Just when you think she's done, she gets pulled back in! @lizcookkc.bsky.social: always the finest words for your enjoyment!

Conventional wisdom says motherhood should wait for tenure as before you land a permanent post, #academia is just not that family friendly🙁 @carersinstemm.bsky.social are calling for change and to celebrate their new report, a Saturday🧵on parenting & academia! 1/9 👩‍🔬🧪🔭⚛️ ℹ️: carersinstemm.co.uk

If you can't recognize how dystopian this headline is, I don't think I can help you.

A State Department employee shared with PBS News an image from inside the department. The image includes a piece of paper taped to a mirror with the words, "Colleagues, if you remain: RESIST FASCISM. Remember the oath you vowed to uphold."

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.

In honor of Hubble Space Telescope's 35th launch day, I have finally started to put together the LEGO Discovery+ HST set. Hubble is complete but Discovery has run over schedule.

Astronomers will keep pointing out to folks that the Roman telescope is *already built* and is being prepped for launch *next year* and I know we live in a stupid timeline but cancelling Roman at this point would be SO STUPID.

🚀🚀

Agreed but with one change: "No government...should dictate what *universities can teach..." Public universities are the backbone of the American higher education system. All universities need to stand together private or public in fighting authoritarianism and anti-intellectualism.

HST proposals this year really have a certain last call at the bar feel.

My friend @trayford.bsky.social does amazing work on sonification, where we convert visual data into audio information which allows for better accessibility of astronomy. It also lets us make new insights into the data that might not be as obvious in the visual medium.

Proud of my fellow Kansas Citians!

…

It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office. Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc. Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

I escaped poverty because I am a scientist. And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation. A 🧵:

"The idea that they can somehow obliterate these sources is dead wrong — scientists in general and astronomers in particular are not going to take these threats lying down" You cannot and will not make us forget Vera Rubin's legacy. 🔭 🧪

And as usual with #ESAEuclid, both the full scene of NGC 6505 and its environment and background are visible in the same image, as well as the Einstein Ring in the center. But you have to zoom in! Images in our blogpost www.euclid-ec.org/einstein-rin... and at ESA www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭

Here’s a story with some numbers. The proposed cuts are unfathomable: a 60% reduction to NSF would be the end of American science as we know it.

Well I'm pretty sure every single scientific paper or grant proposal regardless of topic is going to include a good number of these words.

This is great news! Keep up the fight! A lot of these EOs are illegal, and need to be beaten in court.

Idgaf I’m still fighting for guaranteed healthcare. Aspiration is the answer. Not just “we’re not the bad guys.” We need something more meaningful than that. I want a future worth fighting for. They have no vision. We do. Lean into our strengths and knock them out. 👊🏽

OpenAI right now

Yes, this administration is dangerous and cruel, but they are also shockingly dim and incompetent. Opportunities are everywhere. Make everything as hard as possible. Resist every demand. Refuse entry without a warrant. Don’t take the buyout. Their problem solving skills are 📉

This is terrifying and infuriating. First of all, the whole situation was entirely avoidable and never had to happen. Secondly, shame on the NSF for not resisting this order in the first place and not reinstating the funding after the judicial stay and rescindment of the memo causing this chaos.

For those who are able and willing to make a big move over to Europe. Yes, there's lots of problems over here too but it's at least better than having an unstable and unpredictable situation in the US.

I still can't wrap my head around the idea that America has been the most scientifically advanced and innovative nation on Earth for several decades and we may throw it all away in favor of the right to say the R word in public and to belittle racial and ethnic minorities without fear of reprisal.

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

I didn't expect to wake up to news that all my friends and colleagues back in the US have had their funding cut off in an instant.

Trump has deployed active military to help round up migrants and put them into detention camps. The military forced us out of our homes at gunpoint in 1942 because we were considered possibly disloyal Americans. They sent us to internment camps for four years. History is repeating. Pay attention.

HBO has declined to renew “Sesame Street” for new episodes. The series that’s been teaching generations of little kids since 1969 now has no studio. Please consider donating to Sesame Workshop to ensure the residents of 123 Sesame Street are still around to teach kids of all needs and backgrounds.

I have had a very similar experience since moving to the UK. It's so relieving to not have to worry about these sorts of things all the time. Even if they aren't things you actively think about, they're always there in the background.

The ICG is here on Bluesky! We're a bunch of cool kids doing cool science!! 🔭

The press are not supposed to be friends with the politicians that they are covering. Especially with a politician notoriously antagonistic to both journalists and the people at large as Trump.

this rules 🇳🇿 #nzpol

Earnest post, but: a thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism. We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive

I have been asked so much about what I think is going to happen as an American living in Europe. The US election has world-reaching impacts. To all my fellow Americans living back home, vote like the world is depending on you. Because it is.

This this THIS

After searching and finding no satisfying answers I figure I'll just ask the community. Is there any update on the timeline for Chandra Cycle 26 results? I assume they're stalling due to the budget issues. 🔭

Everything is like this now. Everything.

She really said, “Retire, bitch.” (The “bitch” isn’t stated but is strongly implied.”

While JWST has rightfully received a ton of recent attention, Hubble is still performing extremely well & has capabilities that JWST doesn’t. And yet, budget reductions are putting the mission at risk of significant descoping. This is really sad to see, given how successful Hubble has been and is. 🧪

It's increasingly clear that the people who make generative AI don't like films, don't like books, don't like art of any kind, and don't understand why anyone else does.

NASA Town Hall, which I thought would be more contentious. NASA plans to reduce the operational budget for Hubble and Chandra. No decisions yet, there will be a virtual town hall in a few months. Want to keep both Hubble and Chandra operational — but need to find a cheaper way to run them. #AAS244

Similar self-destructive policies are being used at my former university. Everything is about how much money we can eke out of the students in a program and the only important metric is how many tuition-paying students you can get. Naturally, the physics program is suffering for this.

This absolutely tracks. There are far too many Davids in Astronomy. We need to grow off the shackles of the Dave tyrannical rule! 🔭

Nora's awesome and she does amazing science!🔭

Admin support is so important and so lacking now. Universities are filled with administrators touting “funovation”, or the Quidditch team, or the AI sandwich club, but when you need to print out an exam or guide a student through the Title IX process? That’s on you.

Sad news: Professor Peter Higgs died on Monday 8 April. He passed away peacefully at home following a short illness. 🧪🔭⚛️ He was a true gentleman and utter gem in the world of Physics.