Kristin

🗞️ Applications are now open for the 2026 AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship! (@aaasmassmedia.bsky.social)

Spend 10 weeks in a newsroom translating science for the public.

Apply by Jan 1, 2026 ➡️ buff.ly/r8c6ybG

#AGU #AAASMassMedia #ScienceCommunication #MassMediaFellowship

AI impoverishes us at every step of the process: - data centers pollute our environment - energy use drives up costs - content theft robs creators of income - the actual output is used to displace workers and depress wages - using it harms our mental health and impairs our competence - the flood of AI slop is damaging our sociopolitical landscape All in service of making a worse product - and world - to enrich a handful of already spectacularly wealthy people

While defending the luddite argument in Discord, I stumbled into this IMO succinct explanation for opposing generative AI:

At every step in the process, it impoverishes us.

Headshots of the 2025 AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows

This news is hot off the press! We are so excited to present the 2025 #MassMediaFellows! These 17 scientists will spend their summer writing, reporting, and working on their #SciComm skills in news outlets across the country! Learn more about the #MMF50th class here: www.aaas.org/news/aaas-ma...

Scientists at the University of Miami are carrying out a research study on how scientists use online platforms like Twitter/X and Bluesky. If you are 18 years of age or older and are a scientist who uses these platforms for professional purposes, please click the link below to complete a short survey. If you are interested in learning more about this research study, please e-mail us at Julia.wester @ miami.edu. In the body of your email please provide your full name, and if you would prefer to be contacted by phone, your phone number and the best time to reach you. Contacting us for more information does not commit you to participating, and should you decide to participate you may terminate your participation at any time.

If you are a scientist (including graduate students) or professional science communicator who is at least 18 years old and are using Bluesky for any kind of professional purposes, please consider taking our survey.

Link:

umiami.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Please help share. 🧪🌎 #SciComm

Jeffries: In our nation's history, 25% of our nation's debt was accumulated during the four years of the former president, 25%. How dare you lecture America about fiscal responsibility ever.

Please reshare this post and help Sarah collect as many wild and wacky chemistry traditions as they can!

Buckle up folks. Best time to get the newest Covid shot was probably two weeks ago but the next best time is now.

It’s true that medieval people were very ignorant compared to us today. For instance, they would panic over mysterious apparitions in the sky, or believe that a strongman leader was blessed by God.

No women will lead House committees for first time in 2 decades The 17 standing committees will be dominated by white men when the new Congress is seated on Jan. 3. No people of color were selected, either.

No women will lead a House committee for the first time in two decades after House Republicans revealed their list of committee leaders for the 119th Congress. No people of color were selected, either.

You really don't need to be religious to get this feeling of civic involvement. Whenever someone tells me they're lonely, I tell them to volunteer.

Help the homeless. Build queer community. Work with seniors. Do something to help people around you. Throw a party! Make friends. No church required.

I edited this. Pete, the absolute madman out here with a sensor to measure air pollution and write a post about it, has been doing such cool stuff for us @ggwash.bsky.social this year.

Our Washington Spirit are on BlueSky now! ⚫🟡⚽

(about time, right?)

Please enjoy this shot of Elvis getting a polio shot backstage at the Ed Sullivan show as part of a pro-vaccination campaign in 1956, posted here today for no reason whatsoever

this is me continuing to "tell everyone" about the @51st.news

An excellent and informative thread 🧵

Graphic with text: "Post a job, find a science writer! Recruit talented science writers and communicators for your organization or project. Post job listings at www.nasw.org/advertise or find a writer at www.nasw.org/find-writer "

Newsroom Managers, Editors, and Communications Directors: Recruiting for a staff position? Want freelancers to see your call for pitches? Then share your opportunity to our NASW Job Bank! Post a #SciWriJobs ad at www.nasw.org/node/ad... or on our homepage at www.nasw.org/advertise 💚🧪📝

Quote from Greenwire article on Gaetz AG nomination: “Luckily all of our environmental laws are older than 18 years, so Rep. Gaetz shouldn’t have much interest in them,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, a frequent litigant in environmental lawsuits.

Wowwww

Yay! Welcome to Bluesky!

The 2025 AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellowship Application closes January 1, 2025. Apply now to be a part of the 50th class.

Are you ready to try something new and work in #SciComm?
Apply by Jan 1, 2025 to be a part of #MMF50th and join an alumni cohort of over 850 as you spend the summer using your STEM background as a journalist writing the news!

aaas.org/mmf

Free bike lights available this week ahead of time change | ARLnow.com With earlier sunsets ahead, two Arlington County organizations are distributing free bike lights, reflective vests and other safety gear this week. Representatives from BikeArlington and WalkArlington...

Arlington Va: Free bike lights and reflective gear available this week. www.arlnow.com/2024/10/28/f...

A prominent ring-like nebula. There are two features. An inner region which is not as dense and has blue-green hues. And an outer, more prominent ring of red dense nebulous gas that is clumpy. A small central star, the white dwarf, is energizing the nebula through its UV radiation causing different gases to be excited and emit different colours. Surrounding the central object, are several other stars. There is also text on the image that has title of “astrophotography alt-text” and bullet points: 1. Describe main object (features, shape, colour, size, depth). 2. Describe its surroundings (isolated, dense star field, nebulous). 3. Describe its dynamics (orbiting, radiating, swirling, moving). 4. Describe science processes (merging, illuminating, exhibiting)

This is a plot of a pulsar observation, with the x-axis representing the pulse phase and the y-axis representing flux density in units of millijansky. The plot contains thre curves, one in black which represents the pulsar’s profile intensity, one in red which represents the linear polarization and one in blue which represents the circular polarization. The pulsar's signal forms a sharp narrow peak around pulse phase 0.35. The intensity profile is much larger than the polarization profiles, which both form a more variant profile, rising up and down. The circular polarization even goes negative. This plot is representative of an observation for the pulsar PSR J2241-5236. Above the main plot there is also a smaller sub-plot, which shows the position angle (P.A.) data as a function of the same pulse phase, as well as degrees. The data in this plot is small clusters of data points and their error bars. The P.A. represents the orientation of the linear polarization of light from the observer's perspective. There is also text on the plot, which provides handy accessibility tips and a template for the wording to use, as this image is being used to demonstrate science plot accessibility

The background image provides a border of many different equations which are presented in various angles and create a box around the image. These equations are science equations and they are in a light grey colour. The text on the image provides guidelines on writing alt-text for images that feature equations, and suggest that a clear description of what the equation represents is given. Then it suggests that short equations should have variables explained (e.g., E equals mc squared where E is energy, m is mass and c is the speed of light, which is squared), and also where large equations should break down the equation into smaller chunks and explain these (e.g., The top term represents the gas cloud’s temperature, which resists collapse. The bottom term describes the density and gravity, which encourages collapse. The square root gives the Jeans Length – a threshold size). Lastly, there is a point to provide a link with MathML for equations in an accessible format, and this is the preferred method.

The background image is a false-colour satellite image of the Tharsis region on Mars, showing elevation changes in terms of colour variability for significant landmarks across a portion of the planet. Whilst the colour bar is not visible, it shows that the colours representing the elevation starting at blue which is 8km below the flat planes, then go to green which is the level of the flat planes, then go to white, which is about 20km above the plane. Interesting features include three very tall ancient volcanoes on a line, and a single extremely tall volcano (this is Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the Solar System). To the right of the volcanic region, is a long, almost straight and very deep canyon which is the Valles Marineris. To the top of this image is a lot of blue, indicating low elevation land, and the bottom of image presents lots of impact craters. Overlaid on this image is text that provides guidelines for applying alt-text to geo-maps. It includes describing the map purpose, describing the legend, colour-bar and labels, describing interesting features and providing further context, such as structures, shapes, perspective in adjacent descriptions in article or posts.

Over the years, I've heard lots of folks say that they don't really know what to write for alt-text accessibility.

So ... as promised - here are some handy #Accessibility guides!

I've written these from the perspective of #SciComm material, but they can be generalised to any field.

🔭🧪🎢

1/3

A rare binary vortex interaction & merger may occur after Hurricane #Helene makes landfall as it is absorbed into a low pressure system over the mid-lower MS river valley. Video shows mid-level vorticity (rotation intensity) in a high-res model run. If only this could have happened over open ocean.

This list is really helpful for finding a lot of the science writers I followed back in the day on Twitter!

Thanks for putting this together!

Dave Brubeck - Take Five Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Happy 5/4 everyone.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDD...

A Book Publishing Primer for Science Writers - The Open Notebook Many science writers dream of writing a book someday, but questions abound for prospective authors: Is my book idea any good? Do I need an agent? How do I write a book proposal? Thankfully, you can dr...

So, you want to publish a book. Start here.

Dar Williams is great!

love when management gives an embargoed interview saying people will be fired before telling people they'll be fired www.axios.com/2024/02/23/w...

There are many people who can't afford to take days off work even when they are ill. The CDC should be recommending that employers give workers paid sick leave, not making it easier for bosses to exploit workers by saying it's fine to work when you are sick.

The Midwest is experiencing a ‘lost winter.’ Here’s what that means. Snow is absent, ice is dangerously thin and many cities are experiencing their warmest winter on record.

The Midwest is experiencing a ‘lost winter.’ Historically low ice cover on Great Lakes, much below average snow -- all thanks to persistent warmth most of the season.

Gift link: wapo.st/3uJ7jo5