Celeste Labedz
@celestelabedz.bsky.social
environmental seismologist - doctor of glacier vibes - geoscience educator - she/her - opinions only my own - puns only my worst - www.crlabedz.net
Pinned
Celeste Labedz
@celestelabedz.bsky.social
· Oct 18
With a million new users, is ScienceSky 🧪 doing reintroductions?
I'm Celeste Labedz, an assistant instructional professor at UChicago teaching across the geoscience spectrum. My research uses seismometers (the sensors that detect earthquakes) to understand what's going on underneath glaciers.
I'm Celeste Labedz, an assistant instructional professor at UChicago teaching across the geoscience spectrum. My research uses seismometers (the sensors that detect earthquakes) to understand what's going on underneath glaciers.
When ranking pies, I remember the wise words of my grandfather, who always said "I only like two kinds of pie: hot pie and cold pie."
November 26, 2025 at 3:31 AM
When ranking pies, I remember the wise words of my grandfather, who always said "I only like two kinds of pie: hot pie and cold pie."
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
Book piracy is so specifically weird to me. We have whole buildings where you walk in and get books for free. And if they don't have what you want, often they will find it for you. And libraries help authors. And libraries build communities.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Book piracy is so specifically weird to me. We have whole buildings where you walk in and get books for free. And if they don't have what you want, often they will find it for you. And libraries help authors. And libraries build communities.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
We already made books a common good, no piracy needed.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
The story told here--one where anecdata suggests agency and autonomy have run amok and nameless activists are to blame--certainly rhymes with the NYT's disastrous panic about trans kids. Then you realize it's literally being written by the same author.
Autism rates have increased in recent decades, but the reasons are more complicated than what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has presented. Hear more on today's episode of "The Daily." nyti.ms/480eqtm
The Autism Diagnosis Problem
Autism rates have increased in recent decades, but the reasons are more complicated than what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has presented.
nyti.ms
November 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
The story told here--one where anecdata suggests agency and autonomy have run amok and nameless activists are to blame--certainly rhymes with the NYT's disastrous panic about trans kids. Then you realize it's literally being written by the same author.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
Gender-affirming care saves lives
1. A landmark study was just published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
Study In The Journal Of Pediatrics Finds Trans Youth Care Lowers Suicidality, Few Detransition
The groundbreaking study found that suicidality dropped for transgender youth receiving hormone therapy by nearly 70%, with only 7 patients of 432 discontinuing treatment.
www.erininthemorning.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Gender-affirming care saves lives
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
“I wish someone at Google would remember scholar exists!”
…and the monkey paw curls.
…and the monkey paw curls.
November 25, 2025 at 3:08 PM
“I wish someone at Google would remember scholar exists!”
…and the monkey paw curls.
…and the monkey paw curls.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
If you want to feel old, we are now further from the formation of the Kenorland Supercontinent than the formation of the Kenorland Supercontinent is from the formation of the Solar System.
November 25, 2025 at 5:35 AM
If you want to feel old, we are now further from the formation of the Kenorland Supercontinent than the formation of the Kenorland Supercontinent is from the formation of the Solar System.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
You're told it'll sabotage your career if you're a vocally politically opinionated, queer, woman. But things sabotaging my career are systemic xenophobia, sexism, and horrible job market. Which are a direct consequences of people not being vocally opinionated in the first place.
November 25, 2025 at 2:27 AM
You're told it'll sabotage your career if you're a vocally politically opinionated, queer, woman. But things sabotaging my career are systemic xenophobia, sexism, and horrible job market. Which are a direct consequences of people not being vocally opinionated in the first place.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
"A 25-person startup" should not be allowed to "disrupt" fundamental inputs to the Earth's ecosystem, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Like, what are we even thinking here?
Like, what are we even thinking here?
This is a VERY long piece about solar geoengineering that starts, scientifically speaking, badly, but gets better, but still has a few issues.
The Strange and Totally Real Plan to Blot Out the Sun and Reverse Global Warming
A 25-person startup is developing technology to block the sun and turn down the planet’s thermostat. The stakes are huge — and the company and its critics say regulations need to catch up.
www.politico.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:58 PM
"A 25-person startup" should not be allowed to "disrupt" fundamental inputs to the Earth's ecosystem, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Like, what are we even thinking here?
Like, what are we even thinking here?
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
We had only recently passed 350 ppm when I started my PhD in Earth System Science, already a value understood to be dangerous and a threat to society.
And now, 33 years and 30 COPs later, we are at a value that is unprecedented for the past 3 million years and maybe even the past 8 million years.
And now, 33 years and 30 COPs later, we are at a value that is unprecedented for the past 3 million years and maybe even the past 8 million years.
425.82 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in air 20-Nov-2025
keelingcurve.ucsd.edu
keelingcurve.ucsd.edu
The Keeling Curve
The Keeling Curve is a daily record of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration maintained by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
keelingcurve.ucsd.edu
November 23, 2025 at 7:54 AM
We had only recently passed 350 ppm when I started my PhD in Earth System Science, already a value understood to be dangerous and a threat to society.
And now, 33 years and 30 COPs later, we are at a value that is unprecedented for the past 3 million years and maybe even the past 8 million years.
And now, 33 years and 30 COPs later, we are at a value that is unprecedented for the past 3 million years and maybe even the past 8 million years.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
Problem is: Neither our work culture nor our education culture incentivizes deep learning. Instead, we're incentivized to economize--to learn only what's needed to finish the task or get the answer right on the test.
So, people use ChatGPT, even when they know they could learn more by other means.
So, people use ChatGPT, even when they know they could learn more by other means.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Problem is: Neither our work culture nor our education culture incentivizes deep learning. Instead, we're incentivized to economize--to learn only what's needed to finish the task or get the answer right on the test.
So, people use ChatGPT, even when they know they could learn more by other means.
So, people use ChatGPT, even when they know they could learn more by other means.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
About that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in.
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
November 21, 2025 at 5:01 PM
About that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in.
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
November 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
People learn through practice and challenge; not by receiving answers.
But a deeper problem is that an essential aspect of teaching is helping someone organize their thinking in new ways. LLMs — systems which cannot think or appreciate thinking — are incapable of doing this in a meaningful way.
But a deeper problem is that an essential aspect of teaching is helping someone organize their thinking in new ways. LLMs — systems which cannot think or appreciate thinking — are incapable of doing this in a meaningful way.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 1:29 PM
People learn through practice and challenge; not by receiving answers.
But a deeper problem is that an essential aspect of teaching is helping someone organize their thinking in new ways. LLMs — systems which cannot think or appreciate thinking — are incapable of doing this in a meaningful way.
But a deeper problem is that an essential aspect of teaching is helping someone organize their thinking in new ways. LLMs — systems which cannot think or appreciate thinking — are incapable of doing this in a meaningful way.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
The loudest voices don't always win: In 2023, a scientific paper in the field of #glaciology was suddenly thrown into the climate wars. I interviewed one of the co-authors @juliaandreasen.bsky.social and appreciate any reposts! [Thread]
mikeyoungacademy.dk/ice-sheet-or...
mikeyoungacademy.dk/ice-sheet-or...
Ice sheet or ice shelf: What’s the difference?
How a glaciology paper got pulled into the climate wars — and what you can learn from research that went viral for all the wrong reasons
mikeyoungacademy.dk
November 21, 2025 at 1:46 PM
The loudest voices don't always win: In 2023, a scientific paper in the field of #glaciology was suddenly thrown into the climate wars. I interviewed one of the co-authors @juliaandreasen.bsky.social and appreciate any reposts! [Thread]
mikeyoungacademy.dk/ice-sheet-or...
mikeyoungacademy.dk/ice-sheet-or...
On the other site, people would tag me to fact-check earthquake pseudoscience. It was always easy (prediction cons only have like 3 strategies), but when a grifter had duped a large fanbase, it was unsurprising to get DMs threatening violence for "suppressing" them.
And this was before modern LLMs.
And this was before modern LLMs.
Finally, I know of at least one case where the letter writer, deep into an episode of AI-induced psychosis, asked the LLM why scientists were not responding. The machine suggested that perhaps the scientists were trying to steal his discovery.
This will get someone killed sooner or later.
This will get someone killed sooner or later.
November 21, 2025 at 11:55 AM
On the other site, people would tag me to fact-check earthquake pseudoscience. It was always easy (prediction cons only have like 3 strategies), but when a grifter had duped a large fanbase, it was unsurprising to get DMs threatening violence for "suppressing" them.
And this was before modern LLMs.
And this was before modern LLMs.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
we’re going to get a whole new flavor of earthquake prediction pseudoscience out of this, aren’t we
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 3:48 AM
we’re going to get a whole new flavor of earthquake prediction pseudoscience out of this, aren’t we
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
The party that promised "free speech on campus" has made sure there can be no free speech on campuses.
This week, I withdrew from a speaking engagement at a public university because they sent me a list of prohibited “words & concepts.” I will not humor this censorship. It does a disservice to the stories I’m discussing & the audience, who deserve unfettered access to information & conversation.
November 21, 2025 at 4:25 AM
The party that promised "free speech on campus" has made sure there can be no free speech on campuses.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 2:49 AM
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
‘This is censorship.’ Conference requires abstracts to comply with Trump anti-DEI order
NASA-funded planetary science institute previously scrubbed hundreds of records from its archive
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
The organisers of the world's biggest planetary science conference are outlawing any DEI-related submissions because their lawyers are afraid they'll lose federal support.
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
They're losing the support of the planetary science community fucking fast.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
Everyone should watch this.
@skepchick.org does an incredible job (a tough job) on breaking down a lot of the utterly gross behaviour from Krauss.
Really can't believe that people like Sabine Hossenfelder have stood up for him, and co-produce media with him - their last podcast was 12 days ago!
@skepchick.org does an incredible job (a tough job) on breaking down a lot of the utterly gross behaviour from Krauss.
Really can't believe that people like Sabine Hossenfelder have stood up for him, and co-produce media with him - their last podcast was 12 days ago!
Mainstream news covered the Jeffrey Epstein emails related to ppl like Trump. Today, I want to take a look at Epstein's correspondence with prominent atheist and physicist Lawrence Krauss, who asked the pedophile's advice on responding to accusations of sexual assault skepchick.org/2025/11/so-i...
So I’m in the Epstein Files
Transcript: Look. I know that on this channel, I often criticize prominent people for actions that I find detestable: accepting dark money and failing to disclose it, producing propaganda for Big O…
skepchick.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Everyone should watch this.
@skepchick.org does an incredible job (a tough job) on breaking down a lot of the utterly gross behaviour from Krauss.
Really can't believe that people like Sabine Hossenfelder have stood up for him, and co-produce media with him - their last podcast was 12 days ago!
@skepchick.org does an incredible job (a tough job) on breaking down a lot of the utterly gross behaviour from Krauss.
Really can't believe that people like Sabine Hossenfelder have stood up for him, and co-produce media with him - their last podcast was 12 days ago!
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
“And 61 percent of those lost to suicide were younger than 24, underscoring the urgent mental health needs of LGBTQ+ youth that have only increased under the Trump administration.”
“Seventeen of the 27 violent deaths tracked by Advocates for Trans Equality in the past year — from November 2024 to October 2025 — were caused by gun violence.” 19thnews.org/2025/11/tran...
On Trans Day of Remembrance, advocates call on politicians to halt anti-trans rhetoric
In the past year, Advocates for Trans Equality found 27 violent deaths of trans people in the United States, as well as 21 suicides.
19thnews.org
November 20, 2025 at 11:24 PM
“And 61 percent of those lost to suicide were younger than 24, underscoring the urgent mental health needs of LGBTQ+ youth that have only increased under the Trump administration.”
Reposted by Celeste Labedz
It’s good to explain that the CDC is lying and vaccines still unequivocally do not cause autism, even if it just reaches one person on here who has doubts. But the fight is out there, not in here; and the time to let go of the information deficit model of science communication was decades ago
November 20, 2025 at 5:40 AM
It’s good to explain that the CDC is lying and vaccines still unequivocally do not cause autism, even if it just reaches one person on here who has doubts. But the fight is out there, not in here; and the time to let go of the information deficit model of science communication was decades ago