I've always loved Prufrock, and didn't think it could be improved. I guess I was wrong

Conversations with colleagues at New Scientist: "So I was reading this book about Lord Kelvin..." "Ooh, I've been looking for a book about Lord Kelvin!"

Almost nothing is worth dealing with a website this broken, but this is "Where are the boys? I am in the town, looking outward. Time is space; the distance between me and the boys unravels the years before me. Come back to us, boys; come back to me."

This reminded me of a thought that crystallised last night while I was struggling to untangle a garden hose: I never want efficiency in things I pursue for joy. I'm sure there was a faster way to fix that hose, but that's not the point. I was spending time gardening, watching the sun set, etc etc

I'll be doing a reddit AMA on my recent visit to Chornobyl. Feel free to ping a question on contamination, the exclusion zone, the militarisation of the site - whatever - on the thread. www.reddit.com/r/chernobyl/...

Completely coincidentally, I only learned what the Diet of Worms was like a week ago and I'm so happy I read that Wikipedia page now

When I was a kid, my dad's favorite lie about the moon was that it was the size of a quarter. "Hold one up there, it covers the whole thing." This reminded me of that grin he had when he said it

HOLY SHIT

Today is maybe a good day to spend a while reading the entirety of @jonbois.bsky.social's masterpiece: 17776. I remember the original link sending you to SB Nation and then the page devolving into something totally strange, but I can't find that. So start here: www.sbnation.com/a/17776-foot...

The greens! The blues! I never knew they were this...colorful!

This made me surprisingly emotional

I gasped at this part of the launch. Such a cool shot

As a Kármán line supporter I thought I would strongly disagree with this, but actually I think the argument - that the first people to see a black sky above the blue were the first in space - is pretty solid! www.newscientist.com/article/2517...

Decided to totally screw up my algorithm and listen to an album of shrimp sounds. Hit me with your best shot, Spotify

An excellent piece on the Ukrainians building and learning to pilot drones by @sparkes.bsky.social. In one factory, they're making 80,000 a month. www.newscientist.com/article/2514...

My latest maths column is a plea to Hollywood - when are we going to get a Paul Erdős biopic starring Jeff Goldblum? www.newscientist.com/article/2514...

The Willamette

@chelswhyte.bsky.social went to see the Vera Rubin observatory and though I am known space hater, I could not be more excited for all we are about to see in the night sky www.newscientist.com/article/2483...

Absolutely shocking and very worrying from NOAA www.newscientist.com/article/2469...

We've got a great special report on quantum computing this week. First up, @kpc.bsky.social runs through all the big players in this growing industry, and asks who will be the first to make a machine that actually does something useful? www.newscientist.com/article/2467...

Listen, do I want the looming asteroid to hit anything? No, not deep down in my heart. But if it must, can it please hit the moon?? The DRAMATICS! The new crater! We could possibly see the explosion of impact! www.newscientist.com/article/2467...

My leader this week is a cheerful one: it is time to accept that we have broken the climate, and for us to look at what comes next www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Americans have been trying the Chinese-owned social media apps Red Note and Lemon8 as alternatives ahead of a looming US ban on TikTok. But those apps may not provide a refuge from US (or Chinese) government restrictions. Story with comments from @emmiehine.com www.newscientist.com/article/2464...

Is it possible that a single dramatic event, such as the eruption of a supervolcano, ever wiped out an entire species of hominin? www.newscientist.com/article/2463...

Another conversation we seem to be always having in the newsroom

I really enjoyed this week's pod, especially the conversation about gene editing. If you want to know what it feels when we chat in our newsroom, have a listen

Gotta try this. My cacio e pepe is so inconsistent. Sometimes it's gloriously creamy and others it's just a gloop fest

It's not unexpected, but it's still absolutely shocking www.newscientist.com/article/2463...

All the data now officially in from WMO, NASA, NOAA, UK Met Office, EU Copernicus, Japan Met Agency, Berkeley Earth: 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the first year to see global average temps rise 1.5°C above the pre-industrial baseline in average across datasets. 🧪

We will never, ever know who writes this column. But there's a fascinating bit about flat-Earthers from them this week. bsky.app/profile/mich...

An explainer on human metapneumovirus, or hMPV 🧪 Bottom line: this is not another pandemic starting but like other cold viruses 🦠 hMPV can sometimes kill the vulnerable, such as very young children. We need a vaccine, and hopefully we'll have one soon www.newscientist.com/article/2462...

It is also extremely important to me that you see the version of Pluto and Charon's capture that I set to music.

A person in Louisiana who became severely ill with bird flu in December has passed away from the infection, marking the first known bird flu death in the US 🧪

To mark five years of the pandemic, my team and I have put together a special issue on covid-19. I'll be tweeting about it over the next few days, but a good starting point is my leader explaining why now is the right time to look back, even if it feels difficult www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

The stargazing events to look forward to in 2025, from auroras to partial eclipses 🧪 by @leahc.bsky.social

This is so fun, and I found it so sweet that the scientists involved still find joy in the beauty of a snowflake ("This looks quite pretty actually"), even though they spend their lives researching them.

This is wild. I stopped several times to read a sentence or two out loud to colleagues, with more concern each time.

This was so good, I couldn't wait for each next tweet. Treat yourself

In September the largest number of entangled logical qubits, an important resource for quantum computers correcting their own errors, was 24 and I was writing about it for @newscientist.bsky.social The number has now jumped to 50, and I am writing about it again www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

Liquid metal can be used to grow human cells @sparkes.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

James is reporting all week from #agu2024. Follow for more

i don't know what to say about this except that i hate this worm and his mandibles www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

The brilliant Our Human Story newsletter by @michael-marshall.bsky.social turns 50 months old, and you get a huge edition full of archaeologists sharing what they think are the biggest advances in the past 5 years and their hopes for the next 5. Dig in! www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

You will see a lot of headlines about the "mind-boggling" speed of Google's new quantum computer, but most stories fail to mention this is only in solving a specific problem with no practical applications. So is it a big deal? @kpc.bsky.social has the answers www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

After almost 60 years, the mathematical mystery of the moving sofa problem has been settled 🛋️ The proof came from Jineon Baek, a lone mathematician who had been working on the problem for 7 years in secret. www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

Roses are red, My dog barks,

I just learned that the name for three asterisks used to break up text is a "dinkus", and that's wonderful en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinkus

sharks are older than trees. sharks existed before saturn had rings. okay, okay. what's older than sharks

Ancient Mesopotamians embodied emotions differently to us. They felt happiness in their liver and anger in their thighs and knees! (according to an analysis of cuneiform texts) www.newscientist.com/article/2458...