Rachel Courtland
@rachelcourtland.com
Editor at MIT Technology Review (@technologyreview.com), commissioning news, features, and essays | Science and technology journalist and forever physics nerd
Registration is now up for the @sciencewriters.org annual meeting. I'll be moderating a panel on AI and fielding pitches at the pitch slam. Hope you see you there! sciencewriters2026.org
ScienceWriters2026 – A conference for science writers, by science writers
sciencewriters2026.org
Wowza. Look at this chart on wildfires in France from @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social EFFIS. Red line is cumulative area burned this year; blue line is average since 2006...
#Freelance journalists - I just sent out a call for pitches for @technologyreview.com's Breakthroughs issue. Pitches due Friday August 7. We're also looking for front-of-book articles (the pitch guide I mention in this post has more info on those). www.linkedin.com/posts/rcourt...
#freelance | Rachel Courtland
#Freelance journalists: MIT Technology Review is seeking pitches for our upcoming Breakthroughs Issue. We’re looking for big swings: narrative features, essential profiles, and sharp reported essays ...
linkedin.com
Big news for the @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social story we ran in @technologyreview.com earlier this year! Subscriber wall-free link here: www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/10/1...
Constellations
A story about seeking
technologyreview.com
Jeff VanderMeer@jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 2w agoAlso thrilled to announce that Natalie Portman is developing my short story "Constellations" for film, thru her MountainA production company. I'm psyched at the prospect of her starring in it. "Constellations" appeared in the MIT Technology Review earlier this year (see today's pinned post for link)
I'm working on booting up fiction again at @technologyreview.com. Tell me your favorite sci-fi and sci-fi-adjacent authors. Who would you love to see in our pages? Bonus points for new and emerging folks!
I've been team "opposite direction" all along www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/s...
Researchers Claim to Have Solved the Perplexing ‘Reverse Sprinkler’ Problem That Stumped Feynman
Physicists have debated which way a submerged sprinkler sucking in water would spin. Careful experiments provide an answer.
nytimes.com
Really fun story about the tangible impact the mega bonuses that South Korea's tech companies are doling out are having on the nation's dating pool. www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/06/1...
South Korea’s hottest new bachelors are chip workers
As payouts from the AI boom soar, a job at SK Hynix can put you at the front of the matchmakers’ queue.
technologyreview.com
WSJ working hard for the most unflattering picture and framing.
Stephen Judkins@stephenjudkins.bsky.social · last mo.Remarkable: they really are trying to sell this thing for $25k. We'll see how it works out!
🔴 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
Studies on AI 'deskilling' us. Even more worrying is the thought of heavy AI-use preventing students acquiring the skills in the first place www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good
Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities of physicians and software engineers, studies show.
nature.com
I took a break from science policy to step back and write about the beguiling mystery of dark matter and how much we've learned about how little we know. A spoiler: It's a story without an ending. No one's directly detected dark matter yet, and there's no guarantee of when that will happen—or if.
The search for dark matter has been blown wide open
After decades of hunting, physicists still don’t know what makes up most of the universe’s matter. Now they need to cast a wider net.
ter.li
Scientists have a word for how we sense ourselves from the inside: interoception. New today @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/12/1...
Inside Interoception: The hidden sense of how you feel inside
Researchers are decoding how signals move between body and brain, with implications for how we understand and treat conditions from obesity to anxiety.
technologyreview.com
Journalists + writers: I'm on the hunt for a book essay for the November/December issue of @technologyreview.com. The idea is to have a strong thesis and use 1-3 new or upcoming books to help explore it. My e-mail's at the bottom of this page if you need it. www.technologyreview.com/how-to-pitch...
How to pitch MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review welcomes pitches from freelance writers across a broad range of topics. We encourage writers of all skill levels, and from all backgrounds, to pitch us. We are especially interes...
technologyreview.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
Fun set of science stories. It never occurred to me that headbutting animals could be used for traumatic brain injury research, but of course it makes perfect sense.
Virginia Gewin@virginiagewin.bsky.social · 3mo agoScientists shared their standout days for this @nature.com feature. Thx to @nicoleackermans.com @bwjones.bsky.social @aishikghosh.bsky.social @peixotoraquel.bsky.social & others for their stories! If you have a story, please send it my way for part 2!
Pitches due Friday for @technologyreview.com's Impossible issue: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
#freelance | Rachel Courtland | 15 comments
#Freelance journalists: MIT Technology Review is seeking pitches for an upcoming print issue: The Impossible Issue. The idea is to focus on some of the biggest goals and promises of our age and look a...
linkedin.com
Strong policy from arXiv! Hallucinated citation = ban for a year from arXiv, and 'subsequent arXiv submissions must first be accepted at a reputable peer-reviewed venue'. [repost: I incorrectly characterized Dietterich before - he is the vice-president of arXiv's external advisory council].
We are implementing a similar policy at @arxiv.bsky.social. If there is incontrovertible evidence of LLM slop in a paper, this means the authors did not take the time to read the LLM output and we can't trust anything else in the paper. Penalty is 1 year ban from arXiv followed by...
I'm committed to using public domain art for pitch calls, and for some reason really struggled with this one. But regardless...heads up! Pitch call for @technologyreview.com's Impossible Issue www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
#freelance | Rachel Courtland
#Freelance journalists: MIT Technology Review is seeking pitches for an upcoming print issue: The Impossible Issue. The idea is to focus on some of the biggest goals and promises of our age and look a...
linkedin.com
Reminder: It's far, far cheaper and easier to not emit the stuff in the first place than it is to pluck CO2 molecules out of the air.
Heatmap News@heatmap.news · 3mo agoAs hyperscalers try to balance AI’s need for electrons against the reality of a warming world, @climeworks.bsky.social CEO Christoph Gebald argues that carbon removal should be considered part of the cost of doing business. Read more: heatmap.news/ideas/climew...
Pocket change for many wealthy Californians! I hope someone/some place steps up.
Colin Schultz@colinschultz.bsky.social · 3mo agoI really, really hate to sharing this, but last week, we @biographic.bsky.social learned that the California Academy of Sciences will no longer be providing the magazine with financial support, including money we were expecting to receive this year. We're in a real bind.
I think air conditioning is officially no longer just a "nice to have" in Oregon.
The Oregonian@oregonian.com · 3mo agoPortland residents may be dragging their fans and air conditioners out of storage earlier than expected this year. theoregonian.visitlink.me/evCWYy 📷: Dave Killen #heatadvisory #warmweather #hotweather #hightemperatures #hightemps #portland #portlandoregon #theoregonian
How to get your first clip without having any past clips. (The ole Catch-22)
The Open Notebook@theopennotebook.bsky.social · 3mo agoHaving clips helps you land assignments, but how do you get that first, elusive clip? This story with @rachelcourtland.com, @yaohualaw.bsky.social, @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social, @alexip718.com and others who all once landed their first assignment explains how. www.theopennotebook.com/2026/04/28/l...
I never thought I'd refer people to X for something, but our AI fellow @michelletomkim.bsky.social is doing great live coverage of the Musk-OpenAI trial there. Here's the day 4 thread x.com/michelletomk...
x.com
Craig Venter (who has died aged 79) redrew the boundaries of biology — sequencing DNA at unprecedented speed, engineering synthetic life and charting ocean microbes. by @ecallaway.bsky.social | @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Genome pioneer Craig Venter dies: here’s how he transformed science
Venter redrew the boundaries of biology — sequencing DNA at unprecedented speed, engineering synthetic life and charting ocean microbes.
nature.com
Nice story. Just like fruit, computer chips get sorted by quality too.
Matthew Sparkes@sparkes.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe chips in your phone are probably broken – and that's a good thing. Manufacturers relabel partially broken chips as lower-tier models which reduces costs, cuts waste and increases supply. www.newscientist.com/article/2523...
ICYMI, this lengthy @sciam.bsky.social Q&A with Breakthrough Prize winner & Physics Nobelist David Gross is worth your time. Gross is using his status as a soapbox to warn of the increasingly dire threat of nuclear annihilation. The Cold War ended, public awareness ebbed, but the arsenals remain.
Lee Billings@leebillings.bsky.social · 3mo agoNow on @sciam.bsky.social: Nuclear war may shatter physicists’ dreams of a final theory, says Breakthrough Prize winner David Gross. It’s not every day an eminent theorist calmly explains why you, me, & everyone we know may perish in thermonuclear flames www.scientificamerican.com/article/huma...
