Sarah Wild

International Women's Day 2026 Nature highlights developments in women’s health research and career guidance for women in science.

Happy International Women's Day! @nature.com put together a collection of recent women's health and women in science stories--by @smjyoti.bsky.social, @scattercushion.bsky.social, @lindanordling.bsky.social , @sarahemilywild.bsky.social, and myself
--to commemorate.

And on women in science:
*These women inspired award-winning women by @scattercushion.bsky.social
*Q&A with Changemaker Dorceta Taylor by @virginiagewin.bsky.social
*The $120K 'motherhood penalty' by @sarahemilywild.bsky.social

How big is the ‘motherhood penalty’? In Denmark, it adds up to $120,000 An analysis documents the cumulative income hit mothers incur — as well as the extent to which state aid can offset the loss.

My latest in @nature.com

How big is the ‘motherhood penalty’? In Denmark, it adds up to $120,000

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

In the search for bees, Mozambique honey hunters and birds share a language with distinct, regional dialects People searching for honey in Mozambique work with birds via a shared language in a rare case of cooperation between humans and wild animals. This language also comes with regional dialects — that app...

My latest in @livescience.com

People who hunt for honey in Mozambique use distinct dialects when communicating with birds to find bees, new research shows.The interaction is one of the few known egs of human-wildlife cooperation.

www.livescience.com/animals/bird...

Ancient mummified cheetahs discovered in Saudi Arabia contain preserved DNA from the long-lost population Cheetahs vanished from Saudi Arabia half a century ago. Now long-dead mummified big cats may help herald their return.

Last week, I learned about mummified cheetahs in Saudi Arabia and how researchers want to use them to bring the big cats back to the Arabian peninsula. Here's what I found out for @livescience.com

www.livescience.com/animals/cats...

Scientists watch microscopic plant 'mouths' breathing in real time with palm-sized tool Scientists say their Stomata In-Sight tool can observe plants "breathe," which could be used to bioengineer crops that require less water, making them potentially more resilient to climate change.

My latest in @livescience.com

Scientists have created a new tool to watch plants breathe in real time. The new tech could help identify the genetic traits that make crops more resilient to global climate change, the researchers say.

www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

Polar bears in southern Greenland are 'using jumping genes to rapidly rewrite their own DNA' to survive melting sea ice Warming temperatures appear to be driving genetic mutations in some polar bears to help them survive the shifting climatic conditions.

My latest for @livescience.com

Polar bears in southern Greenland are 'using jumping genes to rapidly rewrite their own DNA' to survive melting sea ice
www.livescience.com/animals/pola...

Death Valley shrub rearranges its insides to thrive in one of the hottest places on Earth Heat-loving plants that thrive in California's Death Valley could hold the key to growing crops in a changing climate.

My latest for @livescience.com

Death Valley shrub rearranges its insides to thrive in one of the hottest places on Earth

www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

One of the things I miss about old Twitter was chatting to you more often :)

Cosmic dawn: the search for the primordial hydrogen signal – Physics World Sarah Wild talks to astronomers across the world who are on a hunt for a subtle hydrogen signal that could confirm or disprove our ideas on the universe’s evolution

Here's my geeky deep-dive into cosmic dawn experiments in @physicsworld.bsky.social . I loved every moment of it.

physicsworld.com/a/cosmic-daw...

My latest for @livescience.com

AI models are neglecting African languages — scientists want to change that Scientists record 9,000 hours of languages spoken in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa as free-access training data for AI models.

AI models are neglecting African languages — scientists want to change that
Scientists record 9,000 hours of languages spoken in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa as free-access training data for AI models.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Need to update your data? Follow these five tips Researchers engaged in long-term projects often need to update their data sets over time. Here’s how to do it while maintaining reproducibility.

“There are no standards for repositories; the journals are not telling you how to correct a data set or how to cite new data, so people are just winging it,” says @cghlewis.bsky.social Lewis, a freelance data-management consultant in St. Louis, Missouri.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Giant radio telescope was ‘a natural magnet’ for African talent Roger Deane has seen the investment in astronomy on the continent pay off both in his own career and with more young scientists joining the field.

The third Q&A in my @nature.com series about how South Africa seeded the discipline of radio astronomy in Africa www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why were the Texas flash floods so catastrophic? More than 100 people have died in devastating flash floods in Kerr County, Texas. But what caused this extreme weather, and will events like this get more common?

Here's my latest in LiveScience: Why were the Texas flash floods so catastrophic.
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

Great tips from @sarahemilywild.bsky.social 👇
It's all about building relationships, 1st with the comms officers at universities, then with experts.
Grab ☕️ with the comms person, even a virtual one; talk to researchers once in a while to see when are they publishing something.
#abswss25 1/2

Developing astronomers in Africa: ‘We wanted to create a discipline’ Astronomer Bernie Fanaroff helped to design South Africa’s plan to become a radioastronomy powerhouse — and it started with training the next generation.

This series in @nature.com is close to my heart: how South Africa seeded the discipline of radio astronomy on the African continent. In 2005, there were five radio astronomers on the continent. Today there are hundreds of talented people listening to the stars.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

You have until next Wednesday to book an 'early bird' ticket and save up to 50%! I'm running a "Journalism From Scientific Papers" session with the amazing @emmastoye.bsky.social @sarahemilywild.bsky.social and @dalmeet.bsky.social, covering the basics and more sophisticated stuff. Sign up now!

I'm just sending out a survey from Nature's news team asking about ethical ways to use generative AI tools to write or review research papers.
To reassure anyone who received this email and is finding this post: this is a genuine survey! Please message me if you have questions.

'Milestone' as Square Kilometre Array Observatory releases its first low-frequency image of the cosmos – Physics World The new SKA-Low image was created using 1024 two-metre-high antennas

My latest in @physicsworld.bsky.social The SKA Observatory has released the 1st images from its partially built low-frequency telescope in Australia. It contains 85 of the brightest known galaxies in that region. With the full SKA-Low, it will see more than 600 000.
physicsworld.com/a/milestone-...

Satellites are polluting the stratosphere And forthcoming mega-constellations will exacerbate the problem

Another one from me this week. This time in The Economist: Satellites are polluting the stratosphere

www.economist.com/science-and-...

In Tshilidzi Marwala's lab (@txm23.bsky.social) lab, "there I saw people who looked like me, who had backgrounds similar to mine. That experience changes you. He was also so generous with everyone, asking, 'How do we open opportunities for you?'" – @vukosi.bsky.social

I want to ensure that Africans take part in the AI revolution Vukosi Marivate learnt that communities, not just superstar individuals, can open doors in artificial intelligence.

"If you’re just an individual, ‘superstar’ researcher, once you leave the field or retire, in effect, nothing has changed." – @vukosi.bsky.social in @nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Thirty years of the Square Kilometre Array: here’s what the world’s largest radio telescope project has achieved so far – Physics World The precursors to the world’s most sensitive radio telescope are already changing our view of the cosmos

The SKA's development has been shaped by a suite of smaller experiments and telescopes that are already resetting the agenda – and flagging problems that the giant telescope could face.

physicsworld.com/a/thirty-yea...

Actually, it did a little bit. Because nature is amazing.

Well. That didn't make me feel better about the world, now did it?

We are covering the recent executive orders in the US and the impact on the scientific community. If you have been affected then feel free to get in touch (anonymous or otherwise) by sending an e-mail to physics.world AT ioppublishing DOT org🧪⚛️

You're only really giving it a shot if you share a pic of your pet. Just saying.

Why kids need to take more risks: science reveals the benefits of wild, free play Studies reveal how risky play can benefit child development. But encouraging it can be a challenge for parents.

I wrote a piece about why kids need risky play and 'scary joy'.

I went into this @nature.com story feeling kind of like I screwed up because our kid is naturally cautious, but actually came out feeling much better. Kids need the *chance* to take risks--they get to decide whether to take them

Dependency disorders are present in people of all professions, but academics — who often set their own schedules and work regularly in isolation — are often good at concealing them, or might not realize that they have a problem.