Amanda Heidt is at ESA26!
@scattercushion.bsky.social
🏜️ Southwest National Parks Editor, SFGate |✨ Freelance Science Journalist |👩🔬 Once-Upon-A-Time Scientist | 📰 Clips in Nature, Science, The New York Times, Nat Geo, NPR, et al. | Signal: aheidt.16 | 🏳️🌈 She/Her | amandaheidt.com
🚨 Journalism Jobs Alert 🚨 @sfgate.com, the largest media site in Calif., is once again HIRING! Looking for: - ✍️ Deputy Managing Editor, News Division - 🌲 North Coast Contributing Editor (part-time) - 📹 Social Video Producer (part-time) Quick 🧵 on what we're looking for 👇
Colleagues! Friends! People who may one day be colleagues and friends! I’m here at #ESA26 until Thursday to nerd out with y’all. Please introduce yourself and tell me all about your work.
🏜️ I originally wrote a much more...mature intro, but alas, decorum prevails! www.sfgate.com/national-par...
Calif. researchers turn to OnlyFans as their funding dries up
But it's not what you think.
sfgate.com
Who else is headed to Salt Lake next week for #ESA26!? I'll be there hunting for stories and sitting on a panel about careers in scicomm. Hope to see a lot of folks there. events.rdmobile.com/Sessions/Det...
Careers in Science Communication - Details
events.rdmobile.com
Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
Trump administration limits student visas to four years, changing longstanding policy - The Boston Globe
The new rule, which also restricts the international students’ ability to transfer schools or change majors without approval in their first year, will go into effect in mid-September.
bostonglobe.com
🧪 Double pub day! I got to catch up with Nobel Prize-winner Jennifer Doudna about her new study crafting synthetic CRISPR proteins that perform gene editing more efficiently than their naturally-occurring counterparts! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
CRISPR gets a power boost from AI-designed ‘molecular scissors’
Researchers used artificial intelligence to design functional CRISPR enzymes not seen in nature.
nature.com
Super proud to be on the board of an organization that looks after its own. In addition to a statement of solidarity for the staff recently laid off from SciAm, read on for a list of resources, including a session I co-organized about self-care during tough transitions. www.nasw.org/July2026soli...
NASW expresses solidarity with journalists facing layoffs and loss of freelance work
To the workers affected by this round of layoffs, both in terms of staff jobs and the loss of freelance work as a result of those eliminated positions, and to those still recovering from similar actio...
nasw.org
🏜️Hear ye', hear 'ye! The next round of Bears Ears/Grand Staircase-Escalante nonsense is here. www.sfgate.com/national-par...
Trump just dramatically shrank 2 beloved Utah national monuments
The national monuments have been at the heart of a tug-of-war between presidents.
sfgate.com
🏜️ One of the most impactful stories I've worked on at SFGATE ran this morning. A year after Dragon Bravo ripped across the Grand Canyon's North Rim, staff spoke to myself and @ashleyharrell.bsky.social about the ways in which the blaze--and the government's response--has reshaped their lives.
The national park fire nobody was ready for
The Dragon Bravo Fire upended lives on the Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim.
sfgate.com
🧪To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the FAIR principles, I spoke to data scientists about what data accessibility and reproducibility looks like in 2026. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How FAIR data are helping to build trust in science
The FAIR guidelines laid a solid foundation for ensuring data accessibility and reproducibility. A decade on, researchers are thinking beyond them.
nature.com
Still looking for one more prof to share a fun way they chose to celebrate getting tenure!
Amanda Heidt is at ESA26!@scattercushion.bsky.social · last mo.🧪I've got a #SourceRequest: If you did something fun to celebrate earning tenure or passing your PhD defense, please let me know! I'm working up a sweet story for Nature.
🏜️A story I really wish I didn't have to write. Moab has been absolutely doused in smoke the last week as we watch places we love being threatened. www.sfgate.com/national-par...
Utah is burning. That's bad news for its national parks.
Firefighters are battling dozens of blazes ahead of the country's 250th birthday.
sfgate.com
🧪Had the good fortune to contribute *three* features to this year's annual report for the @simonsfoundation.org, focused on math as the universal language of science. Pick your poison: I've got black holes, CryoEM, and marine microbio!
Tl;dr: Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media. As someone who previously worked for a LabX pub that LabX proceeded to run into the ground, I am...skeptical that this signals anything good.
Springer Nature to divest its consumer media businesses | Springer Nature Group | Springer Nature
Strategic divestment of consumer media portfolio enables Springer Nature to focus on its core business Transaction supports the long-term development
group.springernature.com
🧪I've got a #SourceRequest: If you did something fun to celebrate earning tenure or passing your PhD defense, please let me know! I'm working up a sweet story for Nature.
It has been a deadly week at Grand Canyon. If youre visiting in the parks this summer, pay attention to the heat and cone prepared! www.sfgate.com/national-par...
3 more visitors die in Grand Canyon National Park
The deaths appear to be heat-related.
sfgate.com
🧪New from me for @nature.com: I do a lot of writing about technological innovation, but sometimes, the simpler tool really is best. For this story, I asked field and bench scientists to tell me about their favorite, most basic tools! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
In the field — and sometimes in the lab — the simplest tool is best
Technology has led to unprecedented innovation, but common household items can help make research more reproducible — and accessible.
nature.com
FOR ASSIGNED MEDIA MEMBERS: Right now you should already have an email to help you RESUBCRIBE to our new site. To leave Squarespace we were forced to cancel all existing memberships. This is a huge risk, so we need all of you to go find that email and RESUBSCRIBE so your membership doesn't lapse.
"I started saying no to anything that paid less than $500." Science journalist Amanda Heidt (@scattercushion.bsky.social) turned a layoff into a thriving freelance business. Full interview here: howimakemoneywriting.substack.com/p/interview-...
Interview #162: How Amanda Heidt Makes Money Writing
In this interview, Amanda talks about the financial boundary she set in her second year of freelancing: saying no to any assignment under $500.
howimakemoneywriting.substack.com
It's a double pub day! For @sfgate.com, I wrote about new fishing regulations in Yosemite, and for @nature.com, the discovery of a new type of explosive immune cell in regenerative flatworms. If you've never seen a planarian, now's a good time to look them up.
NSF uses staffing cuts to strip Inspector General's office of its ability to investigate research misconduct www.science.org/content/arti...
Exclusive: NSF watchdog unit is no longer investigating research misconduct
New policy hands universities the reins in probing allegations against faculty
science.org
Sometimes the job is a grind, and sometimes the job is grinding my way through several pies in the name of journalism.
SFGATE@sfgate.com · 2mo agoA refurbished homestead in Capitol Reef's heart slings out 600 pies a day.
EXCLUSIVE A year ago, the Trump administration announced it was creating an Office or Remigration—named for a racist plan to expel immigrants, popularized by European far-right groups It has since said nothing about it. But @wired.com found out what it's doing... www.wired.com/story/the-st...
The State Department Really Doesn’t Want to Talk About the Office of Remigration
The office was created a year ago and seemingly named for a far right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations. It now works, a source says, with little to no oversight.
wired.com
I 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.
@scattercushion.bsky.social was on the danger beat last week. Two people died in Zion National Park in a week last month: www.sfgate.com/national-par... And someone is missing at Grand Canyon: www.sfgate.com/national-par...
Calif. man is second person to die in Zion National Park in a week
Two bodies have been recovered in Zion National Park in the span of a week.
sfgate.com
In the least surprising headlines category, a new report from @scattercushion.bsky.social on two large US faculty surveys about mental health. Read on for the ways faculty (and employers) can mitigate anxiety. US faculty members report high levels of anxiety www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US faculty members report high levels of anxiety
Surveys show the importance of social, familial and structural support in lowering anxiety, particularly for people in health professions.
nature.com
One of several reasons I canceled my NYT sub.
Assigned Media@assignedmedia.org · 3mo agoIs the New York Times more biased than other major US news organizations that cover the trans community? Early data from our 2026 news tracker suggests they are. Of the 10 outlets we've been tracking, NYT had the fewest stories that quoted a trans person of them all. More here:
Hey Bluesky! 👋🦋 We’ve been reading your replies about our paywall, and we’re listening. We want to share why it’s there—and an easy, low-cost way to read more. TL;DR: You can unlock every Scientific American article for 90 days for just $1 spklr.io/6003EyRIR More context below 🧵 1/6
Are you coming up for tenure review in the next couple of years? See the @nature.com Careers team's advice for assembling a kick-ass tenure portfolio. Reporting by @scattercushion.bsky.social A step-by-step guide to nailing your tenure promotion package www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A step-by-step guide to nailing your tenure promotion package
It’s an important milestone in many academic careers, yet the tenure process is surprisingly nebulous. Here’s what it takes to succeed.
nature.com
