Max G. Levy

It's been quite a year for Quanta biology! In this year-end post I highlighted some favorite stories by @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social @theuniverse.bsky.social @peterbrannen.bsky.social @mollyherring.bsky.social and Ariel Bleicher - and I want to share more of our great work from the year below!

Why are Alaska’s rivers turning bright orange? Scientists have a theory. The dramatic shift is a warning sign—and scientists say the changes that aren't yet visible to the naked eye are just as troubling.

Here's why yesterday's @nytimes.com article on rusting rivers misses the boat. For Nat Geo earlier this fall, I reported on how thawing permafrost is exposing bedrock, releasing sulfuric acid and oxidizing iron into a toxic cocktail remarkably similar to acid rock drainage.

SAPIENS was my dream job, but it didn't pay enough. I worked nights/weekends as a Lecturer & freelance writer so that I could afford to work full time days at SAPIENS.

On my last day, I'm in tears reviewing the 60 some stories I developed as editor. Every story was an adventure. A sample below...

A more electric language for biology Bioelectricity is a potent lever for controlling health. What would it look like to treat the body electrically, rather than chemically?

Bioelectricity is a potent lever for controlling health. What would it look like to treat the body electrically, rather than chemically?

My latest for DDN, featuring scientists who study vagus nerves.

www.drugdiscoverynews.com/a-more-elect...

Congratulations @maxlevy.bsky.social for winning the Gold award in the Magazine category of the International @aaas.org Kavli Science Journalism Awards! 🎉 Max was a #MassMediaFellow at @wired.com in 2020, sponsored by the @apsphysics.bsky.social. Check out the award winning piece: bit.ly/3Y9qrGW

The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology | Quanta Magazine Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon.

So freaking proud of @maxlevy.bsky.social for his AAAS Kavli Gold 🏆 award for his feature about electrostatic ecology — how small creatures interact with electrostatic forces. Quanta's first Kavli Gold! Thanks to the whole team! www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-w...

A million billion trillion thanks to @hanner.bsky.social for editing and truly helping craft this piece with me from the ground up. We published this in 2024 and it remains one of my personal favorites 💗

Quanta Contributor Max G. Levy Wins AAAS Kavli Gold Award for Science Journalism | Quanta Magazine Judges from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Kavli Foundation recognized Quanta Magazine contributing writer Max G. Levy with a Gold Award in the Magazine category for “...

Quanta contributing writer @maxlevy.bsky.social has received a Kavli Gold Award from @aaas.org and @kavlifoundation.org for “The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology,” a detailed account of how small organisms use static electricity to their advantage.

www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...

Happy pub day to this year’s edition of Best American Science & Nature Writing, out now from @marinerbooks.bsky.social. Thanks to editors extraordinaire Susan Orlean and @jaimealyse.bsky.social for including my @smithsonianmag.bsky.social feature on the art and science of wildlife tracking.

And to submit work to be considered for next year's anthology, go to jaimegreen.net/basn

Wrote a bit about this year's edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing - and posted the Notables jaimealyse.beehiiv.com/p/basnw25

It's pub day!! The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2025 is out. I'm thrilled to appear with @sequencermag.bsky.social alongside many talented writers whose work I revere. Including the pieces in this anthology

Get a copy from an indie store to support the series
bookshop.org/a/114150/978...

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 Check out The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 - <p>&#8220;The best science and nature writing&#8212;which these stories represent&#8212;reminds us of the wide world and our connection to...

It's pub day for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025, and the whole Best American series. I'm so proud of this book and all the brilliant, beautiful writing @susanorlean.bsky.social selected for it. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

🧪Hello friends! I'm working on a piece about putting together the best tenure/promotion package, and I'd love to hear from STEM folks who have recently done this or have experience evaluating these types of proposals. Please RT for reach, and feel free to reach out with any Qs!

What we learn in the footsteps of wolves Up close and personal with nature's notoriously elusive carnivore.

Today on the site we have three new pieces all about wolves, led by an essay from @maxlevy.bsky.social that weaves together two notable books.

www.sequencermag.com/what-we-lear...

The Eerily Familiar Politics of Europe's Wolves Why wolves are such a potent political tool. Author Adam Weymouth on carnivores and scapegoats.

Next, an interview with Adam Weymouth, author of Lone Wolf

"It was quite clearly a love story. If it were about two people, it would be two people that defied odds and walked across the continent and somehow found each other in thousands of square miles"

www.sequencermag.com/the-eerily-f...

And an excerpt from L. David Mech's The Ellesmere Wolves, about a surprisingly tame population of High Arctic wolves Mech studied for decades.

"Greeted by seven barking and howling wolves, elated that I had finally located an active den"

What we learn in the footsteps of wolves Up close and personal with nature's notoriously elusive carnivore.

WE DEPEND ON YOUR SUPPORT TO DO OUR WORK.

🎁Subscribe today 🎁
www.sequencermag.com/what-we-lear...

Honored to have made it into this always fantastic anthology as a "Notable" for my piece in Hakai Magazine (one of the last features the magazine published) about cold-water coral research in Chile. @pulitzercenter.org @biographic.bsky.social

Hi! Today @quantamagazine.bsky.social published a special issue on climate science, featuring stories about how Earth's climate fundamentally works that I needed to read after covering climate impacts for so many years. I hope you'll check it out! <3 www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...

Thanks! Bc no permitting yet from MTA to collect data. But he's working on arranging a more official pilot, and meeting with groups who have relationships with MTA

The covert project to (finally) measure hellish subway heat Meet Jack Klein, the guy who stealthily collects data about New York’s hottest days underground.

NY subway platforms feel hot as hell in the summer.

Meet Jack Klein, the guy who stealthily collects data about New York’s hottest days underground.

🚇New in @sequencermag.bsky.social

www.sequencermag.com/the-covert-p...

Sequencer Decode the universe. A writer-owned popular science magazine

@sequencermag.bsky.social is on Ghost!

They're a writer-owned publication run by science journalists @goesbykim.bsky.social, @maxlevy.bsky.social, @dsamorod.bsky.social, and @maddiebender.bsky.social

www.sequencermag.com

I'd love to recommend and follow more science newsletters and publications run with @ghost.org  — especially now that they've implemented ActivityPub to put Ghost newsletters on the social web.

So give me your recommendations and shameless self promotions!

I know of a few already:

What AI can actually do to your critical thinking skills Chatbots won't obliterate everyone's critical thinking. Lessons from the past tech revolutions and today’s experts signal how to protect your mind.

"A couple months ago, while I was thumbing through old magazines at a record shop, I landed on a gem. “Learning To Love the Computer” emblazoned the cover of Nutshell magazine, a now-defunct periodical for college students," writes @maxlevy.bsky.social

www.sequencermag.com/ai-critical-...

The flip flopping continues: NIH director Jay Bhattacharya tweeted today that all agency staff will have full access to all scientific journals including those published by Springer Nature.

I've gone back to the WH, HHS, NASA, DOE, USDA to understand what the heck is going on. I am lost.

If the next pandemic starts tomorrow, with the current risk landscape, I think it's still much more likely to be H5N1 - with a spillover somewhere in the southeast or the middle of the continent, just like the 1918 Spanish Flu - than anything else. Trump's actions have paved the way for it. 1/2

Nine ways to feel about our changing planet Climate scientist Dr. Kate Marvel joins Morning Joe to discuss her new book 'Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet'.

I went on TV to talk about my book with Rev. Al Sharpton, a sentence that I cannot believe is true
www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/...

It never stopped being birtherism Donald Trump is repackaging a familiar smear against Zohran Mamdani.

Good blog! www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

RFK Jr. Says AI Will Approve New Drugs at FDA 'Very, Very Quickly'

This is a catastrophe in the making

gizmodo.com/rfk-jr-says-...