Researchers see enormous power in new tools—but also the potential end of astrophysics as a human endeavor. https://scim.ag/4o7XrvB

This week on the @science.org podcast, Joshua Sokol talks about the intense discussion happening in the astrophysics community as AI and ML become increasingly powerful www.science.org/content/podc...

This is a thought provoking metaphysical piece that pulls at the strings of why we care so much (or don’t) as to whether AI can be better at everything than we can be. Absolutely love this. Thanks @aaas.org @science.org 🥰

I've found it instructive watching is happening in the physical sciences with LLM-accelerated research. This passage from "The Last Astronomers" in Science resonated with me www.science.org/content/arti... (here is the arXiv article referenced: arxiv.org/abs/2602.10181)

"'Why do we do astrophysics?' Hogg offered an answer. It wasn’t to solve the cosmos but to grapple with it: a journey, not a destination." THIS, from @joshuasokol.bsky.social, gets at the heart of why I despise genAI: it assumes that writing is a product rather than an experience

Fascinating article about how technology changes and shapes the social life and work practices of a scientific community.... www.science.org/content/arti...

@longreads.com you're going to want to take a look at this feature in @science.org by @joshuasokol.bsky.social. It's really quite something. www.science.org/content/arti...

This is awfully good. It's beautifully reported, thoughtful, smart, and elegantly written. I'm a tiny bit jealous, @joshuasokol.bsky.social. Ok, just jealous.

One of the great joys of being an editor is getting to work with smart, talented writers on stories that ask big, thorny questions. @joshuasokol.bsky.social knocked this story out of the park. Read this: It's a beautifully reported case study of how a scientific field is grappling with LLMs.

"Is the scene consistent with the physics of the real world? 'Shadows are amazing. Lighting is amazing. Geometry is amazing,' he says. '3D reconstruction is a huge part of what I do.'" @kakape.bsky.social for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

I find Artemis so fascinating because of all the decisions that led to this moment. Orion is 2 decades in the making. SLS is a contrivance to preserve the space shuttle's supply chain. 5 admins, 20+ years of Congress, global partners, hundreds of thousands of people, 4 astronauts—all for this.

Whew! It feels so good to breathe a sigh of relief for the Artemis II crew.

Splashdown confirmed for Artemis II!

BIG story out now from @science.org on SR-1 Freedom, a highly ambitious nuclear Mars mission that NASA wants to launch in 2028. @hannah-richter.bsky.social has scoops on how the mission came together—and where its reactor is probably being built. www.science.org/content/arti...

Watching Artemis II has been bittersweet. I have done a huge amount of reporting on the program, including attending Artemis I and previewing Artemis II. But by coincidence, Artemis is also tied up in a deeply traumatizing experience—and those feelings have rushed back with surprising intensity.

To keep myself honest, here's the Google Trends data for US searches for "Artemis" November 2022 to today. Data for this week are incomplete, but we're looking at at least a ~12.5x bump over the Artemis I launch in November 2022. trends.google.com/trends/explo...

Artemis II launches at 6:24pm ET. Watch live here: www.youtube.com/live/Tf_UjBM... Artemis II will provide a key test of how the human body responds to radiation in deep space, a major concern for future human space exploration. Read more in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

The #ArtemisII crew includes the first person of color, the first woman, and the first non-American to (hopefully) fly beyond Earth orbit. You won't hear much on this from NASA, which has rolled back DEI initiatives over the past year. www.npr.org/2026/03/31/n...

Today is the launch of Artemis II. It's a mission defined by expanding possibilities, including sending the first Black person, the first woman, and the first non-U.S. citizen beyond low Earth orbit. It also comes at a challenging time back on terra firma. I wrote about this tension back in 2023:

One neat thing about publishing research is seeing other people build on your work. If you want to play with the Naibbe cipher — my attempt at building a cipher benchmark for the #VoynichManuscript — someone has made a site where you can encrypt and decrypt with it. voynich.science?vw_panel=nai...

My latest: in an interview with @science.org, new NASA administrator Jared Isaacman promises a big uptick in lunar robotic missions, another potential Mars 2028 mission beyond comms, and continued support for earth science observation. (Sorry astro and helio folks, time went fast.)

A historian has discovered that a 16th century printing of The Almagest—a highly influential ancient astronomy text—contains extensive annotations from Galileo Galilei, the astronomer who later overthrew that text’s conception of a geocentric cosmos. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4aMAwRm

This is fascinating. open.substack.com/pub/theicema...

This is a nice contrast to all the awful behavior confirmed through the Epstein files. Proud of @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social & @seanmcarroll.bsky.social for picking up on the sexism & charlatanism right away.

After endless revelations about people in the Epstein files, it's refreshing to see one about three people who were invited to something by Epstein and were like "nope" ... including Bluesky elder @seanmcarroll.bsky.social www.science.org/content/arti...

As always, it was a blast working with @joshuasokol.bsky.social on this story. What a cool find: a young Galileo taking notes in the margins of the ancient astronomy text he'd make obsolete two decades later.

Now more than ever, independent journalism is vital. Please consider supporting the work of @science.org's journalists: 1. Sign up for @nerdychristie.bsky.social's *excellent* ScienceAdviser newsletter: www.science.org/content/page... 2. Subscribe for $25/year. www.science.org/content/page...

Writing is thinking. You can't possibly set up early-career journalists for long-term success if you systematically deny them the experience of thinking through their own reporting and structuring it as stories.

Call me a romantic, but one of the things I love about print news versus online is the editorial ability to use layout and size to communicate priority. On an algorithmic social feed, every post renders as the same size, with the same character limits, and there is no curatorial guiding of the eye.

What do Seahawks QB Sam Darnold and a snapping shrimp have in common? They both protect their brains from injury with headgear (though only 1 of them is up against a supersonic shockwave). My latest for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti.... Thanks as always @michaelgreshko.bsky.social :-)

One of the reasons why media is in the mess it's in is that a shockingly high number of media executives are simply awful at their jobs. Will Lewis inherited a bad hand from Fred Ryan and played it horrendously. What an ignominious legacy.

It was a pleasure to edit Claudia's story about this remarkable bonobo—and a remarkable study done with him shortly before he passed away. 🧪https://www.science.org/content/article/imagination-isn-t-just-humans-famous-ape-shows

A newspaper is not 1,000 substacks in a trenchcoat. You can't do alone what you can do in a big news organization. The capacity for deep, long-term reporting is lost. Find somewhere that still does this, whether it's public media, a newspaper or a website, and subscribe to them today.

What a terrible day for the Washington Post. My thoughts are with the paper's talented, hardworking staff, who do not deserve this.

Don't call it an "Earth twin": it could just as easily be a broiling Venus twin. But the smart money will follow @elisecutts.bsky.social's bet that this planet is going to become a darling of follow-up observations. Earth-size planet, with an almost exactly Earth-size orbit? 🧪

(rushes to be the first to make the THERE'S ALREADY A STARBUCKS THERE joke)

New planet just dropped and it 1) is almost exactly Earth-sized 2) has a year that's almost exactly 1 Earth year. 3) orbits a star that is not a 💢temperamental little shit M-dwarf 💢but is instead a 🧡 good orange boi 🧡 Me for @science.org based on results presented at #RockyWorlds4: 🔭🧪

I had the distinct pleasure of top-editing @hannah-richter.bsky.social's story on the new quietest place on Earth. This is a fun read! 🧪

This was a good essay www.megangreenwell.com/the-adults-i...

The Post’s current strategy fascinates me. What is the plan here?

I edited @humbertobasilio.bsky.social’s recent story on how Venezuela’s scientists are faring after the US capture of Maduro. A few of them made an important observation: Science is downstream of basic human needs and freedoms. Research cannot thrive when fundamental rights are under attack.

@humbertobasilio.bsky.social did a terrific job reporting out how scientists in Venezuela are responding to the chaos over the past few weeks. One constant refrain: The oil industry once funded a lot of research in related sectors, and researchers in the country are now wondering what comes next.

@longreads.com this story might be of interest to you!

Many thanks to Garry Shaw and @theartnewspaper.bsky.social for their coverage of my research on the Voynich Manuscript: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/07/c... You can check out my full, open-access paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🧪 EXCLUSIVE 🧪 from @science.org: Scientists have swabbed a 500-year-old drawing attributed to Leonardo da Vinci—and may have found a piece of his DNA. www.science.org/content/arti... Yes, really. A quick thread:

Many thanks to Tom Metcalfe and @livescience.com for their coverage of my recent paper on the Voynich Manuscript: www.livescience.com/archaeology/... You can read the full open-access paper describing the Naibbe cipher here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

2025 was hectic. My son turned 2. I started a new editor job at the fabulous @science.org. I wrote and published an academic article on the Voynich Manuscript (wacky, I know). My family saw family and friends as often as we could. Let’s hope for more joy and less stress in 2026. Happy New Year!

Super cool story. Research a couple years ago by folks including me, @ernie.tedium.co, and @404media.co on the new owners of Deadspin helped bring about a good-news story on the ownership of a local California newspaper.

Many thanks to @tommyhale.bsky.social for a nice story about my Voynich Manuscript paper in @iflscience.com: www.iflscience.com/is-this-how-... The open-access paper can be read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🧪 🌠 @danclery.bsky.social did a terrific job reporting this out. A pretty eye-popping stat in here: If satellite launches thru the 2030s happen as planned, there'll be HALF A MILLION satellites orbiting Earth by 2040—enough to contaminate many space telescopes' images with the occasional streak.