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Dan Falk

@danfalk

Hi! I write about #science for Smithsonian, Discover, Quanta, Nautilus, Undark, National Geographic, CBC Radio, & many other outlets. Books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time. Co-host of BookLab podcast. πŸ”­πŸͺβ­οΈβš›οΈ

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Latest posts by Dan Falk @danfalk

Wow! Well how about that….

05.03.2026 15:59 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
A series of books about time, on a shelf

A series of books about time, on a shelf

#4 :)

05.03.2026 06:02 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Ha!!

05.03.2026 05:35 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Doctor measuring my pulse: "Whoa -- have you been eating sugar cubes out of the box again? Oh wait -- never mind -- I've been measuring in summer seconds, not winter seconds." (Also, Olympic events would be soooo messed up -- I like it!)

05.03.2026 04:38 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I feel like keeping the jump at a constant 2 seconds makes it too easy for folks. May I suggest that the interval change gradually over the course of the year (i.e. fractions of seconds)? πŸ™ƒ

05.03.2026 04:34 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Challenge! Daylight Time "solutions," but each one has to be worse than the one before. I'll start: Instead of a one-hour switch twice a year, how about 4 forward jumps of 15 min each, at one-week intervals, in the spring, and 4 backward jumps of 15 min each, at one-week intervals, in the fall. πŸ™ƒ

05.03.2026 03:51 πŸ‘ 95 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 38 πŸ“Œ 29

And the prize for fakest of all fake astronomy pictures (of which there are a zillion) goes to the pic of Jupiter *inside* the crescent moon. πŸ€”πŸ§πŸ™„

04.03.2026 22:41 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Paul McCartney's decade of transformation: From Beatles breakup to John Lennon's murder Man on the Run shows McCartney's effort to define himself outside The Beatles' shadow: "Paul making this documentary was a way of coming to terms with that whole period," says director Morgan Neville.

Fun @nprfreshair.bsky.social interview w. filmmaker Morgan Neville, director of the new Paul McCartney doc, Man on the Run (runs 38 min):
www.npr.org/2026/03/04/n... @npr.org

04.03.2026 20:56 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

The β€œevery field” thing is so out there.

04.03.2026 19:10 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Fireball and sonic boom over Vancouver was likely meteor British Columbians took to social media Tuesday evening to share reports of a bright fireball in the night sky over Vancouver, and a house-rattling sonic boom.

Tuesday night brought a bright meteor / fireball to the Vancouver area, plus a loud sonic boom:
www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

04.03.2026 19:07 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Happy Proceed Forward Day! :)

04.03.2026 05:02 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a β€œsexist attitude”

Many of the scientists Jeffrey Epstein courted were already well-established and well-funded. So why didn’t they all just say no? Science talked with three who did just that.

Here’s how Epstein approached them, and why they refused to have anything to do with him. ⬇️ https://scim.ag/40qbXnv

03.03.2026 14:30 πŸ‘ 509 πŸ” 199 πŸ’¬ 21 πŸ“Œ 43

Oh, I'm sure you're not alone. (When I did a very informal survey on the old site some years back, it seemed there was roughly an even 3-way split between year-long ST, year-long DT, and the status quo.)

03.03.2026 06:28 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Dawn Delight: Total Lunar Eclipse on March 3rd March opens with a spectacular total lunar eclipse. Our guide will help you make the most of it.

Lunar eclipse coming up! West coast folks will need to stay up late (totality begins 3:04 am PST); east coast peeps will have to get up before dawn, and the moon will set with the eclipse still underway (totality begins 6:04 am EST). @skyandtelescope.bsky.social
skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

03.03.2026 01:55 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
B.C. to end time changes, adopt year-round daylight time | CBC News March 8 will be the last time most British Columbians have to change their clocks, B.C. Premier David Eby announced Monday.

British Columbia goes with Daylight Time year-round: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

03.03.2026 00:24 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

Wow. (F-15’s don’t even look like that.)

02.03.2026 16:15 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

It’s so good!

01.03.2026 21:52 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Feb 28: How starfish move their tiny tube feet, and more… | CBC Radio Measuring rocket pollution, how calcium induced an ice age, unpacking dark matter and a listener question about freezing flows

I'm on Quirks & Quarks today talking about the mystery of dark matter -- the show starts at 12:05 p.m. local time, across Canada. You can also listen from anywhere via the show's web page, via the Q&Q podcast, the CBC Listen app, or Sirius XM. Enjoy! #physics #science
www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks...

28.02.2026 16:54 πŸ‘ 24 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

To maintain the cosmic balance, an astronomer on Ellesmere Island needs to be interviewed about whatever southern-sky events are happening this week. :)

28.02.2026 05:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Cool!! Will read with interest!

27.02.2026 20:37 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
NASA announces sweeping changes to its Artemis lunar program | CBC News NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has announced that the Artemis III mission, which aimed to put humans back on the moon, would no longer head to the lunar surface, but instead focus on testing spacec...

NASA alters #Artemis plan: Artemis III no longer a moon landing; instead they'll test docking equipment in low-Earth orbit. (Artemis II still scheduled to loop around the moon.) via @nebulousnikki.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/science... #NASA

27.02.2026 17:40 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 0

Half the job ads on LinkedIn are basically "Help train the AIs that are going to replace you in a couple of weeks, and with luck the whole department also."

27.02.2026 16:24 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Many congrats!! (And welcome to the club! :) )

25.02.2026 04:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Oh no! Well, any chance you can catch an Artemis launch…?

24.02.2026 18:32 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Final launch of the space shuttle Discovery -- STS-133 -- Feb. 24, 2011
Final launch of the space shuttle Discovery -- STS-133 -- Feb. 24, 2011 YouTube video by danfalkscience

I saw my first (and only) space shuttle launch 15 years ago today -- STS-133, the final launch of the shuttle Discovery:
youtu.be/eBtH4YdmgM4?... #space #spaceshuttle

24.02.2026 17:30 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
How Darwin's 'Descent of Man' Holds Up 150 Years After Publication Questions still swirl around the author’s theories about sexual selection and the evolution of minds and morals

On the Origin of Species was just the beginning: Darwin was still developing his ideas on sexual selection & the evolution of minds & morals. These surfaced in his 2nd major work, The Descent of Man, pub #OTD in 1871, as I wrote for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

24.02.2026 17:18 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I still can’t fathom that the solar eclipses of 2017 and 2024 lay in the past πŸ«₯

23.02.2026 00:59 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Nobody ever talks about the crappy Gabor paper any more. I kinda miss those days.

20.02.2026 19:04 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
In the Footsteps of Copernicus
In the Footsteps of Copernicus YouTube video by danfalkscience

2/2 I also made a video exploring Copernicus's life and science in which we walk in his footsteps, in #Poland (Warsaw, Frombork, Torun, and Krakow). #Travel meets #science! Enjoy! youtu.be/wqRj0HgIaiE?...

19.02.2026 15:34 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
How Copernicus moved the Sun | Astronomy.com categories:Science, Solar System | tags:Magazine

1/2 Happy 553rd Birthday to Nicolaus Copernicus, born #OTD in 1473. A while back I wrote a fun article for @astronomymag.bsky.social about how Copernicus re-shaped our understanding of the cosmos: www.astronomy.com/science/how-... #science #history #histsci

19.02.2026 15:31 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0