For a little escape, I invite you to read about the amusing 2025 Ignobels. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Scientists will not find a simple answer to how autism arises, despite Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s promise to announce its causes sometime this month. Here’s what makes the condition so staggeringly complex

A position paper urging academia to be critical of AI technologies is an excellent wake-up call. @irisvanrooij.bsky.social @olivia.science www.the-geyser.com/are-we-losin...

People, get ready for the launch of.. ‘THE MARTIAN MUSEUM OF EARTH ANIMALS’. This is my book with the amazing Matt Hunt c/o @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social. One Martian museum. One school sleepover. One mysterious intruder. What could go wrong? ...

This week will be pivotal for the future of PBS and NPR, as the Senate plans to vote on ~$1.1 billion in funding. I spoke to station directors in South Dakota and Alaska about what this could mean: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/b...

This picture of Groucho (RIP 2021) is "weighting" for a caption. I'll start: "I've coughed up hairballs heavier than this." #caturday

#ProudMomAlert My youngest son was the lead on this project for his masters project @colorado.edu. Check it out. (He now works with earthquake data) Satellite data from ship captures landslide-generated tsunami for the first time 🧪 cires.colorado.edu/news/satelli...

Happy Mother’s Day, especially to this robin mom who had three newly hatched chicks outside my mom’s house today. Cross fingers for #4 to hatch safely, too! #birds 🐦 #mothersday 🧪

May is starting off with some exciting new books! Get excited to add these books to your reading list.

Congratulations to Jason Roberts for winning the Biography category of the Pulitzer Prize in 2025 for the book Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life. As a biologist, naturally I read it and can attest this book deserves this recognition. 🧪 💙📚 bookshop.org/a/97643/9781...

If you love your library, listen up…

"Science in the US is entering a phase resembling the Lysenko era in the Soviet Union." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Even more songs to calm the nerves" from NPR www.npr.org/2025/04/08/1...

What the hell happened to Silicon Valley? No matter how closely you think you've been paying attention, the truth is far weirder and way more disturbing than you imagine. I just read @adambecker.bsky.social's new book in proof and it's a gripping, spine-chilling story. Out April 22—preorder now!

It's not a dire wolf. It's a gray wolf clone with 20 dire-wolf gene edits, and with some dire wolf traits. And here's my story! Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/s...

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/o... Really important piece to share widely. Too many Americans don’t know how severe a threat this Administration poses to our scientific infrastructure, global leadership, and health security

I'm excited to learn that @maryroach.bsky.social has a book coming from @wwnorton.bsky.social called Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy (no cover yet) on September 16. wwnorton.com/books/978132... (more recent science 🧪 📚 releases soon....)

Usually I post recent #PopSci 📚 releases on Sunday, but was grading for the day job, so let's see last week's releases now. On March 3, from @psychunseen.bsky.social, we see False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things that Aren't True 🧪 amzn.to/4fR4939

Some great new #PopSci 📚 from Feb 25th. 🧵 Up first is @carlzimmer.com's latest, which I am THIS close to finishing (spoiler--it's excellent): Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe 🧪 amzn.to/4bq8jyD

Today (February 27) is #InternationalPolarBearDay! Did you know that #PolarBears inhabit five range states in the circumpolar Arctic? They exist in 20 subpopulations across Canada, the USA, Norway, Greenland, and Russia. 🦊🐻‍❄️ #Mammals #MarineMammals

Starting it today!

Time to check out the #PopSci 📚 releases from the past couple of weeks! 🧵 This book is especially timely for many reasons. From Feb 11, pediatrician @adamratnermd.bsky.social brings us Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children's Health 🧪 amzn.to/4j4nil3

A few people have kindly lobbed this into the tl, but here's my own gift link: Me, in NYT Opinion, arguing we're not failing to handle H5N1 flu in cattle because the response is based on plans for bird flu in poultry and doesn't match dairy farming structures. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/o...

Attention Scientists! Check this out! A thing you can do that's useful and likely in your wheelhouse!

Since RFK Jr just got confirmed today, I am taking this chance to share this wonderful @sciam.bsky.social piece on The Staggering Success of Vaccines www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-...

Get them while you can. The US CDC’s 2025 Immunization Schedules, for adults, children, pregnancy, travel, etc: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp...

A great article from the Smithsonian on How Science Conquered Diphtheria, the Plague Among Children. A comforting piece from a time when public health was a priority. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Here's a good infographic from AAUP on what indirect costs fund. It's a lot of important things!

For a brief reprieve from sports and political/government news, here is a 🧵 on recent #PopSci 📚 releases. First up is a very lovely book about PENGUINS! From 📷 Ursula Claire Franklin on Jan 14th Mission Penguin: A photographic quest from the Galápagos to Antarctica 🧪 amzn.to/3E7IfeX

The western monarch butterfly population is near record lows; fewer than 10k individual butterflies counted this year. xerces.org/press/wester...

Applications are now open for the 2025 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Australian and New Zealand Fellowships. Five $25,000 fellowships will be awarded to outstanding post-doctoral scientists. Apply now at: www.forwomeninscience.com.au Applications close at 11.59pm, 5th March 2025 (AEDT).

www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-... Use this site if you want to contact your senators and remind them of the economic impact of NIH in your state. Close to $1 billion in direct funding, in Michigan.

it's also a test for the mass public - the only checks now are public opinion and markets. People need to call their reps and make noise.

Sadly, not unexpected. 💔 🧪

Disappointing. 🧪 Trump administration’s abrupt cancellation of scientific meetings prompts confusion, concern www.statnews.com/2025/01/22/t... via @statnews.com

Looks like a Disney character!

So this was announced today: "President Biden Honors More Than 300 Americans with Nation’s Highest Award for Science and Mathematics Teachers and Mentors" www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-up... Happy #NationalMenteringMonth2025 #NationalMenteringMonth

A new year 🎉, a new round of #PopSci 📚 releases. Up first is a book from January 1. From @emilycarney.bsky.social we see Star Bound: A Beginner's Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard's Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between 🧪 amzn.to/429uq9W

Going forward, I know there'll be many requests for help regarding the LA fires. If you'd like to help someone you probably don't know who lost their home in the LA fires, consider a donation to help my friend @averiemaddox.bsky.social, a single mom, and her daughter (and pets). gofund.me/c8b684cc

Given yesterday’s disturbing news about decreasing Black, Hispanic, and Native American medical school enrollees due to the 2023 SCOTUS affirmative action decision, I’m resharing this @washingtonpost.com excerpt from my book, “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine”:

Hey academic friends: Does anybody have any suggestion on introductory works on the institutionalization of the sciences, especially universities? So, how have universities become what they are today? Organization of faculties, etc. @thomasheichele.bsky.social maybe? Feel free to repost!

Since my kids have grown, I read a LOT. This year was no different. I read fiction, non-fiction and in particular, science themed non-fiction in form of physical books, ebooks & audiobooks. Allow me to share my "read" list for 🧪📚 in 2024: 83 science themed books, 36 written by women. 🧵

Ten cool science stories we almost missed in 2024: A science-and-culture sampler. Bronze Age combat, moral philosophy and Reddit's AITA, Mondrian's fractal tree, and seven other fascinating papers. arstechnica.com/science/2024...

Happy solstice! At 09:20 UTC today the Sun reached the southernmost point in its annual latitudinal motion. From now on the amount of daylight in the northern hemisphere will increase until the June solstice.

Please tell your kids, every damn day if necessary, that chatGPT is not a goddamn search engine and you shouldn’t believe a word it says. Tell the adults too, but it’s especially imperative to inoculate kids against this

Good morrow folks it is time for your periodic reminder that I have written a book which is silly, scientifically sourced, full of footnote jokes, and probably an excellent gift for some nerdy person in your life (maybe your own self!) 🧪🔭📚📖 www.iconbooks.com/ib-title/the...

At the link is a list of six science books appropriate for the younger set (elementary and middle schoolers). 🧪📚💙

For those looking for science and nature books, I do my best to keep an updated list on a Google sheet. Here is 2024's releases list (2025's follow in a reply to this post) 🧪📚💙 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Looks like @ferrisjabr.bsky.social and I have a significant overlap in reading lists. I traditionally share my year of reading at the very END of the year, so keep an eye out for that. And, I agree, the best books of the year lists so far have been very disappointing for science. 🧪📚💙