Max G. Levy
@maxlevy.bsky.social
✍️freelance science journalist: Wired, Quanta, TED-Ed & elsewhere
cofounder @sequencermag.bsky.social
https://maxglevy.com/
los angeles
cofounder @sequencermag.bsky.social
https://maxglevy.com/
los angeles
Pinned
Max G. Levy
@maxlevy.bsky.social
· Apr 8
Exciting news: My work will appear in the upcoming edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing!! The 2025 editor, Susan Orlean, selected an essay I wrote for Sequencer about trying to train my color vision.
👁️👄👁️
👁️👄👁️
Reposted by Max G. Levy
It's been quite a year for Quanta biology! In this year-end post I highlighted some favorite stories by @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social @theuniverse.bsky.social @peterbrannen.bsky.social @mollyherring.bsky.social and Ariel Bleicher - and I want to share more of our great work from the year below!
December 18, 2025 at 5:23 PM
It's been quite a year for Quanta biology! In this year-end post I highlighted some favorite stories by @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social @theuniverse.bsky.social @peterbrannen.bsky.social @mollyherring.bsky.social and Ariel Bleicher - and I want to share more of our great work from the year below!
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Here's why yesterday's @nytimes.com article on rusting rivers misses the boat. For Nat Geo earlier this fall, I reported on how thawing permafrost is exposing bedrock, releasing sulfuric acid and oxidizing iron into a toxic cocktail remarkably similar to acid rock drainage.
Why are Alaska’s rivers turning bright orange? Scientists have a theory.
The dramatic shift is a warning sign—and scientists say the changes that aren't yet visible to the naked eye are just as troubling.
www.nationalgeographic.com
December 17, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Here's why yesterday's @nytimes.com article on rusting rivers misses the boat. For Nat Geo earlier this fall, I reported on how thawing permafrost is exposing bedrock, releasing sulfuric acid and oxidizing iron into a toxic cocktail remarkably similar to acid rock drainage.
Reposted by Max G. Levy
SAPIENS was my dream job, but it didn't pay enough. I worked nights/weekends as a Lecturer & freelance writer so that I could afford to work full time days at SAPIENS.
On my last day, I'm in tears reviewing the 60 some stories I developed as editor. Every story was an adventure. A sample below...
On my last day, I'm in tears reviewing the 60 some stories I developed as editor. Every story was an adventure. A sample below...
December 16, 2025 at 6:28 PM
SAPIENS was my dream job, but it didn't pay enough. I worked nights/weekends as a Lecturer & freelance writer so that I could afford to work full time days at SAPIENS.
On my last day, I'm in tears reviewing the 60 some stories I developed as editor. Every story was an adventure. A sample below...
On my last day, I'm in tears reviewing the 60 some stories I developed as editor. Every story was an adventure. A sample below...
Bioelectricity is a potent lever for controlling health. What would it look like to treat the body electrically, rather than chemically?
My latest for DDN, featuring scientists who study vagus nerves.
www.drugdiscoverynews.com/a-more-elect...
My latest for DDN, featuring scientists who study vagus nerves.
www.drugdiscoverynews.com/a-more-elect...
A more electric language for biology
Bioelectricity is a potent lever for controlling health. What would it look like to treat the body electrically, rather than chemically?
www.drugdiscoverynews.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Bioelectricity is a potent lever for controlling health. What would it look like to treat the body electrically, rather than chemically?
My latest for DDN, featuring scientists who study vagus nerves.
www.drugdiscoverynews.com/a-more-elect...
My latest for DDN, featuring scientists who study vagus nerves.
www.drugdiscoverynews.com/a-more-elect...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Congratulations @maxlevy.bsky.social for winning the Gold award in the Magazine category of the International @aaas.org Kavli Science Journalism Awards! 🎉 Max was a #MassMediaFellow at @wired.com in 2020, sponsored by the @apsphysics.bsky.social. Check out the award winning piece: bit.ly/3Y9qrGW
December 4, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Congratulations @maxlevy.bsky.social for winning the Gold award in the Magazine category of the International @aaas.org Kavli Science Journalism Awards! 🎉 Max was a #MassMediaFellow at @wired.com in 2020, sponsored by the @apsphysics.bsky.social. Check out the award winning piece: bit.ly/3Y9qrGW
Reposted by Max G. Levy
So freaking proud of @maxlevy.bsky.social for his AAAS Kavli Gold 🏆 award for his feature about electrostatic ecology — how small creatures interact with electrostatic forces. Quanta's first Kavli Gold! Thanks to the whole team! www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-w...
The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology | Quanta Magazine
Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon.
www.quantamagazine.org
November 14, 2025 at 5:06 PM
So freaking proud of @maxlevy.bsky.social for his AAAS Kavli Gold 🏆 award for his feature about electrostatic ecology — how small creatures interact with electrostatic forces. Quanta's first Kavli Gold! Thanks to the whole team! www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-w...
A million billion trillion thanks to @hanner.bsky.social for editing and truly helping craft this piece with me from the ground up. We published this in 2024 and it remains one of my personal favorites 💗
Quanta contributing writer @maxlevy.bsky.social has received a Kavli Gold Award from @aaas.org and @kavlifoundation.org for “The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology,” a detailed account of how small organisms use static electricity to their advantage.
www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...
www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...
Quanta Contributor Max G. Levy Wins AAAS Kavli Gold Award for Science Journalism | Quanta Magazine
Judges from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Kavli Foundation recognized Quanta Magazine contributing writer Max G. Levy with a Gold Award in the Magazine category for “...
www.quantamagazine.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:28 PM
A million billion trillion thanks to @hanner.bsky.social for editing and truly helping craft this piece with me from the ground up. We published this in 2024 and it remains one of my personal favorites 💗
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Quanta contributing writer @maxlevy.bsky.social has received a Kavli Gold Award from @aaas.org and @kavlifoundation.org for “The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology,” a detailed account of how small organisms use static electricity to their advantage.
www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...
www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...
Quanta Contributor Max G. Levy Wins AAAS Kavli Gold Award for Science Journalism | Quanta Magazine
Judges from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Kavli Foundation recognized Quanta Magazine contributing writer Max G. Levy with a Gold Award in the Magazine category for “...
www.quantamagazine.org
November 13, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Quanta contributing writer @maxlevy.bsky.social has received a Kavli Gold Award from @aaas.org and @kavlifoundation.org for “The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology,” a detailed account of how small organisms use static electricity to their advantage.
www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...
www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Happy pub day to this year’s edition of Best American Science & Nature Writing, out now from @marinerbooks.bsky.social. Thanks to editors extraordinaire Susan Orlean and @jaimealyse.bsky.social for including my @smithsonianmag.bsky.social feature on the art and science of wildlife tracking.
October 21, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Happy pub day to this year’s edition of Best American Science & Nature Writing, out now from @marinerbooks.bsky.social. Thanks to editors extraordinaire Susan Orlean and @jaimealyse.bsky.social for including my @smithsonianmag.bsky.social feature on the art and science of wildlife tracking.
Reposted by Max G. Levy
And to submit work to be considered for next year's anthology, go to jaimegreen.net/basn
The Best American Science and Nature Writing — Jaime Green
jaimegreen.net
September 30, 2025 at 1:59 PM
And to submit work to be considered for next year's anthology, go to jaimegreen.net/basn
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Wrote a bit about this year's edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing - and posted the Notables jaimealyse.beehiiv.com/p/basnw25
September 30, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Wrote a bit about this year's edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing - and posted the Notables jaimealyse.beehiiv.com/p/basnw25
It's pub day!! The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2025 is out. I'm thrilled to appear with @sequencermag.bsky.social alongside many talented writers whose work I revere. Including the pieces in this anthology
Get a copy from an indie store to support the series
bookshop.org/a/114150/978...
Get a copy from an indie store to support the series
bookshop.org/a/114150/978...
October 22, 2025 at 4:22 AM
It's pub day!! The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2025 is out. I'm thrilled to appear with @sequencermag.bsky.social alongside many talented writers whose work I revere. Including the pieces in this anthology
Get a copy from an indie store to support the series
bookshop.org/a/114150/978...
Get a copy from an indie store to support the series
bookshop.org/a/114150/978...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
It's pub day for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025, and the whole Best American series. I'm so proud of this book and all the brilliant, beautiful writing @susanorlean.bsky.social selected for it. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025
Check out The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 - <p>“The best science and nature writing—which these stories represent—reminds us of the wide world and our connection to...
bookshop.org
October 21, 2025 at 1:49 PM
It's pub day for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025, and the whole Best American series. I'm so proud of this book and all the brilliant, beautiful writing @susanorlean.bsky.social selected for it. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
🧪Hello friends! I'm working on a piece about putting together the best tenure/promotion package, and I'd love to hear from STEM folks who have recently done this or have experience evaluating these types of proposals. Please RT for reach, and feel free to reach out with any Qs!
October 13, 2025 at 8:16 PM
🧪Hello friends! I'm working on a piece about putting together the best tenure/promotion package, and I'd love to hear from STEM folks who have recently done this or have experience evaluating these types of proposals. Please RT for reach, and feel free to reach out with any Qs!
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Today on the site we have three new pieces all about wolves, led by an essay from @maxlevy.bsky.social that weaves together two notable books.
www.sequencermag.com/what-we-lear...
www.sequencermag.com/what-we-lear...
What we learn in the footsteps of wolves
Up close and personal with nature's notoriously elusive carnivore.
www.sequencermag.com
October 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Today on the site we have three new pieces all about wolves, led by an essay from @maxlevy.bsky.social that weaves together two notable books.
www.sequencermag.com/what-we-lear...
www.sequencermag.com/what-we-lear...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Next, an interview with Adam Weymouth, author of Lone Wolf
"It was quite clearly a love story. If it were about two people, it would be two people that defied odds and walked across the continent and somehow found each other in thousands of square miles"
www.sequencermag.com/the-eerily-f...
"It was quite clearly a love story. If it were about two people, it would be two people that defied odds and walked across the continent and somehow found each other in thousands of square miles"
www.sequencermag.com/the-eerily-f...
The Eerily Familiar Politics of Europe's Wolves
Why wolves are such a potent political tool. Author Adam Weymouth on carnivores and scapegoats.
www.sequencermag.com
October 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Next, an interview with Adam Weymouth, author of Lone Wolf
"It was quite clearly a love story. If it were about two people, it would be two people that defied odds and walked across the continent and somehow found each other in thousands of square miles"
www.sequencermag.com/the-eerily-f...
"It was quite clearly a love story. If it were about two people, it would be two people that defied odds and walked across the continent and somehow found each other in thousands of square miles"
www.sequencermag.com/the-eerily-f...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
And an excerpt from L. David Mech's The Ellesmere Wolves, about a surprisingly tame population of High Arctic wolves Mech studied for decades.
"Greeted by seven barking and howling wolves, elated that I had finally located an active den"
"Greeted by seven barking and howling wolves, elated that I had finally located an active den"
October 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
And an excerpt from L. David Mech's The Ellesmere Wolves, about a surprisingly tame population of High Arctic wolves Mech studied for decades.
"Greeted by seven barking and howling wolves, elated that I had finally located an active den"
"Greeted by seven barking and howling wolves, elated that I had finally located an active den"
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Honored to have made it into this always fantastic anthology as a "Notable" for my piece in Hakai Magazine (one of the last features the magazine published) about cold-water coral research in Chile. @pulitzercenter.org @biographic.bsky.social
Wrote a bit about this year's edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing - and posted the Notables jaimealyse.beehiiv.com/p/basnw25
October 1, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Honored to have made it into this always fantastic anthology as a "Notable" for my piece in Hakai Magazine (one of the last features the magazine published) about cold-water coral research in Chile. @pulitzercenter.org @biographic.bsky.social
Reposted by Max G. Levy
Hi! Today @quantamagazine.bsky.social published a special issue on climate science, featuring stories about how Earth's climate fundamentally works that I needed to read after covering climate impacts for so many years. I hope you'll check it out! <3 www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...
How We Came To Know Earth | Quanta Magazine
Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...
www.quantamagazine.org
September 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Hi! Today @quantamagazine.bsky.social published a special issue on climate science, featuring stories about how Earth's climate fundamentally works that I needed to read after covering climate impacts for so many years. I hope you'll check it out! <3 www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...
NY subway platforms feel hot as hell in the summer.
Meet Jack Klein, the guy who stealthily collects data about New York’s hottest days underground.
🚇New in @sequencermag.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com/the-covert-p...
Meet Jack Klein, the guy who stealthily collects data about New York’s hottest days underground.
🚇New in @sequencermag.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com/the-covert-p...
The covert project to (finally) measure hellish subway heat
Meet Jack Klein, the guy who stealthily collects data about New York’s hottest days underground.
www.sequencermag.com
September 11, 2025 at 10:20 PM
NY subway platforms feel hot as hell in the summer.
Meet Jack Klein, the guy who stealthily collects data about New York’s hottest days underground.
🚇New in @sequencermag.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com/the-covert-p...
Meet Jack Klein, the guy who stealthily collects data about New York’s hottest days underground.
🚇New in @sequencermag.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com/the-covert-p...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
@sequencermag.bsky.social is on Ghost!
They're a writer-owned publication run by science journalists @goesbykim.bsky.social, @maxlevy.bsky.social, @dsamorod.bsky.social, and @maddiebender.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com
They're a writer-owned publication run by science journalists @goesbykim.bsky.social, @maxlevy.bsky.social, @dsamorod.bsky.social, and @maddiebender.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com
Sequencer
Decode the universe. A writer-owned popular science magazine
www.sequencermag.com
September 8, 2025 at 8:50 PM
@sequencermag.bsky.social is on Ghost!
They're a writer-owned publication run by science journalists @goesbykim.bsky.social, @maxlevy.bsky.social, @dsamorod.bsky.social, and @maddiebender.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com
They're a writer-owned publication run by science journalists @goesbykim.bsky.social, @maxlevy.bsky.social, @dsamorod.bsky.social, and @maddiebender.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com
Reposted by Max G. Levy
I'd love to recommend and follow more science newsletters and publications run with @ghost.org — especially now that they've implemented ActivityPub to put Ghost newsletters on the social web.
So give me your recommendations and shameless self promotions!
I know of a few already:
So give me your recommendations and shameless self promotions!
I know of a few already:
September 8, 2025 at 8:50 PM
I'd love to recommend and follow more science newsletters and publications run with @ghost.org — especially now that they've implemented ActivityPub to put Ghost newsletters on the social web.
So give me your recommendations and shameless self promotions!
I know of a few already:
So give me your recommendations and shameless self promotions!
I know of a few already:
Reposted by Max G. Levy
"A couple months ago, while I was thumbing through old magazines at a record shop, I landed on a gem. “Learning To Love the Computer” emblazoned the cover of Nutshell magazine, a now-defunct periodical for college students," writes @maxlevy.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com/ai-critical-...
www.sequencermag.com/ai-critical-...
What AI can actually do to your critical thinking skills
Chatbots won't obliterate everyone's critical thinking. Lessons from the past tech revolutions and today’s experts signal how to protect your mind.
www.sequencermag.com
July 3, 2025 at 12:09 AM
"A couple months ago, while I was thumbing through old magazines at a record shop, I landed on a gem. “Learning To Love the Computer” emblazoned the cover of Nutshell magazine, a now-defunct periodical for college students," writes @maxlevy.bsky.social
www.sequencermag.com/ai-critical-...
www.sequencermag.com/ai-critical-...
Reposted by Max G. Levy
The flip flopping continues: NIH director Jay Bhattacharya tweeted today that all agency staff will have full access to all scientific journals including those published by Springer Nature.
I've gone back to the WH, HHS, NASA, DOE, USDA to understand what the heck is going on. I am lost.
I've gone back to the WH, HHS, NASA, DOE, USDA to understand what the heck is going on. I am lost.
July 2, 2025 at 5:52 PM
The flip flopping continues: NIH director Jay Bhattacharya tweeted today that all agency staff will have full access to all scientific journals including those published by Springer Nature.
I've gone back to the WH, HHS, NASA, DOE, USDA to understand what the heck is going on. I am lost.
I've gone back to the WH, HHS, NASA, DOE, USDA to understand what the heck is going on. I am lost.