Chelsea Whyte

For those who are curious, it sounds like fire crackling

Decided to totally screw up my algorithm and listen to an album of shrimp sounds. Hit me with your best shot, Spotify

The piece is so full of great quotes, it's hard to pick one to share. But I will:

Ostapchuk tells me of another mission where one of his devices, laden with 400 kilograms of explosive, silently crawled up to a building full of Russian soldiers before detonating. “I enjoy what I do,” he says.

How Ukraine became a drone factory and invented the future of war Ukraine has responded to a war it didn’t start by creating an industry it doesn’t want, but could the nation's drone expertise help it rebuild? To learn more, New Scientist gained exclusive access to ...

An excellent piece on the Ukrainians building and learning to pilot drones by @sparkes.bsky.social. In one factory, they're making 80,000 a month.

www.newscientist.com/article/2514...

Jeff Goldblum should make a film about this legendary mathematician Paul Erdős was one of the most prolific mathematicians to ever live, known for showing up at the door of others in the field and declaring they should host and feed him while they do maths together. H...

My latest maths column is a plea to Hollywood - when are we going to get a Paul Erdős biopic starring Jeff Goldblum? www.newscientist.com/article/2514...

this is so upsetting

The Willamette

this is ALSO disgusting and immoral and against the concept of ART

this is disgusting and immoral and against the concept of ART

it's this how you read so many books? you just skip parts? do you also listen to podcasts on double speed, you heathen??

well it's not you

SPECTACULAR. I'm laughing so hard

Beg the Question It's not begging at all

Apparently those of us in the fight are rarer and rarer. The dictionary (!!) says the wrong usage is fine because it's everywhere and to "cultivate an attitude of serene detachment in the face of its use by others". I could never.

www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/beg-...

Who wouldn't? Break open all the moons!!

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is about to totally transform astronomy With the ability to scan the entire southern night sky every three days, the huge Vera C. Rubin Observatory could be about to start solving the mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to Planet Ni...

@chelswhyte.bsky.social went to see the Vera Rubin observatory and though I am known space hater, I could not be more excited for all we are about to see in the night sky www.newscientist.com/article/2483...

ok i've been curious about it but now i'm afraid it will steal all my brainpower (what little i have)

Yeah I went down a few Reddit threads hoping for an answer before I came back here. I really hope someone around here knows!

What a curious expression. Do you know where it came from?

This is all reminding me of that convo you had on Never Post like a year ago about when an email is important enough to use your computer vs the phone

don't worry bout it, time isn't real

Fair enough! Thanks for the chat, always nice to hear from scientists on their experiences with journalism

I understand that position, and I'm curious how you feel about someone writing a story about a pre-print of yours without including your voice in it? Is a that a concern? I could see how it might not be, I'm just curious how it looks from your point of view

Definitely. I'm mostly curious if researchers tend to prepare to talk about a pre-print the same way they would a paper, or if you see them as different enough to require different prep

We should start with multiple infinities and go from there (ha)

One of the problems, which I suffered myself, is that people are taught from a young age that maths is too hard or too boring for them. But when you get into it you find out it's so creative and amazing and delightful. But getting readers there can be tough! Worth keeping at it though :)

Yeah, I totally get that. Our readers absolutely love maths stories, but explaining the incremental (though important) advances can be tough to get readers engaged, so it often tends towards the bigger findings or those with wider implications

Yes, that's been my experience, too. Still, I find some scientists seem surprised we would read the arxiv and report on it at all, though plenty of people are willing to chat once we explain that's common in our line of work. It's just a difference in how we view pre-prints, I've noticed

I'd be curious if you have thoughts to share on pre-prints, as that's often where I've seen friction. I've come across scientists who suggest a pre-print isn't published, as it hasn't been in a journal. While my colleagues and I see it as public information that has indeed been published.

From the point of view of a journalist, this is fantastic and covers so many common misunderstandings of how the journalism side of things works.

Absolutely shocking and very worrying from NOAA www.newscientist.com/article/2469...