Girl Geek X

06/18/2026

“It’s embarrassing that 25 years after the Human Genome Project, we don’t know where all the enhancers are in the genome, let alone what they do when they act and which genes they control,” said Wendy Bickmore, a genome biologist at the University of Edinburgh.

Our genetic heritage is not a blueprint or an algorithm, as many biologists have imagined, but something else entirely.

06/18/2026

Loss, veil, exile, and the passing of a literary giant by Fatemeh Shams. “Marjane reminded me, as her work often does, that in the bleakest times, art, writing, and human connection are radical acts of repair.”

On Thursday morning, June 4, I woke to the tragic and shocking news of Marjane Satrapi’s death. It was not the first time I had learned of a loved one’s loss in exile in the most mundane, alienatin…

06/18/2026

Ta-Nehisi Coates reckons with the Kamala Harris / Gaza question, and what it means for the 2028 election.

Ta-Nehisi Coates reckons with that question, and what it means for the 2028 election.

06/17/2026

World Labs CEO Fei-Fei Li is a world-renowned AI scientist known for her self-effacing demeanor, Li is being characteristically modest about Marble’s capabilities.

The app, launched last November, uses a new type of AI called a “world model” to generate interactive 3D replicas of any space—real or imaginary—from visual or written prompts. These “worlds” can be anything, from floating castles and sci-fi vistas to, well, a certain startup’s entryway.

The next frontier for AI? Understanding the real world, not just the digital one. World models are replacing LLMs as the next wave of AI investment and hype—and Fei-Fei Li's World Labs has first-mover advantage.

06/17/2026

If comets are responsible for our oceans, one might expect Giotto to have found that the water on Halley’s comet had a similar ratio of deuterium to hydrogen as the water on Earth. That’s not what it found.

“It didn’t match at all,” said Karen Meech a planetary astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In fact, Halley’s D/H ratio was twice that of most of the water on Earth.

At first, scientists thought Earth’s water came from comets. Then, asteroids. Now, they wonder if Earth’s water is homegrown.

06/13/2026

Aaron Sorkin tackles the story of Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower who filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission and disclosed tens of thousands of internal documents to The Wall Street Journal that revealed the company was aware of harmful societal effects from its platforms but failed to take action. “The Social Network was about how Facebook was invented, and The Social Reckoning is what it’s become,” he tells Vanity Fair in his first interview about the film.

The Social Reckoning, which hits theaters on October 9, is inspired by the Wall Street Journal investigation “The Facebook Files,” which reporter Jeff Horwitz worked on, and features Mikey Madison as Frances Haugen, Jeremy Allen White as Horwitz, and Jeremy Strong as Zuckerberg. Aaron Sorkin won his first Oscar for writing The Social Network, which forever linked him with Zuckerberg, and this time he’s not only writing the script, but also sitting in the director’s chair for this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller with real-world stakes.

Like other tense whistleblower films, such as The Insider, All the President’s Men, and Spotlight, The Social Reckoning centers on an individual brave enough to go up against a powerful entity in hopes of weeding out corruption.

“It was David and Goliath, where Goliath has invited us to a party and then spiked the punch,” says Aaron Sorkin. “And David is a mid-level Facebook engineer with a conscience.”

“Above all, I saw her as a truly brave hero,” says Mikey Madison, pictured with Jeremy Allen White.

https://www.vanityfair.com/story/social-reckoning-aaron-sorkin-interview

06/12/2026

Emily Atkin explains how “Patagonia” became a colonial fantasy of empty wilderness, how that fantasy obscures the Indigenous people and histories still rooted there, and what it means for a U.S. corporation to profit from that mythology while policing how others use it (see Patagonia™’s controversial lawsuit against Pattie Gonia, the environmental activist and drag queen).

And more importantly, should it?

06/12/2026

Being a woman in China is getting harder. But in Chengdu, female-only spaces are flourishing. The socially relaxed city has seen a cautious feminist revival despite authorities’ growing alarm at women who shun traditional roles.

In Chengdu, a city far from the more stifling atmosphere of Beijing, a cautious feminist revival is unfolding. The city is known for its more relaxed social attitudes, and Shen Shen’s bookstore, Laishuxia, is one of a number of female-focused communities that are growing in popularity.

“The bookstore I want to create is one that takes root,” Shen Shen says.

The socially relaxed city sees a cautious feminist revival in the face of growing alarm by authorities towards women who shun traditional roles

06/12/2026

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has been responsible for years for the company’s day-to-day operations, growth, and strategy for its workforce of 22,000 people (and is a steadier representative to Wall Street). She was SpaceX’s 11th employee, joining in 2002.

At 62, she’s worked in the space business for almost 40 years. Just a few weeks ago, she ranked No. 32 on Fortune’s list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Business—a huge leap from No. 49 in 2025 as SpaceX approached this monster listing.

https://fortune.com/2026/06/12/spacex-ipo-trading-first-day-live-updates-elon-musk/

06/12/2026

Pope Leo XIV's recent warning that AI risks becoming a new form of colonialism reflects a critique long raised by journalists, including Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. In her book, she writes that some tech researchers describe their work in religious terms.

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with tech journalist Karen Hao about the Pope's recent warnings that AI companies represent a new form of colonialism.