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The last good website.

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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

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Defector

Capture

Lucy Bloom

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Bills Week

Bill Nye Isn’t Fun Anymore

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Barry Petchesky

The Space Shuttle Discovery, aboard a specially modified NASA Boeing 747, flies over the Washington, DC, April 17, 2012, as seen from Arlington, Virginia. NASA is transferring the Shuttle, which completed 39 missions and spent 365 days in space, to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo by Saul LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

US-SPACE-SHUTTLE DISCOVERY

The “Big Beautiful Bill” Is Trying To Steal A Space Shuttle

<p>Becky Ferreira is a science reporter based in Ithaca, N.Y. She writes <a href="https://www.404media.co/author/becky/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.404media.co/author/becky/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1740083778769000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_mk31dNhas5lklZb38a6k">The Abstract</a>, a weekly science column for 404 Media. Her book <em>First Contact</em>, about the search for alien life, will be out in fall 2025.</p>


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Becky Ferreira

Sun over dying Earth. Illustration of the Sun, around 5 billion years in the future, heating a dying Earth. The oceans have evaporated, leaving salt-encrusted rocks. The Moon is seen passing in front of the massively swollen Sun. This stage of the Sun's life, known as its red giant stage, will begin when the Sun exhausts the hydrogen fuel in its core. It will then begin burning hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core, causing the Sun to expand. The expanding Sun will engulf the inner planets, and possibly the Earth. If the Earth survives this stage of the death of the Sun, it will freeze as the Sun collapses into a white dwarf star.

Red giant Sun, illustration

Science

Are You Team Fiery Sun Death Or Team Lifeless Husk?

LHASA, CHINA - OCTOBER 23: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) streaks across the sky on October 23, 2024 in Lhasa, Xizang Autonomous Region of China. (Photo by Jiang Feibo/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Streaks Across The Sky In China

A Comet From Another Solar System Is On Its Way

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 24: A 5-story Titanosaurus towers over Rockefeller Center to promote the film "Jurassic World: Rebirth" on June 24, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Liao Pan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Giant Dinosaur On Display In Rockefeller Center For The Upcoming Movie

Arts And Culture

Just Give Me Some Normal Damn Dinosaurs


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Typing

Sabrina Imbler

a headshot of Laura Mata López, a psychiatric nurse and doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University

Laura Mata Feb 2025-15

Interviews

An Interview With A Psychiatric Nurse Whose Research Funding Was Cut By The Trump Administration

Joy Binion, formerly a social science analyst at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMSHA

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An Interview With A Terminated Analyst At The Substance Abuse And Mental Health Administration

a photo of Patrick Kelly, a Doctoral Candidate at Brown University School of Public Health, whose NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse funded doctoral research was terminated

An Interview With A Public Health Researcher Whose Funding Was Terminated By The Trump Administration

Mamta Patel Nagaraja, a fired NASA associate chief scientist for exploration and research, giving a keynote at the Department of Transportation for a White House event

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An Interview With A Fired NASA Associate Chief Scientist

Picture of Colossal’s Dire Wolves; Romulus and Remus at age three months. Born 10/1/2024

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Creaturefector

Colossal Biosciences Can’t Have It Both Ways

Claire Sneed, a recently fired US Forest Service hydrologic technician

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An Interview With A Fired U.S. Forest Service Hydrologic Technician

UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 30: Saturn, by Jamie Cooper. This image showing Saturn with six of it's moons was taken on 26th January 2006 at 22:11 hrs UT using a webcam attached to a 14 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The moons are from left to right: Titan, Mimas,Tethys, Rhea, Enceladus and Dione. (Photo by Jamie Cooper/SSPL/Getty Images)

Saturn, by Jamie Cooper.

Why Is This So Good?

I Implore You To Look At Saturn Through A Telescope

A headshot of Madyson Miller, a fired NOAA program analyst, in a blue sweater and golden light

Miller-Headshot

An Interview With A Fired NOAA Program Analyst

a headshot of fired CDC health communications manager Sarah Boim

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Politics

An Interview With A Fired CDC Health Communications Manager

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Albert Burneko

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket carrying astronauts Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Kerianne Flynn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Lauren Sánchez, lifts off from Launch Site One north of Van Horn, Texas on April 14, 2025.

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At What Point Has One Actually “Been To” Space?

A photo of Jules Reynolds, a fired USDA program coordinator, sitting near a valley of farmland

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An Interview With A Fired USDA Program Coordinator

People attend the 'Trans Day of Visibility Rally' hosted by the Christopher Street Project on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Someone holds up a sign saying "I WANT MORE TRANSSEXUAL FRIENDS LOVERS TEACHERS STUDENTS NEIGHBORS AUTHORS ARTISTS LEADERS LAWYERS PREACHERS & COMRADES.

Trans-Day-of-Visibility-Rally-Near-US-Capitol

What It Means To Fund Studies In Transition “Regret”

a photo of Tara Kerin, an infectious disease epidemiologist who lost her job as a result of the DOGE layoffs

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An Interview With An Epidemiologist Who Lost Her Job Because Of The DOGE Layoffs

<div>Paola Rosa-Aquino is a freelance journalist covering science, space and the environment. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her canine co-worker Cece.</div>
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Paola Rosa-Aquino

Flames are seen after Starship's Super Heavy Booster splashed down for a water landing off the coast of, Texas, on its sixth flight test on November 19, 2024. SpaceX aborted an attempt to catch the first stage booster of its Starship megarocket in the "chopstick" arms of its launch tower, opting instead for an ocean splashdown, a live feed showed November 19. The hitch came as President-elect Donald Trump joined SpaceX chief Elon Musk at the company's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas to watch the test flight, the latest sign of the budding bromance between the two billionaires. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

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We’re Littering The Earth With Space Trash

a photo of Veronica Correa, a fired EPA public affairs specialist, standing in snowy woods by a stream

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An Interview With A Fired EPA Public Affairs Specialist

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Kelsey McKinney

spiky piece of black glass that is actually a brain

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I Should Have Been The One To Discover The Glass Brain

A photo of Sara Hugentobler, a USFWS fish biologist, in the lab extracting DNA

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An Interview With A Fired USFWS Fish Biologist

a selfie of Sarah Cooley, the former director of NOAA's ocean acidification program, with an orange life vest on a river

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An Interview With A Fired NOAA Director

A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Saturn Has 274 Moons Now; Jupiter Is Crying Itself To Sleep; It Literally Cannot Believe It

a photo of Sabrina Valenti, formerly a budget analyst for NOAA. Sabrina has brown curly hair and is standing against a floral background.