Science journalist, runaway neuroscientist, Adelaidean at large. Science Editor for @RadioNational / @ABCaustralia. Tweets own views, in moderation. 🤓🧪🎙
Gadigal & Wangal land, Sydney
Joined January 2009
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Pinned Tweet
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.
This Twitter account has been archived. To stay in touch:
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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.
See also…
theguardian.com/uk-news/arti…
🧵1/ Thread on the #Southport anti-migrant and anti-Muslim disinformation and propaganda. In this thread I highlight key spreaders of disinformation, the chronology, and some points about some of the inauthentic activity evident. I will focus on X.
jonathan jb webb retweeted
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.
abc.net.au/news/2024-07-17/s…
jonathan jb webb retweeted
Three years of negotiations for the ABC to get this info under FoI
abc.net.au/news/2024-07-16/h…
jonathan jb webb retweeted
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. careers.abc.net.au/en/job/50…
What a lovely piece.
abc.net.au/news/2024-06-27/p…
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." 😆
I broke all the chatbots by making them solve the Spelling Bee.
"AI can now create images, video and audio, be your girlfriend and therapist, and possibly automate humans out of jobs. So why does it suck so hard at solving a simple word puzzle?"
engadget.com/if-ai-is-going-…
jonathan jb webb retweeted
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 programmes together. And we met up at Hay Festival just 2 weeks ago. I can’t believe he’s gone.
My thoughts are with his bereaved family.
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.
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.
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
Also written up in @newscientist: newscientist.com/article/243…
And here’s my radio spot about it, also featuring our weekly brainteaser. 🤓
abclisten.page.link/ZFUrkGKB…
jonathan jb webb retweeted
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
jonathan jb webb retweeted
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.
Mission Control just gave the Starliner crew "GO for Orbit Ops." That was a huge hurdle to clear, next big step is docking in 24 hours. Great to see a new human-rated spaceship - in space!
@NASA @ulalaunch @Boeing
If you're near Manly tomorrow, come and talk astronomy with me and some actual astronomers! 🔭🪐🤓
The Universe is like a big jigsaw puzzle! Come join @ARC_ASTRO3D researchers and @ABCscience 's @jjbw discuss the latest discoveries about our Universe… and learn about life as an astronomer. Free event - 3 June.
events.humanitix.com/our-uni…
#astronomy #astrophysics #cosmicpuzzle
