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Scientific Inquirer
@scientificinquirer.bsky.social
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CIDRAP highlights how CDC’s tiny prion office was nearly sidelined in the shutdown—halting tracking of deadly CJD and possible CWD spillover. Cutting it could leave us blind to years of silent spread. #PublicHealth #CWD scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/24/d...
Black-and-white illustration divided into three connected scenes. On the right, a woman lies motionless in a hospital bed, her face slack and eyes half-open, attached to a monitor that shows a shaky brainwave line. Her bed casts a long, dark shadow toward a heavy door with a lock, suggesting something ominous and irreversible. In the lower-left panel, four scientists in lab coats huddle around a table strewn with brain-scan charts and graphs, their expressions tense and worried as they analyze the data. In the upper-left panel, three deer stand in front of the silhouette of the US Capitol; their elongated shadows morph into human figures, hinting at disease crossing from animals to people. The whole scene is rendered in dense cross-hatching and deep shadows, creating a somber, foreboding mood.
November 26, 2025 at 7:19 PM
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New research says teen phone risk isn’t about hours, but how they scroll: late-night doomscrolling, cyberbullying, compulsive checks tied to suicidal thoughts. Focus on sleep, boundaries, coping—not just screen limits. #MentalHealth
Black-and-white ink drawing of a tired teen lying in bed at night, face lit by the glow of a smartphone held in both hands. Around the bed, the darkness forms ominous scenes: to the left, a swirling tunnel of tiny, ghostlike figures representing an endless feed; above the teen, looming shadowy silhouettes point and sneer, evoking cyberbullying; to the right, a glowing vignette shows a small figure walking on a treadmill while staring at a phone, symbolizing compulsive, never-ending scrolling. The teen’s expression is sad and strained, and the contrast between the bright screen and the heavy shadows emphasizes emotional exhaustion and distress.
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
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Donald Glover had a stroke at 42—and he's not alone. Stroke rates are rising in adults under 50, driven by high blood pressure, stress, and lifestyle. Think you're too young? Think again. #StrokeAwareness #Health scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/24/w...
**Alt text:** Black-and-white pencil sketch of Donald Glover with a solemn expression, wearing a V-neck shirt. His eyes are downcast, and his face shows signs of fatigue and reflection. The background is lightly shaded with crosshatch lines. The tone of the image is serious, evoking the emotional weight of a health crisis.
November 24, 2025 at 2:04 PM
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New K2 bonebed in Romania’s Hațeg Basin is packed with dino-era fossils—amphibians, turtles, crocs, pterosaurs, mammals and especially dinosaurs—capturing a flash-flooded lake and an isolated island ecosystem in the Late Cretaceous. 🦴 #paleontology scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/20/d...
Black-and-white cartoon cross-section of a prehistoric lake during a violent rainstorm. At the surface, floodwaters sweep a small running dinosaur and a long-necked sauropod into a lake beside a tiny tree-topped island. Below ground, neat rectangular pockets in the sediment display crowded fossils and bodies: a small bipedal dinosaur skeleton, a squat herbivore skeleton, several long-snouted crocodile-like reptiles, a pterosaur with outstretched wings, a tiny turtle, a mammal-like creature, and scattered loose bones, all packed together to suggest an exceptionally dense bonebed.
November 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM
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Fresh fossils from 249M-year-old seas in Spitsbergen show marine reptiles bounced back fast after the Great Dying, quickly taking over open oceans—much sooner than textbooks say. 🌊🦎 #paleontology #MassExtinction scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/20/d...
Black-and-white cartoon of an Arctic seascape with icebergs at the surface and a large hourglass on the seafloor. In the upper bulb of the hourglass, scattered skulls and bones tumble downward; in the lower bulb, the bones have transformed into small marine reptiles and amphibians, which then swim out into the surrounding water alongside sharks and fish. A worried-looking sun hangs over the scene, hinting at harsh climate conditions and the rapid rebuilding of post-extinction marine ecosystems.
November 22, 2025 at 1:52 PM
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New Nature Astronomy framework uses black hole “shadow” images to stress-test Einstein. Today’s EHT pics can’t rule out all alt gravity, but next-gen telescopes may. GR about to face sharper scrutiny. #BlackHoles 🌌 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/10/d...
Black-and-white cartoon of a scientist comparing black hole “shadow” images. In the foreground, a serious-looking astronomer in a lab coat and glasses holds up a transparent sheet showing a dark circle with a glowing ring. Behind him, several other sheets with slightly different ring shapes float in the air like test images. On the curved surface of a planet, an array of telescopes points toward the sky. Above them hangs a huge central black hole with a bright accretion ring, surrounded by several ghostly, alternate ringed black holes, all against a speckled star field with a small satellite orbiting nearby.
November 20, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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Astronomers caught the brightest, most distant flare from a supermassive black hole—a star shredded in an active galaxy, glowing like 10 trillion suns. Wild preview of what future sky surveys will find. #astronomy 🌌 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/10/d...
Black-and-white cartoon of a tidal disruption event in space. On the left, a round, dark black hole with wide, surprised eyes sits in the middle of swirling, ringed accretion lines. One long, noodle-like arm stretches out to grab a star on the right, which looks like a soft, blobby marshmallow being pulled apart. The star has X-shaped eyes and a drooping mouth as its tentacle-like fragments trail toward the black hole. Below, on a curved planet surface, two small telescopes point upward, watching the scene against a background filled with tiny white stars.
November 20, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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Experimental protein-based gel can regrow tooth enamel by pulling minerals from saliva, building a new protective layer in weeks. Early days, but this could mean fewer drills, fillings and crowns. #dentistry 🦷 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/07/d...
Black-and-white cartoon set inside an open mouth, showing a giant molar under construction. The tooth has a smiling, goo-like blob spread over its top, as if the gel itself is alive. Two tiny, hard-hat–wearing tooth characters act like construction workers: one climbs scaffolding beside the tooth, another wades through a shiny puddle of gel at the base. On the right, a bespectacled dentist in mask and cap carefully paints the gel onto the tooth with a brush. In his other hand he holds a sad-faced dental drill, which droops like a sidelined tool no longer needed.
November 19, 2025 at 12:51 AM
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New CIDRAP update: H5N1 keeps popping up in US poultry—turkey farms in the Dakotas + a 231k-bird egg facility in CA, plus cases in MI/IN. Human risk still low, but big hits to farms and a reminder this virus isn’t going away. #H5N1 🐔 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/07/d...
Black-and-white cartoon of a poultry barn turned airport-style security line. Several anxious-looking chickens shuffle toward a walk-through scanner, while more birds crowd in cages along the wall. A person in a full hazmat suit and respirator stands beside the scanner, supervising. On a conveyor belt in front, a tray holds several spiky virus-shaped blobs as if they’ve been removed like pocket items at a checkpoint.
November 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
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New Nature Medicine study: in people at risk for Alzheimer’s, more daily movement = less tau buildup + better thinking over time. Observational, but another reason to treat exercise like brain medicine. Time for RCTs. #Alzheimers #Exercise 🧠 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/07/d...
Black-and-white split-panel cartoon of an older man shown in two versions. On the left, he sits slumped in an armchair in front of a glowing TV, holding a remote, with a tired, sad expression. His exposed brain appears dark and cluttered with dense, scribbly tangles. On the right, the same man is outside power-walking on a path, looking alert and determined. His body is leaner, his posture upright, and his exposed brain is smooth and clearly defined while a small dark clump falls away behind him. Subtle tree-like neuron shapes in the background echo the brain theme.
November 18, 2025 at 7:36 PM
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When Mountains Melt: The Lethal Physics Behind California’s Burn-Scar Mudslides... Southern California’s atmospheric river isn’t just rain—it’s priming burned LA hillsides for ⚠️ debris flows, as ash, loose soil and gravity combine. Stay alert! #CAwx #LArain scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/15/w...
A black-and-white drawing of a storm hitting steep hills above a neighborhood. At the top right, a bare, burned hillside is covered in charred tree trunks like black spears. From the slope, a thick river of mud, rocks, and debris churns downhill toward a cluster of small houses at the bottom right. Heavy rain slants across the whole scene from a dark, elongated storm cloud shaped like a horizontal river in the sky. In the foreground left, a lone person stands with an umbrella, watching the hillside. Between them and the slope is an oversized laboratory beaker embedded in the ground. Inside the beaker, miniature burned trees stand in watery slurry with floating leaves and pebbles swirling in circular currents, visually echoing the debris flow outside. Arrows at the bottom of the beaker and on the ground beneath the hillside indicate the direction of flow, tying together the physics experiment and the real-world mudslide threat.
November 16, 2025 at 12:37 AM
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It's National Pickle Day! Pickling is a 4,000-year hack: from Mesopotamian cucumbers and Roman rations to kimchi, sauerkraut & achars, we’ve turned food survival into flavor art—and it’s back in a big way. #foodhistory #fermentation 🥒 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/14/i...
A detailed black-and-white drawing showing the global history of pickling centered on a gigantic glass jar of cucumbers. Inside the jar, whole pickles, leaves, and a cucumber slice float in brine. Miniature figures from different eras stand on the jar’s bottom: Roman soldiers hauling wooden barrels, a worker in simple clothes carrying a round crock, and a Korean mother guiding a child who holds a bowl of kimchi-like vegetables. Outside and atop the jar, a modern chef with a man bun and apron sprinkles sliced cucumbers into the opening from a bowl. Around the jar, faint background scenes suggest different times and places: step pyramids and ancient stone arches on the left, a sailing ship and distant skyscrapers on the right, plus a pagoda near the Korean family. The overall effect is a time-spanning collage showing pickling as a shared tradition across civilizations.
November 14, 2025 at 8:56 PM
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Jellyfish-style soft robot uses electro-hydraulic “muscles” + hydrogel electrodes to glide almost silently on ~28.5 mW, perfect for stealthy seafloor monitoring and long swarm missions. #oceantech 🌊 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/06/d...
A black-and-white cartoon scene on the seafloor. In the upper left, a chunky box-shaped underwater robot with big round eyes, a propeller on its back, and claw-like arms buzzes along, leaving swirling motion lines and bubbles that suggest noise. A small school of startled fish scatters to the right. Dominating the center is a large, ghostly jellyfish-shaped robot. Its bell is translucent and dome-like, with a faint brain-like pattern inside, and a short mechanical “spine” where soft tentacles flow downward in smooth arcs. The jellyfish robot drifts calmly among seaweed and small fish. Above it is a thought bubble showing a simple, natural fish, implying the robot is modeled on marine life. Near the bottom right, a hydrophone-style sensor or buoy sits on the seabed, connected by a cable and emitting gentle, concentric sound waves. A nearby fish looks nervously toward the noisy box robot but seems unbothered by the quiet jellyfish robot, reinforcing the contrast between clunky propeller-driven machines and stealthy biomimetic design.
November 14, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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New underwater robot uses a flexible electromagnetic fin instead of propellers, hitting fish-like speed and tight turns. Could quietly survey reefs and infrastructure without spooking wildlife. #robots #ocean 🤖 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/06/d...
A black-and-white cartoon set underwater. On the left, a clunky box-shaped underwater robot with big round eyes, propellers, and claw arms swims forward, leaving swirling motion lines and bubbles behind it. Below it, a grumpy-looking fish wearing large headphones sits on the seafloor beside a computer monitor that shows the same boxy robot on its screen. On the right, a sleek, fish-shaped robot with a flexible, wiggling tail fin glides smoothly past coral and seaweed, emitting gentle motion lines from its tail. This robot is looking toward a small underwater sensor or buoy on the seafloor that has a coiled cable and a star-like symbol, sending out wavy signal lines. Above the sleek robot is a thought bubble showing an ordinary fish swimming gracefully, implying the robot is modeled on real fish. In the background on the far right, two human scientists peer in from outside the water, one pointing toward the scene, both wearing lab coats.
November 13, 2025 at 2:10 PM
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Mind captioning turns fMRI brain activity into text, describing what people see or even remember. Big step for communication + BCIs, but raises serious questions about mental privacy. #Neurotech #AI 🧠 scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/06/d...
A black-and-white cartoon of a neuroscience lab. In the center, a person lies on a bed with their head inside an MRI scanner, eyes closed, hands folded calmly on their chest. The side of the scanner facing the viewer is open, showing a simplified brain inside their head. Above the person is a large thought bubble depicting a stick-figure person leaping over a deep waterfall between two rocky cliffs. To the left, next to the scanner, a small console shows a glowing, stylized brain connected by a zigzag cable to a nearby computer monitor. On the monitor is the same scene as in the thought bubble: a figure jumping across the waterfall. On the right side of the panel, two lab-coated scientists stand watching. One points toward the setup in surprise; the other holds a clipboard with a large padlock icon on it, hinting at privacy concerns. The entire scene is rendered in clean grayscale line art, with no text anywhere inside the cartoon.
November 13, 2025 at 1:07 PM
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PNAS: China is fast becoming lead on global research. >50% of UK–China projects are China-led; parity with Europe by ’25–27 and US by ’27–28. In US–China, lead share rose 30%→45% (2010–23). Collaboration still matters. #science #geopolitics scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/05/d...
Black-and-white editorial cartoon: Two lab-coated teams—left with China flag armbands, right with U.S. flag motifs—tug cables attached to a giant microscope perched on a chessboard. A low fence of microchips forms a boundary behind them. Foreground chess pieces include a Union Jack knight and an EU-stars bishop, as if watching the struggle.
November 11, 2025 at 6:43 PM
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House of Lords: UK sci/tech is 'bleeding to death'—startups flee to the US, pharma cuts. Blame: costly visas/NHS fees, higher salary bars, uni funding, messy policy. Act now or forget a UK $1T tech by 2035. #UKtech #policy scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/05/d...
Black-and-white cartoon: A robot with a Union Jack torso lies on an operating table, tubing draining into a spreading puddle that morphs into a runway. Two masked, ermine-robed Lords hover as somber surgeons. In the distance, a jet with the Chinese flag on its tail lifts off along the runway.
November 10, 2025 at 1:05 PM
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Some stinkbugs farm fungi on their legs—then smear them on eggs as anti-wasp armor. 🪲🧫 A coevolved bio-shield that expands insect “agriculture” beyond ants and termites. Nature’s biotech at work! #entomology #symbiosis scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/05/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink scene of a stinkbug on a leaf using a spoon-like leg organ to smear a textured coating onto a clutch of eggs. A translucent “garden” of fungal nodules is visible in chambers on its leg and wing covers. Vaporous swirls rise from the coated eggs toward an approaching parasitic wasp, while a small nymph watches below. Fine cross-hatching throughout.
November 9, 2025 at 2:04 PM
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Shell-boring worms have been parasitizing bivalves since ~480 million years ago—same drill marks in Ordovician fossils and modern oysters. Some parasite–host relationships basically never quit. 🐚🪱 #evolution scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/05/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink underwater scene: a magnifying glass highlights an Ordovician shell pocked with round boreholes while, at center, a hard-hatted worm inside an hourglass “drills” through time. Its tail links to a modern hanging oyster with the same holes; aquaculture baskets and floats sit to the right, trilobite-like seafloor creatures and a coiled shell to the left—signaling parasite–host continuity across deep time.
November 8, 2025 at 10:50 PM
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New fossil: a small birdlike dino with the longest known feathered tail, built more for show than flight. Pennaceous ribbons, short hops, mixed lifestyle—early feathers were wildly diverse. 🦕🪶 #paleontology scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/05/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink: a small birdlike theropod perched on a branch sports an exceptionally long, ribboned tail and compact pennaceous forewings. Faint vignettes show a short bounding takeoff and ground foraging. Below, a fossil slab inset and a magnified feather cross-section underscore display-oriented plumage. Forest backdrop with cross-hatched shading.
November 8, 2025 at 7:12 PM
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Takeda’s latest phase 3 data suggest its live-attenuated dengue vax is still protective and safe over time—key as dengue seasons intensify and spread. Could shape immunization plans heading into 2026. 🦟 #vaccines scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/04/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink cartoon: a scientist assembles a ring-shaped shield made of syringes around a family while a dark swarm of mosquitoes rolls in from a warming Earth. A thermometer, hourglass, and seasonal pie chart hint at shifting climates; medical crates and a clinic sit behind the scientist. Cross-hatched shading throughout.
November 8, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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EPA shuts Chapel Hill exposure lab, halting decades of pollution studies. With big ORD cuts + a reorg under admin control, scientists fear politicized priorities as $50B science slashes threaten monitoring and public health. #science #EPA scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/04/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink cartoon: a sleeping newborn in a NICU incubator while a DNA helix snakes out toward a racetrack, where two scientists push a car-shaped sequencer toward a checkered flag. A giant stopwatch and hourglass loom overhead; lightning bolts, an arrow-tipped helix, vials, pipette, IV line, monitor, and a heart icon suggest ultra-rapid genome sequencing to guide treatment.
November 7, 2025 at 8:03 PM
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EPA shuts Chapel Hill exposure lab, halting decades of pollution studies. With big ORD cuts + a reorg under admin control, scientists fear politicized priorities as $50B science slashes threaten monitoring and public health. #science #EPA scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/04/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink cartoon: a clinician in bulky welding goggles directs a tight beam from a lamp into a patient’s translucent torso. Inside, a bright starburst flares on a tumor while nearby droplets and snowflake shapes remain untouched. The doctor grips a cable-tethered probe; a dial gauge on the abdomen and a small console suggest monitored, light-activated therapy.
November 7, 2025 at 3:40 PM
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EPA shuts Chapel Hill exposure lab, halting decades of pollution studies. With big ORD cuts + a reorg under admin control, scientists fear politicized priorities as $50B science slashes threaten monitoring and public health. #science #EPA scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/04/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink cartoon of a lab being shut down: a chained, padlocked door shows smokestacks outside; a suited hand unplugs a cord from a microscope, the line running to a bell-jar shaped like the U.S. Capitol dome. Overhead, a giant faucet styled as a judge’s gavel shuts the pipes. Benches hold idle gear—anemometer, vials, a second microscope—while a monitor displays a hurricane swirl and molecule diagrams. Coiled cables and heavy cross-hatching emphasize power cutoffs and stalled research.
November 7, 2025 at 12:44 PM
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Astronomers just built a 3D weather map of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-18b—revealing day-night contrasts, limb zones, and vertical layers. It’s a big leap toward decoding real exoplanet climates from light alone. 🔥🪐 #exoplanets #astronomy scientificinquirer.com/2025/11/03/d...
Black-and-white pen-and-ink illustration: a lab-coated astronomer holds an umbrella and pointer, indicating a glowing hotspot on a gridded 3D cube that encloses a spherical exoplanet. The planet shows a bright day side and dark night side with an arrow suggesting eastward flow and banded layers. Wispy streamlines curl around the scene. A telescope on a tripod, two desk globes, and a wavy chart sit on a table; small cloud icons and chemistry puffs hint at weather and composition mapping. Cross-hatched shading throughout.
November 7, 2025 at 2:57 AM