
Erin Ryan, a research associate at the University of Maryland who works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, tweeted a photo of a cake announcing the “direct detection of gravitational waves” 16 minutes before the announcement went out this morning, the Washington Post reports. When scientists make a big discovery like this, they often let selected media in on the news a little early so reporters can try to figure out what the hell they’re talking about before they write a story. But those reporters agree not to publish until the news is officially released — in journo lingo, it’s under embargo. Today’s embargo was scheduled to be lifted at 10:30 a.m., a quarter-hour after Ryan’s tweet.
This isn’t the first time Ryan’s Twitter fingers have gotten her in trouble, either. In September 2013 she accidentally tweeted a picture of another celebratory cake, this one announcing the discovery of a chemical called propylene on one of Saturn’s moons. “They weren’t happy about it,” Ryan told the Post, referring to her bosses. “They
told me to maybe chill with the tweeting for a week or so.” Perhaps
this second incident will spur researchers to stick to less news-driven science-lab confectionery.
This article was written by Claire Landsbaum, and first published by The Washington Post, from the Daily Intelligencer, on 11th February 2016, under the title “Scientist Tweets Picture of Cake, Accidentally Reveals Discovery of Gravitational Waves”