Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)

Super excited to be reading alongside so many cool writers tomorrow!

To halt measles' resurgence we must fight the plague of misinformation The measles vaccine has prevented 60 million deaths since 2000. So why are so many children around the world missing out on it?

Measles causes severe complications in 1 in 5 children, and also kills off immune cells leaving you more vulnerable to other infections for years afterwards. lt's absolutely not a disease you want to take chances with 🧪

From my comment on measles' comeback:

www.newscientist.com/article/2513...

Nobel prizewinner Omar Yaghi says his invention will change the world Chemist Omar Yaghi invented materials called MOFs, a few grams of which have the surface area of a football field. He explains why he thinks these super-sponges will define the next century

Civilisations name their ages after materials, like the Stone Age or our current silicon age which is characterised by computers and phones. What will the next age be? 2025 Nobel laureate Omar Yaghi spoke to me about what material he's betting on www.newscientist.com/article/2511...

Reads for the Rest of Us: The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2026 So, here are the top 94 feminist books we’re looking forward to in 2026—written by women, feminists, LGBTQ writers, writers of color, and more.

We see @kpc.bsky.social’s ENTANGLED STATES and Talitha L. LeFlouria’s SEARCHING FOR JANE CROW in @msmagazine.com’s 2026 roundup! 😍

Entangled States On writing my memoir, now available for pre-order

One of the most compelling announcements of an upcoming book that I have ever read (says old white guy who got his degree in English over 50 years ago).

I have pre-ordered, even though yesterday I had not even heard of @kpc.bsky.social.

Oh wow, thank you so much Stephen! I am so flattered!

Really excited to share a new story format now live on @newscientist.com for our 21 best ideas of the 21st century special - explore the full issue here www.newscientist.com/article/2511...

But If Ever I Meet with a Boojum Are you sufficiently whimsical and goofy?

In my personal newsletter today I argue in favor of more goofiness and whimsy, in science writing and in life ultracold.substack.com/p/but-if-eve...

If you want to do PR for quantum computing companies may I suggest learning that qubit is spelled with a q first

Why it’s easy to be misunderstood when talking about probability Mathematicians rely on numbers, but finding words to explain different levels of certainty has stymied everyone from the ancient Greeks to the most famous modern philosophers. Maths columnist Jacob Ar...

My latest maths column looks at what we actually mean when we use words such as "likely" or "probable". Join me on a trip from the ancient Greeks to the CIA, via Jeremy Bentham www.newscientist.com/article/2510...

It was great to learn about this village from you! I wish I had had space to write more

My photos of one of my favorite positive stories from Turkey are on @newscientist.com , masterfully commented by @kpc.bsky.social

#MathSky
#iTeachMaths
#Science
#Türkiye 🇹🇷

Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World Uruguay built a power grid that runs 99% on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Here’s how its bold energy overhaul became a global model.

“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”

Weight regain seems to occur within 2 years of stopping obesity drugs Drugs like Ozempic have transformed how we treat obesity, but a review of almost 40 studies shows it doesn't take long for people to regain weight if they come off them

People who stop taking obesity drugs tend to regain the weight they've lost within 1.7 years, emphasising how obesity is a chronic condition that requires long-term treatment.

www.newscientist.com/article/2510...

This is a common misconception - a quantum computer is NOT like a bunch of classical computers working in parallel, quantum does not mean infinite parallelism. Here's a cartoon that does a better job than this paragraph: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-ta...

Tetraquark measurements could shed more light on the strong nuclear force – Physics World CMS Collaboration focuses on a family of three all-charm exotic hadrons

CMS at CERN has made the first measurements of the quantum properties of a family of three recently-discovered “all-charm” tetraquarks. ⚛️🧪 ow.ly/U90I50XTlXs

Connection, Courage and Collective Resolve How will you eat in 2026?

This week on my personal newsletter: an encouragement to think about food differently + some tips on how to start eating more plants and rely on animal products less
ultracold.substack.com/p/connection...

Every piece of reporting I've seen on this is drastically understating the scale. These are from Grok's replies within a single minute. Time-to-reply is degrading because it has such a backlog of NCII/CSAM requests to fulfill. Conservatively I estimate it is producing more than 5000 of these per day

What researchers have discovered about maternal, infant health under Texas' abortion laws In the more than four years since the state of Texas significantly restricted access to abortion, medical researchers have been studying the health effects of that policy change.

A growing body of research indicates that Texas's restrictive abortion bans have negatively impacted the health and lives of Texas women and babies in multiple ways. Across the board, pregnancy outcomes and complications have worsened.

The words "$2.99 e-book deal! Today only!" are at the top of this flyer. Below them, the cover of Automatic Noodle is shown against a background of flowers.

Today only, Automatic Noodle e-books are on sale for $2.99 on all platforms! Grab one while they're still hot and chewy! bookshop.org/p/books/auto...

I'm back at Slate next week after mat leave, and will be looking at pitches again! Particularly interested in health and science opinion and analysis, and/or with a first person angle, as well as features (2,500+ words, deeply reported) that turn a big idea on its head. shannon.palus@slate.com

Vacuum Fluctuations On turning 34

Yesterday, I turned 34 so on my personal newsletter I’m reflecting on 33, a year that felt like everything and nothing at once ultracold.substack.com/p/vacuum-flu...

Black hole stars really do exist in the early universe Mysterious ‘little red dots’ seen by the James Webb Space Telescope can be explained by a new kind of black hole enshrouded in an enormous ball of glowing gas

Someone once told me that the universe will always be filled with stuff more wild than we can imagine, and this definitely falls into that category. Amazing story from @alexwilkins.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2508...

All I want for Xmas is for people who pitch me stories for New Scientist to actually read New Scientist

2025 in Review: Favorite Ultracold Pieces My favorite 2025 pieces from this newsletter

In my personal newsletter today, a round up of my favorite first person essays from 2025. This is writing that is very different from my journalistic work, brings me lots of joy and forces me to grow as a writer. I am grateful for all of my subscribers! ultracold.substack.com/p/2025-in-re...

Surreal things are happening

Quantum computers turned out to be more useful than expected in 2025 Rapid advances in the kind of problems that quantum computers can tackle suggest that they are closer than ever to becoming useful tools of scientific discovery

For my last quantum column of 2025, a bit of optimism. Will quantum computers deliver economic value to industry soon? I remain skeptical. Will they become useful scientific discovery machines soon? This past year convinced me that the answer just might be yes www.newscientist.com/article/2509...

Gerlach's Postcard — Chlorophyll homepage cargo.site

A first: two of my poems, inevitably physics-themed, got published today chlorophyllmag.com/gerlach's-po...

text: Acknowledgements: Claude Opus 4.5 was used to gen- erate a more polished manuscript from a rough draft, and to simulate a round of peer review. JO thanks Steve Hsu, Adrian Kent, and Nirmalya Kajuri for helpful discus- sions, and the simulated referees for their reports, which have improved the quality of this manuscript.

But a core issue is that LLMs are being trained to validate the user, while science needs tools that challenge us. For this comment, I asked Claude to choose the 3 most likely reviewers, and simulate their peer reviews. 5/

Extreme heat hampers children’s early learning Children regularly exposed to temperatures over 30°C (86°F) have lower scores on literacy and numeracy tests at age 3 to 4, according to UNICEF data from six countries

Climate change is making us dumber, starting young: Children tend to know fewer words, letters & numbers if they experience an average temperature of 32°C or more www.newscientist.com/article/2507...