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. You can subscribe to his Substack here.

More from 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

Study suggests that ambient dopamine levels in the brain do not influence the strength of the placebo effect.
Science

Scientists reexamine dopamine’s role in the placebo effect

By Tom Hawking

A possible painting of the dicynodont made by the San in the early 1800s.
Archaeology

The perplexing puzzle of a ‘Horned Serpent’ cave painting

By Tom Hawking

Meteorite impacts and volcanic eruption producing glass beads on the Moon.
Moons

Volcanoes may have existed on the moon far more recently than we thought

By Tom Hawking

This composite simulated image shows how M87* is seen by the Event Horizon Telescope at 86 GHz (red), 230 GHz (green), and 345 GHz (blue). The higher the frequency, the sharper the image becomes, revealing structure, size, and shape that was previously less discernible.
Science

Better images of black holes are coming—maybe even movies

By Tom Hawking

south pole of the moon
Moons

The moon was once covered in an ocean of magma: new data supports theory

By Tom Hawking

The device, which is about the size of a stick of gum, can be implanted under the skin, where it monitors heart rate, breathing rate, and other vital signs. When it determines that an overdose has occurred, it rapidly pumps out a dose of naloxone.
Health

First-of-its-kind implant detects and treats opioid overdoses

By Tom Hawking

Odyssey’s THEMIS view the horizon of Mars.
Mars

Ultrasonic tools could one day track wind speeds on Mars

By Tom Hawking

NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC).
Mars

NASA data suggests there’s liquid water deep beneath Mars’ surface

By Tom Hawking

moon in the 90s
Moons

Yes, the moon has an atmosphere—and it’s metal as hell

By Tom Hawking

In the foreground to the left is a sphere half illuminated on the right side, almost filling the image vertically. The surface consists of several parallel, pale-coloured bands aligned horizontally. To the top right is a much smaller orange, circular light source, illuminating the large sphere in the foreground. The background is black with numerous tiny white dots.
Deep Space

JWST detects a new exoplanet six times larger than Jupiter

By Tom Hawking

NASA VIPER Rover
Moons

NASA’s VIPER rover won’t be going to the moon after all

By Tom Hawking

A team of astronomers led by Penn State scientists have discovered a planet that has the most oblong orbit ever found among transiting planets. The exoplanet’s extreme circuit — which looks closer to a cucumber than a circle — follows one of the most drastically stretched-out orbits of all known exoplanets, planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. The planet, , named TIC 241249530, is also orbiting its star backwards, lending insight into the mystery of how close-in massive gas planets, known as hot Jupiters, form, stabilize and evolve over time.
Deep Space

Newly discovered exoplanet’s orbit is like a ‘cucumber’

By Tom Hawking

harvester ants
Animals

How ants acts for the common good of the colony

By Tom Hawking

The rim and floor of Gale Crater as seen from NASA’s Curiosity Rover.
Mars

Mars was icy and wet billions of years ago, new study suggests

By Tom Hawking

floppy disks
Technology

Japan’s government is (finally) done with floppy disks

By Tom Hawking

visual rabbit illusion
Science

How does the visual rabbit illusion fool us so reliably?

By Tom Hawking