A picture of the top story in the April 7, 2026 ScienceTimes section of the print New York Times. The headline reads, "It's Hard to Thrive as a Pet in a Shell," with the subtitle, "Hermit crabs in captivity require special care, self-taught experts say." The opening image shows 7 hermit crabs in spiral shells on a piece of bark, with the caption, "Hermit crabs cared for by Mary Akers in her home. She wants to end the poaching of wild crabs and improve conditions for captive ones. By Katie L. Burke and Rebecca Byerly. The intro paragraph says, "Blacksburg, VA -- With a homemade siphon the size of a straw, Mary Akers expertly withdrew 60 hermit crab larvae from the churning waters of a saltwater tank in the spare bedroom of her Virginia home here. She deposited the babies, which resembled minuscule, flame-orange lobsters, into a white kitchen mixing bowl. Using a small flashlight to examine them, she noted a straggler. The exoskeleton it had shed that morning was stuck to its tail. Ms. Akers had learned from tending tens of thousands of crabs that without help this one would die. She placed it in an antique mother-of-pearl salt cellar and used a straight pin to gently scrape off the translucent molt. After freeing the squirming crab, she squirted it into a clear measuring cup, where it gobbled shrimp pellets with its siblings."

🎵🎸Despite all my rage, it's hard to be a crab in a caaaage.

🎶Even though I'm alive & well,
It's hard to thrive as a pet in a shell! 🐚

First thought when I read the print headline. Call me old school, but there's magic in seeing my name in print. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...
🧪🌎

They say that also about grief, you know...

Trump to revoke protections for endangered species in Gulf of Mexico President is convening so-called ‘God squad’ to override provisions of Endangered Species Act for ‘national security’

Pete Hegseth, secretary of defense, is requesting to exempt all oil and gas industry activities in the Gulf of Mexico from the ESA, though the military and industry has not proposed a specific project, or cited a conflict.

“No one is asking for this,” Hartl said

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Thanks, Virginia. That means a lot. 🐚💖🐚

This is a great, enraging piece. The level of abuse pet hermit crabs face is genuinely astounding: they're naturally quite long-lived, but you wouldn't know it because people kill them almost immediately through ignorant neglect

A tawny hermit crab walks on an exercise wheel in a brightly lit tank.

A baby hermit crab the size of a fingernail crawls on a person's hand. It is wearing a light brown, cone-shaped shell.

If you need an antidote to doomscrolling today, spend some time with Mary Akers. Her story of caring for the uncared-for is extraordinary. Gift link below.
🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...
#animals #wildlife #ocean #marinebiology #conservation #pets #giftlink
/fin

A screenshot from an interview with Carol Ann Ormes holding her pet hermit crab's last shell before he died after living with her for 45 years. Her crab, Jonathan Livingston Crab, is the longest lived hermit crab on record. His green and white shell is the size of a softball. Carol Ann is a white woman in her seventies with cropped gray hair and rectangular glasses sitting on a yellow couch.

Our editor, Mike Wilson, fell in love too. After Mike watched the interview with Carol Ann Ormes, the owner of the longest-lived hermit crab on record (linked in our story), he said it was "the best 30 minutes of my life."
🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

A baby hermit crab the size of a fingernail sits on a person's thumb.

Mary Akers (far left) and Stacy Griffith Wodicker (far right) pose for a photo with three other Crab Con attendees wearing crab costumes. Mary and Stacy co-founded Crab Con to help wild crabs stay wild and improve pet crabs' care.

Every time the news brought me down this year, I found solace in the Crab Con community. My coauthor, Rebecca Byerly, and I were buoyed by each small act of care.
🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

Crab Con speaker Larisa Meeks holds a mic as she answers audience questions. She is wearing a pink tee that says "Hermit Crabs and Jesus." She wears a white ball cap, white canvas shoes, and blue pants. She is a white woman with short graying cropped hair.

I loved the inclusive community at Crab Con. People wore pride tees with a hermit crab for each color of the rainbow, while listening to a speaker in a pink tee emblazoned with "Hermit Crabs and Jesus." Their care for a misunderstood creature brought them together.
🧪🌎
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

Mary Akers (far left) and Stacy Griffith Wodicker (far right) pose with several Crab Con attendees on the final night of the event in July 2025. Mary is wearing a blue poodle skirt embroidered with a hermit crab in lieu of a poodle. Stacy is wearing a red crab hat. The three other attendees are in full-body red crab costumes, with claw mittens on their hands. Everyone in the photo is white and women or girls.

All of this blew my mind. I had to write about Mary Akers and her motley crew of crab-keepers advocating for this overlooked, underdog pet, treated like a disposable toy.
🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

A tawny hermit crab walks on an exercise wheel in it's brightly lit aquarium, filled with rocks, driftwood, plastic foliage, and wooden ladders to climb on and hide in. The caption below the photo says: "Mary Akers provides an exercise wheel for her crabs. Many people who purchase crabs from pet stores don't understand that they need regular exercise."

Millions of hermit crabs die every year, because they do not receive adequate care in captivity. If they aren't sold at the end of the beach season, many stores throw them out, leaving them to slowly die in a dumpster.
🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

Mary Akers tends to her pet hermit crabs in her home in Blacksburg, Virginia. She advocates for improving care and treatment of hermit crabs. Mary Akers is a 60-year-old white woman with chin-length sandy hair and rectangular glasses. Her bright aquariums line the walls of her guest room turned makeshift lab.

The pellets once sold as "hermit crab food" contained a chemical that inhibited molting, which slowly killed them. Hermit crabs are scavengers and need a varied diet, but are also sensitive to toxins. Care must be taken when choosing their food.
🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

Two of Mary Akers's hermit crabs peek out of brown shells they have chosen, while digging in luxuriously deep damp sand. Akers advocates for pet hermit crabs to have adequate care.

After that, the captured hermit crabs endure neglect, then are forced from their chosen shells, so they can take up a shell painted with something marketable, like a Batman or Paw Patrol logo.
🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

A few of Mary Akers's pet hermit crabs sit for a portrait. Six hermit crabs in shells of brown, green, and mother of pearl sit on a piece of bark.

The assumption that hermit crabs are short-lived has led to all sorts of abuse. Hermit crabs sold as pets are taken from their family groups in the wild; some are poached illegally.
#wildlife #animals 🧪🌎🦑
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

A tawny hermit crab walks on a hamster wheel.

Hermit crabs can live 50 years. They live in social groups & communicate with chirps. In the wild, they migrate long distances--so pet crabs thrive in large tanks with an exercise wheel. They can switch sexes. They need deep sand where they can molt.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

A baby hermit crab the size of a fingernail sits on a person's hand.

A 🧵on #conservation and humane treatment of one of the world's most overlooked, underdog pet #animals... 🧪🌎🦑

When I first met Crab Con founder Mary Akers in 2024, I was floored by what she told me...
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

If only it weren't so.
#amwriting #nonfiction #books #publishing

A post by Jonathan Edward Durham under the handle @thisone0verhere that says: "Really the hardest part of writing a book is just sitting down and starting it and also finishing it and also the middle bit and then when people read it or don't read it.

If only it weren't so.

Headline: "Saving Hermit Crabs by Breeding Them in the Suburbs" Subtitle: "Often treated as throwaway pets, hermit crabs can live 50 years. Mary Akers, a self-taught expert, wants people to appreciate them as much as she does." By Katie L. Burke and Rebecca Byerly Intro text: With a homemade siphon the size of a straw, Mary Akers expertly withdrew 60 hermit crab larvae from the churning waters of a saltwater tank in the spare bedroom of her Virginia home..."

A photo of a reddish brown hermit crab walking on a hamster wheel.

My first byline in @nytimes.com features the overlooked, underdog world of hermit crab conservation and breeding, coauthored with my friend Rebecca Byerly. I hope you'll fall in love with Mary Akers and the eccentric Crab Con community just like we did.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/m...

Reporter, Nature News Job Title: Reporter, Nature Location: Washington DC or New York (Hybrid Working Model) Application Deadline: March 27, 2026 About Springer Nature Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of re...

JOB OPENING! If you want to work as a reporter with Nature's US news team, this is a VERY RARE opportunity. The beat is physical sciences/energy & environment/technology. DC or NYC location. Deadline 3/27. Join our awesome team! #journojobs

springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/es/SpringerN...

That's wild!

Did it hurt?

Really dig this tool. Not just recommendations, but carefully researched discussions of the strengths and drawback of tech from common to obscure.

Iran war, war in the Middle East, conflict in the Middle East It is acceptable to use the term Iran war to refer to the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting Feb. 28, 2026, and Iran's retaliation. The conflict has spread with other nations and militant groups interceding, so terms like war in the Middle East or conflict in the Middle East may be most accurate, depending on the context. Rather than relying on labels and shorthand, aim to describe the situation fully. Lowercase the word war. AP capitalizes that word only as part of a formal name.

ICYMI: @apnews.com sent out the following message to all AP Stylebook subscribers this afternoon formally authorizing the use of "Iran war", despite Trump, Rubio, and Republicans' insistence to the contrary:

What an age we live in

How much social media is ‘OK’ for kids? What the data really say Parents keep asking for a magic number: How much social media is safe for kids? In short, research says there isn't a single “safe” cutoff.

For years, parents have been advised to limit kids’ social media time as much as possible. But mounting evidence suggests the story isn’t that simple. Read more: healthjournalism.org/blog/2026/02...

A screenshot of the American Scientist article, showing: Headline: Policies Support Miners' Health By Katie L. Burke Subtitle: Germany provides an example of how to improve the well-being and longevity of residents in coal-producing areas. First paragraph: In a model mine shaft at the Mining Museum in Bochum, Germany, the last double drum shearer left in the country sits on display. Before Germany ended coal mining in the surrounding Ruhr Valley in 2018, such machines cut through coal seams belowground. Hans Mohlek, an engineer who once operated a similar shearer, retired in 2010 as part of the planned phasing out of the coal industry in Germany. Now he leads tours at the museum. The Ruhr Valley has made a similar transition. Once, it relied on hard coal as the basis of the economy; today, that industry has ended, but its influences remain.

A photo of a landscape, with the caption: Germany’s Ruhr Valley bears evidence of both its coal-producing past and its energy future. On the outskirts of the city of Gelsenkirchen are (from left to right) a former mineshaft tower, a power plant that is transitioning from coal to natural gas, and windmills on a hill created by a slag heap from past mining. Germany has implemented policies to transition to greener energy and to protect the health of the region’s residents, including former miners. The result is better health outcomes than for people living and working in coal-producing areas of the United States.

Cleaner air plus early & consistent #healthcare access saves lives in former coal regions in #Germany. By contrast, the USA's recent erosion of the Clean Air Act & setbacks to the #energy transition are making its residents sicker & poorer. americanscientist.org/article/poli...

Open-source AI tool beats giant LLMs in literature reviews — and gets citations right Researchers can deploy the cheap and transparent model on their own computer system.

Open-source AI tool beats giant LLMs in literature reviews — and gets citations right www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Fllodlight Gaming | Submissions are open for the next Investigative Journalism Game Jam!

Investigative Journalists: Submissions are open for the 2nd 'Floodlight Gaming Investigative Journalism Game Jam'.

Turn your stories into games developed in collaboration with independent game creators.

Submit your story by February 15th!
www.floodlightproject.org/floodlight-g...
@occrp.org