Rebecca Boyle

Colorado Springs

Freelance Science Writer at Freelance

Author of OUR MOON, a new human history, @randomhouse @sceptrebooks 🌕 📝 @sciam @quantamagazine @nytimes @TheAtlantic etc. Life is short but sweet for certain.

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Articles

How astonishing observatories could do big physics from the moon

3 weeks ago | newscientist.com | Rebecca Boyle

When Michael Collins floated above the far side of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, he knew he would be remembered as the loneliest human in history. He recalled feeling unafraid, almost exultant, thinking about everything on the other side of the moon: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface and, beyond that, every creature on Earth and everything humanity had ever built. On his side, as Collins wrote in his memoir, was “one plus God only knows what”.
Table of Contents - April 24, 2025

1 month ago | nybooks.com | Catherine Hall |Katie Kitamura |Brandon Shimoda |Rebecca Boyle

Charting an Unheroic Past With her densely textured, ambitious, and deeply collaborative scholarship, the historian Catherine Hall has transformed public discourse about slavery.
7 wild herbs you can forage in the UK

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Rebecca Boyle

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Wild greens and herbs have been part of our diet since the dawn of time, and it was only at the beginning of the 20th century, when food and farming became heavily industrialised, that their popularity dropped off. In the 2010s, however, they saw a resurgence, with high-end chefs like Rene Redzepi in Copenhagen, Michel Bras in Laguiole, France, and Dan Barber in New York incorporating hyperlocal, foraged ingredients into their menus.
7 wild herbs you can forage in the UK

1 month ago | nationalgeographic.com | Rebecca Boyle

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Wild greens and herbs have been part of our diet since the dawn of time, and it was only at the beginning of the 20th century, when food and farming became heavily industrialised, that their popularity dropped off. In the 2010s, however, they saw a resurgence, with high-end chefs like Rene Redzepi in Copenhagen, Michel Bras in Laguiole, France, and Dan Barber in New York incorporating hyperlocal, foraged ingredients into their menus.
Comets Have Long Been Seen as Omens of Both Doom and Opportunity

Nov 20, 2024 | atlasobscura.com | Rebecca Boyle

In April of 1066, a streak of cool fire appeared in the heavens. The comet, called a “bearded star” back then, had appeared before. There are mentions of it around the world dating as far back as the fifth century B.C. It’s now called Halley’s Comet, for the 18th-century scientist who first calculated its return. But in the spring of 1066, the people of England saw this particular comet as a bad omen. Across the English Channel, Duke William of Normandy viewed the bearded star as a good sign.
It Might Be Possible to Detect Gravitons After All

Oct 30, 2024 | quantamagazine.org | Charlie Wood |Jonathan O'Callaghan |Rebecca Boyle

Introduction Detecting a graviton — the hypothetical particle thought to carry the force of gravity — is the ultimate physics experiment. Conventional wisdom, however, says it can’t be done. According to one infamous estimate, an Earth-size apparatus orbiting the sun might pick up one graviton every billion years. To snag one in a decade, another calculation has suggested, you’d have to park a Jupiter-size machine next to a neutron star. In short: not going to happen.
How Do Merging Supermassive Black Holes Pass the Final Parsec?

Oct 23, 2024 | quantamagazine.org | Jonathan O'Callaghan |Rebecca Boyle |Charlie Wood

Introduction Galaxies have been merging into ever-bigger structures over the course of cosmic history. When galaxies merge, the supermassive black holes that sit in their centers must eventually merge, too, forming an even more gargantuan black hole. For decades, though, a question has vexed astrophysicists: How can supermassive black holes get close enough to spiral together and coalesce?
Alien life is out there. Can AI find it?

Oct 15, 2024 | nationalgeographic.com | Rebecca Boyle

As a machine learningscientist at NASA, Hamed Valizadegan once trained an algorithm to examine images of blood vessels in astronauts’ retinas, improving efforts to understand vision changes in microgravity. It was important work, but Valizadegan, who never lost his childhood love of the night sky, couldn’t shake his desire to study the stars. “I could watch the sky for hours, contemplating the meaning of life and whether we are alone in this vast universe,” he says.
Moon time is a thing now-here’s why It matters

Oct 3, 2024 | bigthink.com | Rebecca Boyle

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people On the moon, there is no normal. There is no wind, no rain, no erosion. Nothing flies overhead, and nothing green strains toward the sky. There are no daily rhythms like those we experience on Earth—no chirping of crickets, no sunset breeze. Time itself seems to stop, or at least proceed differently. Even shadows shift on a far different timeline. A lunar day and a lunar night each last two Earth weeks.
ACLF Grade 3 Predicts Risk of Respiratory Failure with Terlipressin Use

Oct 1, 2024 | the-hospitalist.org | Rebecca Boyle |Ronda Whitaker

Clinical question:Which risk factors predict new-onset respiratory failure during terlipressin use for the treatment of patients with rapidly deteriorating kidney function attributed to type 1 hepatorenal syndrome (HRS-AKI)? Background:Terlipressin, a synthetic vasopressin analog, has long been an international standard of care for HRS-AKI under the European Clinical Practice Guidelines.