Profile avatar
danfalk.bsky.social
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. 🔭🪐⭐️⚛️
1,001 posts 4,374 followers 1,322 following
Prolific Poster
Conversation Starter
Posts 34 Comments 16

#astronomy peeps, how for-realz is this latest (alleged) dark matter finding?

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

Too lazy to do the necessary Simpsons photoshopping, but it would go like this: “Sorry, Donald — no kings.” “But you let in King Charles!” “It’s no kingS — we can have one.”

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

🦈 Happy #Jaws Day! The acclaimed blockbuster premiered 50 years ago today! 🦈 #Jawsat50 #Jaws50

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

The Beach Boys' co-founder Brian Wilson has died at the age of 82, leaving behind a storied legacy as one of pop music's greatest songwriters and producers. Here are NPR's best interviews, concerts and appreciations of the late artist.

submitted 6 days ago • 15 comments

Brian Wilson, the musical genius behind the Beach Boys, has died at 82. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

:0

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

@amandagefter.bsky.social

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

It's been more than half a century since the Village of Forest Hill was absorbed by #Toronto -- but, signs of it remain. Here's the old, now-mostly-abandoned 1923 fire station on Eglinton West, with its beautiful Forest Hill crest on the north facade. Also, a peek inside the old garage area:

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

For those who need a dose of GOOD NEWS- the University of Oregon physics faculty has voted to change our name to the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and start an astronomy minor in fall 2026. We also voted to start an astronomy major!!! Both are a first in the entire state of Oregon! 🥳🤩 🔭🧪🎢

submitted 14 days ago • 21 comments

Lots of peculiar things about infinity; here’s a couple of them: You can play a guessing game with your friend, where one of you thinks of a number from zero to infinity, and the other tries to guess it — but, the numbers are always gonna be a lot closer to zero than to infinity, d’oh! Also (cont’d)

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

Too much going on at the Natural Philosophy Symposium to try to even list highlights — but, here’s a photo of Nick Lane, @davidchalmers.bsky.social, @sandradmitchell.bsky.social, and Nima Arkani-Hamed. Thx to @seanmcarroll.bsky.social and Jenann Ismael for organizing! #science #philosophy

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Many congrats to Dick Bond and George Efstathiou — of course Dick is at @uoft.bsky.social 🇨🇦

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Happy 50th birthday to Venus and Mars, released #otd in 1975. So it’s not quite as iconic as Band on the Run, but it’s still pretty solid! I especially like “Letting Go”… 🎶 #paulmccartney #wings

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Hello @spacex.extwitter.link -- I'm working on a story about space debris, and I'd love to get a brief comment from someone at the company -- very short list of questions; could do it over e-mail. Thanks!

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

HOW IS THIS REAL AND HOW DID I GET THIS WITH SOMEWHAT CONSUMER GEAR!? #birds 🐣

submitted 22 days ago • 47 comments

Great to hear @pagankennedy.bsky.social on CBC Radio's Sunday Magazine today -- glad her book is getting a lot of buzz!

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Nicolaus Copernicus died #OTD in 1543 -- and if you're looking for something to do on a lazy Saturday afternoon, please enjoy my little video about Copernicus from a few years ago, in which I follow in his footsteps in Warsaw, Torun, Krakow, and Frombork: #science #history youtu.be/wqRj0HgIaiE?...

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

I even made a little radio documentary about it, some years back. Starts at 26:45 — enjoy! www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Billy Joel cancels all concerts after brain disorder diagnosis :( www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

See also dire wolves (and my old Undark feature that I keep re-posting every few months 🙃 )

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

We all think we "know" what happened during the famous trial (thx, Hollywood!) but of course the reality is more complicated. I enjoyed taking a deep dive into the Scopes affair & examining this fascinating (and still relevant) episode in US history, for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social #science #history

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

100 years ago this summer, the small town of Dayton TN was thrust into the spotlight as one of the most famous legal battles of the 20th century, seemingly putting #Darwin & #evolution on trial, got underway. My latest for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social: #science www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Might as well go whole-hog and include Plunge to the Sea by Eileen Dover.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

The titans of the tech industry say A.I. will soon match the powers of humans’ brains. Are they underestimating us? “Claims of A.G.I.’s imminent arrival are based on statistical extrapolations — and wishful thinking,” Cade Metz writes.

submitted 30 days ago • 69 comments

"Becker is not a luddite, nor is he anti-tech. But he’s skeptical that humanity’s most urgent need is to populate the galaxy at any cost, and cautions against yielding control of our destiny to a race of AI overlords." ICYMI, my review of @adambecker.bsky.social's new book undark.org/2025/05/16/b...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Eventually -- indeed perhaps quite soon -- I will not understand neutrinoless double beta decay. But for now (with help from the Internet) I kinda sorta get it! ⚛️ 🔃 💥

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Tech billionaires & future-focused thinkers have grand plans involving AGI, colonizing Mars, eradicating aging and death and uploading our minds into computers. Well, not so fast, says @adambecker.bsky.social. I review his new book, More Everything Forever, in @undark.org: undark.org/2025/05/16/b...

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

Last night's moonrise (as seen from #Toronto, down by the lake): #moon #moonrise

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment

Kitchener Panthers at #Toronto Maple Leafs (Intercounty Baseball League), earlier today at Christie Pits: ( #baseball #photography )

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

#Edinburgh scenes (May 2023). ( #Scotland #photography )

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

Yep -- and part of a longstanding trend. Time to re-link my @undark.org feature from a few years ago on the urge to over-hype certain kinds of stories in #physics and #astronomy: undark.org/2021/01/18/a... #scicomm

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

I wrote about the widespread adoption of AI in education, and why there needs to be more resistance to it open.substack.com/pub/irinadum...

submitted 40 days ago • 9 comments

Rock legends The Who announce their farewell North American tour: www.billboard.com/music/rock/t...

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

My latest video: Here we take a look at Samuel Rowbotham, Alfred Russel Wallace, and a bizarre dispute that took place in the English fens a century and a half ago: youtu.be/fXyjywb4vX4 #science #pseudoscience #England #histsci #SciComm

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments