Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
@kpc.bsky.social
Physics Reporter at New Scientist. Author of ENTANGLED STATES, forthcoming from Beacon Press in May 2026. Former teacher. Vegan baker. Aspiring gym rat. Croatian in Queens. Queer.
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
My latest maths column looks at what we actually mean when we use words such as "likely" or "probable". Join me on a trip from the ancient Greeks to the CIA, via Jeremy Bentham www.newscientist.com/article/2510...
Why it’s easy to be misunderstood when talking about probability
Mathematicians rely on numbers, but finding words to explain different levels of certainty has stymied everyone from the ancient Greeks to the most famous modern philosophers. Maths columnist Jacob Ar...
www.newscientist.com
January 12, 2026 at 1:35 PM
My latest maths column looks at what we actually mean when we use words such as "likely" or "probable". Join me on a trip from the ancient Greeks to the CIA, via Jeremy Bentham www.newscientist.com/article/2510...
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
My photos of one of my favorite positive stories from Turkey are on @newscientist.com , masterfully commented by @kpc.bsky.social
#MathSky
#iTeachMaths
#Science
#Türkiye 🇹🇷
#MathSky
#iTeachMaths
#Science
#Türkiye 🇹🇷
The Nesin Mathematics Village in western Turkey was dreamed up by award-winning mathematician Ali Nesin to engage his students
These images explore a 'utopic' village built for teaching maths
The Nesin Mathematics Village in western Turkey was dreamed up by award-winning mathematician Ali Nesin to engage his students
www.newscientist.com
January 11, 2026 at 10:09 AM
My photos of one of my favorite positive stories from Turkey are on @newscientist.com , masterfully commented by @kpc.bsky.social
#MathSky
#iTeachMaths
#Science
#Türkiye 🇹🇷
#MathSky
#iTeachMaths
#Science
#Türkiye 🇹🇷
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”
Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World
Uruguay built a power grid that runs 99% on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Here’s how its bold energy overhaul became a global model.
www.forbes.com
January 10, 2026 at 8:29 AM
“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
People who stop taking obesity drugs tend to regain the weight they've lost within 1.7 years, emphasising how obesity is a chronic condition that requires long-term treatment.
www.newscientist.com/article/2510...
www.newscientist.com/article/2510...
Weight regain seems to occur within 2 years of stopping obesity drugs
Drugs like Ozempic have transformed how we treat obesity, but a review of almost 40 studies shows it doesn't take long for people to regain weight if they come off them
www.newscientist.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:14 PM
People who stop taking obesity drugs tend to regain the weight they've lost within 1.7 years, emphasising how obesity is a chronic condition that requires long-term treatment.
www.newscientist.com/article/2510...
www.newscientist.com/article/2510...
This is a common misconception - a quantum computer is NOT like a bunch of classical computers working in parallel, quantum does not mean infinite parallelism. Here's a cartoon that does a better job than this paragraph: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-ta...
January 8, 2026 at 2:04 PM
This is a common misconception - a quantum computer is NOT like a bunch of classical computers working in parallel, quantum does not mean infinite parallelism. Here's a cartoon that does a better job than this paragraph: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-ta...
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
CMS at CERN has made the first measurements of the quantum properties of a family of three recently-discovered “all-charm” tetraquarks. ⚛️🧪 ow.ly/U90I50XTlXs
Tetraquark measurements could shed more light on the strong nuclear force – Physics World
CMS Collaboration focuses on a family of three all-charm exotic hadrons
ow.ly
January 8, 2026 at 11:48 AM
CMS at CERN has made the first measurements of the quantum properties of a family of three recently-discovered “all-charm” tetraquarks. ⚛️🧪 ow.ly/U90I50XTlXs
This week on my personal newsletter: an encouragement to think about food differently + some tips on how to start eating more plants and rely on animal products less
ultracold.substack.com/p/connection...
ultracold.substack.com/p/connection...
Connection, Courage and Collective Resolve
How will you eat in 2026?
ultracold.substack.com
January 7, 2026 at 7:27 PM
This week on my personal newsletter: an encouragement to think about food differently + some tips on how to start eating more plants and rely on animal products less
ultracold.substack.com/p/connection...
ultracold.substack.com/p/connection...
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
Every piece of reporting I've seen on this is drastically understating the scale. These are from Grok's replies within a single minute. Time-to-reply is degrading because it has such a backlog of NCII/CSAM requests to fulfill. Conservatively I estimate it is producing more than 5000 of these per day
January 6, 2026 at 9:33 PM
Every piece of reporting I've seen on this is drastically understating the scale. These are from Grok's replies within a single minute. Time-to-reply is degrading because it has such a backlog of NCII/CSAM requests to fulfill. Conservatively I estimate it is producing more than 5000 of these per day
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
A growing body of research indicates that Texas's restrictive abortion bans have negatively impacted the health and lives of Texas women and babies in multiple ways. Across the board, pregnancy outcomes and complications have worsened.
What researchers have discovered about maternal, infant health under Texas' abortion laws
In the more than four years since the state of Texas significantly restricted access to abortion, medical researchers have been studying the health effects of that policy change.
medicalxpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:12 PM
A growing body of research indicates that Texas's restrictive abortion bans have negatively impacted the health and lives of Texas women and babies in multiple ways. Across the board, pregnancy outcomes and complications have worsened.
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
Today only, Automatic Noodle e-books are on sale for $2.99 on all platforms! Grab one while they're still hot and chewy! bookshop.org/p/books/auto...
December 29, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Today only, Automatic Noodle e-books are on sale for $2.99 on all platforms! Grab one while they're still hot and chewy! bookshop.org/p/books/auto...
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
I'm back at Slate next week after mat leave, and will be looking at pitches again! Particularly interested in health and science opinion and analysis, and/or with a first person angle, as well as features (2,500+ words, deeply reported) that turn a big idea on its head. shannon.palus@slate.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I'm back at Slate next week after mat leave, and will be looking at pitches again! Particularly interested in health and science opinion and analysis, and/or with a first person angle, as well as features (2,500+ words, deeply reported) that turn a big idea on its head. shannon.palus@slate.com
Yesterday, I turned 34 so on my personal newsletter I’m reflecting on 33, a year that felt like everything and nothing at once ultracold.substack.com/p/vacuum-flu...
Vacuum Fluctuations
On turning 34
ultracold.substack.com
December 29, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Yesterday, I turned 34 so on my personal newsletter I’m reflecting on 33, a year that felt like everything and nothing at once ultracold.substack.com/p/vacuum-flu...
Someone once told me that the universe will always be filled with stuff more wild than we can imagine, and this definitely falls into that category. Amazing story from @alexwilkins.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
Black hole stars really do exist in the early universe
Mysterious ‘little red dots’ seen by the James Webb Space Telescope can be explained by a new kind of black hole enshrouded in an enormous ball of glowing gas
www.newscientist.com
December 22, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Someone once told me that the universe will always be filled with stuff more wild than we can imagine, and this definitely falls into that category. Amazing story from @alexwilkins.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
All I want for Xmas is for people who pitch me stories for New Scientist to actually read New Scientist
December 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
All I want for Xmas is for people who pitch me stories for New Scientist to actually read New Scientist
In my personal newsletter today, a round up of my favorite first person essays from 2025. This is writing that is very different from my journalistic work, brings me lots of joy and forces me to grow as a writer. I am grateful for all of my subscribers! ultracold.substack.com/p/2025-in-re...
2025 in Review: Favorite Ultracold Pieces
My favorite 2025 pieces from this newsletter
ultracold.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 2:22 PM
In my personal newsletter today, a round up of my favorite first person essays from 2025. This is writing that is very different from my journalistic work, brings me lots of joy and forces me to grow as a writer. I am grateful for all of my subscribers! ultracold.substack.com/p/2025-in-re...
Surreal things are happening
December 19, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Surreal things are happening
For my last quantum column of 2025, a bit of optimism. Will quantum computers deliver economic value to industry soon? I remain skeptical. Will they become useful scientific discovery machines soon? This past year convinced me that the answer just might be yes www.newscientist.com/article/2509...
Quantum computers turned out to be more useful than expected in 2025
Rapid advances in the kind of problems that quantum computers can tackle suggest that they are closer than ever to becoming useful tools of scientific discovery
www.newscientist.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:03 PM
For my last quantum column of 2025, a bit of optimism. Will quantum computers deliver economic value to industry soon? I remain skeptical. Will they become useful scientific discovery machines soon? This past year convinced me that the answer just might be yes www.newscientist.com/article/2509...
A first: two of my poems, inevitably physics-themed, got published today chlorophyllmag.com/gerlach's-po...
Gerlach's Postcard — Chlorophyll homepage
cargo.site
chlorophyllmag.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:51 PM
A first: two of my poems, inevitably physics-themed, got published today chlorophyllmag.com/gerlach's-po...
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
But a core issue is that LLMs are being trained to validate the user, while science needs tools that challenge us. For this comment, I asked Claude to choose the 3 most likely reviewers, and simulate their peer reviews. 5/
December 9, 2025 at 5:17 PM
But a core issue is that LLMs are being trained to validate the user, while science needs tools that challenge us. For this comment, I asked Claude to choose the 3 most likely reviewers, and simulate their peer reviews. 5/
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
Climate change is making us dumber, starting young: Children tend to know fewer words, letters & numbers if they experience an average temperature of 32°C or more www.newscientist.com/article/2507...
Extreme heat hampers children’s early learning
Children regularly exposed to temperatures over 30°C (86°F) have lower scores on literacy and numeracy tests at age 3 to 4, according to UNICEF data from six countries
www.newscientist.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Climate change is making us dumber, starting young: Children tend to know fewer words, letters & numbers if they experience an average temperature of 32°C or more www.newscientist.com/article/2507...
On my personal newsletter today, for my monthly media and food consumption highlights I wrote about a metal record that made me revisit and rethink the value of anger + a new to me way to eat cabbage ultracold.substack.com/p/mediadiet-...
Media/Diet (December '25)
Fleshwork by Pupil Slicer + Russian cabbage pie
ultracold.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
On my personal newsletter today, for my monthly media and food consumption highlights I wrote about a metal record that made me revisit and rethink the value of anger + a new to me way to eat cabbage ultracold.substack.com/p/mediadiet-...
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
Attempts to describe quantum physics are rarely enjoyable, but Paul Davies' zeal in Quantum 2.0 sometimes steers too close to hype, finds Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
An ambitious look at quantum physics is fun – but overdoes it a little
Attempts to describe quantum physics are rarely enjoyable, but Paul Davies' zeal in Quantum 2.0 sometimes steers too close to hype, finds Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
www.newscientist.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Attempts to describe quantum physics are rarely enjoyable, but Paul Davies' zeal in Quantum 2.0 sometimes steers too close to hype, finds Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
Niels Bohr:
⚽ Goalie for Akademisk Boldklub
💥 Worked on the UK atom bomb project that pre-dated the Manhattan Project
⚛️ Devised a quantum experiment with Einstein that has now been conducted
Podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/13fB... cc @jjaron.bsky.social @kpc.bsky.social
⚽ Goalie for Akademisk Boldklub
💥 Worked on the UK atom bomb project that pre-dated the Manhattan Project
⚛️ Devised a quantum experiment with Einstein that has now been conducted
Podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/13fB... cc @jjaron.bsky.social @kpc.bsky.social
December 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Niels Bohr:
⚽ Goalie for Akademisk Boldklub
💥 Worked on the UK atom bomb project that pre-dated the Manhattan Project
⚛️ Devised a quantum experiment with Einstein that has now been conducted
Podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/13fB... cc @jjaron.bsky.social @kpc.bsky.social
⚽ Goalie for Akademisk Boldklub
💥 Worked on the UK atom bomb project that pre-dated the Manhattan Project
⚛️ Devised a quantum experiment with Einstein that has now been conducted
Podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/13fB... cc @jjaron.bsky.social @kpc.bsky.social
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
Machine learning is a useful tool for plenty of scientific areas. The reason 'AI' is getting grouped with quantum computing specifically—at companies like Google and now at DOE—is because of branding and wishcasting.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
December 3, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Machine learning is a useful tool for plenty of scientific areas. The reason 'AI' is getting grouped with quantum computing specifically—at companies like Google and now at DOE—is because of branding and wishcasting.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them)
A man has become the seventh person to be free of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant to treat blood cancer. Crucially, he received stem cells that were not resistant to the virus, prompting scientists to rethink what's necessary for an HIV cure.
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
Man unexpectedly cured of HIV after stem cell transplant
A handful of people with HIV have been cured after receiving HIV-resistant stem cells – but a man who received non-resistant stem cells is also now HIV-free
www.newscientist.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:25 PM
A man has become the seventh person to be free of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant to treat blood cancer. Crucially, he received stem cells that were not resistant to the virus, prompting scientists to rethink what's necessary for an HIV cure.
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...