Allison Parshall

Billions of Starfish Have Disintegrated—and Scientists Finally Know Why A devastating bacterium has decimated populations of sunflower sea stars, predators that play a crucial role in their environment

Spoke with @rhizalyssa.bsky.social and Melanie Prentice about their investigation into what was causing billions of sea stars to disintegrate to death. The culprit: a bacterium by the name of Vibrio pectenicida. Read more about their work here:

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Submission Instructions | Scientific American

Journalists, please pitch me! I edit mind & brain news at @sciam.bsky.social and I'm looking for psychology and neuroscience stories. I'm especially interested in consciousness science and linguistics. Guidelines and contact info: www.scientificamerican.com/page/submiss...

Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak in NYC—What to Know Fifty-eight people have been infected—and two have died—in a New York City outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease—a severe type of pneumonia caused by a bacterium commonly associated with air-conditioning ...

Fifty-eight people have been infected—and two have died—in a New York City outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease—a severe type of pneumonia caused by a bacterium commonly associated with air-conditioning systems and cooling towers

I simply refuse to believe that the second question is possible

How Logical Are You? Test Your Skills With These Problems from the New International Logic Olympiad In only its second year, the International Logic Olympiad is already booming as logic becomes more and more crucial in our ever changing world

How would you fare at the International Logic Olympiad? Try out some sample questions here: 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/try-...

Optimists Are Alike, but Pessimists Are Unique, Brain Scan Study Suggests Optimists have similar patterns of brain activation when they think about the future—but pessimists are all different from one another, a brain scan study suggests

“We tend to think of imagining the future as a deeply personal, subjective act. Our study, however, shows that—especially for optimists—the way our brains do this can be similar.”

The researchers call this the "Anna Karenina principle." 🧪
www.scientificamerican.com/article/opti...

Math Is Quietly in Crisis over NSF Funding Cuts A 72 percent reduction in federal funding is devastating to math research. The American Mathematical Society is offering $1 million in backstop grants—but it’s likely not enough.

Math is in crisis. The NSF claims the over $80M in cuts is due to "changing priorities" but when asked how math fits to their new priorities they said it is "required to advance future discoveries in every critical technology area." What gives??? www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...

Is Chronic Venous Insufficiency Serious? Trump's Diagnosis Explained After photographs showed President Donald Trump with swollen ankles and bruised hands, the White House revealed he has chronic venous insufficiency-a blood vessel disease that affects circulation in the legs

After photographs showed President Donald Trump with swollen ankles and bruised hands, the White House revealed he has chronic venous insufficiency—a blood vessel disease that affects circulation in the legs

Damming water changes the location of the poles. 🧪

The Bird Flu Story No One Is Telling Bird flu fears have focused on the poultry and dairy industries and human health. But wild animals are threatened, too—at scales no one fully understands

Good Tuesday morning. @sciam.bsky.social has a new digital issue out on bird flu, covering where it's gone, what it would take for it to spread widely to humans, and, in this piece by @meghanbartels.bsky.social I edited,the largely un-tallied effects to wildlife 🧪

Forget Jaws. These Bacteria in Beach Water Can Make You Seriously Ill Illnesses from stealthy pathogens known as Vibrio are advancing northward along numerous coasts, potentially ruining your summer vacation

For this @sciam.bsky.social article on illness from Vibrio bacteria along the U.S. east coast (yup, the genus that includes V. cholerae), cartographer @pinakographos.bsky.social and I pay homage to John Snow's classic cholera map with contemporary data. 📊 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/vibr...

The Bird Flu Story No One Is Telling Bird flu fears have focused on the poultry and dairy industries and human health. But wild animals are threatened, too—at scales no one fully understands

Amid bird flu fears about egg prices, viral milk and human pandemic risks, there's a piece missing--the impact on wildlife, which I covered for @sciam.bsky.social : 🧪 🪶 www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird...

Supreme Court allows deep cuts at Education Department for now A lower-court ruling had prevented Trump officials from slashing about half of the Education Department’s more than 4,100 workers.

Breaking news: A divided Supreme Court cleared the way for now for the Trump administration to sharply shrink the Education Department, one of the cornerstones of the president’s efforts to radically downsize the federal government.

🧪 Follow our starter pack for a first look at our latest reporting and insights directly from the dedicated journalists behind the work.

There Are at Least Four Types of Autism, Researchers Find Autism has at least four subtypes, an analysis of more than 5,000 children’s genes, traits and developmental trajectories has shown

“The beauty of the autism spectrum is: it speaks to this heterogeneity. And the downside [is that] it covers up the differences,” says Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and a professor emeritus at Yale University.
(By me for @sciam.bsky.social ) 🧪
www.scientificamerican.com/article/four...

ChatGPT Is Changing the Words We Use in Conversation Words frequently used by ChatGPT, including “delve” and “meticulous,” are getting more common in spoken language, according to an analysis of more than 700,000 hours of videos and podcasts

Words frequently used by ChatGPT, including “delve” and “meticulous,” are getting more common in spoken language, according to an analysis of more than 700,000 hours of videos and podcasts spklr.io/63326BDCCG

YouTube video by Scientific American What is Scientific American?

We finally made it to Bluesky—just a few billion years after the Big Bang, and only slightly late to the party ✨🌌

We’re sharing some of our best stories from the year so far to kick off our Bluesky journey!

We’re Light-Years Away from True Artificial Intelligence, Says Murderbot Author Martha Wells Today’s large language models are hardly related to the kinds of machine intelligence we see in science fiction, according to Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries series

There's an interview with me in Scientific American: www.scientificamerican.com/article/were...

We’re Light-Years Away from True Artificial Intelligence, Says Murderbot Author Martha Wells Today’s large language models are hardly related to the kinds of machine intelligence we see in science fiction, according to Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries series

Writing MURDERBOT "taught me about my own neurodiversity. ... I have had a lot of people tell me that it helped them work out things about themselves and that it was just nice to see a character who thought and felt a lot of the same things they did." @marthawells.com with @clarakm.bsky.social

Just found out #Murderbot is getting a Season 2!! Praise be; we'll get to meet ART 🧡 Congrats @marthawells.com and everyone involved with this awesome show. Now go kick back in style and watch the finale. Then, let's do it all again. 🦾

A fascinating article by @maiasz.bsky.social - "...The brains of those who started experimenting with cannabis, cigarettes or alcohol before age 15 showed differences from those who did not—before the individuals took their first puff or sip." 🧪
www.scientificamerican.com/article/addi...

Stories by Allison Parshall Allison Parshall is an associate editor at Scientific American covering mind and brain. She writes the magazine's Contributors column and weekly online Science Quizzes. As a multimedia journalist, she...

Hi Emily, I am an editor at Scientific American covering our mind and brain section, which often includes social sciences. Here is my staff page: www.scientificamerican.com/author/allis...

Stories by Allison Parshall Allison Parshall is an associate editor at Scientific American covering mind and brain. She writes the magazine's Contributors column and weekly online Science Quizzes. As a multimedia journalist, she...

Hi Monica, I'd like to be added to the feed - I am an editor at Scientific American covering neuroscience and psychology. Here's my staff page: www.scientificamerican.com/author/allis...

Screenshot of a quiz question, "In grapheme-color synesthesia, people see letters or numbers as having particular colors. What color do English-speaking people with this form of synesthesia most often associate with the letter “A”?" Answer options are blue, red, chartreuse, and sad beige.

Take Scientific American's weekly science quiz! www.scientificamerican.com/game/science...

How Supreme Court Trans Health Care Ruling Will Affect Kids The Supreme Court has decided to uphold a state ban on gender-affirming care for minors in U.S. v. Skrmetti

www.scientificamerican.com/article/supr...

Inside the Secret Meeting Where Mathematicians Struggled to Outsmart AI The world's leading mathematicians were stunned by how adept artificial intelligence is at doing their jobs

Only on @sciam.bsky.social!
“I was not prepared to be contending with an LLM like this... That’s what a scientist does. That’s frightening.”
www.scientificamerican.com/article/insi...

Engineered Viruses Make Neurons Glow and Treat Brain Disease Neuroscientists can now make precise genetic tweaks to the neurons that are most affected by brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and ALS

This is one of the coolest things happening in neuroscience imo www.scientificamerican.com/article/engi...

The Neuroscience of Murderbot’s Cyborg Brain What would it take to create a cyborg brain like the one in the new TV show Murderbot? The answer reveals what makes our own brain so unique

Murderbot fans unite www.scientificamerican.com/article/murd...

‘These plans are simply not acceptable’: Q&A with Helen Tager-Flusberg Last week, Tager-Flusberg formed the Coalition of Autism Scientists to push back on the U.S. government’s plans for autism research, as described by Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr.

A new coalition of autism researchers is trying to fight the disinformation spread by RFK Jr. Via @thetransmitter.bsky.social