Day 25 #SciArtSeptember prompt tireless: 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci Kathleen Lonsdale DBE FRS (née Yardley, 1903-1971) who solved a longstanding #chemistry conundrum of the shape of benzene, here with her drawing of electron density for hexachlorobenzene (green) & model of hexamethylbenzene. Her husband said, 🧵

This is a truly wild caper by @danvergano.bsky.social on the disappearance of the El Ali meteorite: www.scientificamerican.com/article/insi...

Some interesting sociology of space news to watch with the NYT dropping a fairly thin, but obvious piece by one of their anointed today www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u... saying the obvious: NASA's SpaceX lunar landing plans are unlikely to work anytime soon despite a lot of U.S. chest beating. 1/n

Ever wonder what happened to that $100 million interstellar spaceship program? Me too. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Great writeup by Sarah Scoles @sarahscoles.bsky.social on the apparent demise of Breakthrough Starshot

In 2016 billionaire Yuri Milner held a star-studded press conference where he pledged to spend $100 million to send the first spaceship to Alpha Centauri. But almost a decade later, Breakthrough Starshot doesn't have much to show for itself. What happened? @sarahscoles.bsky.social reports 🧪

Oh this is very cool #MathNerds

The LIGO project is one of the coolest things going, and the Trump admin wants to effectively cancel it. Here's hoping it can keep on making amazing discoveries like this one 🧪

LAST CHANCE! 📸 Join the #SciAmInTheWild photo challenge! 🎁 You could win an Unlimited subscription to Scientific American—plus exclusive prizes for your next adventure. ⌛ Hurry! Contest ends September 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET ⚠️ Terms & Conditions apply. See rules for entry: sciam.com/180contest

For our anniversary, an ode to our enduring fascinating with quantum mechanics for 100 years and counting by @jacklinkwan.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...

Today, Scientific American turns 180—the oldest continuously published magazine in the U.S. 🎉 Since 1845, we’ve shared the wonders of science with the world. 💫 Dive into 180 years of discovery: sciam.com/180 🧬 Explore pivotal moments in science: bit.ly/4mNTpGY 🎁 Win prizes: sciam.com/180contest

Happy birthday Scientific American! I am proud to have contributed, by coincidence, nearly 180 articles to the magazine. Here's the one I wrote honoring the anniversary. www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...

Today marks 180 years of @sciam.bsky.social! I've been here for nearly 12 years and I couldn't be prouder to be a Scientific American. Here's my favorite cover, and the first special issue I edited. Happy 180th! sciam.com/180

NEW: The White House wants to kill off Juno, NASA's mission to uncover Jupiter's secrets. Fortunately, its legacy is clear. Juno's a scientist, but also an artist: it revealed Jupiter as a living van Gogh painting hanging in the sky. Me @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Which hypothetical quasiparticle would you most like to see proven to be real? Many would vote for the axion (named after a detergent because it cleans up a mess in quantum chromodynamics), but for purely etymological reasons, I'm now voting for the neglecton. 🧪⚛️ physicsworld.com/a/predicted-...

Our magazine is 180 years old and we're running a contest! Take a photo of any issue out in the world, and you could win a (legitimately) awesome prize package. I'm not eligible but can't resist, so here's my entry 🌟 #SciAmInTheWild www.scientificamerican.com/anniversary-...

AI supposedly did well at the International Math Olympiad this year, but mathematicians aren't impressed: www.scientificamerican.com/article/math...

This is just so frustrating 😡

From deep oceans to distant galaxies, every Scientific American cover is an invitation to explore. Now show us where curiosity takes you! 🤳 Enter the #SciAmInTheWild photo contest 🎁 Prizes include gadgets and gear to elevate your next adventure ⚠️ Terms & Conditions apply: sciam.com/180contest

It’s only early August but the fall migration of birds is already under way! Here’s what I’ve been seeing lately and how you can watch this incredible spectacle 🧪🪶 www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

I had an enlightening conversation with mathematician Hannah Cairo about how she broke a huge conjecture in Harmonic Analysis at just 17 years old, what being a transgender mathematician means to her and how math has supported her along her journey! 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌊 ✨ Read the Q&A here:

For 180 years, Scientific American covers have invited readers on voyages of discovery—from deep oceans to distant galaxies. Now it’s your turn! Capture your own moment of exploration with our photo challenge. Terms & Conditions apply. See official rules: sciam.com/180contest #SciAmInTheWild

Scientific American is turning 180! 🎉 Celebrate with us: 🎂 Explore our anniversary collection 🧩 Solve digital jigsaw puzzles of vintage covers 🏆 Stay tuned for a contest announcement tomorrow! sciam.com/180 #SciAm180

New world record longest lightning strike just dropped! 🧪 (by @dodecalemma.bsky.social for @sciam.bsky.social)

A rare celestial treat is in store tonight: two (maybe even three?) meteor showers will be visible in the early morning sky! www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

The first antimatter qubit probably won't mean an antimatter quantum computer any time soon, but it could just help solve one of the biggest mysteries in the universe www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...

‘Arsenic Life’ Microbe Study Retracted after 15 Years of Controversy A controversial arsenic microbe study unveiled 15 years ago has been retracted. The study’s authors are crying foul www.scientificamerican.com/article/arse...

“I thought I would be helping people,” says Michael Pasqua, a life scientist and program manager for the EPA’s safe drinking water efforts in Wisconsin. 🧪 (by @meghanbartels.bsky.social in @sciam.bsky.social)

Really enjoyed this conversation with Lee about the benefits and risks of commercial space travel! Relatedly, I am now fascinated with the issue of space trash...

Wild! Scientists turned the world's largest X-ray laser on superheated gold and found that it had reached 33,000 degrees Fahrenheit without melting. The discovery seems to upend longstanding predictions of thermodynamics. www.scientificamerican.com/article/phys...

Feel like breaking your brain a little? The latest from @dodecalemma.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/try-... - try the puzzles reliable sources say it's "too 'after 4pm' for"!

Why is there matter instead of antimatter? It's one of the biggest mysteries in physics. Now scientists are a small step closer to solving it: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

🔊 Two really massive black holes, COLLIDING💥! LIGO has seen ~300 of these collisions since 2015, but this one is HUGE creating a black hole 256x the mass of the Sun. It's likely the merging black holes were themselves the by-product of previous mergers 🤓🔭🧪 ℹ️: www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

We finally made it to Bluesky—just a few billion years after the Big Bang, and only slightly late to the party ✨🌌 We’re sharing some of our best stories from the year so far to kick off our Bluesky journey!

Writing MURDERBOT "taught me about my own neurodiversity. ... I have had a lot of people tell me that it helped them work out things about themselves and that it was just nice to see a character who thought and felt a lot of the same things they did." @marthawells.com with @clarakm.bsky.social

There's an interview with me in Scientific American: www.scientificamerican.com/article/were...

In which I try not to fangirl completely but totally fail because I am speaking to the ACTUAL, AMAZING @marthawells.com www.scientificamerican.com/article/were...

“I saw an image of a floating pair of scissors clipping my future,” one postdoc said of losing his NIH funding. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

If you've been waiting for a good excuse to subscribe to @sciam.bsky.social, we're having a big sale for July 4th! Independence starts with independent journalism—get yours at a 40% discount. Offer valid 7/1-7/14. Sciam.com/getsciam

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

"It’s almost like our work gives you infinitely many new definitions for prime,” Ono says. www.scientificamerican.com/article/math...

As you can imagine, we at SciAm are extremely excited about the upcoming Vera Rubin Telescope. What's it going to do? "something revolutionary, rare and relatively old-fashioned: it will just look out at the universe and see what there is to see." (by @rboyle31.bsky.social) 🧪

I am once again here to tell you the sun is cool and weird: 🧪 🛰️ www.scientificamerican.com/article/sola...

Only on @sciam.bsky.social! “I was not prepared to be contending with an LLM like this... That’s what a scientist does. That’s frightening.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/insi...

Mathematicians are jittery after AI proves shockingly good at outsmarting them www.scientificamerican.com/article/insi...

Finally, this is just a request. Congress appropriates funds, not the President. Regardless of everything that has been going on. Regardless of who your Congress people are, contact them and demand they #SaveNASA (and NSF and NIH etc etc etc)

NSF budget would close down one of LIGO's sites. This would be, to put it lightly, a catastrophe for gravitational wave astronomy. "In FY 2026 NSF will operate only one of the two sites and will support a reduced level for technology development." bsky.app/profile/hast...

A lot of people know about the Germans in the space program, but the more relevant engineer might be Qian Xuesen, the MIT/CalTech aerospace professor who co-founded JPL and was sent to recruit the Germans. We deported him the 1950s. He became the leader of China’s missile program.

This book is great -- such a balm for worried parents. It gave me so much reassurance and actionable advice for parenting in (waves hands wildly) THESE TIMES www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Woohoo, can’t wait!