🧪Fun #sourcerequest: Have you, a scientist, read the book Microbe Hunters, and if so, did it leave a lasting impact on you? This book--perhaps the first popular science text--is turning 100 next year, and I'm covering it for @nautil.us! Also interested in speaking with medical or science historians.

"Science is being destroyed across many agencies" say federal researchers. For my latest @nature.com piece, I spoke to 19 different scientists across EPA, NOAA, NIH, NASA, and USGS to document how science is being dismantled across US federal agencies.

🏜️Today is the day! I have officially started at @sfgate.com and am on the hunt for stories about our southwest national parks. If you've got a tip, know of an iconic local in your town, or otherwise wanna chat public lands, I'm at [email protected].

🧪I've been doing a lot of reporting on cancer recently, and the first to run is this feature for @nature.com on the intersection between nanorobotics and oncology. Read on to learn about biohybrid robots (a sperm cell that delivers cancer drugs!?) and what we can expect in the coming years.

Look at this point if Richard Dawkins thinks you've got good ideas about how science needs to be run, you...should look hard in the mirror and reconsider your ideas. www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

I’ve long said that the staff job that could pull me away from freelancing probably doesn't exist. Happy to be proven half wrong, at least. Excited to announce that I'll soon be starting a new role as the Southwest National Parks Editor @sfgate.com, covering public lands in the four corners region.

Since I've gotten a bit more traffic on my page recently, I'm still seeking sources for this story.

🧪Did I really have time for this story? No, I did not, for reasons I'll be sharing soon. Did I absolutely feel compelled to write it anyways? You know I did! A viral mystery solved by science. Read on @sciencenews.bsky.social Also, I have a new to-do for my trip to Chicago for #SciWri25 next month!

🧪Hello friends! I'm working on a piece about putting together the best tenure/promotion package, and I'd love to hear from STEM folks who have recently done this or have experience evaluating these types of proposals. Please RT for reach, and feel free to reach out with any Qs!

🧪New from me for @nature.com: Nearly every model organism used in research has it's own database, called a MOD. These resources underpin decades of discovery, but they're collectively struggling amid funding cuts. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH has anyone been on a .gov website yet today? How many of them are like this??

🧪Hearing about Myasthenia Gravis for the first time? I was too, but turns out there's lots to learn about this surprisingly common rare disease. So read on, in my latest for BioSpace. www.biospace.com/drug-develop...

The CDC has released the agenda for this week’s vaccine advisory meeting. The first item of business: MMR vaccines. 👀👀👀 www.cdc.gov/acip/meeting...

NSF: The vessel [US Antarctic research vessel NB Palmer] is planned to be returned to the operator after a final cruise in October 2025.   www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/upda... @carlosmoffat.com

This story — which asks what happened to all of those newsroom DEI jobs, committees, and promises from 2020 — is the hardest one I've ever worked on. I hope you'll spend some time with it today. www.niemanlab.org/2025/09/from...

I'm sorry, they do what now!? This is reaffirming my longstanding belief that myrmecologist are unhinged.

🧪We are so back! I have three deadlines this week, and here's the first to make it to pub. A new study in @cellpress.bsky.social identified the "key hub" that controls consumption. It's even got a link to semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy/Ozempic. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Still plugging away at this, but the farther we can share it, the better!

Florida plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for children to attend schools. Vaccination rates for several diseases, including measles, diphtheria and polio, decreased among US kindergartners in the 2024-25 school year from the year before, according to federal data reut.rs/4p6OUsC

This is telling: People I spoke to are talking about CDC in the past tense. www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...

Yes hello I will be moving here.

🧪Hey #CanSky #OncoSky, who's doing cool work in the nanobots space? Drug delivery, tumor detection and diagnosis, targeted therapy, minimally invasive surgery, etc. etc.

DUE TOMORROW: Need a little financial aid to make the trip to Chicago Nov 7-9 or to participate in the virtual portion of #SciWri25? Apply for a Community Support Grant NASW membership not required to apply Learn more and apply: sciencewriters2025.o...#SciWri25? Deadline to apply: Aug 28

🧪 #source request: Are you a PhD student from Singapore, Japan, Korea, Australia, South Africa, Germany, or China who *recently graduated or will soon graduate?* If so, I'd like to hear about your next steps for a story in @nature.com. Send me a DM, email me, or find me on Signal (aheidt.16).

After two glorious months away backpacking in Colorado and climbing in Canada, I'm finally sitting back down at my desk. More on that eventually, but in the meantime, a few belated shares of stories that ran while I was away:

Tough PhD timing - the cohort that started in 2020 (Covid) and finished by 2025 (waves hands) speaks out about their career high's and low's, how they coped and what they are doing to navigate the chaotic job market. Reporting by @scattercushion.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🧪I've been following the work of @mothersinsci.bsky.social since their first event back in 2020. This week, they've launched a campaign giving fathers space to share their experiences and confront stigma. Read all about it! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

There's a lot of confusion about which NIH grants will be reinstated after Monday's ruling. Right now, we can say many grants from PIs who were members of either APHA or UAW OR grants at public unis in plaintiff states. A partial list is available now. We'll update Grant Watch ASAP

🧪This is the third story of mine to make it into @sciam.bsky.social's Ask the Experts column that stems from a weird thought I had while talking to my friends or hiking or otherwise just living my life. I dunno about y'all, but I've been grilling up a storm lately.

👀 Hot off the press: A scathing open letter co-authored by all 17 former ACIP members. It's a frank look at ACIP history and the hard truths America will grapple with in the upcoming months. Turns out the former ACIP members have more spine than CDC leadership 🙄 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

🧪A weighty but very engaging story to sit with at the level and for the length of time a feature requires. The online article is paywalled, but I've got the (beautiful!) print layout up on my website. My editor on this one is my old boss from my days as a staffer at TS, and I've missed our old team.

After ruling the NIH grant cuts were illegal yesterday, Judge Young, a Reagan appointee on the bench since 1985, ended the hearing with a blistering 15-minute speech. I've cleaned up my notes — here are his remarks in full. 🧵

When my editor asked me if I wanted to write about quantum materials science, I said "Dear god, why?" and then agreed because I'm a Type A with six siblings who doesn't know how to turn down a challenge. Behold! annualreports.simonsfoundation.org/2024/quantum...

Damn, my story on how we define death went to print a few days ago 😖

Somewhere behind the scenes of the Oslo Natural History Museum is an exhibit designer with a lot of old taxidermy and a VISION.

BREAKING: A few minutes ago, a vehicle of three people was rammed by a truck belonging to federal immigration authorities in Boyle Heights, CA. According to security footage shown to me, they deployed chemical munitions & detained the driver at gunpoint. All are US citizens according to the wife.

🧪My gosh, did I have fun writing this one. Don't skip on the great visuals in this piece, including a slider that shows the damaged areas the machine learning model flagged for repair. Big thanks to Alex for sharing his unique story with me. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Today, my NIH colleagues and I did something scary but really important. We spoke up about egregious harms we are seeing happen to research participants and public health through thoughtless and politicized policies at NIH. 🧵1/3 apnews.com/article/nih-...

Opinion | I have no meaningful relationships with Black people, Hispanic people, government workers, or women. Here's why Democrats should make a full push for Elon Musk to join their party.

Oh my goodness I cannot know this. Good thing the nudi is an unobtainable 30k, because if it was 6k I'd probably be selling my possessions.

I have officially accepted my last assignment before I go dark for two months to hike 500 miles across Colorado with my pup! It's wild that this thing I decided to do last fall is now happening. Here are some pics from old trips I've taken in the same areas. Cannot wait to get out there!

Big news: The Trump administration has essentially proposed shutting down tribal colleges and universities, displacing more than 20,000 students. My latest for ProPublica:

Wow, yes. An amazing glimpse of the LLM Lie Machine at work. Anyone whose students are bring tempted by LLMs, sharing this could be very helpful showing how it lies, and how it fails.

Update: I may be debatably bad at my job, but I’m also a millennial who knows how to stalk people on the internet. I’m pretty sure I know who this person is. Doxxing is almost always unacceptable, & I won’t be doing it here, but maybe we all remember that it costs nothing to be kind next time, yah?

🧪 Earlier today I was called out by an anonymous account for only seeking a single source for this story, and they've since written an 800+ word blog post about how bad at my job I am, calling me a "bullshit alleged profession idiot." So let's talk about it, in a 🧵

if you represent or work for a hospital who gets investigated by the FBI, i want to talk to you. my signal is in my bio.

🧪Source request: Are you a father in academia trying your best to be an equal partner in parenting? Do you want to tell me about why you think that is important? If so, please reach out! I'll only be able to speak to 1 source (it's a short piece), but tell me about your situation & it could be you!

Well gosh, if 2025 hasn't just turned into a year of faffing off as much as humanely possible while still working enough to support my baseline needs. Just got back from three weeks in California and Oregon during which I rarely had service, and I cannot recommend enough.

IN ONE WEEK: Join us for the second Science Writers Roundtable: Breaking News in Turbulent Times. Journalists will discuss how to connect to audiences in an increasingly chaotic and news-hostile environment. Membership not required. Register for the June 5 event: www.nasw.org/sciwrir...