Patchen Barss
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
Journalist and author. Science, mathematics, emerging ideas. “The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius” available here: https://shorturl.at/ixUY9
I’m not NOT knocking on heaven’s door…
November 19, 2025 at 1:08 AM
I’m not NOT knocking on heaven’s door…
So much happening tonight, the pumpkins have to do double duty.
October 31, 2025 at 11:19 PM
So much happening tonight, the pumpkins have to do double duty.
Toronto friends: I'm speaking this Sunday at 1:30 at the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Come out for a conversation about creativity, cosmology, and impossible objects. Moderated by Deborah Dundas. Hope to see you there!
Patchen Barss: The Impossible Equation of Genius - TIFA
Patchen Barss is a Toronto-based science journalist, author, and speaker. His biography, The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius, was named one of the top science and technology books...
festivalofauthors.ca
October 29, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Toronto friends: I'm speaking this Sunday at 1:30 at the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Come out for a conversation about creativity, cosmology, and impossible objects. Moderated by Deborah Dundas. Hope to see you there!
This looks fascinating and delightful.
Each generation seems to rediscover the riddle of organismal agency: are organisms agents that pursue intrinsic goals—and how could we know? Our 📕 gathers historians, philosophers & scientists to explore this debate—now available in paperback!👇 www.routledge.com/The-Riddle-o... #philsky #HPS #evobio
October 27, 2025 at 1:52 PM
This looks fascinating and delightful.
Fastenating.
ZIPPERS GET ZIPPIER: for more than a century, the zipper has stayed more or less the same. Now, after a 100 years of stasis, the company that makes half the world’s zippers has completely rethought the mechanism that holds much of modern clothing together. @wired.com www.wired.com/story/the-zi...
The Zipper Is Getting Its First Major Upgrade in 100 Years
By stripping away the fabric tape that’s held zippers together for a hundred years, Japanese clothing giant YKK is designing the future of seamless clothing.
www.wired.com
October 19, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Fastenating.
Me and the kids got Covid and flu vaccines today. ‘Tis the season to keep yourself and your community healthy!
October 18, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Me and the kids got Covid and flu vaccines today. ‘Tis the season to keep yourself and your community healthy!
Reposted by Patchen Barss
Hellooo new Bluesky users!
If you like science, science stories, context, and journalism with accountability, you may want to follow the people in this starter pack. Enjoy!
go.bsky.app/2gr4VJ5
If you like science, science stories, context, and journalism with accountability, you may want to follow the people in this starter pack. Enjoy!
go.bsky.app/2gr4VJ5
October 16, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Hellooo new Bluesky users!
If you like science, science stories, context, and journalism with accountability, you may want to follow the people in this starter pack. Enjoy!
go.bsky.app/2gr4VJ5
If you like science, science stories, context, and journalism with accountability, you may want to follow the people in this starter pack. Enjoy!
go.bsky.app/2gr4VJ5
The nice thing about getting older is my kids get older too. My 12-year-old made this card for me.
October 10, 2025 at 1:22 AM
The nice thing about getting older is my kids get older too. My 12-year-old made this card for me.
Too many times to count. I wish I had an editor to go over this response before I post it.
repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
October 9, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Too many times to count. I wish I had an editor to go over this response before I post it.
Reposted by Patchen Barss
Can you help?… I’m trying to find my people
I know there’s more space fans here… just not sure how to reach you
Feels weird to ask, but would you give me a signal boost by hitting share?
If you’re new… Hi I’m Cat, I make pretty picture of space 🥹 let’s connect if you like weird space art
I know there’s more space fans here… just not sure how to reach you
Feels weird to ask, but would you give me a signal boost by hitting share?
If you’re new… Hi I’m Cat, I make pretty picture of space 🥹 let’s connect if you like weird space art
October 8, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Can you help?… I’m trying to find my people
I know there’s more space fans here… just not sure how to reach you
Feels weird to ask, but would you give me a signal boost by hitting share?
If you’re new… Hi I’m Cat, I make pretty picture of space 🥹 let’s connect if you like weird space art
I know there’s more space fans here… just not sure how to reach you
Feels weird to ask, but would you give me a signal boost by hitting share?
If you’re new… Hi I’m Cat, I make pretty picture of space 🥹 let’s connect if you like weird space art
Reposted by Patchen Barss
Join us for WRITING #MATH on Oct 25! A hybrid event at
@fieldsinstitute.bsky.social with:
Paula Rowinska
Anthony Bonato
@dreugeniacheng.bsky.social
@profnoahgian.bsky.social
@1autumnleaf.bsky.social
Siobhan Roberts
@onlinekyne.bsky.social
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
shorturl.at/8NnDK
@fieldsinstitute.bsky.social with:
Paula Rowinska
Anthony Bonato
@dreugeniacheng.bsky.social
@profnoahgian.bsky.social
@1autumnleaf.bsky.social
Siobhan Roberts
@onlinekyne.bsky.social
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
shorturl.at/8NnDK
Writing Math: Perspectives from Authors and Educators
Writing Math: Perspectives from Authors and Educators is an event that aims to bring together leading authors—mathematicians, educators, and journalists—who are shaping how mathematics is written for ...
shorturl.at
October 8, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Join us for WRITING #MATH on Oct 25! A hybrid event at
@fieldsinstitute.bsky.social with:
Paula Rowinska
Anthony Bonato
@dreugeniacheng.bsky.social
@profnoahgian.bsky.social
@1autumnleaf.bsky.social
Siobhan Roberts
@onlinekyne.bsky.social
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
shorturl.at/8NnDK
@fieldsinstitute.bsky.social with:
Paula Rowinska
Anthony Bonato
@dreugeniacheng.bsky.social
@profnoahgian.bsky.social
@1autumnleaf.bsky.social
Siobhan Roberts
@onlinekyne.bsky.social
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
shorturl.at/8NnDK
Question about fiction from a non-fiction writer: I'm trying to think of protagonists who do not have a character arc, who end their story the same as they began. My one candidate: Ferris Bueller, who catalyzes change in others, but does not himself evolve or grow. Any others you can think of?
October 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Question about fiction from a non-fiction writer: I'm trying to think of protagonists who do not have a character arc, who end their story the same as they began. My one candidate: Ferris Bueller, who catalyzes change in others, but does not himself evolve or grow. Any others you can think of?
If you missed this story on quasicrystals - the platypuses of materials - in Quanta a few weeks ago, @wired.com has republished it. (My feeling is they should have edited so it was nearly, but not quite the same.)
The Mystery of How Quasicrystals Form
New studies of the “platypus of materials” help explain how their atoms arrange themselves into orderly, but nonrepeating, patterns.
www.wired.com
October 5, 2025 at 1:25 PM
If you missed this story on quasicrystals - the platypuses of materials - in Quanta a few weeks ago, @wired.com has republished it. (My feeling is they should have edited so it was nearly, but not quite the same.)
I’m very excited to be part of this event - what a stellar group! You should come!
Register here for the hybrid workshop (Zoom & in-person Toronto):
fields.utoronto.ca/activities/2...
Amazing line-up:
Paula Rowinska
Anthony Bonato
@dreugeniacheng.bsky.social
@1autumnleaf.bsky.social
@profnoahgian.bsky.social
Siobhan Roberts
@onlinekyne.bsky.social
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
fields.utoronto.ca/activities/2...
Amazing line-up:
Paula Rowinska
Anthony Bonato
@dreugeniacheng.bsky.social
@1autumnleaf.bsky.social
@profnoahgian.bsky.social
Siobhan Roberts
@onlinekyne.bsky.social
@patchenbarss.bsky.social
Writing Math: Perspectives from Authors and Educators
Writing Math: Perspectives from Authors and Educators is an event that aims to bring together leading authors—mathematicians, educators, and journalists—who are shaping how mathematics is written for ...
fields.utoronto.ca
October 4, 2025 at 12:31 PM
I’m very excited to be part of this event - what a stellar group! You should come!
This is so much my kind of thing. I wish I could be there. Have fun!
Join @astrokatie.com and a host of other guests in London, UK on October 10th as they commemorate the universe.
“The End of the Universe” will be an evening of music and reflections on what the universe has meant to its recent inhabitants.
Get tickets: wegottickets.com/event/676292
“The End of the Universe” will be an evening of music and reflections on what the universe has meant to its recent inhabitants.
Get tickets: wegottickets.com/event/676292
The End of the Universe
After a magnificent* 13.8 billion years** astronomer Chris Lintott (Sky at Night) and Steve Pretty (Hackney Colliery Band) lead a funeral and wake for the universe, as it sadly heads into heat death.
...
wegottickets.com
October 1, 2025 at 9:03 PM
This is so much my kind of thing. I wish I could be there. Have fun!
My typing fingers have started doing their own autocorrect, changing my sign-offs from "all the best," to "all the beset." Feels like a sign of the times.
September 22, 2025 at 8:11 PM
My typing fingers have started doing their own autocorrect, changing my sign-offs from "all the best," to "all the beset." Feels like a sign of the times.
Lots to enjoy reading in here. I appreciate the glimpses of the human beings driving this huge project.
The latest issue of @ligomagazine.bsky.social is out now and free to read
🎉 Celebrate 10 years of gravitational-wave astronomy with us 🎉
ligo.org/wp-content/u...
🔭🧪⚛️ #GW10Years
🎉 Celebrate 10 years of gravitational-wave astronomy with us 🎉
ligo.org/wp-content/u...
🔭🧪⚛️ #GW10Years
September 14, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Lots to enjoy reading in here. I appreciate the glimpses of the human beings driving this huge project.
I think my brain might be broken. Could someone please help me unbreak it? My kid was struggling with a math problem, and it turned out the issue was that his iPhone calculator was telling him minus 5 squared was minus 25.
September 7, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I think my brain might be broken. Could someone please help me unbreak it? My kid was struggling with a math problem, and it turned out the issue was that his iPhone calculator was telling him minus 5 squared was minus 25.
Hey, does anyone happen to know what's happening with bird flu? I haven't seen an update in a while.
September 4, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Hey, does anyone happen to know what's happening with bird flu? I haven't seen an update in a while.
For me, a non-scientist and non-mathematician who spends most of his working life among scientists and mathematicians, Fourier transforms are super-cool conceptually. This is a great exploration of their power and beauty.
A Fourier transform breaks down a complicated function into a set of frequencies. It’s like sniffing a perfume and determining its list of ingredients.
What Is the Fourier Transform? | Quanta Magazine
Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform,…
www.quantamagazine.org
September 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM
For me, a non-scientist and non-mathematician who spends most of his working life among scientists and mathematicians, Fourier transforms are super-cool conceptually. This is a great exploration of their power and beauty.
It's publication day in Spain for El hombre imposible: Roger Penrose y el precio de la genialidad. Thanks to Editorial Crítica for this edition. It is wonderful to see.
El hombre imposible: Roger Penrose y el precio de la genialidad (Drakontos)
El hombre imposible: Roger Penrose y el precio de la genialidad (Drakontos) : Barss, Patchen, Pacheco González, Pedro: Amazon.es: Books
www.amazon.es
September 3, 2025 at 6:47 PM
It's publication day in Spain for El hombre imposible: Roger Penrose y el precio de la genialidad. Thanks to Editorial Crítica for this edition. It is wonderful to see.
Thanks, science, for getting us closer to an answer to that evergreen question: Why is there something rather than nothing?
The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) collaboration at CERN has made the first observation of asymmetry in the decay rate of a baryon—a subatomic particle made of three quarks—and that of its antibaryon counterpart. It partly explains why there is matter in the universe.
Matter–antimatter asymmetry is observed in baryon decay
Previous detections of CP violation had been limited to the decay of quark–antiquark pairs. But it’s baryons—particles composed of three quarks—that make up the observable universe.
pubs.aip.org
September 3, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Thanks, science, for getting us closer to an answer to that evergreen question: Why is there something rather than nothing?
Attention UK friends: The paperback edition of The Impossible Man is out this week. If you're interested in where creative inspiration comes from, and the complicated question of who gets to be a genius, I invite you to have a look.
The Impossible Man
Roger Penrose is one of the past century's most influential mathematicians, philosophers and physicists. He received a Nobel Prize, a knighthood and dozens of o
blackwells.co.uk
August 23, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Attention UK friends: The paperback edition of The Impossible Man is out this week. If you're interested in where creative inspiration comes from, and the complicated question of who gets to be a genius, I invite you to have a look.
I did a reading at LaHave River Books last weekend. The organizers presented me with this volume of picture poems by my namesake, Kenneth Patchen. I have a few of his books but have never seen this one before. What a treasure! So weird and awesome.
August 23, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I did a reading at LaHave River Books last weekend. The organizers presented me with this volume of picture poems by my namesake, Kenneth Patchen. I have a few of his books but have never seen this one before. What a treasure! So weird and awesome.
What a pleasure to report on recent advances in quasicrystal research for the brilliant folks at Quanta magazine. When quasicrystals decide to tell you their secrets, you’d best pay close attention - they will not repeat themselves.
Physicists have an arsenal of new ways to scrutinize their favorite material weirdos. @patchenbarss.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/quasicrystal...
Quasicrystals Spill Secrets of Their Formation | Quanta Magazine
New studies of the ‘platypus of materials’ help explain how their atoms arrange themselves into orderly, but nonrepeating, patterns.
www.quantamagazine.org
August 18, 2025 at 2:46 PM
What a pleasure to report on recent advances in quasicrystal research for the brilliant folks at Quanta magazine. When quasicrystals decide to tell you their secrets, you’d best pay close attention - they will not repeat themselves.