New: Researchers are broadly rejecting the Trump administration's compact. In faculty votes and student protests, they have mobilized to pressure their universities—to some effect: 6 of the original 9 universities have rejected the compact With @alexwitze.bsky.social and @jennaahart.bsky.social:

Is this the elusive ultra-long GRB ???

babe wake up, an entirely new type of object just dropped

ICYMI: Astronomers are finally solving the mystery of JWST’s little red dots, and they seem to be a hybrid sort of black hole star!! 🔭🧪 “It’s almost a shame that we’re starting to figure them out,” Anna de Graaff told me. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A consensus is emerging that these mysterious little red dots, sometimes called rubies, are an entirely new type of object in the Universe. go.nature.com/4hjIGm4

First exoplanet story since August—reclaiming my brand

Not common to see a 7-byline story in the wild, but that's what the situation calls for when the government shuts down and every science agency needs to be checked in on for RIFs, grant terminations, and general dysfunction. Our update on what the chaos means for science here:

Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Pewter Howitt share economics prize for work that underlines the importance of investing in research and development. go.nature.com/4hj9NNV

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

Less than 70% of science Nobel prize winners awarded this century hail from the country in which they were awarded their prize. “Mobility benefits everyone. Each newcomer brings fresh ideas, new techniques & different ways of looking at old problems” 🧪 #academicSky www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Who said the science part of Nobel week is over!? In my new analysis for Nature, over 30% of science laureates from this century have immigrated, and two thirds came to the US. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Of the 202 Nobelists who have been awarded prizes in physics, chemistry and medicine this century, less than 70% hail from the country in which they were awarded their prize, a Nature analysis shows. go.nature.com/48UbZJp

You've probably heard how a high percentage of #Nobel laureates are immigrants. The US in particular has benefited from the influx of bright minds. @jennaahart.bsky.social ran the data for this century's Nobel prizewinners — and shows more than 30% immigrated. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Big day for physics teachers who tell their students “If you slap the desk, there’s a 1 in 5.2^61 chance that your hand will pass right through”

Researchers question whether autonomous AI scientists are possible or even desirable. Read the full story: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Happy Nobel week to you and yours!🏅 In the latest from @nature.com: Could AI take home a science Nobel—no human needed? Some say yes, and soon. 🧪 For more: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

That's quite the chart annotation. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.

That's quite the headline

"This detection will quickly 'become one of my favourites', says David Reitze, executive director of the LIGO laboratory" @jennaahart.bsky.social reviews some of our greatest discoveries, including the new #GW250114 in Nature News www.nature.com/articles/d41... #GW10Years 🧪⚛️🔭

Happy birthday to GW150914, our first (of many) #GravitationalWave discoveries, detected 10 years ago today! #GW10Years 🧪⚛️🔭 🖼️: @chirpmass.bsky.social

Ten years ago, the #LIGO gravitational-wave detectors in Louisiana and Washington first heard the ripples in spacetime created by some of the most violent cosmic collisions. For @nature.com, @jennaahart.bsky.social looks back at LIGO's greatest hits: www.nature.com/articles/d41... #physics 🧪

New from Nature: Latest LIGO results from GW250114 confirm Hawking’s black hole area theorem with 99.999% confidence!! “It was the perfect 10-year anniversary present.” More on this detection and LIGO’s other greatest hits from its first decade of discovery 🧪🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Amazing early birthday present for GW detections !!

Do you drink Budweiser or Sam Adams? Here's @jennaahart.bsky.social with the latest science on what that says about the chemistry of your taste preferences 🍻🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New from Nature on last week’s ACS meeting: the science behind your favorite beer Can next year’s meeting explain the magic of pink whitney @acs.org? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

OBITUARY Jim Lovell, commander of NASA's Apollo 13 moon mission, dies at 97 reut.rs/3UPKubN

Trump's new executive order "looks like an explicit attempt to destroy peer review for federal science grants,” a physicist in Texas tells @dangaristo.bsky.social. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The marketing for Avatar 3 is getting a bit ridiculous

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, ALPHA CEN A b!!! First hinted at in Wagner+21, now Chas Beichman, Aniket Sanghi and team have published new JWST images of alpha Cen A showing another hint of this Saturn-sized planet candidate! exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/overview/alp...

New from Nature: “I had to take a moment of silence to appreciate what I was seeing.” Astronomers reveal what could be the first ever image of a planet in its star’s habitable zone—and in the same star system as Avatar, no less www.nature.com/articles/d41...

“It’s a ransom to release funds.” During my conversations with Columbia scientists about the university’s new settlement, the word “foreboding” came up in just about every interview. Hear their thoughts in my @nature.com story with @alexwitze.bsky.social: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Columbia scientists say they are relieved, yet unsettled, after last week’s deal with the US government to restore university research funding — and they’re figuring out how to get back to work. go.nature.com/3Ja40wY

Yall don’t know how grateful I am have born in the age of iPhones, and not the age of useful maggot calories

NEW from our @ucscscicomm.bsky.social classes for @nature.com: @jennaahart.bsky.social and Rita Aksenfeld on the early-career foreign scientists now planning to leave the US www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"I wanted to stay here." - an early-career stem-cell biologist who is now looking to leave the US for a career in Europe. Reporting by Rita Akensenfeld & @jennaahart.bsky.social, for @nature.com 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Looking for Columbia researchers to talk to for a Nature story on the university’s recent settlement! If you/anyone you know might want to share their experiences, please message me!

Now on @sciam.bsky.social, by @nadiadrake.bsky.social: The U.S. has axed CMB-S4, its boldest cosmology experiment in generations. Tight budgets and crumbling infrastructure helped doom the project, which was meant to test cosmic inflation. RIP. www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-...

How fittingly ironic it was to write this story on a Friday!

We should add a slop factor to the Drake equation, 9 out of 10 alien civilizations fail because they drown in self-made AI slop

NEW: Hundreds of NASA employees have filed a letter of formal dissent. "We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources. The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire."

Just found this relic from my first SciCom gig writing stellar nucleosynthesis puns for NASA. Happy to have graduated to a full-length feature for @quantamagazine.bsky.social! Star stuff, indeed: www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-s...

I think the only thing more breathtaking than Rubin’s first images was hearing their lengthy backstory from Tony Tyson. If you’re interested in how it took 30 years to create these snapshots, my story below:

Tony Tyson is one of the key figures behind an ultra-vivid new era of astronomy. In a conversation with ‪@jennaahart.bsky.social‬, Tyson discusses dark matter, dark energy and the decades-long effort to build the Rubin Observatory (‪@vrubinobs.bsky.social): www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-...

NEW from Nature: Democrats hosted a protest event featuring ‘things we’ll never know’ because of the US government’s cuts to science.

I think of her often

Zinc, lead, barium, gold. Our world is full of heavy elements. At Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, physicists are reverse-engineering the stellar processes that forge these elements. ‪@jennaahart.bsky.social‬ reports: www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-s...

Happy National Space Day! Here’s an article I wrote this week about how heavy elements like silver and gold seem to spawn in a surprising new cosmic site.

NEW from our @ucscscicomm.bsky.social news features class in San Jose Mercury News: @jennaahart.bsky.social on an academic effort to make peace between artists and AI www.mercurynews.com/2025/03/09/u...