Laura Helmuth

@laurahelmuth.bsky.social

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Editor in Chief of Scientific American, @sciam.bsky.social Formerly at Washington Post, National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian, Science. Past prez National Association of Science Writers. Birder

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A tragically common cause of death before pasteurization was food poisoning in children who were being weaned and starting to drink cow's milk. Pasteurization is one of the greatest public health successes in the history of the world, and now it's protecting us from H5N1 bird flu 🧪

Pasteurization Kills Bird Flu Virus in Milk, New Studies Confirmwww.scientificamerican.com Flash pasteurization destroyed H5N1 viral particles that were highly concentrated in raw milk, confirming that standard techniques can keep dairy products safe from bird flu

This is predictable but so important: Pasteurizing milk kills the H5N1 bird flu virus that is circulating widely in dairy cattle. It's easy to take a 150-year-old technique that has saved countless lives for granted, but don't fool around with unpasteurized dairy products. 🧪

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Totes appropes

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Thinking today about my lawyer friend Jermaine, who —when I asked him legal research Qs while writing a dystopia—told me “Well, with a sympathetic judiciary, anything is possible.”

"The protection that vaccines provide is an irreplaceable part of living the healthiest lifestyle possible." This is a nice appreciation of vaccines as tested, proven, and immensely effective ways to prevent illness and promote good health. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/vacc...

Vaccines Are the Safest Health Hackwww.scientificamerican.com Vaccines are a cornerstone of a healthy immune system—and a healthy life

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when I was a child, I thought smart people were in charge. when I got older, I realized you didn't have to be smart to be in charge. but the piece that was hardest to learn is that no one is really in charge at all. no one's going to fix it beyond us.

Remember how after Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, people said this is going to be really bad, and it was? Well, the Chevron deference ruling is going to be really bad www.scientificamerican.com/article/supr...

Supreme Court’s ‘Chevron Deference’ Decision Could Make Science-Based Regulation Harderwww.scientificamerican.com The Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference, a 40-year legal principle that has shaped the role of government agencies. The outcome could affect medication approval, pollution regulation, and more

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Gonna need everything to stop rapidly intensifying please.

Rapid intensification is defined as when a storm’s winds jump by at least 35 mph in 24 hours. Hurricane Beryl’s winds exploded by 63 mph in 24 hours. This hurricane is unprecedented in location and time of year and it's still growing 🧪 by @andreatweather.bsky.social

Why Hurricane Beryl Underwent Unprecedented Rapid Intensificationwww.scientificamerican.com Hurricane Beryl exploded in strength from a tropical depression to a Category 4 major hurricane unusually early in its development in part because of exceptionally warm ocean waters

Ethical advice from an AI chatbot seems as ethical as advice from a New York Times ethics column 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-c...

AI Chatbots Seem as Ethical as a New York Times Advice Columnistwww.scientificamerican.com Large language models lack emotion and self-consciousness, but they appear to generate reasonable answers to moral quandaries

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Things I've spontaneously said to animals. Mailing list: buttondown.email/rosemarymosco Patreon: www.patreon.com/birdandmoon

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I absolutely remember Lippmann's name. But yeah, history has rightly forgotten the PR/propaganda hack's name. We shouldn't forget the lessons of that time, however.

The U.S. government authorized 75,000 "Four Minute Men" to deliver speeches at theaters while movie reels were being changed (which took four minutes) in support of U.S. joining World War I. Fascinating comms/propaganda history @annaleen.bsky.social 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...

This 1920s Debate Explains Why So Many Americans Hate the News Mediawww.scientificamerican.com Brawls over the honesty of online and cable news today owe their origins to World War I and a debate that divides us still

Quack claims that diets can cure cancer are dangerous. Cancer cells don't care whether their glucose comes from a carrot or carrot cake. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/quac... by @drg.bsky.social on Scientific American

Quack Cancer Diets Endanger People. Stick to Science-Backed Medicinewww.scientificamerican.com False cures and dangerous misinformation, from the misguided to the exploitative, surround cancer patients, with the capacity to do serious harm

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Some say the wind isn’t a reliable source of energy in New Zealand. The wind:

Scribes in ancient Egypt wrote while sitting down for extended periods. A new analysis of their skeletons found they probably had pain in the knees, fingers, thumb, ankles, shoulders, lower jaw, right collarbone, neck and back. Perhaps you can relate. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/anci...

Ancient Egyptian Scribes Suffered Back Pain, Toowww.scientificamerican.com The skeletons of scribes from ancient Egypt show deterioration from sitting and kneeling

One of the many wonderful things about being an aunt or great-aunt to kids who are just learning to write is that they'll spell your name Ant

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The coral reef is queer af and few fly the flag more more fabulously than the hermaphroditic rainbow parrotfish on parade. Happy Pride from Coral City 🫡🏳️‍🌈🐠🏳️‍🌈🐠🏳️‍🌈🐠🏳️‍🌈💋 www.instagram.com/reel/C8168qt...

A lot of the research and publicity claiming that pets make people healthier was funded by ... Big Pet 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...

Are Pets Really Good for Health?www.scientificamerican.com It turns out there’s little good evidence that pets benefit our physical or mental health

Stuttering is common, stigmatized, and not a sign of mental impairment. www.scientificamerican.com/article/here...

Here's What We Know about Stutteringwww.scientificamerican.com Stuttering is a complex neurodevelopmental condition, and learning about its causes will hopefully reduce the stigma surrounding it

"The ISS is perhaps the most complex construction project ever executed. ... Safely destroying the space station arguably will be even harder than assembling it." www.scientificamerican.com/article/spac... by @meghanbartels.bsky.social on Scientific American

SpaceX Wins $843-Million NASA Contract to Destroy the International Space Stationwww.scientificamerican.com The world will be watching—literally—as SpaceX tackles possibly what might be its highest-stakes endeavor to date: safely destroying the beloved International Space Station

Being overweight can be protective, some people who are obese are also metabolically healthy, and not all fat is bad. This is a fun & insightful story about a complex, contested & important area of research 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/peop... by @cragcrest.bsky.social on Scientific American

People Who Are Fat and Healthy May Hold Keys to Understanding Obesitywww.scientificamerican.com “Heavy and healthy” can be a rare or common condition. But either way it may signal that some excess weight is just fine

How worried should we be about the astronauts marooned on the International Space Station because their Boeing spacecraft is glitching? As one of our editors said today: I'm not *not* worried 🧪🔭 www.scientificamerican.com/article/boei...

Boeing’s Starliner Leaves Astronauts Stuck but Safe in Spacewww.scientificamerican.com On its first crewed flight, troubling technical glitches with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft have left two astronauts in limbo onboard the International Space Station

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You know, it’s not like I’m half-assing this, I am actually trying my best despite the fuck-ups.

There are “no links whatsoever between the offshore wind development activity and especially the humpback whale mortalities. None. Zero.” But oil & gas & shipping interests sure want you to think wind energy is what's killing whales 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/whal...

Whales Are Dying but Not from Offshore Windwww.scientificamerican.com Politicians and nonprofit groups have blamed offshore wind turbines for whale deaths, but the science doesn’t support those claims—at all

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People aren’t freaking out nearly enough about what the Chevron decision could mean. sounds like a boring admin law dec’n, but the consequences will be widespread & catastrophic if it goes the wrong way

We're going to be hearing a lot about the SCOTUS case on the Chevron defense soon. This is important. And it's one more reason the Supreme Court theocrats are dangerous. www.scientificamerican.com/article/supr...

Supreme Court’s ‘Chevron Deference’ Decision Could Make Science-Based Regulation Harderwww.scientificamerican.com The Supreme Court is considering the fate of Chevron deference, a 40-year legal principle that has shaped the role of government agencies. The outcome could affect medication approval, pollution regul...

There are a LOT of problems with what meatfluencers are selling, but a big one is the very idea that if our ancestors did it, we should do it. (They didn't eat only meat, but that's a different problem.) What are your favorite examples of ancestral experiences we're better off without?

To Follow the Real Early Human Diet, Eat Everythingwww.scientificamerican.com Nutrition influencers claim we should eat meat-heavy diets like our ancestors did. But our ancestors didn’t actually eat that way

This is an important and exciting job opening for the next director of SciLine, a service that connects scientists and journalists and aims to improve and expand evidence-based coverage of policy issues and everything else. diversifiedsearchgroup.com/search/21203...

Director, SciLine, AAAS | American Association for the Advancement of Sciencediversifiedsearchgroup.com