🚨New Issue Alert🚨 Volume 56 Issue 3 is out now with essays by Karin Nickelsen and David Kaiser, as well as a book review by John DiMoia. online.ucpress.edu/hsns/issue/5...

If your business requires me to download yet another app to use it, odds are pretty good at this point I am not going to use your business. It's like a part-time job at this point. Enough.

MIT (endowment: $27B) shuttering three of its four main libraries is one of those news items that just knocks you off balance, auguring, as it does, profound and permanent changes to the entire institutional apparatus of higher education in this country.

We are closing this call on May 31, but would still very much like to see more proposals from periods pre-1800 and regions outside the US and Europe! Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions.

I AM AT INBOX ZERO. I do not expect this situation to last more than 2 hours but I am going to enjoy it.

The whole AI-to-make-graduation- efficient is bizarre. The most efficient way to award diplomas is by mail; there’s no logical need for ceremonies. The whole reason they exist is for the human touch & so people can celebrate each other. AI for “efficiency” here is nonsensical (& doesn’t even work🫠)

Extremely proud to say that my new @physicstoday.aip.org feature article is live. In it, I explore the history and context of the rare interviews with J. Robert Oppenheimer recently made public by @aiphistory.bsky.social. physicstoday.aip.org/features/opp...

My book is webpage official! Available open access in October 2026! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205474...

Julie Taddeo spoke with WBAL about King Charles's address to Congress. Read more here: www.wbaltv.com/article/hist...

🔬 Next #ICSSI2026 Speaker Spotlight: Melinda Baldwin A historian of science at UMD, @mbaldwin.bsky.social literally wrote the book on the history of the journal Nature. Her work is a fascinating dive into peer review, publishing, and the institutions shaping science. See you in Boulder! icssi.org

If you work in or around the history of physics, take a look at the list of past winners, think of someone who deserves it, and then find some folks who agree with you to put together a nomination. Only a bit over a month left!

On episode 2 of @dreamingagainstthemachine.com, @chanda.blacksky.app and I talk about Star Trek, the power of labor unions, and fascist footwear. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts!

Cambridge Department of History and Philosophy of Science are now on Bluesky! 🔭📚 @hpscambridge.bsky.social

Boston area!! One week from today I will be in conversation with MIT historian and fellow physicist, my mentor David Kaiser @brooklinebooksmith.bsky.social!! RSVP today! www.eventbrite.com/e/chanda-pre...

If anyone in history ever wants to talk about this, feel free to reach out to me! I had a somewhat unusual contingent academic --> non-academic --> tenured academic career path, but I'm happy to be useful in any way I can on this question. Big supporter of non-academic paths.

For fuck's sake, sign up for The Onion, and get a free limited edition IW tote. A share of merch sales will go to the Sandy Hook families, which will be the first time they get any money since they filed this lawsuit eight years ago. Legal fees have been insane. Please sign up and help us out!

New Special Section Call for Proposals for @hsnatsci.bsky.social ! My co-editor Dominik Huenniger and I are seeking short essays (800-1000 words) on the theme of "Revisiting Classics and Major Influences." More below.

The opening guitar chords of “Style” (OG version)

the Science Wars are dead, long live the Science Wars

A feast of Oppenheimer documents on display tonight at AIP!

I dunno, i feel like I said some useful and pretty prescient things in "Scholars are Failing the GPT Review Process," but who am I to judge. online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article...

We can do such amazing things; they make us so much better. And we are doing so few of them compared to what we could choose to do.

The global impact of this — if it goes through — will be enormous

Please raise your hand if you would like to invest in my new airport restaurant chain concept, "1.5 Margaritas." Our signature cocktail will be a margarita that is 50% larger than a normal margarita.

And make sure to record your claim number when you submit. Print the screen as a .pdf. Not everyone is getting the confirmation email.

Zohran Mamdani continues to pose the crazy question “what if the government you paid all those taxes to was actually using that money to improve your life?”

Last RP: "Ryan Coogler directs an X Files episode" would probably have been one of my wishes if I ever found a magic lamp.

Himesh Patel will star opposite Danielle Deadwyler in the ‘X-FILES’ reboot series. Ryan Coogler will write and direct the pilot. (via deadline.com/2026/03/hime...

"A chatbot did not kill those children. People failed to update a database, and other people built a system fast enough to make that failure lethal."

We're so close...Help us reach the goal needed to expand our newsroom by the end of the campaign: TOMORROW! Memberships, one-time donations and spreading the word all help! 51st.news/the-51st-is-...

I always find Dave's newsletters valuable and as someone who studies peer review (though from the perspective of the past) this was thought-provoking. I think he's absolutely right that modern peer review has not been in a stable equilibrium. It's had a serious labor problem for a while now.

I have never been happier that my oldest, formerly a Mr. Beast superfan, recently declared Mr. Beast “kinda sus.”

I WILL BE DISCUSSING THE STAR TREK TO RAISE FUNDS FOR MUTUAL AID YOU WANT TO BE THERE, YES YOU DO

Can historians benefit from creative works for historical research? In this @hsnatsci.bsky.social short piece, I share how I worked w/ different types of making to research and write my recent book on 17th-c. florilegia. Thank you @dominikhhh.bsky.social & @mbaldwin.bsky.social for the invitation!

Great piece out today in Physics Today on historical origins, contemporary relevance, & fundamental irreplaceability of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which remains at imminent risk of dismantling for partisan political reasons.

In response to the disruptions and uncertainties in federal funding for science, researchers are knocking on the doors of philanthropies. But they can pick up only some of the slack.

Thinking about this because I’ve spent my entire career competing with and being evaluated by men who say “yes” to what @seanmcarroll.bsky.social is describing here and also being framed as “problematic“ by people who would literally say yes to this kind of shit and worse 🫩

This great piece is part of a collection of exciting essays on Historical Practice I had the great pleasure of co-editing with the wonderful @mbaldwin.bsky.social for @hsnatsci.bsky.social . #HistSci #HistSTM

1) this from @kfullagar.bsky.social and @austhistassoc.bsky.social is awesome. A great model for scholarly orgs to place member writing in mass media. theaha.org.au/publicising-...

dear peace monks, you don’t know me but DO NOT GET ON THAT BUS

You’ve seen the halftime show … now read my friend Petra’s new book from @dukepress.bsky.social about how Bad Bunny became the global voice of Puerto Rican resistance! 👏🏽👏🏽 www.dukeupress.edu/p-fkn-r

Okay winter, we get it. Now would you PLEASE fuck off.

@theonion.com is so worth the subscription for this

Internal White House meetings going on, like, "Hopefully the racism will distract from the pedophilia which will distract from the killings which will distract from the pedophilia again which will distract from the economy which will distract from the pedophilia a third time"

This is a person who has no business teaching 18-year-olds of any gender. "This is how men behave"? Only if you teach them that this behavior is OK and expected.

6/ The Post has lost over 375,000 subscribers in just over a year. If 10% of those readers subscribed to The 51st instead, we could hire 10 reporters and five editors, dramatically scaling our coverage of the city at this critical time. 51st.news/signup

Total meltdown. Unbelievable, yet believable!

God forbid a woman have hobbies.

My kids’ art teacher did this on the school field! Brought his hockey skates and stick and waved to all the kids while skating around during dropoff. And yes, this stuff is that hard and frozen.