Tom Hawking

Contributor

About

Tom Hawking is a writer based in New York City. He writes about culture, politics, science and everything in between. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Rolling Stone, and many other publications.

More from Tom Hawking

Unlike a tail, octopus arms are boneless.
Animals

Why every arm of an octopus moves with a mind of its own

By Tom Hawking

Certain medications can interfere with with normal sleep architecture.
Health

Why your brain flushes itself of waste during sleep

By Tom Hawking

SLIM landed upside down.
Science

10 chaotic space-related mishaps of 2024

By Tom Hawking

This photo taken on Oct. 11, 2024 shows the northern lights over Fujin City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Northern lights were observed at different places across Heilongjiang.
Science

The 7 coolest space phenomenon we saw from Earth in 2024

By Tom Hawking

flying with cellphone airplane mode
Ask Us Anything

Why do we still have to use airplane mode?

By Tom Hawking

The first brown dwarfs outside the Milky Way.
Deep Space

Swirling galaxy arms, a cosmic sombrero, and a dead supernova: Our favorite JWST images from 2024

By Tom Hawking

'The role of the fungal communities residing in the upper airways … is practically unknown.'
Health

People with allergies have different nasal fungi

By Tom Hawking

lab mouse
Health

Past experiences strongly affect empathy in mice 

By Tom Hawking

A composite image galaxy cluster collisions known as the Abell 2744 system, known as the Pandora's Cluster. In blue is a map showing the total mass concentration (mostly dark matter) based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Subaru telescope.
Deep Space

‘Funny dark matter:’ Something is wrong about our theory of the expanding universe

By Tom Hawking

A new study suggests that great apes (specifically gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans) seem to track events in the way that we do.
Animals

Great apes may have cognitive foundations for language

By Tom Hawking

tap water
Health

‘Unidentified product’ in tap water identified after 40 years

By Tom Hawking

Astrocytes; neuroglial cells, 250X at 35mm.
Biology

‘Swiss army knife’ of the brain: How star-shaped cells reshape our understanding of memory

By Tom Hawking

a man on a walkie talkie as runners go by
Technology

Meet the ham radio enthusiasts who help keep the New York Marathon running smoothly

By Tom Hawking

Tardigrades were exposed to heavy doses of gamma rays—high-energy photons that are one form of ionizing radiation—and researchers then studied how their systems responded.
Biology

Researchers start to unravel the secrets of tardigrade radiation resilience

By Tom Hawking

'Electro-agriculture' prototype.
Agriculture

‘Electro-agriculture’ may help plants grow in the dark

By Tom Hawking

TK
Health

Could Ozempic and similar drugs be used to treat substance use disorders?

By Tom Hawking

An iron meteorite from the core of a melted planetesimal (left) and a chondrite meteorite, derived from a ‘primitive’, unmelted planetesimal (right).
Science

Building blocks of life on Earth originate from a relatively small amount of source material

By Tom Hawking

Spicy pepper
Biology

Spicy foods: The unlikely new frontier in placebo research

By Tom Hawking

hearing voices
Health

The ‘voices’ that people with schizophrenia hear could be echoes of their own vocalizations

By Tom Hawking

3D rendering of all ~140k neurons in the fruit fly brain.
Animals

Scientists mapped every neuron of an adult animal’s brain for the first time

By Tom Hawking