Google's cleverly named subsidiary Debug is planning to release millions of mosquitoes infected with the bacteria Wolbachia into CA to reduce mosquito population. Google says AI and robotic systems will be used to breed, sort and release the mosquitoes. www.yahoo.com/news/science... #Science #AI

Tonight, we feature a Blue Micromoon. A Micromoon is a full moon that occurs when the moon is farthest from Earth in its elliptical orbit around Earth. A rare 2nd full moon in a month is known as a Blue Moon. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1166... apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26053... #Astronomy

Today’s free newsletter is about how LLMs are the perfect grift to exploit an economy dominated by do-nothing managers and executives disconnected from any real work, and how the facade is crumbling as companies pay the true cost of AI. www.wheresyoured.at/the-revenge-of-the-business-idiot/

Stephen Colbert on stage for the final time tonight. Lot more pics and tributes at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1166... 📸: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS #Colbert

Webcast of the launch of the ESA-CAS Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission has started. Launch at 3:52 UTC (11:52 p.m. EDT). www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q8a... More info at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1165...

Mars - Clouds over Terra Cimmeria - ESA Mars Express HRSC Full size 5k image: flic.kr/p/2sdpsHP 🔭🧪 Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck CC BY 2025-07-24 South is up HR211_0000 ND3+GR3+BL3

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will swing by Mars today, May 15, around 19:27 UTC, passing ~4,500 km from the planet’s surface at ~19,848 km/h and get a gravitational boost on its mission to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in Aug 2029. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1165... #PlanetSci

Why have SSTs in the Gulf of Mexico been warming over 2x faster than the global oceans since 2012? I cover the mystery in my post today: yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/05/some...

The death of #astronomy by a thousand cuts. Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) imprisoned in a cage of LEO satellites streaking across the sky in this 10-minute exposure image. This is with ~10,000 orbital satellites. Imagine a million, each ~10x larger. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26042... Credit: Uli Fehr

For the first time since October 2024, KSC's Launch Complex 39A has a vertical Falcon Heavy on the pad, after the rocket rolled out earlier today, ahead of the ViaSat-3 F3 launch tomorrow, April 27. NASASpaceflight will be live for the launch www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyqO...

Jay Bhattacharya has ordered that a paper showing the effectiveness of COVID19 vaccines in preventing severe disease and hospitalization be suppressed and hidden. This man has been crying nonstop about political censorship for 6 years. But he’s the one who is actually doing it.

‪Another outstanding artistic pic of comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) captured by astrophotographer Luc Perrot on April 16 from a volcanic peak overlooking France's Reunion Island. Featured at apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26041... More info on the comet at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1164... #Astronomy #Comet

Today, President Barack Obama and I read to a group of toddlers at Learning Through Play Pre-K Center in the South Bronx.  In between singing wheels on the bus, we discussed our administration’s vision for this City — one where New York’s Cutest have the strongest start possible.

OTD 18 April 1955, Albert Einstein passed away due to a rupture of an abdominal aorta. Einstein refused surgery, saying - "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly." More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci #Science

To conserve power and to extend the life of the mission, one more instrument on the venerable Voyager 1 probe is being shut down - the Low-energy Charged Particles expt (LECP). The shut-off command, sent on April 17, will take ~24 hours to reach V1. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1164... #PlanetSci

Artistic pic of comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) with its long wispy tail looming over the misty mountains of Nagano Prefecture, Hiratani Village, Japan. The comet is now visible, low in the predawn sky, with binoculars or telescope. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... Credit: Zoe #Astronomy

Here's more from @drjeffmasters.bsky.social on the explosive development of Super Typhoon #Sinlaku, one of the earliest-in-the-year Cat 5 storms ever recorded. @climateconnections.bsky.social yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/04/cat-...

The FY 2027 NASA budget request hides its science cuts by omitting mission names instead of explicitly zeroing them out. We did the work and found 54 missions cancelled in this proposal. This is another extinction-level event for NASA science. Full list: planetary.org/save-nasa-science

Experts found that the White House budget request for the upcoming fiscal year could defund 54 NASA science missions, including a spacecraft currently studying Jupiter and two planned Venus missions: www.scientificamerican.com/article/whit...

Them: Tell me Europe is mission-critical to bringing humanity back to the Moon without telling me Europe is mission-critical to bringing humanity back to the Moon. Me:

For the curious - Artemis II has a total of 28 camera systems, many for internal and external inspection and navigation. Engineering cameras, located on each of Orion’s 4 solar arrays: GoPro HERO4 Black 12 MP Handhelds: Nikon D5 digital SLR 20.8 MP These were selected many years ago. #PlanetSci

Solar eclipse imaged by a GoPro HERO4 Black camera mounted on the Artemis II Orion spacecraft. The image features Earthshine lighting up the left side of the moon, a halo of zodiacal light, and planets Saturn and Mars on the lower right More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... #PlanetSci

A crescent Earth setting on the lunar limb captured using the Nikon D5 camera by astronauts aboard the Artemis II Orion spacecraft last night around 22:41 UTC. More images at www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2... More info on the Artemis II mission at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... #Artemis #PlanetSci

Earth-set as seen by astronauts aboard the Artemis II Orion spacecraft. Earth-rise and comms reestablishment around 7:25 p.m. EDT (23:25 UTC). More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... #Artemis #Space

Pic of a shrinking Earth, taken earlier today from Artemis II, as the spacecraft approaches the moon. Still another 22 hours for lunar flyby, as Orion slows down in its orbital path, now traveling at 2,355 km/h. Lot more at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... #Artemis #Space

The Artemis II Orion spacecraft is now just over half way through on its journey to the vicinity of the moon. It will take 3 more days to arrive near the moon as its velocity decreases over time, currently at 5,218 km/h. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... #Artemis #Space

Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available. We decided to illustrate it.

The recent Artemis II Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) burn will stretch its previous 191 x 70,133 km elliptical orbit to go ~7,400 km beyond the moon and return back to earth, with no other major engine burns. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... #Space #Artemis

A serene view of the Pale Blue Crescent from the Artemis II Orion Integrity spacecraft this morning, now located over 71,000 km away in its elliptical orbit, high above the Pacific Ocean, west of Peru. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1163... #Space #Artemis

Friends, we've gotten a lot of great responses to our survey for science communicators, and we are closing the survey on Friday evening. If you'd like to respond, please take the survey soon! umiami.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... Please share. #SciComm 🧪🌍

I have a crazy way of reporting on 'No Kings' that's different from the NYT...I go out and talk to protesters about what they think Sure, size matters, but so does the passion of a movement offering the 4-letter word that beats back dictators Hope My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/trum...

🧵1/13 At #CERN they discovered a new particle, a heavier "cousin" of the proton. The LHCb experiment announced it at the Rencontres de Moriond Electroweak meeting on 17 March 2026. ➡️ home.cern/news/news/ph... Artist’s impression of the newly discovered baryon (Credit: CERN) #physics🧪🔭 ⚛️ #science

Can the Drake equation’s final term predict humanity’s demise? Here in 2026, we still have not found the existence of any life beyond Earth. What does that mean for the Drake equation, the longevity of intelligent civilizations, and humanity's future? bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro

No, particle physics colliders cannot ever destroy the Universe Every time we push the energy frontier in particle physics, laypersons fear that the world, or even the Universe, will be destroyed. Here's why we're certain it's all safe... for now. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #astro

First 24 hours of embryonic development in 9 different animal species: (From left to right) Zebrafish, Sea urchin, Black widow spider, Tardigrade, Sea squirt, Comb jelly, Parchment tube worm, Roundworm, Slipper snail. Credit to @tessamontague.bsky.social & Zuzka Vavrušová. #ZebrafishZunday #devbio 🧪

Moms First CEO Reshma Saujani on Why Childcare Is an Economic Issue

Sorry, new data from NASA JWST indicates that asteroid 2024 YR4 will not crash into the moon on Dec. 22 2032, as predicted earlier with 4.3% prob; instead, it will fly by 21,200 km away on the far side of the moon. science.nasa.gov/blogs/planet... fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1142... #PlanetSci

How does recent growth compare to recent years? Economy added just 0.16 million jobs over 12 months to Feb 2026. Job growth stopped.

Tardigrades, the toughest animals in the Universe, fail to survive in simulated Martian regolith. However, they did much better when the regolith was washed, leaching away some of the salts and other chemicals. Don't book that ticket yet 😜 More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1161... #PlanetSci #Science

The impressive skills of the brainless, unicellular Slime Mold. "Encounters with food lead to an increase in local fluid flow within the tubes, causing greater shear force on the tube walls, which grow thinner, allowing the tubes to expand and fan out." knowablemagazine.org/content/arti... #Science

During a trial run on Feb 24, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, with its 3.5° FOV and 3.2 billion pixel camera, generated 800,000 alerts, identifying new asteroids, supernovae, black holes and other changes in the night sky! noirlab.edu/public/news/... fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1161... #Astronomy

Spectacular image of the annular solar eclipse of Feb 17, taken by the ESA Proba-2 satellite (725 km alt), at 17.4 nm wavelength, using the SWAP extreme ultraviolet imager. From earth, the eclipse was visible only from the Antarctic region. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1161... #Astronomy

Agents of Chaos -- what are autonomous OpenClaw agents up to? How do they interact with each other? Read our investigation of OpenClaw at researchgate.net/publication/... And an interactive website agentsofchaos.baulab.info @davidbau.bsky.social @natalieshapira.bsky.social @openclaw-x.bsky.social

Oh no! A day after the successful wet dress rehearsal, NASA has detected a helium flow issue with the Artemis II rocket that will require a rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building for diagnosis and repair. The March 6 launch window will likely be missed. www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio... #Space #NASA

On Dec. 27, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft witnessed the most intense eruption ever recorded on Io, Jupiter’s most volcanically active moon. The eruption spanned 65,000 sq km and released > 80 TW of energy. www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-ju... More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1159... #Astronomy

New FCC filing by SpaceX for a constellation of million data center satellites for AI 😮 Even if it could be done, what will this do to #astronomy and #space debris? Or is this yet another scam and grift scheme? www.scribd.com/document/990... More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1159...

Space Oddities! Researchers used a neural network named AnomalyMatch to search thru ~100 million images from the Hubble Legacy Archive. In 2.5 days, it found more than anomalous 1,300 objects, more than 800 previously unknown. esahubble.org/news/heic2603/ @cmdr-hadfield.bsky.social #Astronomy

The NASA Artemis II SLS stack was rolled out today to launch pad 39B at KSC for testing and wet rehearsals. Launch on Feb. 6, for a 10-day journey around the Moon and back (no moon landing) with 4 astronauts. More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1158... #Space

The four paths forward for US scientists in 2026 If you're feeling hopeless about being a scientist in the United States in 2026, know that there are four good paths that can take you forward. Which one is right for you? bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #science #astro #scientists #usa

NASA has set a target date for the ISS Crew-11’s early return to earth, due to the medical issue with one of the crew members. Undocking: 5 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Jan. 14. Splashdown: 3:40 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, off the coast of CA. www.nasa.gov/blogs/spaces...