📢 The 16th International Coral Reef Symposium - Abstract Deadline Extended!
Due to strong interest and multiple requests, we’re extending abstract submissions by one additional week.

Congratulations!! Well deserved!!

Avelino Álvarez Órdoñez shares pangenome date showing we are eating foods with lots of antimicrobial resistance genes #Pangenome25 🧪🦠🧬

Howard Ochman provides a historical overview of bacterial pangenome molecular evolution research: De novo genes are super rare! #Pangenome25

#Pangenome25 kicks off! Pilar Francino introduces the topics we will discuss in Valencia, Spain 🧪🧬🦠
Very proud to be Colombian right now! 🇨🇴 I hope all neighboring countries follow suit soon! news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
Colombia bans all new oil and mining projects in its Amazon
Colombia will no longer approve new oil or large-scale mining projects in its Amazon biome, which covers 42% of the nation’s territory, according to a Nov. 13 statement by its environment ministry. Ac...
news.mongabay.com
Climate change postdoctoral fellowship (JRF, 3Y) opportunity at Oxford! 🌍 Brilliant opportunity for anybody with <2 years postdoc experience by October 2026. Would be great to get coral people - there's a strong cluster of coral reef/climate change people here. 🪸
www.queens.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/ju...

Reposted by Mónica Medina

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Open Rank Faculty Position in Marine Ecology and Conservation (Florida International University)

Job Opening ID 536370 at hr.fiu.edu/careers/) and attach (1) cover letter, (2) curriculum vitae, and (3) statements of teaching, and research.

#coralreefs #marineecology #jobs #FIU

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Coral reefs protect coasts, nurture biodiversity, and help feed millions.

But they’re vanishing fast.

Every fraction of a degree counts in the fight to #SaveOurOcean.

🧪🪸

Reposted by Mónica Medina

🚨Last week to submit your #ICRS2026 abstract!
Consider submitting to session 124:

🪸Reefs through time⌛
Leveraging today's interdisciplinary tools to better understand the past of reef organisms and ecosystems.

🧪🌎🌊🪸

Reposted by Mónica Medina

Opsin genes drive speciation in corals. New paper by Matias Gómez and Carlos Prada shows divergence in G-Protein coupled Receptors such as Opsins drive the formation of new species across depths. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Speciation across depth gradients in reef corals
Nature Communications - Here, the authors explore mechanisms associated with common depth distributions in sister lineages of corals. They document sequence divergence for proteins related to...
www.nature.com

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