This wasn't my decision but I'm very OK with it. Twitter used to be a geeky, simple, surprising place. Then it got bigger and IMHO was the closest the world came to a digital town square for news and ideas. Whatever it is now, it's not that and I don't think it's coming back.

See also… https://t.co/Ot6vbj7zYI

OK I’m officially taking a break from Twitter with a strong view towards a permanent divorce. I’m on bsky and threads with the same username if you want to stay in touch, but I haven’t really adopted either of them yet. Hope to see you in the real world sometime.

Far from the low-range driving offences they're usually mocked for, an investigation from @doctorworkman and I have uncovered how a radical anti-government group are using a fake court to terrorise a family and harass court officials and police. https://t.co/j76qzM4yZa

Are you a gun radio/audio reporter passionate about making news for young people, and are based in Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide or Hobart? The triple j hack team needs you.

What a lovely piece.

Great piece. So interesting (& kinda fun!) to see LLMs fall over attempting a word puzzle that a few lines of normal code could solve. "Perplexity — a chatbot with ambitions of killing Google Search — simply wrote GAL hundreds of times before freezing abruptly." 😆

The fragility of life is so shocking. I’ve known Michael Mosley for many years - as a tv producer specialising in science and medicine. He was the executive producer of my 2009 series Human Journey. When he started presenting as well as producing, we made several science

As if there wasn’t enough space news this week… China collected samples from the far side of the moon and is bringing them back.

@ScienceMagazine @newscientist And here’s my radio spot about it, also featuring our weekly brainteaser. 🤓 https://t.co/bzqfI86Ji6

This is Lacrymaria olor... a single celled predator with a 0.04mm body that can extend its "neck" to 1.2mm (30x its body length!) in 30 seconds. It lives in ponds and lakes near you and I'll be talking about it on #RNBreakfast with @PatsKarvelas at ~0840. 📷: Charles Krebs

You can read the whole paper here in @ScienceMagazine - it was their cover story today. https://t.co/B4biHdVYe9 Also written up in @newscientist: https://t.co/8bIL9afQVe

So how do you test out your theory of how the amazing stretchy neck of a single-celled predator folds and unfolds using curved crease origami? You do *actual origami*! They made scaled-up models of the neck using origami paper and tested out their physical properties. So cool.

What else involves careful folding and pleating of surfaces? Origami! And the cell reminded the researchers of "curved crease origami" in particular, where you score the paper with curves to create a whole new realm of shapes. See: https://t.co/9ZYQErKgGR

1) A structure of coiled filaments underneath the cell membrane seems to provide support and flexibility... and CRUCIALLY... 2) The whole membrane folds up in curved "pleats" when it's retracted, then unfurls majestically into a smooth, flexible neck when L. olor is hunting.

Biophysicists at Stanford wanted to know how (the hell) this "neck" stretches so far, then shrinks back into the cell body >20k times during the critter's life, without breaking. They used every kind of microscope you can name to to study its structure & found 2 key properties:

@PatsKarvelas Lacrymaria is for the cell's teardrop shape and "olor" means swan, for its long flexible neck - which can even reach around obstacles when hunting for food. It swallows smaller microorganisms and takes chunks off bigger ones. Apparently if you chop off the "head" it grows back.

This is Lacrymaria olor... a single celled predator with a 0.04mm body that can extend its "neck" to 1.2mm (30x its body length!) in 30 seconds. It lives in ponds and lakes near you and I'll be talking about it on #RNBreakfast with @PatsKarvelas at ~0840. 📷: Charles Krebs

A lot of people at both NASA & Boeing will be very relieved to see Starliner in orbit - with crew on board. Fingers crossed all continues to go well.

NB When I say tomorrow, I mean Wednesday. It’s a wibbly wobbly timey wimey thing*. * I stuffed up my tweet.