Jacob Aron
@jjaron.bsky.social
News editor at New Scientist. I read a lot of books, and recommend the best ones to you
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Jacob Aron
@jjaron.bsky.social
· Nov 15
I used to share book recommendations on the other place but got out of the habit this year as engagement massively dropped off. Thinking about putting together my top 10 list for this year though, so as a test, like this, and for each like I'll recommend something great I read in the past 5 years
Reposted by Jacob Aron
The ISS may soon become slightly less international. Russia’s only launch pad capable of sending humans to orbit is damaged and may be out of commission for two years. That would pose a dilemma for NASA: take on more costs and responsibility or let the ISS die. www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
What would Russia's inability to launch crewed missions mean for ISS?
Russia's only launch site capable of sending humans to orbit has suffered serious damage that may take two years to fix. Will NASA keep supporting the ISS without Russian involvement, or is this the e...
www.newscientist.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:03 PM
The ISS may soon become slightly less international. Russia’s only launch pad capable of sending humans to orbit is damaged and may be out of commission for two years. That would pose a dilemma for NASA: take on more costs and responsibility or let the ISS die. www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
More fuel for the ‘some top jobs are becomg impossible’ to do. Yes the leak was bad and dumb and embarrassing! But on the whole i think resign when you have demonstrably hurt someone/failed in a core duty. Nobody died of ‘having an URL people can guess’ www.theguardian.com/business/202...
OBR chair quits after inquiry into early release of Reeves’s budget
Richard Hughes departs after investigation into how official forecaster accidentally published budget 40 minutes early
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:15 PM
More fuel for the ‘some top jobs are becomg impossible’ to do. Yes the leak was bad and dumb and embarrassing! But on the whole i think resign when you have demonstrably hurt someone/failed in a core duty. Nobody died of ‘having an URL people can guess’ www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
(hurriedly scribbles down title for novel: FORBIDDEN SYMMETRIES)
Matter with “forbidden” symmetries was once thought to be confined to lab experiments, but is now being found in some of the world’s most extreme environments.
Why quasicrystals shouldn’t exist but are turning up in strange places
Matter with “forbidden” symmetries was once thought to be confined to lab experiments, but is now being found in some of the world’s most extreme environments
www.newscientist.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
(hurriedly scribbles down title for novel: FORBIDDEN SYMMETRIES)
My leader this week on COP www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
December 1, 2025 at 10:31 AM
My leader this week on COP www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
Including this disclaimer in chapter 4 of your book suggests to me that it needs a better edit. If I'm not meant worry about the details, tell me at the start. Better yet, don't make your previous chapters a long list of identical people doing bad things! (Gilded Rage by Jacob Silverman)
December 1, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Including this disclaimer in chapter 4 of your book suggests to me that it needs a better edit. If I'm not meant worry about the details, tell me at the start. Better yet, don't make your previous chapters a long list of identical people doing bad things! (Gilded Rage by Jacob Silverman)
Reposted by Jacob Aron
I've done it, I've found the most middle class children's toy in existence
November 30, 2025 at 10:33 AM
I've done it, I've found the most middle class children's toy in existence
Management consultants being the most vulnerable to AI job disruption tells you a lot about consultants and a lot about AI www.ft.com/content/2b15...
Top consultancies freeze starting salaries as AI threatens ‘pyramid’ model
Productivity gains from technology are spurring debate about reliance on large numbers of junior advisers
www.ft.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Management consultants being the most vulnerable to AI job disruption tells you a lot about consultants and a lot about AI www.ft.com/content/2b15...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
I'm always confused when writers change the plot because a reader figured out what was coming. Surely that's good? Surely that means the breadcrumbs have been laid out appropriately?
December 1, 2025 at 4:50 AM
I'm always confused when writers change the plot because a reader figured out what was coming. Surely that's good? Surely that means the breadcrumbs have been laid out appropriately?
This is great
My most nerdy very short sci-fi story is "The Immediate Sound Of Distant Hammers"
universalshards.com/p/the-immedi...
universalshards.com/p/the-immedi...
December 1, 2025 at 6:54 AM
This is great
Had a dream that I was at an incredibly badly run meeting, so I offered feedback on how to run it better and was then forced to go to a meeting about meetings that was even more badly run
December 1, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Had a dream that I was at an incredibly badly run meeting, so I offered feedback on how to run it better and was then forced to go to a meeting about meetings that was even more badly run
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Some percentage of the population consistently reports that they are reincarnations of Jesus, that the CIA are monitoring us with subcutaneously injected spy drones, and that the moon landing is a hoax. Is it time to consider whether they’re onto something?
November 30, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Some percentage of the population consistently reports that they are reincarnations of Jesus, that the CIA are monitoring us with subcutaneously injected spy drones, and that the moon landing is a hoax. Is it time to consider whether they’re onto something?
We just had Marxists at the door, which is a new one
November 30, 2025 at 4:21 PM
We just had Marxists at the door, which is a new one
This is insane. Don't track your kids, but *really* don't track your adult children
People are very hard on young people on here, lack of critical thinking, lack of responsibility etc, and then you see something like this and it all makes a different kind of sense.
November 30, 2025 at 2:17 PM
This is insane. Don't track your kids, but *really* don't track your adult children
Reposted by Jacob Aron
The X-Files is genuinely a timelessly good show, because when not focusing on overarching conspiracy plot, they would really just focus on a single concept and quite crucially, it would cast an incredible actor to center the episode around who would be utterly god damn captivating to watch.
November 29, 2025 at 6:19 PM
The X-Files is genuinely a timelessly good show, because when not focusing on overarching conspiracy plot, they would really just focus on a single concept and quite crucially, it would cast an incredible actor to center the episode around who would be utterly god damn captivating to watch.
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Oh, that's where I know him from
November 30, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Oh, that's where I know him from
Reposted by Jacob Aron
This is a legitimate scientific revolution in meteorology.
Also, to be clear, these models are not the AI LLMs that most people are familiar with. They are machine learning algorithms trained on observations (actually reanalysis).
Also, to be clear, these models are not the AI LLMs that most people are familiar with. They are machine learning algorithms trained on observations (actually reanalysis).
Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting. n.pr/49MFa1M
As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends, the future of forecasting is AI
Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting.
n.pr
November 30, 2025 at 5:55 AM
This is a legitimate scientific revolution in meteorology.
Also, to be clear, these models are not the AI LLMs that most people are familiar with. They are machine learning algorithms trained on observations (actually reanalysis).
Also, to be clear, these models are not the AI LLMs that most people are familiar with. They are machine learning algorithms trained on observations (actually reanalysis).
I'm watching Seinfeld on Netflix (having never really watched it before) and it's infuriating that it's in 16:9 with no option to choose the original 4:3. Give me the black bars!
November 30, 2025 at 11:15 AM
I'm watching Seinfeld on Netflix (having never really watched it before) and it's infuriating that it's in 16:9 with no option to choose the original 4:3. Give me the black bars!
I've done it, I've found the most middle class children's toy in existence
November 30, 2025 at 10:33 AM
I've done it, I've found the most middle class children's toy in existence
Reposted by Jacob Aron
I guess it’s a compliment that the top story on BBC London’s TV/online output today is a direct lift of a month-old London Centric story? But once again the BBC is consistently the worst news outlet for actually remembering to credit others.
November 25, 2025 at 7:52 AM
I guess it’s a compliment that the top story on BBC London’s TV/online output today is a direct lift of a month-old London Centric story? But once again the BBC is consistently the worst news outlet for actually remembering to credit others.
Reposted by Jacob Aron
November 25, 2025 at 1:21 AM
It's giving Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
November 25, 2025 at 7:51 AM
It's giving Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
To be fair to Gregory Maguire, he's had one good idea in his career, executed it poorly and ever since has milked it for all it is worth www.broadwayworld.com/article/Greg...
Gregory Maguire Releasing WICKED Prequel 'Galinda: A Charmed Childhood' in 2026
Gregory Maguire, author of the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, will release his new book Galinda: A Charmed Childhood in the fall of 2026. Pre-orders are available no...
www.broadwayworld.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:09 PM
To be fair to Gregory Maguire, he's had one good idea in his career, executed it poorly and ever since has milked it for all it is worth www.broadwayworld.com/article/Greg...
Reposted by Jacob Aron
2015: it’s Black Friday!
2025: it’s Black Friday week!
2035: October is the start of Black Friday quarter!
2045: *gun to head* Black Friday starts December 26th
2025: it’s Black Friday week!
2035: October is the start of Black Friday quarter!
2045: *gun to head* Black Friday starts December 26th
November 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
2015: it’s Black Friday!
2025: it’s Black Friday week!
2035: October is the start of Black Friday quarter!
2045: *gun to head* Black Friday starts December 26th
2025: it’s Black Friday week!
2035: October is the start of Black Friday quarter!
2045: *gun to head* Black Friday starts December 26th
Reposted by Jacob Aron
Pre-orders make a huge difference for first time authors, please consider pre-ordering Entangled States here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/804548...
Entangled States by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan: 9780807016985 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
A young queer millennial physicist unveils some of the most mind-bending physics concepts in the universe—and uses them to illuminate their own fascinating life story “I see physics everywhere,”...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Pre-orders make a huge difference for first time authors, please consider pre-ordering Entangled States here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/804548...