Had the famously silly Ig Nobel ceremony not moved outside of the U.S., “I would have thought twice” before attending this year, said one new winner. “The perception I have is that there is not so much of a welcoming culture anymore.” 🔬🏅 Read more in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

Ig Nobel hosts science’s silliest ceremony outside U.S. for first time

The indefinite move to Europe was a response to travel and safety concerns for winners

science.org

Reports about the Tibet-Nepal flood have been devastating—and confusing. Here's the whirlwind story of how scientists around the world pieced together the cascade of events. @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti... #flood #hazard #naturaldisaster #landslide

How scientists unraveled the cause of the devastating flood in Tibet and Nepal

Global cooperation revealed a landslide, not a glacial collapse, likely initiated the cascade of events

science.org

3% of a giant Western Australian forest died in a record drought in 2023-24. Now, scientists have used the damage to develop a surprising new tool for predicting future die-offs: gamma rays.🌲⚡ Read more in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti... #tree #forest #drought #climate #climatechange

To predict tree death, scientists tapped gamma rays to peer underground

Airborne radiation sensors could help forecast and prevent drought-driven tree mortality

science.org

16,000 satellites currently whiz above our heads; 1.7 million more are proposed. A new preprint looks into a dystopian, runaway space junk threshold called Kessler syndrome—and finds that many popular megaconstellation proposals breach it. 🛰️🚨 For @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

Planned satellite megaconstellations could generate runaway space debris

Modeling suggests infamous “Kessler syndrome” would make the swarms unsustainable

science.org

Behold, my first-ever TikTok appearance! (About the not-so-icy "ice giant" planets for @science.org)🧊🪐 www.tiktok.com/@sciencemaga...

Astronomy lovers around the world mourned when beloved underdog Pluto got downgraded out of our Solar System model to a “dwarf planet.” There may be more pearl clutching yet to come: Uranus and Neptun...

TikTok video by Science Magazine

tiktok.com

Air travel is getting bumpier 🛩️. Modeling shows a controversial climate intervention could help 🚫☀️. Last week for @eos.org: eos.org/articles/str...

Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Might Make Flights Smoother - Eos

A new study suggests an intervention aimed at cooling the planet could have the additional benefit of reducing aircraft turbulence.

eos.org

If Pluto's downgrade got you upset, brace yourself: Uranus and Neptune might not be real "ice giants." 🧊🚫🪐 Research increasingly shows our outermost planets are far rockier than thought—and maybe even full of magma oceans.🔥 Read more @science.org : www.science.org/content/arti... #space #nasa

Uranus and Neptune may not be ‘ice giants’ after all

A growing number of theories propose Uranus and Neptune are rocky worlds

science.org

20 billion galaxies. 10 million supernovae. 90k near-Earth objects. 50 interstellar objects. And finally, 0 more days to Rubin's long-awaited cosmic survey. 🌌💫 Read about this milestone for astronomy in @skyandtelescope.bsky.social: skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne... #space #rubin

Vera C. Rubin Observatory Begins Its Long-Awaited All-Sky Survey

The 8.4-meter telescope should spot billions of astronomical objects over the next 10 years as it maps the night sky over and over again.

skyandtelescope.org

Just where—or rather, when—did it originate? Nice story by @hannah-richter.bsky.social for @science.org

Interstellar comet is unlike anything seen in our Solar System

Chemical signature of 3I/ATLAS suggests it formed early in the history of the Milky Way

science.org

Father's Day must be on astronomers' minds—new JWST data makes famed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS a galactic "granddad," one scientist says. 🪨👴 Read more about this 12-billion-year-old interstellar interloper today in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti... #nasa #jwst #space

Interstellar comet is unlike anything seen in our Solar System

Chemical signature of 3I/ATLAS suggests it formed early in the history of the Milky Way

science.org

The wait is over—El Niño has officially begun. 🚨🌎 Read about why it's been so hard to be confident—and the potential fallout of this "unusually strong" forecast—in @science.org www.science.org/content/arti... #elnino #climate #noaa

El Niño has begun. It may become the strongest this century

After clearing a spring forecasting hurdle, scientists see growing odds of a powerful climate event that could disrupt weather worldwide

science.org

The OMB's sweeping proposed changes to U.S. grant funding have racked up over 6,000 comments this week. 📃🛰️ In @skyandtelescope.bsky.social, astronomers weigh in on just how destructive these ideas would be for space science: skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne... #trump #omb #nasa

Proposed U.S. Grant Funding Rules Spark Worry, Backlash in Astronomy

The Office of Management and Budget envisions diminishing peer review and international collaborations.

skyandtelescope.org

“I grew up thinking that [sustained lunar presence] was going to be something that happened 20 years ago,” said one lunar scientist. “I’m just really happy that they are moving forward with it.”🚀🌑 Read more in @skyandtelescope.bsky.social about NASA's ambitious Moon Base plans: tinyurl.com/3hhdbtjk

NASA Brings Its Lunar Ambitions into Focus with Moon Base Missions

Rovers, drones, and landers will usher in a sustained lunar presence, under the new plan NASA announced this week.

tinyurl.com

Poop stories are like catnip to science journalists. 💩 (But I think this one about weird climate proxies, today for @sciam.bsky.social, is definitely worth it). www.scientificamerican.com/article/poop...

Poop, stomach oil and ostrich eggshells keep records of Earth’s ancient climate

Peering into Earth’s climate past is getting ever more bizarre

scientificamerican.com

Peering into Earth’s climate past is getting ever more bizarre

Poop, stomach oil and ostrich eggshells keep records of Earth’s ancient climate

Peering into Earth’s climate past is getting ever more bizarre

scientificamerican.com

Ganymede is the only known moon to power a magnetic field. Now, it may also be the only known body to still be forming its core. 🌑 Read more in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti... #space #solarsystem #nasa

Core of Solar System’s largest moon may still be forming

Ganymede discovery could force rethink of how worlds power their magnetic fields

science.org

What swims, hops, and explores all over? 🛟 🌊 The small, neon submersibles of Orpheus Ocean, facing their biggest test yet: a NOAA collab to explore 8,000 square nautical miles of seafloor and its potential mineral stores. Read more in my first story for @technologyreview.com: tinyurl.com/2s3fcmah

Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining

A company called Orpheus Ocean wants to go “deep for cheap.”

technologyreview.com

If all goes well, the test could help establish the vehicles as a tool for government agencies, scientists, and companies that hope to probe the vastly understudied deep sea and the resources it holds.

Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining

A company called Orpheus Ocean wants to go “deep for cheap.”

technologyreview.com

Like "using a teaspoon to hold the ocean back."💧 Two field tests to thicken Arctic sea ice with pumped ocean water show that ice grows, then melts all the same. Today for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

Artificially engineered sea ice grows—but can’t withstand the thaw

First Arctic trials show pumped seawater can bulk up ice, but results aren’t lasting—and may not scale

science.org

Coastal fog delivers water to half of the United States' lettuce and wine grapes and a quarter of its strawberries 🥬🍇🍓. A multimillion-dollar campaign will finally deMISTify it. This week for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

Fog is a vital water resource. Could it disappear in a warming world?

California program promises serious attention to an “underdog” area of research

science.org

Neat story from @hannah-richter.bsky.social on researchers' latest efforts to pierce the fog around fog.

Fog is a vital water resource. Could it disappear in a warming world?

California program promises serious attention to an “underdog” area of research

science.org

On this week's @science.org podcast: NASA’s plans to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars by 2028. Having not launched a fission reactor to space in more than 60 years...complications ensue w/ @hannah-richter.bsky.social www.science.org/content/podc...

“I’m not saying they can’t do it. It’s just unheard of."🚀☢️ Dove deep into NASA's mission to bring a 60-year nuclear dream to reality in 32 months for @science.org. Check it out for hints at where its fission reactor might be built—and who provided input on the mission, anyway: tinyurl.com/3627nvmp

History and mystery surround NASA’s 2028 nuclear Mars mission

Fission-powered space flight, a 60-year dream, would supercharge outer Solar System exploration

tinyurl.com

BIG story out now from @science.org on SR-1 Freedom, a highly ambitious nuclear Mars mission that NASA wants to launch in 2028. @hannah-richter.bsky.social has scoops on how the mission came together—and where its reactor is probably being built. www.science.org/content/arti...

History and mystery surround NASA’s 2028 nuclear Mars mission

Fission-powered space flight, a 60-year dream, would supercharge outer Solar System exploration

science.org

Bubbly magma spurs volcanic eruptions...or does it? 🫧🌋 New research proposes that our longstanding theory is backwards: it's bubbles disappearing that does the trick. “That is a paradigm shift...in triggering volcanic eruptions," said one researcher. Today in @science.org: tinyurl.com/mr39x5kn

Long-standing volcanic eruption theory might be backward

Eruptions could be triggered when bubbles vanish into magma—not when they burst out

tinyurl.com

“I expect at some point” that the ceremony will make its way back across the pond, says Ig Nobel founder Marc Abrahams. But “the way things are right now, I doubt that the ceremony will be back in the U.S. in any of the next few years.” Nice coverage by @hannah-richter.bsky.social for @science.org

After 35 years, Ig Nobel ceremony to leave the U.S.

Finances and Trump policies underlaid the decision to move the satirical science event to Switzerland

science.org

“We were aware that we might have a similar situation this year,” the Ig Nobel founder said after Trump's border policies prompted 4/10 winning teams to decline traveling in 2025. "Then the situation got far worse.” Read about the Igs' decision to move abroad @science.org: tinyurl.com/3kfrdh7y

After 35 years, Ig Nobel ceremony to leave the U.S.

Finances and Trump policies underlaid the decision to move the satirical science event to Switzerland

tinyurl.com

For half a century, researchers suspected treetops on Earth might glow because of thunderstorms. But the phenomenon, an electric outburst called a corona, has only ever been spotted in the lab--until now. Cool story from @hannah-richter.bsky.social for @science.org

In a first, researchers film treetops glowing during thunderstorms

Glimmer sparked by electrical fields detected in nature for the first time

science.org

Lightning is so 2025 - it's time for glowing trees, instead ⚡🌲. Today for @science.org : www.science.org/content/arti... #lightning #trees #storm #science #nature #physics

In a first, researchers film treetops glowing during thunderstorms

Glimmer sparked by electrical fields detected in nature for the first time

science.org

Freezing rain is the next big winter hazard—and if the recent January storm is any indication, it's coming for the U.S. South ❄️⚠️🧊. Read more today (and in this week's print edition) @science.org www.science.org/content/arti... #freezingrain #climatechange #weather #climate #nws #noaa

As the world warms, freezing rain shifts to the U.S. South

Recent winter storm traced the path of an emerging ice corridor

science.org