Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiLuke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all 7459741998
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiElizabeth Gibney @lizziegibney.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Such is AI right now that I spoke to Mark Chen on Thurs last week & by Fri it was out of date (see the update at the end)🧪🤖 It was interesting to hear about their approach to safety (which is much boiled down here)& plans to interact with the scientific community 1/6 www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comOpenAI’s research chief talks of ‘cultural reset’ after wild few weeksMark Chen discusses how the Hugging Face cybersecurity incident prompted a pivot to safety — and giving AI models a sense of ‘taste’. 232
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiEvan Hensleigh @futuraprime.net · 29/09/2026OpenAI has the same problem (and it looks even worse, since unlike the Anthropic case they were clearly aware of competing work). Now that mathematicians know OpenAI wants to beat them, will they still trust Codex? 112
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiMax Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 25/09/2026SCOOP: Top researchers at Columbia, Stanford, and others thought they were elected to elite scientific societies alongside Nobel laureates. The catch? The organizations are a sham. I spent the last month diving deep into a massive academic scam spanning continents, for @nature.comnature.comExclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchersA Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices. 10309183
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiEd Morrish @edmorrish.com · 24/09/2026here’s the original, to save you scrolling: bsky.app/profile/roel... 114434
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiArs Technica @arstechnica.com · 24/09/2026arstechnica.comNew Jersey fines data center $1.1M after satellite pics expose 62 gas generatorsMillion-dollar fines won’t end billionaires’ data center pollution, neighbors fear. 159034
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiRod Van Meter @rdvquantum.bsky.social · 25/09/2026By then we have had chapters on pure and mixed states, entanglement, lasers, interference and waveguides. For a Creative Commons licensed preview, see arxiv.org/abs/2311.02367arxiv.orgQuantum CommunicationsThe second quantum revolution has been picking up momentum over the last decade. Quantum technologies are starting to attract more attention from governments, private companies, investors, and public.... 131
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota. 121121715156
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiHelen Pearson @helenpearson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026NEW: There are widespread concerns that AI will reduce our critical-thinking skills. My story for @nature.com today looks at how to maintain those skills — and teach them to students. I found some fascinating science on critical thinking + useful tips for us all 🧠 www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comHow to stay smart in the age of AI: the science of critical thinkingThere is growing concern that AI can blunt memory and reasoning. But science shows ways to keep the brain sharp. 12815
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiNature @nature.com · 23/09/2026This weird form of boron is a million times more conductive than chemists expected go.nature.com/4dSNi1Ego.nature.comThis weird form of boron is a million times more conductive than chemists expectedA boron phase prepared under pressure can be stretched. 03710
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiElizabeth Gibney @lizziegibney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026An explainer answering quite *how* AI is supposed to be able to kill us all, why Anthropic is pushing for regulation, what to really worry about, and what might happen next 🧪🤖 www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comWill AI really kill us all? The science behind the hypeNature examines whether the technology might spell the end for humans, and why AI companies are calling for a slowdown. 0135
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiRebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 22/09/2026"The disappeared*" was a term for those the military dictatorship in Argentina imprisoned/tortured/murdered during the dirty war. *"detenidos-desaparecidos" (detained-disappeared) 20854480
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiJeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Last week all my students hand-wrote their own pledges, according to their terms, to write in my courses without AI. Some of them were quite moving—their anger at AI’s attempt to steal their educations, their determination to learn & create anyway. 6793184
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiCatherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026EPA allowed pesticide giant Bayer to pick from a menu of regulation options for the controversial and destructive weedkiller dicamba. Dicamba is drift prone and kills vegetation and crops for miles around fields where it is sprayed, and is linked to liver cancer and Non-Hodgkin lymphomatheguardian.comUS environment agency let Bayer pick regulations for destructive weedkiller, documents showEnvironmental Protection Agency asked firm to choose rules it wanted for dicamba, then put the choices in a proposed federal rule 20369222
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiAdam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Speaking as a journalist: I would really like to see more of my colleagues asking this question. If we take money from tech companies we can't report on them, and if somehow we do we have to disclose it. Yet when we interview academics about AI, I almost never see disclosures of their funding. 212332
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiElizabeth Gibney @lizziegibney.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Is AI making major discoveries in maths by learning from chats of human mathematicians who are already working on the problems? 🧪 It's not clear... but might be worth checking your user settings Great story by @castelvecchi.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comWho gets credit in the AI era? OpenAI maths bombshell sparks debateControversy around OpenAI’s claim to have solved the Navier–Stokes problem highlights how researchers could be inadvertently sharing — and absorbing— ideas through chatbots. 0228
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiAdam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I just wanted to write about physics! But noooo, a fucking sex cult had to take over Silicon Valley and the entire public discourse about technology and the future while aiding the rise of fascism, and I felt duty-bound to write about that instead LOOK WHAT THEY MADE ME DOhachettebookgroup.comMore Everything ForeverThis "smart and wonderfully readable" (New York Times) exposé shows why Silicon Valley’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions—with escaping death... 8521122
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026In today's @nature.com story, I report a new facet of the Navier-Stokes controversy. OpenAI's widely reported statement said that it was “categorically impossible” for user data from Tristan Buckmaster to have helped train their internal model. However... 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comOpenAI maths bombshell sparks debate about who gets credit in age of AIControversy around OpenAI’s claim to have solved the Navier–Stokes problem highlights how researchers could be inadvertently sharing — and absorbing— ideas through chatbots. 150
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiArs Technica @arstechnica.com · 16/09/2026David Streever, who sent a scathing three-paragraph email to the then-acting director of ICE, hopes his legal fight will put an end to the agency's intimidation tactics that he believes are intended to silence protestors.arstechnica.comIt’s OK to tell ICE their actions will haunt them, judge rules in speech fightMan wins fight to block ICE threat over off-the-cuff angry email. 38521
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 16/09/2026@nature.com's take on last week's events in mathematics — and the controversy over OpenAI's announcement that it had solved the Millennium Prize Problem on the Navier-Stokes equations www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comAI companies must work with the research community to protect attributionAn era-defining mathematics claim raises questions over how AI tools credit earlier work. 023
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiAdam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Nice to see this getting some attention. It's completely true, and I dearly wish more journalists understood where these common narratives about AI actually come from. 10815226
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 15/09/2026www.wired.com/story/zuckof...wired.comZuckOff Is a Free App That Sees Meta Glasses Before They See YouYou can’t always tell if someone is recording you with their smart glasses, but your phone can help. 020
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 15/09/2026With two solved, there are still five Millennium Prize Problems to go. What are they, and which ones are likely to fall to AI? Great story by @manonym025.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/whic...scientificamerican.comWhich million-dollar math problem could AI solve next?After an OpenAI model presented a possible solution to the Navier-Stokes problem, mathematicians are speculating about which major unsolved question could be resolved next 010
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiTerence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...mathandai.orgDeclaration — Math and AIRead the declaration and add your name. 422052927
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiPhilip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I just did an interview for this yesterday, which reminds me that I am supposed to be doing that author thing of saying you can pre-order now. Looks like the US publication date is December. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...press.uchicago.eduThe Man Who Broke RealityFrom the brilliant Philip Ball, a thrilling biography of Nobel Prize–winning Danish physicist Niels Bohr, the most radical quantum mechanician of all.In the first half of the twentieth century, the tr... 2184
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Could the AI-aided solutions to the Millennium Prize Problem on fluid dynamics be eligible for the $1 million offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute? Nothing in the CMI rules would seem to prevent that... www.claymath.org/millennium-p...claymath.orgRules for the Millennium Prize Problems - Clay Mathematics InstituteThe revised rules for the Millennium Prize Problems were adopted by the Board of Directors of the Clay Mathematics Institute on 26 September, 2018. Please read this document carefully before contacti... 200
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiArs Technica @arstechnica.com · 08/09/2026arstechnica.comLG TV shown capable of tracking user activity, even when offline“It doesn’t cost a lot to store text forever.”... 67435
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 08/09/2026www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comOpenAI claims huge maths breakthrough on a famed ‘Millennium Problem’The company says it has cracked the physics of fluids using AI, solving one of the toughest puzzles in mathematics. 064
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 07/09/2026LOL what gave it away, Sherlock? That we might not trust an eugenicist company with our lives? www.theguardian.com/society/2026...theguardian.com‘Mistrust’ of Palantir may affect NHS research, says health ministerJames Frith says patients may be less willing to share data as new figures show a rise in opt-outs 012
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 07/09/2026My latest: @anthropic.com has 'formalized', or verified by computer proof, the proof of Fermat's last theorem by Andrew Wiles and Richard Taylor. “If they can formalize Fermat's last theorem, they can probably formalize anything.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comAnthropic AI ‘formalizes’ proof of Fermat’s last theorem in just 11 daysClaude produced a 13-million-line, computer-checked proof of the famed conjecture — a major milestone in mathematics. 2195
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiDave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Content warning: Multiple men violently assault a female protester at Reform's conference at the Birmingham NEC, to the visible delight of Nigel Farage. 93934422234
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiNature @nature.com · 03/09/2026This year’s Ig Nobel prizes, awarded on 3 September, include a biomechanics prize for creating a precise definition of kissing and a soil-science award for investigating what happens if you bury and then dig up 1,000 pairs of underwear. go.nature.com/3URhWC0go.nature.comBuried underpants and a new definition of kissing win 2026 Ig Nobel prizesThe awards highlight weird, funny and improbable research that also makes you think. 04314
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiJan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 03/09/2026In country after country we start to see EV sales up and ICE down. The lines cross in an X typical for transitions. Norway in 2019. Sweden and Nepal in 2023. Denmark and Singapore in 2024. Belgium and the Netherlands in 2025. Finland is crossing now. janrosenow.substack.com/p/the-car-in... 1724892
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiThomas Lin @7homaslin.com · 02/09/2026@teorth.bsky.social wrote a clear, nontechnical explanation of the Kakeya Conjecture (for which Hong Wang won the Fields Medal in July), why it matters, how it was solved, and future directions, and posted it on the arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2608.22209arxiv.orgRotating needles in space: the road to the Kakeya conjecture, and why it mattersA non-technical exposition of the Kakeya conjecture, why it matters, and the road to the solution of this conjecture in three dimensions by Hong Wang and Joshua Zahl. 262
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiGabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Photo caption: “Rodrigo, a 58-year-old Los Angeles green-card holder, was detained for 10 months and denied access to medical care as a tumor in his throat grew to the size of a lemon.” 29364013567
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiCorey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Happy Carrington Event Day to all who celebrate. On Sept 2-3, 1859, a huge solar flare hit Earth with the most intense magnetic storm on record. Auroras bloomed, magnetometers went wild, and telegraph machines sparked around the world. 🧪 link.springer.com/article/10.1... 27527
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 01/09/2026BREAKING: Searches for WIMP dark matter have gone blank for decades (despite some false alarms). Is this one, from the LZ experiment, for real? www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comIs this the first glimpse of dark matter? Data point excites physicistsAn experiment spots an energy flash similar to that of the long-sought weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP. 1187
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiElizabeth Gibney @lizziegibney.bsky.social · 01/09/2026🚨 Metrology klaxon🚨 Next month, the world's timekeepers will vote on whether to abolish the leap second with immediate effect. How then to keep clocks in sync with Earth's natural day, as given by its daily rotations? A leap hour every few millennia of course! 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comThe leap second is dead. Long live the leap hour?Fear of a possible ‘negative’ leap second is accelerating plans to abolish the practice. 097
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiGareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 01/09/2026It appears that plagiarism only matters to The Times if it’s done by black professors 6370115
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiRMI - Rocky Mountain Institute @rockymtninst.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Global gas operations waste more than 2x the amount of gas transported through the Strait of Hormuz. When companies reduce gas waste, they significantly bolster energy, economic, and environmental security. 121
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 31/08/2026'It is understood that senior museum leaders were warned about the possible public perception of special treatment for someone with connections to Jeffrey Epstein, and whose public software company, Palantir, plays a controversial role in the British state.' 'the possible public perception'theguardian.comBritish Museum hosted Palantir founder Peter Thiel in private viewing of Bayeux tapestryConcern among staff that fragile artwork’s scarce ‘light hours’ given to someone with no known interest in museum 29336125
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiESO @eso.org · 31/08/2026A rare snowy day for the ELT ❄️ Two weeks ago northern Chile was affected by severe weather. It caused damage to several cities and brought snow to our observatories, leaving stunning imagery like this drone video of our Extremely Large Telescope. 🔭 1/2 37118
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiGaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Oh no, who could’ve predicted this…? #NomadCentury 1408
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiHendrik Klaassens #FBPE #BanX #NoAfD #FBR @aurorablogspot.bsky.social · 29/08/2026An ABC NEWS Verify investigation has found Facebook's parent company, Meta, is paying controversial content creators including a white nationalist with Neo-Nazi links and a prominent anti-vaxxer. Content produced by these creators appears to be, at times, in violation of Facebook's own policies.abc.net.auFacebook pays controversial creators to produce rage-bait contentAn ABC NEWS Verify investigation reveals Facebook is directly funding some controversial Australian content creators including a white nationalist and an anti-vaxxer influencer. 67775
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiCleanTechnica @cleantechnica.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Sierra Club Slams Trump Plan to Carve Up Yosemite for Private Developer cleantechnica.com/2026/08/28/s...cleantechnica.comSierra Club Slams Trump Plan to Carve Up Yosemite for Private Developer - CleanTechnicaSupport CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of c... 064
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 30/08/2026BREAKING: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched into space, carrying the largest infrared camera ever built. It completes a trio of observatories — with Euclid and Rubin — that will take cosmic mapping to a whole new level www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comLift-off! NASA launches Roman Space Telescope to tackle dark-energy mysteriesThe space observatory will have an expansive view of the Universe as well as sharp resolution. 23613
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Stay tuned for @nature.com coverage by yours truly! 051
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiNature @nature.com · 28/08/2026The long-standing ‘gallium anomaly’ concerning neutrinos could have been a misunderstanding all along go.nature.com/4qIa7KVgo.nature.comA solution to the mystery of the missing neutrinosLecture preparations prompt a scientist to poke holes in the ‘gallium anomaly’. 0131
Reposted by Davide CastelvecchiOliver Morton, Eater of Sun @eaterofsun.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Just heard @rory-stewart.bsky.social on @therestpolitics.bsky.social say that "we [the UK] still consume more carbon than we have ever done—we just have the t-shirts made in China". I've heard this point being made elsewhere recently too. And it is simply not true. 917997
Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · 26/08/2026“There has even been unconfirmed speculation that in 1969 US physicist Richard Feynman named “partons” — the subatomic particles inside protons and neutrons that physicists now call quarks and gluons — after the then-rising star who debuted her first album in 1967” 141