Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 29/09/20262 of 4 deadlines met and it's only Tuesday morning. (But the other two are more work so this is all still according to plan and I don't actually have a lot of time left) 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 28/09/2026I cannot even begin to imagine what it's like to have an "uncluttered mind". My mind is filled to the brim with clutter! www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comStephen Hawking biography explores an ‘exceptionally clear, uncluttered mind’An elegant account of the physicist’s unusual life story highlights the relationships that inspired him. 130
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 28/09/2026You have to arrange your own trip to Manchester, so this will be particularly interesting for writers there or in nearby cities. We heard that too many ABSW events are in London - this one is purposely NOT! (But if you are in London and want to come, you can join me on the early train there) 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 28/09/2026I'm organising this institute visit for science writers in the UK. Come with @absw.bsky.social to the University of Manchester on November 13! www.absw.org.uk/events/insti...absw.org.ukInstitute visit - University of ManchesterThis trip aims to inspire you, show you what research is out there, and give you a chance to talk to researchers in person. No obligation to report. 110
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 26/09/2026Every time I accidentally type "podcats" instead of "podcast"... 010
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 25/09/2026Was Darwin a nepo baby?, I wondered while wandering through his large house and in his expansive gardens earlier this week. Maybe kinda, I decided here: mixture.substack.com/p/was-darwin...mixture.substack.comWas Darwin a nepo baby?Plus: interesting science links from across the web 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 25/09/2026This, but it's the last 5 strawberries shrivelling up in the fridge. 010
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 25/09/2026My most successful TikTok content were videos of the foxes that lived in our garden last year, so just posting animals (sharks or otherwise) will probably do well! 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 23/09/2026How are you supposed to answer if your climate research is about climate research? 0251
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 21/09/2026I’m so glad you had fun in London and it sounds like you found the perfect itinerary! 010
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 20/09/2026I don't have a dryer so my alternative is for the clothes rack to just sit in the living room or office next to a dehumidifier. 100
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 20/09/2026Although some of my neighbours *always* dry their laundry outside, even when outside is not even dry. Their clothes will just be out there in the rain, resetting the whole procedure. 100
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 20/09/2026Taking advantage of climate change by drying laundry outside in late September. 130
Reposted by Eva AmsenJennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Why AI is speeding up scientific research but not lab experiments www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...scientificamerican.comWhy AI is speeding up scientific research but not lab experimentsA new report from Google, Google DeepMind and M.I.T. finds that researchers are using AI—a lot. It’s just not helping as much in the lab 071
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026Could you control things? I can only avoid things by walking away (or waking up completely) but not do much else beyond realising that I'm having a dream and sometimes making a mental note to do something when I wake up. 110
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026This is cool! I get lucid dreams but my control is limited. I can wake myself up if I don’t like the dream, though, which is helpful. 120
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026Anyway, this whole reimagined data-centric publishing world is in the future (as it has been for a while...), but if you think along those lines, it's only a short step from there to "oh, and we could use AI to help with some of that analysis and synthesis". 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026You'd still have text-based papers for reviews, meta-analyses, discussions and such, but in a model like that it would become much easier to sort through published data and to re-analyse data. 100
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026A lot of the ideas are something to the extent of: what if instead of rewarding scientists for publishing their data in papers, we rewarded them for depositing the actual data (annotated). Credit would change, and papers would change. 100
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026So at various meetings, like last year's symposium on the Future of publishing at the Royal Society (for which I wrote the meeting summary note, available at the link), researchers/publishers have been thinking about ways to change this entire system. royalsociety.org/science-even...royalsociety.orgFuture of Scientific Publishing | Royal SocietyA conference on the future of scientific publishing 100
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026Right now, research papers are still based on the archaic system of paper journals. They are PDFs, with paragraphs of text (that researchers have often had to write in their second or third language). But the actual relevance is in the *data* and the text is just there to explain. 100
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026If you can get past the initial gut "ick" reaction when you see the mention of AI, this idea is actually in line with what many publishers and research management experts are looking at as future of publishing. Forget the AI part of it for a minute... www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comReimagining research papers as interactive and reliable AI agents - NaturePaper2Agent converts research papers into interactive artificial intelligence agents by turning manuscripts, code and data into model context protocol-based tool-invoking systems that reproduce origin... 120
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026This includes the UK! (Thanks to Horizon association, I think) 010
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 18/09/2026Someone in Westminster does their job for once and it immediately makes the news.... uk.news.yahoo.com/larry-cat-ca...uk.news.yahoo.comLarry the Cat catches a mouseChief Mouser is seen catching a rodent before casually returning to 10 Downing Street. . 053
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026Except here the science was real but it was a pseudojournalist! 110
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026It sounds like there was at least a round of editing on this piece and some back and forth emails, and they had sent several other pitches as well and collected somewhat relevant clips. Even without the actual writing it seems like a lot of work! 100
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026Other questions we're musing about are more about the weirdness and unfairness of it all: -How did a not-that-great pitch by a fraud get into a magazine that regularly rejects real writers? -Why go through all that effort for just a little bit of money (and no actual recognition) in return? 150
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026Right now my science writer forums and groups are all buzzing over this story, and we have many questions. Some are big questions, like: -Is this happening to other writers? -How can new writers prove to editors that they're real? -How do we protect our identities? 250
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026An impostor managed to get a news article published in Science under someone else's byline, by pretending to be her in the pitch to the editor. They pitched other publications as well, but editors who were familiar with the REAL Caroline noticed something was off. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...linkedin.comFake Caroline update: The person who was impersonating me managed to get an article published in Science, under my by-line. And they got paid for it! I've seen the pitches (bad), and the email…...Fake Caroline update: The person who was impersonating me managed to get an article published in Science, under my by-line. And they got paid for it! I've seen the pitches (bad), and the email chai... 264
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026I just counted and I have about 20 projects on the go of which only about 10 are work. (But the others have deadlines and responsibilities as well. Most of them committee work.) 010
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026Coworking sessions usually on Thursdays 2-4PM UK time, and YES that is in 2 minutes. 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 17/09/2026I'm starting my weekly Discord coworking sessions again! Open to science writers and #scicomm people who need some focused time to work on their own projects, but be motivated by other people doing the same. We're mostly on mute! discord.gg/pZu3YFH6jdiscord.ggJoin the SciComm Coworking Discord Server!This is a place for science communicators, science writers and scientists to work on scicomm projects and share tips. | 553 members 120
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 15/09/2026This week I’m finally setting aside some time to look at the story analyses in this book. It’s been on or near my desk for months now! www.theopennotebook.com/the-best-sci... #scicomm 050
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 14/09/2026I also don't understand this. Why don't AI CEOs *do* something to *start* the regulation process? When biologists in the 1970s realised that genetic engineering could be dangerous, they collectively stopped their work and started working on guidelines that have since become regulations. Do that! 121
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 14/09/2026I bet the scam is "to secure your spot, transfer us a bunch of money" 100
Reposted by Eva AmsenThe Guardian @theguardian.com · 13/09/2026Warning: our democracy won’t survive the death of reading. Read on if you still can | John Harristheguardian.comWarning: our democracy won’t survive the death of reading. Read on if you still can | John HarrisWhile fascists protest in UK ports and purvey nonsense and poison online, ever fewer people have the perspective or analytical tools to challenge them, says Guardian columnist John Harris 3516958
Reposted by Eva AmsenDavid Bradley @sciencebase.com · 08/09/2026If you're after a science writer, the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) has a Bluesky starter pack just for you go.bsky.app/F6bdkUYgo.bsky.appAssociation of British Science Writers membersJoin the conversation 288
Reposted by Eva AmsenEva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 09/09/2026I have an article in the current issue of Earth Island Journal, about the impact that climate change has on schools. Some are prone to flooding, others to heat or wildfires, and it's only getting worse. Find out what's being done and studied about it: www.earthisland.org/journal/inde... #scicommearthisland.orgClass InterruptedFrom Kenya to California, increasingly severe weather is keeping kids out of school. 011
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 09/09/2026I have an article in the current issue of Earth Island Journal, about the impact that climate change has on schools. Some are prone to flooding, others to heat or wildfires, and it's only getting worse. Find out what's being done and studied about it: www.earthisland.org/journal/inde... #scicommearthisland.orgClass InterruptedFrom Kenya to California, increasingly severe weather is keeping kids out of school. 011
Reposted by Eva AmsenEarth Island Journal @earthislandjournal.bsky.social · 08/09/2026UNICEF estimates that climate events disrupted the schooling of 242 million students across 85 countries in 2024. How educators, administrators, and policymakers address this urgent threat will determine whether today’s youth receive the education — and preparation — that they deserve.earthisland.orgClass InterruptedFrom Kenya to California, increasingly severe weather is keeping kids out of school. 011
Reposted by Eva AmsenMark @njdoc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...wsj.comExclusive | Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI FearsConcerns are rising inside AI labs that competition is pushing tech companies to race toward self-improving models that risk spiraling out of human control. 001
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 07/09/2026@bethanyblack.bsky.social I hope you’ve seen this! The first line is one of your posts :) vm.tiktok.com/ZN82Nd9R8/vm.tiktok.comTikTok - Make Your Day 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 07/09/2026Whatever happened to flying cars? Well, apparently a Dutch company plans to have them in the air by 2028. That's...soon! nltimes.nl/2026/09/07/d...nltimes.nlDutch PAL-V gets green light to start producing flying car; Could hit the sky in 2028Dutch company PAL-V is a significant step closer to selling its flying car, the PAL-V Liberty. The European aviation authority EASA has given the company the green light to start production. If all go... 000
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 07/09/2026Also a science-themed photo. This plaque outside insulin co-discoverer Charles Best's former apartment was not yet there when I passed this corner at least daily between 2003 and 2009! And that Tim Horton's was not yet there when Best lived in the apartment above it... 020
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 07/09/2026I am back from my holiday! Enjoy four random photos of my first trip back to Canada since 2015. It had been waaaaay too long. (For context: I lived in Canada from 2002 to 2010 and in the winter of 2000/2001 so it's a second home. Third home? I don't know how to rank my countries.) 140
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 05/09/2026I got relatively lucky with my draw: a woman in 18th century China who lived to age 61! (And then died of dysentery...) 010
Reposted by Eva AmsenThe Japan Times @japantimes.co.jp · 04/09/2026How best to blow one's nose? The late professor Tokuji Unno detailed some techniques in a 1977 paper, for which he was awarded the Ig Nobel Medicine Prize on Thursday.ebx.shLate Japanese researcher wins Ig Nobel Prize for study on blowing one’s noseUnno was awarded the prize for his 1977 paper, “How to Blow the Nose – An Aerodynamic Study of the Nose Blowing.” 1113
Eva Amsen @evaamsen.com · 31/08/2026I’m briefly back in Toronto and the hotel room comes with a record player! If I know you and you’re in TO, message me for hangout details for Tuesday. Or email eva.amsen [at] gmail [dot] com 030