Kate McAlpine

It's really something else when even LinkedIn feels like doomscrolling.

Applications for the best fellowship program in all of journalism are now open! If you're an HBCU alum, check it out and consider applying! Everyone else, please signal boost. 🙏

More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals Publishing highly cited papers helps postdoctoral researchers to land a faculty job.

🧪 A study of 45,500 researchers found 41% of postdocs leave academia. Key predictors of landing faculty roles include publishing a highly cited "hit paper," changing research topics, and moving abroad post-PhD. #AcademicSky

This doesn't feel so shocking when married couples with kids function as platonic co-parents about 99% of the time, and that 1% is usually not in front of the kids... but glad they're studying for the nuclear sticklers.

Dark energy 'doesn’t exist' so can't be pushing 'lumpy' Universe apart – study One of the biggest mysteries in science – dark energy – doesn't actually exist, according to researchers looking to solve the riddle of how the Universe is expanding. For the past 100 ...

I never liked dark energy anyway. A timescape, now we're talking. www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

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People will share misinformation that sparks “moral outrage” People can tell it’s not true, but if they’re outraged by it, they’ll share anyway.

People will share misinformation that sparks “moral outrage” arstechnica.com/science/2024...

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A good comment on how racist and sexist bias is affecting 🧪 starter packs 🔭 ⚛️

I have definitely noticed this and had a moment where what I really appreciated is the way Black studies folks have embraced me. It’s why I still do science. Scientist sure as hell aren’t.

A graph titled "Cost of Transport" showing the relationship between body weight (in kilograms) and energy consumption for distance traveled (calories per gram per kilometer) for various animals and machines. It highlights that a person on a bicycle ranks first in efficiency.

A person on a bicycle is by far the most energy-efficient among animals and machines per distance traveled relative to body weight. The bicycle is magic.

www.jstor.org/stable/24923...

Tesla has the highest rate of fatal accidents among all car brands, report shows A new analysis of National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration auto crash data shows that Tesla has the highest rate of fatal accidents...

Tesla has the highest rate of fatal accidents among all car brands, report shows

* Fatal accidents per billion miles driven by all vehicles was 2.8 -- Teslas had a rate of 5.6

* Unclear why the disconnect with high vehicle safety ratings, but issue could be autopilot

sherwood.news/business/tes...

Thanks!

That's fair. It would be nice if that were a legal requirement...

As it should. The quality gap between what Phys.Org and Ars Technica publishes is enormous, yet people still read it. On the flip side, my chemical engineers' best papers often can't make it into Chemical & Engineering News, which is tiny and the only reporting game in town...so Phys.Org it is...

Haha, I still don't know. Meltwater reports that they have tremendous reach, but we are skeptical. Then again, we actually have a mandate from college leadership to prioritize 'placements' in Phys.Org, so maybe there is some amount of valuable traffic on Mirage too.

PR or science journalism? It’s getting harder to tell Faced with a shrinking audience of journalists for their press releases, a …

Looking for info on Australia's "Mirage News", I came across @jtimmer.bsky.social's 2009 article, which turns out to be very prescient. As it becomes harder and harder to get real coverage, researchers have learned to find each other on press release aggregators.

arstechnica.com/science/2009...

"Magic is just science we don't understand yet"—and in this case, we actually *do* understand the 'magic' that allows this solution to automatically change colors to blend in. That and more of the best in Science and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

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Thanks, Manuel, you too!

Thanks, Manuel!

Kate McAlpine

Hi Manuel! I edit and write about research for the University of Michigan's College of Engineering. news.engin.umich.edu/author/kmca/

Looking forward to rebuilding the scicomm community I lost when I left that other site.

So I've heard...

Nah we buy the family size boxes.

Yes, doesn't break your teeth that way.

Deeply ironic considering all I heard from Trump voters about Democrats and pedophilia.

Not happening at the University of Michigan's Mcity, but good to know others are pushing the boundaries 😂

This may be too obvious or not government enough for the story, but folks can also delete the mobile advertising ID number that enables tracking across apps too.

I'm so sorry. I hope she can find a doctor who will listen and truly be curious. They're out there...

The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. Here are some steps you can take to ev...

Really important service journalism here from @agreenberg.bsky.social and @lhn.bsky.social on how to protect yourself and your sources before Trump's new regime takes control....

www.wired.com/story/the-wi...

I think about this a ton. I have a condition about which I've repeatedly been told, "Well, it's not your weight." Even if I were in a larger body, it would still not be my weight, but the doctor might not look any deeper.