Gregory Barber
@gregbarber.bsky.social
journalist in sf / ex-Wired climate / find me in NYT, Quanta, MIT Tech Review etc. / teach at UC Berkeley / gregory_barber@proton.me
And check out the @marketplace.org interview with @gregbarber.bsky.social www.marketplace.org/episode/2026...
Does AI save time in police work?
AI is being sold to police departments as a time saving tool. Science and technology journalist Greg Barber says the results can be more complicated, with limited evidence that this tech can meaningfu...
marketplace.org
Is AI saving police time when writing their reports? So far, the data says no. The latest from @gregbarber.bsky.social @proofnews.bsky.social: www.proofnews.org/can-ai-repla...
Can AI Replace Cops’ Work?
A police technology CEO said at least 50% of a police department’s workload can be automated. One local sergeant found the idea “absurd.”
proofnews.org
Thanks to @umwallacehouse.bsky.social for naming my @technologyreview.com investigation into Big Tech's eucalyptus plantations a Livingston Award finalist. A few updates on the reporting: wallacehouse.umich.edu/livingston-a...
Presenting the 2025 Livingston Award Finalists
These Livingston Award finalists highlight excellence in reporting and storytelling by journalists under the age of 35. Here is the best work of 2024 from young reporters.
wallacehouse.umich.edu
Every year we hire a few editorial fellows to do fact-checking and reporting. Great entry/early career gig that has helped populate pretty much every news org you've heard of: www.motherjones.com/careers/fell...
The Ben Bagdikian Fellowship Program
motherjones.com
I don't say this often but: I'm so proud to be a climate and environment reporter. We cover an issue that is vitally important to humanity and the natural world. 14 of my climate colleagues at the Post were laid off today and I'm devastated. www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...
Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team
Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
We launched a special package on fundamental climate science - feat. @gregbarber.bsky.social on the math of tipping points, @zacksavitsky.bsky.social's history of climate modeling, @wanderinggaia.bsky.social on energy as an evolutionary force, and more! www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...
How We Came To Know Earth | Quanta Magazine
Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...
quantamagazine.org
Our brilliant features and investigations editor @asilverman.bsky.social being interviewed by Erika Hayasaki about the world of being an editor! thereportedessay.substack.com/p/tackling-s...
Tackling Science Narratives
A Conversation with Amanda Silverman, Features Editor at MIT Technology Review
thereportedessay.substack.com
Hii! Last week Quanta published a project I've been working on all year — a special issue about climate science, or what research into climate change is revealing about how our planet works www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...
How We Came To Know Earth | Quanta Magazine
Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...
quantamagazine.org
Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...
The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.
I spoke out against hatred and violence in America — and it cost me my job.
substack.com
A German court ruled Apple can no longer market its Apple Watch as "CO2 neutral": esgnews.com/german-court... Be sure to read @gregbarber.bsky.social's earlier TR deep dive into the company's climate claims here:
Inside the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goal
The tech behemoth is betting that planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil will be the path to a greener future. Some ecologists and local residents are far less sure.
technologyreview.com
Some personal news, as they say: after three years, @johnarchibald.bsky.social, @johnhammontree.bsky.social, and I are finally launching our limited-series podcast on Eric Rudolph and right-wing extremism. Follow us and give us stars (five would be nice) here: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/a...
American Shrapnel
History Podcast · Weekly Series · The Olympics explode on a July night in 1996. The largest pipe bomb the country has ever seen. A string of bombings shakes Atlanta for the next year. Thousands of pho...
podcasts.apple.com
Two new notions of infinity challenge a long-standing plan to define the mathematical universe. @gregbarber.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/is-mathemati...
Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order? | Quanta Magazine
Two new notions of infinity challenge a long-standing plan to define the mathematical universe.
quantamagazine.org
Out today: a new special series from @quantamagazine.bsky.social about science in the age of AI! It explores the roots of AI in fundamental science, how researchers are trying to make sense of AI today, and the ways they’re grappling with an uncertain future. www.quantamagazine.org/series/scien...
AI Changes Science and Math Forever | Quanta Magazine
An exploration of how artificial intelligence is changing what it means to do science and math, and what it means to be a scientist.
quantamagazine.org
AGU has filed a new lawsuit to prevent the Administration’s dismantling of U.S. scientific agencies. We’re proud to take this stand with our plaintiffs’ coalition for our federal workforce. buff.ly/3U56ooz
Fantastic new big story out today from Greg Barber about Big Tech's plans to plant its way to being carbon neutral. Wonderful read, with sensational art and photos. Enjoy! The kind of big ambitious piece that makes me proud to work at @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/24/1...
Inside the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goal
The tech behemoth is betting that planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil will be the path to a greener future. Some ecologists and local residents are far less sure.
technologyreview.com
More than a year ago, when Apple announced a “carbon neutral” Watch, I got interested in one aspect of their claim: eucalyptus. Here’s how the tree became the tool of choice for companies looking to scale up carbon removal fast—and what that looks like. www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/24/1...
Inside the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goal
The tech behemoth is betting that planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil will be the path to a greener future. Some ecologists and local residents are far less sure.
technologyreview.com
Sad to see Moss Landing’s big battery go up in flames yet again. Grid fires are rare (and getting rarer) but the science of how to put them out when they do happen is…not great! And there’s v little public data on HF and heavy metal emissions. Some (old) context: www.wired.com/story/big-gr...
Big Batteries Are Booming. So Are Fears They'll Catch Fire
The world needs thousands of new grid battery installations to fight climate change. They rarely catch fire—but many people are skeptical of having one next door.
wired.com
A new proof marks the first progress in decades on important cases of the “kissing spheres” problem. 😚 @gregbarber.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicia...
Mathematicians Discover New Way for Spheres to ‘Kiss’ | Quanta Magazine
A new proof marks the first progress in decades on important cases of the so-called kissing problem. Getting there meant doing away with traditional approaches.
quantamagazine.org
For @them.us, I’m looking to interview queer couples who decided to get married ahead of the incoming Trump administration. I would be honored to tell your story. If you’re interested, feel free to DM or email at bandrews429@gmail.com.
Here are the biggest breakthroughs that happened in mathematics this year. www.quantamagazine.org/the-year-in-...
The Year in Math | Quanta Magazine
Landmark results in geometry and number theory marked an exciting year for mathematics, at a time when advances in artificial intelligence are starting to transform the subject’s future.
quantamagazine.org
Daniel was thrilled about the upcoming birth of his son. He had no idea a cottage industry of adoption agencies pays cash to women who place their kids for adoption—and that his wife was one of those women. Inside Utah’s thriving, devastating adoption industry: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
She was pregnant and needed cash. Utah's thriving adoption industry was happy to help.
"It's like you're…baiting them in," said one adoptive mother.
motherjones.com
Wrote about tying some cool shapes into some other cool shapes, for @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/teen-mathema...
Teen Mathematicians Tie Knots Through a Mind-Blowing Fractal | Quanta Magazine
Three high schoolers and their mentor revisited a century-old theorem to prove that all knots can be found in a fractal called the Menger sponge.
quantamagazine.org
ICYMI two of the best science magazines ever — @hakaimagazine.com & bioGraphic — have joined forces, allowing both to continue their shared mission. However they still need donations to bring more former staff onboard and cover their 2025 budget. Details: www.biographic.com/hakai-magazi...
Hakai Magazine - bioGraphic
biographic.com
Just a quick note to say that the wonderful climate solutions magazine I write for has made to Bluesky. Give them a follow at @anthropocenemag.bsky.social for daily science news and in-depth features.
A new proof on “shapes of constant width” has made a corner of the geometric universe accessible for the first time. www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicia...
Mathematicians Discover New Shapes to Solve Decades-Old Geometry Problem | Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians have long wondered how “shapes of constant width” behave in higher dimensions. A surprisingly simple construction has given them an answer.
quantamagazine.org
Wrote about the unique pleasures of the radio play-by-play in @nytimes.com. Will be out in this Sunday’s magazine. www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/m...
How to Fall in Love With Baseball
Radio play-by-play taught me about the game’s stark beauty — and who my grandmother was.
nytimes.com
Asked myself the same question energy geeks have been asking for a more than a century: why isn’t Hawaii, a volcanic island chain, a geothermal powerhouse? Turns out state officials are asking the same thing—and trying to change it.
Heatmap News@heatmap.news · 2y ago"Hawaii has committed to reaching a 100% clean energy portfolio by 2045, but was still producing as much as 80% of its electricity from burning petroleum by last year." @gregbarber.bsky.social on Hawaii's geothermal reset (involving an active volcano!)
In the wind power business, bigger is better! Could the world's biggest plane help supersize onshore wind turbines and transform the economics of wind power? Start-up aerospace company Radia unstealths today with this WSJ exclusive: www.wsj.com/business/ene... 🔌💡
Mining is the weak point where climate alliances will often fray. For @technologyreview.com's first “Big Story,” I explored how the fundamental tension between emissions goals & environmental concerns is unfolding in a tiny Minnesota town, as a battle brews over a proposed nickel mine.
This town’s mining battle reveals the contentious path to a cleaner future
The world needs to dig up far more minerals to meet climate goals. But mining poses environmental dangers that are bitterly dividing communities.
technologyreview.com