Max G. Levy
@maxlevy.bsky.social
2.3K followers 350 following 79 posts
✍️freelance science journalist: Wired, Quanta, TED-Ed & elsewhere cofounder @sequencermag.bsky.social https://maxglevy.com/ los angeles
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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
🧪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
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...
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
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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"
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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
Thanks! Bc no permitting yet from MTA to collect data. But he's working on arranging a more official pilot, and meeting with groups who have relationships with MTA
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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:
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"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-...
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
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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.
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If the next pandemic starts tomorrow, with the current risk landscape, I think it's still much more likely to be H5N1 - with a spillover somewhere in the southeast or the middle of the continent, just like the 1918 Spanish Flu - than anything else. Trump's actions have paved the way for it. 1/2
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It's not about eggs. Please RT!
Hello, FoodSky! I have a relatively simple question about U.S. grocery supply chains that is not really a google question, it's an ask-an-expert question. Literally just one question, could be answered by email or a five-minute phone call. Can anyone point me to someone who could help? For a story.
not sure who needs to hear this today but:

you don't hate getting older, you hate how society treats older people
Clouds play an important role regulating the climate. To incorporate clouds into climate models scientists are learning more about the *biology* of clouds: studies of plants, plankton & organics flung up by sea spray.

Major thanks @joespring.bsky.social for edits on this

tinyurl.com/388ncr38
Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand How Life Makes Clouds, and Their Discoveries May Drastically Improve Climate Science
Plants, plankton and sea spray all release elements that help the atmospheric blankets form
www.smithsonianmag.com
Reposted by Max G. Levy
A growing class of scientists is learning how plants, plankton and sea spray release elements that can shape giant features like clouds. @maxlevy.bsky.social profiles their work, and shares how it will help other researchers more accurately predict climate. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...
Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand How Life Makes Clouds, and Their Discoveries May Drastically Improve Climate Science
Plants, plankton and sea spray all release elements that help the atmospheric blankets form
www.smithsonianmag.com
Reposted by Max G. Levy
SVP: "What has been most satisfying that you gave this team along the way?... Is there one thing you'll take great satisfaction in from this run?"

Jalen Williams: "Nothing is more precious than time..." 🏀📺🎙️ #NBA
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I hope this is making national & global news, not just here in Los Angeles where I am.

The federal govt sending in the National Guard and LAPD, seemingly complicit in the ICE raids should worry everyone. While Bass and Newsome claim nothing to do with it, why arern't they protecting LA residents?
Now that people are talking to/about AI as if they're people, is the internet going to have to switch to serif fonts?

Lower case "L" and capital "I" look identical. And people use chatbots for therapy and itineraries.

"I asked AI for advice"

Alex? Claude? Albert? ChatGPT????