Katie Fleeman
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fleemanator.bsky.social
Katie Fleeman
@fleemanator.bsky.social
Audience engagement at @knowablemag.bsky.social, Katina Magazine, @chashub.bsky.social and the @annualreviews.bsky.social group | Cat mom to the Little Ray
“These outages are an opportunity for libraries to remind their communities—whether academic or local—that when the internet goes dark, the physical library remains a bedrock of information access.” | via Katina Magazine @chashub.bsky.social
What Can You Do When the Digital Key Won’t Turn? Visit a Library.
Recent outages of Amazon Web Services and Cloudflare are a stark illustration of our digital vulnerabilities. They are also an opportunity for libraries to remind users of their resilience.
katinamagazine.org
December 23, 2025 at 6:07 PM
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December 22, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
A few months ago I worked with
@adance.bsky.social to create a science comic for @knowablemag.bsky.social about the journey sperm makes to reach the egg. Little did I know that that this would involve me being immortalised in cartoon form. Check it out .... knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...
Journey to the egg: How sperm navigate the path to fertilization
COMIC: Male cells must survive twisty passages, strong currents and immune attacks; millions enter, but only one can finish
knowablemagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
An important story from @richardastone.bsky.social -- thanks to the @pulitzercenter.org for supporting his reporting and for highlighting the article in this year's picks.
For her 2025 #PulitzerStaffPicks, Alexandra Waddell, Digital Content Coordinator & Research Assistant at the Pulitzer Center, selected "The Pernicious Infections Infiltrating Ukraine’s Front Lines," by @richardastone.bsky.social for @knowablemag.bsky.social.

👉 bit.ly/YIStories25
December 22, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
For her 2025 #PulitzerStaffPicks, Alexandra Waddell, Digital Content Coordinator & Research Assistant at the Pulitzer Center, selected "The Pernicious Infections Infiltrating Ukraine’s Front Lines," by @richardastone.bsky.social for @knowablemag.bsky.social.

👉 bit.ly/YIStories25
December 19, 2025 at 10:16 PM
“For the study’s authors, and experts who have reviewed the research, the findings confirm that not only are influencers now potentially more powerful than traditional media, but content creators who rarely share political content may be the most powerful of all.” via @Wired.com
The Most Powerful Politics Influencers Barely Post About Politics
New research shows that social media creators have enormous influence over their audiences' politics—especially those who don't normally share political content.
www.wired.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:44 PM
“Across the world... managers and local communities are working together to find and protect similar climate change refugia that can provide pockets of stability for local species as the planet warms.” via @us.theconversation.com
Where the wild things thrive: Finding and protecting nature’s climate change safe havens
Protecting places that are likely to remain cool and moist as global temperatures rise can save wildlife of all kinds, but first we have to find them.
theconversation.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Absolutely obsessed with this "combing" contraption, which measures the force required to run a comb through hair. Tho it looks like a little hair guillotine to me.

From “The science of green hair care”, via @knowablemag.bsky.social: knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...
December 19, 2025 at 12:04 AM
“The problem of high energy prices is not new, but it is urgent. And it comes at a time when the U.S. is deeply divided on its approaches to energy policy and the politics of solving collective problems.” | via @us.theconversation.com theconversation.com/rising-elect...
Rising electricity prices and an aging grid challenge the nation as data centers demand more power
Energy projects are expensive and take a long time to build. Where to build them is often also a difficult, even controversial, question.
theconversation.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:44 PM
“Like the baobab sustains life, libraries sustain community knowledge across generations, preserving equitable access to knowledge as scholarly communication systems develop and evolve.” | Andiswa Mfengu via Katina Magazine @chashub.bsky.social

katinamagazine.org/content/arti...
How Libraries Can Help Deliver on the Promise of Knowledge as a Public Good
Libraries have a crucial role to play in advancing social justice and equity in the creation and sharing of knowledge. The University of Cape Town Libraries show us one path forward.
katinamagazine.org
December 18, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
Algunas criaturas que comen especies que contienen toxinas mortales han desarrollado una serie de estrategias inteligentes para mantenerse a salvo.

📝 Conozca más en nuestro reportaje publicado por La Nación.
La increíble guerra evolutiva: cómo animales sobreviven a toxinas mortales
Descubra cómo serpientes, insectos y ardillas desarrollan defensas genéticas y de comportamiento para contrarrestar venenos letales de sus presas o depredadores.
knowmag.org
December 18, 2025 at 1:01 AM
”By better understanding clouds, researchers hope to improve their predictions of extreme rainfall, especially in the tropics where some of the most ferocious thunderstorms hit and where future rainfall projections are the most uncertain.” | Clare Watson via @KnowableMag.bsky.social
When clouds flock together
Scientists are discovering that clumping clouds supercharge storms in surprising ways — driving heavy, deadly rainfall and flooding
knowablemagazine.org
December 18, 2025 at 12:04 AM
“Most clothes start their lives deep in the ground, either as seeds of cotton or in the nearly 342 million barrels of crude oil that go into the making of synthetic fabrics every year. Most of the problems start with one of these two origin stories.” | via The Nation
What Your Cheap Clothes Cost the Planet
A global supply chain built for speed is leaving behind waste, toxins, and a trail of environmental wreckage.
www.thenation.com
December 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
“We found that reducing exposure to polarizing content measurably improved participants’ feelings toward people from the opposing party and reduced their negative emotions while scrolling their feed.“

via @us.theconversation.com

theconversation.com/down-ranking...
Down-ranking polarizing content lowers emotional temperature on social media – new research
A new tool lets researchers get a handle on how social media algorithms affect emotions and polarization.
theconversation.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
🚀 At Knowable Magazine, we translate complex research into stories that everyone can understand — no paywalls, no ads. Help us keep science accessible to all.

knowmag.org/donate
December 9, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
ICYMI, an article I wrote for the fantastic online magazine Knowable earlier this year.
December 16, 2025 at 11:56 PM
“It was the first time I’d experienced my brain wanting to ask ChatGPT to do cognition that I could just do myself.” | The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI via The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI
Rise of the LLeMmings
www.theatlantic.com
December 17, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Three years on, and this video is still resonating: @knowablemag.bsky.social''s “Long Covid: A parallel pandemic” accrued over 22,000 views this year, totaling over 2,100 watch hours.

📽️ Watch now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lfG...
Long Covid: A parallel pandemic
Many people may never be able to put the pandemic behind them. They have long Covid, a catch-all term for illness that lingers long after a Covid-19 infection. More than 200 symptoms have been…
www.youtube.com
December 16, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
“Fabric-folding robots are still science fiction, but new advances in training robotic arms are really attempting to overcome this infamously difficult-to-automate household chore of machine laundry folding.”

Thanks for the shoutout, Numlock News!
Numlock News: December 11, 2025 • Broadway, Cherries, Nautilus
By Walt Hickey
knowmag.org
December 16, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
Folks, if you read one comic today, I hope it's this story about sperm as portrayed by your D&D party.

Written by Amber Dance and edited by @eva-emerson.bsky.social
Journey to the egg: How sperm navigate the path to fertilization
COMIC: Male cells must survive twisty passages, strong currents and immune attacks; millions enter, but only one can finish
knowablemagazine.org
December 10, 2025 at 12:29 AM
OK, confession -- ever since learning how Marie Kondo folds clothes, folding laundry is actually a chore I enjoy.

Now, if the robots could handwash my dishes...
Robots still struggle with the unpredictable ways that fabric crumples and creases. But newer approaches offer the hope of better robotic household help. ✍️ Kaia Glickman

knowmag.org/48Hwl6Y
December 16, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
Robots still struggle with the unpredictable ways that fabric crumples and creases. But newer approaches offer the hope of better robotic household help. ✍️ Kaia Glickman

knowmag.org/48Hwl6Y
December 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
It’s not an open-and-shut case. But researchers are finding out plenty by genetically altering the numbers of these openings, as well as simulating future atmospheres, and more.

📝 Learn more about this in our recent article republished by The Wire.
Can Tinkering With Plant Pores Protect Crops Against Drought?
It’s not an open-and-shut case. But researchers are finding out plenty by genetically altering the numbers of these openings, as well as simulating future atmospheres, and more.
knowmag.org
December 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
#ResourceReview: Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender is a collection of primary source documents concerning the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender, primarily in the US | via Katina Magazine katinamagazine.org/content/arti...
December 16, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Katie Fleeman
Put it this way... if every one of our Bluesky followers donated just $10, we'd fly past our goal! secure.qgiv.com/for/knowable...
Ohhhh, we're halfway there! @knowablemag.bsky.social has passed the 50% mark for our end-of-year fundraising 🎉

We still have about $12,000 to go. If you value smart, fact-based science -- and getting that science to everyone, anywhere, for free -- then please consider making an end-of-year gift.
Help Knowable Magazine raise $25,000 | Give today!
Help Knowable Magazine raise $25,000 | Give today!
secure.qgiv.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM