Jenna Ahart
@jennaahart.bsky.social
Science journalist As seen in Nature, Science, Quanta, MIT TR, SciAm, Space .com, etc Jennaahart.com
Now on @sciam.bsky.social: After 40 years of searching, physicists have glimpsed a telltale flash of light in a mile-deep cavern. It might be the best-yet evidence for dark matter, the mysterious invisible stuff that outweighs matter 5-to-1. Or it might be a mirage...
Have we finally found dark matter?
The world’s biggest dark matter search saw a particle it cannot explain
scientificamerican.com
How can individual laboratories decide on the best ways to use AI to enhance their work? It depends on the research values that your team prioritizes, a new white paper suggests. #AI By @jennaahart.bsky.social @nature.com 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What’s your lab’s archetype? The answer could inform how you use AI
A white paper gives research groups four priority models, each of which uses artificial intelligence differently.
nature.com
A remarkable shot by John Kraus of the launch this morning of NASA's new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Liftoff was at 7:26 am Eastern; the spacecraft will take about three months to climb up to the second Sun–Earth Lagrange point. Roman will search for dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets.
Minutes ago the Roman space telescope launched successfully from Cape Canaveral. Here’s @jennaahart.bsky.social on the worlds it’s expected to find. (Free to read for now, they just want your email.) 🧪🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The Roman telescope is about to take planet-hunting to the next level
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch shortly, could find 40 times the number of distant worlds that have been detected so far.
nature.com
Roman also carries a “coronagraph” for blocking the light of individual stars, which could help discover 40 times as many exoplanets as have been detected so far — as @jennaahart.bsky.social explains here www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The Roman telescope is about to take planet-hunting to the next level
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch shortly, could find 40 times the number of distant worlds that have been detected so far.
nature.com
This morning's launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from the Kennedy Space Center was amazing! Roman is now on a million-mile journey to Lagrange point 2, where it will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets: https://go.nasa.gov/4qIa69I #NASARoman 🔭 Credit: J. Barrientes/STScI.
The powerful Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled for launch Sunday, and exoplanet scientists are thrilled: Roman could spot as many as 40 times the number of currently inventoried planets in other solar systems. go.nature.com/3UcDyZs
The Roman telescope is about to take planet-hunting to the next level
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch shortly, could find 40 times the number of distant worlds as have been detected so far.
go.nature.com
The US National Science Foundation has kicked off a sweeping effort to deepen the ties between PhD students and industry go.nature.com/4hbpiJO
NSF rolls out ‘industry PhD’ programme — joining a global trend
The US pilot programme will provide financial support for four years to more than 250 students, who will gain industry experience.
go.nature.com
My teams have completed all necessary checks and testing of the Cebreros station. After careful review, we have declared the antenna GREEN for nominal operations as of 27 July.
Josef Aschbacher@josefaschbacher.esa.int · 2mo agoBased on current information, the Cebreros station appears to have remained unharmed. My deepest thanks go to the Spanish emergency services whose efforts helped protect the site as wildfires approached. Left: 24 July 19:57, Right: 25 July 07:54
This is the first sugar molecule spotted in interstellar space go.nature.com/3TgNPmG
First ‘true sugar’ molecule found in space — offering hints to life’s origins
Erythrulose, which has four carbon atoms, is the most complex sugar spotted beyond our Solar System.
go.nature.com
Nobel-prize-winning chemist Omar Yaghi has left the United States for a full-time position at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, where he will lead a new AI-assisted materials discovery institute. go.nature.com/4pf2jQ3
Nobel-winning chemist leaves US to direct AI materials lab in China
Omar Yaghi’s move comes amid cuts to US science and a campaign in China to recruit top international talent.
go.nature.com
🔴 We have a fun thing for you today in @nature.com - a game! We took the latest research into Mars terraforming and transformed it into an interactive adventure. 🌿 How would you make the red planet green? Try your hand and see if you can win. 🧪 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Can you terraform Mars? Try Nature’s game
Once the realm of science fiction, the idea of making Mars habitable is gaining traction. Nature consulted with key scientists to develop this experimental adventure.
nature.com
Today NASA named four skilled astronauts as the #ArtemisIII crew for a test mission in low-Earth orbit, perhaps next year. All four are men, even though NASA has loads of highly qualified women astronauts. It's not a good look for the so-called Artemis generation. 🧪🔭
NASA Marches Toward Artemis III Mission in 2027, Names Crew Members - NASA
Taking another step toward one of the most complex human spaceflight missions in recent history, NASA on Tuesday provided new Artemis III details and
nasa.gov
Now on @sciam.bsky.social: A rare meteorite recovered in 2019 from the Sahara Desert seems to be a half-kilo hunk blasted from the depths of a long-lost planet that roamed the (very) early solar system. Cool story by @jennaahart.bsky.social. www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare...
Scientists found a piece of a lost planet in the Sahara Desert
Hints of high-pressure chemistry within a rare meteorite suggest this fallen space rock comes from a planet gone wrong in the solar system’s early history
scientificamerican.com
Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Astronomers are puzzling over what almost seems to be a time traveler in the early universe—a newfound “red monster” galaxy so big and dusty it shouldn’t exist at its cosmic epoch, a mere 400 million years after the Big Bang. www.scientificamerican.com/article/jwst...
Astronomers puzzle over early origins of mysterious ‘red monster’ galaxy
Researchers are perplexed by a galaxy that seems too large and too dusty for its place in cosmic history, less than a half-billion years after the big bang
scientificamerican.com
This first woman beyond low Earth orbit is a Phillies fan—how beautiful
I wonder if it’s also a pink moon tn for the Artemis crew
Also in @nature.com's #ArtemisII coverage: "It is not sufficient to justify human space exploration by aiming to be the first or by claiming that it will support industry. How it is done, and by whom, needs to change to win the public over." - Bethany Ehlmann 🧪🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Countdown to Artemis: is NASA’s Moon mission the dawn of a new space age?
As humans, we must be intentional about whether, and how, we explore space.
nature.com
These medical X-rays are all deepfakes — and they fool even radiologists Radiologists and large language models alike have a hard time picking out real medical images from fake ones. @jennaahart.bsky.social writes for @nature.com News. With a quote by me. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
These medical X-rays are all deepfakes — and they fool even radiologists
Radiologists and large language models alike have a hard time picking out real medical images from fake ones.
nature.com
Most radiologists struggle to identify X‑ray scans that are generated by artificial intelligence, with fewer than half spotting synthetic images hidden in real medical data go.nature.com/4sty6NM
These medical X-rays are all deepfakes — and they fool even radiologists
Radiologists and large language models alike have a hard time picking out real medical images from fake ones.
go.nature.com
Contrary to what a grade-school science experiment might have you believe, static electricity is an utter mystery to scientists. In my new feature for @nature.com: why is static electricity so shockingly complex, and how are we finally getting consistent results in this field?
Static electricity is a big mystery — a jolt of fresh research could help to solve it
The familiar phenomenon has puzzled researchers for centuries, but experiments are finally making sense of its unruly behaviours.
nature.com
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI): Hubble Unexpectedly Catches Comet Breaking Up science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...
NASA’s Hubble Unexpectedly Catches Comet Breaking Up - NASA Science
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope witnessed comet K1, whose full name is C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), in the act of breaking apart.
science.nasa.gov
Many of the scientists Jeffrey Epstein courted were already well-established and well-funded. So why didn’t they all just say no? Science talked with three who did just that. Here’s how Epstein approached them, and why they refused to have anything to do with him. ⬇️ https://scim.ag/40qbXnv
Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein
The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a “sexist attitude”
scim.ag
Why do curling stones slide across ice the way they do? After a century of study, physicists have theories — but they’re still not 100% sure. Stellar lede from @jennaahart.bsky.social Read the full story in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Watching the Olympic curling finals this weekend? Physicists still aren't 100% sure why the big granite stones 'curl' the way they do. go.nature.com/4rTOAOw
Why do curling stones slide across ice the way they do?
After a century of study, physicists have theories — but they’re still not 100% sure.
go.nature.com
New for @nature.com: Some light reading ahead of this weekend's curling finals. (Fact checked by spinning a candle on the floor of my living room) www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Why do curling stones slide across ice the way they do?
After a century of study, physicists have theories — but they’re still not 100% sure.
nature.com
