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17 August 2022
AGU updates position statement on resilience to expand beyond natural hazards
In June, the AGU Board and Council approved updates to the position statement: “Building resilience requires partnerships between scientists, policymakers and communities,” which previously only addressed resilience to natural hazards. Resilience is the ability of systems — including people — to anticipate, respond, recover and adapt to disruptions, which can include acute events, such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires or earthquakes, and long-term events, such as pandemics, social unrest, food shortages …
12 August 2022
#AntarcticLog: Diving on the Mid-Cayman Rise
Leg 2 of the Alvin Science Verification Expedition finds us once again exploring new territory. After all, that’s the point of certifying Alvin to dive 6500 meters — to give us access to much more of the sea floor. Today we’re diving on the Mid-Cayman Rise, a spreading center in the Earth’s crust at the deepest point in the Caribbean.
5 August 2022
#AntarcticLog: Greetings from the Puerto Rico Trench
Greetings from the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean! So far I’m reporting from the surface, but every day human-operated vehicle (HOV) Alvin carries scientists deeper. I mean, if you knew you had access to 99% of the seafloor — where before you had access to 2/3 — wouldn’t you head for the deepest spots?
29 July 2022
#AntarcticLog: Down with Alvin
Down with Alvin! That’s where the scientists aboard R/V Atlantis are headed. As Alvin Science Verification Expedition chief scientist Adam Soule says, “our human brain is good at seeing what’s different in an environment — anything from organic shapes to unusual colors.”
28 July 2022
AGU applauds passage of bipartisan U.S. innovation bill
AGU, the world’s largest Earth and space science association, applauds the bipartisan effort by Congress to pass the CHIPS and Science Act, which represents one of the largest investments in U.S. science and technology in decades. The legislation, which was modified from a larger package of bills, now includes the semiconductor-focused CHIPS Act, along with a package of measures that will authorize science agencies, such as the National Science Foundation …
22 July 2022
#AntarticLog: To sea we go!
And now for something completely different. #AntarcticLog heads to the deep sea, where carbon sinks, where the sea is black, and where the tiny submersible Alvin — able to carry three people — will soon be shining its light on unseen territory.
30 June 2022
AGU opposes U.S. Supreme Court decision to erode emission regulations
As leaders of the world’s largest Earth and space science association, we are gravely concerned by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to negate the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to enforce the Clean Air Act. Today’s decision directly undermines the efforts of scientists in our community as well as the science-supported policy that protects the health of our families, our neighbors, and ourselves. The decision has immediate implications for everyone and …
AGU announces proposed slate for the 2022 Board and Council Elections
The AGU Leadership Development/Governance Committee and Section and College of Fellows officers are pleased to announce the proposed slate of candidates for the 2022 AGU election. Every two years, per its bylaws, AGU elects leaders for the Board and Council, Sections and the College of Fellows who will move the organization forward and will be instrumental in continuing to implement AGU’s Strategic Plan with its three main goals: Catalyze discovery and …
28 June 2022
AGU Advances Continues to Make an Impact
We launched AGU Advances in 2019 to lead scientific publishing into the future. The gold open access journal has carved out a place for groundbreaking research that has broad and immediate implications for the scientific community and to our global society.
17 June 2022
#AntarcticLog: Advocating on behalf of coral
Presenting…Cindi Punihaole, the Program Director of ReefTeach, a coral reef advocate — making a public policy difference as well as a personal impact — at Kahalu’u Bay, Mission Blue newest Hope Spot. Cindi — who has lived and relied on the Bay all her life, has observed the changes taking place there over recent decades, as the sea level has risen, sea temperature and acidity have soared, and the number of tourists visiting the Big Island of Hawaii has skyrocketed.
3 June 2022
#AntarcticLog: Headed for Hawaii
Serendipity? My tickets to the big island of Hawaii were already bought when I read that the international nonprofit organization Mission Blue had designated its 141st Hope Spot — Hawaii’s second — right where I was headed. For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be learning about — and posting about — the changes taking place on Kahalu’u Bay.
23 May 2022
#AntarcticLog: Communicating climate science
I’ve been listening to teachers, and reading their words. They’re overtired, overworked, underpaid, and, when it comes to science teachers, extra worried: they’re concerned about the hard line that has been drawn by many people against science.
13 May 2022
#AntarcticLog: It’s tough getting to Antarctica
I think we’ve established that it’s not easy to get to Antarctica. Ever since the Drake Passage opened ten million years ago, letting the Southern Ocean circle the Antarctic continent, it has rendered human arrival there perilous and arduous.
15 April 2022
#AntarcticLog: Getting Graphic
At times the trouble isn’t finding science stories, it’s finding how to tell them. In comics, the words are vital, but the images are, dare I say, even more important. Why? Because they’re what catches your attention, clues you in, inviting you to read, and — in the best cases — they work to convey aspects of the science that just wouldn’t work as well in words. And, as experts in science education and communication know, the more modes you use to tell the story, the more eyes you’re going to get on your work.
4 April 2022
AGU’s Commitment to Solution Science Underscored by IPCC Report
The report released today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasizes that society must address the growing climate crisis. As also argued in AGU’s position on climate change, collective action is needed now to use energy more efficiently; transition to energy sources, products and services that do not release greenhouse gases; implement existing and novel technologies and practices to remove and store CO2 from the atmosphere; and adapt to …
1 April 2022
#AntarcticLog: A Lite-Brite of SciArt
I got my start at Scholastic News, a classroom magazine for 11 and 12-year-olds that covered everything — so I had to interview everyone who was making news. I quickly realized that the people I liked talking to the most were scientists. They were the most passionate, the most enthralled, and they had the biggest lives — even as they focused on a small research topic or specific geographic area. To me they were dots of light that — like the Lite-Brite toy I’d grown up with — formed pictures.
21 March 2022
Volunteer-Driven Outreach Highlights Research at Scripps Oceanography
Have you ever been hugged by a sea urchin? Watching a young kid apprehensively place their finger between the spines of a sea urchin, then light up with excitement when the spines gently squeeze them is just one thing that motivates us to dedicate so much time to outreach. While we have the attention of that student, we can explain that photoreceptor (or light-sensing) cells on the tips of the urchin spines allow them to sense shadows and move their spines towards predators as a defense mechanism.
18 March 2022
#AntarcticLog: (Climate) refugees
Sometimes there just aren’t words to express my response to what’s going on. That’s what led me to comics in the first place — a grievous story of walrus stranded by climate change — and it’s what leads me on. What “does not compute” in words can make a connection in visuals.
17 March 2022
In memoriam: Eugene Parker
AGU mourns the passing of solar astrophysicist Eugene N. Parker, a pioneer in the study of solar wind, namesake of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and an active member of the AGU community.
14 March 2022
New books on Congo Basin hydrology research embody AGU’s strategic goals
AGU announces a pair of books produced through an impressive, global collaboration that exemplifies the values in AGU’s strategic plan to create a thriving, sustainable and equitable future supported by scientific discovery, innovation and action.
