I’m so sad to share that yesterday was my last day at Scientific American. It was an honor to work alongside my incredible colleagues and to speak with researchers across the sciences. If you’re looking to hire staff or freelance, please consider me and my other laid off coworkers (🧵)

Candy was one of my favorite people in planetary science. Always a brilliant smile, loved every bit of science she did, loved explaining it and involving the public, bringer of joy and wonder to every science team. She is sorely missed.

This is a beautiful tribute!!

A gorgeous reflection on the impact of one of the most quietly important planetary scientists in recent history. RIP, Candy Hansen-Koharcheck. 🔭🧪

Candy Hansen-Koharcheck was one of my favorite people to interview. She died last month, after nearly 50 years in planetary science. I wrote about her enthusiasm for capturing cosmic wonder and sharing it with everyone on Earth, for @sciencenews.bsky.social: www.sciencenews.org/article/spac...

This is an excellent story by @marinakoren.bsky.social about space food today and tomorrow - and features some of my favorite space biologists, Anna-Lisa Paul and Rob Ferl, and some of the microgravity experiments we flew on New Shepard

No one goes to space for the food. But NASA food scientists and other researchers are working to help astronaut food shed its not-so-great reputation. For Nat Geo, @marinakoren.bsky.social digs into the future of extraterrestrial dining in her latest. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. What does that mean, a week before NASA is aiming to launch Artemis II to send humans around the moon--with a heat shield that some worry isn't up to the task? 🧪 🔭 www.scientificamerican.com/article/40-y...

Kind of wild that one of NASA's biggest human spaceflight mission in years COULD be happening next week, but we're still waiting to know what's up. www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio...

wrote about what's pissing me off about the search for Leonardo da Vinci's DNA defector.com/leonardo-da-...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt and launching as soon as 2029, the Lazuli Space Observatory would be bigger than Hubble and the first-ever full-scale private space telescope. By @nadiadrake.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/schm...

Last year delivered doses of drama and excitement in the space business, and 2026 is shaping up to be another thrilling year in the cosmos.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has donated his own private jets to the agency and is offering incentive rides on them to NASA employees who do exceptional work. What are your thoughts on this move? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

My first piece of in-person reporting from Thailand! At the Thai Space Expo in October, space companies flocked to Bangkok to discuss opportunities in the region. What does the future hold? ter.li/JO

Day 12 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Barred Spiral. This galaxy, NGC 5335, is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy, displaying a striking bar-like structure across its center, backdropped by dozens of other more-distant galaxies. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

This year, we @statnews.com have brought you the stories of who-knows-how-many scientists, federal workers, policy experts, and patients For the next part of American Science, Shattered we revisit the stories of some of those people and how the year panned out www.statnews.com/2025/12/11/a...

At last, some resolution www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Astronomers sure do conjure up a lot of spooky images when they look out into deep space. A short Halloween thread: Let's start with the Cosmic Bat Nebula (LDN 43). 🧪🔭 apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap24102...

An important and deeply reported story from @joshdinner.bsky.social about the hollowing out of NASA, particularly its science centers, where some current employees now refer to "climate" only as "the c-word." www.space.com/space-explor...

You can't talk me out of thinking there's something just very cool about an image of an interstellar comet taken by a spacecraft orbiting Mars: 🧪 🔭 www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

This took me out

This day ten years ago. On 30 October 2015 the now-destroyed Arecibo radio telescope images this giant skull looming out of the dark of space.

Thrilled to share that I'm in the October issue of National Geographic, with a story about two photography buddies—one standing on Earth, the other floating 250 miles above it—and the breathtaking views they captured: www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/...

Thrilled to share that I'm in the October issue of National Geographic, with a story about two photography buddies—one standing on Earth, the other floating 250 miles above it—and the breathtaking views they captured: www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/...

This is one of those weeks where I'm reminded that space reporting is 95% talking about going to space and 5% actually going to space

For TIME's Best Inventions of 2025 list, I wrote about the Rubin Observatory and other fascinating projects in space, climate, and green energy: time.com/collections/...

Jared Isaacman may not totally be out of the NASA game just yet www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This month, skywatchers will have the opportunity to observe not one but two once-in-a-lifetime comets. Astronomy's Quanzhi Ye shared some tips on how to locate and view comets A6 (Lemmon) and R2 (SWAN) with @marinakoren.bsky.social for @nytimes.com ☄️ 🔭

We’ve got 2 good binocular comets this month. R2 SWAN is poised to pass 0.26 AU from the Earth on Oct 19th, while A6 Lemmon will put on its late October dusk encore performance, low to the west. Both could be Halloween sky treats if they hold up to expectations. www.universetoday.com/articles/new...

We were interviewed recently by science writer @marinakoren.bsky.social for the New York Times on the up and coming October comet parade: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/s...

Have a little cosmic wonder with your spooky season: My first story for @nytimes.com, about a pair of once-in-a-lifetime cosmic visitors gracing the northern skies this month www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/s...

🤯

If you liked my media hits in The New York Times, MSNBC and CNN and want to learn more about autism, I wrote a book about #Autism, #Neurodiversity and arguing we should stop trying to cure #ActuallyAutistic people and accept them. It's on sale for $15.19. www.harpercollins.com/products/wer...

Meet Artemis II: the first mission to send humans around the moon since 1972. I’ll be covering this mission for National Geographic, so you’ll be seeing a lot from me about it, but here’s the first: www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

NEW WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened. This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it www.wired.com/story/oral-h...

Sagittarius B2 is the Milky Way galaxy’s most massive and active star forming cloud, producing half of the stars created in the galactic center region despite having only 10 percent of the area’s star-making material. (1/4) 🧵 🔭 🧪

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

An absolute banger of a story from @sarahscoles.bsky.social about Breakthrough Starshot and its dreams of interstellar travel, a decade after the big-deal project was announced, including what happened to that dazzling $100 million promise: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

HiPOD: Frosty Sand Dunes of Mars A field of sand dunes occupies this frosty 5-kilometer diameter crater in the high-latitudes of the northern plains of Mars. Some dunes appear to be climbing up the crater slope along a gully-like form. uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_06... #Mars #science #NASA

TIL that there's aluminum recovered from the Twin Towers on Mars: One piece on the Spirit rover, and another on Opportunity (both spacecraft are no longer operational) www.nasa.gov/image-articl...

Scientists just shared their best look to date at what might be the most tantalizing rock on Mars: 🧪 🛰️ www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-t...

What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and ultraviolet light of nearby, massive, infant stars. What else did #NASAWebb find in Pismis 24? https://bit.ly/4mr3cmt

And as the New York Times editorialized in response to the scientific reports, this marked “the beginning of the end of Mankind’s grand romantic dreams.”

FEMA staff who signed their name to the recent Katrina Declaration were placed on administrative leave. The notice says the move is not punitive, but others call it illegal retaliation against whistleblowers. 🧪 eos.org/research-and...

Did a dive into the saga to transport a retired Space Shuttle to Houston. The story could have easily been twice as long, it's got so many wild parts www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

"Live, laugh, launch" is pretty damn good www.space.com/space-explor...

I'm looking away from our world for a moment. I'm looking at the little dot in this image. It's a newborn planet, 5 times the mass of Jupiter, carving a path through the disk of dust around its star. This is the first time we've seen the process clearly. 🧪🔭 www.eso.org/public/image...

After a series of failures during recent test flights, SpaceX's massive Starship had a smooth ride for Tuesday's blast-off, and successfully deployed some fake satellites.

Love that we're still finding new moons in our own solar system www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/s...

I watched way too many "5 to 9 after 9 to 5" videos and became convinced that whether you "make the most" of your free time by being super productive or just try to relax and recover from your job, the ghost of work haunts most of our leisure www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...