A cake to celebrate the outgoing CCAPP director, John Beacom! John is a special person who has built a warm, welcoming environment and we all love him so much. Good science happens within good communities :) He also fills the department with happy plants, so I was quite excited to make this.

I know there is a lot going on, and not all of this is new, but numerous aspects of this OMB proposal are highly alarming and would, if enacted, effectively force American scientists receiving federal funding (which is...most of them in some capacity or another) to stop engaging with the public.

This is bad. Bad for researchers. Bad for science. Bad for universities. Bad for professional associations. For example: 1. Every award would be vetted by political appointees, who could overrule peer reviewers and deny the award if it doesn't advance the president's priorities. 1/🧵

Another excellent full-paper doodle annotation. This one is beautiful. Congratulations Jayde!!

This was a great opportunity! Thank you to the organizers. If you are an early-career scientist who is interested in how astronomy is organized at a high level, I highly recommend applying next year!

My favorite fact about this image: Light from the furthest galaxies shown is 11 billion years old by the time it reaches Earth. It left those galaxies when the universe was just ⅕ its current age and ⅓ its current size.

My visualization of @desisurvey.bsky.social data is NASA's APOD! 🔭🌌 apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropi...

🌌 Major milestone for DESI: full originally planned survey footprint was completed on April 15, ahead of schedule! 47M+ galaxies & quasars mapped → the largest 3D map of the Universe ever made. Keep posted: Observations continue through 2028. More: tinyurl.com/Y5DESI #DESI

An exciting astronomy milestone was hit last night, as DESI completed its original 5-year survey mapping 40 million galaxies in the night sky! DESI continues operation, now aiming for an 8-year survey and ~60 million galaxies. 🔭🧪 #cosmology newscenter.lbl.gov/2026/04/15/d...

DESI finished its originally planned survey last night!! ..and will keep going :) I made a cake to celebrate. 🌌🔭 @desisurvey.bsky.social

New paper on the arXiv today!! We discover constellations in DESI’s galaxy map and explore their cosmological implications. Here’s a thread of the key results. 🧪🔭 Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2603.29912 Website where you can find your own galactic constellations: cmlamman.github.io/galactic-con...

So happy to finally share this: I made a long-form comic about Hawking radiation for Physics Today! Although it's a short read, I hope it sucks you in ;) physicstoday.aip.org/features/bla...

I had a joke about a light cone but you had to be there to get it.

This year's gingerbread is the Vera Rubin Observatory! @vrubinobs.bsky.social

Thread of my Christmas gingerbreads 🌌⬇️

New Publication at the Open Journal of Astrophysics: "Optimal intrinsic alignment estimators in the presence of redshift-space distortions" by Claire Lamman (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Jonathan Blazek (Ohio State U.) and Daniel J. Eisenstein (Northeastern U.) doi.org/10.33232/001...

Happy Thanksgiving :) @desisurvey.bsky.social

Another full paper annotation! I LOVE this one - be sure to read through the end. The drawings of a star trying to make a hole in the nebula cracked me up👷

Even in the middle of Columbus ❤️

Halloween is also #DarkMatterDay! 🎃🌌 Celebrate the invisible forces that shape our universe with @zacksavitsky.bsky.social, @clairelamman.bsky.social, and @sanjanacurtis.bsky.social. Studying the origins, elements, and mysteries of the cosmos — connects us all: youtu.be/xbrom_qFwsA #scicomm 💫

Congratulations to the 2025 winners of the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications given by @nationalacademies.org in partnership with @schmidtsciences.bsky.social ! Learn more about the winners: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/10... #scicomm

Another full paper annotation, done in TWO languages!! Really nice job @astroaure.bsky.social !

Are you from one of these states? Then we need your help to save American science! The Senate Appropriations Committee will be marking up the President's Budget Request for science on Wednesday. People have been saying the proposed cuts "decimated" US science, but that's wrong: they are apocalyptic

Happy 4th! I made a patriotic pie, celebrating America's leadership in space sciences (historically).

Someone please talk me out of this impulse buy so I can view the @vrubinobs.bsky.social images.

My article was just published! A few people have already told me how much they appreciate seeing a change from the local narrative. Major kudos to the McClintock Letters organizers for a well-coordinated and impactful program. www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/2025/06/13/c...

This is an excellent high-impact initiative! All scientists should consider sharing their stories in hometown papers.

Just finished 22nd grade :)

Science news outlets need cartoons.

Every single one of you reading this have benefitted from publicly funded science in a thousand ways. This cannot be the end. Carl Sagan called science a "candle in the dark." It is up to all of us to make sure that candle does not go out.

🚨 DESI High is back! 🚀🌌 High school students in Mexico & Spain recently explored the universe using real data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. 🔭💻

I did it!

Friends, I am defending tomorrow!! Anyone is welcome to watch the public talk, which will be streamed here at 1pm EST (May 2): youtube.com/live/Kybv2Zs...

A short, fun video about my science communication. I'm considering using only edible chalkboards in the future...

Week 32:

I have a paper out today! I'll be honest, this one is really aimed at a handful of people in my field. But I did manage to make a paper annotation that a wider audience might enjoy (linked in the arXiv comments section). arxiv.org/abs/2504.16076

Week 30: I think my defense will be a natural end to these weekly jokes. So... only 2 more left!!

Free idea: a website where you enter the name of your disease/injury/condition/procedure and get shirts, stickers, signs, etc. with “NIH grant number X saved my life.”

Fantastic time discussing whether the latest blockbuster cosmology results really do show that Dark Energy is evolving! Brilliant explanations from @clairelamman.bsky.social , @tamarastro.bsky.social and @justshaun.bsky.social Check it out! Full talk: youtu.be/reNicLW2vpY?... 🧪⚛️

DESI's DR2 BAO results are out!! TL;DR... 1/n @desisurvey.bsky.social

My favorite article I've read covering the DESI results. Well written and a great glimpse into the human side :) www.scientificamerican.com/article/froz...

LCDM doesn't seem that robust anymore. Is it a problem with the model? Is it a problem with the data? Why does LCDM seem to break in this funny degeneration precisely crossing LCDM? Interesting times ahead!! Looking forward to new @desisurvey.bsky.social releases. Credit: @clairelamman.bsky.social

DESI's DR2 BAO results are out!! TL;DR... 1/n @desisurvey.bsky.social

Week 24: #ParkerSolarProbe

Submissions are being accepted until March 31 for the awards for excellence in science communication given by @nationalacademies.org in partnership with @schmidtsciences.bsky.social which honor science communicators, journalists, and researchers. Apply now: www.nationalacademies.org/awards/excel...

This is devastating. I am a scientist because of the REU program. It gave me a chance to experience what it was like to be a researcher, and to show myself and others that I was good at it!

DESI is on bluesky now!! Follow to get the latest on dark energy and making the largest map of the Universe 🔭🧪

Professors please pull up a chair. I’ve been talking to my classes about what has been going on. I explained indirect costs to them. I talked to them about what a probationary employee is in the government. At the end of class they asked if we could talk about it more. (1/)

If you’re in the US and you’d like to know what projects and vital services federal grants currently fund in your state, you can search here: www.usaspending.gov And you can find the contact information for your elected representatives here: www.usa.gov/elected-offi... They need to hear from you.