John Andrew Higgins
@blueicedude.bsky.social
Professor, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University. I am a chemist interested in the history of the Earth as recorded in polar ice cores and the rock record and envrionmental justice. Views are my own and not my institution.
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
📣 Job Alert! @lamont.columbia.edu's Geochemistry division seeks an Associate Research Scientist to conduct paleoclimate and ice core research, mentor students and junior scientists, write scientific papers and grant proposals, and more. ➡️ Learn more/apply/share: https://bit.ly/4cxco5U
September 10, 2026 at 1:40 PM
📣 Job Alert! @lamont.columbia.edu's Geochemistry division seeks an Associate Research Scientist to conduct paleoclimate and ice core research, mentor students and junior scientists, write scientific papers and grant proposals, and more. ➡️ Learn more/apply/share: https://bit.ly/4cxco5U
The line between believing a scientific result strongly enough to advocate for it with zeal and becoming a zealot is a thin one!
July 8, 2026 at 2:51 PM
The line between believing a scientific result strongly enough to advocate for it with zeal and becoming a zealot is a thin one!
All you foundations and wealthy universities should be funding the rejected proposals from NSF. Get rid of all the overhead associated with having your own funding process. There will be an abundance of highly rated and expertly vetted science that will not get funded as a result of these cuts 1/2
Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm
Exclusive: NSF slashes research programs to support new tech initiative, insiders say
Unexpected shift in funds has meant sharp drop in grants this fiscal year
www.science.org
June 22, 2026 at 7:56 PM
All you foundations and wealthy universities should be funding the rejected proposals from NSF. Get rid of all the overhead associated with having your own funding process. There will be an abundance of highly rated and expertly vetted science that will not get funded as a result of these cuts 1/2
Volcanoes are cool. Except when they erupt and then they’re really hot. Like really hot. And loud. And generally fucking awesome. Highly recommend.
May 21, 2026 at 4:12 AM
Volcanoes are cool. Except when they erupt and then they’re really hot. Like really hot. And loud. And generally fucking awesome. Highly recommend.
Scientists: Well our best guess for extinction-causing climate change from the Earth History is probably catastrophic cooling associated with stratospheric aerosols.
Tech bros: Well that COULD happen but I could also save the world and become a gazillionaire! LFG!
Fermi paradox answered.
Tech bros: Well that COULD happen but I could also save the world and become a gazillionaire! LFG!
Fermi paradox answered.
A company at the forefront of solar geoengineering — the notion that blocking radiation from the sun could cool a warming planet — says its tiny spheres can reflect the sun’s rays without harming people or the environment. Critics say private companies have no business altering Earth’s atmosphere.
Can Some Very Tiny Particles Cool the Planet? One Tech Company Says Yes.
Stardust Solutions says its tiny spheres can reflect the sun’s rays without harming people or the environment. Critics say private companies have no business altering Earth’s atmosphere.
nyti.ms
May 14, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Scientists: Well our best guess for extinction-causing climate change from the Earth History is probably catastrophic cooling associated with stratospheric aerosols.
Tech bros: Well that COULD happen but I could also save the world and become a gazillionaire! LFG!
Fermi paradox answered.
Tech bros: Well that COULD happen but I could also save the world and become a gazillionaire! LFG!
Fermi paradox answered.
It’s 😎 to wear helmets kids! Take it from this 😎 dad.
May 12, 2026 at 10:17 PM
It’s 😎 to wear helmets kids! Take it from this 😎 dad.
Is Bluesky just LinkedIn light? Are there substantive scientific discussions to be had here? Or just a lot of horn tooting and finger wagging?
May 10, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Is Bluesky just LinkedIn light? Are there substantive scientific discussions to be had here? Or just a lot of horn tooting and finger wagging?
Woop woop for N isotopes and a deeper understanding of the origins of Pleistocene glacial cycles!
Eight Princeton professors were elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year. This marks the largest number of new academy members from Princeton University in at least a century: https://bit.ly/4wgvVzt
May 7, 2026 at 5:20 PM
Woop woop for N isotopes and a deeper understanding of the origins of Pleistocene glacial cycles!
Serious FOMO over here in the USA while all the new data from Beyond EPICA. Whose got the 🫖 @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social?!
May 6, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Serious FOMO over here in the USA while all the new data from Beyond EPICA. Whose got the 🫖 @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social?!
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
One fun facts about GWPs: those passionately arguing for 20-year GWPs over 100-year GWPs probably would not passionately argue for a 7% discount rate over a 3% discount rate (and might, correctly, think 3% is too high for long-lasting societal risks) yet mathematically these are almost the same
March 30, 2026 at 11:21 PM
One fun facts about GWPs: those passionately arguing for 20-year GWPs over 100-year GWPs probably would not passionately argue for a 7% discount rate over a 3% discount rate (and might, correctly, think 3% is too high for long-lasting societal risks) yet mathematically these are almost the same
Today I learned what the expression 'soup to nuts' actually means. Makes a lot more sense now, but who eats nuts for dessert?!
April 28, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Today I learned what the expression 'soup to nuts' actually means. Makes a lot more sense now, but who eats nuts for dessert?!
Why is it that they always use the stock photo of McMurdo when posting bad news about NSF?! www.washingtonpost.com/science/2026...
Trump ousts National Science Board members
Members of the independent board that guides the National Science Foundation said they received a notice from the White House that their position was being terminated.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 25, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Why is it that they always use the stock photo of McMurdo when posting bad news about NSF?! www.washingtonpost.com/science/2026...
My first NSF rejection of the year! The wheels must be turning! I'll have the chance to apply and get rejected again!
April 22, 2026 at 10:07 PM
My first NSF rejection of the year! The wheels must be turning! I'll have the chance to apply and get rejected again!
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
A new agreement between TCNJ and Princeton will allow eligible undergraduate and grad students to enroll in select courses at the other institution during the fall and spring semesters at no additional cost: https://bit.ly/4tqr2le
April 6, 2026 at 9:09 PM
A new agreement between TCNJ and Princeton will allow eligible undergraduate and grad students to enroll in select courses at the other institution during the fall and spring semesters at no additional cost: https://bit.ly/4tqr2le
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
Getting direct measurements of CO2 from Pliocene-aged ice has been a Holy Grail of climate science!
A new paper by @jmarkspeterson.bsky.social provides a record of CO2 going back 3million years(!), with (let's say) intriguing implications for anthropogenic climate change
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/
A new paper by @jmarkspeterson.bsky.social provides a record of CO2 going back 3million years(!), with (let's say) intriguing implications for anthropogenic climate change
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/
Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years - Nature
Blue ice records from Antarctica are used to determine methane and carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 3 million years.
doi.org
March 18, 2026 at 5:38 PM
Getting direct measurements of CO2 from Pliocene-aged ice has been a Holy Grail of climate science!
A new paper by @jmarkspeterson.bsky.social provides a record of CO2 going back 3million years(!), with (let's say) intriguing implications for anthropogenic climate change
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/
A new paper by @jmarkspeterson.bsky.social provides a record of CO2 going back 3million years(!), with (let's say) intriguing implications for anthropogenic climate change
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
For the first time, scientists have measured atmospheric gases from the late Pliocene, yielding data that could help to predict the future climate
Ice core reveals low CO2 during warm spell 3 million years ago
For the first time, scientists have measured atmospheric gases from the late Pliocene, yielding data that could help to predict the future climate
www.newscientist.com
March 25, 2026 at 6:32 PM
For the first time, scientists have measured atmospheric gases from the late Pliocene, yielding data that could help to predict the future climate
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
If this is your scene*, maybe this job is for you?
Three-year PDRA in ice core gases at @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
*Scenes from the Beyond EPICA gas analysis in Copenhagen.
Three-year PDRA in ice core gases at @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
*Scenes from the Beyond EPICA gas analysis in Copenhagen.
March 24, 2026 at 7:19 PM
If this is your scene*, maybe this job is for you?
Three-year PDRA in ice core gases at @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
*Scenes from the Beyond EPICA gas analysis in Copenhagen.
Three-year PDRA in ice core gases at @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
*Scenes from the Beyond EPICA gas analysis in Copenhagen.
While everyone is (rightly) obsessed with levels of CO2 in the atmosphere 3 million years ago, don't sleep the observation that avg. atmospheric methane (CH4) DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE CHANGED AT ALL over the last 3 million years (1/4). www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years - Nature
Blue ice records from Antarctica are used to determine methane and carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 3 million years.
www.nature.com
March 24, 2026 at 1:51 PM
While everyone is (rightly) obsessed with levels of CO2 in the atmosphere 3 million years ago, don't sleep the observation that avg. atmospheric methane (CH4) DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE CHANGED AT ALL over the last 3 million years (1/4). www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New results from old ice....happy to answer any questions!
Ice core reveals low CO2 during warm spell 3 million years ago
For the first time, scientists have measured atmospheric gases from the late Pliocene, yielding data that could help to predict the future climate
www.newscientist.com
March 23, 2026 at 9:39 PM
New results from old ice....happy to answer any questions!
I very much enjoyed listening to this book. It does a great job capturing the links between CO2, climate, oxygen, plate tectonics, and Earth history which are both simple and incredibly complex! Recommend!
Not to be crassly opportunistic, but if you’re genuinely curious about how there came to be an ocean of fossil fuels in the crust, why humans now emit 100x more CO2 than all volcanoes on earth, and want to begin that story 4 billion years ago, might I recommend www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything
"Ambitious, absorbing… Brannen is an effusive, maximalist writer, a mind vividly alive on the page… and his arguments, like his writing, are hugely com...
www.harpercollins.com
March 19, 2026 at 4:48 PM
I very much enjoyed listening to this book. It does a great job capturing the links between CO2, climate, oxygen, plate tectonics, and Earth history which are both simple and incredibly complex! Recommend!
Some cool science coming up so I guess it’s time to start posting again?
March 12, 2026 at 10:15 PM
Some cool science coming up so I guess it’s time to start posting again?
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
Would anybody like to read one of my long threads about a 2.5bn year old rock, bacteria that could produce oxygen but not consume it, and tank production in wwii
February 23, 2026 at 6:14 AM
Would anybody like to read one of my long threads about a 2.5bn year old rock, bacteria that could produce oxygen but not consume it, and tank production in wwii
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
🚨 New manuscript! 🚨
We use speleothem calcium isotopes and Mg/Ca to reconstruct rainfall amount. Turns out central Vietnam was 50 % drier during the LGM 🤯. Climate models agree but most underestimate rainfall change.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We use speleothem calcium isotopes and Mg/Ca to reconstruct rainfall amount. Turns out central Vietnam was 50 % drier during the LGM 🤯. Climate models agree but most underestimate rainfall change.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Quantifying changes in central Vietnam rainfall amount since the Late Pleistocene
Paleorecords of the Southeast Asian autumn monsoon indicate that global sea-level change drove abrupt shifts in rainfall, yet the magnitude of these c…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:51 PM
🚨 New manuscript! 🚨
We use speleothem calcium isotopes and Mg/Ca to reconstruct rainfall amount. Turns out central Vietnam was 50 % drier during the LGM 🤯. Climate models agree but most underestimate rainfall change.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We use speleothem calcium isotopes and Mg/Ca to reconstruct rainfall amount. Turns out central Vietnam was 50 % drier during the LGM 🤯. Climate models agree but most underestimate rainfall change.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
What’s it like doing fieldwork in Antarctica? 🥶 Sarah Shackleton and @blueicedude.bsky.social from @princeton.edu can answer that.
They just found a 6-million-year-old ice core—a key piece to improve our current climate models!
My story for @eos.org
eos.org/articles/new...
They just found a 6-million-year-old ice core—a key piece to improve our current climate models!
My story for @eos.org
eos.org/articles/new...
New Lessons from Old Ice: How We Understand Past (and Future) Heating - Eos
Fragments of blue ice up to 6 million years old—the oldest ever found—offer key insights into Earth’s warming cycles. Researchers are using these ancient data to refine models of our future climate.
eos.org
November 25, 2025 at 9:49 PM
What’s it like doing fieldwork in Antarctica? 🥶 Sarah Shackleton and @blueicedude.bsky.social from @princeton.edu can answer that.
They just found a 6-million-year-old ice core—a key piece to improve our current climate models!
My story for @eos.org
eos.org/articles/new...
They just found a 6-million-year-old ice core—a key piece to improve our current climate models!
My story for @eos.org
eos.org/articles/new...
Reposted by John Andrew Higgins
New research from John Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social & Sarah Shackleton @princeton.edu, comments from Lidia Ferri, story by Mariana Mastache @deerenoir.bsky.social.
November 24, 2025 at 1:07 PM
New research from John Higgins @blueicedude.bsky.social & Sarah Shackleton @princeton.edu, comments from Lidia Ferri, story by Mariana Mastache @deerenoir.bsky.social.