So what is a #Supermoon? Well, the Moon is typically ~¼ million miles away (30 Earths in a row), but thanks to its elliptical orbit, that distance changes. Tonight the Full Moon is 2-Earths closer than normal (221,823 miles away), making it appear ~15% brighter than usual hence #Supermoon! 🔭🧪

Your regular reminder to rinse and give your cavolo nero a little shake before you cook it, in case it’s harbouring one of these @royentsoc.bsky.social, what is this guy?

Was delighted to discover this titbit about Tom Lehrer, the mathematician who put the chemical elements to music: (Original article here: www.economist.com/prospero/201...)

Asian elephants work out we’re paying attention to them by observing how our face and body are oriented: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #scicomm 🧪

Oh dang. This is an excellent analogy.

Big congratulations to Chunk for taking the crown as this year's #FatBearWeek winner! Today feels like as good a day as any to tell you all about a little trick that bears have to ensure pregnancy takes place during OPTIMAL FATNESS.

I fell hard for diamonds reporting this feature for #Ingenia – did you know they could play a role in destroying forever chemicals, diagnosing infectious diseases, and making our data centres less energy-hungry? It's all here: www.ingenia.org.uk/articles/not... #chemsky #materialsscience 🧪

Sometimes your ideas fail, and other times they turn out better than expected! #sciart

Mind blown

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit. Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil. 1🧵 #PlaymobilÖtzi #PlaymobilInfestation

This week's newsletter lands in about 5 minutes! This week's edition features: ✂️ A couple of Galileo's severed fingers 📐 That time trigonometry saved farmers' bacon 🌿 The scientific reason why those who like coriander are wrong Subscribe here: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/subscribe #science 🧪

If a group of crows is called a murder then a group of bird watchers should be called an investigation.

The only dating advice book published in the invertebrate world is "How to win friends and protect your sperm during mating" Tips and life hacks: Give her a tasty protein tubule for snack Surrender your own flesh to her gaping maw Do a sexy dance 🧪🦗

I didn't realise that there was a precursor to Powers of Ten, made in Canada and called Cosmic Zoom 🙂 #PhysicsEd #iTeachPhysics #Science 🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgfw...

💫 Who taught us that the calcium in our bones and the iron in our blood were born in stars — and then fought to open observatories to women? Born #OTD in 1919, Eleanor Margaret Burbidge changed both science and who gets to do it. 🔭🧪 #Astronomy #WomenInScience

#Onthisday in 1888, Bertha Benz took the first ever long-distance car journey. She solved snags as they arose, using a hat pin to clear a blockage, and replacing the brake blocks with leather, effectively inventing brake pads. More here: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/live-from-... #histsci

Hahaha! This preprint! 🔭🧪 Chance of event happening to you or the planet, and if so, chance it will be lethal? Turns out .... we are more likely to be hit by an impactor 140m and greater than: - being struck by lightning - getting killed by elephants and coyotes arxiv.org/abs/2508.02418

Need to go to bed but can’t tear myself away from this stream, live from 3,623m under the sea. Watch this research team 🧪 searching for various invertebrates who call the seafloor home: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uL0...

The teaser from last week's newsletter. Get the answer here: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/neurotic-r...

A delicious piece of #scicomm that just makes me want to go out and learn everything about bats

In this week's newsletter, why some astronomers thought there were canals on Mars as late as the 1950s: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/neurotic-r... #histsci #mars

I am sorry to report to all vying for the title, but the "Best Article Subtitle" award for 2025 has been snatched early by Lauren Wolf with their subtitle "Arsenic and old lakes" www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

Buffy is so old there were only 103 named elements, we’re at 118 now. (Yes I pause every show that has a periodic table to see if its period accurate)

birb of the day

In 1955, a researcher flew bees from a lab in Paris to an identical lab in New York to test their sense of time. Find out what happened when they arrived: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/space-rice... #histsci #bees #scienceexperiments

Found this slug having a good munch on this puffball mushroom yesterday. 🍄🧪

Here’s the brainteaser from last week’s newsletter. It was teamed with the 1930 Times #crossword clue: Sounds like a curious song (6) Answer here: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/dog-tv-dri...

Here's a little brainteaser from the newsletter archive. Find the answer here: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/cosplaying...

Well this is fun. The Met Office are taking suggestions for new storm names. Sure would be a shame if we named them BigOil, BP, Equinor, Exxon, and Shell 👀 www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-o...

Hurrah to @timharford.ft.com & the BBC R4 More or Less team who have set the record straight on the erroneous report that the Rubin Observatory can resolve a golf ball on the moon 🧐 Rubin is absolutely awesome, but there is the atmosphere, light diffraction..... 🔭🧪 📻: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Fellow sweaty people: if you're feeling jetlag-levels of knackered this morning, *hit the electrolytes*. Caffeine ain't gonna do it

Nerds! If you like science talks and lectures, but don't like going outside, good news! I've found 38 – yes, 38 – science talks you can stream into your shady abode this week. Stay seated: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/aha-moment...

Today's @apod.shinyakato.dev is staggeringly beautiful apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25061...

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? Water is such a weird substance. Just absolutely bizarre. It's used as a standard or reference point for so much because it's so ubiquitous, but it's very different than pretty much every other liquid and every molecule of similar size.

In this week's newsletter: 🧭 how to find a "Manhattanhenge" near you 🍪 what biscuit can take a 30-second dunk 🏓 ping-pong playing pigeons Get it here: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/tough-cook...

This is a solar eclipse. Seen from the surface of Mars by the Perseverance rover in 2022. That moon is the little space potato Phobos. And you can even see sunspots!

hello can I help you fellows

This week's newsletter goes live soon! Inside this week's edition: 🐴 how to dress up a horse being bothered by flies 🌕 why the Moon will likely look massive this week 🖖 why a US president yielded to the demands of Star Trek fans. Subscribe here thank you: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Oreo pupper, assemble!

Barreling headlong into the end of the week like this healthy male manatee 🤗〰️🐮〰️ #manatee #manateesofcoralcity #itsaboy #remora #barrel #headlong #swimwell #barreling #coral #coralhead #coralcitycamera #miami #portmiami #miamibeach #biscaynebay #coralcity #civicpridethroughbiodiversity

Found a baby songbird? Here's a newly updated chart!

On the occasion of the @unesco.org International Day of Light, we created a 'light painting' using the Dwingeloo Telescope by mounting a light bulb at the focus for half an hour. #lightday2025 @idlofficial.bsky.social

If you like science and fun and nice things, check out my newsletter! In the latest one, discover: 🐶 how looking at cute things could make us better surgeons (maybe) 🤩 a shiny surprise in the sky for early risers 🪲 what flesh-eating beetles and making breakfast have in common.

Discover… 🦄 how a “unicorn” was made on a farm in 1936 ✈️ the 10-month, 15,000-mile journey of a swift compressed into 48 seconds 🍫 the median survival time of a chocolate on a hospital ward... …in this week’s newsletter, now live! Find it here: kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/unicorns-q...

Yup. And I tell my kids this. Those who actually learn to write will have a comparatively huge advantage over ChatGPT educations-because learning how to be a good writer isn’t just about the text produced. Writing teaches a host of critical skills needed across all fields and in your personal life.

🌟 Open for bookings for Pride Month! 🌟 (please repost) Are you looking for a LGBT+ speaker to help you mark Pride Month? I am an asexual activist who gives engaging talks about asexuality, a lesser known sexual orientation which describes people who experience little to no sexual attraction.

This week's newsletter is now live! so if you always wanted to know: 🍍 how much it cost to grow a pineapple in England in 1764 ⚓ what a tattooed tardigrade looks like 🦘 whether a cat flea or dog flea would win in a long jump competition… come say hello! kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/cockney-ma...

A spotted trunkfish goes SKKRRTTT in slow motion #spottedtrunkfish #swimminghandbag #trunkfish #boxfish #skkrrttt #slowmotion #coral #coralhead #coralcitycamera #miami #portmiami #biscaynebay #bfi #noaa #aoml #coralcity #civicpridethroughbiodiversity #glennnevis #coralcityfoundation #ccf #kbcf

This week's newsletter is now live! If you've always wanted to know: 🤔 The half-life of break room teaspoons 🚌 The fate of NASA's 1962 "Moon Bus" 🐦‍⬛ What birds are tweeting about in the dawn chorus... ...take a look! (Or even better, subscribe!) kicksfromscience.beehiiv.com/p/a-bus-to-t...

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked, "If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?" Allow our scaled diagram to explain...