The best science newsletters

Recomendo is a weekly newsletter of six brief personal recommendations of cool products, apps, websites, sounds, and books, each drawn from the editors' own experience. Readers get short, curated finds they can try right away, plus a Christmas issue featuring subscriber picks.

Weekly Spanish-language essays that use historical figures and ideas to explore learning, long-term thinking and how we understand the world. Each issue accompanies a podcast and tells a story before unpacking a concept such as pace layers, causal reasoning or deliberate practice.

Experimental History is a newsletter by a writer who examines claims about society, economics, and science with a data-driven, skeptical eye, debunking popular narratives like AI-driven mass unemployment and the loneliness epidemic. Readers get clear explanations of statistical pitfalls, historical context, and updates on the author's book about how scientific discovery works.

A personal essay newsletter from Brian Dunning-style natural philosophy writer exploring AI's cultural impact, parenting, and civilizational themes through polemic and literary references. Readers get reflective, opinionated takes on technology, culture, and history rather than news or practical guidance.

DYNOMIGHT is a personal blog-style newsletter by Dynomight covering speculative essays on biology, evolution, and AI alignment, often with contrarian takes. Readers get long-form, witty reasoning about why biological systems work the way they do and what evolution's design choices imply for building intelligent systems.

Adam Mastroianni's Seeds of Science is a curated and original science-writing newsletter that mixes his own experiments, like cheap "Dumb Studies," with commentary on classic psychology research. Readers get witty, well-sourced explanations of surprising findings about learning, memory and perception.

Studying History is a personal newsletter that tells engaging stories from history, art, science and classical culture, with a Greek-language version alongside the English text. Recent issues cover the origins of modern art, the Nobel-winning discovery of channelrhodopsins, and the ancient Greek idea of xenia.

The Generalist is a long-form interview newsletter and podcast companion covering people, companies and technologies shaping the future, especially AI, robotics and science. Each issue pairs an interview with a founder or researcher with a personal 'notebook' of reflections on the conversation.

An independent journalism newsletter covering psychedelic science, policy and research, including clinical trials, regulation and expert interviews. Readers get reported summaries of new studies and news alongside Q&As with researchers.

Open to Debate is a nonpartisan nonprofit that hosts weekly debates on contentious issues, aiming to restore critical thinking and civility to public discourse. Its newsletter shares debate clips, transcripts, and summaries, such as the recent debate on whether extinct animals should be brought back to life.

Sketchplanations sends a weekly hand-drawn explanation of an idea from science, psychology, creativity or everyday life, with the author's personal anecdotes. Each issue explains the concept in plain language and links it to practical situations such as training, group work and colour mixing.

David Epstein, author of Range, shares interviews, research-driven essays and book-related news aimed at generalists. Issues cover topics like friendship science, suicide-prevention research and the value of broad skills in an AI-shaped world.

A newsletter by Saloni Dattani on medical progress, scientific innovation and how to communicate data well. Readers get long-form, carefully sourced essays that put medical breakthroughs and science funding in historical context, plus practical guidance on data visualization.

TAXA publishes experimental long-form journalism that uses surprising everyday objects and overlooked byproducts as entry points into science and history. Its sample issue traces the story of an MIT milk carton kept for decades and connects it to Louis Pasteur's work on fermentation and food safety.

Essays that connect current policy and research news on topics such as daylight saving time, food quality and nutrition-related mental health with the author's personal experience. Readers get a narrative, opinionated take that cites studies and historical background.

t3n.de News is a German-language digest of tech, science and digital-culture articles, with short teasers linking to full stories on t3n.de. Readers get quick updates on space research, Windows software and similar digital topics.

FIERCE by mitú is a Latino-focused online magazine publishing features on personal stories, women's issues, tech and science, blending news reporting with human-interest profiles. Readers get culturally grounded takes on careers, family, health research and gender-related business news.

A science newsletter that explains discoveries, history and current research in an accessible, lightly humorous way, mixing explainers with memes and deeper dives. Readers get stories like the history of penicillin research, optogenetics and quantum physics explained, with a paid tier offering extra rabbit-hole content.

Core Memory covers interesting people, companies and ideas in science and technology through podcast episodes, video series and written features. Recent issues include a Canada series visiting Waterloo and interviews with a humanoid robot maker and the owner of a California ghost town.

A newsletter that explores science, curiosity and wonder through essays and stories meant to inspire awe and hope. Recent issues mix playful, essayistic writing with series on good conversations and behind-the-scenes notes on running a newsletter.

A near-daily curated digest of notable items across technology, AI, business, science, history and culture, introduced by a personal essay and a quote. The author adds first-hand experiments and commentary, such as building a custom app with an AI tool or comparing old and new computer power.

Erika's newsletter publishes essays by a biological engineer, mixing research-lab stories on enzyme engineering and terraforming ideas with practical lab-management guides and personal anecdotes from MIT life. Readers get a blend of scientific reasoning, hands-on tooling advice, and lighter reflective pieces.

A monthly roundup of links about bad science, scientific fraud, retractions and replication failures, written with a cynical, true-crime flavour. It helps readers keep up with research misconduct stories and the broader push for more honest science.

A monthly digest from the gwern.net site summarising its recent site changes, essays, and reviews. It also collates curated links on AI, scaling, and machine learning research, each annotated with the author's own critical commentary.

A daily progressive political newsletter by radio host Thom Hartmann, offering commentary on U.S. politics, foreign policy, economics and science. Recent issues argue that Congress should respond to the administration's waiver of Russia sanctions, and promote paid subscriber features such as live book club sessions.

A daily morning newsletter that picks up under-covered stories from across the news, from business and science to culture and games, each credited to its original source. It is brief, witty and ad-free, giving readers a quick curated digest rather than original reporting.

Alex O'Connor's newsletter announces new episodes of the Within Reason podcast, with short write-ups of guest conversations on philosophy, religion and science. It also carries creator updates such as award voting and tour ticket information.

The Roots of Progress newsletter mainly carries announcements from the Roots of Progress Institute, including hiring calls, fellowship cohort introductions and conference news. It also covers the history of technology and the philosophy of progress.

Demis Hassabis, the AI researcher, argues that artificial general intelligence is likely a few years away and could be as transformative as electricity or fire, bringing major gains in medicine, energy and materials. The newsletter also addresses the risks of frontier and increasingly agentic AI systems and the need for careful, responsible development.

Irish novelist Julian Gough shares his self-developed cosmology theory, Cosmological Natural Selection, along with speculative models of galaxy and structure formation and his predictions about early-universe observations. The newsletter mixes personal updates, behind-the-scenes drafts, and a case for open 'jazz science'.

A daily digest of numbered news items across geopolitics, economics, science and technology, each excerpting and attributing a story from outlets such as the FT, WSJ and Bloomberg. Readers get a quick overview of notable stories with source links.

A weekly roundup of headlines on archaeology, ancient history, human origins, consciousness and unexplained phenomena, mostly teaser lines linking to articles behind a paywall. Readers get a quick digest of popular-science and mystery stories, with the full analysis reserved for paid subscribers.