Chris Simms
@chrisnsimms.bsky.social
Science journalist covering all fields. Formerly an editor at New Scientist and Nature. Particular fan of health, mushrooms, amphibians, marine life and nature 🧪🐸 🍄
Selection of articles here: https://www.newscientist.com/author/chris-simms/
Selection of articles here: https://www.newscientist.com/author/chris-simms/
What led to the emergence of the first states, thousands of years ago?
People often say agriculture, but the first large-scale societies didn't appear until 4000 years after the advent of agriculture. The answer may be growing grain, specifically. 🧪 #history
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
People often say agriculture, but the first large-scale societies didn't appear until 4000 years after the advent of agriculture. The answer may be growing grain, specifically. 🧪 #history
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
Easily taxed grains were crucial to the birth of the first states
The cultivation of wheat, barley and maize, which are easily stored and taxed, seems to have led to the emergence of large societies, rather than agriculture generally
www.newscientist.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:46 AM
What led to the emergence of the first states, thousands of years ago?
People often say agriculture, but the first large-scale societies didn't appear until 4000 years after the advent of agriculture. The answer may be growing grain, specifically. 🧪 #history
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
People often say agriculture, but the first large-scale societies didn't appear until 4000 years after the advent of agriculture. The answer may be growing grain, specifically. 🧪 #history
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
This is a great video from @tomvanderlinden.bsky.social on why films often don't feel as real any more and the (haptic) elements that trick your body into thinking you are actually there. It explains why I move in my seat so much during the test run scene in Top Gun: Maverick #films #science 🧪
Why don't movies feel "real" anymore? My deep dive into the first principles of cinematic immersion is out now on YouTube: youtu.be/tvwPKBXEOKE
November 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
This is a great video from @tomvanderlinden.bsky.social on why films often don't feel as real any more and the (haptic) elements that trick your body into thinking you are actually there. It explains why I move in my seat so much during the test run scene in Top Gun: Maverick #films #science 🧪
Reposted by Chris Simms
Rafflesia hasseltii: a plant seen more by tigers than people. Watching this flower open by night was the closest thing to magic:
November 19, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Rafflesia hasseltii: a plant seen more by tigers than people. Watching this flower open by night was the closest thing to magic:
So does the future hold massive swamps of mosquitoes, farmed to produce parts for 3D printing? @sparkes.bsky.social 🧪 #insects #technology
My only hope is that after my death my proboscis can be useful to science.
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Mosquito proboscis repurposed as a fine nozzle for 3D printing
When engineers struggled to make 3D printer nozzles narrow enough for their needs, they turned to nature and found the proboscis of a female mosquito had exactly the properties they needed
www.newscientist.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:20 AM
So does the future hold massive swamps of mosquitoes, farmed to produce parts for 3D printing? @sparkes.bsky.social 🧪 #insects #technology
Early humans like Neanderthals probably kissed, and our ape ancestors could have been doing it 21 million years ago 🧪 #evolution #kissing #sex
It was great talking to @matildabrindle.bsky.social and @zannaclay.bsky.social for this @newscientist.com story.
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
It was great talking to @matildabrindle.bsky.social and @zannaclay.bsky.social for this @newscientist.com story.
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Kissing may have evolved in an ape ancestor 21 million years ago
Rather than being a recent cultural development, kissing may have been practised by other early humans like Neanderthals and our ape ancestors
www.newscientist.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Early humans like Neanderthals probably kissed, and our ape ancestors could have been doing it 21 million years ago 🧪 #evolution #kissing #sex
It was great talking to @matildabrindle.bsky.social and @zannaclay.bsky.social for this @newscientist.com story.
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
It was great talking to @matildabrindle.bsky.social and @zannaclay.bsky.social for this @newscientist.com story.
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
This came as a big surprise to me: In the grasslands of Central Asia, long the domain of mobile peoples living in yurts, a giant settlement dating back 3600 years has been discovered. 🧪 #BronzeAge #science #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Vast Bronze Age city discovered in the plains of Kazakhstan
A major settlement in Central Asia called Semiyarka dating back to 1600 BC had houses, a big central building and even an industrial zone for producing copper and bronze
www.newscientist.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:19 AM
This came as a big surprise to me: In the grasslands of Central Asia, long the domain of mobile peoples living in yurts, a giant settlement dating back 3600 years has been discovered. 🧪 #BronzeAge #science #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
This was a fun story to work on partly because I've always loved the skeleton this research is based on: a Neanderthal specimen known as Altamura Man, still embedded in rock in Lamalunga cave in Italy, and peppered with "cave popcorn" or "popcorn concretions", making it look part of a coral reef 🧪
The hefty Neanderthal nose wasn’t adapted to cold climates in the way many people thought it was, the first analysis of a well-preserved nasal cavity in the human fossil record has revealed.
Neanderthals' hefty noses weren’t well adapted to cold climates
www.newscientist.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:15 AM
This was a fun story to work on partly because I've always loved the skeleton this research is based on: a Neanderthal specimen known as Altamura Man, still embedded in rock in Lamalunga cave in Italy, and peppered with "cave popcorn" or "popcorn concretions", making it look part of a coral reef 🧪
I loved working on this story. Reality really can trump the drama of fiction: Worker ants are tricked into murdering their mother by an imposter queen — who quickly takes the throne for herself 🧪 #ants #science
Shakespeare would have been proud of that plot.
www.livescience.com/animals/inse...
Shakespeare would have been proud of that plot.
www.livescience.com/animals/inse...
'Nothing but a nightmare': Worker ants are tricked into murdering their mom by an imposter queen — who quickly takes the throne for herself
A sneaky spray of chemicals makes ant workers turn on their own mother — the queen — so a parasitic invader can take over the colony herself.
www.livescience.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
I loved working on this story. Reality really can trump the drama of fiction: Worker ants are tricked into murdering their mother by an imposter queen — who quickly takes the throne for herself 🧪 #ants #science
Shakespeare would have been proud of that plot.
www.livescience.com/animals/inse...
Shakespeare would have been proud of that plot.
www.livescience.com/animals/inse...
I am struggling with this logic. If you ban songs from KPop Demon Hunters because people are "uncomfortable" with references to demons and "associate them with spiritual forces opposed to God and goodness", surely you must also ban stories of Jesus casting out demons. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Singing of KPop Demon Hunters songs banned at school in Poole
The head teacher tells parents references to demons can feel
www.bbc.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I am struggling with this logic. If you ban songs from KPop Demon Hunters because people are "uncomfortable" with references to demons and "associate them with spiritual forces opposed to God and goodness", surely you must also ban stories of Jesus casting out demons. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
It's amazing that forensic science on the skeleton of Béla, the young Hungarian Duke of Macsó, can tell us that he was murdered by three assailants in a bloody and coordinated attack (back in 1272) . 🧪 #history #murder
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Medieval Hungarian duke was murdered in a brutal and coordinated attack, forensic analysis reveals
The skeleton of Béla, the Duke of Macsó, shows that he was murdered by three assailants in a bloody and coordinated attack.
www.livescience.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:18 PM
It's amazing that forensic science on the skeleton of Béla, the young Hungarian Duke of Macsó, can tell us that he was murdered by three assailants in a bloody and coordinated attack (back in 1272) . 🧪 #history #murder
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Epstein-Barr virus, the common pathogen behind mononucleosis/mono/glandular fever/kissing disease, seems to prime some people to develop the autoimmune condition systemic lupus erythematosus 🧪 #health #mono
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Strongest evidence yet that the Epstein-Barr virus causes lupus
Lupus has been linked to the Epstein-Barr virus – which causes glandular fever, or mono – before, but we now have evidence of how it can bring about the autoimmune condition
www.newscientist.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Epstein-Barr virus, the common pathogen behind mononucleosis/mono/glandular fever/kissing disease, seems to prime some people to develop the autoimmune condition systemic lupus erythematosus 🧪 #health #mono
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
www.newscientist.com/article/2504...
Was this giant, mysterious collection of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru the world's first spreadsheet?
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Mysterious holes in Andean mountain may be an Inca spreadsheet
Thousands of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru could have been a monumental accounting device for trade and tax
www.newscientist.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Was this giant, mysterious collection of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru the world's first spreadsheet?
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology
www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Reposted by Chris Simms
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
I suspect that the feeling that there isn't enough time to do the things you actually need to do is a pretty common phenomenon outside #science research, too. @nature.com
It's certainly how I feel. 🧪
It's certainly how I feel. 🧪
Scientists feel that the pressure to publish is rising, but that the time and resources they have to do the necessary research are falling, according to a survey of 3,200 researchers
go.nature.com/4hNDvuN
go.nature.com/4hNDvuN
Pressure to publish is rising as research time shrinks, finds survey of scientists
Researchers feel that pressures to publish are increasing, but the time and resources available to do research are decreasing, according to a survey by Elsevier.
go.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:47 PM
I suspect that the feeling that there isn't enough time to do the things you actually need to do is a pretty common phenomenon outside #science research, too. @nature.com
It's certainly how I feel. 🧪
It's certainly how I feel. 🧪
I love every question in this quiz, but my favourite mystery song title clue is this:
10. The Beatles’ Temporal Conjecture of Counterfactual Reasoning
GIVEN: One week contains exactly seven days.
ALSO GIVEN: Love is needed and can be provided for more than seven days a week...
🧪 #math #music
10. The Beatles’ Temporal Conjecture of Counterfactual Reasoning
GIVEN: One week contains exactly seven days.
ALSO GIVEN: Love is needed and can be provided for more than seven days a week...
🧪 #math #music
Pop Song Math Quiz:
EG: 8. Jay-Z’s Limited Problem Set
Let x = the set including Jay’s total number of possible tribulations (maximum = 100).
GIVEN: One of the set “a bitch.” How many other potential quandaries might Jay-Z face? www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/pop...
EG: 8. Jay-Z’s Limited Problem Set
Let x = the set including Jay’s total number of possible tribulations (maximum = 100).
GIVEN: One of the set “a bitch.” How many other potential quandaries might Jay-Z face? www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/pop...
Pop Song Math Quiz
Answer all questions in the form of a song title.
1. The Rob Base Postulate
Given that a number greater than 1(x) is required to make a thing go ri...
www.mcsweeneys.net
November 6, 2025 at 3:25 PM
🧵(1/?) I find the lack of US action on #birdflu so far this year bemusing.
I live in England and have a mere 8 chickens, but because I give spare eggs to neighbours, as of today, I have to abide to stricter biosecurity rules. 🧪 #health
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
I live in England and have a mere 8 chickens, but because I give spare eggs to neighbours, as of today, I have to abide to stricter biosecurity rules. 🧪 #health
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
Bird flu surges among poultry amid a scaled back federal response
Migrating wild birds are spreading the virus to domesticated flocks, increasing the risk of eventually seeing a human outbreak. Scientists are troubled by the muted federal response.
www.npr.org
November 6, 2025 at 1:32 PM
🧵(1/?) I find the lack of US action on #birdflu so far this year bemusing.
I live in England and have a mere 8 chickens, but because I give spare eggs to neighbours, as of today, I have to abide to stricter biosecurity rules. 🧪 #health
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
I live in England and have a mere 8 chickens, but because I give spare eggs to neighbours, as of today, I have to abide to stricter biosecurity rules. 🧪 #health
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
Could Vikings* have settled in Iceland 70 years before the widely accepted date?
*or more accurately, Norse people. #Vikings were the Norse people who raided, traded and explored by sea. All Vikings were Norse, but not all Norse people were Vikings #history 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
*or more accurately, Norse people. #Vikings were the Norse people who raided, traded and explored by sea. All Vikings were Norse, but not all Norse people were Vikings #history 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
Ancient DNA may rewrite the story of Iceland's earliest settlers
Biochemical evidence suggests Norse people settled in Iceland almost 70 years before the accepted arrival date of the 870s, and didn't chop down the island's forests
www.newscientist.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Could Vikings* have settled in Iceland 70 years before the widely accepted date?
*or more accurately, Norse people. #Vikings were the Norse people who raided, traded and explored by sea. All Vikings were Norse, but not all Norse people were Vikings #history 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
*or more accurately, Norse people. #Vikings were the Norse people who raided, traded and explored by sea. All Vikings were Norse, but not all Norse people were Vikings #history 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
You've probably heard that the microbiome is linked to aspects of health, including conditions like anxiety, but did you know that the mix of microbes in the gut might also help shape a child's personality? #science 🧪 #health #microbiome #bacteria #brain
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
The gut microbiome may play a role in shaping our personality
Rats given a faecal transplant from exuberant toddlers showed more exploratory behaviour, supporting the idea that gut bacteria might affect children’s emotional development
www.newscientist.com
October 31, 2025 at 5:21 PM
You've probably heard that the microbiome is linked to aspects of health, including conditions like anxiety, but did you know that the mix of microbes in the gut might also help shape a child's personality? #science 🧪 #health #microbiome #bacteria #brain
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
www.newscientist.com/article/2502...
A very nice thread on Nanotyrannus here by @davehone.bsky.social 🧪 #dinosaurs
I'm pretty confident that certain online people are going to be cheering about how they were right all along on Nanotyrannus. Their take will be that they were right all along and their arguments, based on private specimens of uncertain provenance, photos of things without scale bars, and ideas...
October 30, 2025 at 8:22 PM
A very nice thread on Nanotyrannus here by @davehone.bsky.social 🧪 #dinosaurs
This is a cracking bit of research. The tiny tyrannosaur named Nanotyrannus, long thought by many to be just a figment of the imagination (aka a young T. rex that was misclassified) turns out to almost certainly be a real species #science 🧪 #dinosaurs
www.livescience.com/animals/dino...
www.livescience.com/animals/dino...
'I was wrong': Dinosaur scientists agree that small tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus was real, pivotal new study finds
An argument over whether fossils from several small dinosaurs represent a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex or smaller adults of a separate species may finally be settled.
www.livescience.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:10 PM
This is a cracking bit of research. The tiny tyrannosaur named Nanotyrannus, long thought by many to be just a figment of the imagination (aka a young T. rex that was misclassified) turns out to almost certainly be a real species #science 🧪 #dinosaurs
www.livescience.com/animals/dino...
www.livescience.com/animals/dino...
Some lovely cheetah-like examples of the wonderfully named shaggy scalycap (Pholiota squarossa) emerging from the base of a tree in the garden of the Mottisfont @nationaltrust.org.uk property. #fungifriends #mushrooms 🍄
October 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Some lovely cheetah-like examples of the wonderfully named shaggy scalycap (Pholiota squarossa) emerging from the base of a tree in the garden of the Mottisfont @nationaltrust.org.uk property. #fungifriends #mushrooms 🍄
Sight has been restored in people with previously incurable vision loss.
A tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and a pair of high-tech glasses have helped people with advanced age-related macular degeneration read again. #science #blindness 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
A tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and a pair of high-tech glasses have helped people with advanced age-related macular degeneration read again. #science #blindness 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
Eye implant and high-tech glasses restore vision lost to age
Age-related macular degeneration is a common cause of vision loss, with existing treatments only able to slow its progression. But now an implant in the back of the eye and a pair of high-tech glasses...
www.newscientist.com
October 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Sight has been restored in people with previously incurable vision loss.
A tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and a pair of high-tech glasses have helped people with advanced age-related macular degeneration read again. #science #blindness 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
A tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and a pair of high-tech glasses have helped people with advanced age-related macular degeneration read again. #science #blindness 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
I love getting emails like this from "journals". I suspect they didn't review my recent publications too carefully, given that I am not a professor and my only research paper was back in 2001 (it was about marine turtles, though).
🧪 #journals #scientificpublishing #research #science
🧪 #journals #scientificpublishing #research #science
October 17, 2025 at 1:14 PM
I love getting emails like this from "journals". I suspect they didn't review my recent publications too carefully, given that I am not a professor and my only research paper was back in 2001 (it was about marine turtles, though).
🧪 #journals #scientificpublishing #research #science
🧪 #journals #scientificpublishing #research #science
Fortunately I don't know anyone who does this.
It would make me twitch like Commissioner Dreyfuss in the Pink Panther films, much as I do when people mix up "me" and "I" and say things like "Bob and me are going to the shop." #grammar #language #words #subediting #editing #writing
xkcd.com/3143/
It would make me twitch like Commissioner Dreyfuss in the Pink Panther films, much as I do when people mix up "me" and "I" and say things like "Bob and me are going to the shop." #grammar #language #words #subediting #editing #writing
xkcd.com/3143/
Question Mark
xkcd.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Fortunately I don't know anyone who does this.
It would make me twitch like Commissioner Dreyfuss in the Pink Panther films, much as I do when people mix up "me" and "I" and say things like "Bob and me are going to the shop." #grammar #language #words #subediting #editing #writing
xkcd.com/3143/
It would make me twitch like Commissioner Dreyfuss in the Pink Panther films, much as I do when people mix up "me" and "I" and say things like "Bob and me are going to the shop." #grammar #language #words #subediting #editing #writing
xkcd.com/3143/
Reposted by Chris Simms
University administration:
"We need you to complete 26 hours of lab safety training 🧪 each year so that everyone is safe and responsible."
Also university administration:
"We need you to complete 26 hours of lab safety training 🧪 each year so that everyone is safe and responsible."
Also university administration:
October 15, 2025 at 3:09 PM
University administration:
"We need you to complete 26 hours of lab safety training 🧪 each year so that everyone is safe and responsible."
Also university administration:
"We need you to complete 26 hours of lab safety training 🧪 each year so that everyone is safe and responsible."
Also university administration: