Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social
Hi! I write about #science for Smithsonian, Discover, Quanta, Nautilus, Undark, National Geographic, CBC Radio, & many other outlets. Books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time. Co-host of BookLab podcast. 🔭🪐⭐️⚛️
Pinned
Building Chaplin Station on Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown LRT -- five years in two minutes
YouTube video by danfalkscience
youtu.be
I took a photo of the gradually-emerging Chaplin Station, on Toronto's Crosstown LRT (Line 5), every month for five years. Enjoy! #Toronto #transit #timelapse youtu.be/Qmi5Y_N0F3E?...
Six months from today, lucky folks in Iceland and Span will get to see a total solar #eclipse! Please enjoy my video, aimed at helping people plan for the big day in August, and also for the *next* eclipse, in 2027! 🌞🌗🌍 :)
youtu.be/99qmRY55iFE?...
youtu.be/99qmRY55iFE?...
Get ready for the total solar eclipses of Aug. 12, 2026 and Aug. 2, 2027!
YouTube video by danfalkscience
youtu.be
February 12, 2026 at 6:54 PM
Six months from today, lucky folks in Iceland and Span will get to see a total solar #eclipse! Please enjoy my video, aimed at helping people plan for the big day in August, and also for the *next* eclipse, in 2027! 🌞🌗🌍 :)
youtu.be/99qmRY55iFE?...
youtu.be/99qmRY55iFE?...
Happy 207th Birthday to Charles Darwin! I've written about CD a bunch, over the years -- including this piece for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social on the legacy of his second major work, "The Descent of Man":
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... #OTD #science #Darwin #DarwinDay
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... #OTD #science #Darwin #DarwinDay
How Darwin's 'Descent of Man' Holds Up 150 Years After Publication
Questions still swirl around the author’s theories about sexual selection and the evolution of minds and morals
www.smithsonianmag.com
February 12, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Happy 207th Birthday to Charles Darwin! I've written about CD a bunch, over the years -- including this piece for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social on the legacy of his second major work, "The Descent of Man":
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... #OTD #science #Darwin #DarwinDay
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... #OTD #science #Darwin #DarwinDay
I took a photo of the gradually-emerging Chaplin Station, on Toronto's Crosstown LRT (Line 5), every month for five years. Enjoy! #Toronto #transit #timelapse youtu.be/Qmi5Y_N0F3E?...
Building Chaplin Station on Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown LRT -- five years in two minutes
YouTube video by danfalkscience
youtu.be
February 9, 2026 at 1:41 AM
I took a photo of the gradually-emerging Chaplin Station, on Toronto's Crosstown LRT (Line 5), every month for five years. Enjoy! #Toronto #transit #timelapse youtu.be/Qmi5Y_N0F3E?...
Informal survey: What do you call this machine? (I’m asking because, apparently, some people call it something different from what I’ve always called it.)
February 8, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Informal survey: What do you call this machine? (I’m asking because, apparently, some people call it something different from what I’ve always called it.)
So apparently there are not only two "h"s but also two "l"s in "ophthalmology." Who knew.
February 7, 2026 at 6:42 PM
So apparently there are not only two "h"s but also two "l"s in "ophthalmology." Who knew.
Hear me out: Since Hamnet and Shogun are both set in (approx) 1600, how about a crossover? HamnetGun, or something to that effect.
February 3, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Hear me out: Since Hamnet and Shogun are both set in (approx) 1600, how about a crossover? HamnetGun, or something to that effect.
1/2 Here is a fun geography fact! The town of Moose Factory, on the shore of James Bay, is about an 18 hour drive north of Toronto. (When you pass Sudbury, you've barely gone 1/3 of the way.) It is, by any reasonable definition, "way up north." (cont'd)
February 1, 2026 at 5:49 PM
1/2 Here is a fun geography fact! The town of Moose Factory, on the shore of James Bay, is about an 18 hour drive north of Toronto. (When you pass Sudbury, you've barely gone 1/3 of the way.) It is, by any reasonable definition, "way up north." (cont'd)
Legendary Canadian actress Catherine O'Hara, who starred in Schitt's Creek, Home Alone, and Beetlejuice, has died at 71. :(
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
Legendary Canadian actress Catherine O'Hara dead at 71 | CBC
www.cbc.ca
January 30, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Legendary Canadian actress Catherine O'Hara, who starred in Schitt's Creek, Home Alone, and Beetlejuice, has died at 71. :(
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
Paul Mescal has played Shakespeare and is about to play Paul McCartney -- if he ends up playing James Bond, he'll have achieved peak British (in spite of being Irish :) )
January 30, 2026 at 4:52 PM
Paul Mescal has played Shakespeare and is about to play Paul McCartney -- if he ends up playing James Bond, he'll have achieved peak British (in spite of being Irish :) )
It's been a privilege to be one of the judges for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary #Science Writing Award competition -- the shortlist was announced yesterday (and each one of these #books is very much worth your time): pen.org/2026-pen-ame... @penamerica.bsky.social
Announcing the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists
PEN America is thrilled to announce the Finalists for the 2026 Literary Awards. Join us for the Ceremony on March 31, 2026!
pen.org
January 30, 2026 at 3:22 PM
It's been a privilege to be one of the judges for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary #Science Writing Award competition -- the shortlist was announced yesterday (and each one of these #books is very much worth your time): pen.org/2026-pen-ame... @penamerica.bsky.social
Reposted by Dan Falk
Re-upping my latest article for @forbes.com - it's about the impending arrival of robotaxis to London, and it features a new survey from @cleancitiescampaign.org that shows Europeans would prefer more (& better) public transport ⚛️🧪👩🔬
Robotaxis Are Coming To Europe, And People Aren’t Sure How To Feel
London looks set to be the first city in Europe to host robotaxis. But a new survey shows that support for robotaxis lags behind support for traditional public transport.
www.forbes.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:22 PM
Re-upping my latest article for @forbes.com - it's about the impending arrival of robotaxis to London, and it features a new survey from @cleancitiescampaign.org that shows Europeans would prefer more (& better) public transport ⚛️🧪👩🔬
Reposted by Dan Falk
First column for Quanta Magazine's new essay section, Qualia.
I take stock of particle physics, a field in crisis. What happened, and what now? Commentary here from many angles.
Please lmk your thoughts, or any tips or topic ideas I should look into. 🙏
www.quantamagazine.org/is-particle-...
I take stock of particle physics, a field in crisis. What happened, and what now? Commentary here from many angles.
Please lmk your thoughts, or any tips or topic ideas I should look into. 🙏
www.quantamagazine.org/is-particle-...
Is Particle Physics Dead, Dying, or Just Hard? | Quanta Magazine
Columnist Natalie Wolchover checks in with particle physicists more than a decade after the field entered a profound crisis.
www.quantamagazine.org
January 27, 2026 at 6:13 PM
First column for Quanta Magazine's new essay section, Qualia.
I take stock of particle physics, a field in crisis. What happened, and what now? Commentary here from many angles.
Please lmk your thoughts, or any tips or topic ideas I should look into. 🙏
www.quantamagazine.org/is-particle-...
I take stock of particle physics, a field in crisis. What happened, and what now? Commentary here from many angles.
Please lmk your thoughts, or any tips or topic ideas I should look into. 🙏
www.quantamagazine.org/is-particle-...
😳
I've updated my megaconstellations list www.planet4589.org/space/con/co... with details of the planned Blue Origin Terawave system and the enormous CTC1 and CTC2 constellations China just filed with the ITU, for a total of almost 750,000 proposed satellites in the years to come.
Jonathan's Space Report | Space Statistics
Jonathan McDowell's new homepage
www.planet4589.org
January 27, 2026 at 3:57 AM
😳
Austrian engineer Curt Herzstark, born #OTD in 1902, is remembered for his invention of the tiny "Curta" portable calculator -- based on an idea that came to him while imprisoned at Buchenwald. I wrote about his remarkable life a while back for @arstechnica.com: arstechnica.com/science/2021...
The hand-cranked calculator invented by a Nazi concentration camp prisoner
For two decades, the Curta was the best portable calculator in the world.
arstechnica.com
January 26, 2026 at 5:21 PM
Austrian engineer Curt Herzstark, born #OTD in 1902, is remembered for his invention of the tiny "Curta" portable calculator -- based on an idea that came to him while imprisoned at Buchenwald. I wrote about his remarkable life a while back for @arstechnica.com: arstechnica.com/science/2021...
"If we conflate the richness of biological brains and human experience with the information-processing machinations of deepfake-boosted chatbots... we do our minds, brains and bodies a grave injustice" -- @anilseth.bsky.social, "The Mythology of Conscious AI":
www.noemamag.com/the-mytholog...
www.noemamag.com/the-mytholog...
The Mythology Of Conscious AI | NOEMA
Why consciousness is more likely a property of life than of computation and why creating conscious, or even conscious-seeming AI, is a bad idea.
www.noemamag.com
January 25, 2026 at 7:08 PM
"If we conflate the richness of biological brains and human experience with the information-processing machinations of deepfake-boosted chatbots... we do our minds, brains and bodies a grave injustice" -- @anilseth.bsky.social, "The Mythology of Conscious AI":
www.noemamag.com/the-mytholog...
www.noemamag.com/the-mytholog...
An excellent talk by @robertjsawyer.com, titled “New Life and New Civilizations: A Science Fiction Perspective on Exobiology,” at Mississauga RASC (at UTM) on Friday evening. 🪐👽🐉
January 24, 2026 at 5:39 AM
An excellent talk by @robertjsawyer.com, titled “New Life and New Civilizations: A Science Fiction Perspective on Exobiology,” at Mississauga RASC (at UTM) on Friday evening. 🪐👽🐉
I’ve asked this before, but perhaps not on this platform: Didn’t tauntauns *evolve* on Hoth?
January 24, 2026 at 5:05 AM
I’ve asked this before, but perhaps not on this platform: Didn’t tauntauns *evolve* on Hoth?
Let’s say you’re a linguist with a time machine. You can go back in time with a small team of colleagues, and some notepads and such. What’s the furthest back you could plausibly go, and (after a period of adjustment) still have a real conversation with the locals?
January 22, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Let’s say you’re a linguist with a time machine. You can go back in time with a small team of colleagues, and some notepads and such. What’s the furthest back you could plausibly go, and (after a period of adjustment) still have a real conversation with the locals?
Enjoying Episode 2 of you know what. 🎸🎶
January 22, 2026 at 5:02 AM
Enjoying Episode 2 of you know what. 🎸🎶
1/3 Enjoying @seanmcarroll.bsky.social's "Mindscape" episode with Ned Block (@neddo.bsky.social). At one point Sean is trying to remember who said that LLMs don't experience the passage of time (a point he strongly agrees with). I don't know who specifically said *that*, but (cont'd)
January 19, 2026 at 5:10 AM
1/3 Enjoying @seanmcarroll.bsky.social's "Mindscape" episode with Ned Block (@neddo.bsky.social). At one point Sean is trying to remember who said that LLMs don't experience the passage of time (a point he strongly agrees with). I don't know who specifically said *that*, but (cont'd)
It’s 2026, so I guess let’s take St. Joseph’s levitations seriously
January 11, 2026 at 6:45 PM
It’s 2026, so I guess let’s take St. Joseph’s levitations seriously
Happy perihelion everyone! www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
What is perihelion? Here's what happens when Earth is nearest to the sun
Here's how the astronomical phenomenon influences our planet—from the length of our seasons to the way Earth moves through space.
www.nationalgeographic.com
January 4, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Happy perihelion everyone! www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
Here’s another snippet from @jjvincent.bsky.social ‘s excellent @harpers.bsky.social feature on humanoid robots:
January 3, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Here’s another snippet from @jjvincent.bsky.social ‘s excellent @harpers.bsky.social feature on humanoid robots:
Reposted by Dan Falk
Dan Falk (@danfalk.bsky.social)'s piece about the Scopes trial, which included comments from yours truly, was among Smithsonian magazine's top ten stories for 2025!
Ten Top Smithsonian Stories of 2025, From Eerie Clay Puppets With Detachable Heads to a New Look at the American Revolution
The magazine’s most-read articles of the year included a deep dive on the Scopes "monkey trial," an interview with award-winning documentarians and a profile of quintuplets who found fame during the G...
www.smithsonianmag.com
January 2, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Dan Falk (@danfalk.bsky.social)'s piece about the Scopes trial, which included comments from yours truly, was among Smithsonian magazine's top ten stories for 2025!
Frozen pond scene, Halifax, NS, a couple of days ago: ( #winter #photography )
January 2, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Frozen pond scene, Halifax, NS, a couple of days ago: ( #winter #photography )