Aatish Bhatia

@aatishb.com

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I'm a science writer and journalist. I make articles and interactive graphics. Previously: NYT, Princeton, Rutgers Physics Ph.D. aatishb.com

A book opened to a page that reads: Ladders We are often encouraged to see life as one continual uphill climb. We talk about ladders without even thinking. Career ladders. Property ladders. Of being on the top rung of the ladder. Or the bottom rung of the ladder. We talk of climbing the ladder. We talk of rising up. We talk of uphill struggles. In doing so we visualize life as a kind of vertical race, like we are human skyscrapers reaching for the clouds. And we risk only ever looking above to the future or below to the past and never around at the infinite horizontal landscape of the present. The trouble with ladders is they give you no room to move around. Just room to fall.
Handwritten math on graph paper. A diagram at top shows two circles — a larger one labeled R_E (Earth) on the left and a smaller one labeled R_M (Moon) on the right — with two lines crossing between them forming an X, defining distances d_E and d_M from a shared observation point. The derivation begins by setting the angular size condition R_E/d_E = R_M/d_M, rearranging to d_E/d_M = 6,371 km / 1,737 km = 3.67. Substituting into the constraint d_E + d_M = d_EM and solving yields d_E = d_EM / 1.27 = 384,399 km / 1.27 = 302,676 km = 188,074 miles.
Two side by side views from spacecraft Orion from two cameras. The view on the left shows a small full moon in the distance, against the blackness of space, with Orion to the left. The view on the right shows the rear end of Orion, with a space panel in view, and a small crescent Earth in the distant on the right, against the blackness of space.
Close-up view from an onboard camera of the Orion spacecraft's crew module and service module adapter, brightly lit by sunlight. The conical heat shield end of the capsule gleams white, with rivets and panel seams visible along the metallic surface.
Screenshot of NASA's Artemis II Real-time Orbit Website showing the mission view. The Orion spacecraft's trajectory is traced in blue, looping from Earth out past the Moon and back. The spacecraft is currently on its outbound leg.
a menu of settings controlling the sky environment, with sliders for elevation, azimuth, turbidity, rayleigh, mie coefficient, etc.
Video credit: Google. Alt text: A simulation showing a murmuration of birds in the sky.
An indecipherable collection of diagrams of overlapping circles and curves in 3 colors.
A page from the book Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology by Valentino Braitenberg that reads: Introduction Let the Problem of the Mind Dissolve in Your Mind This is an exercise in fictional science, or science fiction, if you like that better. Not for amusement: science fiction in the service of science. Or just science, if you agree that fiction is part of it, always was, and always will be as long as our brains are only minuscule fragments of the universe, much too small to hold all the facts of the world but not too idle to speculate about them. I have been dealing for many years with certain structures within animal brains that seemed to be interpretable as pieces of computing machinery because of their simplicity and/or regularity. Much
Diagrams to understand how a shallow one layer neural network with ReLU activations can be represented as a series of hinges. The 3N + 1 parameters control the positions, slopes and directions of each hinge, plus an overall offset.
A bubble chart showing the change in international student arrivals from Asia between August 2024 and 2025. The average change is a decrease of -23.8%.
A line chart titled "August international student arrivals from... Iran," showing data from 2015 to 2025. The vertical y-axis shows the number of students, with markers for 1K and 2K. The horizontal x-axis shows the years. The chart shows a general decline in arrivals from over 2,000 in 2015 to under 1,000 in 2018. In 2020, there was a severe drop to nearly zero, with the lowest point labeled "Covid." This was followed by a dramatic recovery, with numbers surging to a new peak in 2023, well above 2,000 students. From this peak, the number of arrivals falls steeply. The final segment of the line, showing the decline into 2025, is highlighted in red with an annotation that reads: "1,097 fewer students (-86%)." The source for the data is listed as Trade.gov.
A collection of four line charts titled "August international student arrivals from..." showing data from 2015 to 2025. The main chart shows arrivals from the continent of Europe, with three smaller charts below detailing arrivals from Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The source for all data is Trade.gov. Main Chart: Europe The large top chart for "Europe" has a vertical axis from 25K to 50K. The line shows that arrivals were very stable at just under 50,000 from 2015 to 2019. This was followed by a sharp V-shaped drop in 2020 to below 25,000, with the lowest point on the graph marked "Covid." A recovery followed, with numbers reaching a new peak in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The line shows a very slight drop in 2025. This final segment is highlighted in red, with an annotation that reads "891 fewer students (-2%)." Small Charts: Spain: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 8K. After the 2020 dip, arrivals recovered to a new peak before declining slightly. The final segment is colored red, indicating a 4% decrease (-4%). United Kingdom: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 8K. Following the 2020 drop, arrivals show a steady and continuous recovery, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The final segment is colored green, indicating a 7% increase (+7%). Germany: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 8K. After the 2020 drop, arrivals recovered to near pre-pandemic levels. The final segment is red, showing a 5% decrease (-5%).
A collection of four line charts titled "August international student arrivals from..." showing data from 2015 to 2025. The main chart shows arrivals from the continent of Africa, with three smaller charts below detailing arrivals from Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. The source for all data is Trade.gov. Main Chart: Africa The large top chart for "Africa" has a vertical axis from 5K to 15K. The line shows that arrivals fluctuated between 10,000 and 12,000 from 2015 to 2019 before a steep drop in 2020 to. This lowest point is marked "Covid." A strong recovery followed, with numbers surging to a peak of over 16,000 in 2024, significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. The line then drops sharply in 2025. This final segment is highlighted in red, with an annotation that reads "5,509 fewer students (-32%)." Small Charts: Nigeria: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 4K. After a steep drop in 2020, arrivals recovered, peaking above 4K. This is followed by a steep decline. The final segment is colored red, indicating a 48% decrease (-48%). Ghana: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 4K. It shows a steady rise before the 2020 dip, followed by a recovery to a peak above 3K around 2024. This is followed by a steep drop. The final red segment shows a 51% decrease (-51%). Kenya: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 2K. The trend is more uneven but shows a similar drop in 2020 and a recovery to a new peak around 2023. The final segment is red, showing a 17% decrease (-17%).
A collection of four line charts titled "August international student arrivals from..." showing data from 2015 to 2025. The main, large chart shows arrivals from Asia as a whole, with three smaller charts below detailing arrivals from China, India, and South Korea. The source for all data is Trade.gov. Main Chart: Asia The large top chart for "Asia" has a vertical axis from 0 to 300K. The line shows that arrivals were steady at just under 300,000 from 2015 to 2019. This was followed by a very steep drop in 2020, with the lowest point on the graph marked "Covid." A recovery occurred from 2020 to 2024, with arrivals peaking at over 250,000. The line then drops in 2025. This final segment is highlighted in red, with an annotation indicating "59,561 fewer students (-24%)." Small Charts: China: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 200K. It shows a steep drop in 2020, followed by an uneven recovery that remains well below pre-pandemic levels. The final segment showing the trend into 2025 is colored red, indicating a 12% decrease (-12%). India: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 100K. After the 2020 dip, arrivals from India surged dramatically, peaking in 2023 at nearly 100,000, well above pre-pandemic levels. This is followed by a steep drop. The final segment is red, showing a 44% decrease (-44%). South Korea: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 40K. It shows a general downward trend from 2015, and a steeper 2020 dip. The recovery was modest, and the line continues to decline. The final red segment shows an 11% decrease (-11%).
A line chart titled "International student arrivals to the U.S. in August" showing data from 2015 to 2025. The vertical y-axis represents the number of students, with labels for 200K and 400K. The horizontal x-axis represents the years. The line shows that student arrivals were consistently high, just over 400,000, from 2015 to 2019. In 2020, there was a drop to well around 50,000, with this point on the graph labeled "Covid". After 2020, the number of arrivals recovered sharply, peaking in 2023 at just under 400,000. The line then shows a decline to 2025. The segment from 2024 to 2025 is highlighted in red, with a text annotation pointing to the 2025 data point that reads: "73,802 fewer students (-19%)". The source is cited as Trade.gov. A note at the bottom reads: "Note: The data for August 2025 is preliminary and excludes visitors who arrived from Mexico via land, and visitors from Canada."
A photograph of the Earth taken from Himawari-8, showing the earth perfectly divided into day on the left and night on the right, with the day/night divider running from the north pole to the south pole.
Highlighted excerpt from the Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo: "To assert that the moon's secondary light is imparted by Venus is so childish as to deserve no reply. Who is so ignorant as not to understand that from new moon to a separation of sixty degrees between moon and sun, no part of the moon which is averted from the sun can possibly be seen from Venus?"
leaf with protruding stalks
An illustration by Christoph Niemann showing two black and white figures working at desks. The top figure sits with its head in its hand and the bottom figure has arms raised in celebration. There are two paths connecting them, a blue tangled path, and a red direct path. The caption reads "Communicating emotions from person to person through writing, composing or painting is inefficient and inherently human."
A treemap of terminated research grants at Harvard
Bar chart titled “How the Bill Would Affect Households at Different Income Ranks.” It shows the estimated average annual change in after-tax resources between 2026 to 2034 for ten income groups. The bottom 10 percent lose 3.9 percent, the 10th–20th percent lose 1.2 percent, and the 20th–30th percent lose 0.4 percent. All higher groups gain: +0.1 percent (30th–40th), +0.5 percent (40th–50th), +0.8 percent (50th–60th), +1.1 percent (60th–70th), +1.3 percent (70th–80th), +1.5 percent (80th–90th), and +2.3 percent for the top 10 percent.
Technology, Innovation & Partnerships directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $110 m → 2025 $92 m (-17 %)  Divisions:  • Translational Impacts $86 m → $44 m (-48 %)  • Innovation & Technology Ecosystems $24 m → $47 m (+95 %)
Social & Behavioral Sciences directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $78 m → 2025 $62 m (-20 %)  Divisions:  • Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences $32 m → $42 m (+30 %)  • Social Science & Economics $31 m → $20 m (-37 %)  • Nat’l Center for Science & Engineering Stats $2 m → $0 m (-100 %)  • Multidisciplinary Activities $11 m → ≈$0 m (-96 %)
Geosciences directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $305 m → 2025 $204 m (-33 %)  Divisions:  • Ocean Sciences $103 m → $136 m (+33 %)  • Atmospheric & Geospace $63 m → $40 m (-36 %)  • Earth Sciences $78 m → $16 m (-80 %)  • Office of Polar Programs $51 m → $6 m (-88 %)  • R.I.S.E. $11 m → $6 m (-47 %)
Computer Science directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $277 m → 2025 $192 m (-31 %)  Divisions:  • Advanced Cyberinfrastructure $39 m → $80 m (+102 %)  • Computer & Network Systems $96 m → $42 m (-57 %)  • Information & Intelligent Systems $68 m → $27 m (-60 %)  • Computing Foundations $74 m → $43 m (-41 %)
Biology directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $303 m → 2025 $147 m (-52 %)  Divisions:  • Biological Infrastructure $99 m → $32 m (-68 %)  • Integrative Organismal Systems $88 m → $34 m (-61 %)  • Environmental Biology $75 m → $39 m (-49 %)  • Molecular & Cellular Biosciences $40 m → $37 m (-9 %)  • Emerging Frontiers $0.8 m → $5 m (+521 %)
Engineering directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $221 m → 2025 $94 m (-57 %)  Divisions:  • Civil & Mechanical $80 m → $42 m (-48 %)  • Chemical & Bio $75 m → $22 m (-71 %)  • Electrical $36 m → $19 m (-48 %)  • Engineering Education $27 m → $12 m (-56 %)  • Emerging Frontiers $2 m → $0 m (-98 %)
Math, Physics & Chemistry directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $432 m → 2025 $143 m (-67%)  Divisions:  • Materials Research $118 m → $43 m (-63 %)  • Chemistry $103 m → $44 m (-57%)  • Math $113 m → $32 m (-72%)  • Physics $72 m → $11 m (-85%)  • Astronomy $26 m → $12 m (-53%)
STEM-education directorate • Total: 2015-24 avg $280 m → 2025 $56 m (-80 %)  Sub-programs:  • Undergrad. Education $135 m → $39 m (-71 %)  • Research on Learning $77 m → $16 m (-79 %)  • Equity for Excellence $46 m → $1 m (-97 %)  • Graduate Education $21 m → $0 (-100 %)
Line chart titled “Cumulative grant funding by the National Science Foundation, 1990-2025.” • Each thin gray line represents one calendar year’s cumulative intended grant awards (Jan. 1 to May 21) in 2025 dollars. • Lines for 2021-2024 are shown in dark blue; they reach above $2 billion by mid-May. • The 2025 line is highlighted in red. It rises more slowly, reaching about $1 billion and then flattening out after April 30, when staff were told to halt new awards. Footnote: Shows the cumulative total intended award for all grants funded by the N.S.F. from Jan. 1 to May 21 of each year in 2025 dollars. Spikes reflect large multi-year grants.
Horizontal bar chart titled “Canceled funding from in-progress grants” that lists eight NSF directorate groups: • STEM education −$656 million (by far the largest bar). • Math, physics, chemistry −$61 million. • Geosciences −$53 million. • Computer science −$47 million. • Social sciences −$46 million. • Technology −$38 million. • Engineering −$36 million. • Biology −$28 million. Footnote: The chart shows the total cut in intended award funding for terminated grants grouped by N.S.F. directorate after excluding money that has already been spent. Source: USA Spending and Grant Watch.
An animated circular treemap chart showing the reduction in grant funding this year to all of the divisions within the 8 directorates of the National Science Foundation, compared with the funding level in the previous 10 years.
Share of spending among ... Small businesses All contracts 23% Contracts on DOGE site 29% Minority-owned businesses All contracts 10% Contracts on DOGE site 19% Businesses owned by women All contracts 5% Contracts on DOGE site 11% Nonprofits All contracts 5% Contracts on DOGE site 11% Source: USA Spending, DOGE Based on obligated spending in the 2024 fiscal year for all federal contracts and those on DOGE's list.
A table of medical and medical science institutions in new york showing the amount of NIH grant funding in 2024 and estimates of how much this funding would have decreased under the new regulations.
An example of text generated by an A.I. large language model after being trained on its own sentences for 4 generations. It reads, "To cook a turkey for Thanksgiving, you need to know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what"
A hand drawn drawing of a steam locomotive with water heaters and a transformer connected to overhead power lines.