getting the gang together tonight

Are you a science journalist ready for your next story? Apply for the HITS Journalist in Residence Program: 3–6 months, exchange with researchers, and a €6,000/month stipend. 📅 Apply by 15 October 2026. We'd love to hear from you! #HITSJIR2027 https://ow.ly/63cC50ZvHMi Image AI modified

*is*

onesillyfag@onesillyfag.bsky.social · 3d ago

Asteroid strike on the moon.

tagging every corporate comms post linkedin news makes with the ai slop button

🧪 If there are any Australian scientists / CSIRO folk who want to chat about Doug Hilton's comments at the National Press Club yesterday, or about scientific funding in general, my contact details are here: www.jacksonwryan.com/contact/ Particularly interested in chatting with PhDs and postgrads.

Contact

You can email me tips, stories or ideas. I would love to hear from you. Work: I currently work freelance across a variety of Australian magazines, websites and other. Commission me for science storie...

jacksonwryan.com

Find the Sydney Games Festival strategy strange. Who is running the show?! Just say it! It's like 2 months away. And, there's already another "SYDNEY GAME FEST" ... 🧵

BURD@tezamondo.bsky.social · last wk.

well that clears that up then

🧪 New: Inspiring NSW, part of the national STEM engagement strategy, using AI-generated images of kids in labcoats on half-laptops to represent National Science Week events... Misrepresenting science / entrenching bias in 2026. Why are we still doing this? nobreakthroughs.com/the-abominab...

The Abominable Little Ghouls of Australia's National Science Week

I believe we have a duty to call out this garbage.

nobreakthroughs.com

@jacksonwryan.com just pubbed a big update over on Kickstarter. Huge part of this has been making sure contributors get well paid for their best work. Check it out. www.kickstarter.com/projects/con...

Update 13: Big Updates Time! Big Hype Time! · CONTINUE: A Defiant, New Videogames Magazine

Hello!!!!It's been a little while between updates and we hope you're doing extremely well. We wanted to jump in and give you some SCOOPS on where we are at, what's to come, and a few sneak peeks...Thi...

kickstarter.com

@aftermath.site literally does not exist without paid subscribers. It's (currently) the only way we make any money. While it's cool that over 25,000 people are subscribed to our newsletter, 'free' members actually COST us money to host, so the more people we can get signing up, the better:

We're Having A Sale!

We've got discounts on both our monthly and annual offerings

aftermath.site

if you play Protest the Hero's latest album 'Within' at full volume you will not hear the Aus Alert system and thus, you will die but you will—finally—be happy.

just opened it and literally top of the page was lmao

LinkedIn filling up with 'Claude just one-shotted this video game' or something and the "game" they show is 24 seconds long and looks like absolute horseshit, fantastic stuff

Illuminating (and low-key infuriating) look at science + science media in Australia from @jacksonwryan.com Poll data: 91% of Australians say they "actively seek out" science news Reality: Of the top 10 news sites only 1 has a science page that both (1) exists and (2) isn't buried in sub-menus

If you want to restore science, you need science journalism

Understanding in a car crash.

nobreakthroughs.com

🧪 A senior scientist once crashed his car into my car on the way to work and years later I asked him for a job because the postgraduate career path in Australia is messed up. That story, and other car crashes like the Australian science funding landscape, here. nobreakthroughs.com/restore-scie...

If you want to restore science, you need science journalism

Understanding in a car crash.

nobreakthroughs.com

Latest dispatch out now. I offer some thoughts on a debate around the morality of recreational drug use, and offer a short excerpt from my book. Then we have some fun looking at a weird episode of TV where Bryan Cranston goes through a psychedelic therapy trip.

Report #3: Bryan Cranston does psychedelic therapy on Malcolm in the Middle

This dispatch I take a look at a wild episode of psychedelic TV. But first I do a bit of a deep dive into an idea that pops up quite often: the morality of recreational drug use

tripreports.com.au

yeah sure but what does this mean for the assassin's creed series

Science Magazine@science.org · 3w ago

Ancient DNA confirms that Grand Duke Francesco de Medici and his older brother, Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, contracted malaria. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3RimiAO

🧪 NEW: Australia's regulation of research integrity is not meeting the mark -- universities have no real obligation to tell the public about serious breaches, nor correct the scientific record. That seems pretty bad for science, and for trust! nobreakthroughs.com/australias-r...

Australia's research integrity system is weak and inconsistent. How can we fix it?

A recent study presents small tweaks that could strengthen an ailing research integrity system.

nobreakthroughs.com

Instead of reading that post, you could be reading this one — which is, in fact, much more timely and useful and interesting than a list of papers from a year ago!

"The bullets we've dodged have hit someone else" — UK science cuts largely spare physics and astro, hit projects and labs

Also: AI conflict of interest disclosures in philosophy, PhD admission down 15% at US universities, an AI "humanizer" tool for science, and more from last week

reviewertoo.com

I can't watch this in the US, but I'm always going to boost posts about science TV shows. They're so important to inform everyone and inspire kids toward careers in science. Wonder can, and should be, a renewable resource!

Adam Rutherford@adamrutherford.bsky.social · 4w ago

My review of Evolution. The BBC series, not the concept. But to be fair, I'm a big fan of both. @chrisgpackham.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/c6c0...

🧪 I looked at where science studies/press releases were being reported, stumbling upon websites ranking high in Google Search filled with AI slop. Images on the sites erase the identity of real scientists, replacing them with airbrushed ghosts. nobreakthroughs.com/the-scientis...

The Scientists That Don't Exist

Ghostly websites publishing science press releases are filling up with AI-generated content — and the ghosts of scientists that don't exist.

nobreakthroughs.com

ACDC did what?@!?

But without the umbrella protection of large organisations journalists are easily muzzled by people weaponizing our legal systems to quash information they don't like. It's a dangerous place to be if you value public interest reporting. Support indie writers wherever you can.

🧪 I looked at where science studies/press releases were being reported, stumbling upon websites ranking high in Google Search filled with AI slop. Images on the sites erase the identity of real scientists, replacing them with airbrushed ghosts. nobreakthroughs.com/the-scientis...

The Scientists That Don't Exist

Ghostly websites publishing science press releases are filling up with AI-generated content — and the ghosts of scientists that don't exist.

nobreakthroughs.com

Preach 🙏

Jenna Stoeber@thejenna.bsky.social · 4w ago

it's so vital to have journalists who cover the video game industry, so we have full context on shit like this

Really great insights from Elise, much of it rings true. I'd say less press release sci journalism won't make people read more science journalism. That's the thorniest problem: Readers seem to click on the 'bad' stuff a lot more than the alternative... incentivising more bad stuff!

Elise Cutts@elisecutts.bsky.social · 4w ago

What is it about science journalism residencies that triggers professional crises of faith? @jacksonwryan.com hits many points I've been thinking about myself in this post. Here's one: "... incentives remain the clearest obstruction to covering science effectively and for the public interest" 1/n

we don't talk about what oscillating between utter, endless despair and fleeting fragmentary hope does to a person enough

I recently re-launched my newsletter with a focus in that spirit: the systems, instincts, and incentives that shape what's discovered, what's believed, and what happens when science hits the real world. Science journalism and science communication are obviously part of that. 2/n

What determines how science is done — and how it matters?

The newsletter is back with a new focus on the systems, instincts, and incentives that shape what's discovered, what's believed, and what happens when science hits the real world

reviewertoo.com

Experts have long said this method -- Facilitated Communication, Assisted Spelling, Rapid Prompting Method -- is dangerous pseudoscience. The credulity here from the author, a science reporter, is very concerning. 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/s...

An Autism Breakthrough, or an Illusion? The Fight Over Assisted Spelling

nytimes.com

I got a cramp in my neck from nodding in agreement so much while reading this. Spot-on survey of modern science journalism.

Jack Ryan 🙏🧪@jacksonwryan.com · 4w ago

🧪 If science journalism is going to survive and thrive, it has to reorient itself and rethink the incentives that currently drive it. Reflecting here on some great @chriscmooney.bsky.social pieces about where we might be headed. nobreakthroughs.com/adrift-in-a-...