Christian Elliott
@christianelliott.me
Science journalist & audio producer / Making podcasts at NASA / Other words in Nat Geo, The Atlantic, the NYT, Science, bioGraphic, Undark, etc. / Iowan 🌽 Views expressed here are my own. Portfolio: christianelliott.me
As climate change destabilizes the ground beneath our feet, geology is becoming a real-time science, Christian Elliott reports:
Climate Change Is Destabilizing the Ground Beneath Our Feet
Mountains are shifting, permafrost is melting, and the risk of landslides is rising.
bit.ly
My latest piece for @theatlantic.com lays out an argument I've been hearing from scientists for a while now in my reporting — that we need to stop thinking about climate change as a phenomenon restricted to the atmosphere and the ocean and start thinking about it as an unstable land problem. 🧪⛰️
Climate Change Is Moving Mountains
As glaciers melt and rainfall grows more extreme, once-stable lands are shifting.
theatlantic.com
"...the Sacramento Valley... likely permanently lost its capacity to store water, researchers report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." (@christianelliott.me / @science.org) www.science.org/content/arti... #California #CALEG #Sacramento 🧪
A California aquifer may have crossed the point of no return
Satellite data reveal in unprecedented detail how groundwater reservoirs permanently lose their ability to store water
science.org
As soon as I started the final season of The Bear I knew I'd be putting this soundtrack on repeat to do research/write. Just the amount of stress needed for me to actually lock in and get things done lol.
The Bear: The Final Season (Original Soundtrack) - Album by Christian Lundberg | Spotify
Christian Lundberg · album · 2026 · 17 songs
open.spotify.com
"On Friday, wildfires in Spain overran one of three observatories the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration uses to connect with spacecraft, including Voyager 1, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the recently completed Artemis mission around the Moon." www.wired.com/story/spanis...
One of NASA’s Most Important Deep Space Observatories Hit by Spanish Wildfires
Flames burned through the Deep Space Communications Complex near Madrid, but NASA has been unable to assess the damage as a wildfire emergency grips the region.
wired.com
During a record-setting drought in California in 2021, satellite radar showed much of Sacramento Valley permanently subsided by more than half a meter — meaning a permanent loss in aquifer water storage capacity. Covered a new study in @pnas.org today for @science.org. 🧪
A California aquifer may have crossed the point of no return
Satellite data reveal in unprecedented detail how groundwater reservoirs permanently lose their ability to store water
science.org
Memory foam. The Dust Buster. Cell phone cameras. A swimsuit so fast it got banned from the Olympics. All NASA inventions! Today on Curious Universe: the 50th anniversary of NASA's Spinoff program -- how the agency gets technologies from space into the hands of people on the ground.
There’s More Space in Your Life Than You Think
NASA's Curious Universe · Episode
open.spotify.com
"...the recently announced layoffs at Scientific American have elicited shock, dismay, and grief throughout our science writing community." www.nasw.org/July2026soli...
NASW expresses solidarity with journalists facing layoffs and loss of freelance work
To the workers affected by this round of layoffs, both in terms of staff jobs and the loss of freelance work as a result of those eliminated positions, and to those still recovering from similar actio...
nasw.org
"On a more fundamental level, a vocal cohort of ecologists, historians and philosophers argues that the concepts of native and invasive species — which they equate with xenophobia and militarism — should be reworked or abandoned"
Ferris Jabr@ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 4w agoFor the @nytimes.com Magazine, I wrote about the increasingly fervent native plant movement; its esteemed guru, the entomologist and bestselling author Douglas Tallamy; and the complexities of ecologically responsible gardening in our modern era. Gift link 🎁 : www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/m...
Proposed rule revisions of federal grant guidelines by the OMB will limit transparency and the communication of scientific findings. Learn more: www.nasw.org/article... Honor America's 250th by letting your voice be heard. Log your opposition by July 13: www.regulations.gov/...
Proposed OMB changes would gut science communication — Comment by July 13
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget recently proposed extensive changes to [federal grant guidelines](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/29/2026-10817/regulation-for-federal-financial-assistance) that would severely restrict how scientists communicate their research findings to the public and American taxpayers.
nasw.org
Doing research for a NASA podcast episode and came across this absolute banger of an ebook cover
I spoke w Brady Podloski, host of Catastrophes podcast about hazards and disasters in the mountains, including our recent paper in @science.org about the 481m tsunami in Tracy Arm, Alaska (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). Check it out. @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social 🧪⚒️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xb1...
EP. 48: The 481 Metre Tsunami that Nearly Hit a Cruise Ship
YouTube video by Catastrophe
youtube.com
One of my story sources found a copy of my Nat Geo piece on landslides in a cafe in Taiwan! Blowing my mind that people are finding and reading this story all over the world. 😍
"With the upcoming International Seabed Authority assembly meeting scheduled in July, all eyes will be on Canada to see if the government recognizes a responsibility to challenge [The Metals Company] and the U.S. government’s actions, or if it continues to remain silent."
The Tyee@thetyee.ca · last mo.A Canadian deep-sea mining company may become the first to commercially mine the international seabed under a controversial U.S. executive order that bypasses United Nations regulations. A recent legal analysis suggests that this could place Canada in violation of international law.
Today is my last day at Scientific American, which has been sold to LabX media group. For three decades I've led the magazine's coverage of human origins, archaeology, paleontology, animal behavior, ecology, BIRDS. End of an era. Anyway this feels weird to say, but I'm now available for assignments!
Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media, publisher of Discover: group.springernature.com/gp/group/med... They've fired me and other union staff, ahead of June 26 vote ratification. My rates are suddenly more reasonable, if you need editing or reporting - Argonaut2026@gmail.com
Springer Nature to divest its consumer media businesses | Springer Nature Group | Springer Nature
Strategic divestment of consumer media portfolio enables Springer Nature to focus on its core business Transaction supports the long-term development
group.springernature.com
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 (🧵)
Nothing like a post-supercell sunset over a Midwestern gas station
Here's the thing: I don't care! I'm making my tiny scrap of land healthier for wildlife in the time it's mine. If people really think the above photo looks better than the below, I really don't know what to say lol.
Thanks to the fantastic @nature.com Briefing newsletter team for sharing my Nat Geo magazine feature on the science of Alaska's growing landslide crisis. Here's what they had to say:
I just learned there's a new landslide emoji, right in time for my series of stories on landslides
Christian Elliott@christianelliott.me · 2mo agoWas not expecting this at all... but my science story for the @nytimes.com made it into the print edition! I learned this via an email from a reader asking me if I saw the face of an 18th-century raccoon hunter in the photo of the cliff, lol.
Was not expecting this at all... but my science story for the @nytimes.com made it into the print edition! I learned this via an email from a reader asking me if I saw the face of an 18th-century raccoon hunter in the photo of the cliff, lol.
This week's @thisamericanlife.org ending the show about trans service members in the military with Rachel Khong's short story "D Day" is the most inspired storytelling choice I've heard in a while, amazing.
If you like in-depth, intensely fact-checked, narrative journalism like this (this story took more than two years!), please subscribe! Even a handful of new Nat Geo subscriptions from the paywall on an article like this one helps convince the higher ups this kind of work is still worth doing.
Christian Elliott@christianelliott.me · 3mo agoYou can read my full feature story here:
“Compared to other forms of American wilderness, prairies are hard to love — they don’t easily fall into the category of the sublime like giant sequoias or Yosemite waterfalls. You have to get really close to appreciate the complex beauty.” – @christianelliott.me
Where The Prairie Still Remains | NOEMA
Are pioneer cemeteries key to the Iowa prairie’s revival, or its final resting place?
noemamag.com
Let's goooo! I volunteered at the Illinois State native plant sale last week and people were lined up around the block. We sold out so fast.
Once dismissed as weeds, native plants are now flying off the shelves
Gardeners across the country are flocking to climate-resilient native plants as concerns about extreme heat, flooding, and pollinators grow.
grist.org
The Nat Geo graphics team did a phenomenal job with this map of giant landslides in Alaska for my magazine feature story. Note the overlap between where giant, potentially tsunamigenic landslides are on the landscape and popular cruise ship routes.
This thread. And most depressing for me: Many people read books that are spat out by scammy AI, that are ACTIVELY poorly written and straight up crap and they...don't even notice. Or mind!
Ryan Consell@stealingfromwizards.com · 3mo agoI met someone who was shocked at how rabidly I despised GenAI. For others curious why writers appear to have an irrationally strong reaction to the chatbots, a rough breakdown of why so many of us are going full luddite: 🧵
