In recent months, I've lost a dear cousin, watched friends lose parents, lost an old friend from graduate school, and spent a lot of time with beloved friends who are much older than I. So I've been pondering mortality a bit, and so a bit of writing emerges. wp.me/p19G0g-YH

Quasar time at Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory!

Talking soon at Carlton Observatory/Evergreen Aviation Museum -- the IMAX screen is HUGE!

A quick hop from the PNW to Chicago for a long ago arranged talk for Mensa -- Wormholes and Bending Spacetime!

On a roadtrip during the image release party today... LOOK AT THESE IMAGES! WOWZERS!!!!

I've been sitting on this bit of science writing for a couple of weeks now, just overwhelmed by... <waves vaguely at the world> My former PhD student (Lindsay DeMarchi) pushed me out of my infinite loop. wp.me/p19G0g-Yq

📢 LISA News! 📢 Today at the #ParisAirShow, ESA and OHB System AG have signed their agreement to build LISA!

Overlap map of my location, auroral oval, and cloud cover.

Holy frap! Glacier catstrophically collapsed yesterday in Switzerland, burying the village of Blatten. Caught on video. Shifting temperatures are melting *permafrost*, which releases rocks and boulders, triggering the glacier collapse. www.npr.org/2025/05/29/g...

Not worried about cuts to the federal science program? It touches every life, every day, in ways we don't think about. Make no mistake -- the decimation of the federal science program impacts a long list from food safety, forecasts, disaster readiness... things that protect Every. Single. Person.

We have the "Last Box" from our move to Chicago, so used it as Last Box again! Movers are here, we'll be at Clarkson in New York by the end of the week!

Great sun halo over Chicago this morning! Bright enough to reflect in the Bean! #lookUp

Talk at #APSSummit25 is in the bag! In the special workshop by the Precision Measurement Topical Group called "New Methods to Detect Gravitational Waves." I would say @lisacommunity.bsky.social is the most "traditional" method so far -- been hearing about all kinds of cool new things!

I'm in Anaheim for the Global Physics Summit! #APSSummit25 @apsphysics.bsky.social

Happy Women's Day! In my life I have been mentored, trained, and guided by brilliant and talented women, and I am thankful they each took me under their wing. I have too many colleagues and students to list, but I stand to honor all of you. Continue to be who and how you all are. #WomensDay2025

#Project2025 specifically calls for #NOAA to be “dismantled,” “downsized,” and “eliminated,” recommending the privatization of its essential functions. Frank Schwing, Science Network member and retired federal scientist, explains how your community’s safety and prosperity rely on NOAA. #ProtectNOAA

Great sun halo over Chicagoland this morning. Take a break briefly from the drama of the world, for yourself, and bask is the solace of the sky. #lookUp

This is an excellent and brief explanation of what the F&A costs in grants from federal agencies are used for -- worth the few minutes it takes to watch. youtu.be/yxTDlFvkvio?...

February 15, 2025

It may feel weird or somehow improper to talk about your art or your writing, but we need it. It can’t be wall-to-wall nightmare all the time. Art is both counterweight and context. It’s escape and enlightenment and a mirror of our own exasperation. We need it. We NEED it. Keep showing us.

Sunrise in Aspen today. Conference ending today, then home to Chicago. #lookUp

Today it was announced that Michelle will be the next President of Clarkson University in New York! She will be the first female president in their 128 year history. We'll both be joining Clarkson soon! clarkson.edu/news-events/...

Do you need a little Orion in the Rockies tonight? Yes you do. Just for a moment, take solace in the Cosmos. #lookUp

There are REASONS to fund things we fund as a society. It may seem indulgent to do science when facing dumpster fires, but there are reasons to do it, not the least of which is that SCIENCE teaches us how to make the most unbiased and informed decisions we can for the greater good. wp.me/p19G0g-XZ

The president can act as unpresidential as he likes, but he cannot erase history, nor the contributions of Black people to history. He also cannot stop us from celebrating the tradition of #BlackHistoryMonth . Lift up, celebrate. Here are good starts. #BHM

This is clearly illegal; Congress has the power of the purse and the laws of the United States - including funding programs - are binding on all Americans, not simply the ones who were in office when those laws were passed. But.. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Communicate with your members of Congress. Contact both your senators and the Congressperson in your district -- about the "pause" in federal research, but regularly about the national importance of research. Do it REGULARLY. Your professional societies (like the AAS, APS, AAAS, AAPT) can help.

For those who are scientists, engineers, and educators: it is important to talk to everyone about WHAT your research funding goes to (salaries, buying materials and equipment from companies, etc). Also what does your research DELIVER -- new knowledge, a technically trained workforce, etc.

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.

On my way to visit the Giant Magellan Telescope, under construction in Chile. Sunrise and crescent Moon flying into Santiago this morning. The sky is a wonder in many dimensions.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde Hero.

Cosmos was such a formative part of my childhood. This bit lives rent free in my head.

It's -1 F on the outskirts of Chicago right now, and there's a frost bloom growing on my sliding glass door.

Y'all @esa.int mission Gaia was truly the lil' engine that could. It operated for 10+ years, unlocking both the nearby galaxy all the way to billions stars across the Milky Way. A triumph of investing in necessary, unglamorous measurements that touch all areas of galactic astronomy. #AAS245 🔭🧪

Best quote ever: "Everybody needs more photons!"-Martin Weisskopf 🙂 #AAS245

Hey! @lisacommunity.bsky.social is here on Bluesky! If you are here at #AAS245, come talk to us about LISA at the NASA booth! Get your own selfie in the full size replica of the real LISA telescope!

Orion over #AAS245 tonight.

Sponsors often have special hotel keys printed for the meeting. I always keep them -- awesome bookmarks, and if you sacrifice one you can punch great looking guitar picks out of them! #AAS245

My talk (as part of our LISA workshop) was today, where I chattered on about the awesome science that can be done with LISA and other astronomical data! #AAS245

Greetings from #AAS245, Bluesky! Astronomers are gathering in National Harbor this week for our annual meeting. I'll try to nerd some stuff at y'all. Colorful carpets here in the convention space!

Sun halo as I'm heading out of Chicagoland this morning! #lookUp

This is Emmy, my little pet black hole I got for Christmas. She's still a bit nervous about coming out of her box. Based on her event horizon size, she's about 2.25 the mass of Earth! She's so little!

Interesting... the image projection backward through my glasses look like aurorae...

Quarter break, so I can binge watch all 5 seasons of Babylon 5. I have an infinite number of favorite scenes, but should you need convincing that @straczynski.bsky.social is a writing genius, I offer Londo's assessment of the Hokey Pokey. Still utterly brilliant! youtu.be/vr8tOa_En7A?...

Winter sunsets in Chicagoland. Amirite? #lookUp

"A Christmas Carol" published #OTD in 1843. From Stave I: "Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Saw someone upbraiding someone else for having a hobby while the world is on fire, and, my friends: 1. The world is ever on fire, this is today's conflagration; 2. If you don't find time for rest and joy the fire will consume you; 3. Don't let people shame you for being an entire human.

This cool map by @pheebely visualizes the elevation profile of the moon using only circles. Since there is no sea level to use as a baseline, NASA established a reference sphere of the lunar radius of 1737km. That's the lunar baseline for the elevation profile. Pretty interesting, ey?

Working through the copy-editors changes on a manuscript this morning. What is this process teaching me about myself? I'm a dedicated and faithful user of the Oxford Comma. But, apparently, I write with some combination of the Walken Comma and the Shatner Comma, and editors don't like that.

Another quarter in the books -- it's been long and arduous for everyone. Here's an old note of encouragement I wrote for my students; but it seems this quarter folks need to hear it again. writescience.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/a...