Alan Burdick

Physicists Still Don’t Know What Puts the Curl in Curling Even as the sport’s top athletes compete for gold at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, a scientific mystery remains unsolved.

A couple of Olympics ago I explored the physics mystery at the heart of curling, which remains mysterious: www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-...

TV, It’s Not Just for Humans Anymore

"Media companies now offer niche content designed to satisfy every conceivable kind of viewer. Why not four-legged ones?" @emilyanthes.bsky.social writes in her latest Pet Theory column. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/s...

Toby Kiers, World Champion of Fungus

Toby Kiers, who just won the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, talked with The Times about “punk science,” microbial economics and thinking like a mycorrhizal fungus. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/s...

Is This Bird the Next Dodo?

The slaty-masked tinamou, recently discovered in Brazil, is utterly unafraid of people. That could be its undoing, ornithologists worry. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/s...

Let the Mind-Control Games Begin!

Terrific, moving story about the Cybathlon, a competition held every four years to test the latest brain-computer interface technologies: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/s...

How Inventors Find Inspiration in Evolution (Gift Article) Soft batteries and water-walking robots are among the many creations made possible by studying animals and plants.

@carlzimmer.com on what engineers have learned from the natural world: nyti.ms/4otNQyl

He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males

"I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary." #lost-science

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/s...

Armed With Anemones: How Some Young Fishes Survive in the Sea

Avast, ye deep-sea mateys!

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/s...

He Studied Elephant Behavior to Save Lives

Joshua Plotnik, who studies elephant cognition, is the latest focus of our Lost Science series, which documents the work of researchers who have lost their jobs or funding after cuts by the Trump administration. Share your story with us! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/s...

Has Your Scientific Work Been Cut? We Want to Hear.

A new NYT as-told-to series, "Lost Science," documents the work of researchers who have lost their jobs or funding after cuts by the Trump administration. Share your story with us!

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

To Study Viking Seafarers, He Took 26 Voyages in a Traditional Boat An archaeologist in Sweden spent three years traveling in vessels built like those from 1,000 years ago. He discovered lost sea routes, hidden trade harbors and new respect for Viking seamanship.

Beware the fallvinder, o Viking archaeologist! nyti.ms/47m8YRp

A Voyage to Bring Norway’s Lighthouses Into the 21st Century More than 2,000 navigational beacons, big and small, oversee the nation’s 60,000-mile-long coast. Now they need an upgrade.

I learned a lot about Fresnel lenses for this amazing series of lighthouse photographs by Michal Siarek: nyti.ms/41qkFCN

A Zoo in Denmark Wants to Feed Your Pets to Its Predators A Danish zoo is asking owners of companion animals nearing life’s end to instead donate them as food for captive lynxes, lions and other carnivores.

They do things a little differently in Denmark. But hardly shocking when you stop to think about where pet food comes from. nyti.ms/4mtD2Ps @alexaroblesgil.bsky.social @emilyanthes.bsky.social

Kid at lemonade stand today: “Want some lemonade? We take Apple Pay.”

‘Hot Wasps’ Found at Nuclear Facility in South Carolina

Not just one but four radioactive wasp nests were found at the Savannah River nuclear facility in S.C., @emilyanthes.bsky.social reports: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/s...

What’s a Potato? A Nine-Million-Year-Old Tomato.

You say potato, @alexaroblesgil.bsky.social says tomato: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/s...

Don'r miss the fourth and final installment of "Math Revealed," the extravaganzaesque NYT series by @stevenstrogatz.com !

Part 2 of the terrific "Math, Revealed" series by @stevenstrogatz.com and the superb visual team at @nytimes.com features Leonardo da Vinci and bellybuttons.

A.I. Avatars and the Brave New Frontier of Life After Death (Gift Article) After Peter Listro was diagnosed with blood cancer, his family decided to make a virtual avatar they can talk to after his death.

Astonishing and moving story by @susandominus.bsky.social nyti.ms/406oDzM about a family looking to sidestep mortality with the help of A.I.

Thrilled to reveal "Math Revealed," a weekly four-part math-appreciation series by the incomparable @stevenstrogatz.com in collaboration with The Times's ace visual team!

"Gardening is just editing outdoors." -- an editor

@coweatherman.bsky.social‬ What's the key to keeping weeds out of there for the first few weeks/months/years?

Historic Shipwrecks Come to Light in the Great Lakes

Visually stunning archaeological work being done by NOAA on Lake Ontario

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/s...

9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything

A little something that @emilyanthes.bsky.social and I whipped up: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/s...

Friends, Brooklynites, book-lovers: Join us tonight at @greenlightbklyn.bsky.social in Brooklyn, where fab @susandominus.bsky.social will talk about her new book, "The Family Dynamic: A Journey into the Mystery of Sibling Success," with equally fab @emilynussbaum.bsky.social. Curly hair alert!

Delighted beyond delighted at the publication at last of "The Family Dynamic: A Journey Into the Mystery of Sibling Success," by the phenomenal @susandominus.bsky.social !! It's an intimate, thoughtful and delightful exploration of the inner mechanics of families and the science of achievement.

Thank you, Colette!

Trump vs. Science

My two cents: "The Trump administration is trying to change what counts as science."
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/b...

Thanks, Katrina!