Elise Cutts
@elisecutts.bsky.social
Science journalist is just a fancy way of saying "professional nerd." USian in Austria, language geek, collector of fine yellow zigzagged sweaters and etymology fun facts. Get my newsletter about big questions in science: www.reviewertoo.com 👽🌀🦋
I am here for this wholesome gossip 🍿
Right, enough of James Watson - who's a senior academic you've met who's been an utter delight?
I'll go first: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
I'll go first: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
November 10, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I am here for this wholesome gossip 🍿
Translation: new dino discovered in fossil vomit
🚨New paper alert!🚨🤩
🧪⚒️Welcome the first filter-feeding pterosaur from Brazil: Bakiribu waridza, from the Araripe Basin!! 🥳
The new species is AWESOME and was discoverd inside a regurgitalite 😱🤍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪⚒️Welcome the first filter-feeding pterosaur from Brazil: Bakiribu waridza, from the Araripe Basin!! 🥳
The new species is AWESOME and was discoverd inside a regurgitalite 😱🤍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group
www.nature.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Translation: new dino discovered in fossil vomit
Are you a scientist?
Is your research cool?
Do people not adequately appreciate how cool your research is?
I'm looking for researchers to feature in Q&A-style interviews on my blog and would love to hear from (or about — embarrass your friends!) scientists interested in sharing their work. 🧪
Is your research cool?
Do people not adequately appreciate how cool your research is?
I'm looking for researchers to feature in Q&A-style interviews on my blog and would love to hear from (or about — embarrass your friends!) scientists interested in sharing their work. 🧪
November 10, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Are you a scientist?
Is your research cool?
Do people not adequately appreciate how cool your research is?
I'm looking for researchers to feature in Q&A-style interviews on my blog and would love to hear from (or about — embarrass your friends!) scientists interested in sharing their work. 🧪
Is your research cool?
Do people not adequately appreciate how cool your research is?
I'm looking for researchers to feature in Q&A-style interviews on my blog and would love to hear from (or about — embarrass your friends!) scientists interested in sharing their work. 🧪
People posted so many great recommendations! Thank you 😁
Being able to poll the void like this and get actually productive responses restores my faith in the internet a bit
Being able to poll the void like this and get actually productive responses restores my faith in the internet a bit
Hey complexity and complexity-adjacent people:
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
November 10, 2025 at 11:15 AM
People posted so many great recommendations! Thank you 😁
Being able to poll the void like this and get actually productive responses restores my faith in the internet a bit
Being able to poll the void like this and get actually productive responses restores my faith in the internet a bit
Short bios are short but writing them is not
Who'd have thought it'd be uncomfortable to squeeze your life down into a few sentences 🙃
Who'd have thought it'd be uncomfortable to squeeze your life down into a few sentences 🙃
November 10, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Short bios are short but writing them is not
Who'd have thought it'd be uncomfortable to squeeze your life down into a few sentences 🙃
Who'd have thought it'd be uncomfortable to squeeze your life down into a few sentences 🙃
Hey complexity and complexity-adjacent people:
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
November 9, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Hey complexity and complexity-adjacent people:
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
What are some of your favorite pop-sci books? Are there any you've had your eye on but haven't had a chance to read yet?
They can be new or old. I'd just love to know what y'all are reading!
There are two phases of writing:
1) Pre-word count panic about reaching the word count
2) Post-word count panic about exceeding the word count
1) Pre-word count panic about reaching the word count
2) Post-word count panic about exceeding the word count
November 7, 2025 at 1:18 PM
There are two phases of writing:
1) Pre-word count panic about reaching the word count
2) Post-word count panic about exceeding the word count
1) Pre-word count panic about reaching the word count
2) Post-word count panic about exceeding the word count
Not every fact is fun
🧪The strange anatomy of the spotted hyena matriarch sure makes me feel grateful that I was born with human reproductive organs 😳
www.lbscience.org/en/2025/11/0...
@lbscience.org
www.lbscience.org/en/2025/11/0...
@lbscience.org
Fun Fact: Spotted Hyena Females Have a Functional Pseudo-Penis - Little, Big Science
The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is a sophisticated predator with a matriarchal social structure—a society dominated by females—and an anatomy that challenges everything we thought we knew about th...
www.lbscience.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Not every fact is fun
Gonna make a prediction. This will be yet another case of:
"it was always here we're just actually recognizing it exists now"
+
"who'd have thought kids with this so-called childhood disorder grow up into adults who also have it" -shocked pikachu face-
"it was always here we're just actually recognizing it exists now"
+
"who'd have thought kids with this so-called childhood disorder grow up into adults who also have it" -shocked pikachu face-
Clinicians are noticing a steady climb in diagnoses of ARFID, a type of eating disorder that presents as a food avoidance so persistent and pervasive it can cause severe malnutrition in kids and adults. More @sciam.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...
ARFID Is More Than Picky Eating—And the Condition Is on the Rise
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID, can cause malnutrition and weight loss in children and adults even when body image is not a factor
www.scientificamerican.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Gonna make a prediction. This will be yet another case of:
"it was always here we're just actually recognizing it exists now"
+
"who'd have thought kids with this so-called childhood disorder grow up into adults who also have it" -shocked pikachu face-
"it was always here we're just actually recognizing it exists now"
+
"who'd have thought kids with this so-called childhood disorder grow up into adults who also have it" -shocked pikachu face-
I am so fucking exhausted of women's full and equal humanity being up for fucking debate.
Exhausted.
I promise that fun science content will resume shortly but ~all this~ is seriously taking something out of me.
Exhausted.
I promise that fun science content will resume shortly but ~all this~ is seriously taking something out of me.
November 6, 2025 at 4:42 PM
I am so fucking exhausted of women's full and equal humanity being up for fucking debate.
Exhausted.
I promise that fun science content will resume shortly but ~all this~ is seriously taking something out of me.
Exhausted.
I promise that fun science content will resume shortly but ~all this~ is seriously taking something out of me.
Did men ruin the New York Times?
November 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Did men ruin the New York Times?
50 "gnomes" — I'm unsure if I'm happy or sad there's no edit function
I've been chewing on metaphors of the genome ever since talking to @anaisbailles.bsky.social about Hydra — which can grow entire functional individuals from balls of cells taken from 50 shredded-up predecessors.
These doubly-mythological Hydra-Chimeras have 50 gnomes!
So where's their blueprint?
These doubly-mythological Hydra-Chimeras have 50 gnomes!
So where's their blueprint?
Hydra are a cosmos in a cuvette
Anaïs Bailles on astrophysics and immortal animals
www.reviewertoo.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:26 PM
50 "gnomes" — I'm unsure if I'm happy or sad there's no edit function
*taps mic*
Women have no genetic blueprint 🧪
Women have no genetic blueprint 🧪
Women have no genetic blueprint
Neither do men, but women *really* don't
www.reviewertoo.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:24 PM
*taps mic*
Women have no genetic blueprint 🧪
Women have no genetic blueprint 🧪
so you're telling me other people can hear a bird make a sound and not try to make the sound themselves
November 4, 2025 at 11:29 AM
so you're telling me other people can hear a bird make a sound and not try to make the sound themselves
Don't mind if I don't
November 3, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Don't mind if I don't
Journalists, writers, and co!
@weischoice.bsky.social is setting up peer support groups for media folks.
If you, like me, could use some more regular contact with colleagues, take a look.
There's a linked survey form for giving feedback/ideas on how to make the groups as useful as possible.
@weischoice.bsky.social is setting up peer support groups for media folks.
If you, like me, could use some more regular contact with colleagues, take a look.
There's a linked survey form for giving feedback/ideas on how to make the groups as useful as possible.
Setting Up a Peer-Lead Support Group Network for Media
mailchi.mp
November 2, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Journalists, writers, and co!
@weischoice.bsky.social is setting up peer support groups for media folks.
If you, like me, could use some more regular contact with colleagues, take a look.
There's a linked survey form for giving feedback/ideas on how to make the groups as useful as possible.
@weischoice.bsky.social is setting up peer support groups for media folks.
If you, like me, could use some more regular contact with colleagues, take a look.
There's a linked survey form for giving feedback/ideas on how to make the groups as useful as possible.
Trying to figure out how to mount a bird pole on my balcony without drilling any holes (renting, yay) is a good way to cure myself of the coulda-woulda-shouldas about choosing science over engineering in college lol.
November 2, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Trying to figure out how to mount a bird pole on my balcony without drilling any holes (renting, yay) is a good way to cure myself of the coulda-woulda-shouldas about choosing science over engineering in college lol.
Reposted by Elise Cutts
Another casualty of the LLM revolution.
In "arXiv’s CS category, review articles and position papers must now be accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review."
In "arXiv’s CS category, review articles and position papers must now be accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review."
Attention Authors: Updated Practice for Review Articles and Position Papers in arXiv CS Category – arXiv blog
blog.arxiv.org
November 2, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Another casualty of the LLM revolution.
In "arXiv’s CS category, review articles and position papers must now be accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review."
In "arXiv’s CS category, review articles and position papers must now be accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review."
I student AI use a kind of "bad equilibrium?"
Even if most students would prefer to not use AI, if you start off in a state where most students do use it, individuals who stop are "punished" or disadvantaged if they decide not to.
Everyone gets trapped in a situation almost nobody wants.
Even if most students would prefer to not use AI, if you start off in a state where most students do use it, individuals who stop are "punished" or disadvantaged if they decide not to.
Everyone gets trapped in a situation almost nobody wants.
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
www.ru.nl
November 2, 2025 at 10:36 AM
I student AI use a kind of "bad equilibrium?"
Even if most students would prefer to not use AI, if you start off in a state where most students do use it, individuals who stop are "punished" or disadvantaged if they decide not to.
Everyone gets trapped in a situation almost nobody wants.
Even if most students would prefer to not use AI, if you start off in a state where most students do use it, individuals who stop are "punished" or disadvantaged if they decide not to.
Everyone gets trapped in a situation almost nobody wants.
Eldritch cutie
Got in a staring contest today. Me & @invertebabe.bsky.social vs the cuttlefish.
We went snorkeling at Sesoko beach in Okinawa and saw 12(!!!!) cuttlefish. Absolutely amazing.
We went snorkeling at Sesoko beach in Okinawa and saw 12(!!!!) cuttlefish. Absolutely amazing.
November 1, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Eldritch cutie
Is this a false impression, or is complexity science/complexity-adjacent world actually pretty male-dominated?
As in, more skewed male than related scientific domains like physics?
As in, more skewed male than related scientific domains like physics?
November 1, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Is this a false impression, or is complexity science/complexity-adjacent world actually pretty male-dominated?
As in, more skewed male than related scientific domains like physics?
As in, more skewed male than related scientific domains like physics?
Who are your favorite content creators who show you how to do boring everyday stuff you should have been taught as a teenager but weren't?
I'm talking skills like:
- cleaning
- cooking
- basic accounting
- taxes
Etc.
I'm talking skills like:
- cleaning
- cooking
- basic accounting
- taxes
Etc.
October 31, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Who are your favorite content creators who show you how to do boring everyday stuff you should have been taught as a teenager but weren't?
I'm talking skills like:
- cleaning
- cooking
- basic accounting
- taxes
Etc.
I'm talking skills like:
- cleaning
- cooking
- basic accounting
- taxes
Etc.