Text reads "Escape the Headlines. Explore the Universe." Displayed above images of a Scientific American magazine and the publication's app and website, accompanied by a sticker reading "$1 for 90 Days--Subscribe Today"

Hey Bluesky! 👋🦋 We’ve been reading your replies about our paywall, and we’re listening. We want to share why it’s there—and an easy, low-cost way to read more.

TL;DR: You can unlock every Scientific American article for 90 days for just $1 spklr.io/6003EyRIR

More context below 🧵 1/6

"I've sometimes been accused of degrading mankind, or insulting human dignity, of making man beastly"

"This surprised me because I like animals and I feel proud to call myself one. I've never looked down upon them, so to call human beings animals is not, to me, degrading."

Why some binoculars cost $300—and others cost $3,000 Binoculars and other far-range optics span a gamut of price points. Here’s what separates top-tier from entry-level

Are expensive binoculars worth the $$$? For the May issue of @sciam.bsky.social I looked into the science of binoculars to find out what separates break-the-bank bins from budget-friendly ones. 🧪 🪶 🦉

Why birds were the only dinosaurs to survive mass extinction Scientists finally understand why birds were the only dinosaurs to pull through the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

When the asteroid hit, why did birds survive when all other dinosaurs died?

It's a question I ponder in my upcoming book The Story of Birds. But first, I explore it here for @sciam.bsky.social !

www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-a...

Hello, Bluesky! We, the staff of Scientific American, are pleased to announce we have formed a union with @wgaeast.bsky.social. Just as mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, we are the powerhouse of the publication, and we’re excited to have a new way to contribute to its success.

Finally went to see the American Woodcocks at Bryant Park in NYC. My kind of celebrity sighting. Amazing to see them in broad daylight foraging for worms, seemingly unbothered by the hustle and bustle. And really fun chatting with curious passersby and see them get super excited about these birds 🪶

NASA’s Artemis II astronauts are officially farther from Earth than any human has gone before The four astronauts onboard NASA’s moon mission just broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: It's official, the astronauts of Artemis II have surpassed the previous distance record set in 1970 by the crew of Apollo 13. Godspeed, Artemis II.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa...

Everybody in the SciAm bullpen (and maybe on the Orion spacecraft) had an "ugly crying" moment from the naming ceremony just now on the Artemis II livestream, in which a new lunar crater was named after mission commander Reid Wiseman's deceased wife and mother to his two daughters, Carroll.

What are the best foods for a hangover, scientifically? There’s no bulletproof remedy for a hangover, but a nutrition scientist explains which foods could aid symptoms after one has had too much to drink

All hail hangover soup! And a shout out to my go-to, beef pho. Hear my case for 🍜 @sciam.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...

A large brown bird stands on the spring green lawn of a New York City park

Finally got to see our local celebrity on my commute this morning—Astoria the Wild Turkey, who has taken up residence in Battery Park, at the southern tip of Manhattan 🤩

Just in time for #FossilFriday, meet Rhynchaeites mcfaddeni, a little fossil ibis from the Green River Formation. The holotype looks delightfully like a hieroglyph!

Published today in Journal of Paleontology
shorturl.at/qTUVi

What's This Bird LIVE! February 13, 2026 YouTube video by American Birding Association

Join me and @n8swick.bsky.social Nate Swick for some tricky IDs, bird banter and more, at @aba.org ABA's WTB LIVE, today at NOON central!

www.youtube.com/live/wMAkOk1...

Go bird-watching this weekend and support a global community science project Avian enthusiasts around the world will identify and count birds from February 13 through February 16 as part of a massive community science project

The Great Backyard Bird Count is here! I'm filling my feeders and figuring out where else I want to go birding this weekend. Here's how to join the fun and help scientists get a global view of bird populations before they undertake seasonal migration. #GBBC🪶🧪

A collection of six ominous bird valentines set against a background of pink hearts. In the first one, a Canada Goose looks angry and hisses and the text says "Baby, I'll make you fall head over heels if you approach within 10m of my nest." In the second, an American white pelican opens its mouth to eat the reader and the text says "There are plenty of fish in the sea, but I want this one." In the third valentine, a Black Vulture looks suspiciously at the reader and the text says "I will love you until you die. And after that, I'll love you even more." A Southern Cassowary stands proudly against the heart-covered background. The text says "My wattles are red. My head is blue. My deadly reputation has been somewhat overblown, but I'd kill for you." In the fifth valentine, a Northern Giant-Petrel stands open-billed next to a large brown furry object, and the text says "Let's seal the deal by sharing a 3000 kg elephant seal carcass." In panel 6, a happy-looking Bearded Vulture holds a bone in its beak, and the text says "I love every part of you, especially your bones."

Ominous bird valentines.

This ancient South American kingdom ran on bird poop Maize farmers in Peru’s Chincha Valley were fertilizing their crops with seabird poop as early as the year 1250

I deeply appreciate scientists doing work that caters to my particular venn diagrams of personal interests, such as bird poop + ancient civilizations: 🧪 🏺 www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...

Why curling rocks come from just two spots on Earth The rocks used in the Olympic sport of curling come from one island in Scotland and one quarry in Wales. What makes them so special?

Had a blast speaking to curler and geologist Derek Leung about the geology of curling rocks. 🥌 🧪

VOLUNTEER ON A DINOSAUR DIG: We run one of the only free dinosaur digs in the USA. We work public land and the fossils go in our public museum, forever. It's hard work, but we find some cool things. If this sounds like you, we're taking applications. Link in comms. #dinosaurs

Living dinosaurs appear on empty mug

Fossilized dinosaurs appear when mug is filled with hot beverage

Post snow shoveling reward: ibuprofen and a trial run of my nerdy new mug (T. rex and Deinonychus become fossils with the addition of a hot beverage.)🦖 🦕

The scientific quest to explore the hidden complexity of ice Ice has many forms beyond the mundane stuff produced in a standard freezer

pleased to share some 🧊ice🧊 counter-programming, courtesy of @meghanbartels.bsky.social, featuring a graphical guide to 21 different forms of ice (!!) by me 🧪www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-creat...

My feature is on the cover of @sciam.bsky.social !!

This is one of the more fascinating, maddening, mind-boggling stories I've reported in a long time. Please come on this journey with me.

Meet Veronika, the first cow known to engage in flexible, multipurpose tool use A pet cow named Veronika uses tools in a surprisingly sophisticated way—possibly because she has been allowed to live her best life

Delightful news alert: An Austrian cow named Veronika has perfected the art of using a broom to scratch her itches—a finding that challenges the conventional wisdom about the intelligence of farm animals. #CowTools are real! 🐮 🧹 🧪

Humans Made Poisoned Arrowheads Thousands of Years Earlier Than Previously Thought The use of poison on arrows marked a revolution in human hunting technology—new evidence suggests it happened tens of thousands of years earlier than previously known

This is such a cool finding--the oldest direct evidence of poisoned arrows. Poisoned hunting weapons were a game-changing innovation for our ancestors. Absolutely incredible that researchers found traces of plant toxins on these tiny arrowheads from 60,000 ago 🤯🏹 🧪

Small green, white and red bird perched on a branch

Meet the Puerto Rican Tody, my most wanted bird on a recent trip to Puerto Rico. It’s about 3 inches tall and has more Christmas energy per gram than any other bird I know. Happy merry, all 🎄

GOOSEFISH

This picture has been making the rounds again, and is being misidentified again.

This is a GOOSEFISH.

This is NOT a tasselled wobbegong shark.

It’s a great pic. I get why people are very excited about it. But it’s as easy to give it the right name as the wrong one.

fullfact.org/online/tasse...

These Birds Learned to Tweet Like R2-D2. Listen to the Uncanny Results The lovable Star Wars droid is helping to shed light on why some bird species are better at mimicking sounds than others

Please do yourselves a favor and listen to these birds mimic R2-D2. (And learn something about how some species are able to do it better than others!)

(by Kate Graham-Shaw for @sciam.bsky.social)

Man With Tick-Borne Meat Allergy Dies after Eating Burger Lone star tick bites are the most common cause of alpha-gal syndrome, which causes severe allergic reactions to red meat

True nightmare fuel: Scientists just confirmed the first known death from a severe meat allergy caused by a tick bite.

The man, who died in 2024 after eating a burger, had alpha-gal syndrome, a bizarre disease triggered by tick bites.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/man-...

🧪

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

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...

Some Scientists See UFOs in Old Telescope Data. Others See a Teachable Moment New peer-reviewed research reporting strange lights in the pre-space-age sky is sparking curiosity and controversy

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Did astronomers photograph UFOs orbiting Earth in the 1950s, years before human activity there? New peer-reviewed studies suggest the answer is “yes,” but skeptics say these conclusions are premature. By @astrojonny.bsky.social.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-...

These were the dinosaurs that faced the asteroid.

Some of the last survivors. They lived in New Mexico, 66 million years ago. Among them was Alamosaurus, the size of a jetplane.

We unveiled them, and their true age, today in a new paper in
@science.org !