Leah Shaffer
@leahshaffer.bsky.social
Science writer, mostly puttering about the garden.
she/her
she/her
(turns 45 this week)
Anyway, if you missed this science write-up and you’re also looking for your second wind, it’s worth skimming it to make peace with yourself.
www.theguardian.com/science/arti...
www.theguardian.com/science/arti...
Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60
US findings suggesting ageing is not a slow and steady process could explain spikes in health issues at certain ages
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2026 at 12:21 AM
(turns 45 this week)
Europa not so friendly to life after all. Research from @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social and the team of planetary science researchers at @washu.edu 🪐 🌕 🌱 🔭 🧪
Study casts doubt on potential for life on Jupiter's moon Europa reut.rs/4q9NZbd
Study casts doubt on potential for life on Jupiter's moon Europa
Jupiter's moon Europa is on the short list of places in our solar system seen as promising in the search for life beyond Earth, with a large subsurface ocean thought to be hidden under an outer shell of ice. But new research is raising questions about whether Europa in fact has what it takes for habitability.
reut.rs
January 6, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Europa not so friendly to life after all. Research from @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social and the team of planetary science researchers at @washu.edu 🪐 🌕 🌱 🔭 🧪
I'm telling you guys, the data centers are not going to make it.
The power of nimby will be unleashed.
There is no incentive for any community to want these things. Doesn't add long term jobs, might add pollution and vastly increase utility bills.
www.stltoday.com/news/local/s...
The power of nimby will be unleashed.
There is no incentive for any community to want these things. Doesn't add long term jobs, might add pollution and vastly increase utility bills.
www.stltoday.com/news/local/s...
Data center info, annexation vote delayed after crowd packs Foristell city hall
There were so many people at the meeting that the representatives themselves couldn't get into the room, City Administrator Todd Streiler said.
www.stltoday.com
January 6, 2026 at 8:27 PM
I'm telling you guys, the data centers are not going to make it.
The power of nimby will be unleashed.
There is no incentive for any community to want these things. Doesn't add long term jobs, might add pollution and vastly increase utility bills.
www.stltoday.com/news/local/s...
The power of nimby will be unleashed.
There is no incentive for any community to want these things. Doesn't add long term jobs, might add pollution and vastly increase utility bills.
www.stltoday.com/news/local/s...
If you are lucky enough to have some Dems in Congress you need to get them to co-sponsor this. I'd ask my rep, "Dr. Bob" but he is a dishonorable man. Can only assume any doctor against vaccines and abortion rights prefers young children to die of preventable illness and mothers die in childbirth. 🩺
Lots of people asking about who has co-sponsored the articles of impeachment against RFK Jr. w/ @rephaleystevens.bsky.social. The answer is Rep. Eric Swalwell.
This is why we need people power NOW.
Sign the petition & call your rep asking them to co-sponsor:
www.standupforscience.net/impeach-rfkjr
This is why we need people power NOW.
Sign the petition & call your rep asking them to co-sponsor:
www.standupforscience.net/impeach-rfkjr
🚨 Today, I formally introduced articles of impeachment against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
RFK Jr. has turned his back on science and the safety of the American people. Michiganders cannot take another day of his chaos.
RFK Jr. has turned his back on science and the safety of the American people. Michiganders cannot take another day of his chaos.
January 6, 2026 at 7:58 PM
If you are lucky enough to have some Dems in Congress you need to get them to co-sponsor this. I'd ask my rep, "Dr. Bob" but he is a dishonorable man. Can only assume any doctor against vaccines and abortion rights prefers young children to die of preventable illness and mothers die in childbirth. 🩺
Anybody want to talk about Europa? Kind of a bummer, but we had to check. The search continues... #PlanetarySky #SpaceSky #ScienceSky 🧪🌕 source.washu.edu/2026/01/jupi...
Jupiter’s moon Europa has seafloor that may be quiet, lifeless
A new study led by planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis suggests the icy moon Europa lacks the undersea activity needed to support life.
source.washu.edu
January 6, 2026 at 6:38 PM
Anybody want to talk about Europa? Kind of a bummer, but we had to check. The search continues... #PlanetarySky #SpaceSky #ScienceSky 🧪🌕 source.washu.edu/2026/01/jupi...
we need to stop bitchin at eachother and get back to important work of social media, POP TART INNOVATION.
Dear sirs,
I would like fake sausage gravy pop tarts. Morningstar breakfast sausage in a pop tart, it's easy, it's a partnership long overdue.
Yours in the great endeavor,
leah
Dear sirs,
I would like fake sausage gravy pop tarts. Morningstar breakfast sausage in a pop tart, it's easy, it's a partnership long overdue.
Yours in the great endeavor,
leah
You’re out here posting screenshots of the very worst content from horrible websites and I’m out here posting original thoughts directly on this website in a quixotic effort to will savory Pop Tarts into existence. We are not the same
January 6, 2026 at 6:33 PM
we need to stop bitchin at eachother and get back to important work of social media, POP TART INNOVATION.
Dear sirs,
I would like fake sausage gravy pop tarts. Morningstar breakfast sausage in a pop tart, it's easy, it's a partnership long overdue.
Yours in the great endeavor,
leah
Dear sirs,
I would like fake sausage gravy pop tarts. Morningstar breakfast sausage in a pop tart, it's easy, it's a partnership long overdue.
Yours in the great endeavor,
leah
The MO GOP is one of many forms of the party that is actively cannibalizing itself. It's MAGA vs old-school country club Republicans who want to make some money. MAGA generally makes it hard for anyone to do dealmaking. Dems can only watch from the sidelines. It's a mess.
Explaining the drama in #moleg before a new legislative session starts tomorrow
January 6, 2026 at 6:02 PM
The MO GOP is one of many forms of the party that is actively cannibalizing itself. It's MAGA vs old-school country club Republicans who want to make some money. MAGA generally makes it hard for anyone to do dealmaking. Dems can only watch from the sidelines. It's a mess.
✨ Updated preprint ✨
Iris van Rooij & Olivia Guest (2026). Combining Psychology with Artificial Intelligence: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? PsyArXiv osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/aue4m_v2 @olivia.science
Our aim is to make these ideas accessible for a.o. psych students. Hope we succeeded 🙂
Iris van Rooij & Olivia Guest (2026). Combining Psychology with Artificial Intelligence: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? PsyArXiv osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/aue4m_v2 @olivia.science
Our aim is to make these ideas accessible for a.o. psych students. Hope we succeeded 🙂
![Figure 1
Illustration of why AI systems cannot realistically scale to human cognition within the foreseeable future: (b) Human cognitive capacities (such as reasoning, communication, problem solving, learning, concept formation, planning etc.) can handle unbounded situations across many domains, ranging from simple to complex. (a) Engineers create AI systems using machine learning from human data. (d) In an attempt to approximate human cognition a lot of data is consumed. (c) Making AI systems that approximate human cognition is intractable (van Rooij, Guest, et al., 2024), i.e., the required resources (e.g. time, data) grows prohibitively fast as input domains get more complex, leading to diminishing returns. (a) Any existing AI system is
created in limited time (hours, months or years, not millennia or eons). Therefore, existing AI systems cannot realistically have the domain-general cognitive capacities that humans have. [Made with elements from freepik.com.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:24ngrqljhck7hpvbgrg7a23k/bafkreie5dbxbxpaszqwfbgne6pi7kf26im6chq45olvzxyyrg7eitq6uue@jpeg)
January 6, 2026 at 5:56 PM
"I wish it need not happen in our time," said Frodo.
"Ha ha," said Chicago Pope, hitting the vape for the 15th time. "Haha, aw shit"
"Ha ha," said Chicago Pope, hitting the vape for the 15th time. "Haha, aw shit"
Pope Leo, closing Catholic Holy Year, urges kindness to foreigners reut.rs/4qIUNfV
Pope Leo, closing Catholic Holy Year, urges kindness to foreigners
Pope Leo closed the Catholic Church's Holy Year on Tuesday by sealing shut the special "Holy Door" in St. Peter's Basilica and urging Christians worldwide to help those in need and treat foreigners with kindness.
reut.rs
January 6, 2026 at 1:22 PM
"I wish it need not happen in our time," said Frodo.
"Ha ha," said Chicago Pope, hitting the vape for the 15th time. "Haha, aw shit"
"Ha ha," said Chicago Pope, hitting the vape for the 15th time. "Haha, aw shit"
let's travel to a simpler time, when Leonard Nimoy takes us on a friendly acid trip about a hobbit.
January 5, 2026 at 11:13 PM
let's travel to a simpler time, when Leonard Nimoy takes us on a friendly acid trip about a hobbit.
It's darkest before the dawn but it keeps getting darker. Hell of a 4 a.m. we're stuck in. I wonder when dawn and all of us will break.
January 5, 2026 at 8:46 PM
It's darkest before the dawn but it keeps getting darker. Hell of a 4 a.m. we're stuck in. I wonder when dawn and all of us will break.
Not all heroes wear capes, some are dressed like the pink power ranger.
A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacists websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.
Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live on stage during hacker conference | TechCrunch
A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacists websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.
techcrunch.com
January 5, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Not all heroes wear capes, some are dressed like the pink power ranger.
I'm sorry #Minnesota
I'm so sorry. Please keep eachother safe, work together, deploy the whistles, swap notes with Chicago organizers. Pray to the Gods of Winter that the bitter, bitter, bitter cold descends upon the boiling souls of all who do evil. #Defend612
I'm so sorry. Please keep eachother safe, work together, deploy the whistles, swap notes with Chicago organizers. Pray to the Gods of Winter that the bitter, bitter, bitter cold descends upon the boiling souls of all who do evil. #Defend612
The surge is surging today. Many ppl taken. This is with roughly 500 agents on the ground.
This also means CBP is coming. Extremely bad news.
You saw Chicago in the fall? We’re up.
Defend612.com sign up to be in a Signal group if you’re not already.
This also means CBP is coming. Extremely bad news.
You saw Chicago in the fall? We’re up.
Defend612.com sign up to be in a Signal group if you’re not already.
Defend612.com
January 5, 2026 at 7:53 PM
I'm sorry #Minnesota
I'm so sorry. Please keep eachother safe, work together, deploy the whistles, swap notes with Chicago organizers. Pray to the Gods of Winter that the bitter, bitter, bitter cold descends upon the boiling souls of all who do evil. #Defend612
I'm so sorry. Please keep eachother safe, work together, deploy the whistles, swap notes with Chicago organizers. Pray to the Gods of Winter that the bitter, bitter, bitter cold descends upon the boiling souls of all who do evil. #Defend612
It really is time to go. No reason to stay, you cannot effectively promote your stuff via X. Explain it to boss like this: you wouldn't promote the biz on Porn Hub, right? Right now, porn hub is safer than X. Your customers on x could see revenge porn and csam right under your promoted content.
Many are just waking up to the Grok-nonconsensual images story as these pictures began flooding X over the holidays, but here’s our piece from Jan 2 featuring a victim, Julie Yukari, who was brave enough to speak on the record and on camera:
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
Elon Musk's Grok AI floods X with sexualized photos of women and minors
When contacted by Reuters for comment by email, xAI replied with the message "Legacy Media Lies."
www.reuters.com
January 5, 2026 at 6:42 PM
It really is time to go. No reason to stay, you cannot effectively promote your stuff via X. Explain it to boss like this: you wouldn't promote the biz on Porn Hub, right? Right now, porn hub is safer than X. Your customers on x could see revenge porn and csam right under your promoted content.
Do you enjoy map making? Here's a link to code for making a functional map of the human brain. It's a "MIGHTY" helpful tool for tracking neuron connections, how cells broadcast signals to the rest of the body. story link: source.washu.edu/2025/12/mapp...
🧪 🩺 🔬📍#NeuroSky
github.com/Herzog-Lab/N...
🧪 🩺 🔬📍#NeuroSky
github.com/Herzog-Lab/N...
GitHub - Herzog-Lab/Nikhil-et.-al.-PNAS-2025: Supporting data and analysis scripts for Nikhil et al PNAS 2025
Supporting data and analysis scripts for Nikhil et al PNAS 2025 - Herzog-Lab/Nikhil-et.-al.-PNAS-2025
github.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Do you enjoy map making? Here's a link to code for making a functional map of the human brain. It's a "MIGHTY" helpful tool for tracking neuron connections, how cells broadcast signals to the rest of the body. story link: source.washu.edu/2025/12/mapp...
🧪 🩺 🔬📍#NeuroSky
github.com/Herzog-Lab/N...
🧪 🩺 🔬📍#NeuroSky
github.com/Herzog-Lab/N...
Your K95 or similar facemask is your best friend for These Times: You can also pick up sunglasses that block infrared. Anti-fasc fashion is out there. www.vice.com/en/article/a... 😷🕶️
January 5, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Your K95 or similar facemask is your best friend for These Times: You can also pick up sunglasses that block infrared. Anti-fasc fashion is out there. www.vice.com/en/article/a... 😷🕶️
Good morning, I am back at work and science marches on. #PlantScience #ScienceSky #GardenSky 🧪🌱👩💻 source.washu.edu/2025/12/plan...
Plant science with a twist
Biology and engineering researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have uncovered the mechanism of plants’ twisting roots.
source.washu.edu
January 5, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Good morning, I am back at work and science marches on. #PlantScience #ScienceSky #GardenSky 🧪🌱👩💻 source.washu.edu/2025/12/plan...
This season, on America:
The gang remains simultaneously at its worst and best because the mad king is constantly sabotaging their lives. Our plucky gang of lovable losers rise to the occasion while getting very stoned. Surprise cameos from big stars flaming out and switching teams all year!
The gang remains simultaneously at its worst and best because the mad king is constantly sabotaging their lives. Our plucky gang of lovable losers rise to the occasion while getting very stoned. Surprise cameos from big stars flaming out and switching teams all year!
January 5, 2026 at 1:51 PM
This season, on America:
The gang remains simultaneously at its worst and best because the mad king is constantly sabotaging their lives. Our plucky gang of lovable losers rise to the occasion while getting very stoned. Surprise cameos from big stars flaming out and switching teams all year!
The gang remains simultaneously at its worst and best because the mad king is constantly sabotaging their lives. Our plucky gang of lovable losers rise to the occasion while getting very stoned. Surprise cameos from big stars flaming out and switching teams all year!
American here, go ahead and keep saying "kidnapped"
Also applies to what is happening to American citizens as well.
Also applies to what is happening to American citizens as well.
BBC journalists have been banned from describing the kidnapped Venezuelan leader as having been kidnapped.
The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.
The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.
January 5, 2026 at 1:41 PM
American here, go ahead and keep saying "kidnapped"
Also applies to what is happening to American citizens as well.
Also applies to what is happening to American citizens as well.
Want to reduce risk for dementia? Get vaccinated! 🩺
I will explain how this works...
I will explain how this works...
Oh, just get vaccinated (part 5,000)
"Many shots seem to have “off-target” benefits, such as lowering the risk of dementia, studies have found." (gift article)
"Many shots seem to have “off-target” benefits, such as lowering the risk of dementia, studies have found." (gift article)
Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew
www.nytimes.com
January 4, 2026 at 8:42 PM
Want to reduce risk for dementia? Get vaccinated! 🩺
I will explain how this works...
I will explain how this works...
No! Can we just never circle back?
oh shit tomorrow is circle back day already
January 4, 2026 at 7:17 PM
No! Can we just never circle back?
Goddamnit, Capt. America was tired of this shit 40 Years Ago! We are so fucking tired of the same stupid shit. Are we in hell, are we doomed to repeat the same hell every 20 years? Yes, I think so!
January 4, 2026 at 7:15 PM
Goddamnit, Capt. America was tired of this shit 40 Years Ago! We are so fucking tired of the same stupid shit. Are we in hell, are we doomed to repeat the same hell every 20 years? Yes, I think so!
Of course the creationist museum would have measles exposure! 🩺
Measles may have been spread at a Noah’s Ark-themed creationist museum in Kentucky earlier this week, the state’s health authority said.
Health Authorities Issue Measles Alert at Creationist Museum
In 2025, the U.S. had the most infections of the vaccine-preventable disease since 1992.
trib.al
January 4, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Of course the creationist museum would have measles exposure! 🩺
What would you do if you were Delcy?
Facing a hostile takeover from a highly powered dipshit dictator. What do you do?
Facing a hostile takeover from a highly powered dipshit dictator. What do you do?
Venezuela’s new leader, vice president and oil minister Delcy Rodríguez, is a socialist true believer who helped Nicolás Maduro maintain his grip on power for more than a decade. 🔗 on.wsj.com/3YUnbzx
January 4, 2026 at 5:37 PM
What would you do if you were Delcy?
Facing a hostile takeover from a highly powered dipshit dictator. What do you do?
Facing a hostile takeover from a highly powered dipshit dictator. What do you do?
Good time to start planning for spring wildflowers! Sunflowers, coneflowers, fantastic #permaculture. #GardenSky
🌱🌼
🌱🌼
Some Native Seeds available in our Bluesky giveaway
🌱 Angelica atropurpurea (Purplestem Angelica)
🌱 Carex cherokeensis (Cherokee Sedge)
🌱 Cladrastis kentukea ‘Perkins Pink’ (Yellowwood)
🌱 Eryngium ravenelii ‘Charleston Blues’ (Rattlesnake Master)
🌱 Liatris micropephala (Smallhead Blazing Star)
🌱 Angelica atropurpurea (Purplestem Angelica)
🌱 Carex cherokeensis (Cherokee Sedge)
🌱 Cladrastis kentukea ‘Perkins Pink’ (Yellowwood)
🌱 Eryngium ravenelii ‘Charleston Blues’ (Rattlesnake Master)
🌱 Liatris micropephala (Smallhead Blazing Star)
Free Garden Seeds on Bluesky
These are Seeds available only to Bluesky accounts with mailing addresses in United States. We will see how this goes and update with more seeds if it’s not too big of a disaster. Please read…
greatstateofstlouis.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Good time to start planning for spring wildflowers! Sunflowers, coneflowers, fantastic #permaculture. #GardenSky
🌱🌼
🌱🌼