michael roston

A book titled "Outdoor Pigs: How to Make them Pay."

those damned outdoor pigs can't keep getting away with this

Possible Planet Is Spotted Around Neighboring Sunlike Star

YOU ARE BUGS www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/s...

When Coke and Pepsi Fought for Soft Drink Supremacy in Space

I can finally reveal why this account has been on hiatus for the summer...

I've been working on a piece for the New York Times on the 1980s cola space race!

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/s...

Its been a great experience working with the Times editors on this. #nasa #space #coke #pepsi

A screenshot from the article at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/science/nasa-nuclear-reactor-moon.html in which I suggest the timeline might be too aggressive.

I've had a lot of questions about fission surface power this week.
The delightful Ken Chang @kchang.bsky.social summed it up well in this piece: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/s... .

On moon reactors, I'm bullish. On setting unrealistic timelines in a race to moon reactors, not so much. [1/2]

When Coke and Pepsi Fought for Soft Drink Supremacy in Space

Check out my piece in the @nytimes.com about the 1980s cola space race.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/s...

Worked with some great editors and a spoke with interesting people while I was working on this. Really pleased to see this published.

#space #nasa #spaceshuttle #challenger

Snakes Use Smelly Musk to Keep Ants Out of Their Pants

Skunks aren't the only ones with a distinkt advantage over the competition. 🧪🐍

Also, I'm always here for a @michaelroston.bsky.social headline.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/s...

Vera Rubin’s Legacy Lives On in a Troubled Scientific Landscape

Fantastic article about Rubin (both the person and the shiny new observatory) in the @nytimes.com today. Unlike many (not all!) of the male scientists with household names, she was a profoundly good and caring human. ALL of the women in #astrophysics today are standing on her shoulders.
🔭🧪✨

A Traveler Waits in the Stars for Those Willing to Learn How to Look

This is a great article. Sounds like a fascinating book.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/s...

A Traveler Waits in the Stars for Those Willing to Learn How to Look

fascinating - so much Native American knowledge we refuse to believe or acknowledge - why wouldn't natives see things in the stars the way the Greeks did? www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/s...

A Scientist Fighting Nuclear Armageddon Hid a 50-Year Secret

Nice feature this morning by Bill Broad on Dick Garwin, which draws on some of our resources www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/s...

Research Study Shows Barbie’s Feet Have Gotten Flatter Over Time Researchers in Australia found that the doll’s feet have, over time, gone from arched to flat — a shift that correlates with each Barbie’s designated career or hobby.

Got an early start today to catch up on the business and finance news that broke overnight but instead I'm reading a journal article on Barbie's foot posture
plos.altmetric.com/details/1770...

h/t: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/s...

1 Astronaut, Many Cameras and 220 Days of Amazing Images From Space

Love how 70-year-old Don Pettit, NASA’s oldest active astronaut, seems like a big kid up in space playing with his camera gear and science experiments, injecting food coloring or dissolving an antacid tablet inside water spheres in zero gravity. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/s...

Universal Antivenom May Grow Out of Man Who Let Snakes Bite Him Hundreds of Times Scientists identified antibodies that neutralized the poison in whole or in part from the bites of cobras, mambas and other deadly species.

Over nearly 18 years, Tim Friede, injected himself with escalating doses of venom from 16 deadly snake species. He also allowed the snakes to sink their sharp fangs into him about 200 times. His daredevilry may help solve a dire problem.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/h...

Niamos! is the song of the summer and also the song of financing a rebellion by giving away your daughter in an arranged marriage that gives you the ick while fleeing storm troopers in a stolen TIE fighter prototype

Jonathan McDowell on Retiring From Harvard and Leaving the U.S. Jonathan McDowell is retiring from studying the universe. But he’s ramping up efforts to chronicle humanity’s exploration of space.

"I imagine people 1,000 years from now ... who want to know about this critical moment in history when, for the first time, we were stepping into space." - space historian @planet4589.bsky.social, in a great Q&A with @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/s...

The Skin on Mysterious Medieval Books Concealed a Shaggy Surprise The material on the covers of books from a French abbey was too hairy to have come from calves or other local mammals. Researchers identified its more distant origin.

During the middle ages, manuscripts were fashioned from animal skins. This is especially clear in a set of medieval manuscripts from France that are covered in hair.

Recently, researchers confirmed that these 'shaggy' books were made of 🦭

Latest for @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/s...

Eating ‘Family Style’ May Have Set the Stage for Life as We Know It Under microscopes, scientists found that giant single-cell organisms were able to vacuum up more food when they are stuck together.

When your the size of a sharpened pencil tip, water can feel as viscous as jelly. To get out of this jam, unicellular stentors team up to vacuum in more prey.

These 'Family Style' meals may have been a key early step towards multicellularity

Latest for @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...

the nice thing about blogs is you can just do things

It's not fair that the astronauts got to sleep longer than me

Orange Alert: What Caused the Colors on This Snowy Owl? (Gift Article) Bird watchers along Lake Huron photographed the bird, which has been nicknamed Rusty and Creamsicle. But there is no consensus about what caused its unusual tint.

I got to write about the mysterious orange snowy owl spotted in Michigan's thumb for @nytimes.com! Was it a genetic mutation? Did it get drenched in de-icer at a local airport? I talked to some experts! (A big thanks to my editor
@michaelroston.bsky.social) www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/s...

Is that the Emc-two guy

The groundhog really nailed the weather prediction, shout out to that guy

ohhhh my god is neo-tokyo about to explode? should we tell everyone? should we throw a party? should we invite tetsuo?

I would like it noted in the grand karmic ledger that I just opted against pointing out to someone who was attempting to correct another someone's "grammar" that they were actually correcting that person's diction.

Did no one raise their hand at the vesper martini brainstorming meeting and say “actually maybe the message of the show is that you DON’T want to escape to The White Lotus?”

Her Discovery Wasn’t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same The internet erupted in controversy over Felisa Wolfe-Simon and colleagues’ claim of a microbe thriving on arsenic. Nearly 15 years later, she’s pursuing new research on the boundaries of life.

"Her Discovery Wasn’t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same"

"The internet erupted in controversy over Felisa Wolfe-Simon and colleagues’ claim of a microbe thriving on arsenic. "

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/s...

a blast from the past, some reporting war stories in this 'un

Just encountered the modern Manhattan parent version of "For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn" which was two near mint condition SHSAT test prep books sitting on the "up for grabs" table in the children's room of my local library.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 Could Strike Earth, Researchers Say, But the Odds are Small Researchers say there’s a 1.3 percent chance that the space rock 2024 YR4 could strike our planet — but not until December 2032.

Marco Inaros is up to his old tricks www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/s...

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Hummingbird Tiny mites seem capable of relying on the power of static cling to hop into hummingbird nostrils and move between flowers.

Flower mites, found throughout blooms in the tropics, can sense modulated electric fields emanating from hummingbirds, which they employ to hitchhike to other flowers.

Very fun story to write!

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/s...

Do Chimps Who Pee Together Stay Together? Scientists suspect that contagious urination, a behavior they observed among a troop of apes in Japan, may play an important role in primate social life.

More yellow journalism by The New York Times