Pam Melroy, a retired Air Force colonel and astronaut, is one of only two women ever to command a space shuttle. She left NASA in 2009 after three missions and more than 900 hours in orbit, later taking on leadership roles in aerospace and government. @astropam.bsky.social

Copenhagen

Good morning, Copenhagen

Starry Night. Castro, San Francisco (2025) Fujifilm GFX100RF

Blaise Agüera y Arcas Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a scientist, engineer, and thinker who has consistently explored the boundaries of intelligence, both human and artificial. His career has been shaped by an insatiable curiosity about how minds work, how they can be extended by machines, and what…

Ira Flatow Ira Flatow has spent more than sixty years turning science into story. His voice, instantly recognizable to generations of listeners, has carried discoveries from the lab and field into kitchens, cars, and classrooms. He has always been more than a broadcaster. He is a translator of…

Ada Limón Ada Limón was born in 1976 in Sonoma, California, into a family that valued both art and language. With Mexican American and American roots, she grew up among vineyards, horses, and eucalyptus, learning early that words could hold both clarity and mystery. That early sense of language’s…

Explorers.com reveals the faces of discovery. Scientists, engineers, and innovators whose work is shaping what it means to be human. As Artist in Residence at the @nationalacademies.org I am creating these portraits to remind us that science is a human story. www.Explorers.com

Sometimes, the dream is real. #Svalbard #Photography

Gemini rises, born from silence into code, the unknown unfolds. Demis Hassabis is the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence research labs.

Sadie loves to watch tv.

Avi Loeb is a Harvard astrophysicist who has spent his career pushing at the edges of the known universe—from black holes and the first stars to the possibility of life beyond Earth.

Eva Nogales Dr. Eva Nogales is a structural biologist whose pioneering work in cryo-electron microscopy has revealed the intricate architecture of cellular machinery. Her research has provided groundbreaking insights into how macromolecules function, shaping our understanding of processes such as…

"While science can be a challenge…all that pales in comparison to the thrill of the questions to be asked, of seeing them answered one day” New Heroes portrait of @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Professor Eva Nogales. @royalsociety.org @nationalacademies.org @nogaleslab.bsky.social

Lucy Shapiro wins Lasker Lifetime Achievement. Portrait for the @nationalacademies.org in the NYT. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

Twin Baslers rest on the endless white of Union Glacier. Engines silent, skis planted deep in the ice, they wait like relics of another age. #Photography

The black sands of Deception Island swallow sound and time. #antarctica #leica

Albert Watson Albert Watson has always been defined by the way he looks at the world. When I photographed him in Santa Fe in 2016, I found him not behind a camera but in front of a glowing laptop screen, his hand lifting his glasses as he leaned closer to study one of his own images. Watson was…

Whales can fly

David Baltimore passed away yesterday, “a Nobel Prize-winning biologist whose work…profoundly shaped modern molecular biology &immunology. His discoveries…altered our understanding of viruses &immune responses, laying the foundation for advancements in gene therapy, cancer research, &vaccine devt”🧪🛟

Rest in peace, David Baltimore. explorers.com/david-baltim... @nationalacademies.org @nobelprize.bsky.social

San Francisco, September 7, 1932 — At Fort Baker this weekend, Dr. Jacinta Jiminez was seen taking in the autumn air beside a gleaming Ford coupe. With her customary poise and intellect, she presented a striking figure against the smart lines of the motorcar, much to the admiration of those present.

#Stunday #Scape #PolarBears #Artic @christophermichel.com

Time stands still at Cavallo Point

Like touching down on another planet, the 757 rests on the blue ice of Union Glacier. Here, Antarctica reveals itself as a world apart, vast and alien.

Alex Honnold At Union Glacier in 2023, Alex Honnold sat for a portrait after returning from Mount Vinson, the highest summit in Antarctica. Most climbers would have marked the climb as a capstone, but he was already thinking of the unclimbed and lesser-known peaks of the Ellsworth Range. That…

California Dreaming

Demis Hassabis Sir Demis Hassabis has the rare distinction of being both a builder of minds and a student of them. When I met him at Rails, the headquarters of Google X, it was a late afternoon in July. He arrived at the lobby with the remnants of a banana in one hand, a quick snack between what I…

Dr. Jacinta Jiménez brings together poise, intellect, and warmth in a way that feels both rare and deeply needed. She is a Stanford-trained psychologist, a leadership expert, and an author whose work has reached audiences across the globe. More: explorers.com/jacinta-jime...

Jacinta Jiménez Dr. Jacinta Jiménez brings together poise, intellect, and warmth in a way that feels both rare and deeply needed. She is a Stanford-trained psychologist, a leadership expert, and an author whose work has reached audiences across the globe. People who meet her often notice her…

The team communicating with whales: explorers.com/david-gruber/

David Gruber David Gruber has built his life around listening to the hidden languages of nature. For years, he focused on light, diving among coral reefs and uncovering a world that most people never see. He and his team discovered that many fish and corals glow in living colors invisible to the…

At night, the forest bends toward myth. Shapes shift, shadows stretch. For a moment you swear you saw him move, the old wanderer of the woods. Sasquatch, or only the mind playing tricks where the trees lean into dream. #Photography

Fair winds and following seas, Malcolm. You will be missed. explorers.com/malcolm-marg... @heydaybooks.com @citylightsbooks.bsky.social

New Heroes portrait of Google's Jeff Dean for the @nationalacademies.org. Architect of MapReduce, Bigtable, and TensorFlow, Jeff has quietly shaped how billions of us use the internet. Brilliant, kind, and endlessly curious. Read more here: explorers.com/jeff-dean/

Jackpot. #photography #Ontario #farming #sunflowers #EastCoastKin

People I admire: @illuminatethearts.bsky.social's Ben Davis.

Zebra moving through the pale grasses of the Masai Mara. #Photography

The light shines on absence, and calls it presence.

Seen in San Francisco

Portrait of an experimental physicist. The great Janos Kirz. @berkeleylab.lbl.gov @nationalacademies.org

Janos Kirz Janos Kirz sits with the quiet authority of someone who has seen much of the twentieth century’s great scientific unfolding from the inside. His knowing, piercing blue eyes seem to weigh each moment, as though he is still in the habit of assessing data, forming hypotheses, and testing…

Japan in quiet moments. Shadows and light in temple courtyards. Autumn trees giving way to steel towers. The grace of tea served in silk and gold. Seen through the lens of the Hassy X2D. #Photography

The truth is out there

@michaelpollan.bsky.social sits in the soft space between curiosity and conviction. #Photography

Michael Pollan Michael Pollan is a writer, journalist, and thought leader whose work examines the intersections of food, nature, culture, and consciousness. Through bestselling books such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and How to Change Your Mind, he has challenged conventional…

North beach is the beating heart of San Francisco. #Photography

Down the rabbit hole. #photography

Venkatesh Narayanamurti Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti sits against a blackboard crowded with equations, sketches, and fragments of ideas, an apt setting for someone whose life’s work has been about connecting theory with application. Recruited in 1998 to lead Harvard’s Division of Engineering…