astrohde.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

This was awesome! Great presentations and lots of productive -- and still-ongoing -- discussions about the future of the field. A wonderful mix of theory, observation and instrumentation. (I am, though, glad to be rid of my LOC responsibilities. I can stop running around like a headless chicken.)

submitted 13 hours ago • 0 comments

Nothing to see here, just Nature advocating LLM peer review. “Feed your dictated notes into an offline large language model (LLM) to clarify and organize your feedback. A simple prompt such as “Write a critical reviewer letter based on the following notes. Maintain a professional tone throughout”

submitted 1 day ago • 84 comments

I'm in Pittsburgh for the FRB Frontiers meeting! So excited to talk with a lot of really cool people about all things fast radio burst-related.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Wrapping up my Friday by using a modern pipeline on data files from observations taken 31 years ago. Please send help.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

We can't make @astropy.org better for you without knowing a bit about what you need and who you are. Tell us! The Astropy Project will make informed decisions with your input. 🔭🧪

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

This is also why I think it is a mistake for universities and corporations to simply re-brand DEI policies. They need to defend the underlying principles (integration is good, diversity makes us better) rather than trying to outrun a fascist assault that will be trained on the re-brand

submitted 6 days ago • 37 comments

Bringing this up again, apropos of nothing. . .

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Question for astronomers- do you have students who got into grad school this year who did NOT have first author publications/ no post-bacc work? Or are they the new de-facto requirements? With ~6-10% acceptance rates for many astro programs this year, just curious what trends others are seeing. 🔭🧪🎢

submitted 7 days ago • 6 comments

The chaos and confusion of the Trump administration's science policy is taking its toll on early career researchers. Some prospective PhD students I spoke with have had informal offers rescinded as universities reduce or outright halt their programs. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

huge team effort from @astrobites.bsky.social to get this published with spectacular leadership from @briles34.bsky.social !!! check it out + be sure to check out astrobites.org ♥️🍪🪐🔭🧪

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

"For weeks on end, as other parts of the government have restarted funding, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have pressed [NIH] staff to ignore court orders" - @katherinejwu.com's latest www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks. https://go.nature.com/4kd1vIu

submitted 9 days ago • 9 comments

“Together, these actions will make people in the United States and around the world less prosperous and more vulnerable.” “We at Nature denounce this assault on science. And we encourage the global research community, wherever they can, to voice their opposition.”

submitted 8 days ago • 7 comments

Tomorrow! Join us — in person or online at 6:30pm Chicago time — for the last Picture an Astronomer public lecture with galactic archaeologist Anna Frebel (MIT), who will describe the cosmic origin of the heaviest elements. More (incl. registration) at pictureanastronomer.github.io 🔭🧪👩‍🔬

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

More interesting work from NRAO and SpaceX on reducing RFI from satellite megaconstellations! arxiv.org/abs/2502.15068

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

"DEI on campus ... was starting to act like many faculty members' direct supervisor and telling them how and what to teach" I'm sorry, what? I've never experienced this myself and I've never heard another faculty member anywhere ever complain about anything remotely like this.

submitted 9 days ago • 135 comments

I've never walked the whole way up (thank you, elevators!), but I've had the misfortune of walking all the way down, which is waaaaay less pleasant than you might think.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Undergraduate research opportunities are incredibly valuable, both for the students and for the progress of the work. And having undergraduate research experience is a massive help for grad school admission. REU cancellations harm students’ preparedness & career prospects, and slow research progress

submitted 10 days ago • 14 comments

I want to see every scientific society going into emergency mode. This is a good example of how an organization can flex its specific power in a time of great need. What else is possible?

submitted 12 days ago • 6 comments

Lots of press happening on our film screening of Small Town Universe! 📡We hope to see you there! All are welcome to this free event.🌌💫 @westvirginiau.bsky.social @wvutoday.bsky.social @wvuphysastro.bsky.social @wvuplanetarium.bsky.social

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

It's even colder today, and actively snowing, but we had 100+ people show up for a demonstration just now at Senator Capito's Morgantown office. Many in attendance say they've called or written to her office with concerns about DOGE but haven't gotten any responses. Folks feel ignored.

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

We need help finding others in the #space #astronomy community here on Bluesky! 📡🌌 Tag your favorite observatories, institutes, astronomers, astrophysicists, educators, network groups, etc below 👇

submitted 14 days ago • 6 comments

Here's the story with more information on NASA's reprieve from cutting more than 1,000 employees today.

submitted 16 days ago • 5 comments

The Democrats on the House Science Committee have set up a website to collect stories from fired federal employees, anonymously if desired democrats-science.house.gov/sciencefirings

submitted 16 days ago • 8 comments

National Science Foundation fired nearly 170 workers this morning in Zoom call. This included workers who had completed a 1-yr requisite probation and shouldn't have been included in termination but were suddenly told recently that the 1-yr should have been 2-yrs, revoking their permanent status.

submitted 16 days ago • 10 comments

I want to see the American Geophysical Union (AGU) continue its awesome work on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. This thread is a call to AGU and AGU members. 1/

submitted 16 days ago • 3 comments

An inspiring article on courageous community college leaders who are publicly organizing and standing up against DEI attacks.. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

submitted 16 days ago • 31 comments

The Planetary Society strongly opposes the sudden, indiscriminate dismissal of more than 1,000 scientists, engineers, and explorers at NASA — the largest involuntary workforce reduction since the end of the Apollo program. Read more on our stance. ⬇️

submitted 16 days ago • 19 comments

NEW: NSF confirmed that they fired 168 employees today, out of their staff of ~1,500 feds. This includes some people who'd finished their 1-year probationary periods, which were extended to 2-years last month without explanation. More to come.

submitted 16 days ago • 30 comments

1/ I am seeing a lot of comments on the slashing of NIH support along the lines of “universities should just spend their huge endowments.” I’m the last person to cheer on the institutional stratification rising endowments have contributed to. But let me explain why this is not a solution.

submitted 16 days ago • 46 comments

First results obtained by the k’niPatn k’l⌣ stk’masqt outrigger (KKO) telescope doi.org/10.3847/2041... KKO is located on the traditional territory of the Similamix People in British Columbia. The Upper Similkameen Indian Band offered the name, which means “a listening device for outer space”. 🧪🔭

submitted 17 days ago • 4 comments

ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXi... Scully: This man died from traumatic injury to his brain. Mulder: opens file Scully, how much do you know about black holes?

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

I'll be at the anti-Musk protest today, 2-4 PM, outside the Monongalia County Courthouse here in Morgantown. It'll be cold, and the roads aren't good, but the snow's dying down. Hoping we get a good turnout. There are other WV protests planned today at the same time in Charleston and Huntington.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Working at NASA is a dream for many around the country and even the world. Positions don't just get created. They are extremely rare and highly competitive. The folks that get them are _the_ best at what they do. What do they do? 1/6

submitted 18 days ago • 4 comments

🚨 SCOOP: DOGE is seeking personal taxpayer data at IRS, sources tell me. 🚨 Trump admin is pushing IRS to agree to an MOU that would give DOGE access to granular data on every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country.

submitted 18 days ago • 288 comments

On Friday night, HHS ordered CDC to take down all flu vaccine campaign materials from its website. Materials are starting to come down. For example, a campaign explaining that flu shot can reduce flu severity from "wild to mild" is now offline. Left image is from Friday, right is now Meanwhile...

submitted 18 days ago • 478 comments

Need some last-minute V-Day cards? Share these with that special someone who is your whole universe! 💘🌌📡

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

I'm reminded of the famous 1934 exchange between mathematician David Hilbert and the Nazi Minister of Science, Education & Culture, Bernhard Rust. Rust asked how the famed mathematics department at the University of Göttingen was doing. Hilbert replied that it effectively no longer existed.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Trump’s latest executive order (that was no doubt written by psychopath RFK Jr.) goes after antidepressants. As someone whose life was saved by them, you will pry my prozac from my cold dead hands. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

submitted 21 days ago • 462 comments

I have epilepsy and take a combination of antiepileptic drugs. One of the medications also happens to be widely used as a mood stabilizer. Any new restrictions put on these drugs -- and I'm hoping this won't come to pass -- could affect way more people than might be initially apparent.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

Astronomer here! If anyone needs a distraction, check out the GORGEOUS radio galaxies MeerKAT in South Africa imaged this weekend that were incidentally in my field of view. Both host supermassive black holes shooting material at relativistic speeds, hundreds of millions of light years away... 🧪🔭🎢

submitted 22 days ago • 3 comments

BREAKING On Monday, Popular Information broke the news that the NIH had frozen virtually all grant funding in violation of 2 federal court orders On Wednesday, NIH leadership distributed a memo, acknowledging that its funding freeze was illegal and directing staff to resume issuing grants.

submitted 22 days ago • 373 comments

Registration ends Feb. 15! 🔭🧪👩‍🔬 We encourage all professional astronomers/astrophysicists to attend (in person or remotely)! More at pictureanastronomer.github.io/symposium

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

From Huei Sears @starlights.bsky.social and Jessie Thwaites @jthwaites.bsky.social: Today we highlight the “Picture an Astronomer” Symposium at UChicago, created primarily by grad student Ava Polzin, with lectures and events in February/March! Registration ends 2/15.✨🔭 astrobites.org/2025/02/11/t...

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Fermilab straight up saying that they will "just follow orders" in their all-hands meeting. "We do not litigate what is right and wrong." Direct quote.

submitted 23 days ago • 5 comments