Well, Bradshaw likes it, the trailer looks fab and the French have flocked in their millions. A pretty measly distribution in Manchester but I’ll be going.

De Gaulle: Résistance review – a galloping bromance for Churchill and France’s wartime hero

This biopic of the great Gallic general – which culminates at Bir Hakeim, in advance of a second film – is a fine, quietly amusing romp with a touch of classic 60s war films

theguardian.com

"A massive flood potentially caused by a chunk of ice breaking off from a glacier has swept away bridges, schools, and other buildings and killed at least 160 people" www.scientificamerican.com/article/wall...

Wall of floodwater sweeps away villages in Nepal, with hundreds missing

A massive flood potentially caused by a chunk of ice breaking off from a glacier has swept away bridges, schools, and other buildings and killed at least 160 people

scientificamerican.com

So did the FDA lie about the food recall rate? The problem is that today we all believe they would.

FDA Told the Country Not to Believe the Fake News and Posted a Chart. Susan Mayne Pulled the Same Dashboard and Found the Chart Is Not About Food, and That Food Recalls Are Running Toward an Eight-Yea...

The FDA’s official account posted a chart on August 21 under the words do not believe the fake news, reporting 1,836 recalls in fiscal 2026 and calling

marlerblog.com

This piece rather misses the fact that large corporates are increasingly becoming direct political players, and arguably in doing so undermining the notion of free markets that The Economist is supposed to support.

Archie Hall@archiehall.bsky.social · 2mo ago

BRITAIN WOULD BE BONKERS TO DITCH PALANTIR New @economist.com leader from me on Palantir. I most wanted to highlight its critics' troubling illiberalism—many seem far too blasé letting politics determine which businesses governments buy from. You can read it here: www.economist.com/leaders/202...

The recent paper in Science by Bill Martin's team on a vent form of LUCA and a possible "dual origin of life" got some coverage last week. I took a somewhat deeper dive for @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/life...

Life’s ‘last universal common ancestor’ may predate life itself

A groundbreaking study hints at a hazy boundary between “life” and “non-life,” as well as two distinct origins of biology on Earth

scientificamerican.com

Unfortunately, even more valid today.

costumeface@costumeface.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"I'm talking about the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the 1906 Food and Drug Law, which laid the foundation for all consumer protection laws that followed in this country."

Food companies wanted deregulation. Now there are dozens of recalls across the country. Mining companies wanted deregulation. Now the black lung rate is at a 45-year high. Financial companies wanted deregulation. Now financial losses to fraud are the highest on record. Noticing a pattern?

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

The use of explosives to kill fish is widespread across the tropics, and acoustic monitoring in an Indonesian archipelago detected more than 3500 explosions in 483 days

Fishers detonate a bomb every hour on one Indonesian coral reef | New Scientist

The use of explosives to kill fish is widespread across the tropics, and acoustic monitoring in an Indonesian archipelago detected more than 3500 explosions in 483 days

newscientist.com

Thrilled to share my new feature about a plucky group of scientists investigating the effects of rising temperatures on animal nervous systems. Come for The Blob, stay for the "unflappable" bird brains!

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Many aspects of animal physiology contribute to temperature tolerance. But “the nervous system is one of the major drivers of animal expansion,” says Wolfgang Stein. #neuroskyence By @sarahdeweerdt.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/environment/...

Registration is now up for the @sciencewriters.org annual meeting. I'll be moderating a panel on AI and fielding pitches at the pitch slam. Hope you see you there! sciencewriters2026.org

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

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

😱 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

Hackenburg’s paper is the latest in a string of studies showing the power of AI to sway people. “It’s a whole new field that is emerging,” says @profsanderlinden.bsky.social. “People are very interested in the persuasive powers of AI, I think, both for ethical and unethical reasons”🧪 In @science.org

AI chatbots are becoming experts at changing people's minds. What's their secret?

ChatGPT and other AIs use a flood of facts, and the occasional lie, to persuade humans

science.org

🫠 An AI outlet scooped Wired at a cybersecurity conference. This might foreshadow where AI replaces journalists: scoops from online reports & datasets, and blogging about live events, like an Apple product launch. www.wired.com/story/ai-new...

So Odin and Loki are now apparently "left-leaning". OK.

Deborah Blum@deborahb.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"Dr. Bell removed two weeks of study about Viking men and women. He said Viking mythological poems often featured gender-changing gods like Loki and Odin, material he no longer felt comfortable teaching."

Pretty amazing timing: basically the opposite viewpoint was recently published in Science "Except I did not author most of those texts. I came up with the idea, the experiments, the data, and the references. But the process was devoid of writing, and really, of me." www.science.org/content/arti...

Richard Van Noorden@richvn.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Dean of Science at Stellenbosch University writes that although AI generates almost all the words for his articles (including this one): "AI did almost all of the writing. I remain the expert and the thought leader behind the piece." www.nature.com/articles/d44...

Subrahmanyam gets perspectives from @janeqiu.bsky.social, @katarinazimmer.bsky.social, @michaelgreshko.bsky.social, Bianca Bosker, @leahc.bsky.social, Paulina Rowińska, @walkingthedot.bsky.social, and @vcallier.bsky.social. Read here: www.theopennotebook.com/2026/08/18/h...

Exclusive: Once again, child dies in gene-editing trial in China, rekindling debate on transparency and safety www.statnews.com/2026/08/05/c...

Once again, child dies in gene-editing trial in China, rekindling debate on transparency and safety

With a second delayed report of a child's death in China, criticism is rising of a looser form of clinical trial. One expert: what "bothers me is the lack of transparency."

statnews.com

16 months after a young girl died in a gene-editing trial, the study's entry in clinicaltrial. gov has finally been updated to acknowledge the death. The move comes after @science.org and @retractionwatch.com revealed the fatality 1/ science.org/content/arti...

Wonderful review of Lost in Curiosity in Science: "Young scientists’ passion and commitment take center stage in a moving portrait of research in action... Kwok brings readers to the wings of a play whose ending has not yet been written" www.science.org/doi/full/10.... by @vijee.bsky.social

While on the water out of Seward, Alaska last month, we had the incredible experience of encountering a group of ~20 uncatalogued Alaskan resident orcas on back-to-back days. Check out this incredible mid-air salmon grab that was one of the highlight moments of the trip! #orcas #whalesky #alaska

What do orcas get up to at night? A LOT, it turns out. Find out more in my latest piece for Salish Sea Currents magazine from @pugetsoundinstitute.org: www.eopugetsound.org/article/orca...

Orcas by night: A rare look at the nighttime activities of endangered killer whales | Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Killer whales are active both day and night, but most scientific research focuses on their daytime activities. A recent study looked at a small group of endangered southern residents to find out how o...

eopugetsound.org

NEW: Big new feature from me about offshore wind farms as anchors for wildlife! For example: seals swimming *into* turbine towers to, apparently, hunt fish - and scour protection at the base of turbines used by sea creatures as a dwelling place. atmos.earth/science-and-...

The Sea Life Making a Home in Offshore Wind Farms | Atmos

Offshore wind farms can pose risks to birds and marine life. But their foundations also serve as artificial reefs, offering essential habit.

atmos.earth

Seattle, I'll be giving a book talk at Smarty Pints (science + beer) at the Burke-Gilman Brewing Company on August 17! UW physicist Meg Wynne will also talk about neutrinos and the origins of the universe. Details: www.burkegilmanbrewing.com/smarty-pints About the book: www.robertakwok.com/book

The mission to rescue the Swift Observatory is experiencing technical problems. They may be solvable, but it's a nail-biter. Unclear if the observatory will survive. 🧪🔭 arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...

Corey S. Powell@coreyspowell.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NASA & Katalyst Space are attempting to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a powerful gamma-ray telescope that's on a death-spiral toward Earth. A booster spacecraft, called Link, is now on its way. It will attempt to grab Swift & lift it to safety. 🧪🔭 spacenews.com/pegasus-laun...

Going to see the Odyssey later this week (Imax 70 booked up completely- if I enjoy the squished version, will go again when the exc has died down). This from classicist @daisydunn.bsky.social in the Literary Review is a well-informed, thoughtful review, far from the various polemics.

This interview between Nolan and Chinese academic and doctoral student Yiyang Zhuge is one of the best interviews I’ve seen in a long, long time. Skips past the routine questions about performances, IMAX cameras etc and really makes him work for his answers. youtu.be/wa4I8Ch2TRo?...

Christopher Nolan talks narrative decisions, film critics and whether he Christianised The Odyssey

YouTube video by Nolan Archives

youtu.be

As wildfires continue to get bigger and more frequent, humans need a better way to know how safe it is to be outside, @engber.bsky.social argues.

Weather Forecasts Aren’t Made for Smoke Like This

We need a better way to know when it’s safe outside.

bit.ly