Davide Castelvecchi
@castelvecchi.bsky.social
Writer at Nature magazine, covering physical sciences, technology, mathematics, and energy. DMs are disabled courtesy of the UK's so-called Online Safety Act
Pinned
Very excited to be at my first World Conference of Science Journalists in Tshwane, South Africa, today to talk about covering quantum technology. Many thanks to the Unesco International Year of Quantum Science and Technology which sponsored this event @wcsj2025.bsky.social
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
January 2, 2026 at 8:02 PM
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
Please journalists read this
A good point that media outlets misreport this story if they give agency to the AI Grok itself - which generates contradictory statenents whenever prompted to do so
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
Grok Can't Apologize. Grok Isn't Sentient. So Why Do Headlines Keep Saying It Did?
Elon Musk’s chatbot has been “undressing” women and children in public. Journalists are letting xAI off the hook by pretending the bot is responsible.
www.readtpa.com
January 2, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Please journalists read this
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
A piece on the research trying to fill the very, very large gap between life-support systems and terraforming www.economist.com/science-and-...
January 1, 2026 at 2:44 PM
A piece on the research trying to fill the very, very large gap between life-support systems and terraforming www.economist.com/science-and-...
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
The earliest confirmed evidence of an adult cremation pyre has been discovered in Malawi! 🔥
theconversation.com/oldest-known...
theconversation.com/oldest-known...
Oldest known cremation in Africa poses 9,500-year-old mystery about Stone Age hunter-gatherers
An ancient cremation would have been a community spectacle in a place returned to and reignited over many generations. What was behind this unexpected funeral ritual?
theconversation.com
January 1, 2026 at 10:19 PM
The earliest confirmed evidence of an adult cremation pyre has been discovered in Malawi! 🔥
theconversation.com/oldest-known...
theconversation.com/oldest-known...
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
(I posted this online some 10 years ago and was reminded of it by one of these irritating algorithms, but nonetheless... still amusing)
December 28, 2025 at 9:04 PM
(I posted this online some 10 years ago and was reminded of it by one of these irritating algorithms, but nonetheless... still amusing)
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
The Sundiver mission will show how thin solar sails could accelerate spacecraft to the Sun’s focus, beyond the Solar System. https://scim.ag/4pUlnmf
Sun’s gravitational lens could reveal alien planets’ surfaces
Bold concept calls for sending telescopes 10 times farther than Pluto
scim.ag
December 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM
The Sundiver mission will show how thin solar sails could accelerate spacecraft to the Sun’s focus, beyond the Solar System. https://scim.ag/4pUlnmf
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
For @rollingstone.com I wrote about the mass national movement to ban chemtrails...which don't exist. The movement is one of the ways in which MAHA is taking over the country.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Chemtrails Aren't Real. So Why Are Politicians Passing Laws About Them?
The history and politics of so-called weather weapons.
www.rollingstone.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:13 PM
For @rollingstone.com I wrote about the mass national movement to ban chemtrails...which don't exist. The movement is one of the ways in which MAHA is taking over the country.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
Here’s the highest-quality upload of the 60 minutes CECOT segment I’ve found so far:
www.dailymotion.com/video/x9w8gyi
www.dailymotion.com/video/x9w8gyi
Banned 60 minutes segment on CECOT
Dailymotion video by fond_.mhb423
www.dailymotion.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Here’s the highest-quality upload of the 60 minutes CECOT segment I’ve found so far:
www.dailymotion.com/video/x9w8gyi
www.dailymotion.com/video/x9w8gyi
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
In the 1960s, a group of New Jersey teenagers helped make computing personal...
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
The RESISTORS: Teen Hackers Who Saw and Lived the Future of Computing
In the 1960s, before PCs and the Internet were a thing, the RESISTORS were O.G. computer hackers, learning to code on old mainframes in a New Jersey barn.
spectrum.ieee.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:35 PM
In the 1960s, a group of New Jersey teenagers helped make computing personal...
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
(An excerpt from my new book in IEEE Spectrum)
spectrum.ieee.org/teenage-hack...
#HistSci #computing #History 🗃️
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
On this darkest solstice day of the year, my heart has dimmed, waking up to learn of the loss of dear colleague and mentor, Yannick Mellier. Yannick will be known to most as the lead of the amazing Euclid Space Telescope which will revolutionise our understanding of the Dark Universe 🧵🔭
![This square astronomical image shows thousands of galaxies across the black expanse of space. The closest thousand or so galaxies belong to the Perseus Cluster. The most prominent members of the cluster are visible in the centre of the image and appear as large galaxies with haloes around them in yellow/white, comparable to streetlamps in a foggy night. The background of this image is scattered with a hundred thousand more distant galaxies of different shapes, ranging in colour from white to yellow to red. Most galaxies are so far away they appear as single points of light. The more distant a galaxy is, the redder it appears.]
CREDIT
ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ok3ms3dzop7gcwejp7lswhpi/bafkreiaukh5rfzzy4i242zdeoibuspehm6tmksbv3mfgk7yxcbk6fbtnv4@jpeg)
December 21, 2025 at 8:45 AM
On this darkest solstice day of the year, my heart has dimmed, waking up to learn of the loss of dear colleague and mentor, Yannick Mellier. Yannick will be known to most as the lead of the amazing Euclid Space Telescope which will revolutionise our understanding of the Dark Universe 🧵🔭
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
Scientists have 3D printed a Christmas tree out of ice, showing off a technique that could find practical applications in areas such as tissue engineering.
Tree-D printing for Christmas
Watch how this Christmas ornament was 3D printed using supercooled water
www.chemistryworld.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Scientists have 3D printed a Christmas tree out of ice, showing off a technique that could find practical applications in areas such as tissue engineering.
This is interesting ... I don't receive @cern.bsky.social 's press releases anymore, perhaps because I reported on many physicists' opposition to this project
Wow. CERN has secured a promise of $1 billion (!) towards its planned Future Circular Collider from private donors (such as the Breakthrough Prize Foundation & Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund) - the first such donation for CERN, which has until now been taxpayer funded home.cern/news/press-r...
🧪⚛️
🧪⚛️
Private donors pledge 860 million euros for CERN’s Future Circular Collider
For the first time in CERN’s history, private donors (individuals and philanthropic foundations) have agreed to support a CERN flagship research project. Recently, a group of friends of CERN, includin...
home.cern
December 18, 2025 at 5:36 PM
This is interesting ... I don't receive @cern.bsky.social 's press releases anymore, perhaps because I reported on many physicists' opposition to this project
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
Here's our reporting on the proposed dismantling of the jewel of US atmospheric science, @ncar-ucar.bsky.social.
The plan is to break NCAR apart and disburse some parts to other locations (like the research aircraft fleet) and eliminate others.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🧪 #AGU25 #climate
The plan is to break NCAR apart and disburse some parts to other locations (like the research aircraft fleet) and eliminate others.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🧪 #AGU25 #climate
Trump team plans to break up ‘global mothership’ of climate science
Much of the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s non-climate portfolio will be dispersed, the White House says.
www.nature.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Here's our reporting on the proposed dismantling of the jewel of US atmospheric science, @ncar-ucar.bsky.social.
The plan is to break NCAR apart and disburse some parts to other locations (like the research aircraft fleet) and eliminate others.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🧪 #AGU25 #climate
The plan is to break NCAR apart and disburse some parts to other locations (like the research aircraft fleet) and eliminate others.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
🧪 #AGU25 #climate
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
Seems to be a losing battle to make people understand that Wheeler's "It from Bit" does not mean "reality is made of information" (it was about defending an epistemic view of quantum mechanics, where the wave function isn't real, only measurement outcomes are), and likewise...
December 15, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Seems to be a losing battle to make people understand that Wheeler's "It from Bit" does not mean "reality is made of information" (it was about defending an epistemic view of quantum mechanics, where the wave function isn't real, only measurement outcomes are), and likewise...
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
"They needed less than $20 mil to fund lifesaving health programs, including cholera response efforts, for 3 months — an eighth of what Trump recently approved to buy private jets for one cabinet secretary."
Awful, important story by @annamaria.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/usai...
Awful, important story by @annamaria.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/usai...
Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.
Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a re...
www.propublica.org
December 15, 2025 at 5:46 PM
"They needed less than $20 mil to fund lifesaving health programs, including cholera response efforts, for 3 months — an eighth of what Trump recently approved to buy private jets for one cabinet secretary."
Awful, important story by @annamaria.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/usai...
Awful, important story by @annamaria.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/usai...
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
In addition to duct tape innovation, collaboration is key to the MacGyver spirit, session organizers say. The ethos is less do-it-yourself and more do-it-together. 🧪 eos.org/articles/cel...
Celebrating the MacGyver Spirit: Hacking, Tinkering, Scavenging, and Crowdsourcing - Eos
The MacGyver sessions allow scientist-tinkerers to have “nerd-on-nerd” discussions about do-it-yourself gadgets and gizmos.
eos.org
December 9, 2025 at 1:27 PM
In addition to duct tape innovation, collaboration is key to the MacGyver spirit, session organizers say. The ethos is less do-it-yourself and more do-it-together. 🧪 eos.org/articles/cel...
The uncritical reverence policymakers (including, it pains me to say, Obama) and journalists have always given to Daniel Yergin and Vaclav Smil will never cease to puzzle me
ML: "Dan Yergin wrote a piece called the Troubled Transition, saying that clean energy is only additive. The core and the fundament of the energy system is and always will be fossil. Is he right?"
Lord Browne: "No. It's not right."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8e...
Lord Browne: "No. It's not right."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8e...
Gaming Out The End Of The Fossil Fuel Era | Ep237: Lord John Browne
YouTube video by Cleaning Up Podcast
www.youtube.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:49 AM
The uncritical reverence policymakers (including, it pains me to say, Obama) and journalists have always given to Daniel Yergin and Vaclav Smil will never cease to puzzle me
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
ICE snatched a human rights hero.
Guan Heng risked his life to capture video of Uyghur concentration camps. After escaping to the U.S., Guan was in hiding for years, not knowing his work had been crucial to substantiating China's mass detention practices.
On Monday, he has an asylum hearing in NY.
Guan Heng risked his life to capture video of Uyghur concentration camps. After escaping to the U.S., Guan was in hiding for years, not knowing his work had been crucial to substantiating China's mass detention practices.
On Monday, he has an asylum hearing in NY.
Our ex-BuzzFeed team has provided a testimonial to the immigration court about the value of Guan's work and his incredible bravery. I hope that this man - who I am in absolute awe of - is granted the asylum he needs and deserves. You can read more here: hrichina.substack.com/p/man-who-fi...
Man who filmed Uyghur concentration camps now fights for his own freedom in the United States
In 2020, Guan Heng embarked on a risky mission to prove the existence of concentration camp facilities used to imprison Uyghurs. Now, he faces the threat of deportation back to China, where he would f...
hrichina.substack.com
December 14, 2025 at 2:29 AM
ICE snatched a human rights hero.
Guan Heng risked his life to capture video of Uyghur concentration camps. After escaping to the U.S., Guan was in hiding for years, not knowing his work had been crucial to substantiating China's mass detention practices.
On Monday, he has an asylum hearing in NY.
Guan Heng risked his life to capture video of Uyghur concentration camps. After escaping to the U.S., Guan was in hiding for years, not knowing his work had been crucial to substantiating China's mass detention practices.
On Monday, he has an asylum hearing in NY.
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
No surprise: new analysis shows that heat pumps can deliver excellent performance even in older buildings with no meaningful correlation between building age & heat pump efficiency.
This is in line with my own experience of having a heat pump in a 1880 Victorian home with only modest insulation.
This is in line with my own experience of having a heat pump in a 1880 Victorian home with only modest insulation.
December 13, 2025 at 10:21 AM
No surprise: new analysis shows that heat pumps can deliver excellent performance even in older buildings with no meaningful correlation between building age & heat pump efficiency.
This is in line with my own experience of having a heat pump in a 1880 Victorian home with only modest insulation.
This is in line with my own experience of having a heat pump in a 1880 Victorian home with only modest insulation.
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
$170,000 a minute: Why Saudi Arabia is the biggest blocker of climate action
The desert kingdom depends on oil dollars but its people already face a climate ‘at the verge of livability’. What’s going on?
#COP30 #climatecrisis
Story by me
1/7
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
The desert kingdom depends on oil dollars but its people already face a climate ‘at the verge of livability’. What’s going on?
#COP30 #climatecrisis
Story by me
1/7
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
$170,000 a minute: why Saudi Arabia is the biggest blocker of climate action
Desert kingdom depends on oil dollars but its people already face a climate ‘at the verge of livability’. What’s going on?
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 12:34 PM
$170,000 a minute: Why Saudi Arabia is the biggest blocker of climate action
The desert kingdom depends on oil dollars but its people already face a climate ‘at the verge of livability’. What’s going on?
#COP30 #climatecrisis
Story by me
1/7
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
The desert kingdom depends on oil dollars but its people already face a climate ‘at the verge of livability’. What’s going on?
#COP30 #climatecrisis
Story by me
1/7
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Reposted by Davide Castelvecchi
🚨 NEW: We’ve dug into the people behind the far-right research unit we exposed last month, and the picture is grim.
This follow-up uncovers the extreme histories of the individuals building a database of progressives across the UK.
hopenothate.org.uk/2025/12/04/r...
This follow-up uncovers the extreme histories of the individuals building a database of progressives across the UK.
hopenothate.org.uk/2025/12/04/r...
REVEALED: The Figures Behind The Far Right’s New Research Unit – HOPE not hate
HOPE not hate shines a light on the figures behind a new far-right research unit that has progressive activists in its sights Warning: This blog...
hopenothate.org.uk
December 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
🚨 NEW: We’ve dug into the people behind the far-right research unit we exposed last month, and the picture is grim.
This follow-up uncovers the extreme histories of the individuals building a database of progressives across the UK.
hopenothate.org.uk/2025/12/04/r...
This follow-up uncovers the extreme histories of the individuals building a database of progressives across the UK.
hopenothate.org.uk/2025/12/04/r...