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Kai Kupferschmidt

@kakape.bsky.social
37K followers 2K following 1.7K posts

science journalist. author. molecular biologist. curious. interested in #microbes, #misinformation and all things #blue contributing correspondent at @science.org co-host of @pandemia.bsky.social 2024 KSJ fellow at MIT Signal: kakape.93

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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think I’d rather not… 🫠
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Doomsday is little more than a month away. At least according to a paper @science.org published in 1960. (No, really). So of course I spent the last few days delving into the paper and its history 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Will the world end next month? Science said so, in 1960
Researchers concluded that doomsday will fall on 13 November—but not for the reasons we might expect today
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
"Information from Russia has been incomplete, confusing, and contradictory." My colleague @martinenserink.bsky.social on what we know so far about the possible plague death in Russia and the implications. 🧪
science.org
Possible plague death at a Siberian lab baffles scientists
Much is unclear about the tragedy, but plague researchers say there is “zero” chance of an epidemic
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Well, this one landed right on my doorstep… www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2026...
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Uff, this one’s gonna be tough
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Ulrich Schwarz @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Our summer academy on "Science and Histories of Fever" is in full swing at the Marsilius Kolleg, with great talks from e.g. @kakape.bsky.social, @feverprojecthd.bsky.social and @lendertgelens.bsky.social. If you are around, join us for "Marsilius Kontrovers" tonight at 7 pm: tinyurl.com/y8dkkxw4
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On the Media @onthemedia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Back in 2022, before ChatGPT was released, researchers were already trying to test how good LLMS could be at persuading humans. @kakape.bsky.social explains why those studies now present a new realm of questions about how people interact with machines. lnk.to/onthemedia/b...
lnk.to
On the Media
The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger examine threats to free speech and government transparency, cast a skeptical eye on media coverage of the week’s big stories and unravel hidden political narratives in everything we read, watch and hear.
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Pandemia @pandemia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Wenn ihr uns bei der Arbeit an der neuen Serie unterstützen wollt: Wir können das alles nur machen dank eurer Spenden und Abos. 🙏🙏🙏 Abos am besten hier: steady.page/de/pandemia/... Oder einfach einmalig unterstützen hier: www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/...
steady.page
Pandemia +
Ein Podcast von Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt und Kai Kupferschmidt.
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Pandemia @pandemia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Bei uns ist gerade sehr viel los, darum machen wir eine klitzekleine Pause und sind dann im Oktober wieder da mit dem Anfang einer spannenden Serie zu einer Infektion, mit der wir uns schon länger beschäftigen wollten...
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Pandemia @pandemia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Wir hatten es ja schon länger versprochen, aber jetzt ist die Folge auch für alle da: Franzi und Karl vom Podcast "AstroGeo" waren bei uns zu Besuch für ein Gespräch über Keime, Katastrophen und den Kosmos. Die Folge gibts z.B. hier: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...
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On the Media @onthemedia.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
📻 Show’s up! Featuring Joshua Rothman, @jasonkoebler.bsky.social, @kakape.bsky.social: lnk.to/onthemedia/b...
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 15/09/2026
The Kennedy Center was a beloved Washington institution, enjoyed by millions of people. It has been destroyed for no real reason. Just vanity, carelessness, indifference. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
Trump’s Kennedy Center Shakedown
The only appropriate response is to refuse to accede to his demands.
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Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard @niemanfoundation.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Apple Reference Image will let iPhone photos be saved with metadata showing they came from a real iPhone camera, @joshuabenton.com writes for @niemanlab.org. 
niemanlab.org
Apple launches a new way to prove a photo was shot with an iPhone (not generated by AI)
At its annual iPhonepalooza today, Apple announced a new feature aimed at making it easier to know where an image came from or whether it's been edited — the sort of provenance data that could be useful in detecting images altered by AI. First rumored last month, Apple Reference Image will wor…
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Great 🧵 There’s been a willingness from the beginning to try and find the handful sane MAHA policy positions instead of concentrating on the overwhelming agenda of rolling back science, evidence and public health. But when someone offers you a shit sandwich you don’t concentrate on the bread part.
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David Gorski, MD, PhD @gorskon.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This! MAHA is a movement largely made up of the affluent and privileged. These are people who are attracted to the idea that the individual is almost solely responsible for and has near complete control over his/her health, hence the hostility to public health in general, not just vaccines.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
“mainstream politicians need to go beyond crime and immigration and focus also on such things as increasing housing provision and public spending, limiting economic and income inequality, fighting the climate crisis and strengthening European integration”
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This by @casmudde.bsky.social. 100% “If democratic parties do not develop inspiring manifestos for what they want to achieve in government, liberal democrats will refuse to come out to vote and the far right will win a majority of votes – even if they represent only a minority of the population.”
theguardian.com
The AfD’s win in Germany is a dark day for Europe. Time is running out to stop the far right | Cas Mudde
This party is among the most extreme in Europe. To protect our democracies, liberal parties must urgently change their tactics, says Cas Mudde, author of The Far Right Today
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
~~~
nathan fielder saying Okay. All right. Okay. Good chat.buttons the tux cat sitting propped up against my pillows next to me in bed and looking over quizzically
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
So the Far Right deftly uses the levers of the modern information ecosystem while feeding off the very alienation and discontent the surveillance capitalism is producing. Meanwhile the democratic parties’ only version of “Nie Wieder” seems to be “Weiter so”…
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I don’t know how much longer I can take these dramatic election results. Year in year out, across countries, for decades now, the same mistakes, the same passivity, the same frustrating debates.
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
No Sven Schulze, you do not need to congratulate an extreme right party when it wins elections! You have to accept the result, the reality and you should not normalize it!
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Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The explicit plan of many intellectuals on the German far right is not to attack the constitution head on, but to culturally redefine key concepts of democracy, pluralism and rights so that its ethno-nationalist agenda is viewed as common sense.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
In our new essay for the @financialtimes.com (you read that right), @astra.bsky.social and I link the extreme weather events we have all been living through to the rise of a new iteration of futureless fascism, wherein the rich and powerful plan for their bunkered survival behind fortressed borders.
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Maximilian Pichl @maxpichl.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Alle reden immer davon, man müsse die AfD inhaltlich stellen. In den Talkshows gestern konnten aber alle AfD-Leute mit den abstrakten Sprüchen davonkommen ala "Wir brauchen vernünftige Politik für unser Land" usw. Es wird gar nicht nachgefragt was das heißen soll.
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Pandemia @pandemia.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Ein „verfluchter Sarg“, eine Goldgräberstadt und ein Ebola-Ausbruch, der offenbar viel früher begann als gedacht. Unsere neue Folge fragt: Was macht aus einem einzelnen Spillover eine Epidemie? Spoiler: Es ist nicht allein das Virus. 🎧 jetzt hier: podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/e...
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
"When Captain Cook first landed in the Hawaiian islands his seamen left behind, well, semen, and along with it what is believed to have been syphilis." Definitely one of the more memorable first sentences of an academic paper... #IDsky 🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Kinda hilarious to hear @michaelhobbes.bsky.social and @notalawyer.bsky.social discussing right-wing trope of gender differences in how direct feedback is handled. Having experienced US and German workplaces I’m pretty sure any Berlin woman’s feedback is gonna make the average American man cry 😂
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Thanks Christos!
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thanks Nadia! Hope our paths cross again soon. So much to discuss!
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🥳Danke!
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thanks Tamar!! Any chance you’ll be in Oregon at ScienceWriters?
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Also very cool: This means that I will be at ScienceWriters2026 in Oregon in a few weeks. Love meeting long-time colleagues or making new connections, so if you see me there and feel like it, do say hi!
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thanks. That means a lot
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thanks Carl! Story about you was my first foray into doing more in-depth reporting on misinformation.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Aww thank you!
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thanks!☺️
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Danke dir!
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thanks so much Christie!
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Final point: I'm really happy that the judges highlighted my work on misinformation along with my reporting on infectious diseases. I still find it pretty frustrating (for many reasons) to report on what we are learning about the changes in our information ecosystem. But I also think it's crucial.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I have also learnt a lot from (and at times leaned a lot on) amazing colleagues reporting on infectious diseases both at Science and elsewhere, especially @cohenjon.bsky.social and @helenbranswell.bsky.social. I've always loved that in science journalism we are all learning from each other as we go.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I’m incredibly lucky to work with a bunch of amazing colleagues at @science.org, foremost my long-time editor @martinenserink.bsky.social. I can honestly say that every story I have written for him has ended up better because of his work on it.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Feeling very honored and grateful today. Some of the journalists whose work I admire most have received this prize in the past and at a time when journalism is under threat in so many ways it’s just really heartening to be recognized by people who care deeply about journalism.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Unfortunately yes…
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Hackenburg’s paper is the latest in a string of studies showing the power of AI to sway people. “It’s a whole new field that is emerging,” says @profsanderlinden.bsky.social. “People are very interested in the persuasive powers of AI, I think, both for ethical and unethical reasons”🧪 In @science.org
science.org
AI chatbots are becoming experts at changing people's minds. What's their secret?
ChatGPT and other AIs use a flood of facts, and the occasional lie, to persuade humans
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Charles Q. Choi @cqchoi.com · 21/08/2026
I was a judge on the 2026 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, and am glad that @elisecutts.bsky.social won! I highly recommend her sparkling prose on a very wide range of scientific fields, some of which you can read by going to the award announcement page: casw.org/news/elise-c...
casw.org
Elise Cutts wins 2026 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award - CASW
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Thanks for the kind words and more importantly: Congrats!! 🎉
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Elise Cutts @elisecutts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Amazing feature on LLM persuasion by @kakape.bsky.social in @science.org
science.org
AI chatbots are becoming experts at changing people's minds. What's their secret?
ChatGPT and other AIs use a flood of facts, and the occasional lie, to persuade humans
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Appreciate the author's honesty but I think he's deluding himself and has set out on a pernicious path. I don't believe thinking and writing are as easily separated as he and his AI claim.
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Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Die #Vogelgrippe bedroht auch seltene Arten wie den bis zu vier Kilo schweren Kakapo. Der Podcast @pandemia.bsky.social berichtet über die Schutzmaßnahmen für den fast ausgestorbenen Papagei & wie man versucht ihn vor #H5N1 zu bewahren. open.spotify.com/episode/1GHx...
open.spotify.com
Vogelgrippe | Das Virus und der fliegende Backstein
Pandemia · Episode
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
It’s so important to have science journalists that have the time and resources to do these kinds of investigations. I feel very lucky to work in a place where that’s possible with amazing colleagues like @charlespiller.bsky.social and @jennieerinsmith.bsky.social, who reported this piece. 🧪
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