iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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SciComm Excellence @scicommexcellence.nationalacademies.org · 18/08/2026

What can ants teach us about making decisions? 🐜 #SciComm awardee @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social explores the surprisingly sophisticated ways insects navigate choices and what their “poppy-seed-sized” brains might reveal about wise decision-making. Read more: www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

Want to get better at making decisions? Ask an ant

From democratic honeybees to self-aware flies, there's plenty we can learn from creepy crawlies about how to make better decisions.

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Jason Dinh @byjasonpdinh.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

NEW: for @nytimes.com, I wrote about a new study showing that queen bumblebees can breathe underwater, surviving submerged for a week the “remarkable” study stems from a lab snafu, when a co-author thought she accidentally drowned several bees—but later found that they were alive 🧪 gift link 🎁

nytimes.com

Bumblebee Queens Can Breathe Underwater

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Greg Donovan @gregsdonovan.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

In the cracked crust along the Atacama Desert of Chile’s coast, there lie thousands of Copiapoa cacti only found in that country that are at the center of a historic smuggling case [ @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social BBC] www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

Operation Atacama: The $1m cactus heist that led to a smuggler's downfall

After thousands of rare Chilean cacti were found in the house of an Italian collector, a years-long trial slowly unravelled how they got there.

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

#journorequest anybody here "friction-maxxing" in 2026? I would love to hear from you for a story in BBC! Thanks so much!!

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Rachel Nuwer @rachelnuwer.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

With most psychedelic drugs, you never know what you're going to get. But this mysterious mushroom from China - without fail - causes users to hallucinate tiny people: crawling up walls, popping out from under furniture and marching under doors. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans

Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions.

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Study Hall @studyhall.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Great conversation with @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social about science journalism, biodiversity, colossal squids, and invasive frogs! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

podcasts.apple.com

Colossal Squids, Invasive Frogs, and Biodiversity ft. Sofia Quaglia

Podcast Episode · The Study Hall Podcast · 12/29/2025 · 31m

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Study Hall @studyhall.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

We are very excited to be collaborating with @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social on a science journalism course! Sign up for an hour intro into science journalism (Jan 16 10 AM PT/ 1 PM ET) courses.outvoice.com/products/cou...

courses.outvoice.com

New Course

Sofia will teach you where to look for the next hottest science scoops and guide you through the ins and outs of interviewing scientists, parsing through data, getting external corroboration, and maki...

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Climate Adaptation and Restoration Team @clubadaptation.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Do Heat Pumps Work When It Gets Really Cold?—The best proof that heat pumps are working even if it’s cold outside, Dr. Miara said, is the sheer number of cold countries widely adopting the technology… www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/c... @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

Do Heat Pumps Work When It Gets Really Cold?

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paris martineau @paris.nyc · 14/10/2025

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵) www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

consumerreports.org

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Super excited to share my new project, a book about how flies have fundamentally shaped what it means to be human. Get ready to completely rethink your nastiest of kitchen pests! With @flatironbooks.bsky.social via @unitedtalentagency.bsky.social 🪰

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zack savitsky @zacksavitsky.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

it was a privilege to contribute to this package. check out my story on how scientists digitally sculpted the planet to predict the future, and how those in power today are dismantling the quest to model the climate www.quantamagazine.org/how-climate-...

quantamagazine.org

How Climate Scientists Saw the Future Before It Arrived | Quanta Magazine

Over the past 60 years, scientists have largely succeeded in building a computer model of Earth to see what the future holds. One of the most ambitious projects humankind has ever undertaken has now r...

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

#journorequest I'm looking for migraine patients who have found relief with electrical neuromodulation therapies for a written article for the BBC. Reach out at sofiaquagliajourno@gmail.com!

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Knowable Magazine @knowablemag.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

“And though nobody likes a runny nose or flinging snot across the room in a sneeze, the mucus in our nasal passages is arguably one of the wonders of the human body.” — @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social, BBC Future www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

bbc.co.uk

What your snot can reveal about your health

Snot plays a powerful role in protecting us from disease – and its colour alone can provide insights into what's going on in our bodies.

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Knowable Magazine @knowablemag.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Cuckoos, cowbirds and other species outsource their parental duties. Scientists are uncovering new twists in this sneaky — and often treacherous — game of survival. Learn more in @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social's 2024 report:

knowablemagazine.org

Are you my baby? The clever ways that brood parasites trick other birds

Cuckoos, cowbirds and other species outsource their parental duties. Scientists are uncovering new twists in this sneaky — and often treacherous — game of survival.

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Barbara J. King @bjking.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Octopuses never disappoint! Octopus arms are fine-tuned to detect microbiomes on surfaces and to derive information from them. Research by Rebecka Sepela et al., scicomm by @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social #octopus #cephalopod #nature #ocean #microbiome

nytimes.com

Eight Arms to Taste Your Microbiome

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Environmental Politics Research Group @ University of Vienna @envpoluniwien.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

"Among the abundance of life a section of the Blake Plateau is barren with the scars from the world's first deep-sea mining pilot test carried out in 1970." writes @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social for #BBC - an issue @ehildeb.bsky.social of #EPRG is closely following 👇 www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

Scars from the world's first deep sea mining test 50 years on

Half a century after the world's first deep sea mining tests picked nodules from the seafloor off the US east coast, the damage has barely begun to heal.

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Alec Luhn @alecluhn.com · 30/05/2025

New fossils reveal birds like loons & gulls shared the Arctic with Tyrannosaurus 73m years ago, earlier than we thought. They may have given rise to the hardier, more advanced birds that dominate the world today. @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social @newscientist.com www.newscientist.com/article/2482....

newscientist.com

First evidence of ancient birds nesting above the Arctic circle

Tiny bone fragments from Alaska suggest birds started breeding and nesting in the Arctic 30 million years earlier than previously thought

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Love answering all of your climate questions for @nytimes.com Ask Climate! Latest one is about... which seafood you should be eating. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/c...

nytimes.com

What Kind of Seafood Should I Eat?

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SciComm Excellence @scicommexcellence.nationalacademies.org · 29/04/2025

@sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social is a freelance journalist writing about all things science and nature. We asked Sofia about her experiences covering #biodiversity, traveling the world, and her unique love of often-forgotten creatures. Read more: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/04... #scicomm

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SciComm Excellence @scicommexcellence.nationalacademies.org · 22/04/2025

🌎 This #EarthDay we're celebrating the beauty and mystery of our planet with a dive into a recent piece by 2023 awardee @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social, featuring the first-ever footage of a colossal squid — the largest invertebrate on Earth. Read more: www.newscientist.com/article/2476... #scicomm

newscientist.com

First ever confirmed image of a colossal squid in the deep ocean

The colossal squid is the largest invertebrate on the planet, but it is also surprisingly elusive. An image of a 30-centimetre-long juvenile is our first glimpse of the animal in its natural habitat

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Let's celebrate the tiny, oft-overlooked frogs out there this #WorldFrogDay! Here you can see—to scale on two different coins—Microhyla nepenthicola and Mini mum, two diminutive microhylid frogs that have independently approached the apparent lower limit for the tetrapod bauplan. 🧪🐸

an infographic showing the Bornean Microhyla nepenthicola on a 50 sen Malaysian golden coin, beside a graphic silhouette of the island of Borneo; and the Madagascan Mini mum (yes that is its real name, you are welcome) on a 10 euro cent golden coin, beside a graphic silhouette of the island of Madagascar. Mini mum looks much smaller than Microhyla nepenthicola, and it is. But both are ridiculously tiny. The island silhouettes are only approximately to scale with one another, and obviously not to scale with the frogs or else you wouldn't be able to tell that you were seeing them. Which you would think would go without saying, but you never know with some people.

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

In my latest for BBC, I went to the Atacama desert in Chile to get to the bottom of how thousands of rare cacti were found in the house of a collector on the other side of the planet.. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

Operation Atacama: The $1m cactus heist that led to a smuggler's downfall

After thousands of rare Chilean cacti were found in the house of an Italian collector, a years-long trial slowly unravelled how they got there.

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Lovely series by my friend @sarahsloat.bsky.social 💘👩‍🦳 Give it a read!

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Prof_GD_Foster @profgdfoster.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Woolly mice designed to engineer mammoth-like elephants Genetically engineered woolly mice could one day help populate the Arctic with hairy, genetically modified elephants and help stop the planet warming. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Mice experiment as step to create mammoth-like elephants

Experiments on mice could see hairy, genetically modified elephants living in the Arctic, a US company claims.

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Jason Dinh @byjasonpdinh.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

he was a National Park biologist whose job was to make their wildlife work more efficient using AI, drones, and other technology. so to be terminated by a tech mogul under the guise of "government efficiency" was a cruel and bitter irony today's op-ed in @atmosmagazine.bsky.social 🌎🧪

atmos.earth

Terminated Parks Employee Warns of the Danger and Cruelty of Job Cuts | Atmos

His job was to make wildlife monitoring at the NPS faster and cheaper—so getting dismissed for “government efficiency” was a bitter irony.

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Rhett Ayers Butler @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

The concept of the “extinction of experience” has been used to describe the dwindling human connection with nature, often applied to the general public. But ecologists themselves are not immune. Across universities and research institutions, field-based studies are in retreat. mongabay.cc/w0Tc9L

butlernature.com

Ecologists are spending less time in the field. That could be a problem.

Ecologists are spending less time in the field. That could be a problem. There was a time when an ecologist’s education was not complete without the mud of a marsh on their boots or the scent of damp ...

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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Tiny Frogs and Giant Spiders: Best of Friends, a classic Tetrapod Zoology article that I've had reason to republish in updated form three times now .... tetzoo.com/blog/2022/8/... #animals #zoology #biology #frogs #amphibians #spiders #arachnids

tetzoo.com

Tiny Frogs and Giant Spiders: Best of Friends — Tetrapod Zoology

It seems a good time to republish this article from the archives, first published at ver 2 in 2009, and then again at ver 3 in 2015…

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Jens Notroff @jensnotroff.com · 20/02/2025

#SophoraToromiro trees, unique to #RapaNui, were once used for sacred artefacts, but became popular for construction & firewood - until they've been declared extinct in the 1960s. Now there's hope for their return: www.theguardian.com/environment/... by @sofiquaglia.bsky.social via @theguardian.com

theguardian.com

‘The last plant left’: can Rapa Nui’s extinct tree be resurrected?

Seeds from the last toromiro, unique to remote Easter Island, were taken away in the 1960s. Now, after a crucial discovery gave hope for its survival, it is making a return

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David Roberts @drdavidlroberts.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

‘The last plant left’: can Rapa Nui’s extinct tree be resurrected? Seeds from the last toromiro, unique to remote Easter Island, were taken away in the 1960s. Now, after a crucial discovery gave hope for its survival, it is making a return www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

‘The last plant left’: can Rapa Nui’s extinct tree be resurrected?

Seeds from the last toromiro, unique to remote Easter Island, were taken away in the 1960s. Now, after a crucial discovery gave hope for its survival, it is making a return

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

💕Happy Valentine's Day!❤️ We got you a gift: Anilany karsticola, a #newspecies of miniaturised frog from Madagascar! 🧪 Published #OA today in Salamandra Read more and get the paper here: www.markscherz.com/archives/6117 Phenomenal 🐸 illustrations by postdoc & first author, @alicepetzold.bsky.social

A crazy cute illustration of a frog with a dark umber belly and a coffee brown brow, suspended in the air by pink heart-shaped balloons that say 'Be Mine' on them. I mean, if it were any cuter I would be physically ill.

An illustrated box of Valentine's day chocolates except—what's that? One of them is a frog‽ Yup. New species of frog described on valentine's day that really looks a lot like it could be made of chocolate. You guys, Alice Petzold's artistic talent knows no bounds.

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David Roberts @drdavidlroberts.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Endangered frogs born at London zoo after rescue mission in Chile. Group of Darwin’s frogs threatened by chytrid fungus thrive in specially built room that mimics their natural habitat www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Endangered frogs born at London zoo after rescue mission in Chile

Group of Darwin’s frogs threatened by chytrid fungus thrive in specially built room that mimics their natural habitat

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Fantastic piece about science and how it is communicated by my friend @sarahscoles.bsky.social

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Sarah Scoles @sarahscoles.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Do you remember the #arseniclife controversy from the long-ago internet? Here's my retrospective about what went on behind the scenes and within the science community back then, what happened to the scientist at the center of it all, and what's going on now. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/s...

nytimes.com

Her Discovery Wasn’t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same

The internet erupted in controversy over Felisa Wolfe-Simon and colleagues’ claim of a microbe thriving on arsenic. Nearly 15 years later, she’s pursuing new research on the boundaries of life.

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

If we’re renaming bodies of water based on petty grievances, I propose that this be renamed the Kendrick Lamar passage.

Google maps screenshot of the Drake passage between South America and Antarctica

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

I had the rare pleasure to add three caecilians to the Herpetology collections at the @nhmdk.bsky.social today! Two that recently passed away at the National aquarium, and one that I found on the shelves that was collected in the 1950s, but hasn’t been inventoried or catalogued until today!🏛️🧪🐸🐍🪱

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Christie Wilcox @nerdychristie.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Dogs can help keep bears away from people and livestock... but drones don't tangle with porcupines. That story and more of the best in @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

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Jason Dinh @byjasonpdinh.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

there are plans afoot to build the world's biggest amphibious house—homes that float like a dock when the property floods it'll be extravagantly expensive, but surprisingly, amphibious homes aren't only for the rich 🌎🧪 @chrisbaraniuk.com for @atmosmagazine.bsky.social

atmos.earth

A Plan to Build the Biggest Amphibious House in the World | Atmos

This floating house in the United Kingdom will likely cost a hefty sum, but amphibious homes aren’t only for the rich.

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

This is just so cool. Look how small that spider is! #Miniaturisation doing its thing. So glad the smallest miniaturised vertebrates are so much bigger. Must be a pain in the ass to get enough tissue for a high quality genome of species this small!

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Love it when my friends cannot escape me... Latest MIT Tech Review in print

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

To inaugurate my new profile on this app, I'd love to share some of my favorite stories I worked on in the past couple of years and some of the cool things I've been up to🧵

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Climate change is making wildfires more common and more potent: we're seeing that in LA right now. Can new technology help prevent fires from spreading violently, though? Can it make a difference in how early we catch the flames starting?🧵

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

This week I'm in the @nytimes answering a question that's been bothering my dad for a while now... Independent studies show savings are much smaller than those advertised, but there are still bigger picture implications that might make a difference....

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Last year I traveled to the Marshall Islands to meet the canoe craftspeople showing the world we can decarbonize the shipping industry if we learn from Pacific Island tradition. ⛵️https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/02/1108651/wind-shipping-decarbonize-climate-change/

technologyreview.com

How wind tech could help decarbonize cargo shipping

Wind is an underutilized resource that has the potential ...

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Sofia Quaglia @sofiaquagliajourno.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

What an honor to be at the @pressgazette #BritishJournalismAwards last week, where I was a finalist in the environment category for my work in @guardianscience on ocean issues. Lovely to share this moment with my friend @SimarSBajaj, nominated as a new journo of the year! 🌊📰

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