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Nadia Drake

@nadiadrake.bsky.social
6.1K followers 153 following 122 posts

Science journalist, champagneophile, nap champ. Currently freelance, formerly National Geographic. 🇱🇧🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 Signal: nadiadrake.01

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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
A few months ago, I got a bit obsessed with a question about life on Mars: When—or if—“life” becomes the most parsimonious explanation for a handful of potential biosignatures, how will we know? Would we even admit it? This story grew from that question. www.scientificamerican.com/article/has-...
scientificamerican.com
Has NASA already found life on Mars?
In searches for past and present Martian life, some scientists say we’ve been too cautious to see what’s right in front of us
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
This is how we snowstorm.
I’m snuggled on the couch with our dog, who is wearing dinosaur jammies and is about to get a belly rub.
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Lee Billings @leebillings.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Now on @sciam.bsky.social: NASA’s next-gen Habitable Worlds Observatory may be our best chance to find alien life. But can a nation busy ripping itself apart unite to launch a mission to solve life’s cosmic mysteries? By @nadiadrake.bsky.social (and me). www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...
scientificamerican.com
NASA’s First-Ever Alien-Hunting Space Telescope Could Enlighten Our New Dark Age
The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earthlike planets are common—if it can get off the ground
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Missing my dad extra hard today — it's been three orbits since he left.
Dad and me in the snow; I'm wearing a pink snow suit and am barely old enough to walk. He's holding my hand. I'm a few years old and am sitting on Dad's shoulders. He looked excited. I look puzzled.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Lots to look at in this subcommittee markup, but: Whose yacht did those orcas attack?? 🤦‍♀️ appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
appropriations.house.gov
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
"You’re punching a generation-size hole, maybe a multigenerational hole, in the scientific and technical workforce. You don’t just Cryovac these people and pull them out when the money comes back. People are going to move on.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/prop...
scientificamerican.com
This Budget Plan Would Devastate U.S. Space Science
Scientists are rallying to reverse ruinous proposed cuts to both NASA and the National Science Foundation
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Meanwhile, check out the midpoint of this re-entry window. (Prediction is current as of 4pm US Eastern, and it will change, but if 2025 wants to be maximally chaotic…it’s on course) #kosmos482 aerospace.org/reentries/6073
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
“A lot of life’s interesting things are in the bits that don’t fit. The anomalies. The curiosities.” — Jocelyn Bell Burnell #breakthroughdiscuss
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
About the leaked NASA budget proposal that kills an almost-ready-to-launch flagship mission: "It sets back a program that is clearly the leading program in the world—in a historic fashion. You take that program and shoot it through the head." www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa...
scientificamerican.com
NASA’s Next Major Space Telescope Is Ready to Launch. Trump Wants to Kill It and Other Vital Science
Amid harsh cuts, the Trump administration has proposed canceling the nearly ready-to-launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
The one science story that friends, family, and neighbors are pinging me about right now: • K2-18b I love that people are excited about it! That's great!! But how much damage are we doing to the general appetite for cool, actual science with the type of hyperbole that came from this team?
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Mmmmmmhmmmmmmmmmm. Would also add that there’s room for improvement in multiple areas. These are good conversations to have. 🖖👽
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Extremely yes!! Cannot wait. (But do we have to wait five years? Okay…)
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Re-upping this absolute gem for no reason whatsoever. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYD3...
A screen grab of Darth Vader asking Princess Leia, “What did you do with those plans you were sent?” It’s from an absolutely genius mash up of Stars Wars set to Beatles songs.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Wow — this shot of a total solar eclipse is truly one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. Shot from the moon's surface by @firefly-aerospace.bsky.social's Blue Ghost lander, it shows the sun about to emerge from behind the Earth. What a beautiful cosmic perspective! 💍
An image of a total solar eclipse, seen from the moon's surface. The sun's light is a thin ring around a dark Earth, except where the sun is beginning to emerge from behind the Earth, producing what's colloquially called the "diamond ring" effect.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
"Please stand by. We are awaiting a wayward boat to clear the range." — Blue Origin, accurately telling the story of my launch-reporting life 🚀
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
I decided to stop in Florida on the way to #AAS245. This pic sucks but we had a great view of the Cape (and New Glenn!) on the way in. 🚀
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Found the answer 🌊 www.sfgate.com/sports/artic...
sfgate.com
A Santa Cruz surfer rode potential world-record 108-foot-tall Mavericks wave
A Santa Cruz surfer rode a massive California wave last week that was estimated to be 108 feet tall, making it a potential new world record.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Hooooly moly. If you’ve ever visited Santa Cruz, surely you’ve seen the wharf. Maybe you were even lucky enough to go watch the sea lions from the viewing areas (one of my favorites) that just fell into the sea. www.santacruzsentinel.com/2024/12/23/s...
santacruzsentinel.com
Santa Cruz Wharf partially collapses; 3 rescued from water
Two victims were rescued by lifeguards and one self-rescued, officials said.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
I closed out this year by picking up the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Writing (Features) from @agu.org (thank you!!) and this is what happens when you show up wearing a 🦖 necklace for your formal portrait with AGU president @lgraumlich.bsky.social. Win!! 🙌😂
A portrait of two women — I’m on the left and Dr. Graumlich is on the right. We are both wearing evening gowns, and we are both pointing at my very silly and awesome gold necklace that is, in fact, a representation of a T. rex fossil.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
On this date, 15 years ago, I defended my PhD, bailed early from my own party, and went to dance the role of the Sugarplum Fairy. Hard to believe it’s been so long since I last performed to that beautiful, melancholy score. Tchaikovsky captured the end of a good dream so perfectly.
Ballet dancers on stage — I’m one of them — as seen from the wings. We’re dancing a pas de deux and I’m wearing a pink tutu. My leg is over my head, which normally would be weird but makes sense because it’s ballet. An image of my title dissertation slide. It reads: 

“Phenotypic consequences of transient imprinting perturbations at Rasgrf1 in mouse”

“Nadia Drake, Soloway Lab, December 10 2009”
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Hi from CA! Went for a (very long) walk in the redwoods yesterday and found this guy carved into a random rock along a trail to nowhere 👽🖖
An outline of an alien, etched into a moss-covered boulder.
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Reposted by Nadia Drake
David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Cool video showing rocket launches around the globe 1957 to now.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Last weekend, Earth’s most famous technosignature — known as the Arecibo message — celebrated its 50th birthday. In a story for SciAm, I had the chance to explore the transmission's significance, both then and now. I couldn't have done it on my own, so here's a bit of how it came to be...🧵
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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
If you really want a Star Trek future, it’s not just going to space in cool machines. It’s building a society with respect for all life, sentient & otherwise, applying science wisely, and pursuing principles of justice, fairness & reason. Let’s build that and ride it to the stars.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
This is an astonishing loss. Laura is a champion for the voiceless, for truth, for her staff, for our community. She is a brilliant, courageous thinker and a world-class journalist. It's taken me some time to collect a few thoughts, but here goes. 🧵🧪
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Lee Billings @leebillings.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the Arecibo Message, humanity's 1st deliberate transmission to the stars. You can read all about it today, tho, in this reflective piece from @nadiadrake.bsky.social (her dad, Frank Drake, spearheaded the message!). www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
scientificamerican.com
The Arecibo Message, Earth’s First Interstellar Transmission, Turns 50
In 1974 we beamed a radio transmission into space that changed the way we think about our place in the cosmos
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 06/11/2024
Today has been brought to you by the makers of Advil and the letters W, T, and F.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 30/10/2024
Sweet Beans #pibblesarethebest
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 18/09/2024
Yay icy moons!! (At least in my case)
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 08/04/2024
Beans is ready 😎 #getmooned #eclipse2024
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 14/03/2024
When I think about the anomaly on Voyager 1, it's hard not to get a sort of end-of-life feeling about it all, to start confronting the inevitability of Voyager silently traversing the wilds of interstellar space — still out there, but beyond our reach. www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa...
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 12/12/2023
Taking my best girlie out for a drink
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 05/10/2023
I'm psyched to have two stories in National Geographic’s October ✨space✨ issue! One is a feature about looking for life on icy moons (and in Earth's darkest corners); the second is a Q&A with Brian May (it will rock you). The issue is gorgeous, go find one! www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/iss...
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 27/09/2023
Today’s wordle: passive-aggressively punking women everywhere
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 12/09/2023
Hello earthquake my old friend…felt that little one. Surprised it woke me up! Only an M3.4? earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 02/09/2023
Taking some space to reflect on September 2, 2022. Miss you and love you forever, Dad. 💔
Beans (our dog) on a deck, overlooking a wooded valley. The sun is setting behind a mountain ridge in the distance.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 30/08/2023
Love this doggo.
I’m on the couch with our pup, who is snuggled up with me and has her head resting on my shoulder.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 25/08/2023
I’d like to posit that it’s possible to take the search for alien life seriously without alienating (yep, did that) most your colleagues. Ask me how I know.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 18/08/2023
This sweet girlie ❤️
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 22/07/2023
To borrow a (timely) quote: “That belongs in a museum!” observer.com/2023/07/the-master-rec…
observer.com
The Master Recording of NASA’s Voyager Golden Record Heads to Auction
The famous record was designed by NASA to share a snapshot of humanity and its home to space-faring civilizations.
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 07/07/2023
Thinking about these lovebirds as I begin a new orbit around the sun. Love you forever, Mama and Papa D! ❤️
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Nadia Drake @nadiadrake.bsky.social · 02/06/2023
Pride! 🏳️‍🌈
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