When happens when engineers are also mountaineers: my story about the Gilbertson twins, who climb mountains with GPS surveying equipment to make sure the topographic truth is out there. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/s...

Twins’ Peaks: The Gilbertson Brothers Want to Rewrite Your Country’s Map

nytimes.com

The Cloverdale Mine never made anyone rich. But it meant a lot to Bill Humble, who spent years living at the abandoned mine -building and repairing, surprising hikers, getting away from society. His grandson is trying to preserve the site and that story. www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a...

The Ghosts of Cloverdale

How one family preserves a mountain mine’s last chapter.

altaonline.com

Ever wonder what happened to that $100 million interstellar spaceship program? Me too. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

A $100-Million Mission to Another Star Just Disappeared

An abandoned plan to visit another star highlights the perils of billionaire-funded science

scientificamerican.com

More than ever, I find, editors want a story fully nailed down in the pitch stage ("What will happen? What will you uncover?" "I don't know, man, that's what you're supposed to pay me to find out?"). But it's easy to give them what they want if you make it up. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...

Wired and Business Insider remove 'AI-written' freelance articles

Wired and Business Insider have removed freelance articles over concerns they were written by AI under a fake name.

pressgazette.co.uk

Alec is a great guy and a great journalist. He recently went for a backpacking trip on a glacier in Norway and is now missing. Please help spread the word in case someone knows something that can help searchers. www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Climate journalist Alec Luhn missing on Norwegian glacier

A search is underway for award-winning climate journalist Alec Luhn, a Wisconsin native, who is missing on a Norwegian glacier.

cbsnews.com

Earlier this year, I wrote about a controversial Science paper from 15 years ago. It was about a microbe that could reportedly use arsenic in its biology. After I contacted Science for that story, its editors began to discuss retracting the paper. Today, they did. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/s...

Claim of Microbe That Survives on Arsenic Is Retracted After 15 Years

nytimes.com

This is where I live, and where I live we respect the sanctity of hot dogs. Last year, this also happened with a shipment of shredded cheese, which was treated with the same level of dignity.

Very happy to release my episode on government labs, nuclear weapons safety, nonproliferation, UFOs and more with @sarahscoles.bsky.social - had a blast (in the non-literal sense, luckily) and highly recommend. open.spotify.com/episode/6ofy...

Hemlock #24 - Countdown: Journalist Sarah Scoles on Nuclear Weapons Safety, Jill Tarter and SETI, Nuclear LARPing, the Golden Dome and Missile Defense, and What Really Happens at Los Alamos

History of Philosophy Audio Archive · Episode

open.spotify.com

Last year, I went on my honeymoon to Norway. Up north, where we'd gone to see the Northern Lights, we kept running into satellite ground station antennas. Anyway, turns out you can get some work out of your honeymoon if you want. undark.org/2025/03/19/g...

A Powerhouse of Global Satellite Infrastructure: Norway?

The country supports some of the world’s most important satellites. But experts worry about its proximity to Russia.

undark.org

Do you remember the #arseniclife controversy from the long-ago internet? Here's my retrospective about what went on behind the scenes and within the science community back then, what happened to the scientist at the center of it all, and what's going on now. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/s...

Her Discovery Wasn’t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same

The internet erupted in controversy over Felisa Wolfe-Simon and colleagues’ claim of a microbe thriving on arsenic. Nearly 15 years later, she’s pursuing new research on the boundaries of life.

nytimes.com

TGIF

I wrote this story about the lunar space station that may or may not survive the changes that often come for NASA with new presidential administrations. Which, of course, is part of the story. undark.org/2025/01/22/g...

"In the future, humans may not be the only arbiters of who lives and dies, with decisions instead in the hands of algorithms." @sarahscoles.bsky.social @undark.org #longreads

The Technology for Autonomous Weapons Exists. What Now?

In the future, humans may not be the only arbiters of who lives and dies in war, as weapons gain decision-making power.

buff.ly

Hi, I migrated over. Do we introduce? I'm Sarah, I write articles and sometimes books, usually about science and national security, and then when I'm done I run around in the wilderness, usually with wild dogs. Happy holidays.