Alexandra Witze
@alexwitze.bsky.social
Independent, experienced, award-winning science journalist (she/her). Reach me at alexwitze.01 (Signal), witzescience (@gmail.com), or awitze (@protonmail.com).
October 23, has become famous as the "birthday of Earth" - thanks to the brief mention in many textbooks of Irish Archbishop James Ussher and his chronology 🌍🎂 The exact date given by the Ussher-Lightfoot-Chronology for the creation of Earth is October 23, 4004 B.C. in the early morning hours ...
Some great investigative reporting here, from @woolsox.bsky.social. Really worth a read.
The Fall of “Scientific American”
When the beloved science publication got too political, its corporate owners stepped in. Now its future is uncertain.
thenation.com
Wired: Maren Hunsberger of @nature.com explaining chiral molecules (today's chemistry Nobel) on TikTok in 60 seconds with Kermit and Evil Kermit Tired: No women winning science Nobels this year, yet again Expired: Nobel fetishism 🧪
None of this year's science Nobel Prizes have gone to women. The number of these prizes to go to women remains at 27 out of more than 600. See how many you can name in our quiz: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Today, on the anniversary of the 1st photo of the Moon's far side (in 1959 from the USSR's Luna 3 probe), NASA released the preliminary science report and data from the #ArtemisII mission in April. Re-live the #Moon joy: science.nasa.gov/feature/arte... 🧪🔭🌘
Artemis II Preliminary Lunar Science Report - NASA Science
What did four NASA astronauts see, notice, and document as they traveled around the Moon? Here's your guide to Artemis II Preliminary Lunar Science Report.
science.nasa.gov
ICYMI, the biggest science story this week isn’t the Nobels—it’s OpenAI’s new release that includes multiple Fields Medal-worthy results. The intelligence explosion is sweeping thru math like a wildfire. And it’s probably coming for most everything else, too. What will next week/month/year bring?
Lee Billings@leebillings.bsky.social · 3w agoNow on @sciam.bsky.social: OpenAI’s latest math dump has arrived. It consists of hundreds of new results to major problems, from the same internal model that produced a million-dollar math proof last month. It could take mathematicians years to sift through it all.
In this piece for @prospectmagazine.co.uk I argue that it is time we stopped letting the AI/tech industry dictate the narrative, and I attempt to dismantle the self-serving terminology and myths it has created. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
We’re all going to die, but not from AI
That artificial intelligence could destroy humanity is a story imposed by the AI industry itself. It’s time to challenge it
prospectmagazine.co.uk
It's NOBELS week next week! To whet your appetite, here's a challenge: how many of the women who've won a science #Nobel can you name? www.nature.com/immersive/d4... @nature.com | @nobelprize.org
Researchers are resurfacing allegations concerning the vote to reject the Anthropocene as an official geological epoch, saying they have reviewed internal documents that show the vote should have been stopped due to procedural violations. New in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Battle of the Anthropocene: allegations re-ignite row over proposed geologic epoch
Researchers say that a vote to reject the epoch violated procedure and call for transparency.
nature.com
A scammer impersonated a science journalist. It worked. www.reviewertoo.com/2026-09-21-s... AI fraud is going to make it harder for new voices to break into science journalism
A scammer impersonated a science journalist. It worked.
AI fraud is going to make it harder for new voices to break into science journalism
reviewertoo.com
Friends! If you're attending #sciwri26 this weekend, stop through our Saturday panel: how to report on science with a policy lens. With the great @aniloza.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social @alexwitze.bsky.social -- gonna be a 🔥 session, y'all sciencewriters2026.org/schedule/
The National Science Foundation has not had a director since April 2025, but is undertaking very significant structural changes in how it funds US science. No permanent leadership appears anywhere in sight.
Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · last mo.Full letter follows:
Scoop: This afternoon NSF will formally announce its four 'Frontier Initiatives', and a suite of other changes in a public letter. These Frontier Initiatives (left) are identical to OSTP's 'Grand Research Challenges' that we have been reporting on (right). www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🚨 The NIH is moving to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in infectious-disease research projects to the DOD under a secret 10-year pact. Here’s what’s happening inside “Operation Prevailing Edge” 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Revealed: inside the US military's plan to tap huge sums from the NIH
An agreement paves the way for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects to be transferred from the NIH’s institute for infectious diseases to the Department of Defense.
nature.com
Swords into plowshares: the under-told backstory of NGRST, the space telescope that began its life as a spy satellite! www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...
NASA’s new dark energy telescope has a wild backstory
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon launch to unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter
scientificamerican.com
Nancy Grace Roman was paid 60% of her male colleague's wages. 'the Nobel prize-winning physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar ... told her: “We don’t discriminate against women. We can just get them for less.”' #WomenInSTEM 🧪 🔭
Nasa’s new telescope is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman – but who was she?
The US astronomer battled discrimination in a male dominated field.
theconversation.com
Minutes ago the Roman space telescope launched successfully from Cape Canaveral. Here’s @jennaahart.bsky.social on the worlds it’s expected to find. (Free to read for now, they just want your email.) 🧪🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The Roman telescope is about to take planet-hunting to the next level
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch shortly, could find 40 times the number of distant worlds that have been detected so far.
nature.com
⬇️ Adventures with the Seestar, calibration problems, video compression, etc. But we got data on a glorious night. Someone was playing Dolly Parton songs on the piano during the eclipse in our neighborhood. #moonjoy 🧪🌒💖
Dolly Parton donated to medical centres, vaccine research and disaster relief. And had Dolly the cloned sheep named after her! Here are some scientist tributes and a reminder of how she contributed to research. www.nature.com/articles/d41... by @lizziegibney.bsky.social & Dhruv Shenai @nature.com
Dolly Parton dies aged 80 – researchers celebrate her contributions to science
The country singer was an advocate for vaccines, public health, literacy and marginalized communities.
nature.com
😱 What do Edvard Munch’s The Scream, the fall of the Mongol Empire, and the Black Death have in common? 🌋 Volcanoes! Scientists are finding links between these events and works of art and huge volcanic eruptions that happened hundreds—sometimes thousands—of miles away. ✍️ @alexwitze.bsky.social
Volcanoes that made history
Long after the lava stopped flowing, enormous eruptions altered Earth’s climate and societies all over the globe
knowablemagazine.org
Do you want to write a story about volcanoes that changed history? the editor asked. Why yes. Yes, I do. My piece in @knowablemag.bsky.social on the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days that can transpire after an eruption: knowablemagazine.org/content/arti... 🧪🌋
Volcanoes that made history
Long after the lava stopped flowing, enormous eruptions altered Earth’s climate and societies all over the globe
knowablemagazine.org
Scoop: For nearly a year, NSF has struggled to make new grants. Now we know that it will not catch up. In fact, NSF will award just 6,100 new grants—a 30% y/o/y decline, itself down from a previous avg. of 11,000+. In fact, the last time NSF awarded so few grants was in the early '80s.
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
nature.com
NSF is touting a dozen new solicitations announced this week as evidence that basic research still rules. But that's not what's really going on. www.science.org/content/arti...
Is NSF’s new call for research proposals good news? Scientists and staffers have doubts
The long-delayed 12 solicitations only cover some disciplines—and promise to give them much less money
science.org
brb moving to washington
Washington State Department of Licensing@wadol.bsky.social · 2mo agoNOW AVAILABLE! Will the new Mount St. Helens special design license plate blow up on social media? We just ash the questions around here. Proceeds promote education, stewardship, and science at America's most famous volcano. Get it here: dol.wa.gov/vehicles-and...
