Sequencer Magazine

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-...

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-...

Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand How Life Makes Clouds, and Their Discoveries May Drastically Improve Climate Science Plants, plankton and sea spray all release elements that help the atmospheric blankets form

Clouds play an important role regulating the climate. To incorporate clouds into climate models scientists are learning more about the *biology* of clouds: studies of plants, plankton & organics flung up by sea spray.

Major thanks @joespring.bsky.social for edits on this

tinyurl.com/388ncr38

"Drilled" goes deep on fossil fuel industry misinformation and the legacy of Standing Rock Investigative journalist Alleen Brown, the host of the podcast's 12th season, spoke with Sequencer about the how energy companies use misinformation in courtrooms and the court of public opinion.

At Standing Rock, the FBI had 10+ inside informants. The pipeline's security company used Iraq War tactics. Modern disinfo tactics were rampant.

For @sequencermag.bsky.social I talked with @alleenbrown.bsky.social of @drilledmedia.bsky.social about misinfo and the legacy of Standing Rock.

As seen on Sequencer Checkout out this list on Bookshop

If you've ever read a book review on Sequencer and wondered, "hey, where can I buy this book?" don't worry, we've got you covered: buy it on our Bookshop storefront!

bookshop.org/lists/as-see...

A screenshot of a newsletter entitled "A bioluddite's dance with Death" with a picture of a skeleton dancing in front of two people

If you're not subscribed to @sequencermag.bsky.social's newsletter, you should be! Get another 2,000 words sent directly to your inbox, with a fun picture of me dancing with my friends:

A heart-powered pacemaker could free patients from the grips of medical device makers Engineers in South Korea developed a battery-free pacemaker powered by the beating of the heart that could, potentially, last a lifetime.

New on @sequencermag.bsky.social: medical device makers have a long history of stranding patients or straight up killing them with poorly manufactured batteries. A new kind of pacemaker, powered by the heart itself, could last a lifetime and free patients. From our mentee, Haley McAllister:

Who even wants to live forever? Centuries of scientists, physicians, and con men have tried to sell the idea of radically extending life beyond what medicine and good hygiene can achieve. Don’t believe them.

I wrote about a personal belief of mine for @sequencermag.bsky.social: that life-extension people, and by extension a lot of biofuturists who promise the world but ultimately are just selling something, are hacks. Be a bioluddite instead.

www.sequencermag.com/who-even-wan...

Now that people are talking to/about AI as if they're people, is the internet going to have to switch to serif fonts?

Lower case "L" and capital "I" look identical. And people use chatbots for therapy and itineraries.

"I asked AI for advice"

Alex? Claude? Albert? ChatGPT????

The Innovative Way Surgeons Rehearse Surgical simulations are about more than just practicing fine motor skills.

In true Sequencer fashion, I wrote something about something that seems silly but really isn't that silly IMO!!

Maybe season 3 of The Rehearsal can be in an operating room...

Read a report from my little field trip here:
www.sequencermag.com/the-innovati...

On Fear, Death, and Phosphorus Author Jack Lohmann speaks to Sequencer about the complicated story of phosphorus: “There might be little pieces of Nauru in your teeth.”

NEW: "If you then read in a newspaper about human rights abuses happening in Nauru, you're implicated against your will... Your body is a part of that story."

@maxlevy.bsky.social speaks with Jack Lohmann about his book, WHITE LIGHT

www.sequencermag.com/on-fear-deat...

Check it out for a snippet of audio. Writing nerds and chemistry dorks (@maxlevy.bsky.social included), this is a fun one you won't wanna miss.

Check it out for a snippet of audio. Writing nerds and chemistry dorks (@maxlevy.bsky.social included), this is a fun one you won't wanna miss.

On Fear, Death, and Phosphorus Author Jack Lohmann speaks to Sequencer about the complicated story of phosphorus: “There might be little pieces of Nauru in your teeth.”

NEW: "If you then read in a newspaper about human rights abuses happening in Nauru, you're implicated against your will... Your body is a part of that story."

@maxlevy.bsky.social speaks with Jack Lohmann about his book, WHITE LIGHT

www.sequencermag.com/on-fear-deat...

YouTube video by TED-Ed No one really knows what a tree is - Max G. Levy

New video just dropped! I helped produce this one for TED-Ed, in which we ask.... what the hell is a tree???

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1EX...

"The medical memoir in the contemporary context, for me, is also a critique of the modern state."

The intimate power of a patient’s testimonial Public health-trained historian Edna Bonhomme speaks with Sequencer about her new book, “A History of the World in Six Plagues.”

New on Sequencer, public health-trained historian Edna Bonhomme speaks with Sequencer about her new book, “A History of the World in Six Plagues.”

www.sequencermag.com/the-intimate...

What Kind Of Future Does De-Extinction Promise? | Defector You are wandering the forests of Mauritius, an oyster-shaped island east of Madagascar, when you spy a dodo, a bird famous for being as dead as one can possibly be. Yet this dodo waddles before you, p...

Once again an ideal opportunity to revisit @sabs.bsky.social's spot-on @defector.bsky.social story from 2023.
defector.com/what-kind-of...

Thrilled to announce that we too have also de-extinctified the Dire Wolf 🐺🧪

The cover of The Best American Science and Nature writing, with an abstract green pattern

A screenshot of the essay "I tried to train my color vision. Here's what happened."

BIG NEWS: @maxlevy.bsky.social's essay for @sequencermag.bsky.social, "I tried to train my color vision. Here's what happened." was selected by editors @jaimealyse.bsky.social and @susanorlean.bsky.social for inclusion in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025.

Exciting news: My work will appear in the upcoming edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing!! The 2025 editor, Susan Orlean, selected an essay I wrote for Sequencer about trying to train my color vision.

👁️👄👁️

I tried to train my color vision. Here’s what happened. When I gamified my color blindness, I stumbled into the limits and latitudes of neuroplasticity.

I'm really grateful for our @sequencermag.bsky.social readers, to Maddie Bender for editing this, and of course to @jaimealyse.bsky.social @susanorlean.bsky.social, and Mariner Books 📖🥳👀🧠

www.sequencermag.com/color-blindn...

Your local library can free you from the streaming wars, if they can afford it Prices are skyrocketing across the board for libraries, as books, ebooks, DVDs, and streaming get more and more expensive.

NEW for @sequencermag.bsky.social:

Does the Netflix content stream wash over you "like a numbing gel"? Free yourself. Having fun's not hard with a library card, and the increasingly expensive media services offered there. From @dsamorod.bsky.social

www.sequencermag.com/your-local-l...

Your local library can free you from the streaming wars, if they can afford it Prices are skyrocketing across the board for libraries, as books, ebooks, DVDs, and streaming get more and more expensive.

New from me for @sequencermag.bsky.social: free yourself from the streaming wars by going to your local library! At least before the disproportionately exorbitant costs that publishers, studios, and distributors charge libraries make that impossible.

www.sequencermag.com/your-local-l...

Sick tattoo of *the cool S* and edited to say Subscribe 2day please

Our newest newsletter hits inboxes TOMORROW MORNING! It's overflowing with exciting updates, so be sure to subscribe at www.sequencermag.com today so you don't miss it.

And remember: our newsletter access is $0, free, gratis etc.

All we ask for is your email address and your unconditional love.

And remember: our newsletter access is $0, free, gratis etc.

All we ask for is your email address and your unconditional love.

Sick tattoo of *the cool S* and edited to say Subscribe 2day please

Our newest newsletter hits inboxes TOMORROW MORNING! It's overflowing with exciting updates, so be sure to subscribe at www.sequencermag.com today so you don't miss it.

The horses and mules that moved mountains and hearts - High Country News U.S. Forest Service stock animals are indispensable to trail work on public lands in the West. Trump’s radical upheaval is accelerating the death of a dying art.

Thank you to my editor @shaun505.bsky.social who didn't bat an eyelash when I filed a 2k-word draft though the assigned word count was 1k.

In my defense, who doesn't want to read about the funniest, sweetest, smartest, and most adorable mules and horses?

My latest for @highcountrynews.bsky.social:

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

It's a testament to @sequencermag.bsky.social and our subscribers that we can offer this program. We want to scale this up, and honestly, we want to pay our writers more. To do that, we need your help. Forward our newsletter to a friend, or upgrade to a paid subscription! www.sequencermag.com