Tune in to hear Ben, @nickpetrichowe.bsky.social & I talk about how the world of Pokémon & the world of science come in together, featuring Charizard bees & Turtwig fossils + what a phylogenetic tree of 646 Pokémon monsters looks like. My fav is Jigglypuff & Pikachu exposing predatory journals

Watching the Pokémon TV series & owning a Poké ball were some of my happiest childhood memories. Little did I know that one day I’d be interviewing scientists around the world to talk about how Pokémon inspired them to name bees and fossils, teach biodiversity & even expose predatory journals!

Iranians are experiencing a collective trauma. Thousands have been killed/injured in recent events, the economy is crippled & the threat of a wider conflict is real. This is especially difficult for those living in Iran, as many have lost (or fear losing) loved ones. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Tune in to hear about what’s in store for science in 2026, from compact AI models that may beat LLMs in reasoning, clinical trials of gene editing to treat rare genetic disorders, space missions, particle physics experiments, & the continued aftershocks of policy changes by the Trump administration.

An ode to a rubber duck that was stuck to a rock, thanks to a newly designed, AI-enhanced super-adhesive hydrogel capable of sticking even in wet, salty conditions. @nature.com

A Christmas carol brought to you by @nature.com celebrating the discovery this year that Nanotyrannus was actually its own species, not a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex as had been believed.

I recently wrote about cases of identity fraud in scientific publishing — including use of made-up personas as authors or peer reviewers and impersonation of real researchers. There are ongoing discussions on how to prevent such cases, but the solutions aren’t simple. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Is AI sycophancy holding science back? A preprint by @jurafsky.bsky.social and his team found that AI chatbots are 50% more sycophantic than humans. In this piece, researchers tell me how AI sycophancy is creeping into many of the tasks that they use LLMs for. Read more @nature.com