Jenessa Duncombe
VerifiedArticles by Jenessa Duncombe
Setting the career compass for transgender and nonbinary scientists
As nonbinary doctoral student Andrea Paqis ponders their next move after graduation, they feel drawn to academia. While the end of a PhD program is often a pivotal moment for any researcher choosing between academia and industry or other paths, for nonbinary students such as Paqis, the decision comes with additional considerations. “There’s some beauty that I find here that I don’t find anywhere else,” they say of their research on gravitational waves they are conducting in Orsay, France.
The shrinking NSF support for the physical sciences
A new gallery in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s northeast corner holds 21st-century artifacts from astronomy’s major firsts, like the detections of gravitational waves and neutrinos from outside our solar system. The gallery also comes with a named sponsor: the National Science Foundation.
Q&A: Missy Cummings strives to make self-driving cars safer
Mary “Missy” Cummings became a US Navy fighter pilot in the 1980s at a turning point in aviation. New technology was transforming analog aircraft into computer-driven machines. Missy Cummings Over her nine years as a pilot, Cummings mastered how to fly without, and then with, a computer’s help. She witnessed military aircraft accidents caused by human–machine miscommunication. “You’re not sure who’s in control,” she says. “Is it you? Is it the computer?
The Roman Space Telescope isn’t the only US observatory built from spy tech
The primary mirror on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope came from an unused spy satellite produced by the National Reconnaissance Office. View larger It sounds like a quirky fact or colorful footnote: NASA’s latest space telescope came from the bones of an unused reconnaissance satellite. The donated spy tech inspired NASA to build a more expensive and more capable telescope than it had initially planned.
Study of Danish academics reveals child penalty
(Photo by iStock.com/dragana991.) Welcoming a new child into the world is often described as a life-changing event for parents. New research suggests that it also could be an inflection point in parents’ academic careers, particularly in the careers of women.
Muon detectors for the people!
Physics professor Shimomura Maya at Nara Women’s University in Japan shows students a tabletop muon detector from the gLOWCOST program in April 2025. Handheld and tabletop muon detectors have proliferated in high school and college classrooms in recent decades. The instruments are safe, low cost, and durable, and they open possibilities for exploration in physics, space-weather studies, and atmospheric science.
Q&A: Alice Flarend teaches teens to think out loud
“Students come to my classroom and say, ‘We’ve heard about you,’ ” says Alice Flarend. As a physics teacher for 26 years at Bellwood–Antis High School in rural central Pennsylvania, she has earned a reputation by asking her students to explain out loud what they’re thinking. In the classroom, she says, “the power of talk is huge.” (Photo courtesy of Alice Flarend). Flarend grew up in Chicago, where her father was an electrician at a steel mill and her mother was a secretary.
How much electricity does a quantum computer need?
The 54-qubit quantum computer Euro-Q-Exa was networked into this supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Germany. Scaling up quantum computing, and the energy it would take to do so, is an emerging topic in scientific circles. View larger Edward Parker was thinking about who might use a quantum computer to hack the controls of a US chemical plant when he noticed something odd in the literature.
arXiv sets out on its own
The go-to website for preprints in physics, arXiv, will become an independent nonprofit organization starting in July, with the goal of providing long-term stability for the platform. The open-access repository will depart from its longtime home at Cornell University. The search for a CEO and members for a board of directors is underway, and 26 eligible current employees are being offered roles in the new company. arXiv’s leadership says it has no plans to change the platform’s central mission.
Q&A: Ken Ono feared AI. Now he trains it.
Ken Ono (Photo by Matt Riley, UVA.) “Am I doing a better service to science by writing 20 more papers that only people in my field will read or by participating in this movement?” Ken Ono asked himself last year. At the time, Ono was an endowed chair at the University of Virginia. In the following months, he’d take a leave of absence from the university, move to Silicon Valley, and become the founding mathematician at an AI startup, Axiom Math.
Republicans and Democrats disagree on direction of US science
(Figure adapted from B. Kennedy, E. Kikuchi, Do Americans Think the Country Is Losing or Gaining Ground in Science? , Pew Research Center, 15 January 2026.) A survey last fall of US adults shows diverging public opinion on whether the US is gaining ground, losing ground, or staying in about the same place with respect to its scientific achievements relative to other countries. Overall among respondents, 13% said that the US is gaining ground, 38% said maintaining, and 47% said losing.
IceCube expands neutrino search to spot fainter signals
The Sun rises over the IceCube Upgrade drill camp near the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. View larger Originally built for measuring energetic neutrinos from distant galaxies, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has been fitted with more than 600 new sensors for detecting lower-energy neutrinos from closer to home.
Science inspires, but does not limit, Andy Weir’s fiction
Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, must save Earth in the new film Project Hail Mary, based on a book of the same title. The movie’s backdrop features realistic readouts calculated by author Andy Weir and the movie’s science advisers. This story contains minor spoilers about the plot of Project Hail Mary. Amount of fuel required. Mass of ship. Distance, in light-years, to destination.
What the National Center for Atmospheric Research means to the atmospheric sciences
The National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Mesa Lab in Boulder, Colorado. View larger News that the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) may be dismantled broke in December. A senior White House official told USA Today that the administration wanted to eliminate the center’s climate-related work and transfer some functions elsewhere. It was the first that NCAR’s parent organization, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), had heard of the plans.
NASA’s next space telescope reaches assembly milestone
Technicians take in the completed Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in November 2025. View larger When the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s inner and outer portions were bolted together at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, last November, one might imagine a collective sigh of relief from everyone involved.
Q&A: Tam O’Shaughnessy honors Sally Ride’s courage and character
In 1983, Sally Ride became the first US woman to go to space. (Photo from NASA.) View larger Physicist Sally Ride made history in 1983 as the first American woman to go to space. In the decades after, Ride devoted herself to teaching physics and advocating for women in STEM. Out of the public eye, Ride also built a happy life with her partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy.
Physics, astronomy graduate admissions in the US expected to shrink amid funding uncertainty
Because of recent federal cuts to science, about 600 fewer first-year physics and astronomy graduate students are expected to enroll in the US this fall compared with the fall 2024 semester. The estimate, from a new report from the American Institute of Physics (AIP; publisher of Physics Today), is based on survey responses from the chairs of 115 physics and astronomy departments in the US in April 2025.
US ocean sciences decadal report calls for regaining leadership
The top priorities of the US ocean sciences community through 2035 are a continued investment in basic, curiosity-driven research and a unified effort to improve ocean forecasts to meet national and global environmental challenges. Those and other recommendations are detailed in Forecasting the Ocean: The 2025–2035 Decade of Ocean Science, a survey of the field that was conducted over 18 months by a committee of US researchers.
deep-sea mining Archives - Eos
Posted inNews These nodules, a focus of seabed mining interests, could be natural “geobatteries” and play a larger-than-expected role in the deep-sea ecosystem. Posted inFeatures A small island nation is forcing the hand of international regulators to finalize rules for deep-sea mining, but scientists say the environmental consequences are not yet clear.
Physics, astronomy graduate admissions in the US expected to shrink amid funding uncertainty
The predicted decrease is larger than pandemic-era disruptions, according to a survey of university departments. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/pt.kqzl.oatz Content License:FreeView EISSN:1945-0699 Because of recent federal cuts to science, about 600 fewer first-year physics and astronomy graduate students are expected to enroll in the US this fall compared with the fall 2024 semester.
US ocean sciences decadal report calls for regaining leadership
A researcher prepares to release an anchor and chain for an ocean buoy in 2020. Collecting ocean observations for basic research is one of the main priorities of the latest US ocean sciences decadal survey. (Photo by Mitch Lemon/USGS.) A researcher prepares to release an anchor and chain for an ocean buoy in 2020. Collecting ocean observations for basic research is one of the main priorities of the latest US ocean sciences decadal survey.
Portraits of dismissed scientists personalize US government cuts to science
A hurricane researcher. An invasive-insect entomologist. An e-cigarette toxicologist. A biomedical librarian. Those are some of the people included in Silenced Science Stories, a visual storytelling project dedicated to featuring the US scientists who have been laid off from government jobs or had their research grants halted by the Trump administration.
Not all quantum jobs require quantum skills
Quantum industries are hungry for workers to fill the workforce gap. Most quantum jobs are STEM-related roles and intersect with physics, engineering, computer science, math, and chemistry. Here, a NIST scientist conducts research in quantum logic spectroscopy. (Photo courtesy of A.
New York Archives - Eos
Posted inNews Heat and drought hit trees in Boston and New York City harder than those in their rural counterparts. Posted inNews Microbes in mulch scrub nitrate from groundwater before it flows to the sea. Posted inThe Landslide Blog The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. On 21 October 2023 a small but disruptive landslide occurred in Westchester County in New York in the US.
Montreal Protocol
Posted inEditors' Highlights A new zonally-averaged atmospheric transport model will be useful for estimating emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases. Posted inNews The Montreal Protocol has unintentionally slowed global warming and pushed back the first ice-free Arctic summer by 15 years, according to new research.
wine & beer Archives
Posted inNews In regions where natural resources are scarce or economies depend on producing certain wines, adapting and diversifying grape crops is easier said than done. Posted inNews New research examining the impact of climate change on hops production has brewed up a storm. Posted inNews El severo clima de la era de hielo influenció el cultivo de la vid durante el nacimiento de la agricultura.
Thwaites Glacier
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Skip to content Posted inNews Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier” started losing mass midcentury, around the same time as its neighboring glacier. Posted inNews Antarctica’s Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers are melting faster than they have in the past 5,500 years, new evidence shows. Against expectations, their pasts have been remarkably stable. Posted inNews Un tipo particular de tormenta coincidió con 13 de los 21 eventos recientes de desprendimiento en la Antártida.
By Jenessa Duncombe Verified, Grace van Deelen Verified, Katherine Kornei Verified, Javier Barbuzano
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AGU's Eos
birds Archives - Eos
Skip to content Posted inNews The plant-based nitrogen eaten by ostriches and stored in their eggshells was measured by researchers 20,000 years later. Posted inNews Birds use Earth’s magnetic field to migrate, but severe space weather may interfere with navigation and reduce the number of birds in the sky. Posted inNews A “nestbox highway” in California’s Central Valley is guiding songbirds to safe nesting sites and giving scientists a peek at fledgling success in a changing climate.
New Horizons Archives - Eos
Posted inNews The most remote world ever seen up close is a mash-up of smaller pieces. Posted inNews Geologically young regions of Pluto’s southern hemisphere were likely resurfaced by cryovolcanism, data from the New Horizons spacecraft reveal. Posted inNews The New Horizons spacecraft recorded images of craters that imply an unexpected dearth of small objects in the Kuiper Belt.
limestone Archives - Eos
Posted inNews New research says it’s plausible the Great Sphinx started life as a geomorphological oddity known as a yardang. Posted inNews Spelunking scientists searched for the original source of the French Pyrenees’ magnificent caves. Posted inNews The Nullarbor Plain has been relatively untouched by geological forces, leaving traces of the continent’s deep past.
Как необычная дружба разрушила мифы о вечной мерзлоте
This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. Это авторизованный перевод статьиЭос (Eos). В ясный морозный день в Фэрбанксе (штат Аляска) я проследовал за исследователями Taylor D. Sullivan и Daniel Vandevort в холодный, пыльный, подземный туннель. Они надели каски поверх вязаных шапок и провели меня через гофрированную металлическую трубу в земляной туннель. Салливан включил фонарик и осветил грунтовые стены терракотового цвета.
Russia Archives - Eos
Posted inNews В ледяном керне самой высокой горной вершины Европы содержатся источающие запах молекулы, свойства которых отражают экономические взлеты и падения Советского Союза. Posted inNews Permafrost thaw is a major threat to pipelines in the Russian Arctic, particularly those carrying natural gas. Posted inNews A new study finds that the exceptional temperatures seen in Siberia in the first half of 2020 would have been extremely unlikely without anthropogenic climate change.
Эос по русски Archives
Posted inNews В ледяном керне самой высокой горной вершины Европы содержатся источающие запах молекулы, свойства которых отражают экономические взлеты и падения Советского Союза. Posted inFeatures “Прекрасные долгие споры” между американским ученым и российским исследователем помогли прояснить несколько фундаментальных предположений о таянии вечной мерзлоты.
Kelly Hereid: Modeling Catastrophes for Insurers
Six months before finishing her doctorate in coral paleoclimatology, Kelly Hereid was about to make a career pivot. She’d just been contacted by a reinsurance company—a firm that sells insurance to other insurance companies—about a job opening. Surprised, she googled reinsurance and liked what she saw: an industry at the front lines of climate change adaptation. Now, 10 years later, Hereid serves as the director of catastrophe research and development at Liberty Mutual Insurance.
Los beneficios desiguales de la transición a vehículos eléctricos en California
This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. Esta es una traducción al español autorizada de un artículo de Eos. California tiene algunas de las leyes climáticas más agresivas del país, incluyendo el Proyecto de Reembolso de Vehículos Limpios, el cual incentiva la compra de vehículos eléctricos (VEs), autos híbridos plug-in y vehículos de célula de combustible. El estado ha emitido más de medio millón de reembolsos por vehículo limpio desde el 2010.
Where Does Fire Retardant Fall in a Forest? Ask a Satellite
Here’s a photograph that’s all too familiar: A red cloud of fire retardant pours from the belly of a propeller plane onto a forest below. As climate change supercharges wildfires, fire crews are increasingly relying on fire retardants to create chemical breaks and contain fires. Knowing where the spray lands helps crews and scientists manage and study its effects.
The Unequal Benefits of California’s Electric Vehicle Transition Original
California has some of the most aggressive climate laws in the country, including its Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, which incentivizes the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrids, and fuel-cell vehicles. The state has issued more than half a million clean vehicle rebates since 2010. A new study shows that the program is having a mixed effect on air quality.
sports Archives - Eos
Posted inNews World Sailing, World Athletics, World Rowing, and FIFA made the podium. Seven of the 32 summer Olympic sports federations haven’t even entered the race. Posted inNews Greenhouse gas emissions from sports fields may be scoring points for climate change. Posted inNews Las variaciones de la presión atmosférica en la cima del Everest afectan a la disponibilidad de oxígeno, modificando la percepción de la elevación de la cumbre unos cientos de metros.
aerosols & particles
Posted inEditors' Vox Airborne dust not only causes disease, it also menaces transportation on land, sea, and air; disrupts renewable energy systems; transports pathogens and toxic substances; and poses many other hazards. Posted inResearch Spotlights by InMAP estimates air pollution within cities, but its predictions are flawed for specific chemicals. Now, scientists are addressing that shortcoming.
The Unequal Benefits of California’s Electric Vehicle Transition
California has some of the most aggressive climate laws in the country, including its Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, which incentivizes the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrids, and fuel-cell vehicles. The state has issued more than half a million clean vehicle rebates since 2010. A new study shows that the program is having a mixed effect on air quality.
Outlook: Normal Atlantic Hurricane Season Expected
This year marks the first season in 7 years without a predicted above-average Atlantic hurricane season, according to NOAA’s 2023 hurricane outlook, released today. But that’s not the only unusual part about it. Storm-dampening effects from a burgeoning El Niño are butting heads with storm-boosting effects from warm Atlantic waters. “It’s definitely kind of a rare setup for this year,” said lead NOAA hurricane season forecaster Matthew Rosencrans.
Hunting for Methane Hot Spots at the Top of the World
It was winter in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the moose were grumpy. A University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student offered me a tip: “If you see their hair coming up, and they’re going to charge you?” he said. “Find a tree.” I was joining a day of fieldwork with a group of Arctic scientists hunting an invisible gas that has been increasing in our atmosphere at an accelerating rate since 2007.
EPA Air Pollution Proposal Stirs Debate
The EPA announced in January that it is considering changing its air quality guidelines to align with the latest science suggesting adverse health effects for people exposed to PM2.5—airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers. The agency is considering changing the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for annual PM2.5 from 12 to 9–10 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) averaged over 3 years.
Searching for the Sculptor of France’s Caves
The first thing you’ll notice when entering ScrouitchGallery, 100 meters below the French Pyrenees, is the sound of your shoes. Crystals blanket the floor, and each footstep causes a squishing sound, giving the gallery its name: scrouitch, scrouitch, scrouitch. Wind rustles a group of scientists as they crouch down to examine the sparkling crystals. Gypsum crusts coat the walls like frost, and mirabilite crystals as long as garden snakes fan out from the floor below.
Pyrenees Archives - Eos
Posted inNews Spelunking scientists searched for the original source of the French Pyrenees’ magnificent caves. Posted inNews Every time snow or rain falls, it brings with it microbes from high in the atmosphere. Could those microbes have a seasonal signal, just like the plants on the land below?
Cómo el Último Máximo Glacial influenció en el origen del vino
This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. Esta es una traducción al español autorizada de un artículo de Eos. Hace unos 12,000 años, la sociedad humana cambió dramáticamente. Los cazadores y recolectores empezaron a cultivar. Los asentamientos crecieron y las sociedades florecieron. La agricultura ayudó a la civilización a asentar raíces. Las uvas ocupan un lugar importante dentro de los cultivos de la revolución agrícola, pues además de poder comerse, se pueden transformar en vino.
renewables Archives - Eos
Posted inNews Hydropower lost in one area is often replaced by fossil fuel power produced elsewhere—and renewable energy sources may struggle to meet electricity demands caused by more frequent dry spells. Posted inNews Cultivating delicate soil crust in the shade of solar panels might boost the recovery of arid land. Posted inNews Researchers examined the land use trade-offs that could come with protecting at-risk species. But some scientists question what should be prioritized.
How Wine’s Origin Was Shaped by the Last Glacial Maximum
A translation of this article was made possible by a partnership with Planeteando. Una traducción de este artículo fue posible gracias a una asociación con Planeteando. About 12,000 years ago, human society changed dramatically. Hunters and gatherers started farming. Settlements grew and societies blossomed. Agriculture helped civilization to take root. Grapes held an unusual place among the crops of the agricultural revolution, as they could be both eaten and vinified.
Finding Climate History in the Rafters of New York City Buildings
Mukund Palat Rao prefers the quiet of a forest grove, but on a winter day in Lower Manhattan, the ecoclimatologist was surrounded by buzzing chainsaws just blocks from Wall Street. He was there to rescue a piece of New York’s heritage from a six-story residential building at 142 Fulton Street. Hidden in wooden joists and beams in New York City’s oldest buildings is the largest repository of old-growth timber in the eastern United States, said Rao.
Wall Street is Finally Ready to Go Green
A passionate talent pool, regulation, and a shift from education to implementation by businesses make 2023 the perfect moment to make our greenest dreams come true. Even Wall Street, where green is more likely to be equated with the color of money than trees, is paying close attention. The tech industry’s ubiquitous layoffs have left a lot of talent searching for their next gig. Many of them are talking openly about pursuing jobs with more purpose.
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