Peter Aldhous Profile picture
Science. Data. Journalism. Maps. Teach: @UCSC_SciCom Past: @BuzzFeedNews @ucbsoj @newscientist @Nature @NewsfromScience
May 5, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
As @BuzzFeedNews shuts down, a brief 🧵 of thanks for the freedom to pursue stories I don't think would have happened elsewhere (certainly for someone employed as a science reporter)
1/ Training a computer to find hidden spy planes
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ Playing genetic detective to show our audience what investigative genealogy actually involves
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…
Aug 16, 2021 7 tweets 4 min read
THREAD: CIA-linked plane tracked from Kabul to Bahrain overnight. Showed only as unidentified Beechcraft Super King 350 @flightradar24 due to FAA block. Image But picked up briefly in Pakistan and then over Gulf on uncensored @ADSBexchange, where it showed as N4466A, registered to Aviation Specialties Inc. Image
Jun 18, 2021 4 tweets 3 min read
THREAD: How the Delta variant could create "two Americas" of #COVID19 based on vaccine rollout.
1/ It's early days but this fast-spreading variant is expected to become the dominant coronavirus in the US within a matter of weeks
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ The Delta variant should pose little threat if you're fully vaccinated, but could still cause deadly surges in places where many people have shunned #COVID19 vaccines. That puts the South and parts of rural America at risk.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…
Apr 20, 2021 10 tweets 5 min read
THREAD: Richard Dawkins was yesterday stripped of his 1996 "humanist of the year" award by @americnhumanist after this tweet. It's part of a long pattern of trolling. Image Statement from @americnhumanist: "Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values."
americanhumanist.org/news/american-…
Jan 27, 2021 5 tweets 2 min read
THREAD: From AstraZeneca Q&A with @CDCgov #ACIP on its #COVID19 vaccine: Further analysis suggests greater efficacy in low-dose/high-dose group is actually due to greater interval between doses, not the dosing itself. “[W]e think that interval actually what is probably associated with the increased efficacy that we’re seeing for that low-dose standard-dose group just because many of those participants were in the longer interval group.” - Tonya Villafana, AstraZeneca
Jan 25, 2021 9 tweets 4 min read
THREAD: The $150 million that we now know was paid by Leon Black to Jeffrey Epstein included $10 million to Epstein's Gratitude America Foundation ... but Black's involvement in Epstein's gifts to scientists may be deeper.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… .@BuzzFeedNews found a blurry line between Black and Epstein in donations to Lawrence Krauss. One accounting record conflated Epstein, Black, and Epstein's Enhanced Education foundation, listing Epstein's employer as “Leon D. Black, Enhanced Education.”
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…
Jan 6, 2021 7 tweets 4 min read
Here's a breakdown of the elements in @BuzzFeedNews #COVID19 vaccine tracker so far:
1 / The key numbers for the US and the World
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ Doses given per 100 people by US state
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…
Nov 9, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read
In my fifties, still listening to Robyn and REM. (And newer stuff, too. And older stuff, too.) Right now: listening to Robyn, Graham Coxon, and others covering the genius Syd Barrett
Oct 25, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
THREAD: This Scary Statistic Predicts Growing US Political Violence — Whatever Happens On Election Day
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ The statistic incorporates measures of wage stagnation, national debt, competition between elites, distrust in government, urbanization, and the age structure of the population. It's spiking, like it did before the civil war.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… Image
Oct 12, 2020 5 tweets 4 min read
THREAD: Our #COVID19 surge tracker shows that cases are now rising again across most of the nation, including the northeast. (Gray means very few cases or less than 5% change in last two weeks).
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ This chart shows daily case numbers for the US as a whole. The current surge isn't really a "third wave" because #COVID19 transmission never went down to low levels like it did in European countries now experiencing a genuine second wave.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…
Sep 10, 2020 10 tweets 5 min read
THREAD: I've been talking to the climate and fire scientists who know better than anyone about what's happening on the West Coast. They are deeply upset, but not surprised. And they warn that this is not the "new normal." It's likely to get worse.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ The numbers are astonishing. In California, where I live, we've blasted through the record for area burned in a single year.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…
Jul 31, 2020 6 tweets 5 min read
THREAD: It's been a brutal week for #COVID19 deaths in the US.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ This week's rise in #COVID19 deaths was driven in part (but not entirely) by Monday spike due to change in reporting in Texas, which switched to working from death certificates rather than reporting from local health authorities. Texas daily death counts from @nytimes data:
Jul 4, 2020 18 tweets 5 min read
THREAD: I spent almost a decade fighting a libel action to bring you this story. I hope it helps prevent further harm.
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ In December 2010, after an investigation spanning more than a year, I published this story @newscientist detailing problems with a prenatal paternity test offered by a company called the Health Genetic Center in Toronto, Canada
newscientist.com/article/mg2082…
Jun 24, 2020 6 tweets 4 min read
THREAD: #BlackLivesMatter protests have not led to clear spikes in #COVID19 transmission. What does that mean?
1/ Here are trends in new cases (7 day rolling average) for some counties with large protests
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 2/ Mask wearing and the outside setting may have helped, but experts warned not to leap to the conclusion that all outside gatherings are safe
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…
Dec 11, 2019 15 tweets 10 min read
THREAD: I've been reporting on DNA testing and scrutinizing my own genome for more than 10 years. Here's an end-of-decade perspective
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… After 23andMe, deCODE, and Navigenics burst on the scene with genome scans for health risks, many experts were skeptical of the value of their reports
newscientist.com/article/dn1793…
Sep 30, 2019 9 tweets 8 min read
In this story on Jeffrey Epstein's close ties to John Brockman's Edge Foundation, I called @edge a "boys club." Thread with some context on that, starting with the Twitter account 1/
buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… @edge 2/ Recent media from John Brockman's @edge account. All of these things are like the others.