Alex Music
banner
alexmusicwrites.bsky.social
Alex Music
@alexmusicwrites.bsky.social
‘25 @aaas.org Mass Media Fellow @idahostatesman.com | Geography M.S. @ UGA
she/they
https://linktr.ee/alexmusicwrites
Pinned
Dragonflies are a surprisingly complex and diverse insect order and can tell us a lot about the health of an ecosystem. I followed students and experts along on a Boise field project to learn how. 👇https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/community/boise/article309880140.html
This insect is teaching Timberline High students about Boise ecosystems. Here’s how
Dragonflies are teaching researchers and students about Boise’s ecosystem and unlocking the larger mysteries of the insects’ behavior.
www.idahostatesman.com
Reposted by Alex Music
🎉 Congrats to Alex Music (@alexmusicwrites.bsky.social), AGU’s 2025 @aaasmassmedia.bsky.social Fellow!

Alex spent the summer with the Idaho Statesman reporting Earth & space science stories and helping connect science to the public.

Apply to be a 2026 Fellow 👉 buff.ly/r8c6ybG
November 6, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
Happy November! 🍂 Reminder that applications for our 2026 cohort are due at the end of this month. Tag someone who should apply! scicommbites.org/applications...
Applications open for 2026 SciCommBites authors! - SciCommBites
Apply by November 30 for the chance to be part of the SciCommBites 2026 Author Cohort!
scicommbites.org
November 1, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
New Yorkers vote today if you haven’t and you get this
October 31, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Alex Music
Citing a Trump executive order banning "gender ideology," the VA is withholding coverage and treatment for male veterans with breast cancer, an increasing condition among veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during service. 100 male veterans a year are diagnosed with breast cancer.
Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage
A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive orde...
www.propublica.org
October 30, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Reposted by Alex Music
Breaking News: Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica with 185 mph winds, making it one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record.
Live Updates: Hurricane Melissa Makes Landfall in Jamaica With Violent Winds and Rain
The Category 5 storm’s slow pace could have devastating effects. Jamaican officials said many residents had refused to evacuate, and one minister warned, “This is not the time to be brave.”
nyti.ms
October 28, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
Lia Smith was a transgender rights advocate and athlete who spoke out forcefully against this administration's policies.

Rest in peace. Every trans suicide is a murder by those in power.

www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025...
October 27, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
1. As SNAP benefits expire, 42,000,000 hungry people may turn to the USDA website.

Now, the website blames their hunger on transgender people and immigrants.

It's a cynical ploy, an an indication that anti-trans measures are a Trump priority for the shutdown.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
USDA Website Blames SNAP Benefits Expiring On Trans People And Immigrants During Shutdown
The benefits, which are set to expire on November 1st due to the government shutdown, will lead to millions of people struggling to secure access to food.
www.erininthemorning.com
October 27, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.
June 19, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Alex Music
Did some number crunching on the economic impact a pause in SNAP benefits would have on the food economy in Georgia. It's not good! Almost a billion gone in the core of Atlanta, and >$4 billion for the state. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
SNAP yearly retailer redemptions.xlsx
docs.google.com
October 26, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news
Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says
It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.
heatmap.news
October 10, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Reposted by Alex Music
NEW: Cops in Texas told 404 Media in May they used Flock to find a woman who self-administered an abortion out of concern for her safety.

Documents now show police were conducting a “death investigation” and discussed whether they could charge her with a crime: www.404media.co/police-said-...
Police Said They Surveilled Woman Who Had an Abortion for Her 'Safety.' Court Records Show They Considered Charging Her With a Crime
Court records show that the narrative Flock and a Texas Sheriff's Office has told the public isn't the whole story, and that police were conducting a 'death investigation' into the abortion.
www.404media.co
October 7, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Writing for @scicommbites.bsky.social has been an amazing way to develop my science communication practice, and I strongly encourage other early career writers to apply!
October 8, 2025 at 7:13 PM
My master’s thesis is finally available to view online! 🥂 Thanks to my advisor @drshepherd2013.bsky.social, my committee members, and of course, publicly-funded and freely accessible data. Peer-reviewed publication coming (hopefully) soon! openscholar.uga.edu/record/27279...
CHARACTERIZING THE HAZARD OF RAINFALL-DIVERSE HURRICANE PROFILES IN THE SOUTHEAST UNITED STATES
Atlantic basin hurricanes drive serious meteorological hazards for the southeast United States, including rainfall-induced freshwater flooding. The well-known Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS) communicates only wind hazard, creating the potential for low wind, high rainfall storms to be perceived as mild by the public due to misunderstandings of what the SSHWS communicates. Recently, researchers have emphasized the need to include rainfall hazard in hurricane warning messaging. In the interest of this goal, this research investigates the characterization of rainfall for three different Atlantic hurricanes: Hurricane Florence (2018), Hurricane Michael (2018), and Hurricane Ian (2022). Using daily gridded gauge-based rainfall data, the distribution of rainfall is quantified, visualized, and compared between each storm. Excessive Rainfall Outlooks issued in advance of each day of each hurricane are then compared with the actual extent of flash flooding, using statistical methods to verify the accuracy of each forecast. Finally, the impact of rainfall and social vulnerability on FEMA disaster declarations during high rainfall impact hurricanes is assessed. Results of this study will assist in validating hurricane rainfall hazard communications and support future work in improving how these warnings can better support citizens, governments, and other stakeholders.
openscholar.uga.edu
October 3, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
Wanna dive into a delightfully nerdy corner of math? 🧵🪢⭕

Knot theory is a growing field with deep ideas and surprising connections—and in my new piece for @sciam.bsky.social, you can try it out yourself through interactive puzzles!

I had so much fun with this new format. Hope you enjoy it too!
Can You Solve Math’s Knottiest Puzzles?
Learn the fundamentals of the burgeoning field of knot theory while solving some puzzles along the way
www.scientificamerican.com
October 3, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
INBOX: ​Georgia Tech Students Organizing for Sustainability (a group I was part of during college) & Energy Club, in collaboration with @grist.org and @selc.bsky.social, are hosting "Voting for Georgia’s Public Service Commission: Your Power Bill, Your Climate, Your Choice" on 10/14 at 5:30 pm:
Voting for Georgia’s Public Service Commission: Your Power Bill, Your Climate, Your Choice · Luma
Georgia Tech Students Organizing for Sustainability & Energy Club, in collaboration with Grist and Southern Environmental Law Center present: Voting for…
luma.com
October 2, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
Today, 33% of all the electricity used in Oregon is attributed to data centers.

In Virginia, it’s 37%.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
AI Data Centers Use a Lot of Energy. You May Be Paying for It
AI data centers are pushing up energy costs all over the US. On today’s Big Take podcast: an investigation into who's footing the bill.
www.bloomberg.com
September 30, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
An early version of the first US News college rankings awarded points for diversity & didn't put the usual suspects on top. So the magazine got rid of the statistician responsible & changed the algorithm to affirm the "conventional wisdom of the meritocracy."
washingtonmonthly.com/2000/09/01/p...
September 28, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
Cities are getting hotter. And there’s one simple fix on the table: reflective roofs. So why is a powerful industry fighting to stop them?
This little-known ‘dark roof’ lobby may be making your city hotter
As cities heat up, reflective roofs could lower energy bills and help the climate. But dark roofing manufacturers are waging a quiet campaign to block new rules.
floodlightnews.org
September 27, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
EXCLUSIVE: A new analysis by The Xylom's @alexip718.com shows for the first time just how much America’s top research institutions have grown to depend on H-1B skilled workers — and how this delicate balance might be disrupted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal immigration.
The Most Detailed Maps of H-1B Visa Holders Joining America's Top Research Institutions
A new analysis by The Xylom shows for the first time just how much America’s top research institutions have grown to depend on the specialized knowledge of H-1B skilled workers — and how this…
www.thexylom.com
September 25, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Trying something new! As I continue to pursue freelance opportunities, I’ll be using my Medium presence to write about science news. Give me a follow if you’d like to keep up! aninjusticemag.com/the-psycholo...
The psychology behind police killings of unarmed Black men
Racial stereotyping to blame when people see weapons that aren’t there, study shows
aninjusticemag.com
September 25, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
If you were concerned about Kimmel, here's another for you…

Journalist Mario Guevara has been detained for 100+ days, ironically arrested as he reported on a "No Kings" protest.

The Trump-Vance admin just issued an order of final removal, to send him to El Salvador—where he fled from 21 years ago.
September 24, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site
As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald.
www.miamiherald.com
September 23, 2025 at 5:39 PM
In my latest post for @scicommbites.bsky.social, I look at a recent study that investigates whether metaphors can make environmental communications easier to understand. TLDR: it's less straightforward than you might think! scicommbites.org/can-metaphor...
Can metaphor make environmental issues easier to understand? - SciCommBites
A light bulb moment for evaluating metaphors in science communication.
scicommbites.org
September 22, 2025 at 5:09 PM
One of my recent articles for @scicommbites.bsky.social was republished in @civicscimedia.bsky.social! Have you ever thought about the readability of informative signs in national parks? civicsciencemedia.org/looking-for-...
Looking for a sign? Study says interpretive signs at U.S. National Parks have low readability
This paper presents the first known study that analyzed the language content of interpretive signs of U.S. national parks. It has identified, among other takeaways, an apparent need to increase the re...
civicsciencemedia.org
September 14, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Alex Music
Science journalism fans: I made a starter pack of
@aaasmassmedia.bsky.social fellows from 2015 to 2025.

I did this by hand, so if you notice someone missing or mistakenly added, please shoot me a DM or comment.

I'll keep it updated as new fellows are announced!

🧪 #scicomm #journalism
September 14, 2025 at 4:10 PM