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

what's wild about the Marsden Fund (NZ's primary grant for basic science) is that after a two-step review, the payline is ~10% this is a comparable success rate at NIH for the R01, the standard biomedical 'large grant' in the states....except an R01 is ~5-10 times larger than a Marsden

submitted 17 hours ago • 1 comment

Turned 2.5 kg of these into passata this afternoon. Ripening rate is definitely slowing right down

submitted 18 hours ago • 4 comments

And contact tracing to shut down the spread is off and running again.

submitted 19 hours ago • 2 comments

New estimate from Space-Track for K482 reentry window: 0430 to 0630 UTC. (It is now 0320 UTC)

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

#NZ 🇳🇿 Expert Reaction to our new Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor and Council www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/05/07/n...

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

We have just posted a new #faculty position in Active Tectonics and Geomorphology. The position is continuing (NZ equivalent of tenure) at Lecturer/Senior Lecturer (Assistant/Associate Prof). Come join us! #geology #tectonics #geomorphology jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

We are looking to hire TWO new #faculty positions in Engineering Geology. Come join us in spectacular New Zealand. #geology #hazards #earthmaterials #geomorphology #geoscience #jobs jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

More like 20-25% depending on domain/program. On track for ~10% selection rate.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

How did we lose the ability to return to the Moon after Apollo? Casey Dreier talks with sociologist Janet Vertesi, who studies NASA mission teams, to explore how institutional knowledge gets lost—and what that means for the future of space exploration. Listen here: www.planetary.org/planetary-ra...

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

Over on the space side of things, many abstracts related to past DEI-related talks at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference have been removed in recent days from the archival conference websites. Asked for an explanation, USRA (the conference organizer) told me it had "no answers."

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

It turns out that four weeks of this means there is more data but does not make things any better

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

Attention South Island-based experts looking for media training! There are still a handful of spots in our 5-6 June Chch workshop (including at least one fees-free space). We've extended the deadline to apply, and applications this week are likely to be accepted. smc.nz/science-media-savvy/#apply

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

📢 ++ LAST DAYS TO SEND YOUR ABSTRACT TO THE EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025! ++ Join us at the Finlandia Hall Helsinki on 7–12 September 2025, submit your abstract now! 🗓️ Deadline: 7 May 2025 👉 More info: europlanet.org/epsc-dps-joi...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

#PDC2025 will be streaming at www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIz_... , for anyone wanting to watch it who is not registered as a participant.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Herding hedgehogs and Zen gardens -- a small meditation on elegance and beauty in physics excursionset.com/blog/2025/05...

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Every now again it’s useful to repeat advice about accessing papers that are behind a paywall that excludes you. Email the author. My estimate is that 90% of academics are so thrilled that a living, breathing, possibly even reading, person shows interest that they will swiftly send you a copy.

submitted 8 days ago • 49 comments

One of my favorite images from the Cassini era. H/T to John Spencer, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO for reminding me of it. live.staticflickr.com/6193/6209087...

submitted 7 days ago • 4 comments

Ata mārie, Sunday: ✅ chop 2.4 kg of cherry tomatoes ✅ chop rest of ingredients for tomato soup concentrate ✅ make blueberry pancakes ✅ drink tea ⬜ harvest remaining cherry tomatoes

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

"Satellites in low-Earth orbit eventually have to come down, and companies rely on the upper atmosphere to act as a waste incinerator. That’s exposed a blind spot in environmental laws: They only deal with pollution from human activities near Earth’s surface." www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

OMG day star

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Just got warned that the new "Voice Isolation" feature in Teams, if turned on and trained on a male voice, will filter out all the women in the room, while still allowing the men in the room to be heard online. clears throat IF YOU USE A BIASED TRAINING SET, YOUR TECHNOLOGY WILL BE BIASED.

submitted 10 days ago • 34 comments

Vesta is the 2nd largest asteroid and the parent body to many asteroid family members and meteorites that made their way to Earth. It was the target of NASA's Dawn mission, which orbited it for 14 months in 2011-2012. It's a leftover from the era of planet formation. But what kind of leftover? 1/7

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

'Hubble’s measurements were affected by serious errors...on the other hand, Leavitt’s first measurements...were already extremely accurate and agree very well with modern data." Turns out an under-heralded woman's 1912 study that helped reveal the vast, growing cosmos around us aged pretty well.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

The K2-18b saga deepens with a great new paper out today by @luiswel.bsky.social (arxiv.org/abs/2504.21788). Turns out hydrocarbons can explain K2-18b's new JWST MIRI spectrum without the need to invoke DMS or DMDS as biosignatures. Read on to find out more! 🧵 #Exoplanet 🔭🪐

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Garden small for happiness, not for sustenance

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers Reflections I wish someone had shared with me early in my research career. predirections.substack.com/p/what-i-wis...

submitted 12 days ago • 6 comments

Have you seen a dandelion today? Now you have.

submitted 11 days ago • 222 comments

Not a typical 48hrs for Canterbury 🌧️ North to south average May rainfall: Blenheim Airport 67.2mm Christchurch airport 58.4mm Ashburton 82mm Timaru 41.7mm Also, 80.2mm at Christchurch airport was its 4th wettest 9am-9am with records back to 1943!

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Māori scholar Mākereti Papakura formally matriculated to Oxford University in 1927 to read Anthropology at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Tragically, Mākereti died in 1930, just weeks before she was due to present her thesis.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

First week of on-sky engineering tests with the huge LSST Camera: ✅ From continuing to fine tune our complex systems and improve data quality, to successfully testing mechanical systems like the camera filter changer, we’re getting ever closer to being ready to #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭 🧪 🧵

submitted 13 days ago • 4 comments

Tauhou arrival pattern: land on highest shrubs (ngutu kākā, young kōwhai, rhodo), move down onto salvia, carmichaelia; eat insects, then: zoom away 🌱🇳🇿

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments