Ferris Jabr

Poster for described event. Text: How science journalism can help us all navigate a new dark age. Wednesday November 5 Tufts University Olin 012 6PM Featuring Ferris Jabr and Usha Lee McFarling

Wednesday Nov 5 I’ll be at my alma mater Tufts with Pulitzer winner and MIT KSJ director @usha.bsky.social discussing the importance of science journalism in this moment and the lessons and tools it offers us all

Free and open to public w/ registration
www.tuftstickets.com/event/lighti...

Three paper luminaries made from black paper lunch bags, featuring silhouettes of a cat, moon, and owl, illuminated from within

Large spider web made of black yarn suspended across a wall and window beneath dozens of paper bats arranged in a swoosh

A green and black kraken with giant eyes, glowing spots, and crinkly tentacles made of paper and paint

Luminaries, bats, spider web, kraken (paper, yarn, paint)

Two DIY witch brooms suspended on the wall. One has a relatively short and straight handle. The other has a prominent arch.

Broomsticks (foraged branches, rattan, string)

Three photos of black paper cutouts taped against windows, featuring the silhouettes of a witch and bubbling cauldron, spooky tree and owl, and a haunted house with numerous windows and turrets.

Window silhouettes (black poster board)

Photo of a wooden front door embellished with angry paper eyes with concentric circles of green, yellow, and red and large bloody paper fangs, making the door itself look like part of a larger monster.

Monster door (poster board, paint)

A DIY prop spell book with a wrinkled purplish cover, weathered pages at the edges, a hazel eye staring out from the center, and small bronzed metal embellishments.

We recently hosted a spooky season celebration. I tried to make most of the decor from recyclable / repurposed materials to reduce waste.

🎃👻🦇🧵of a few favorites:

Spell book (paper, clay, mod podge, fake eye, paint)

A plate of round chocolate cake bites decorated to look like Miyazaki soot sprites with chocolate sprinkles for fuzz and colorful star sprinkles to mimic the candies they eat.

A screen shot from Spirited Away showing the sprites walking around with handfuls of bumpy, somewhat star-shaped Japanese candy konpeitō

Made some Miyazaki soot sprite cake bites. Chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream, chocolate shell, and sprinkles.

Susuwatari (ススワタリ, 煤渡り), also known as soot gremlins or dust bunnies, are fuzzy, golf ball-sized sprites, featured in My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

Happy 15th birthday to @theopennotebook.bsky.social, truly a phenomenal project. Whenever early-career science journalists ask about resources, this is my #1 recommendation: comprehensive, innovative, and accessible

I tried the first batch last night, simply roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper — delicious! Definitely lives up to its name. Very sweet. Will update on the dishes I make

It's also quite revealing/confirming of corporate practices. In just the past couple weeks, while traveling, I was involuntarily and surreptitiously signed up for multiple mailing lists from hotels, restaurants, and other businesses/orgs even when I specifically elected to not receive such messages.

Screenshot of lefthand Gmail menu, with "More" at the bottom adjacent to a down arrow

Screenshot of options revealed under "More" including Manage Subscriptions

PSA: There's a relatively new and super useful Gmail feature: a "Manage Subscriptions" tab in the lefthand menu under
More. It instantly shows you all the email lists you're subscribed to, including spam, and allows you to unsubscribe from most with the click of a button

If you'd like to learn more about pumpkins, squashes, and the magic of Cucurbita pepo, I have just the thread for you: bsky.app/profile/ferr...

Never forget: That canned "pumpkin" from the store is not the pumpkin you're probably thinking of and squash roasted at home (butternut, acorn, kuri, sweetmeat etc) makes the best pumpkin pie & other pumpkiny baked goods bsky.app/profile/ferr...

A watercolor illustration showing the modern cultivars of squash descended from the ancestral Cucurbita pepo. C. pepo is in the middle, depicted as a round-ish speckled squash ripening from green to yellow-orange. Acorn squash, zucchini, pumpkin, delicata, pattypan, and yellow squash surround it in a circle, each connected to C. pepo by a line, like spokes in a wheel. Illustration by Ferris Jabr.

Cucurbita pepo is one of the oldest domesticated species. Over millennia, it has proved astoundingly versatile.

Just as Brassica oleracea gave us broccoli, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts etc, C. pepo morphed into the pumpkin, zucchini, delicata, pattypan, acorn, yellow squash and more!

Autumnal reminder: The majority of canned pumpkin sold in American supermarkets is not the familiar round orange carving pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo). Rather, it's Dickinson pumpkin, a large, often oblong and beige cultivar of C. moschata, which has better flavor and texture (Photo: AP)

A giant, vaguely pumpkin-shaped squash with pale blue skin sitting on a wooden chopping board.

The same squash sliced in half, revealing orange flesh, similar to a butternut, with central pockets of seeds.

A closer view of the richly colored flesh.

A roasting tray covered in tinfoil and filled with orange cubes of peeled and sliced squash.

We grew a squash. An heirloom called sweet meat that grows particularly well in the PNW. It is very large 😳 Just 1/4 filled up my biggest roasting tray.

Fortunately we are hosting a celebration of autumn / spooky season this weekend. I’ll be making a stew, pie, cake, and savory sides.

Thank you so much! Congratulations!

It's pub day for the latest edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing! Honored to have my work featured along so many other writers I admire, incl @rossandersen.bsky.social @rebeccagiggs.bsky.social @bengoldfarb.bsky.social @sarahzhang.bsky.social Emma Marris & more. Congrats to all!

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 Check out The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 - <p>&#8220;The best science and nature writing&#8212;which these stories represent&#8212;reminds us of the wide world and our connection to...

It's pub day for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025, and the whole Best American series. I'm so proud of this book and all the brilliant, beautiful writing @susanorlean.bsky.social selected for it. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.

Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU

My message to educators is linked above. Here's the link to request a free exam copy: orderexamcopy.com?CampaignId=e...

The book is holistic and highly interdisciplinary: So far I've visited classes focused on Earth science, life science, environmental science, writing, journalism, and law.

MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Ferris Jabr on the Thrilling New Science of Our Living Planet - Penguin Random House Higher Education Contributed by Ferris Jabr, author of Becoming Earth: A Journey Through the Hidden Wonders that Bring Our Planet to Life, an exhilarating guide to the workings of our planetary symphony—its players, i...

📣 Educators: Since my book was published, I've really enjoyed connecting directly with teachers, students, & academics of all kinds. I'd be honored if you would consider Becoming Earth for your class & I'd be happy to visit when feasible 💙📚 🧪

penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/2025/03/03/f...

A sisters butterfly, brown with segments of white and orange, tan ripples on the edges, and patches of pale gold

A splatter of neon yellow-green lichen on a rock face

Ancient ochre human handprints on a rock face

A ground squirrel perched on a red rock

A striking band of rust red rock in a desert cliff against a blue sky

A sopping wet desert spring overgrown with algae and grass

A lanky black desert tarantula atop a rock

A view within Red Rock Canyon of gorgeous multi colored rock structures - pinkish gray blushed red here and there with green dabs of plant life - framed by cacti and shrubs in the foreground

The absolutely stunning Red Rock Canyon, featuring rusted cliffs, shaggy green desert springs, shadow-walking tarantulas, stained glass butterflies, ancient rock art, and neon sprays of lichen

Poster for the Las Vegas Book Festival Text reads: Las Vegas Book Festival Saturday Oct 18 10AM - 5PM Mankind Nature and Language, moderated by Dierdre Wolownick Humanity, nature, and writing about the natural world Ferris Jabr and Barret Baumgart Historic Fifth Street School, Empowered Tent, 12:15 PM

Saturday Oct 18, I'll be at the Las Vegas Book Festival on a panel about nature writing w/ essayist & author Barret Baumgart, moderated by Dierdre Wolownick (who happens to be the mother of climbing legend Alex Honnold)

Historic Fifth Street School: Empowered Tent: 12:15 PM
lasvegasbookfestival.com

A greenhouse packed with gorgeous and unusual cacti and succulents, ranging from from the towering and torsioned to the wooly and white to the pendulous and tentacular

Tank, an African spurred tortoise, eating a prickly pear. He has robust, thickly scaled gray legs and a tan shell with a grid of adjacent, almost conical peaks made of stacked concentric rings. A creature that exudes an air of the primordial, seemingly plucked from the time of dinosaurs.

A large green coral cactus with rounded, undulating, rippled branches. If Van Gogh painted a cactus it would look like this.

A stapelia bloom, aka starfish flower. Star shaped. Maroon around the edges, pink in the middle, with many fine zigzagging yellow lines. Rafflesia vibes. A fly rests on one petal.

The world’s first Cactarium and one of its resident tortoises, Tank. Palm Springs, CA.

Looking down onto Palm Springs and surrounding valley, thick metal cables of aerial tram descending

Another view of the valley and below

Mountain peaks covered with conifers

Large section of bare gray rock jutting out of mountain forest

Views from the 8,516 ft high Mountain Station on Mount San Jacinto, which is accessible by aerial tram

Four more images of Joshua Tree landscapes set against starry skies

The dark silhouette of a Joshua tree, with its many large, twisting, club-headed branches, against a black-green-blue-amber sky sprinkled with stars

Black and white photo of clumpy rock formations against a starry night sky

The dark silhouette of a larger Joshua tree, with its many tentacular, club-headed branches, against a black-green-blue-amber sky sprinkled with stars

The gorgeous night sky, ink black tinged a dreamy blue, full of distant suns and unknown worlds

Stargazing in dark sky areas of Joshua Tree National Park

As an avid home baker, learning to make croissants properly is one of my proudest accomplishments. That said, I will absolutely not be making them routinely 😅 Way too much time and work! And buying a freshly made, excellent bakery pastry is a joy.