Greg Egan
@gregegansf.bsky.social
SF writer / computer programmer
Latest novel: MORPHOTROPHIC
Latest collection: SLEEP AND THE SOUL
Web site: http://gregegan.net
Also: @gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz
Latest novel: MORPHOTROPHIC
Latest collection: SLEEP AND THE SOUL
Web site: http://gregegan.net
Also: @gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz
Pinned
Greg Egan
@gregegansf.bsky.social
· Nov 25
My new novel MORPHOTROPHIC is available now!
You can read the first two chapters here:
www.gregegan.net/MORPHOTROPHI...
You can read the first two chapters here:
www.gregegan.net/MORPHOTROPHI...
Reposted by Greg Egan
There is a lot of fuss today over whether chatbots can replace human participants in social sciences research when the solution is obvious: ask chatbots to simulate the views of social scientists and survey them on attitudes towards chatbots as substitutes for human subjects.
November 10, 2025 at 10:45 PM
There is a lot of fuss today over whether chatbots can replace human participants in social sciences research when the solution is obvious: ask chatbots to simulate the views of social scientists and survey them on attitudes towards chatbots as substitutes for human subjects.
Every parallelogram that you draw around an ellipse whose sides are tangent to the ellipse at their midpoints has the same area for a given ellipse: 4 a b, where a and b are the semi-axes of the ellipse.
November 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Every parallelogram that you draw around an ellipse whose sides are tangent to the ellipse at their midpoints has the same area for a given ellipse: 4 a b, where a and b are the semi-axes of the ellipse.
Reposted by Greg Egan
Think Weirder: the Year’s Best Science Fiction Ideas, Volume 1, is now on sale. It’s billed as the year’s “sixteen best concept-driven, near-future ideas about people interacting with technology.”
thinkweirder.com
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🛸
#thinkweirder #sciencefiction #shortstories
thinkweirder.com
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🛸
#thinkweirder #sciencefiction #shortstories
Think Weirder: The Year's Best Science Fiction Ideas
The sixteen best concept-driven, near-future science fiction stories of the year. Curated from hundreds of stories published in major magazines. Coming October 2025.
thinkweirder.com
November 2, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Think Weirder: the Year’s Best Science Fiction Ideas, Volume 1, is now on sale. It’s billed as the year’s “sixteen best concept-driven, near-future ideas about people interacting with technology.”
thinkweirder.com
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🛸
#thinkweirder #sciencefiction #shortstories
thinkweirder.com
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🛸
#thinkweirder #sciencefiction #shortstories
Reposted by Greg Egan
Astounding stream of stars caught escaping from nearby galaxy
The Vera Rubin Observatory's "First Look" observations weren't meant for science.
And yet, it revealed a surprising new stellar stream, 160,000 light-years long, escaping from a nearby galaxy.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro
The Vera Rubin Observatory's "First Look" observations weren't meant for science.
And yet, it revealed a surprising new stellar stream, 160,000 light-years long, escaping from a nearby galaxy.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro
Astounding stream of stars caught escaping from nearby galaxy
Stellar streams are faint trails of stars that appear to "stream" out of galaxies. A new one, escaping galaxy M61, may point to many others.
bigthink.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Astounding stream of stars caught escaping from nearby galaxy
The Vera Rubin Observatory's "First Look" observations weren't meant for science.
And yet, it revealed a surprising new stellar stream, 160,000 light-years long, escaping from a nearby galaxy.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro
The Vera Rubin Observatory's "First Look" observations weren't meant for science.
And yet, it revealed a surprising new stellar stream, 160,000 light-years long, escaping from a nearby galaxy.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro
Reposted by Greg Egan
My latest — this was a collective effort with colleagues Xiaoying You, @marilenharo.bsky.social, MohanaBasu, Jeff Tollefson, and @celestebiever.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How to fight climate change without the US: a guide to global action
With the US government absent from the COP30 global climate summit, it will be up to others to avert catastrophe.
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:41 AM
My latest — this was a collective effort with colleagues Xiaoying You, @marilenharo.bsky.social, MohanaBasu, Jeff Tollefson, and @celestebiever.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
It’s old news that most screenwriters are clueless about scientists and mathematicians, but you’d hope they'd be a *little* more familiar with what makes a good humanities student.
“Down Cemetery Road”: “She was brilliant! She memorised The Wasteland, including the footnotes!”
“Down Cemetery Road”: “She was brilliant! She memorised The Wasteland, including the footnotes!”
November 4, 2025 at 5:55 AM
It’s old news that most screenwriters are clueless about scientists and mathematicians, but you’d hope they'd be a *little* more familiar with what makes a good humanities student.
“Down Cemetery Road”: “She was brilliant! She memorised The Wasteland, including the footnotes!”
“Down Cemetery Road”: “She was brilliant! She memorised The Wasteland, including the footnotes!”
“It’s normal to have something presented to you and be told that this thing is the future. What’s different, of course, is that in contrast to computers and the internet, AGI doesn’t exist.”
www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time
The idea that machines will be as smart as—or smarter than—humans has hijacked an entire industry. But look closely and you’ll see it’s a myth that persists for many of the same reasons conspiracies d...
www.technologyreview.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:20 PM
“It’s normal to have something presented to you and be told that this thing is the future. What’s different, of course, is that in contrast to computers and the internet, AGI doesn’t exist.”
www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
It’s nice that an expert on aerosols has won the 2025 Prime Minister's Prize for Science … but the govt still can’t be bothered acting on her expertise.
"The reality is that there are no regulations for indoor air quality," she said.
www.abc.net.au/news/science...
"The reality is that there are no regulations for indoor air quality," she said.
www.abc.net.au/news/science...
World expert in air quality and COVID wins Australia's top science prize
Lidia Morawska, an internationally renowned expert in air quality and its impact on human health, has won Australia's most coveted prize for scientific research.
www.abc.net.au
November 3, 2025 at 12:42 PM
It’s nice that an expert on aerosols has won the 2025 Prime Minister's Prize for Science … but the govt still can’t be bothered acting on her expertise.
"The reality is that there are no regulations for indoor air quality," she said.
www.abc.net.au/news/science...
"The reality is that there are no regulations for indoor air quality," she said.
www.abc.net.au/news/science...
Most people know how to draw an ellipse by pinning two ends of a string to a board and sweeping a pencil around inside the string, keeping it taut.
But what about the 3D equivalent?
Start with an ellipse and a hyperbola in orthogonal planes, with each curve’s vertices being the other’s foci.
But what about the 3D equivalent?
Start with an ellipse and a hyperbola in orthogonal planes, with each curve’s vertices being the other’s foci.
October 31, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Most people know how to draw an ellipse by pinning two ends of a string to a board and sweeping a pencil around inside the string, keeping it taut.
But what about the 3D equivalent?
Start with an ellipse and a hyperbola in orthogonal planes, with each curve’s vertices being the other’s foci.
But what about the 3D equivalent?
Start with an ellipse and a hyperbola in orthogonal planes, with each curve’s vertices being the other’s foci.
Reposted by Greg Egan
Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.
FL is moving forward w/ plan to end all childhood vaccine mandates. Starting with hepatitis B, chickenpox, and the bacteria causing meningitis and pneumonia. Then next year GOP FL legislature is expected to revisit 1977 law re: whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus.
October 31, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Can't overstate how fucked up it is that unraveling what is arguably the greatest achievement in the history of humanity is now a motivating issue of one of the two dominant parties in the U.S.
Reposted by Greg Egan
Come and listen to me blabber for a few hours about light scattering!
The first lecturer of #PLASMONICAschool2026 will be @jacopobertolotti.com from University of Exeter (UK). He is an expert of imaging through scattering media 👓 and optical computing 💻 and will teach us the fundamentals of optical wave scattering from single particles and in diffusive media 🥛.
October 30, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Come and listen to me blabber for a few hours about light scattering!
Reposted by Greg Egan
Today in PASA we published a new image of our Milky Way at low radio frequencies, in unprecedented colour and detail. Here's just a tiny piece of it -- the whole thing is ten times bigger!
We're seeing high energy electrons whirl around cosmic magnetic fields from exploded stars, and more!
We're seeing high energy electrons whirl around cosmic magnetic fields from exploded stars, and more!
October 29, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Today in PASA we published a new image of our Milky Way at low radio frequencies, in unprecedented colour and detail. Here's just a tiny piece of it -- the whole thing is ten times bigger!
We're seeing high energy electrons whirl around cosmic magnetic fields from exploded stars, and more!
We're seeing high energy electrons whirl around cosmic magnetic fields from exploded stars, and more!
Reposted by Greg Egan
Sometimes you just need to escape for a little while. Short stories are great for that.
Visitors welcome. Subscriptions are good too.
clarkesworldmagazine.com
Visitors welcome. Subscriptions are good too.
clarkesworldmagazine.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Sometimes you just need to escape for a little while. Short stories are great for that.
Visitors welcome. Subscriptions are good too.
clarkesworldmagazine.com
Visitors welcome. Subscriptions are good too.
clarkesworldmagazine.com
Just a timely reminder of this great paper from @profabelmendez.bsky.social :
“We report the detection of narrowband signals (10 kHz) near the hydrogen line similar to the Wow! Signal [...] these signals are easily identifiable as small interstellar clouds of cold hydrogen (HI) in the galaxy.”
“We report the detection of narrowband signals (10 kHz) near the hydrogen line similar to the Wow! Signal [...] these signals are easily identifiable as small interstellar clouds of cold hydrogen (HI) in the galaxy.”
Arecibo Wow! I: An Astrophysical Explanation for the Wow! Signal
The Ohio State University Big Ear radio telescope detected in 1977 the Wow! Signal, one of the most famous and intriguing signals of extraterrestrial origin. Characterized by its strong relative inten...
arxiv.org
October 28, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Just a timely reminder of this great paper from @profabelmendez.bsky.social :
“We report the detection of narrowband signals (10 kHz) near the hydrogen line similar to the Wow! Signal [...] these signals are easily identifiable as small interstellar clouds of cold hydrogen (HI) in the galaxy.”
“We report the detection of narrowband signals (10 kHz) near the hydrogen line similar to the Wow! Signal [...] these signals are easily identifiable as small interstellar clouds of cold hydrogen (HI) in the galaxy.”
Reposted by Greg Egan
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 10:46 AM
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
“The grand mental panorama that was thus created was so intoxicating that those who followed Poincaré were not to recover from its pursuit.”
— S. Chandrasekhar, in “Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium”, on the “fission theory” of double stars that turned out to be misconceived.
— S. Chandrasekhar, in “Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium”, on the “fission theory” of double stars that turned out to be misconceived.
October 28, 2025 at 11:34 AM
“The grand mental panorama that was thus created was so intoxicating that those who followed Poincaré were not to recover from its pursuit.”
— S. Chandrasekhar, in “Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium”, on the “fission theory” of double stars that turned out to be misconceived.
— S. Chandrasekhar, in “Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium”, on the “fission theory” of double stars that turned out to be misconceived.
Reposted by Greg Egan
Weirdly ~15 years ago @gregegansf.bsky.social wrote a novel where one of the characters (working in the same building at MIT where @jmrko.bsky.social was a postdoc) solves the zebra finch connectome only to have their funding cut by congress… luckily we are in an ever so slightly different timeline
October 28, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Weirdly ~15 years ago @gregegansf.bsky.social wrote a novel where one of the characters (working in the same building at MIT where @jmrko.bsky.social was a postdoc) solves the zebra finch connectome only to have their funding cut by congress… luckily we are in an ever so slightly different timeline
Reposted by Greg Egan
This story reminded me of the magazine Quantum, a godsend for me, rural high school hick who loved math and physics. It turns out the issues are all online www.nsta.org/quantum-maga...
October 28, 2025 at 3:44 AM
This story reminded me of the magazine Quantum, a godsend for me, rural high school hick who loved math and physics. It turns out the issues are all online www.nsta.org/quantum-maga...
The NO JUNK MAIL sign on my letter box is mostly respected, so I don’t get much paper advertising these days, but I was amused when a parcel from an American 2nd-hand bookseller arrived with my purchases … plus a Doordash coupon and a flyer from a U.S. burial insurance company.
October 28, 2025 at 3:21 AM
The NO JUNK MAIL sign on my letter box is mostly respected, so I don’t get much paper advertising these days, but I was amused when a parcel from an American 2nd-hand bookseller arrived with my purchases … plus a Doordash coupon and a flyer from a U.S. burial insurance company.
Reposted by Greg Egan
Screensnapshot of our times. Corporate pressure to use AI creates bad outcomes with real-life consequences; seeking to unpack the problem yields more pressure to indulge in the very thing causing the problem.
October 26, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Screensnapshot of our times. Corporate pressure to use AI creates bad outcomes with real-life consequences; seeking to unpack the problem yields more pressure to indulge in the very thing causing the problem.
Oh, just a caterpillar that keeps all the husks it shed from its head when it was smaller as a kind of elaborate hat … because why wouldn’t you?
Congratulations to Georgina Steytler, who just won a wildlife photography award for this extraordinary image!
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Congratulations to Georgina Steytler, who just won a wildlife photography award for this extraordinary image!
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
October 26, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Oh, just a caterpillar that keeps all the husks it shed from its head when it was smaller as a kind of elaborate hat … because why wouldn’t you?
Congratulations to Georgina Steytler, who just won a wildlife photography award for this extraordinary image!
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Congratulations to Georgina Steytler, who just won a wildlife photography award for this extraordinary image!
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
We need an episode of “Mad Men” where Don Draper is still working in 2025, and tops his career with the slogan: “LLMs, baby! For when you really don’t give a fuck what’s true.”
October 25, 2025 at 11:00 PM
We need an episode of “Mad Men” where Don Draper is still working in 2025, and tops his career with the slogan: “LLMs, baby! For when you really don’t give a fuck what’s true.”
“House of Dynamite” is a tense and effective reminder that we’re still living with the same insanity as when “Dr. Strangelove” hit the screens 61 years ago, this time with no dark humour to soften the blow.
October 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
“House of Dynamite” is a tense and effective reminder that we’re still living with the same insanity as when “Dr. Strangelove” hit the screens 61 years ago, this time with no dark humour to soften the blow.
My story “Death and the Gorgon” was voted best novella of 2024 by the readers of Asimov’s SF. You can read it online at the link below.
I also have a new novella in the Nov 2025 issue of Asimov’s, “Spare Parts for the Mind”, and they have an excerpt from that on their web site.
I also have a new novella in the Nov 2025 issue of Asimov’s, “Spare Parts for the Mind”, and they have an excerpt from that on their web site.
October 25, 2025 at 12:15 PM
My story “Death and the Gorgon” was voted best novella of 2024 by the readers of Asimov’s SF. You can read it online at the link below.
I also have a new novella in the Nov 2025 issue of Asimov’s, “Spare Parts for the Mind”, and they have an excerpt from that on their web site.
I also have a new novella in the Nov 2025 issue of Asimov’s, “Spare Parts for the Mind”, and they have an excerpt from that on their web site.
Reposted by Greg Egan
Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
apache.be
October 24, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...