Nadia Drake
@nadiadrake.bsky.social
Science journalist, champagneophile, nap champ. Currently freelance, formerly National Geographic. 🇱🇧🇺🇸🏳️🌈 Signal: nadiadrake.01
A few months ago, I got a bit obsessed with a question about life on Mars: When—or if—“life” becomes the most parsimonious explanation for a handful of potential biosignatures, how will we know? Would we even admit it? This story grew from that question. www.scientificamerican.com/article/has-...
Has NASA already found life on Mars?
In searches for past and present Martian life, some scientists say we’ve been too cautious to see what’s right in front of us
scientificamerican.com
Now on @sciam.bsky.social: NASA’s next-gen Habitable Worlds Observatory may be our best chance to find alien life. But can a nation busy ripping itself apart unite to launch a mission to solve life’s cosmic mysteries? By @nadiadrake.bsky.social (and me). www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...
NASA’s First-Ever Alien-Hunting Space Telescope Could Enlighten Our New Dark Age
The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earthlike planets are common—if it can get off the ground
scientificamerican.com
Missing my dad extra hard today — it's been three orbits since he left.
Lots to look at in this subcommittee markup, but: Whose yacht did those orcas attack?? 🤦♀️ appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
appropriations.house.gov
"You’re punching a generation-size hole, maybe a multigenerational hole, in the scientific and technical workforce. You don’t just Cryovac these people and pull them out when the money comes back. People are going to move on.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/prop...
This Budget Plan Would Devastate U.S. Space Science
Scientists are rallying to reverse ruinous proposed cuts to both NASA and the National Science Foundation
scientificamerican.com
Meanwhile, check out the midpoint of this re-entry window. (Prediction is current as of 4pm US Eastern, and it will change, but if 2025 wants to be maximally chaotic…it’s on course) #kosmos482 aerospace.org/reentries/6073
“A lot of life’s interesting things are in the bits that don’t fit. The anomalies. The curiosities.” — Jocelyn Bell Burnell #breakthroughdiscuss
About the leaked NASA budget proposal that kills an almost-ready-to-launch flagship mission: "It sets back a program that is clearly the leading program in the world—in a historic fashion. You take that program and shoot it through the head." www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa...
NASA’s Next Major Space Telescope Is Ready to Launch. Trump Wants to Kill It and Other Vital Science
Amid harsh cuts, the Trump administration has proposed canceling the nearly ready-to-launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
scientificamerican.com
The one science story that friends, family, and neighbors are pinging me about right now: • K2-18b I love that people are excited about it! That's great!! But how much damage are we doing to the general appetite for cool, actual science with the type of hyperbole that came from this team?
Mmmmmmhmmmmmmmmmm. Would also add that there’s room for improvement in multiple areas. These are good conversations to have. 🖖👽
Alexandra Witze@alexwitze.bsky.social · last yr.Good thing we’re having a workshop for journalists in one week on claims of life in the universe 👽 Feels like maybe last week could have worked better 🤷♀️
Extremely yes!! Cannot wait. (But do we have to wait five years? Okay…)
Laurie Leshin@laurieofmars.bsky.social · last yr.Psst…5 years from today is Jupiter Orbit Insertion for Europa Clipper. Everyone should mark their calendars.
Wow — this shot of a total solar eclipse is truly one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. Shot from the moon's surface by @firefly-aerospace.bsky.social's Blue Ghost lander, it shows the sun about to emerge from behind the Earth. What a beautiful cosmic perspective! 💍
"Please stand by. We are awaiting a wayward boat to clear the range." — Blue Origin, accurately telling the story of my launch-reporting life 🚀
I decided to stop in Florida on the way to #AAS245. This pic sucks but we had a great view of the Cape (and New Glenn!) on the way in. 🚀
Found the answer 🌊 www.sfgate.com/sports/artic...
A Santa Cruz surfer rode potential world-record 108-foot-tall Mavericks wave
A Santa Cruz surfer rode a massive California wave last week that was estimated to be 108 feet tall, making it a potential new world record.
sfgate.com
Nadia Drake@nadiadrake.bsky.social · 2y agoAnd, with 30-40ft waves expected locally, what the heck is the forecast at Mavericks?? 🫣 www.latimes.com/california/s...
Hooooly moly. If you’ve ever visited Santa Cruz, surely you’ve seen the wharf. Maybe you were even lucky enough to go watch the sea lions from the viewing areas (one of my favorites) that just fell into the sea. www.santacruzsentinel.com/2024/12/23/s...
Santa Cruz Wharf partially collapses; 3 rescued from water
Two victims were rescued by lifeguards and one self-rescued, officials said.
santacruzsentinel.com
I closed out this year by picking up the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Writing (Features) from @agu.org (thank you!!) and this is what happens when you show up wearing a 🦖 necklace for your formal portrait with AGU president @lgraumlich.bsky.social. Win!! 🙌😂
On this date, 15 years ago, I defended my PhD, bailed early from my own party, and went to dance the role of the Sugarplum Fairy. Hard to believe it’s been so long since I last performed to that beautiful, melancholy score. Tchaikovsky captured the end of a good dream so perfectly.
Hi from CA! Went for a (very long) walk in the redwoods yesterday and found this guy carved into a random rock along a trail to nowhere 👽🖖
Last weekend, Earth’s most famous technosignature — known as the Arecibo message — celebrated its 50th birthday. In a story for SciAm, I had the chance to explore the transmission's significance, both then and now. I couldn't have done it on my own, so here's a bit of how it came to be...🧵
Thomas H Zurbuchen@drthomasz.bsky.social · 2y ago“Searching for life beyond Earth is, in some sense, an exercise in optimism.” Read this beautiful article by @nadiadrake.bsky.social about an interstellar 50th anniversary, which also concerns her family. (Lots of @thebeatles, too … can you find it?) www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
If you really want a Star Trek future, it’s not just going to space in cool machines. It’s building a society with respect for all life, sentient & otherwise, applying science wisely, and pursuing principles of justice, fairness & reason. Let’s build that and ride it to the stars.
This is an astonishing loss. Laura is a champion for the voiceless, for truth, for her staff, for our community. She is a brilliant, courageous thinker and a world-class journalist. It's taken me some time to collect a few thoughts, but here goes. 🧵🧪
Laura Helmuth@laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 2y agoI’ve decided to leave Scientific American after an exciting 4.5 years as editor in chief. I’m going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching), but for now I’d like to share a very small sample of the work I’ve been so proud to support (thread)
Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the Arecibo Message, humanity's 1st deliberate transmission to the stars. You can read all about it today, tho, in this reflective piece from @nadiadrake.bsky.social (her dad, Frank Drake, spearheaded the message!). www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
The Arecibo Message, Earth’s First Interstellar Transmission, Turns 50
In 1974 we beamed a radio transmission into space that changed the way we think about our place in the cosmos
scientificamerican.com
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