We have lost a giant. Rest in peace, Joel.

I completely changed my listening habits this year!

After 45 years of principled resistance to polishing my shoes, I finally gave in, and OMG, it’s the most satisfying and relaxing experience ever! Why did nobody tell me about this?? What other amazing activities like this are out there?

Come hear a Nobel Laureate talk about her cutting edge research! Free and open to all.

Our Degree-Defining Experiences program at @ucscscience.bsky.social is now a year old, and the results have been transformational! As Zimin Cohen puts it: “This is the kind of science I want to do.” Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/11/degr...

Not only did we launch the @ucsantacruz.bsky.social campaign in fine style this weekend, but I also fulfilled my lifelong dream of meeting SAMMY THE SLUG. Now the work begins, to create new projects that will transform the lives of our students and make the world a better place.

Joel Primack was an extraordinary human being along so many axes. I treasured our interactions on so many topics, and can’t believe he’s gone. My thoughts are with Nancy, Samara, and their family. May his memory be a blessing. 🔭

Well this is awesome. @clarivate.com has looked at the affiliations of those named “highly cited researchers” 11 years in a row. An incredible 24% listed a primary affiliation with @ucsantacruz.bsky.social - the highest of any public university on the planet. Details: clarivate.com/academia-gov...

It was very inspiring last night to hear from @ucscscience.bsky.social professor @roxannebeltran.bsky.social about her research, in which she uses tagged seals to explore our oceans. Just fourteen tagged seals can provide detailed data on 1% of the entire 3D volume of the world’s oceans every year!

4.5 out of 5 stare to “On The Calculation Of Volume” (books 1 & 2) by Solvej Balle. Yes, it’s a 24-hour time loop, but this is not the fun version of Groundhog Day or the second chances take of Palm Springs, but of descents into madness. Recommended. www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...

This is amazing news! 🎉 🎊 Michele's science contributions 🔭🧪 include space missions llike NASA's Cassini, and being astronomer royal places her in an ideal position to educate and inspire the public about astronomy!

One of the greatest scientist communicators of all time has passed on. The Science Division at UCSC was so fortunate to have had Tom Lehrer on our faculty for almost 30 years. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...

The Ramans do everything in threes. 👀 arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

4.5 out of 5 stars to “The Mercy of Gods” by James A. Corey. A great story of alien invasion and of timid scientists learning how to fight back. There is clearly lots of action and world building to come. Looking forward to the next instalment!

We started this project 17 years ago, and at last here’s the paper! I’m pleased to present the Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism (POSSUM), a total game changer in our understanding of magnetic fields throughout the cosmos. 🧲 🌌📡

So grateful for our amazing staff!

UCSC put on a special “Inspire NYC” event last night in New York, hosted by our Chancellor Cynthia Larive. It was such a privilege to do a deep dive into how the brilliant minds of my @ucscscience.bsky.social colleagues Kristy Kroeker and Heather Tallis work, and I enjoyed meeting many UCSC alums.

Or in plain English: our telescope, which spans the continent, has pinpointed a flash that's 130 million light years away and that lasted for less than a millisecond, to a precision better than the size of a guitar pick viewed from 60 km away. 🤯

The dawn of a new era: the very first sub-arcsecond localization of a fast radio burst using the CHIME telescope and its outriggers. 
 Congratulations to the amazing group of students and postdocs who have led this incredible achievement over the past frenetic 11 days!

It was such an honor to hear former Space Telescope director Bob Williams speak last night about the 30th anniversary of the Hubble Deep Field. And now he has both an asteroid (officially) and a quasar (unofficially) named after him!

World’s largest pistachio!

Our research on fast radio bursts is above the fold! (on my phone) 🧪 🔭

Come to the #AAS245 town hall today to discuss the ethical and other challenges that we face in using AI in astronomy! 12.45pm in National Harbor 2. (Below is what you get from ChatGPT when you ask for an optimistic and then a pessimistic view of astronomy and AI.) 🔭

It’s a thrill to hear the Rossi Prize lecture at #AAS245 this morning. Marty Weisskopf, a giant of X-ray astronomy, is explaining how we can now measure X-ray polarization with the IXPE mission.

#AAS245 with 3654 attendees as of this afternoon, this is the largest AAS meeting ever, beating the previous record set by Honolulu in 2020.

Congratulations to @samayanissanke.bsky.social on winning the AAS HEAD mid-career prize! #AAS245 🔭

Ignore the oversimplified headline. This is a good, nuanced, discussion about the potential problem with Indigenous land acknowledgements (from an American perspective), and why they're harmful unless they're accompanied by action. (1/4)

5 out of 5 stars to “Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang. Everyone in this book is different levels of despicable, delightful awfulness. R.F. Kuang has written a satirical gem; a must-read. Full review: www.goodreads.com/book/show/62...

3.5 out of 5 stars to “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley. A sad & moving interpersonal story sits at the centre of what is otherwise a somewhat uneven & confounding book. A lot of what happens doesn’t make much factual sense, but there’s enough of a human element to make the read worthwhile.

5 out of 5 stars to “Singer Distance” by Ethan Chatagnier. An extraordinarily beautiful and poignant story about love, family, and … Martians. It was impossible to see where this was going, but the ending ended up being beyond satisfying. A wonderful gem of a novel.

4.5 out of 5 stars to “This Time Tomorrow“ by Emma Straub. Yes, it’s another time-travel story. Yes, it’s about the road not taken, and regrets, and second chances. But nevertheless, it’s fresh, sweet, sad, funny, and compelling. Full review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

4 out of 5 stars to “Disquiet Gods” by Christopher Ruocchio. I’m 6000 pages into this series, and to be honest I don’t want it to end. Full review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

3.5 out of 5 stars to “Lords of Uncreation” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A decent ending to a solid trilogy. Overall, this series shines in its premise and resolution, but lags a little in its reliance on the usual misfit spaceship crew who save the day. www.goodreads.com/book/show/62...

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony are all clues, but all four are part of different answers?! The NYT puzzle editor is an evil genius.

Out now in @theconversation.com, I write about our discovery of the first long-period radio transient with an optical counterpart -- our first clue to the progenitors of this mysterious class of objects! theconversation.com/astronomers-...

Germany and India are now official members of #SKAO! 🎉 #radioastronomy Read more: www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/announcement... www.skao.int/en/news/590/...

Important advice: how to avoid gender bias when writing recommendation letters.

I want the opening paragraphs of my obituary to contain at least one of the phrases "destroyed everything in the Universe" or "evil twin".

Research is spending 6 hours reading 35 papers, so you can write one sentence containing 2 references.

The AAS Publications Committee (which oversees publication of ApJ, ApJL, ApJS, AJ, PSJ, RNAAS, AAS ebooks, and Sky & Telescope) will be holding its next meeting in early January. If you have questions, concerns or issues that you want the Committee to consider, please let me know! 🔭

Out today in ApJL! Our discovery of the first long-period radio transient with a stellar counterpart: www.icrar.org/binarytransi... At least *some* of these objects might be explicable as binary systems!

Helmut Abt, stellar astronomer, former ApJ editor, and one of the founders of Kitt Peak National Observatory, passed away today at age 99. Helmut played a large role in setting up KPNO, a new concept at the time of a publicly open facility, offering telescope time based solely on scientific merit.

How do I turn science mode on? 😒

👏👏👏

Strongly agree. I am pretty sure that Marlon Brando did not put “Academy Award (declined)” on his CV.

40th anniversary of the SETI Institute. Honoring co-founder Jill Tarter, and with video messages from Brian May and Jodie Foster!

Today is GIVING DAY at University of California, Santa Cruz, your 24-hour opportunity to support the projects that mean the most to you!

There are two amazing opportunities on offer to work in my team at UC Santa Cruz: 1. Executive Director of Development for UCSC Science (initial review date Dec 17): advancement.ucsc.edu/join-our-tea...

A special opportunity to gather together many of Matthew Bailes’ former and current students and postdocs at FRB2024.

7000 Australian academics were sent identical emails, seeming to be from a student, and asking about possible PhD projects. Just like in previous experiments in the USA, the student’s race had a big effect on whether they got a prompt reply, and whether the reply was supportive.