Mark Ikeda

Retired Biology Prof., San Bernardino Valley College - Go myrmecology!

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@Weatherunited1 It will certainly be interesting to see the robustness of these predictions come late summer!

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@AnzaBResearch Without the movement they would vanish into the background! Thanks for sharing!

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@RolandKays How many coyote generations since they passed through?

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@LisaDNews Thank you very much for being our eyes and ears on this vote!

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

I'm listening to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman ♫ @iHeartRadio https://t.co/hmi3Xmw1zZ

[Prof. Carl Sagan @ProfCarlSagan]

Carl Sagan consistently warned us that technology without understanding makes societies vulnerable. One of his central concerns was that people would become users of powerful tools without knowing how they work, how they can fail, or how they can be misused.

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@GestaltU @EdwardTufte Amen! The Trump policies are killing the goose that laid the golden eggs! Delusional in their own intent!

[Adam Butler @GestaltU]

Fun fact: The 1998 paper that introduced Google and PageRank to the world ends with this acknowledgment:

"Supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement IRI-9411306. Funding also provided by DARPA and NASA."

Sergey Brin was on an NSF Graduate Fellowship. Larry Page was a PhD student on the grant.

Google—now worth $2 trillion—exists because American taxpayers funded "the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project."

Not a startup garage myth. A government grant.

Every time someone says public research funding "picks winners and losers" or "crowds out private innovation," remember: the most dominant technology company of the 21st century was incubated entirely with public money, inside a public university, by researchers on federal fellowships and grants.

The private sector didn't see it coming. VCs passed. The government funded it anyway—not because it would become Google, but because fundamental research into information retrieval seemed worth understanding.

That's the point. You can't predict which grants will change the world. You fund the science and let researchers explore.

The internet (DARPA). GPS (DoD). Touchscreens (CIA/NSF). mRNA vaccines (NIH). Google (NSF/DARPA/NASA).

Public investment in basic research isn't wasteful spending. It's the seed corn of the entire modern economy.

[PBS News @NewsHour]

The Trump administration says it plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, which is the nation’s premier atmospheric science center. In his announcement of the closing, OMB Director Russell Vought called the center “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”

NCAR, as the center is known, was founded in 1960 and has facilitated generations of breakthroughs in climate and weather science.

The announcement has drawn outcry from meteorologists and climate scientists across the country.

William Brangham recently spoke with Brown University’s Kim Cobb and meteorologist @MatthewCappucci.

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@weatherechowx Is it likely to be very high elevation snow level? By the way appreciated all of your diligence at NWS San Diego!

[PBS News @NewsHour]

In a small town in northern Italy, barista Anna Possi has been brewing espressos and serving coffees for more than 80 years. She’s still going strong as she turns 101, with no intention of retiring. https://t.co/JIUuRkZ3X6

[Laurel Coons 🧬🧬🧬 @LaurelCoons]

Carl Sagan:

📌Science is more than a body of knowledge, it’s a way of thinking, skeptically interrogating the universe with fine understanding of human fallibility

📌If we aren’t able to ask skeptical question, then we’re up for grabs for next charlatan who comes rambling along

[Laurel Coons 🧬🧬🧬 @LaurelCoons]

A Divided Nation:

🇺🇸Roosevelt’s warning

🇺🇸The greatest threat to democracy will come when people of different sections, religions, classes are so cut off from one another that they no longer regard each other as common American citizens, but rather see each other as “the other”

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@CrytzerFry I want to say Sulfur bellied flycatcher due to the size of beak relative to body size. SE Arizona?

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@AnzaBResearch Beautiful!

[PBS News @NewsHour]

Beavers and the dams they build are not always embraced in certain areas. They can create problems with flooding, crops and other damage.

But there's a growing recognition that they're also building a kind of natural infrastructure that helps with water management, wildfire mitigation and the climate.

@milesobrien reports.

[Brandon Richards 🐻 @BrandonRichards]

💧NEW via CNN:

"2.2 billion gallons of water flowed out of California reservoirs because of Trump’s order to open dams"

"There are two major problems, water experts said: The newly released water will not flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during the wet winter season."

"'They were holding extra water in those reservoirs because of the risk that it would be a dry summer,' Heather Cooley, director of research for California water policy organization the Pacific Institute. 'This puts agriculture at risk of insufficient water during the summer months."

🔗 https://t.co/MSGcfDDSIO

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@LaurelCoons What no brain freeze?

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The sense of wonder is not a human trait only: watch this young gorilla being enchanted by a smaller form of life

[📹 Calgary Zoo]

[Mark Ikeda @mikeda56]

@SaskiaPopescu Wow! This is a goldmine! Thank you for sharing!