A new editorial by @utafrith.bsky.social on whether the term "autism" has been broadened so much that it's lost its meaning www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Autism spectrum disorder: has it lost its meaning and is it leading to misdiagnosis? | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core

Autism spectrum disorder: has it lost its meaning and is it leading to misdiagnosis? - Volume 56

cambridge.org

Uta Frith@utafrith.bsky.social · 2d ago

My thoughts about the autism spectrum: Autism spectrum disorder: has it lost its meaning and is it leading to misdiagnosis? Psychological Medicine. 2026;56:e240. doi:10.1017/S0033291726105376

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com

Terrific finds, great article

40,000-year-old bird carvings provide clues to how ice age humans flourished

Newly discovered figurines point to skills that might have helped shape early humans’ expansion across Europe.

nature.com

Shayan Oveis Gharan has trouble staying still — so it’s fitting that he’s known for his work on the traveling salesperson problem, a notoriously difficult computational problem about roaming from place to place. And now he’s won the IMU Abacus Medal.

Shayan Oveis Gharan Wins 2026 IMU Abacus Medal | Quanta Magazine

Shayan Oveis Gharan has won the Abacus Medal for using tools from across mathematics to boost the power of algorithms.

quantamagazine.org

65,765 people were in ICE detention as of July 11, in ICE's first data since April. Arrests hit a record 1,474 a day, and the largest group in custody has no criminal history at all. Full edition: austinkocher.substack.com/p/this-week-...

Cows can eat up to 100lbs daily, thanks to the bustling microbiome in their gut pouch. All that digestion results in a whole lot of cow burps. And all those cow burps are warming our planet. Scientists are exploring new ways to squelch the belch. www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-way-th...

A New Way That a Cow’s Inner World Shapes Earth’s Atmosphere | Quanta Magazine

An organelle discovered inside a microbe inside a cow’s gut helps explain how livestock burps contribute to warming our planet.

quantamagazine.org

Yes, it's true, I did manage to run a story about @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social's translation of the Odyssey in Audubon magazine back in 2018. @asherelbein.bsky.social on the avian seductive song of forbidden knowledge: www.audubon.org/magazine/sir...

Sirens of Greek Myth Were Bird-Women, Not Mermaids

A new translation of Homer’s Odyssey corrects the record: The Sirens' seductive power lies with their otherworldly, avian knowledge.

audubon.org

I have previously written about one reason that billionaires find the AI story so compelling: at root, many billionaires just don't believe most other people are actually, fully real. How could they? Achieving billionairehood requires that you inflict pain on vast numbers of people. 13/

Everything is on fire, but I just saw one of these drinking from the pond. We cannot let the fascists destroy our world.

Feels like a good day to re-up this Amanda Gefter piece - Why do we tell ourselves scary stories about AI? (For example, that they are autonomously breaking free of human controls to hack a company) www.quantamagazine.org/why-do-we-te...

Why Do We Tell Ourselves Scary Stories About AI? | Quanta Magazine

Our tales of AI developing the will to survive, commandeer resources, and manipulate people say more about us than they do about language models.

quantamagazine.org

It's pub day for Lost in Curiosity -- please re-post widely! "Lively and revelatory" (Elizabeth Kolbert), "beautifully written" (Alan Lightman), "an utter delight" (Sabrina Imbler), "the kind of trip you won't want to miss" (Deborah Blum) www.robertakwok.com/book

and also, isn't white supremacy such a profound intellectual error that you should immediately question the basic capacities of anyone who indulges it?

Cannot think of anything that could go wrong once the United States establishes a precedent that one country can seek reprisals for how another country affects its climate

Thank you @rachelnuwer.bsky.social for writing this fascinating profile - www.quantamagazine.org/martin-picar...

Martin Picard’s Mitochondrial Theory of Mind | Quanta Magazine

The biologist’s bold “energetic view of life” looks to the body’s strangest organelles as the link between cells, health, and mind and the foundation of our experience of being alive.

quantamagazine.org

They’re kids!

JJ in DC@jjindc.bsky.social · 2w ago

🧊✈️ SEATTLE ⛓️😲 👉 Young men & boys in shackles are herded by hired thugs from a chartered Eastern 737 to a waiting bus, to be transported to GEO Group's Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington 👀

The ever-expanding list of core processes that mitochondria influence — immune activity, reproduction, metabolism, aging and longevity, and more — strongly suggests how mitochondrial dysfunctions could relate to many different diseases and disorders.

Martin Picard’s Mitochondrial Theory of Mind | Quanta Magazine

The biologist’s bold “energetic view of life” looks to the body’s strangest organelles as the link between cells, health, and mind and the foundation of our experience of being alive.

quantamagazine.org

The mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell — and according to biologist Martin Picard, they’re also the link between biology, health, and the mind. In other words, the foundation of our experience being alive. www.quantamagazine.org/martin-picar...

Martin Picard’s Mitochondrial Theory of Mind | Quanta Magazine

The biologist’s bold “energetic view of life” looks to the body’s strangest organelles as the link between cells, health, and mind and the foundation of our experience of being alive.

quantamagazine.org

@georgemusser.com Hey George, shoot me an email? hwaters@quantamagazine.org I have a question for you

In my first story with Kelley French for @notus.com, I spoke to the woman pictured in the Metro photo on July 4. She didn't know she went viral. Her family wants people to know their difficult reality. Please take some time with our story today www.notus.org/metro/viral-...

The Woman in the Photo Wanted to Be Alone. Instead, She Went Viral.

America saw what it wanted to see on the face of its newest icon. And everyone saw it wrong.

notus.org

With all the July model runs now in, it is very likely that 2026 will see the largest El Niño event since records began in the late 1800s – and potentially by a truly mind-blowing margin. The median estimate is now 3.6C, roughly 0.8C hotter than the prior record (2.75C). www.theclimatebrink....

Reuters confirms. 11 more people captured by ICE have been sent to a maximum security prison in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), a country where they have no ties and committed no crimes. reut.rs/4wpbIGU

Eleven more Trump deportees arrive in Eswatini from the United States, lawyer says

Eleven more migrants deported by the Trump administration under a ​policy of sending them to third ‌countries arrived in Eswatini from the United States on Wednesday, a U.S. lawyer following the case ...

reut.rs

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 4w ago

A few minutes ago, two ICE flights operated by Journey Aviation landed in Eswatini, likely another third-country removal of immigrants to a maximum security prison there. Nineteen people have already been sent there on previous ICE flights in the last nine months. Only two have been released.

For the 95%+ who never come forward, to be crystal clear: you made a brave choice too. I'm proud of you for every way that you heal, grow, try to forget things, or simply persist. 2/2

I've been doing sexual harassment and assault research and advocacy work since 2012. If there's one thing people need to understand is that everything, literally everything, is stacked against the victim. Every one who comes forward risks their reputation, identity, safety, and more. 1/2

This is some excellent climate reporting. You should read this. Well done, @eroston.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Extreme Heat Stuns Even Climate Scientists Who Saw It Coming

Record-breaking heat waves are even stunning scientists monitoring the acceleration of climate change.

bloomberg.com

I missed this and it is the sign of a profoundly diseased society. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/m...

Why Is Florida Executing So Many Prisoners?

nytimes.com

Amanda Petrusich: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Cool work from Kate Adamala who uses the division mechanism I found during my years at the Max Planck of Colloids and Interfaces (and @dimovalab.bsky.social). Science is best when we share our insights and build on it.

Quanta Magazine@quantamagazine.org · last mo.

For the very first time, biologists packed nonliving components into a cell-like membrane, piece by piece, and slowly witnessed the bag of molecules start to behave like life. @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/for-the-firs...

As many experience lethal, unlivable heat, it's a good time to remember that there is no such thing as a climate refugee under the law. Climate breakdown was not understood when the UN convention was written. In the US, there is one way for extreme weather to be the basis for legal status: TPS.

Interesting prediction on AI's impact on ecology: "When analytical capability is abundant and freely shared, advantage will shift to those who control the means of data production: the experimentalists and field ecologists" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

AI, Comparative Advantage, and the Next Decade of Ecological Research

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com