Joe Rojas-Burke

@rojasburke

I'm a #ScienceWriter based in Arizona (most of the time) and in Brooklyn. Sharing stuff about science, journalism, politics, beloved plants and animals, #RockClimbing, #Bicycling, #Gardening...

214 Following209 Followers383 Posts

Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and rojasburke.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· 24d

Without saying your age, what's your favorite movie that came out when you were 18?

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· 27d

Apollo 11 astronaut on the moon, July 20, 1969.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· 28d

"Every day going forward, until runoff from the 2026-2027 winter snowpack begins next spring, a new record low will likely be set. This is a significant moment in the evolving Colorado River water supply crisis." www.inkstain.net/wp-content/u...

Graph showing total combined live storage of Lake Powell and Lake Mead since January 1, 1957. Lake Powell began to fill in March 1963. On Sunday, July 12, the surface of Lake Powell was 3524.32 feet above sea level, and the surface of Lake Mead was at 1042.77 ft.7 These elevations equated to 5,505,869 and 7,169,640 acre feet (af), respectively, of live storage in the two reservoirs. The combined total live storage of these reservoirs was 12,675,509 af. The last time the combined total live storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead was this small was May 23, 1957, during construction of Glen Canyon Dam when the entire amount of 12,668,000 af was stored in Lake Mead.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· 29d

"it looks like this year’s El Niño is not only very likely to be the strongest event since reliable records began – it may end up the strongest by a truly mind-blowing margin." www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-strong...

The multi-model median for the event’s peak (measured as detrended sea surface temperature anomalies in the Niño 3.4 region of the tropical Pacific) currently stands at 3.6C, roughly 0.8C hotter than the prior record of 2.75C set in 2015-16.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 15

Our watering hole in SE Portland

A half dozen honey bees sip water from a bird bath

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 15

situation update from my daughter in Brooklyn

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 15

walking in Southern California

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 14

Note the *huge* jump in payloads launched into orbit since 2020, ~five-fold

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 14

Average cost of launching payloads to orbit: 1960: $87,000/kg 2025: $3,868/kg That's based on a comprehensive standardized dataset of rocket launches since Sputnik by all the major spacefaring nations. Could be as low as $300/kg by 2040, researchers project. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

curve showing a 20-fold reduction in the average cost per kilogram of launching a payload into low earth orbit, in 2024 U.S. dollars.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 6

“When federal agents come to your door and ask you to stop engaging in political speech,” Morris said, it “is an act of intimidation that the Constitution doesn’t tolerate.” DHS tried to suppress, but only amplified well-phrased criticism. #StreisandEffect www.washingtonpost.com/documents/39...

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 4

Pope Leo stops at "Door of Europe" memorial as he visits the island of Lampedusa, a key entry point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, on July 4, 2026. - Remo Casilli/Reuters

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jul 2

Pope Leo gets his message across www.ft.com/content/9330...

Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born Catholic spiritual leader, declined an invitation from the White House — hand-delivered by vice-president JD Vance — to visit the land of his birth for the milestone July 4 celebrations.

Instead, Leo will spend the day on Italy’s Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, the landing point for many migrants and refugees from Africa and the Middle East struggling to reach Europe in search of a better life.

Once again, the Vatican has chosen to communicate its views through symbolic language, much of it drawn from European history and the Catholic saints.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 26

The rate of deaths in ICE custody under Trump is nearly 4 times the rate during the Biden administration, and >2.5 times higher than in first Trump administration. Full report: www.hrw.org/report/2026/...

curve showing rise of death rate in ICE custody to 8.4 per 10,000 people in detention, highest in a decade

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 25

The many dangers are underestimated and catch people unaware

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 24

Peaceful moment in Prospect Park last month. (Sculpture by Risha Gorig)

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 17

eloquent pool guy quoted in this story on the algae instantly repopulating the Reflecting Pool

“What do you expect?” asked Cochise Wanzer II, president of the Pool Service Company in Arlington, Va. “You’re basically taking natural, untreated river water, pumping it in and expecting it to do something different from what it would do out in the open.”

And the new coat of paint on the bottom of the pool has added an additional twist to ensuring the cleanliness of one of Washington’s most memorable destinations: “Now that the bottom is nice and dark, it elevates the temperature and the algae grows better,” Wanzer said.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 10

"We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top…” www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

chart showing drop in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve since March, down 17.5 million barrels

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 7

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 4

Derrick Coleman, former NBA power forward, will not stay quiet about the suppression of Black voters in his native Alabama www.syracuse.com/orangebasket...

“To accept personal recognition while Black voters and other voters of color continue to face challenges to fair representation would be a contradiction of everything my journey represents. Any honor connected to me is also connected to my community, my ancestors, and the people whose struggle and sacrifice made my path possible.”

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 3

we got rock squirrels here in the Sonoran desert and here is one appropriately posing on a rock

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· Jun 2

one of the better corrections

An earlier version of this article included a profane nickname for Mitch Silverstein, which has been removed.

Appeared in the May 18, 2026, print edition as 'Beach Access Penalties Turn Into Epic Battle'.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 28

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 27

I was delighted to find wild lupines hitting in January this year in the Sonoran Desert, my first winter here

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 27

¡Él es El niño! youtu.be/uhdDeWNvvTI?...

the late, great Chris Farley as a personification of El Niño for Saturday Night Live

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 21

Astonishing: "Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing" www.science.org/content/arti...

Just a day ago, the brain was in a living person. Now, hours after its owner died, it sits on a cart draped in tubes that quiver as they pump liters of blood substitute and other fluids through the organ, supplying oxygen and removing waste. With most of its key functions intact but its electrical activity quenched by anesthesia, the brain hovers between life and death. As it metabolizes experimental drugs, sensors record its reactions, capturing hundreds of data points on its cells, proteins, and physiology. Then, after 24 hours in this state, it will be sliced into hundreds of pieces for more detailed study.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 20

Encountered some fine old trees holding their own in NYC

A London plane tree with a cave like cavity in its trunk.

A London plane tree with buttressing roots and many grotesque lumps along its trunk

An old tree with a massive scar on one side

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 15

I've visited this whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) a few times on Mount Hood in Oregon. The species was listed as threatened in 2022, prey to an onslaught of blister rust disease, pine beetles and climate-altered fire regimes. #EndangeredSpeciesDay

A white bark pine stands on a snowy hill top.

the same pine tree with a coating of snow, its branching drooping with the weight of it.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 15

Telling details not disclosed until the very end in this WSJ story on the #RightToRepair lawsuits against Deere www.wsj.com/business/rig...

excerpt from WSJ article: Deere in recent years has rolled out software tools for farm and construction equipment users or independent mechanics to do more of their own repairs. Yet like the farmers before them, Christy Webber’s complaint said the tools are inferior to the dealers’ software tools, forcing equipment users to continue relying on their dealers.

Christy Webber said a dealer’s service department typically takes longer to complete repairs than the landscaper’s in-house mechanics. When the company’s machines are out of service, it often ends up renting replacement machines from its Deere dealer, adding to the cost of repairs.

Joe Rojas-Burke@rojasburke· May 6

Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)