Physical sciences news editor for @NewsfromScience. I manage coverage in Earth and planetary science, physics, and astronomy.
Washington DC
Joined June 2009
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Eric Hand retweeted
NEW: NASA is about to send an audacious spacecraft to paint a portrait of an icy moon hiding an ancient ocean.
It’s called Europa Clipper. And it’s going to change the way we understand not just our world, but every world, everywhere.
Me @NewsfromScience science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
Disaster avoided? There's a good chance the Milky Way may avoid a galactic crash with its neighbor Andromeda. @NewsfromScience science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
Astronomers once thought there might be a "missing satellites problem" – our Milky Way didn't have enough dwarf galaxies in its grip.
Now we might have oversolved the problem, finding too many satellites. What's going on?
Story by me @NewsfromScience
science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
Scientists exhumed some 6 million year old (!!!!) ice from Antarctica.
That's truly wild. The continuous ice core record goes back 800,000 years. And the oldest ice ever found until now was 2.7 million years old.
Reported from #egu2024
science.org/content/article/…
“You could probably just roll Perseverance into Starship and fly back to Earth."
NASA has asked for help getting its invaluable rocks back from Mars.
They might have one particular idea in mind: SpaceX's Starship.
Story by me @SciAm
scientificamerican.com/artic…
Eric Hand retweeted
Quick look at NASA's FY2024 approps:
Total: $24.875 billion (request was $27.2 B, FY2023 was $25.384B).
Mars Sample Return: "The Senate language ... is not adopted," no further workforce reductions for now, "no less than" $300 M and "up to" the requested level for FY2024.
Eric Hand retweeted
NSF board approves funding for just one of two proposed giant telescopes | Science | AAAS science.org/content/article/…
1/ The latest in the intriguing field of natural hydrogen, the overlooked idea that Earth can produce the clean fuel. Researchers have discovered a surprisingly significant spring, bubbling away deep in an Albanian mine:
science.org/content/article/…
2/ Coincidentally, @ARPAE today announced the 16 winners of $20m in grant funding, the first major government support for natural hydrogen. I wrote about the money in September:
arpa-e.energy.gov/news-and-m…
science.org/content/article/…
3/ My feature story from a year ago about natural hydrogen. A good primer if you're looking to understand what it is and where the field is going:
science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
Enjoyable and informative article by @voooos in @ScienceMagazine about the global impacts of #ElNino. On behalf of the whole team, thank you for coming all the way out to Vanuatu to cover our story! It was great having you out. 🧵
science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
i spent several months investigating physicists attempting to build a computer out of an object they aren’t sure exists
this Majorana quasiparticle is proving almost as elusive as its namesake, the Italian physicist who mysteriously vanished in 1938
science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
My latest for @NewsfromScience!
@MissionToPsyche has launched, embarking on a 3.6-billion-km journey to one of the weirdest asteroids we've got: a metal-rich asteroid 220 km wide. What the heck is this thing?
Huge thanks to @erichand for editing!
science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
Ranga Dias is headed for a 3rd retraction—this time, it's the blockbuster Nature paper on LuNH from March. I obtained documents that detail what went wrong, and why his co-authors are asking for a retraction. science.org/content/article/…
What's quantum computing good for? For 30 years, Shor's algorithm, a way to hack internet security, was the selling point. A more efficient successor now may be on the way:
science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
little surprising scoop from me: a new quantum algorithm might bring the end of RSA encryption a little closer. truly new ideas in quantum computing are very rare! science.org/content/article/…
Eric Hand retweeted
My latest, for @NewsfromScience: A major new @theNASEM study calls for a tenfold increase in funding for biological and physical research in space, amid huge changes in access and space exploration goals. science.org/content/article/…
Whether natural or geologic hydrogen could be economically important is still hugely uncertain. But new research programs from @ARPAE and @USGS are signs that it is gaining legitimacy:
science.org/content/article/…
If the idea of natural H2 is new to you, you're not alone -- it's still new for most geoscientists. My feature from earlier this year offers a good primer:
science.org/content/article/…