Stories by Matthew Twombly

Matthew Twombly is a freelance illustrator and infographic designer. His work can be viewed at www.matthewtwombly.com

Illustration shows Earth in deep space. It is split at the equator, with the hemispheres pulled apart. A clock with a second hand is visible on the equatorial cut surface.

Planetary ScienceOctober 15, 2024

Should We Abandon the Leap Second?

We have been adding “leap seconds” to time kept by our atomic clocks, but soon we may have to subtract one. Are the tiny adjustments worth the bother?

Mark Fischetti, Matthew Twombly

Illustration of Earth with magnetosphere lines drawn to represent conditions during a solar storm. A coronal mass ejection compresses Earth’s magnetosphere. The illustration is rendered in glowing orange, with green auroras visible on the dark side of Earth’s poles.

WeatherAugust 1, 2024

Expect Auroras, Solar Flares and More Space Weather from the Solar Maximum

Space weather is heating up in our current solar cycle peak

Clara Moskowitz, Matthew Twombly

Person surrounded by black boxes. Each black box has a glowing screen with a similar base image projected on it. A few versions of the image are crisp. One includes static.

Artificial IntelligenceOctober 1, 2023

See How AI Generates Images from Text

Generative AI algorithms use probability to create visuals from noise

Sophie Bushwick, Matthew Twombly, Amanda Hobbs

Map shows large tornado outbreak regions for two time intervals: 1950 through 1980 and 1989 through 2019. The highest-density area has shifted east, from Oklahoma and Arkansas to Kentucky and Tennessee.

WeatherMay 11, 2023

Watch Out: Tornado Alley Is Migrating Eastward

Tornado outbreaks are moving from Texas and Oklahoma toward Tennessee and Kentucky, where people may not be prepared

Mark Fischetti, Matthew Twombly, Daniel P. Huffman

Space ExplorationJanuary 1, 2022

What Is a Lagrange Point?

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will travel to a special spot where the gravity from Earth and the sun is balanced

Clara Moskowitz, Matthew Twombly

ChemistrySeptember 1, 2018

The Ancient Roots of the Internal Combustion Engine

Taking apart the internal combustion engine reveals our collective genius

Lewis Dartnell, José Miguel Mayo, Matthew Twombly