Ross Andersen

She snapped

Through deep time and space, the possibilities of life are endless. Writer, Ross Andersen (@rossandersen.bsky.social) challenges the past as we look to the future.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN31...

 "A Cosmic Voyage Through Deep Time" is streaming now. Listen and subscribe to Futurology podcast 🎧

Atlantic Writer Ross Andersen (@rossandersen.bsky.social) asks the questions shaping the future. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN31...

In this episode, Andersen speaks with Futurology Producer Grant Slater (@grantslater.bsky.social) about time defining  the evolution of intelligent life.

Delighted to have snuck this phrase into The Atlantic

The Black Hole That Could Rewrite Cosmology Astronomers see a mysterious object shining in the deep sky. It could be older than the stars.

Wrote about some of my faves (black holes)

www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

Ukraine’s Most Lethal Soldiers From the front lines in Kherson, with a unit that kills Russians for points

An unusually vivid look at the state of the art in drone warfare in Ukraine

www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Are Humans Watching Animals Too Closely? Some may crave a little privacy, even your dog.

"We can’t say what dogs’ preferences might be under different circumstances. But we do know that they have not chosen all of the intimacies that we impose upon them." go read @rossandersen.bsky.social's latest

www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

Are Humans Watching Animals Too Closely? Some may crave a little privacy, even your dog.

Thank you @rossandersen.bsky.social for a gorgeously written (alternately funny and distressing) story that has created a new intrusive thought for me: Does my dog have enough privacy???? www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

An Environmental Villain, Reconsidered

Had the great pleasure of reviewing @peterbrannen.bsky.social’s extraordinary new book (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/b...

Sliver of Sky, by Barry Lopez Confronting the trauma of sexual abuse

"The reasons monstrously abusive relationships persist between people are as complex, I think, as the mathematics of turbulence."

harpers.org/archive/2013...

The AI Doomers Are Getting Doomier The industry’s apocalyptic voices are becoming more panicked—and harder to dismiss.

The AI doomers are not alright. Is it time to listen?

Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.

I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.

If you're in DC next Wednesday, August 27, I'm very excited to be talking about the book with my friend @rossandersen.bsky.social at the Wharf Politics & Prose

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premier techno-superpower may be over.

"Not since the Red Scare .. has American science been so beholden to political ideology." I'm late to this brilliant @rossandersen.bsky.social piece, but it's a must-read (gift link): www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Twenty Years After the Storm What home meant before, and after, Hurricane Katrina

20 years ago this month, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. For so many New Orleanians, our lives are demarcated by this moment. If someone ask you about an event or memory from the past, we say “was it before or after the storm?” On this twentieth anniversary, I wrote about going back home.

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premier techno-superpower may be over.

This reads a bit like an obituary for American science. Or a murder story from the crime beat.
www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premier techno-superpower may be over.

Indeed: www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premier techno-superpower may be over.

The attack on our universities, the lack of respect for education and expertise, the attack on medical research to keep us healthy, what purpose does it serve? It makes our country weaker.

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premiere techno-superpower may be over.

"Every scientific empire falls, but not at the same speed, or for the same reasons."

Fascinating article on the history of scientific empires. Soviet science, at its zenith in the mid-1950s, collapsed entirely in the late 1980s. And now American science has begun its collapse.

Gift link.

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premier techno-superpower may be over.

“The future of Soviet science was looking grim…One by one, he watched them start new lives elsewhere. Many…went to the U.S. At the time, America was the most compelling destination for scientific talent in the world. It would remain so until earlier this year” www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

The rapid decline of American science has few precedents in history, writes @rossandersen.bsky.social. We are witnessing an unparalleled act of self-sabotage: https://theatln.tc/6OLrjo4V

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premiere techno-superpower may be over.

Terrific piece. A must-read for academics:

"Not since the Red Scare...has American science been so beholden to political ideology."

www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Such a smart and important one from @rossandersen.bsky.social

Insightful article by @rossandersen.bsky.social

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premiere techno-superpower may be over.

Absolutely fantastic story by @andersen on how scientific excellence and leadership get squandered by nations.

An important piece from @TheAtlantic

www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Great read by @rossandersen.bsky.social for @theatlantic.com!

"Trump’s interference in the sciences is something new. It shares features with the science-damaging policies of Stalin and Hitler, says David Wootton, a historian of science. But in the English-speaking world, it has no precedent, he told me: “This is an unparalleled destruction from within.”

Important.

How Scientific Empires End And what it means for America

This is brilliant- terrifying, frustrating & enraging - but brilliant. It is also a warning to anyone interested in research. Unless there is a focus on maintaining broad cultural support for all types of research catastrophic change can happen rapidly www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...