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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen
@sophurky.bsky.social
180 followers 110 following 61 posts
science journalist and lapsed physicist. words at MIT Tech Review, Nature, Wired sophurky.com Signal: @sophurky.70
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Mar 5
Generative AI has a reputation for being an energy hog.

For my latest feature in Nature, I dig into the actual numbers.

(1/n)

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How much energy will AI really consume? The good, the bad and the unknown
Researchers want firms to be more transparent about the electricity demands of artificial intelligence.
www.nature.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · 4d
(2/2) New laureates Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi did their pioneering work in the 80's and 90's. Since then, chemists have created some very powerful applications with MOFs. In 2020, I covered a few of them in an article in Wired:
www.wired.com/story/this-c...
This Cloth Destroys Deadly Nerve Agents in Minutes
Chemists are collaborating with the US Army to build uniforms that can quickly break down toxic substances, protecting soldiers from chemical weapons.
www.wired.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · 4d
(1/2) Today's Chemistry Nobel went to metal-organic frameworks. These are a class of customizable molecules that I think of as cages, where you can trap chemicals of your choice and then efficiently perform controlled chemistry reactions within them.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · 5d
(2/n) Enough about science. Let's talk about me. This is a rare opportunity to name drop a physicist I've hung out with and not be met 100% with blank stares. I partied with John Martinis in 2018 on an LA rooftop. The party was weird.

Receipts:

www.wired.com/story/google...
Google's Quantum Computing Party Is as Fancy as Physics Gets
Physicists aren't known for their fancy shindigs—but quantum computer researchers break the mold.
www.wired.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · 5d
(1/n) Today's physics Nobel Prize went to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis for their work on quantum tunneling in superconducting circuits. This research laid the groundwork for the quantum computers in development today.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Sep 5
(3/n) And the second: the federal government's chatbots.

gizmodo.com/ai-running-a...
Is AI Running the Government? Here's What We Know
Generative AI is meant to automate tasks that government workers previously performed, with a predicted 300,000 job cuts from the federal workforce by the end of the year.
gizmodo.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Sep 5
(2/n) The first: A Utah and Arizona-based company that uses generative AI to help people clear their criminal records through the process known as expungement.
gizmodo.com/ai-expunge-p...
After a Complicated Legal Past, AI Set Her Free
Rasa Legal uses generative AI and other automation software to accelerate the expungement process.
gizmodo.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Sep 5
In my latest for Gizmodo, I write about two cases of generative AI being used in legal settings. They're foils to each other: one that I believe presents a way to use the software responsibly, and one that doesn't.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to decide which is which.

(1/n)
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Aug 20
Not a lot of people get to invent a programming language. I got to talk to somebody who did. Check out my latest profile in APS News.

www.aps.org/apsnews/2025...
Quantum careers: The coder who used 90 programming languages — then invented one for quantum computers
As a kid in Ukraine, Mariia Mykhailova wrote code on paper. Now she writes books on quantum computing.
www.aps.org
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Aug 11
Quantum computing gets all the attention -- but have you heard about their cousin, quantum radar? I write about a new type of quantum radar that uses Rydberg atoms, used as qubits in computers, not for encoding info but for imaging objects underground.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/11/1...
This quantum radar could image buried objects
Physicists are exploring a quantum-mechanical approach to making smaller radio wave detectors.
www.technologyreview.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Jun 24
Meet Sergio Cantu, a physicist at QuEra who just built a quantum computer in Japan and who also teaches baller science workshops to students in Mexico. My story for APS News.

www.aps.org/apsnews/2025...
Quantum careers | Building tomorrow’s quantum computers, teaching tomorrow’s scientists
Sergio Cantu’s dual mission spans multiple continents.
www.aps.org
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Jun 10
IBM says it's got all the ingredients and plans to make an error-corrected, large-scale quantum computer by 2028. "Large scale" = 200 logical qubits, 100 million operations, which is likely still 10x fewer operations than needed to be useful.

My story:
www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/10/1...
IBM aims to build the world’s first large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer by 2028
The company says it has cracked the code for error correction and is building a modular machine in New York state.
www.technologyreview.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Jun 6
This article basically a laundry list of how NOT to use AI. And that's how DOGE used it, to automate the cancelling of contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
ericumansky.bsky.social
Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · Jun 6
So DOGE used crappy AI to “munch” VA contracts.

We got the code.

Killed contracts included:

-support for nurses

-a gene sequencing to improve cancer treatment

-blood analysis

Story by @bxroberts.org @vernalcoleman.bsky.social and me.

www.propublica.org/article/trum...
DOGE Developed Error-Prone AI Tool to “Munch” Veterans Affairs Contracts
We obtained records showing how a Department of Government Efficiency staffer with no medical experience used artificial intelligence to identify which VA contracts to kill. “AI is absolutely the wron...
www.propublica.org
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Reposted by Sophia Chen
dangaristo.bsky.social
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · May 22
Great reporting and some striking visualizations of the cuts to NSF coming from a variety of directions: terminated grants, frozen new grants, and budget cuts.
upshot.nytimes.com
The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · May 22
The reductions in funding touch virtually every area of science and seem certain to harm American competitiveness.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades
The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.
www.nytimes.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · May 22
(5/n) But these clocks show, in their real-life operation, how time slows down in a gravitational field, as predicted by GR. They tick according based on a principle of quantum mechanics, that electrons can only be located in certain orbitals around atoms.

I freaking love clocks.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · May 22
(4/n) And here's the reason I'm obsessed with clocks. Fundamental physics can seem so esoteric, so foreign. General relativity and quantum mechanics don't make intuitive sense.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · May 22
(3/n) In my latest piece, I write about how scientists translate that precision in time to measure elevations on Earth. If you can measure elevation precisely, that means you can build better bridges, canals, and dams. And you can monitor changes in sea level.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · May 22
(2/n) Clocks are the most precise instruments humans have ever made. The precision isn't just some party trick. If you can measure time precisely, because the speed of light is constant everywhere in the universe—you can measure distances precisely.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · May 22
In spacetime news, the European Space Agency launched the most accurate clock to fly in space last month. It won't lose or gain a second in 300 million years.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/22/1...

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A new atomic clock in space could help us measure elevations on Earth
The European Space Agency’s ACES mission could ultimately pave the way for a global network of atomic clocks that make these measurements far more accurate.
www.technologyreview.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · May 9
Nothing gold can stay
nature.com
Nature @nature.com · May 9
The dream of alchemists has been realised - physicists have turned lead into gold

https://go.nature.com/3F4fpwN
Physicists turn lead into gold — for a fraction of a second
Colliding beams of lead create fast-moving, short-lived gold ions. Understanding the process could help to refine particle accelerator experiments.
go.nature.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Apr 29
This piece points out so much of gadgetry and medicine today (Internet, MRIs, Google search) exists because of years of U.S. government investment.

Scientists are worried today, but everyone will feel these cuts in the future, when we wonder why people stopped innovating.
dangaristo.bsky.social
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Apr 29
Under this administration, it's difficult to know what will happen tomorrow. But these cuts to science will have long-term effects, so we tried to take a step back and consider the impacts in 5, 10 years. Reported with @heidiledford.bsky.social & Jeff Tollefson:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Will US science survive Trump 2.0?
President Donald Trump and his administration have gutted science agencies, terminated research programmes and cancelled billions of dollars in grants to universities. What are the long-term impacts f...
www.nature.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Apr 10
(n/n) Companies and governments are also building more natural gas-fired power plants, particularly in the US. (At the same time, they are also building renewable capacity.) This will extend our reliance on fossil fuels.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Apr 10
(2/n) The IEA estimates that 20% of planned data center projects will face delays coming online because of strain on the grid.
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Apr 10
In 2030, AI will consume the same amount of energy as Japan does annually, a new projection from the IEA finds. In reality, it's likely that utilities can't build power plants fast enough to meet that demand.

(1/n)
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Data centres will use twice as much energy by 2030 — driven by AI
Data centres accounted for roughly 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024.
www.nature.com
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sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Mar 31
My favorite tidbit, because I love to learn about a clever new scam:

"Some operators exploit the sector for subsidized green electricity, obtaining permits to generate and sell power...Instead of using the energy for AI workloads, they resell it back to the grid at a premium."
sophurky.bsky.social
Sophia Chen @sophurky.bsky.social · Mar 31
"For now, many data centers in China sit in limbo—built for a future that has yet to arrive."

Fascinating reporting by @caiwei.bsky.social on the overhype arc of generative AI in China.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/26/1...
China built hundreds of AI data centers to catch the AI boom. Now many stand unused.
The country poured billions into AI infrastructure, but the data center gold rush is unraveling as speculative investments collide with weak demand and DeepSeek shifts AI trends.
www.technologyreview.com
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