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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.

Defector

Barry Petchesky

Science

Artemis Took A Picture Of Us

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - APRIL 01: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Getty Images provides access to this publicly distributed image for editorial purposes and is not the copyright owner. Additional permissions may be required and are the sole responsibility of the end user.) In this handout image provided by NASA, NASA's Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist onboard launches on the Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft. The quartet launched at 6:35 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. (Photo by Aubrey Gemignani/NASA/Getty Images)

Artemis Boldly Goes Where No Toilet Has Gone Before

Staff Writer
Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.19

Chris Thompson

A grainy black-and-white 1981 photo showing something that looks like an ape striding out of the woods.

What Did The Migrating Bigfoot Family Know About This Ohio Meteor Explosion?

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Sabrina Imbler

Artist impression of what Prototaxites would have look like in life

Who The Hell Was This?

A statue representing an iceman named Oetzi, discovered on 1991 in the Italian Schnal Valley glacier, is displayed at the Archaeological Museu of Bolzano

Let The Record Show That Ötzi Fucked

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - JANUARY 17: NASA's Artemis II is rolled from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on January 17, 2026 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA’s integrated SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission are being rolled to Launch Pad 39B ahead of the 10-day mission in February 2026, which will take the crew around the Moon and back to Earth. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

I Am Not Immune To The Charms Of A Really Big Moon Rocket

A self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci in which he looks displeased, perhaps making the face he would make if he learned that scientists were trying to grind up some ancient hair to unlock a supervision gene

Arts And Culture

Leonardo da Vinci’s Legacy Won’t Be Found In His DNA

Patrick Redford

LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 13: A view of dense fog over Interstate Highway 580 (I-580) and wind turbines in Livermore, California, United States on December 13, 2025. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Climate

What Is The Tule Fog, And Will It Ever Go Away?

The Phoenix Mercury logo and the planet Mercury.

This Is So Stupid

The Phoenix Mercury’s New Logos Vs. The Planet Mercury: An Exhausting Showdown

IN SPACE - MAY 23: In this handout image provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour orbit Earth during Endeavour's final sortie on May 23, 2011 in Space. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli captured the first-ever images of an orbiter docked to the International Space Station from the viewpoint of a departing vessel as he returned to Earth in a Soyuz capsule. (Photo by Paolo Nespoli - ESA/NASA via Getty Images)

One Small Step For A Moss, One Giant Leap For Mosskind

a photo of RFK Jr. where he looks like a broken Chuck-E-Cheeze animatronic

Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism, No Matter What The CDC Website Now Says

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - OCTOBER 26: Tom Brady looks on from the field during warmups prior to an NFL football game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on October 26, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

Tom Brady Cloned His Dead Dog As A Brand Activation

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 First Contact, about the search for alien life, <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/becky-ferreira/first-contact/9781523527755/">is available now.</a>

Becky Ferreira

National Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, New Mexico (Photo by: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

A Brief History Of Martian Ruckuses

Albert Burneko

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on September 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Politics

Setting Aside The Incorrect Claim About Herd Immunity

A CVS pharmacy store on February 28, 2025 in San Diego, California

How Are You Supposed To Get The COVID Vaccine Now? An Explainer

RFK Jr. Is Making His Bid To Become One Of American History’s Biggest Killers

Screwworm larva. Tusklike mandibles protruding from the screwworm larva's mouth rasp the flesh of living warm-blooded animals.

Make America Wormy Again

Eva Holland is a freelance writer and editor based in Whitehorse, Yukon. She&#8217;s a correspondent for Outside magazine and the author of the books Nerve and <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/no-sleep-til-fairbanks#/">No Sleep &#8216;Til Fairbanks</a>.

Eva Holland

Why Did National Geographic Disappear Its Own Documentary About A Queer Climate Scientist?

Former Defector intern, now freelancer.
For professional inquiries or tips please write lucybl00m@protonmail.com or yuck.20 on Signal.
&nbsp;

Lucy Bloom

Bills Week

Bill Nye Isn’t Fun Anymore

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)

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

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.

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)

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)

Just Give Me Some Normal Damn Dinosaurs

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

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