A lovely article about our research on Gannets featuring interviews with #seabirders @heyjooode.bsky.social and @sue-lewis.bsky.social #ornithology

just a couple of abundance bros www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Pretty good summary of the forces arrayed against the CO2 endangerment finding. I think they are counting their chickens prematurely. 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

Biologists have fed genetic data from millions of mouse brain cells into a custom machine learning algorithm. The program delivered maps of the brain with unprecedented detail, revealing a thousand-plus novel regions. www.quantamagazine.org/fed-on-reams...

Another excellent Epstein story this week comes from @danvergano.bsky.social, on the murky intersections with science journalism as well as scientists: www.scientificamerican.com/article/epst... 🧪

Sorry for the preview pic in your feed, but we've posted a thoughtful story by @dangaristo.bsky.social that delves into the tangled web of relationships between Jeffrey Epstein and various scientists: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

For a long time, astrocytes were considered mere support and scaffolding for all-important neurons. The new experiments reveal in great detail the cells’ influence over neuronal signaling in the brain.

Even with the largest zoom on a classic compound optical system, scientists struggle to make sense of finer details. Microbiologists are turning to an unexpected source to clear things up: a moisture-absorbing material found in diapers. www.quantamagazine.org/expansion-mi...

This is tremendous. Take the time to watch it.

"The hottest club is always the one you can't get into."

Journalism coops give me — and most of the journalists I know — a lot of hope for the industry. But I've been curious: What's it like to actually work at one? I spent the last few months talking to a bunch of brilliant worker-owners to find out. www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/jour...

Astrocytes have complex and varied shapes, and sometimes tendrils, that can reach millions of synapses, the junctions where neurons exchange molecular signals. This anatomical arrangement perfectly positions astrocytes to affect information flow. www.quantamagazine.org/once-thought...

'"For the astrocyte field, at least conceptually, we are not very far ahead of where people were for neurons" at the onset of modern neuroscience in the 1950s' www.quantamagazine.org/once-thought...

In many of the first generation of modern concentration camp systems (near the turn of the twentieth century), the vast majority of deaths were caused by disease and malnutrition. Most of the victims were women and children.

BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps. This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Once considered merely packing peanuts for the brain, new studies suggest that large brain cells called astrocytes supervise the circuits that control brain states like hopelessness, sleep, and hunger. Ingrid Wickelgren reports: www.quantamagazine.org/once-thought...

Amid the hype around prattling "AI" models, astonishing research into living minds gets overlooked. Wonderful piece by @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social in @quantamagazine.bsky.social about bats navigating in a natural environment, decoding the sense of direction. www.quantamagazine.org/how-animals-...

Welcome to Qualia: Essays that go where curiosity leads.

After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.

service journalism ✨

Ever wonder how your brain builds a sense of direction? New research in bats exploring an island off the coast of Tanzania resolves debate over the mammalian internal compass. Words by @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social + graphic by @markabelan.bsky.social 🦇🌐 www.quantamagazine.org/how-animals-...

just amazing work by my colleagues at @wsj.com - a frame by frame analysis of the shooting incredible that some continue to rationalize this www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

This is a great looking staff editor job at @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

The entire fed system is being weaponized against Minnesota.

How does your brain build a sense of direction? New studies into animals’ internal compass could help explain the feeling of getting “turned around”, or even why some of us are so bad at finding our way. @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/how-animals-...

The National Science Foundation sign on our Eisenhower Av building is now gone. The NSF mural in the foyer is removed and torn off in sheets. We were supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the agency in May 2025. That never happened.

The 2026 Audubon Photography Awards contest is now accepting entries! www.audubon.org/press-room/2...

Holy hell, what an obituary

BREAKING: The controversial hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau has been *cancelled,* I can now report. A senior official with Africa CDC confirmed the cancellation and said GB officials are working to make sure any research is conducted ethically: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Having seen several abductions up close, it is really hard to convey how much the thing they’re doing is roaming in military convoys until they see someone who is alone and isn’t white, and then jumping out in large numbers, pulling them into a van, and screeching off, all in 90 seconds or so.

in understanding the impact of the Trump administration’s policies. The extraordinary decision to execute a search warrant at a journalist’s home should shock and dismay everyone who cares about a free and independent press. (2/3)

Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average. climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...

The history of civilian mass detention on the basis of identity without due process or recourse (which is how I defined concentration camps in my history of them) shows that it invariably leads to permanent harm—and typically significant loss of life as well. The longer it goes on the worse it gets.

Heat and greenhouse gas pollution rise in lock-step — until 2023, when the thermostat goes bonkers. 🎁🔗 The 2025 climate numbers are in. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

BIG: The case for Tren de Aragua being invading narco-terrorists, key to Trump's attacks on Venezuela and immigrant communities at home, is just another manufactured threat, as revealed in a trove of intel documents we provided to @dell.bsky.social / @wired.com. #FOIA www.wired.com/story/trump-...

People not in Minnesota: please read this excellent summary of what life is like in Minneapolis since the murderous scum ICE swarmed here. And more are on their way. By local reporter / writer / bike dude / legend @dbrauer.net .

the best explanation of a membrane potential i've ever read, and more fun facts and new science about the bioelectricity running through our body's tissues, by @elisecutts.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/cells-use-bi...

Please stop and read this statement from Renee Good's wife.

Happy new year! Quanta is hiring a senior editor who will work across all our subject areas - biology, math, physics and more. Feel free to reach out with any questions about the role + working here, come be my new coworker simonsfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/simons...

Research into how a father’s choices — such as diet, exercise, stress, nicotine use — in the weeks and months before conception may transfer traits to his children has become impossible to ignore. Ending a year of Quanta biology with a bang: www.quantamagazine.org/how-dads-fit...

This year, Quanta’s biology stories ranged widely, from ancient life’s relationship with plate tectonics, to the neurons that feel geological rumblings. 🧵

In a recent study, the fitness of a father mouse at the time of conception was found to have metabolic and mitochondrial benefits for his offspring. Similar signatures were found in the sperm of well-exercised human men. @ivanamato.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/how-dads-fit...

This, too, is outrageous -- firing an immigration judge because he granted asylum to six people. Trump's folks have made clear they want "deportation judges." Just rejecting any semblance of due process. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Santa says Starbucks gift cards are a NO, NO, NO! Baristas are striking because Starbucks refuses to remedy 100s of unfair labor practices and negotiate a fair contract. Stand with workers by skipping Starbucks gift cards. #NoContractNoCoffee solidaritywithbaristas.org

"I refuse." This is it. There's no reason we should accept a narrative of an already settled future which marginalizes humans and individual agency. No one wants this. No one asked for it.

Space news is the best. Like, what do you mean there's a runaway supermassive black hole 10 million times bigger than the sun moving through space at 2 million miles per hour www.space.com/astronomy/bl...

This is happening around the country and it's the new normal in immigration court — the creation of a "heads I win, tails you lose" system where the government is seeking to dismiss virtually EVERY SINGLE asylum claim through so-called "safe third country" agreements.

NEW: The Trump administration is stepping up its battle against NYC's immigrants—stopping their asylum cases and instead filing motions to send them to other countries across the world. One Latin American woman was told this week she'd be sent to Uganda. hellgatenyc.com/trump-asylum...

It's been quite a year for Quanta biology! In this year-end post I highlighted some favorite stories by @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social @theuniverse.bsky.social @peterbrannen.bsky.social @mollyherring.bsky.social and Ariel Bleicher - and I want to share more of our great work from the year below!