Finally got my copy of @historyasif.bsky.social book, Cosmic Fragments. Now time to ruin it with notes and highlights!

68 years ago today the dog Laika was launched into orbit, the first living being to break the bonds of gravity. Unfortunately she died soon after. I found the previously classified document on her fate in a Russian archive. Here's what it said about her fate #laika (1/n)

Gonna talk in entomology class today about how Jewish scientists forced to work in Nazi concentration camps secretly sent fake vaccines to the eastern front and managed to kill 4,000 Nazis with typhus.

Interview: Historian of science Michael Gordin tells us why he and Diana Buchwald felt there was room for another book on Einstein, why fascination with Einstein remains high, and new areas of Einstein research. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2025/10/mich... #interview #einstein #historyofscience

No.

Should humans colonise space? We asked five experts – four of whom said no. It’s not just a question of whether humans try to live in space, but also about how we do it. Here are their detailed answers. via @aunz.theconversation.com 🧪 🔭

Done. #nycvotes

POLLS ARE NOW OPEN. Find out where you early vote ⬇️ 🗳️ findmypollsite.vote.nyc

It is impossible to imagine people allowing this to go on (or even participating in it within the government) if he was ordering the murder without any process of French citizens or Brits or Australians on boats no matter what they were alleged to be doing.

Ilyas Chattha's *Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan, 1971-1974* (Cambridge UP, 2025) is one the most important books for contemporary subcontinental history in the last 15 years.

India's denial of entry to Prof Francesca Orsini is another marker in the grave threats to academic freedom globally.

This is absolutely the way to go. I used to have a no laptops policy but relented this semester. Total mistake. Never again. I also stopped using Blackboard/Canvas years ago. And with AI, have moved most fully to hand-written in-class testing which has been surprisingly refreshing.

This week we welcome Prof. Steven Shapin to the pod!🎙️ We explore his journey through interdisciplinary spaces, revisit Leviathan and the Air-Pump 40 years on, and explore how credibility, trust and expertise are shaped by the fragmentation of expertise and (recent) political & cultural challenges

Discussing 'Days of Future Past' (1981) in class tomorrow. Grim stuff about a genocide and a valiant battle to restore a different timeline (although the ending is a bit patchy). Looking forward to talking about Chris Claremont and John Byrne's flawed masterpiece. #x-men #daysoffuturepast

Definitely a lot of let's-critique-the-string-quartet-on-the-sinking-Titanic vibes on bluesky these days.

Cool exhibit upcoming at Cooper Hewitt here in NYC (from December 12) on 'Art of Noise', tracing the intersection between music technology and design. www.cooperhewitt.org/2025/09/10/a...

“F**k ICE forever.” — Chappell Roan at her show in Pasadena

#historyofscience #histofsci www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

For more on the creation of Sputnik, see this collection of declassified and translated Russian documents:

job alert: My department is now running a search to fill a newly inaugurated endowed chair in the History of Technology. Please consider applying/share widely. I'm not on the committee, but happy to answer questions or connect you with those who are. Details here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09897

This is an absolute travesty. @durba.bsky.social is an absolutely brilliant scholar, writer, teacher, academic. Harvard is lucky that they can claim any connection to her work. In doing this, Harvard is making itself a fucking joke.

Me leaving any party

This happens at the largest university in the U.S. but barely a peep from media outlets yelling at us for years about attacks on free speech on campuses.

Heads up for this excellent special issue of BJHS edited by @actgeppert.bsky.social . Insightful contributions on the cultural construction of 'founding fathers,' 'prophets,' etc. of the space age, taking a very global approach w/ works on Clarke, Sarabhai, Qian Xuesen, etc. I have a small epilogue.

The IHPST is hiring! Assistant Professor - Philosophy of Science and/or Technology. jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

My epilogue to a special issue of British Journal for the History of Science takes on the 'founding figure' archetype in the history of space. Drawing on the work of Ellie Armstrong & Réka Gál (among others), I critique space history's fascination w/ 'great men.' www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

It would be hard to name a band that shaped my sensibilities more than Flipper. RIP Bruce 'Loose' Calderwood. A dadaist genius who trawled through the bottom of the barrel of modern life to find beauty in the banal, quotidian, trivial moments of our meaningless lives.

Immigration data on the arrival of international students in July show a significant decline compared to a year earlier, including a drop of almost 50% for students from India. www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

I am defending my PhD in September 2025! Please send all relevant jobs my way! #envhist #envhum #sts

James Lovell, one of the last Apollo-era astronauts, passed away today. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1962, he flew two Gemini and two Apollo missions, including the first historic Moon orbit flight in 1968. An absolute legend and rock star.

No. Especially the part that says "Generative AI can be a valuable partner in the classroom." 100% no. Also, the part that says, "It is essential to prepare future teachers not by abandoning traditional historical training but by combining it with new AI literacies." No.

Some genocide experts like Raz Segal actually acted on their discipline's reason for existence when it could have helped: this is from October 16 2023

You can never bend the knee enough to appease an authoritarian bully. This is a devastating blow to academic freedom & freedom of speech at Columbia. Never in the history of this nation has there been an administration so intent on the utter destruction of higher education as we know it.

To me, this deliberate mass starvation of an entire people by the Israeli government evokes aspects of the Siege of Leningrad in 1941-44.

Shameful of Columbia.

"I am less interested in what motivates Musk to inflict misery on so many other people. I want to understand how a person like Musk was able to inflict so much misery in the first place." Our latest, from @katecarp.bsky.social

I'm in the NY Times today talking about the first time international mortal enemies came together to do something in space, the Apollo-Soyuz mission from 50 years ago. Article by @beckyferreira.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/s...

My son grew up playing in Riverside Park. Am not surprised that kids have stopped going to baseball practice.

🚨BREAKING: Cal State LA just moved classes online and let faculty work remotely, not for a storm, not for COVID, but because ICE is in the area. Let that sink in, an entire university is treating immigration enforcement like a public health crisis.

RIP Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics during a tumultuous period in the company in the 1980s. A controversial, creative, and towering figure who deeply shaped the superhero genre (and my reading habits): www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general...

The Soviet Military Posters collection offers rare insight into Soviet military history and visual culture. This digital archive features 3,361 meticulously compiled posters that reveal the depth of Soviet propaganda and military messaging. Learn more www.eastview.com/resources/e-...

The White House's 2026 FY budget proposal would be a catastrophe for NASA, one that would effectively leave it a shell of its former self (and smallest budget since 1961). Here's a visual guide in seven charts from @caseydreier.bsky.social at the Planetary Society: www.planetary.org/articles/nas...

As a person who overlaps a bit w/ Mamdani (South Asian, male, Muslim origin, New Yorker, U.S. citizen) it's depressing to see deep rooted prejudices about Muslims openly shared by politicians. I worry about my own son, born & raised in NYC, who loves this city, but who faces an uncertain future.

Proud to be a New Yorker today.

Just to be crystal clear: bombing Iran is completely illegal.

Voted. #nycelection #zohranmamdani #bradlander

Voted. #nycelection #zohranmamdani #bradlander