@laminda.bsky.social
Science writer/editor, bylines at CNN, Live Science, SciAm. Previously at Scholastic and the American Museum of Natural History. WGAE member. She/her. Author of Rise of the Zombie Bugs https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/53677/rise-zombie-bugs
After 35 years in the US, the awards honoring science that makes you laugh, then think, will be held in Zurich. Organizer @marcabrahams.mstdn.science.ap.brid.gy explains: "We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the USA"
Want some warm fuzzy trans news?
Read the feelgood story of how I spent 2025 unexpectedly adopting a trans son and ended up accidentally founding a transmasc social club together 🏳️⚧️🥹
So proud of Troy for taking the initiative to grow this into something massively important for our local community
Someone reminded me that I wore the shirt on-camera for a @livescience.com video (along with my Future Union pin!)
Apply now for the Frances E.W. Harper Fellowship @19thnews.org — a paid, yearlong opportunity for early- and mid-career HBCU alums interested in reporting, audience, news product or development. Our alumni have launched amazing careers. 💜
Please signal boost!
I wore this shirt from @reveleth.com's excellent Flash Forward podcast until it fell apart (the shirt, not the podcast), but I still repeat this message to myself every goddamn day
Just finished watching this and same same
One of the most important decisions of pre-travel prep is which books to bring. It's a 4-day trip; I'm starting with Alif the Unseen by @gwillow.me, next up is Nine Goblins by @tkingfisher.com then The Dead Come to Stay by @bschillace.brandyschillace.com. 4 days/3 books sounds about right!
Thanks!
Yeah, the sunset clouds are looking pretty great tonight
They're stealing the voice of Sinead O'Connor, who risked her own career in 1992 by speaking up about child sexual abuse in the Catholic church, so let's make this theft an occasion to keep talking about Trump in the Epstein files.
Like Cats, but less naked?
Outstanding!
Other parasites reproduce in this roundabout way; they breed in certain host species, the eggs are pooped out & hatch in secondary host species, then adults return to the definitive host to reproduce. Some of these parasites are in my book, like the worms that turn snails into disco-eyed zombies
That said, rat lungworm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) is a real parasite that can cause brain infections, and it's troubling to hear that it's now endemic (constantly present) in California. As adults, these worm reproduce in rats. But as larvae they have other hosts—that's how they infect people
I've lost count of how many times the alleged "RFK brain worm" has come up during Q&As for Rise of the Zombie Bugs, which is about parasites & behavior manipulation! But this example is less about parasitic infection, & more about how some stories become canon despite any evidence backing them up
TW: suicide
In 2012, RFK Jr was getting divorced; it was not amicable. In depositions he claimed temporary impairment due to cognitive problems, as an argument for paying less alimony. That's where the brain worm story came from. The divorce was never finalized; his wife committed suicide that year
As the expected wave of RFK Jr "brain worm" jokes starts cresting, it's worth remembering that there was no diagnosis or evidence that he ever had a brain parasite—it was just a thing he said one time in a 2012 divorce deposition. These parasites DO affect people; whether he had one is debatable
I'm so sorry
They were cheap AND they fit in a pocket, I will mourn them forever
🏆 Our science communication awards are now open!
These awards recognize exceptional science journalists, communicators, and researchers whose work in 2025 made #STEM accessible and engaging for broad audiences.
Deadline: April 3, 2026
Apply now: www.nationalacademies.org/awards/excel... #scicomm
The Decline of Western Civilization I & II are both excellent, directed by Penelope Spheeris & respectively documenting L.A. punk & metal scenes in the '80s. Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival & directed by Questlove, is outstanding. Hype! is a great doc about Seattle grunge 🎸
hopefully by next week I'll have learned how to spell "Tucson" 🙃
The latest "pinch me" news about Rise of the Zombie Bugs is that I'm at the Tuscon Festival of Books next week, my first-ever festival! (cue internal screaming)
My panels: "The Strange & the Fierce: Stories from Earth’s Wild Side" & "Plants, Predators & Parasites" tucsonfestivalofbooks.org #BookSky
lol nothing I love more than trying to locate an author bio that I cleverly named "bio" & which is now lurking somewhere among eleventy thousand other files on my computer with names that include "biology," "biodiversity," "antibiotics," "bioluminescence" and "biomechanics," fml
Ugh, didn't realize. That's disappointing
Did you look at the PDF? It credits art and web design to Conni St. Pierre
Urban fantasy author Charles de Lint just published a new "novelet" and released it for free, his stories of myth and magic and community and found family are full of so much love and hope and we could all use some of that right now
www.charlesdelint.com/IceOut.html
Went to a new (to me) imaging center for my annual mammogram and since then I have been haunted by the memory of this donor portrait in the lobby
Hello, book people! I am the book content editor for Reactor Mag and I'm looking for 2026 sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romantasy, and speculative books coming out in the second half of the year! If you have an adult or YA SFF/H book out July-Dec (or publicist), share the link/info here!
Those proposed bots were autonomous/remotely operable, but not swarms! This new proposal is for smaller bots that communicate with each other and can work independently or as a group, inspired by swarm behavior in insects like ants