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Joshua Sokol

Contributing Writer

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dark matter

In a Monster Star’s Light, a Hint of Darkness

By Joshua Sokol
August 29, 2023
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Astronomers are scouring the cosmos for fingerprints of the invisible — tiny clumps of pure dark matter that might solve a long-standing cosmic mystery.

Colored micrograph of the new Loki Asgard archaeon that was reported in December 2022.
microbes

Primitive Asgard Cells Show Life on the Brink of Complexity

By Joshua Sokol
April 11, 2023
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As researchers race to cultivate more of the intriguing cells from the deep seafloor, the few cells now growing in labs are giving us our best glimpses of the forerunners of all complex life.

Lisa Kaltenegger, a woman with red hair, peers through the eyepiece of an antique telescope.
astrobiology

A Dream of Discovering Alien Life Finds New Hope

By Joshua Sokol
November 3, 2022
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For Lisa Kaltenegger and her generation of exoplanet astronomers, decades of planning have set the stage for an epochal detection.

Closeup video of a firefly flashing its abdomen, with other seemingly synchronized flashes in the background.
mathematical biology

How Do Fireflies Flash in Sync? Studies Suggest a New Answer.

By Joshua Sokol
September 20, 2022
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Field research suggests a new explanation for the synchronized flashing in fireflies and confirms that a novel form of “chimeric” synchrony occurs naturally.

Graphical model of a cubic earth.
geophysics

Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of Geology

By Joshua Sokol
November 19, 2020
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An exercise in pure mathematics has led to a wide-ranging theory of how the world comes together.

Black holes of various sizes
black holes

Physicists Argue That Black Holes From the Big Bang Could Be the Dark Matter

By Joshua Sokol
September 23, 2020
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It was an old idea of Stephen Hawking’s: Unseen “primordial” black holes might be the hidden dark matter. A new series of studies has shown how the theory can work.

Paleontologist Pincelli Hull
Q&A

A Rapid End Strikes the Dinosaur Extinction Debate

By Joshua Sokol
March 25, 2020
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The paleontologist Pincelli Hull has nailed down the timing and speed of the extinction that killed off the dinosaurs — details that carry ominous warnings for today.

Spinning globe highlighting LLVSPs.
geophysics

Continents of the Underworld Come Into Focus

By Joshua Sokol
January 7, 2020
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Giant blobs nestled deep in the Earth may influence everything from the structure of island chains to mass-extinction events.

Abstractions blog

A Close Look at Newborn Planets Reveals Hints of Infant Moons

By Joshua Sokol
June 11, 2019
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Astronomers have discovered a complex planetary system still swirling into existence.


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About the author

Joshua Sokol is a freelance science journalist in Boston. His work has appeared in New Scientist, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. He has a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and in English literature from Swarthmore College, and a master’s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In between, he worked as a data analyst for the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
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