The media and science's role in it has shifted several times in my career. I'm concerned this time is the worst - which is why I'm glad to be running an assembly to discuss the issues - see below. There are two things about the NPR situation that catch my attention: www.npr.org/2026/05/18/n... 1/3

Fascinating glimpse of a little considered chemical consequence the post-oil future here. Our economies rely on naphtha, essentially a byproduct of fuel production, constituting 5% of crude oil, but responsible for basically all the other useful chemicals. 🧪 1/2 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

#Climate criminals in your refrigerator: The police are chasing criminals selling shady chemicals – and those chemicals might be in your kitchen. I talk to Environment Investigation Agency, which is chasing them, in my new Chemical and Engineering News story. You can read it at bit.ly/hfccrime

Encouraging news from study where local communities and individuals in London test their own tap water, finding PFAS levels in the nanogram per litre (ng/L) range, ie one part per trillion. For context, 1 trillion seconds is roughly 31,700 years. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a... 🧪

With jobs going at the BBC and Wired UK closing down, this discussion is set to be essential. We've had a healthy number of bookings for this but do still have space for more - join us! #journalism 🧪

In my latest @chemistryworld.com World piece, I report on how science and global politics intertwine in the rivalry over the chemicals used as the cathode in the electric vehicle batteries. You can read more at bit.ly/Carcat. 🧪 1/3

As someone whose late partner was under 50 when she died of cancer, and a science writer, for me the i has the best coverage I've seen on the new paper looking at the factors behind the rise in cancer in young people. 🧪inews.co.uk/news/health/cancer-rates-under-50s-rising-no-one-sure-why-4382878

Just two days to go until the launch of the Ethical Reporting Guidelines. Hosted by PJP co-ordinator and media justice & rights campaigner @lizpendleton.bsky.social the panel + Q&A covers how handling sensitive topics with ethical rigor means the difference between life or death. buff.ly/7rYlq67

#JournoRequest I am working on a story for @iflscience.com on the NASA cuts in Trump's budget proposal 🔭🧪 Is your mission directly affected, or will your research be affected if a mission is ended or cancelled? I want to hear from you; we will keep you anonymous. DM me or signal: DrCarpineti.59

After choking on fumes in a traffic jam, scientist Karim Zaghib suffered a life-threatening asthma attack. ‘From that day forward, I felt a strong conviction that I must help the world rid itself of fossil fuels,’ he says. @andyextance.bsky.social www.chemistryworld.com/features/the...

Huge congrats @sarahfinch.bsky.social - richly deserved! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A HUGE, narrative-breaking moment for the UK car market New EVs are now cheaper than petrol cars on average, says Autotrader Last yr CCC said price parity was due by 2028 – and it's already here And EVs are already MUCH cheaper to run than petrol

Great opportunity for scientists to remember, and perhaps for ‘sceptical scrollers’ and ‘dissenting disruptors’ to learn, that scepticism is arguably more important to science than trust! Would learning the importance of scepticism increase trust? 😜 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c... 🧪

The impact is roughly a month of ageing every two years. Assuming I live another 30 years, I would effectively be something like 1.25 years younger. Over the same period I would have spent £2400 on multivitamins. Would be more compelled if they looked at mortality. news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor... 🧪

That Iran "coal comeback" in full

🎵🎸Despite all my rage, it's hard to be a crab in a caaaage. 🎶Even though I'm alive & well, It's hard to thrive as a pet in a shell! 🐚 First thought when I read the print headline. Call me old school, but there's magic in seeing my name in print. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m... 🧪🌎

One of the reasons the world is heating faster than models suggest it should be, probably... phys.org/news/2026-04... 🧪

Injecting chemotherapy into people's eyes sounds nightmarish, even delivering drugs into their eyes with particles from pig semen instead is a huge improvement! www.livescience.com/health/medic... Doesn't look like @evaamsen.com posted her article when it published, that doesn se(e)m(en) right?!🧪

What do you think the science writing and journalism profession will look like in 2030 and beyond? Join @wblau.bsky.social and I and many others to discuss this, and decide how we respond, in an innovative 'community assembly' format either in London or online in July www.absw.org.uk/events/what-...

"[T]here’s no evidence that anyone is earning a return" on AI, says @nextwavef.bsky.social. Companies are planning big bets on building data centres - but half of them are cancelled or delayed, *because they have no path to profitability*! Madness! thenextwavefutures.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/a...

I'm really enjoying The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See, nearly finished listening to it. Really great story about an ethnic Chinese woman and the modernisation of China. Very much enjoying how it weaves in a powerful personal story with everything from global economics to chemistry!

This is about how to detect these fake citations, but I'm trying to wrap my head around *how* fake citations end up in papers. (thread) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NEW ANALYSIS: Record wind and solar generation saved UK from gas imports worth £1bn in March 2026 📈Wind+solar were up 22% year-on-year in March to a record high for the month ⛴️This avoided the need for gas imports worth £1bn at current high prices www.carbonbrief.org/...

Policy proposal: such donations should be taxed at 40% and the funds used to invest in parts of the beneficiary sector where financial support is lacking. #levellingup www.theguardian.com/education/20...

After YouGov retracted their poll on young people going to church more, I wrote about why polling young people, especially young men, has become increasingly challenging. It's a growing problem, and the market research industry needs to respond. chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/young-men-...

Everything Elise says here resonates... and also: "science curiosity promotes open-minded engagement with information that is contrary to individuals’ political predispositions" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... which is a good reason to try to trigger that curiosity in different groups

This paper by @hanachronism.bsky.social et al is full of useful tips for science storytelling, well worth the reading time for anyone who does this kind of thing for a living. 🧪 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Something extraordinary – yet predictable – has happened over recent days on Facebook. Fake accounts that usually post anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim content generated using AI to fuel division and hate in UK are now pushing out AI-gen content asking: "Should the UK produce its own fuel again?"

In a sea of opinions about the role of LLMs in academics I offer my own. Apart from being harmful, exploitive plagiarism machines, LLMs rob us of the opportunity to experience the gift of friction in writing, which changes how we think. We must not give away that gift. doi.org/10.1002/fee....

In my latest @chemistryworld.com piece, I report that the low-emissions hydrogen industry either committed to final investment decisions or started building around a million tonnes per year of production capacity in 2025, but cancelled over 4.9 million tonnes’ worth. Read more at bit.ly/Hbubble 🧪

Only 7 days left to enter the Young Science Writer Award 2026 Are you aged 14 to 16 and curious about the world around you? Do you love asking questions, exploring ideas, and communicating science in a way that informs and inspires? This is your chance to get involved.

Decent analysis of our local elections last night, the first I could vote in as a citizen.

It's not just the price of petrol at the pump...

On International Women's Day, domestic violence charity Refuge reveals women are most at risk at home to shatter dangerous misconceptions.

My friend Jonas put together this lovely guide on how men can dress colourfully and respect the planet. Having read it, I will explore second hand wool more this year. substack.com/home/post/p-...

This is a good talking point for the upcoming local elections, I think. Can we get people to commit to banning such ads in more places? www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Staggering! Chinw's clean-energy sectors nearly doubled in real value between 2022-25 and – if they were a country – would now be the 8th-largest economy in the world. In China and worldwide clean energy investments far exceed fossil fuels. www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-cle...

Gen Z knows what's up. Caring about the planet is hot. www.thetimes.com/life-style/s...

A not-so-small joy this week was getting a couple of my favourite pairs of trousers repaired by Quick Stitch in #Exeter - lovely to keep them going, and it would have been much more expensive to replace them

Surprised this paper hasn't had more coverage - but maybe that's because it's confirming what we already know about eating meat raising cancer risk? news.sky.com/story/vegeta... 🧪

I too am interested in what the evidence says about the EU's rules about green hydrogen. Are they really holding up deployment? How many planned projects were greenwash? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Interesting, but is it too much for articles to actually link to the full text of the open letter? Luckily the press gazette story included a contact email and from that I found spurcoalition.org. www.ft.com/content/2622...

ICYM In a year when the UK economy grew 1.1% the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy grew 12 per cent. And yet somehow it remains received wisdom on much of the right of British politics that clean technologies are bad and must be stopped. www.businessgreen.com/news/4526135...

Calling all budding science writers! Applications for our paid London-based internship, starting in June, are now open. Deadline: 9 March 2026 Full info here: springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Spring... #PaidInternship #Internship #Journalism

Really pleased to see defossilisation being covered by Nature again and raising the need for more collaboration between Europe and China on it. 🧪https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00383-5

AI suspicion: Are all headlines with colons in now written by LLMs?

This piece is getting attention, and rightly. All the more reason that the occasional wayward element not be used as reason for Edgelords to dismiss the rest. Genetic algorithms are not "systems theory mixed with race science". They are... www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...

FACTCHECK: Centrica's Chris O'Shea got blanket coverage for claiming electricity will cost more in 2030 than in energy crisis (Chris Stark: "he's wrong on this") I asked Centrica for evidence – they didn’t reply (Bills in crisis were >2x today, before huge govt subsidies) 1/4

If you’re worried about microplastics, you may have found some of the recent coverage confusing. I attempt to explain from a level of how science works broadly in this video, and about the details of the methods involved in my Chemistry World piece at bit.ly/microspat 🧪

NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months * Down in 2025 * Still below Mar 2024 * Clean energy wave a key factor If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far… www.carbonbrief.org/...