How Scientific American's Departing Editor Helped Degrade Science
Earlier this week, Laura Helmuth resigned as editor in chief of Scientific American , the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. "I've decided to leave Scientific American after an exciting 4.5 years as editor in chief," she wrote on Bluesky . "I'm going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching), but for now I'd like to share a very small sample of the work I've been so proud to support (thread)."
Helmuth may in fact have been itching to spend more time bird watching—who wouldn't be?—but it seems likely that her departure was precipitated by a bilious Bluesky rant she posted after Donald Trump was reelected.
In it, she accused her generation, Generation X, of being "full of fucking fascists," complained about how sexist and racist her home state of Indiana was, and so on.
Whether or not Helmuth's resignation was voluntary, it should go without saying that a few bad social media posts should not end someone's job. If that were the whole story here—an otherwise well-performing editor was ousted over a few bad posts—this would arguably be a case of "cancel culture," or whatever we're calling it these days.
