Jon Gertner
@jongertner.bsky.social
Writing about climate, science, and technology at the NYTMagazine; author of The Idea Factory (on Bell Labs) and The Ice at the End of the World (on Greenland). Working on a book about NASA’s Voyager mission.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
You've probably heard about how the rapidly increasing numbers of satellites are affecting #astronomy. A new paper in @nature.com looks at the possible future for space-based telescopes — and finds 96% of some images could be impacted. 🧪🔭🛰️
By @jennaahart.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
By @jennaahart.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Satellite swarms set to photobomb more than 95% of some telescopes’ images
Planned megaconstellations would contaminate the view of the cosmos of four orbiting telescopes
www.nature.com
December 3, 2025 at 5:16 PM
You've probably heard about how the rapidly increasing numbers of satellites are affecting #astronomy. A new paper in @nature.com looks at the possible future for space-based telescopes — and finds 96% of some images could be impacted. 🧪🔭🛰️
By @jennaahart.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
By @jennaahart.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
great primer -- theories and updates -- on ice sheet collapse and sea level rise:
www.wired.com/story/the-oc...
www.wired.com/story/the-oc...
The Oceans Are Going to Rise—but When?
The uniquely vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 5 meters. But when that will happen—and how fast—is anything but settled.
www.wired.com
December 2, 2025 at 6:21 PM
great primer -- theories and updates -- on ice sheet collapse and sea level rise:
www.wired.com/story/the-oc...
www.wired.com/story/the-oc...
Chris Christie was polling at 15% in NJ when he left office. That's tough to beat.
December 2, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Chris Christie was polling at 15% in NJ when he left office. That's tough to beat.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Jon Gertner
October 2025 was the warmest October on record for the #Arctic. Arctic sea-ice extent is currently the lowest on record for late November. My newest 'climate viz of the month' summarizes some of this latest data: zacklabe.com/climate-viz-...
#ClimateChange #SciComm #OpenScience #OpenData #DataViz
#ClimateChange #SciComm #OpenScience #OpenData #DataViz
Climate Viz of the Month
October 2025 Hi everyone! Instead of designing a new special feature visualization, this next ‘climate viz of the month’ blog will focus on briefly summarizing the recent extremes in th…
zacklabe.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:42 PM
October 2025 was the warmest October on record for the #Arctic. Arctic sea-ice extent is currently the lowest on record for late November. My newest 'climate viz of the month' summarizes some of this latest data: zacklabe.com/climate-viz-...
#ClimateChange #SciComm #OpenScience #OpenData #DataViz
#ClimateChange #SciComm #OpenScience #OpenData #DataViz
Reposted by Jon Gertner
As Stoppard wrote, and as I contemplate often: “I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.”
November 29, 2025 at 7:33 PM
As Stoppard wrote, and as I contemplate often: “I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.”
Reposted by Jon Gertner
The OpenAI ruling writers should know about 👀 (if your work was scraped for LLM training, this affects you). www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
OpenAI Loses Key Discovery Battle as It Cedes Ground to Authors in AI Lawsuits
The issue has been a major battleground in discovery. OpenAI could be on the hook for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars if it was aware it was infringing on copyrighted material.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:47 PM
The OpenAI ruling writers should know about 👀 (if your work was scraped for LLM training, this affects you). www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
Fascinating piece www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/s...
Mapping the Sense of What’s Going On Inside
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Fascinating piece www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/s...
Reposted by Jon Gertner
Policies and behaviors in other parts of the world have inflicted themselves on small Arctic settlements so rapidly that they’re left unable to continue as they have in the past, yet also unable to meaningfully shape their own futures. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/HFdT2F
One of the Greatest Polar-Bear Hunters Confronts a Vanishing World
In the most remote settlement in Greenland, Hjelmer Hammeken’s life style has gone from something that worked for thousands of years to something that may not outlive him.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 25, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Policies and behaviors in other parts of the world have inflicted themselves on small Arctic settlements so rapidly that they’re left unable to continue as they have in the past, yet also unable to meaningfully shape their own futures. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/HFdT2F
Reposted by Jon Gertner
JD Vance and Peter Thiel are running a sustained operation out of the White House designed to acquire Greenland, either voluntarily or by force. Thiel has laid out plans for what he intends to do with the island nation in past writings. It doesn't entail the consent of the Greenlanders for anything.
November 23, 2025 at 8:52 PM
JD Vance and Peter Thiel are running a sustained operation out of the White House designed to acquire Greenland, either voluntarily or by force. Thiel has laid out plans for what he intends to do with the island nation in past writings. It doesn't entail the consent of the Greenlanders for anything.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
An honor and dream come true to perform alongside Yo-Yo Ma, presented by Celebrity Series at Boston Symphony Hall. 💜
🎼Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
🎼Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
November 22, 2025 at 6:29 PM
An honor and dream come true to perform alongside Yo-Yo Ma, presented by Celebrity Series at Boston Symphony Hall. 💜
🎼Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
🎼Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
Reposted by Jon Gertner
Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.
November 19, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged countries at UN climate talks to take “concrete actions” to stop climate change that is threatening the planet, telling them humans are failing in their response to global warming and that God’s creation “is crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat.”
Pope Leo XIV calls for urgent climate action and says God’s creation is ‘crying out’
Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged countries at United Nations climate talks to take “concrete actions” to stop climate change that is threatening the planet.
trib.al
November 18, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged countries at UN climate talks to take “concrete actions” to stop climate change that is threatening the planet, telling them humans are failing in their response to global warming and that God’s creation “is crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...
I rarely say this: But this is necessary to watch and share.
I rarely say this: But this is necessary to watch and share.
Opinion | We Followed the Rules. ICE Jailed Us Anyway.
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:42 PM
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/o...
I rarely say this: But this is necessary to watch and share.
I rarely say this: But this is necessary to watch and share.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
The importance of excessive mortality assumptions...
Left hand plot: 2017-19 average used as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'best' with negative excess mortality.
Right hand plot: 2017-19 linear trend extrapolated as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'worst' with huge positive excess mortality.
Left hand plot: 2017-19 average used as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'best' with negative excess mortality.
Right hand plot: 2017-19 linear trend extrapolated as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'worst' with huge positive excess mortality.
November 16, 2025 at 12:51 PM
The importance of excessive mortality assumptions...
Left hand plot: 2017-19 average used as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'best' with negative excess mortality.
Right hand plot: 2017-19 linear trend extrapolated as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'worst' with huge positive excess mortality.
Left hand plot: 2017-19 average used as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'best' with negative excess mortality.
Right hand plot: 2017-19 linear trend extrapolated as baseline. Conclusion: Sweden is 'worst' with huge positive excess mortality.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
Never forget: At breakneck speed we are leaving the stable Holocene climate in which human society developed and thrived. Weather extremes are outside historical experience. Sea-level rise is accelerating. Dangerous tipping points are ahead.
Graph: ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
Graph: ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
November 13, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Never forget: At breakneck speed we are leaving the stable Holocene climate in which human society developed and thrived. Weather extremes are outside historical experience. Sea-level rise is accelerating. Dangerous tipping points are ahead.
Graph: ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
Graph: ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
Reposted by Jon Gertner
No clear evidence to support any link between maternal acetaminophen (Tylenol) intake and autism or ADHD in offspring, a new umbrella, systematic review
@bmj.com
@bmj.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:19 AM
No clear evidence to support any link between maternal acetaminophen (Tylenol) intake and autism or ADHD in offspring, a new umbrella, systematic review
@bmj.com
@bmj.com
Reposted by Jon Gertner
We’ve lived at our new house for a bit over a year and today I learned that I’ve been driving by our local food pantry every day and didn’t know it. Ask me how I knew today.
November 8, 2025 at 4:54 PM
We’ve lived at our new house for a bit over a year and today I learned that I’ve been driving by our local food pantry every day and didn’t know it. Ask me how I knew today.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
I helped make a film, out this week, called “Rovina’s Choice,” about the deaths this man without conscience or accountability has caused — already 600,000, ⅔ of them children.
November 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
I helped make a film, out this week, called “Rovina’s Choice,” about the deaths this man without conscience or accountability has caused — already 600,000, ⅔ of them children.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
worth reading to the end.
I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n]
October 30, 2025 at 8:07 PM
worth reading to the end.
Reposted by Jon Gertner
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
October 27, 2025 at 11:54 PM
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The past is our future, most likely:
In Science, a new reconstruction of global sea levels spanning the past 4.5 million years reveals that oceans once stood up to 20 meters higher than today and links the waxing and waning of ancient ice sheets to shifts in Earth’s temperature and carbon dioxide cycles. https://scim.ag/42STXUm
Global mean sea level over the past 4.5 million years
Changes in global mean sea level (GMSL) during the late Cenozoic remain uncertain. We use a reconstruction of changes in δ18O of seawater to reconstruct GMSL since 4.5 million years ago (Ma) that acco...
scim.ag
October 23, 2025 at 4:42 PM
The past is our future, most likely:
It still amazes me how insightful this was/is:
October 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
It still amazes me how insightful this was/is: