Sophie Bushwick

New York

Senior news editor @newscientist, science & tech writer, podcast & video host, book reader @sophiebushwick.bsky.social @[email protected]

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Articles

Grisly new book reveals what zombie insects can teach us

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Sophie Bushwick

Rise of the Zombie BugsMindy Weisberger (Johns Hopkins University Press)A snail, eyestalks pulsing with coloured stripes, leaves the safety of the shade and oozes its way onto an exposed leaf, where it catches the beady eye of a bird. The larger animal mistakes those eyestalks for delicious caterpillars and pounces; in the process, it accidentally gobbles up the parasitic worms infesting the snail.
Why sleep quality is so important - and so difficult to measure

Jan 20, 2025 | newscientist.com | Sophie Bushwick

How did you sleep last night? Your response might depend on how long you were in bed, how much of that time you spent tossing and turning or whether you feel rested. But it might also depend on whether you exercised today, what your wearable device says, or when you are being asked. “Everyone has their own definition of sleep quality – and that is the problem,” says sleep researcher Nicole Tang at the University of Warwick, UK.
The State of Large Language Models

Nov 23, 2024 | scientificamerican.com | Sophie Bushwick |Lauren Leffer

LAUREN LEFFER: At the end of November, it’ll be one year since ChatGPT was first made public, rapidly accelerating the artificial intelligence arms race. And a lot has changed over the course of 10 months. SOPHIE BUSHWICK: In just the past few weeks, both OpenAI and Google have introduced big new features to their AI chatbots. LEFFER: And Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is jumping in the ring too, with its own public facing chatbots.
L’ingénierie des sports paralympiques

Aug 26, 2024 | pourlascience.fr | Sophie Bushwick

Le 28 août 2024, soit un mois après la fin des Jeux olympiques de Paris, débuteront… les Jeux paralympiques d’été de 2024. Jusqu’au 8 septembre, les athlètes de 91 nations s’affronteront dans 22 sports. Sous les yeux des spectateurs et téléspectateurs du monde entier qui suivront les compétitions, les athlètes compteront sur une gamme impressionnante de prothèses, de fauteuils roulants et d’autres appareils d’assistance de haute technologie.
New Scientist recommends a play about women in a birth control trial

May 1, 2024 | newscientist.com | Sophie Bushwick

Las Borinqueñas Ensemble Studio TheatreValerie Terranova PhotographyBirth control helps give half the world’s population a life outside the home. But the women who made it possible in the 1950s were never told they were subjects in the pill’s first large human trial. Las Boriqueñas by Nelson Diaz-Marcano, on at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, tells the story of five Puerto Rican women in the trial.
Podcasts of the Year: Talking to Animals using Artificial Intelligence

Dec 27, 2023 | scientificamerican.com | Kelso Harper |Sophie Bushwick

Kelso Harper: Hey, science nerds! This is Kelso Harper, one of the producers of Science, Quickly. This week we’re looking back at some of our favorite episodes of the year. I chose one that features Sophie Bushwick, our beloved and recently departed technology editor. Don’t worry, she’s fine; she’s just going to be a senior news editor at New Scientist, which is awesome, but we’re really gonna miss her. I had so much fun recording this episode with Sophie.
AI Can Now Read Your Cat’s Pain

Dec 15, 2023 | scientificamerican.com | Tulika Bose |Sophie Bushwick

Created with Sketch.Created with Sketch. Skip to main contentArtificial IntelligenceBy on DownloadToggle MuteVolumeCurrent time00:00Seek0% played0% bufferedCurrent time00:00 /Duration00:00Toggle MuteVolumeDownload MP3Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare on LinkedInShare via EmailPrintThanks to researchers, new AI tech is delving into feline feelings to see when cats could need medical help. Sophie Bushwick: Can you tell what a cat is thinking, just from looking at it?
AI Can Now Read Your Cat's Pain

Dec 8, 2023 | scientificamerican.com | Tulika Bose |Sophie Bushwick

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare on LinkedInShare via EmailPrintThanks to researchers, new AI tech is delving into feline feelings to see when cats could need medical help. Sophie Bushwick: Can you tell what a cat is thinking, just from looking at it? Tulika Bose: Probably not! Cats evolved to be solitary hunters stalking their prey, not social animals like us humans.
How Misinformation Spreads Through Conflict

Dec 1, 2023 | scientificamerican.com | Tulika Bose |Sophie Bushwick

Three experts break down how misinformation and propaganda spread through conflict, and how to debunk it yourself. [CLIP: MSNBC NEWS] Disinformation and Propaganda. [INTRO MUSIC][CLIP: CNN NEWS] Viral videos about this war that are having huge impact. But they’re completely fake. But they’re having dire consequences. [CLIP: NBC NEWS] Dozens of accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, spreading rather what’s believed to be coordinated posts with disinformation about the war.
Generative AI Models Are Sucking Data Up From All Over the Internet, Yours Included

Oct 23, 2023 | scientificamerican.com | Sophie Bushwick |Lauren Leffer |Tulika Bose |Elah Feder

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare on LinkedInShare via EmailPrintIn the rush to build and train ever-larger AI models, developers have swept up much of the searchable Internet, quite possibly including some of your own public (and possibly private) data. Sophie Bushwick: To train a large artificial intelligence model, you need lots of text and images created by actual humans.