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astrobrian.bsky.social
Brian D. Wade
@astrobrian.bsky.social
1.2K followers 910 following 520 posts
Father, husband, and scientist. Interested in astrobiology, evolution, microbes, and all things space exploration. he/him/his
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astrobrian.bsky.social
How did #birds evolve? The answer is wilder than anyone thought.
#evolution

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How did birds evolve? The answer is wilder than anyone thought
Discoveries in Jurassic rocks reveal that birds were adept fliers earlier than scientists realized.
www.nature.com
January 19, 2026 at 2:33 AM
astrobrian.bsky.social
This sucks...
#NASA

nasawatch.com/space-scienc...
No More Support For NASA SMD Planetary Science Division Analysis and Assessment Groups
No More Support For NASA SMD Planetary Science Division Analysis and Assessment Groups
nasawatch.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:51 AM
astrobrian.bsky.social
It's ironic that the US dime is inscribed with, "liberty over tyranny."

www.coinnews.net/2026/01/16/s...
U.S. Mint Starts Shipping 1776 ~ 2026 Coins for Circulation
Mint begins shipping 2026 semiquincentennial coins for circulation, including the Emerging Liberty dime, Enduring Liberty half dollar, and Mayflower quarter.
www.coinnews.net
January 18, 2026 at 7:16 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
Quote of the day by Chronicles of Narnia writer CS Lewis: 'You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream'

m.economictimes.com/magazines/pa...
Quote of the day by Chronicles of Narnia writer CS Lewis: 'You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream'
CS Lewis, the celebrated author of The Chronicles of Narnia, left an indelible mark on fantasy and Christian thought. His academic brilliance at Oxford and Cambridge, coupled with his prolific writing...
m.economictimes.com
January 18, 2026 at 5:27 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
Quote of the day by Leo Tolstoy: 'Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself'

m.economictimes.com/magazines/pa...
Quote of the day by Leo Tolstoy: 'Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself'
Leo Tolstoy, a giant of literature, penned timeless novels like War and Peace and Anna Karenina. His work delved into morality and self-change. Born in Yasnaya Polyana, his early life saw personal lo...
m.economictimes.com
January 17, 2026 at 6:43 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
Quote of the day by Abraham Lincoln: 'It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years'

m.economictimes.com/magazines/pa...
Quote of the day by Abraham Lincoln: 'It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years'
Abraham Lincoln's famous quote highlights living life with purpose. It suggests true success comes from meaningful experiences, not just longevity. Lincoln, the 16th US President, rose from poverty th...
m.economictimes.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:43 AM
astrobrian.bsky.social
America’s $38 trillion national debt is so big the nearly $1 trillion interest payment will be larger than Medicare soon

fortune.com/2026/01/15/n...
America’s $38 trillion national debt is so big just the interest will soon cost more than Medicare | Fortune
Interest payments on America's debt have ballooned to nearly $1 trillion a year—and will only go up from here.
fortune.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
esa.int
🚀 #Artemis II launch opportunities in early 2026

Find out more on #NASA's blog:
🔗 nasa.gov/missions/art...

@exploration.esa.int
To determine potential launch dates, engineers identified key constraints required to accomplish the mission and keep the crew inside Orion safe. The resulting launch periods are the days or weeks where the spacecraft and rocket can meet mission objectives. These launch periods account for the complex orbital mechanics involved in launching on a precise trajectory toward the Moon while the Earth is rotating on its axis and the Moon is orbiting Earth each month in its lunar cycle. This results in a pattern of approximately one week of launch opportunities, followed by three weeks without launch opportunities.
January 11, 2026 at 12:33 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
The #NIH has lost its scientific integrity. So we left.
#scienceSky

www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n...
The NIH has lost its scientific integrity. So we left
“We can no longer lend our credibility to an organization that has lost its integrity,” write four scientists and administrators who recently resigned from the NIH.
www.statnews.com
January 10, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
hbhammel.bsky.social
Kenneth Chang @kchang.bsky.social @ NYT reviews the new telescope 🔭 system being pursued under the patronage of the Schmidt Sciences team, with some closing thoughts by me . . . www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/s...
Google’s Former C.E.O. Wants to Build a Cosmic Search Engine
www.nytimes.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
theonion.com
NASA Discovers Distant Planet With Conditions That Could Sustain Rocks https://theonion.com/nasa-discovers-distant-planet-with-conditions-that-could-sustain-rocks/
NASA Discovers Distant Planet With Conditions That Could Sustain Rocks
January 6, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
theramseylab.bsky.social
In his forthcoming 📃 in @jrnlofphil.bsky.social, Grant Ramsey shows that a long-standing thesis held by philosophers of biology & evolutionary biologists—that fitness depends on population size, n—is based on conceptual & mathematical errors 👇 philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27701/ #philsky #HPBio #evosky
Promotional black-and-white image announcing the publication of an article in The Journal of Philosophy. The text displays the journal title, the article title "Much Ado About ‘N'othing," and the author’s name, Grant Ramsey, in a clean, minimalist layout.
January 5, 2026 at 4:05 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
#evoSky #mevoSky
iamsamayp.bsky.social Samay Pande @iamsamayp.bsky.social · 10d
1/n New paper alert!
Bottlenecks are common in life cycles, but how do they shape the evolution of multiple cooperative traits at once? We tested this in M. xanthus under stringent vs relaxed bottlenecks.
plosbiology.org PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 10d
Population bottlenecks shape the evolution of #cooperative traits in #Myxococcus via #LifeCycle trade-offs. @iamsamayp.bsky.social &co show that stringent bottlenecks favor growth & sporulation, while relaxed bottlenecks favor predation & germination @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3N1nia7
January 9, 2026 at 4:51 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
Former Google CEO plans to singlehandedly fund a Hubble telescope replacement
#astronomy

arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...
Former Google CEO plans to singlehandedly fund a Hubble telescope replacement
“This is a very significant contribution to the astronomical community."
arstechnica.com
January 9, 2026 at 12:39 AM
astrobrian.bsky.social
The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
#academicSky

theconversation.com/the-5-stages...
The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.
theconversation.com
January 7, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
theplanetaryguy.bsky.social
This is one amazing photo.

Jets of water vapour and ice crystals blasting out through four deep fractures in the icy shell of Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus.

This is the only alien ocean we know of that we can directly access.

(1/2)
The curved, icy surface of Enceladus, with several jets extending into space.
January 4, 2026 at 10:02 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
Recycling Li-Ion Battery Cathode Materials in Iron-Fueled, Low-Sulfate Cultures of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans
#microbiology #microSky

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Recycling Li-Ion Battery Cathode Materials in Iron-Fueled, Low-Sulfate Cultures of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans
The continuous demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in consumer products and electric vehicles (EVs) has raised concerns about their environmental impact when not disposed of properly. Among the co...
pubs.acs.org
January 4, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
esa.int
📷 This NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a vibrant star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of our Milky Way’s satellite galaxies🧪🔭

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/04/Hubble_spots_stellar_sculptors_at_work_in_a_nearby_galaxy

@science.esa.int @stsci.edu
A star cluster within a nebula. The background is filled with thin, pale blue clouds. Parts are thicker and pinker in colour. The cluster is made up of bright blue stars that illuminate the nebula around them. Large arcs of dense dust curve around, before and behind the clustered stars, pressed together by the stars’ radiation. Behind the clouds of the nebula can be seen large numbers of orange stars.
January 4, 2026 at 11:29 AM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
esa.int
🔵 In 2025, the NASA/ESA/CSA #Webb Space Telescope found a new moon orbiting Uranus! Called S/2025 U1, it joined the 28 other known moons around the ice giant. Webb’s infrared view also revealed the planet’s rings and atmospheric details in stunning clarity 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... @stsci.edu
An annotated Webb image of the planet Uranus on a black background with 13 of its 28 known moons. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the bottom half. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Beyond the rings are 14 labeled moons appearing as points of light. The newly discovered planet, S/2025 U1, is labeled in yellow.
January 3, 2026 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
esa.int
#HappyNewYear! Start 2026 on a radiant note with this breathtaking video of the Sun: our Solar Orbiter spacecraft captured a stunning plasma flare dancing above the solar surface 🔥🧪🔭

🔗 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
January 1, 2026 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
msobol.bsky.social
🚀 Planning to attend #AbSciCon2026 and study the role of metals in life evolution and life elsewhere? Then consider submitting an abstract to our session #20- Transition Metals in Habitability and Biological Evolution. Details below and at this link: agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...
December 31, 2025 at 10:01 PM
astrobrian.bsky.social
Photosynthetic acclimation is a key contributor to exponential growth of a desert plant in Death Valley summer
@msupri.bsky.social
@msudoeplantlab.bsky.social
#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #plants #photosynthesis

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Photosynthetic acclimation is a key contributor to exponential growth of a desert plant in Death Valley summer
Extreme heat threatens crops, yet some plants thrive. Prado et al. show how Tidestromia oblongifolia acclimates to extreme heat: photosynthetic optima rise, growth accelerates, cells become smaller, a...
www.cell.com
December 29, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
esa.int
📷 This NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image shows the N159 star-forming complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way 🧪🔭

🔗 esahubble.org/images/potw2...
A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. In the centre, a thick column of dark black dust blocks light from stars that light it up from behind. More clouds behind those stars are illuminated in pale colours. Complex, layered filaments of red dust lie to the left and right. Blue, white and gold stars in various sizes can be seen around, within and through the colourful layers of dust.
December 29, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
setiinstitute.bsky.social
Top #PPOD of 2025 - Number 5: The Jagged Shores of Pluto’s Highlands

This enhanced color view from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zooms in on the southeastern portion of Pluto's great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula. 🧪 🔭
Surface of Pluto as seen from the New Horizons spacecraft, focused on a portion of icy plain in the upper left diagonal half and a rough, jagged set of reddish-brown jumbled features in the lower right diagonal half.
December 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Brian D. Wade
jcamthrash.bsky.social
The geometry of cooperation: decoding microbial interactions www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #jcampubs
December 29, 2025 at 4:47 PM