Thoroughly enjoyed #TheMandalorianAndGrogu and not just for the airco in the cinema. Or the tiny engineers.

Reached a slightly strange point where due to grants ending my group is much smaller than it has been for a while. It is...odd! I have LOVED having a big vibrant group. But it is also, I think, good? There is thinking and tinkering time... 👀. #academia #midcareerthings #preparestobreakthings

Also on arXiv today, a very cool paper led by Melissa Mendes and the TU Darmstadt team on improved dense matter equation of state constraints using our NICER mass-radius measurements. #highenergyastro #densematter 🔭🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2605.18560

New group paper! Led by about-to-defend PhD student Bas Dorsman. #highenergyastro #pulsar🔭🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2605.18731

So the Super Mario Galaxy movie is indeed quite 😬 but the kids enjoyed it and now I really want to break out the Wii again to play it.

Als Marokkaanse jongeren overal brand zouden stichten, hulpverleners aanvallen en buurten terroriseren, was allang een integratiecrisis uitgeroepen. De Kamer had spoeddebatten gehouden, talkshows waren dagenlang hysterisch geweest en politici hadden gepleit voor uitzetting & collectieve bestraffing.

Dit is het gevolg van onafgebroken ophitsen door extreemrechtse groeperingen. Crimineel gedrag dat je niet af kan doen met zogenaamd ‘legitieme zorgen’. Het is een directe ondermijning van onze democratie. En bovendien levensgevaarlijk. nos.nl/artikel/2614...

Watching a bunch of teenagers attempting to self organise one thing for a school trip.

Strong advisory to wipe and recycle your old laptops while you still remember your passwords and not leave it 18 years.

Omg Grian's Hermitcraft telescope what in the name of bejeezus is going on. [My kids have this on and I am howling at the screen]

Once again failing at networking due to my not being on linkedin and them not being on bluesky.

Being a very bad Dutch person by spending Kings Day in London... thanks to UCL Astrophysics for hosting me!

“Conferences were much more exciting as a young, early-career researcher, when every contact felt like an instant friend and every new city, a gift” My most recent blog post on the effect of age on travel perceptions occamstypewriter.org/mindthegap/2...

Spring glow. #CopperBeech 🌳☀️🍃

Look what was waiting for me when I got home @chanda.blacksky.app ! New books new books new books!!

Well this is just incredibly sad. She was a beautiful 🐨 😭 Keeping our fingers crossed that her joey stays healthy. www.rtvutrecht.nl/nieuws/40345...

Spring green roof maintenance is done! Lots of weeds to haul out this time (mostly grass and some weird spreading thing with a pondweed vibe). Maybe because I'm a bit late with it?

Finding out that you actually can't apply for a grant that would have taken a good chunk out of your summer to write.

Words to live by, courtesy of @apsphysics.bsky.social badge tags.

Finally submitted a paper that we've been puttering about on for 4 years. 🐌

Dutch Family Milestone as Kid the Youngest is finally tall enough to steal my bike to get to school when her own has a flat tyre.

No shade to the OP for admitting this, but it shocks me that people my age don’t know this. You fundamentally cannot understand how the world functions, how power works, if you don’t know history.

Does it count as hunting if your cat steals a mouse from another cat? #MightyPredatorScam

Happy Leland Melvin day to all who celebrate. 💚

NASA FY 2027 Budget Request from OMB Pages 67-69 www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u... #NASA

This is fabulous! 💃

A reminder that the Artemis missions are fully built on international collaboration in huge ways. This is not just the US going to the moon!

I guess we are staying up? Sleep is for the weak. #artemis

If all goes according to plan, in a few hours, a crew of astronauts will begin a journey that will take them on a loop around the moon. Here's a video that NASA put together to help people visualize the journey through space, first orbiting the earth before looping around the moon and flying home 🔭

🥰 Stellen van gelijk geslacht om middernacht getrouwd bij 25-jarig jubileum homohuwelijk - nos.nl/l/2608609

OK HANG ON A SECOND EGYPT IS NOT CALLED ANYTHING EVEN REMOTELY SOUNDING LIKE EGYPT IN ARABIC????? 🤯🤯🤯 (I am so enjoying learning this language but flip how did I not know this before?? I am such an ignoramus!)

Can I put this in a grant proposal to summarize "state of the art"? In the hope that the ear worm carries me through?

Packing up the office for our impending institute move (for renovation). Lego collection dismantled and packed. See you on the other side Women of NASA 😭

Very nice to see this paper, on dense matter Equation of State informed pulse profile modelling of neutron stars - led by Mariska Hoogkamer and Nathan Rutherford - published as an Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review D. #highenergyastro 🔭⚛️🧪 journals.aps.org/prd/abstract...

How can there be bundles of cat hair trapped under the keys of my keyboard. HOW DOES HE DO IT?

"Do you really need *that* many snacks to do science?" says,Kid the Youngest, watching the Skittles scene in #ProjectHailMary Oh sweet child, you do not know the half of it.

Mooi deeltjes nieuws om te delen: Natuurkundigen hebben met de deeltjesversneller van CERN een ongrijpbaar deeltje waargenomen: een zwaardere, ‘charmante’ variant van het proton. Daar is decennialang naar gezocht. www.newscientist.nl/nieuws/cern-...:

Oil = War. Green = Peace. De oorlog van Trump en Netanyahu in Iran is dodelijk. Terwijl mensen worden gebombardeerd, verdienen oliemaatschappijen zoals Shell miljarden extra door hogere olie- en gasprijzen. De fossiele industrie profiteert opnieuw van oorlog en onze afhankelijkheid van olie en gas.

Very happy to be an #Utrecht resident this morning! 💚❤️

Local elections here in the Netherlands today #gemeenteraadsverkiezingen! Which means that for once still-British-husband-with-permanent-residence can also vote. Last night we broke out the Stemwijzer and Kieskompas to check which party we should vote for! Always super helpful.

Miss you, Dad. 20 years on and I'm still stuck with your ludicrous sense of humour xx

Happy "Goslings on the bike path" season to all who celebrate.

Flip. So many thoughts on this.

Still chortling after seeing @daraobriain.bsky.social at Carré last night. Do wish I had bought tickets for the Dutch colleagues who think I talk too fast though. I am the non electric Omafiets to his Max Verstappen 😅

President Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for an airstrike that hit an Iranian elementary school on February 28, killings scores of children. An analysis by The New York Times indicates that the school was most likely hit by an American airstrike. Follow live updates.

Ja, waarom? De korte versie: boeren in intensieve landbouw kunnen alleen overleven door steeds verder op te schalen. Dus pakken ze de sloten erbij. Desnoods illegaal en ten koste van biodiversiteit. Mooie illustratie van @laurensvangurp.bsky.social VK (hoewel: realiteit is meer plaatje 2).

Kabinetsplannen om vaderschapsverlof te versoberen 'stap terug voor gendergelijkheid' - nos.nl/l/2605267

I have now identified more than 100 bloody buckets just to be allowed to read journal papers in SciX.

ai:du This makes me so angry and sad. 😡😢