Brendan Maher
@bmaher.bsky.social
News featured editor at Nature. bmaher.01 on signal.
“We can almost look through the eyes of [Europe's earliest Homo sapiens] and see how they viewed the environment around them” go.nature.com/4xdqTmX
40,000-year-old bird carvings provide clues to how ice age humans flourished
Nature - Newly discovered figurines point to skills that might have helped shape early humans’ expansion across Europe.
go.nature.com
Hohle Fels Cave Over the past 3 decades, they have dug up one jaw-dropping find after another. 40,000-year-old bird carvings provide clues to how ice age humans flourished🏺🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41... Figurines point to skills that might have helped shape early humans’ expansion across Europe.
How to become my favorite classics professor: 1) make comparisons to wooder ice. 2) get quoted in The Onion.
EMILY WILSON@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · last wk.1. It's a fun action movie. A line that got cut but sums up some of my overall feelings: This Odyssey is not a rich, satisfying Homeric banquet, but sometimes in the heat, an ice-cold Philly water ice is all you want - even it's mostly sugar and food coloring, and makes no nutritional sense.
1. It's a fun action movie. A line that got cut but sums up some of my overall feelings: This Odyssey is not a rich, satisfying Homeric banquet, but sometimes in the heat, an ice-cold Philly water ice is all you want - even it's mostly sugar and food coloring, and makes no nutritional sense.
The 'isn't it great that there are now new treatments for measles on the horizon' take is ... not a great take, IMO. I need a lie down. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/w...
The New Race to Find Treatments for Measles
As vaccination rates decline, biotech companies see a potential new market for measles drugs.
nytimes.com
Anyone who has experienced cachexia, firsthand or otherwise, knows how big a part it is in the fight against cancer. Amber Dance has a great write-up of the latest research. (1/🧵) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
New hope in the fight against cachexia — cancer’s deadly co-conspirator
Scientists are getting closer to understanding the wasting and fatigue that often accompanies cancer. Treatments could be on the horizon.
nature.com
Friends with experience in public health warned me months and months ago that this. EXACTLY THIS. was sure to happen within the year given all the cuts at CDC. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Explosive diarrhoea’ outbreak grips US: how researchers are hunting its source
Cases have hit record levels, and scientists are racing to pinpoint where the Cyclospora parasite entered the food supply.
nature.com
Scientists--if your funding was cut over the last year (for research on climate, global health, DEI, LGBTQ or womens health, etc) but you managed to keep the research going, I want to talk to you for an upcoming article! Plz contact me: gewin at me dot com. Re-posts appreciated!
The lithium-ion battery powers eight billion mobile phones, hundreds of millions of laptops and rapidly growing fleets of electric cars and energy-storage banks. But there’s a new contender breaking into the battery market go.nature.com/4yihgoJ
Beyond lithium: how sodium-ion batteries could change the world
Batteries based on sodium ions are entering mass production. Some researchers say they could ultimately be a cheaper, safer alternative to lithium in electric cars and other energy applications.
go.nature.com
Good morning. Today is the LAST DAY to comment on the proposed OMB rule that will, honestly, destroy science in the US. And it will do FAR MORE THAN THAT. www.theverge.com/science/9576...
The war against ‘woke’ could end US science as we know it
‘Everyone will be affected, not just scientists. Every community in the country.’
theverge.com
A careers feature in Nature reports on how universities are using tools that are supposed to sniff out AI-generated writing, but those tools can vary in technique and quality. #Academicsky #AI 🧪
Universities are relying on AI-detection software to catch cheating. How well do the programs work?
Technology companies say that their services can sniff out AI-generated writing, but their tools vary in technique and quality.
go.nature.com
New: The National Science Foundation is preparing to claw back some $500 million in funds from some of its core science programs in physics, math, computer science, and engineering in order to fund a project from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
NSF plans cuts to core science programmes to fund White House initiative
A proposed clawback of already distributed research funds comes as the US agency’s budget is already squeezed and it struggling to clear a backlog of grant applications.
nature.com
GET HEARING AIDS ❤️ stop worrying if they're cool they're like glasses just get them and wear them this one's for the dads out there (except my dad, he's cool and wears his aids)
Once the realm of science fiction, the idea of making Mars habitable is gaining traction Play our game to see how you'd rise to this challenge: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
The HPV vaccine is one of the greatest triumphs of science. It saves young women’s lives. And men’s! ❤️❤️❤️
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo agoHPV jabs cut risk of dying from cervical cancer before 30 to almost zero
Our genomes are full of mutations that have the potential to damage our health or even kill us. Yet most of them rarely cause problems. Why? go.nature.com/3QuOU9B
These ‘master’ proteins protect us from deadly mutations — and could inspire new drugs
Biology has clever ways to mask the effects of potentially harmful gene mutations. Scientists are investigating how this ‘buffering’ works — and how to exploit it.
go.nature.com
Sorry to say this, but it does seem @statnews.com runs AI-generated text in its 'First Opinion' columns w/o disclosure, contrary to their policy. www.statnews.com/2026/06/15/a... comes up 100% AI-generated in Pangram. www.statnews.com/2026/06/16/a... also 100% is Pangram wrong here, @statnews.com ?
Texas is looking to execute a man who was convicted of murder through the help of a scientifically bereft practice called 'forensic hypnosis' Penn and Teller have stumped for him ... but (1/2) www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Penn & Teller call out 'flim-flam' in Supreme Court death penalty case
Magicians Penn & Teller told Supreme Court they've tricked audiences with cognitive techniques similar to those used on a witness in a Texas murder trial.
usatoday.com
Is the peptide craze backed by science? The promise behind the hype www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Is the peptide craze backed by science? The promise behind the hype
Peptide injections are the hottest trend in wellness. Researchers say enthusiasm for these unregulated drugs has got ahead of the science.
nature.com
NEW I did a deep dive on the theory taking the rich by storm: That China is funding data center haters. (TL;DR There's not a lot of evidence to support the idea) www.npr.org/2026/06/10/n...
The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters
Tech millionaires claim China is behind a wave of local opposition to U.S. data centers, while providing little direct evidence.
npr.org
“We’ve hit this tipping point of people not trusting physicians or science.” And how! Great work from @cassandrawillyard.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Is the peptide craze backed by science? The promise behind the hype
Peptide injections are the hottest trend in wellness. Researchers say enthusiasm for these unregulated drugs has got ahead of the science.
nature.com
Researchers are starting to illuminate the earliest moments in freezing go.nature.com/4ehKxqp
How ice forms is a mystery — now scientists are cracking the case
Theories about how ice crystals grow in cooling liquids are wildly inaccurate when compared with experimental data, but studies are starting to illuminate the earliest moments in freezing.
go.nature.com
Nature reports on how labs are teaming up to run a host of huge projects that aim to bring rigour to cognitive science. #cogpsyc 🧪
Can an army of babies and dogs rescue psychology from its reproducibility crisis?
Labs are teaming up to run a host of huge projects that aim to bring rigour to cognitive science.
go.nature.com
In 1998, an eyewitness to a murder said - repeatedly - that she had seen a white male with long hair at the scene. Police basically didn't believe her until her memory changed and she identified a Latino with short hair. So... yeah. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Memory on trial: the new science of when to trust eyewitness testimony
Innocent people are frequently convicted of crimes on the basis of a witness’s false memories. Emerging science poses a surprising solution.
nature.com
Innocent people are frequently convicted of crimes on the basis of a witness’s false memories. Emerging science poses a surprising solution. go.nature.com/3RzxgBF
Memory on trial: the new science of when to trust eyewitness testimony
Innocent people are frequently convicted of crimes on the basis of a witness’s false memories. Emerging science poses a surprising solution.
go.nature.com
I'm formulating a theorem of inconvenience. It states that children 16 and under will not do something that they need to do or that you want them to do until it is maximally inconvenient.
US biology lab locked down for more than a week amid smuggling inquiry www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US biology lab locked down for more than a week amid smuggling inquiry
The Trump administration has spent months investigating the lab after a Chinese postdoc was charged with smuggling biological material into the country.
nature.com
