2025 marks the end of three decades of work in history of physics at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. We talked to Alex Blum, who led the 7-year Final Theory history research group there, about what they learned, how they worked, and how it can be a model for future #histsci.

2025 marks the end of three decades of work in history of physics at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. We talked to Alex Blum, who led the 7-year Final Theory history research group there, about what they learned, how they worked, and how it can be a model for future #histsci.

Today's #histSTM lunchtime read: @aip.bsky.social's Anna Doel interviews @mattshindell.bsky.social (Curator of Planetary Sci. & @historyscience.bsky.social secretary) about the National Air & Space Museum's recent renovation. #histtech #museums #NASM 🗃️📜🚀🔭👩‍🚀 #Smithsonian #SpaceHistory #FuturesInSpace

I see Peter Baker and the Times are at the bold vanguard of political analysis once again.

Get in, losers. We're posting John Berkey spaceships.

Kuhn's preoccupation is itself interesting here. This is deep into the "shut up and calculate" era of quantum physics, but the '60s also saw an eruption of interest in interrogating how physics had handled quantum foundations; this is the emergence of the history-and-philosophy approach.

Chad has what (if I may strategically reinterpret his frustration) is a great discussion of why oral history is never a one-and-done affair. If you go broad, you fail to go deep; if you go deep, you'll miss something important. Really, it's best to just be talking about history all the time.

The American Institute of Physics @aip.bsky.social wants to preserve the human stories behind the current dramatic shifts in science policy and funding. If you work in physical science and want to contribute, anonymously or with attribution, visit this site. 🧪🔭 www.aip.org/library/ex-l...

Often the news happens so quickly that there's little time for it, so we took a step back to talk about the stories of the researchers who have been fighting back against the Trump administration's assault on science. w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social and @heidiledford.bsky.social

Fun trivia: this National Bureau of Standards Director Allen Astin is the father of the actor John Astin who played Gomez Addams in the Addams Family.

From Joe Martin (@randomjetship.bsky.social) and @physicstoday.bsky.social Early in the Eisenhower admin, pressure over a study of a commercial battery additive led to the firing of the Nat'l Bureau of Standards director. The scientific community rallied and got him reinstated. Different times.

This one takes the cake

Despite working in a time of tense diplomatic relations, proxy wars, and budget cuts, many US and Soviet scientists collaborated productively during the 1970s and 1980s, writes Anna Doel. Prior exchanges help better understand the challenges to scientific cooperation today. https://bit.ly/4neNFWQ

New History & Philosophy of Physics network in Boston! Join us: open to locals and visitors. Check out the inaugural colloquium program & sign up to our mailing list and register for the inaugural lecture given by Peter Galison: www.bu.edu/cphs/boston-... #philsci #histsci #philsky

Good to see the New York Times has a lengthy obituary for Margaret Rossiter

Rai Weiss, a key figure behind the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), has died. Look to him if you want a good example of keeping the scientific faith and playing the long game.

So grateful to do this Q&A with @williamthomas.bsky.social @aip.bsky.social on being a Chinese scientist in the US and the importance of history to my work, esp. in this moment. Read the full interview, also ft. @mcnees.bsky.social, in AIP's History Newsletter: aip.brightspotcdn.com/89/11/30815e...

We also had a second Trimble lecture at the Early Career Conference in Brazil, and here it is! Olival Freire (Universidade Federal da Bahia & CNPq) discusses the history of debates over quantum foundations and the developments that led to work in areas such as quantum gravity and quantum computing.

Many thanks to Bob and @yangyangcheng.bsky.social for discussing why they value physics history. Unexpectedly, for both, their interest was sparked by the ongoing presence of the Manhattan Project around them, in Oak Ridge and Chicago, respectively. aip.brightspotcdn.com/89/11/30815e...

Important reporting from Paul Voosen @voosen.me in Science on how internal spending plans show the administration is pursuing permanent cuts at NOAA in spite of enacted appropriations and signaled congressional support for NOAA programs

At our Early Career Conference in Brazil, Gisela Mateos (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) presented the fourth AIP Lyne Starling Trimble lecture of 2025 -- an engaging look at the global hype machine surrounding nuclear technology in the Cold War era ... plus, a bus adventure! #histSTM

I don’t think I had fully metabolized the news that CHICAGO is pausing PhD admissions in HISTORY OF SCIENCE? www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

AIP historian @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social has a new article out in @physicstoday.bsky.social looking at a US-Soviet collaboration in the 1960s to combine observations of radio telescopes across the globe, a powerful early initiative in very long baseline interferometry.

In this week's history newsletter from AIP, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights the new article by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social in Isis, digging into the rise and fall of an early proposal to site a @ligo.org detector in Maine's Blueberry Barrens.

Seeking science journalists: @quantamagazine.bsky.social is hiring a physics editor! A rare opportunity to join this great team and lead coverage of this foundational vertical. Please reach out with any questions and share widely simonsfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/simons...

The 2025 AIP Early Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences is now behind us. Many thanks to our hosts at the Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil. We have a lot of #histsci talent and bonhomie carrying our field into the future. More info: www.aip.org/history/prog...

@naomioreskes.bsky.social's brilliant @rigb.org lecture: how military secrecy delayed plate tectonic theory for 3 decades - a narrative that remains ever relevant to science today... ⚒️ 🧪 #histsci #skystorians #science #academicsky #STS #geoscience @miguelohn.bsky.social

Margaret Rossiter, whose #histsci scholarship revealed structural inequalities affecting #WomenInSTEM, has passed away. Dr. Rossiter was co-founder of @historyscience.bsky.social’s Women’s Caucus & namesake of a prize honoring work on the history of women in science. May her memory be a blessing.

We're heading to Salvador, Brazil, for the Sixth AIP Early-Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences. This #histsci meeting gathers young scholars from the world over to exchange work and build a supportive global community. Check out what folks are working on these days:

The timing - the 350th anniversary of the Royal Observatory and completion of Lord Ree's three decades - but it would have been nice to have done the announcement in March, 350 years after Flamsteed's appointment (though the role has changed... um... a bit) #histSTM

About time, you might say! BBC News - UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Scientists have asked the NSF to reconsider plans to terminate the lease for its only Antarctic research icebreaker, the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer. eos.org/research-and...

I've long been a fanboy of the Cambridge HPS / National Maritime Museum Board of Longitude project. It recovered a rich institutional history from a heavily mythologized narrative and digitized the board's papers too. Its capstone book is an excellent contribution to #histSTM & #scipol studies.

One of those officials is Steve Volz, longtime head of its satellite division.

Physicists and historians of physics: Help @aip.bsky.social build its world-leading photo collection!

I wonder what precipitated this www.nasa.gov/news-release...

Oh hey, I didn't realize there was a new John Trump story afoot www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/p...

To mark the completion of the Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social and the 97th anniversary of Vera Rubin's birth, we are spotlighting a 1989 interview with her conducted by Alan Lightman. #histsci The full interview is available in AIP's collections here: repository.aip.org/rubin-vera-1...

80 years ago today at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory—one day after the Trinity test—Chief Physicist Leo Szilard signed and circulated a petition to President Truman urging him to weigh all the “moral responsibilities” before deciding whether to use atomic bombs to attack Japan.

I haven't had time to write up anything new for the test anniversary (SUPER busy), but here are some of my previous writings on Trinity that I think I still agree with! 1. Trinity at 70: "Now we're all sons of bitches." blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2015/07/17/n...

A nice remembrance of my late colleague John Stachel ⚛️

80 years ago this morning—at 5:29 AM (Mountain War Time)—about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, the nuclear age began with a big bang. Contrary to widespread assumptions, the area surrounding the remote Trinity test site was not uninhabited, and the fallout did not drift away harmlessly.

We’re hiring! Join AIP’s research team as an Archives Fellow or Intern to help highlight women’s contributions to the physical sciences. Great part time opportunities for grad students. Apply here: - Fellow: workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau... - Intern: workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

Michel Janssen remembers historian-philosopher-physicist John Stachel, the founding editor of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, who passed away on May 9. #HPS

Another illuminating look at the history of women in the physical sciences from Joanna Behrman, a wonderful former colleague on the AIP history team. #histsci #womeninSTEM

By Benjamin Henry from our library & archives team, a look at the ALSOS mission that investigated the Nazi atomic program, from the perspective of its photographer.

Today, *every* living prior leader of NASA's science directorate have released a joint letter condemning the proposed cuts to NASA science. These individuals every administration from Reagan to Biden, and all believe these cuts are insanely destructive: www.planetary.org/press-releas...

For those who missed it over the 4th, Women in the History of Quantum Physics is a great example of what a multi-author effort can accomplish. Available now from Cambridge UP www.cambridge.org/us/universit...