Elizabeth Gibney
@lizziegibney.bsky.social
Senior reporter at Nature, views my own. Journalist covering physics, AI, policy. Attempting to stop lurking and start posting.
See my stories at nature.com/news
See my stories at nature.com/news
I've written two @nature.com stories this week looking at whether EU efforts to lure US scientists are working 🧪
They are: the number of US applicants wanting to take up ERC grants has doubled. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
They are: the number of US applicants wanting to take up ERC grants has doubled. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US applications for prestigious European research grants surge
Rush for funds to relocate laboratories to Europe is latest sign of a US brain drain.
www.nature.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:04 AM
I've written two @nature.com stories this week looking at whether EU efforts to lure US scientists are working 🧪
They are: the number of US applicants wanting to take up ERC grants has doubled. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
They are: the number of US applicants wanting to take up ERC grants has doubled. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Silicon Valley has gone wild for Moltbook, the social network for AI agents. What can scientists learn from studying it?
Great @nature.com story from Mohana Basu 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Great @nature.com story from Mohana Basu 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
OpenClaw AI chatbots are running amok — these scientists are listening in
Artificial-intelligence agents have their own social-media platform and are publishing AI-generated research papers on their own preprint server.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Silicon Valley has gone wild for Moltbook, the social network for AI agents. What can scientists learn from studying it?
Great @nature.com story from Mohana Basu 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Great @nature.com story from Mohana Basu 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
1/4 RIP Micius 🛰️
The world's first quantum satellite crashed into the Pacific last week (to the west of Ecuador) after an almost 10-year mission
Also known as Mozi (& QUESS) it was famously the first to teleport a photon to space (or at least its quantum state)
🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
The world's first quantum satellite crashed into the Pacific last week (to the west of Ecuador) after an almost 10-year mission
Also known as Mozi (& QUESS) it was famously the first to teleport a photon to space (or at least its quantum state)
🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
Quantum teleportation is even weirder than you think - Nature
Don't let the catchy name distract you, says Philip Ball: the questions inspired by this arguably misnamed phenomenon go to the heart of quantum theory.
www.nature.com
February 5, 2026 at 4:11 PM
1/4 RIP Micius 🛰️
The world's first quantum satellite crashed into the Pacific last week (to the west of Ecuador) after an almost 10-year mission
Also known as Mozi (& QUESS) it was famously the first to teleport a photon to space (or at least its quantum state)
🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
The world's first quantum satellite crashed into the Pacific last week (to the west of Ecuador) after an almost 10-year mission
Also known as Mozi (& QUESS) it was famously the first to teleport a photon to space (or at least its quantum state)
🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
OpenAI is among those investing a whopping $252 million into a start up called Merge Labs. They want to use ultrasound -- rather than electrode implants -- to read out and interact with the brain.
What are its chances of success? My @nature.com story here: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
What are its chances of success? My @nature.com story here: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
OpenAI-backed firm to use ultrasound to read minds. Does the science stand up?
Spin-out Merge Labs aims to rival Elon Musk’s brain-chip company Neuralink. But researchers say the technology is still at an early stage.
www.nature.com
February 3, 2026 at 2:11 PM
OpenAI is among those investing a whopping $252 million into a start up called Merge Labs. They want to use ultrasound -- rather than electrode implants -- to read out and interact with the brain.
What are its chances of success? My @nature.com story here: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
What are its chances of success? My @nature.com story here: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
We're back with a new vid!
First protein, now exercise. How much do you need to reap the health benefits?
The good news is, probably not as much as you think... 🧪
First protein, now exercise. How much do you need to reap the health benefits?
The good news is, probably not as much as you think... 🧪
Why do lot thing, when few do trick?
I've got a new film on the surprising benefits of little exercise presented once again by @lizziegibney.bsky.social.
Based on a Feature by @marilenharo.bsky.social, it looks at emerging data from smart devices.
Also I dress as an 80s man.
youtu.be/jskktKzWfys
I've got a new film on the surprising benefits of little exercise presented once again by @lizziegibney.bsky.social.
Based on a Feature by @marilenharo.bsky.social, it looks at emerging data from smart devices.
Also I dress as an 80s man.
youtu.be/jskktKzWfys
How much exercise do you really need?
YouTube video by nature video
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 10:57 AM
We're back with a new vid!
First protein, now exercise. How much do you need to reap the health benefits?
The good news is, probably not as much as you think... 🧪
First protein, now exercise. How much do you need to reap the health benefits?
The good news is, probably not as much as you think... 🧪
"Another remarkable case is a 106-year-old woman who took up swimming at age 70 & won her first competition three decades later. Longevity runs in the family: she has two younger sisters over 100 & a 110-year-old aunt."
Great story from @marilenharo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
Great story from @marilenharo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
Still working at 107: supercentenarian study probes genetics of extreme longevity
Scientists seek to understand the factors that have allowed people in Brazil to reach their 100th or even 110th birthdays despite facing adversities.
www.nature.com
January 28, 2026 at 10:51 AM
"Another remarkable case is a 106-year-old woman who took up swimming at age 70 & won her first competition three decades later. Longevity runs in the family: she has two younger sisters over 100 & a 110-year-old aunt."
Great story from @marilenharo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
Great story from @marilenharo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
Reposted by Elizabeth Gibney
Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.
This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.
Auschwitz took time.
This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.
Auschwitz took time.
January 27, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.
This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.
Auschwitz took time.
This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.
Auschwitz took time.
I quizzed @cern.bsky.social's new director general on what that $1bn donation will mean for their long-campaigned for future machine, and whether physicists should pursue cheaper, more varied experimental strategies instead ⚛️🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What a $1-billion pledge means for CERN’s ambitious supercollider plans
New director-general Mark Thomson discusses fundraising efforts and future priorities for Europe’s particle-physics laboratory.
www.nature.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:47 PM
I quizzed @cern.bsky.social's new director general on what that $1bn donation will mean for their long-campaigned for future machine, and whether physicists should pursue cheaper, more varied experimental strategies instead ⚛️🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How big can something be and still be quantum?
We're far off Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat but physicists have put a cluster of 7,000 atoms into a superposition of distant paths - the chunkiest cat state yet, with philosophical and practical ramifications 🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
We're far off Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat but physicists have put a cluster of 7,000 atoms into a superposition of distant paths - the chunkiest cat state yet, with philosophical and practical ramifications 🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Schrödinger’s cat just got bigger: quantum physicists create largest ever ‘superposition’
Record-breaking experiment shows that a cluster of thousands of atoms can act like a wave as well as a particle.
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:44 AM
How big can something be and still be quantum?
We're far off Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat but physicists have put a cluster of 7,000 atoms into a superposition of distant paths - the chunkiest cat state yet, with philosophical and practical ramifications 🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
We're far off Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat but physicists have put a cluster of 7,000 atoms into a superposition of distant paths - the chunkiest cat state yet, with philosophical and practical ramifications 🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Great @nature.com story from @nicolakimjones.bsky.social 🧪
"How central 'being a man' was to someone’s sense of self wasn’t particularly predictive of which group they landed in. "'Manly' men are not necessarily toxic," says Hill Cone. "There is positive masculinity."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
"How central 'being a man' was to someone’s sense of self wasn’t particularly predictive of which group they landed in. "'Manly' men are not necessarily toxic," says Hill Cone. "There is positive masculinity."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Can ‘toxic masculinity’ be measured? Scientists try to quantify controversial term
A study has outlined eight indicators of toxic masculinity in heterosexual men — and finds that ‘manliness’ is not necessarily a problematic aspect of masculinity.
www.nature.com
January 21, 2026 at 12:30 PM
Great @nature.com story from @nicolakimjones.bsky.social 🧪
"How central 'being a man' was to someone’s sense of self wasn’t particularly predictive of which group they landed in. "'Manly' men are not necessarily toxic," says Hill Cone. "There is positive masculinity."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
"How central 'being a man' was to someone’s sense of self wasn’t particularly predictive of which group they landed in. "'Manly' men are not necessarily toxic," says Hill Cone. "There is positive masculinity."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
I stopped putting protein powder in my breakfast after making this video (with producer & extra extraordinaire @nickpetrichowe.bsky.social)
It's based on this great story by @marilenharo.bsky.social from the end of last year🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Do you need more protein? Watch & learn!
It's based on this great story by @marilenharo.bsky.social from the end of last year🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Do you need more protein? Watch & learn!
Watch this video if you want to:
A) Find out how much protein you actually need 🍗
B) You want to see me dress up as a German Chemist from the 1840s 🧪
C) You're a fan of @lizziegibney.bsky.social's amazing presentation style 💃
D) All of the above
A) Find out how much protein you actually need 🍗
B) You want to see me dress up as a German Chemist from the 1840s 🧪
C) You're a fan of @lizziegibney.bsky.social's amazing presentation style 💃
D) All of the above
Confused about how much protein you should be eating? Here’s what the science says.
January 21, 2026 at 10:31 AM
I stopped putting protein powder in my breakfast after making this video (with producer & extra extraordinaire @nickpetrichowe.bsky.social)
It's based on this great story by @marilenharo.bsky.social from the end of last year🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Do you need more protein? Watch & learn!
It's based on this great story by @marilenharo.bsky.social from the end of last year🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Do you need more protein? Watch & learn!
Happy Friday folks!
Recently you may have seen demos of glitzy humanoid robots doing impressive stuff.
But demos don't say a lot. I wanted to know if these bots are finally becoming useful 🤖🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Recently you may have seen demos of glitzy humanoid robots doing impressive stuff.
But demos don't say a lot. I wanted to know if these bots are finally becoming useful 🤖🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Humanoid robots step up their game: how useful are the latest droids?
Chinese factories have embraced the machines, but many activities still require human operators.
www.nature.com
January 16, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Happy Friday folks!
Recently you may have seen demos of glitzy humanoid robots doing impressive stuff.
But demos don't say a lot. I wanted to know if these bots are finally becoming useful 🤖🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Recently you may have seen demos of glitzy humanoid robots doing impressive stuff.
But demos don't say a lot. I wanted to know if these bots are finally becoming useful 🤖🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
In a recent study, LLMs undergoing "therapy" came out with tales of bewildering "childhoods" of pre-training and "fears" of failing their creators, with traits that in people could point to mental health concerns.
Should their mimicking of human traumas worry us? 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Should their mimicking of human traumas worry us? 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Client Challenge
www.nature.com
January 9, 2026 at 3:20 PM
In a recent study, LLMs undergoing "therapy" came out with tales of bewildering "childhoods" of pre-training and "fears" of failing their creators, with traits that in people could point to mental health concerns.
Should their mimicking of human traumas worry us? 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Should their mimicking of human traumas worry us? 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Great new feature out on the ways that researchers are trying to stop dormant cancer cells from reemerging years later 🧪https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-04149-3
Why cancer can come back years later — and how to stop it
Researchers are targeting dormant tumour cells that might explain why some cancers reappear long after successful treatment.
www.nature.com
January 6, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Great new feature out on the ways that researchers are trying to stop dormant cancer cells from reemerging years later 🧪https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-04149-3
Reposted by Elizabeth Gibney
This is interesting ... I don't receive @cern.bsky.social 's press releases anymore, perhaps because I reported on many physicists' opposition to this project
Wow. CERN has secured a promise of $1 billion (!) towards its planned Future Circular Collider from private donors (such as the Breakthrough Prize Foundation & Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund) - the first such donation for CERN, which has until now been taxpayer funded home.cern/news/press-r...
🧪⚛️
🧪⚛️
Private donors pledge 860 million euros for CERN’s Future Circular Collider
For the first time in CERN’s history, private donors (individuals and philanthropic foundations) have agreed to support a CERN flagship research project. Recently, a group of friends of CERN, includin...
home.cern
December 18, 2025 at 5:36 PM
This is interesting ... I don't receive @cern.bsky.social 's press releases anymore, perhaps because I reported on many physicists' opposition to this project
Wow. CERN has secured a promise of $1 billion (!) towards its planned Future Circular Collider from private donors (such as the Breakthrough Prize Foundation & Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund) - the first such donation for CERN, which has until now been taxpayer funded home.cern/news/press-r...
🧪⚛️
🧪⚛️
Private donors pledge 860 million euros for CERN’s Future Circular Collider
For the first time in CERN’s history, private donors (individuals and philanthropic foundations) have agreed to support a CERN flagship research project. Recently, a group of friends of CERN, includin...
home.cern
December 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Wow. CERN has secured a promise of $1 billion (!) towards its planned Future Circular Collider from private donors (such as the Breakthrough Prize Foundation & Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund) - the first such donation for CERN, which has until now been taxpayer funded home.cern/news/press-r...
🧪⚛️
🧪⚛️
This was such awful news to report on yesterday. My thoughts are with Nuno Loureiro's family, friends, colleagues and the whole fusion community, of which he seemed to have been a beating heart. What a tragedy www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪⚛️
MIT fusion-lab head shot dead: a horror 'impossible to believe'
Plasma physicist Nuno Loureiro was helping to develop clean-energy fusion devices.
www.nature.com
December 18, 2025 at 10:10 AM
This was such awful news to report on yesterday. My thoughts are with Nuno Loureiro's family, friends, colleagues and the whole fusion community, of which he seemed to have been a beating heart. What a tragedy www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪⚛️
Reposted by Elizabeth Gibney
What's the best science gift you ever got? 🔭🔬
We asked @nature.com readers for their faves. They include the geneticist inspired by slicing up cow eyeballs she was given as a child, and the former head of the Canadian Space Agency who got a telescope for Christmas in time for the Apollo 8 mission
We asked @nature.com readers for their faves. They include the geneticist inspired by slicing up cow eyeballs she was given as a child, and the former head of the Canadian Space Agency who got a telescope for Christmas in time for the Apollo 8 mission
The gift that shaped my career in science
Nature asked about your most memorable scientific gifts. You delivered.
www.nature.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:50 PM
What's the best science gift you ever got? 🔭🔬
We asked @nature.com readers for their faves. They include the geneticist inspired by slicing up cow eyeballs she was given as a child, and the former head of the Canadian Space Agency who got a telescope for Christmas in time for the Apollo 8 mission
We asked @nature.com readers for their faves. They include the geneticist inspired by slicing up cow eyeballs she was given as a child, and the former head of the Canadian Space Agency who got a telescope for Christmas in time for the Apollo 8 mission
I somehow missed when my own story came out... 🤦 but here's one that I've been trying to write a version of for a while.
Amidst the flood of claims from quantum labs right now, a few initiatives are trying to find transparent ways to chart progress. More here 👇
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪⚛️
Amidst the flood of claims from quantum labs right now, a few initiatives are trying to find transparent ways to chart progress. More here 👇
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪⚛️
Quantum computing ‘KPIs’ could distinguish true breakthroughs from spurious claims
Researchers are devising ways to make new machines face off, without the hype.
www.nature.com
December 16, 2025 at 11:44 AM
I somehow missed when my own story came out... 🤦 but here's one that I've been trying to write a version of for a while.
Amidst the flood of claims from quantum labs right now, a few initiatives are trying to find transparent ways to chart progress. More here 👇
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪⚛️
Amidst the flood of claims from quantum labs right now, a few initiatives are trying to find transparent ways to chart progress. More here 👇
www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪⚛️
Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek's founder, is one of Nature's 10 - those who took a prominent role in shaping science this year 🧪🤖
DeepSeek makes frontier models for very cheap. I profiled him & the firm here (as well as you can profile a man who doesn't speak to the media)
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
DeepSeek makes frontier models for very cheap. I profiled him & the firm here (as well as you can profile a man who doesn't speak to the media)
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The Chinese finance whizz whose DeepSeek AI model stunned the world
Liang Wenfeng is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025.
www.nature.com
December 10, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek's founder, is one of Nature's 10 - those who took a prominent role in shaping science this year 🧪🤖
DeepSeek makes frontier models for very cheap. I profiled him & the firm here (as well as you can profile a man who doesn't speak to the media)
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
DeepSeek makes frontier models for very cheap. I profiled him & the firm here (as well as you can profile a man who doesn't speak to the media)
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Elizabeth Gibney
36 years ago today, 14 women, most of whom were studying engineering, were killed by an anti-feminist gun man at École Polytechnique in Montreal. I was a young graduate student studying physics at the time and I will never forget. #MontrealMassacre #NeverForget 🧪 👩🔬 ⚛️ 🎢 #AcademicSky 🇨🇦
December 6, 2025 at 7:02 PM
36 years ago today, 14 women, most of whom were studying engineering, were killed by an anti-feminist gun man at École Polytechnique in Montreal. I was a young graduate student studying physics at the time and I will never forget. #MontrealMassacre #NeverForget 🧪 👩🔬 ⚛️ 🎢 #AcademicSky 🇨🇦
I write a lot about AI and in AI policy circles I kept hearing one thing -- China is the country talking loudest about wanting to regulate the technology at a global level.
Here's my explainer on what that could look like
🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's my explainer on what that could look like
🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
China wants to lead the world on AI regulation — will the plan work?
Having placed artificial intelligence at the centre of its own economic strategy, China is driving efforts to create an international system to govern the technology’s use.
www.nature.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I write a lot about AI and in AI policy circles I kept hearing one thing -- China is the country talking loudest about wanting to regulate the technology at a global level.
Here's my explainer on what that could look like
🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's my explainer on what that could look like
🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Rather than just scaling, is it time to bring the neural networks behind LLMs together with old school rule-based 'symbolic' AI?
Lots of opportunities and challenges in this great story by @nicolakimjones.bsky.social 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Lots of opportunities and challenges in this great story by @nicolakimjones.bsky.social 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
This AI combo could unlock human-level intelligence
Blending ‘old-fashioned’ logic systems with the neural networks that power large language models is one of the hottest trends in artificial intelligence.
www.nature.com
December 1, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Rather than just scaling, is it time to bring the neural networks behind LLMs together with old school rule-based 'symbolic' AI?
Lots of opportunities and challenges in this great story by @nicolakimjones.bsky.social 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Lots of opportunities and challenges in this great story by @nicolakimjones.bsky.social 🧪🤖
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
In a gear change from my last few stories...by acting as a "mechanical fuse" this simple little slipknot, added to surgical thread, can radically improve how surgeons perform sutures & lead to better outcomes
A lovely intersection of mechanics, geometry and medicine 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A lovely intersection of mechanics, geometry and medicine 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
November 26, 2025 at 5:19 PM
In a gear change from my last few stories...by acting as a "mechanical fuse" this simple little slipknot, added to surgical thread, can radically improve how surgeons perform sutures & lead to better outcomes
A lovely intersection of mechanics, geometry and medicine 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A lovely intersection of mechanics, geometry and medicine 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...