I want to explain a few things and then it might be clearer why UK trans people are upset. In 2001 I married my wife, Sylvia. In 2005 I started medical transition. (1/13)

Actual good news about a NASA science mission! 🔭

Off on vacation for a birthday road trip to New Mexico! Visited the VLA yesterday. Nice to pretend to be Jodie Foster in Contact for a minute.

‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation www.ft.com/content/e5d7...

We are excited to announce the discovery of #GW231123, a gravitational-wave signal from the merger of two high-mass black holes to form one about 190–265 times the mass of our Sun ligo.org/ligo-virgo-k... #O4IsHere 🔭🧪☄️

"Take the perspective ‘Mars is a failed Earth’. What if, instead, we took the view that Mars didn’t fail at becoming Earth, but, succeeded at becoming Mars? This latter view means that we would recognize the planet’s morally relevant attributes and respect it on its own terms." - I love this.

BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.

Made some friends today

Just for everyone who sees this? This is exactly the level of rigor and dedication NYT has practiced in regards to its entire body of work on trans kids, affirmative action, and progressive policies. this is what they've always been. They just fluked up where everyone could see it this time.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

Ok I know everything is terrible, but… there is still a very large & beautiful universe out there, & today we have access to a new gorgeous dataset from the Rubin Observatory. The images are so large and detailed, you’d need a basketball court covered in ultra HD TVs to see the actual detail in the

Sometimes, astronomers have coherent and intelligent things to say about images of space and what they have to teach us. And sometimes we just have to go SPACE IS SO BIG AND AMAZING AAAAAAA

I suspect that fact that the vast majority of LLM users don’t seem to have received this (really very simple!) message is because the AI companies have a vested interest in us not understanding it. “ChatGPT is smart, it just makes mistakes sometimes” is much more marketable than the truth.

I love Mars, but we do not get there on the back of destroying everything else. We cannot and must not.

Wrote this piece for Harpers Bazaar about the life, legacy, and hate-induced murder of Jonathan Joss through the eyes of being a Two-Spirit Native person this Pride. I hope you take a read. For Him. For all of us. 🪶

Thirteen years ago today, the NuSTAR X-ray space telescope was launched, and has been pushing the boundaries of discovery in high-energy astrophysics ever since! See some cool artwork and learn about some of the key science areas that NuSTAR helps us study here: nustar.caltech.edu/page/nustar-... 🔭🧪

If that’s what they do to a US Senator with a question, imagine what they do to farm workers, day laborers, cooks, and the other nonviolent immigrants they are targeting in California and across the country. Or any American that dares to speak up. I will not stop fighting to demand accountability.

This is how. Greta Thunberg spits fire and gives you the only media training you may ever need.

Very near to where I live. I'm out of town today, but very proud of my neighbours for kicking ICE out of the neighbourhood.

Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

In light of this deeply illegal activity at NSF and the ongoing attack on American science, I'm posting the slides from my 2017 talk at the American Physical Society about the Nazi take over of German physics/why German is no longer science's lingua franca 🧪 🧵 1/26 drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...

TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR, A STAGGERING NUMBER OF JOBS ARE IN BOXES LIKE THIS IN THIS BUDGET REQUEST.

Super mixed feelings at the NuSTAR group meeting today. On the one hand, celebrating having done excellently at Senior Review (justifying the continued operation of the mission - NuSTAR has unique capabilities and is excellent value for money in terms of science, and NASA agrees!) On the other... 🔭🧪

The Presidents Budget Request for NASA is out. It’s a bloodbath Canceled are DAVINCI, VERITAS, Juno, OSIRIS-APEX, US participation in ExoMars and EnVision… Huge cut to R&A. No funding to begin development of the Uranus Orbiter. If you’ve ever cared about NASA, time to contact congress.

We would barely be able to do X-ray astronomy at all without space telescopes! Some of the hottest and most dramatic features of the universe would be entirely invisible to us if we couldn't look above our atmosphere.

Arrived back in Pasadena just in time to catch my favourite time of year - jacaranda season!

Wrapping up the 2025 International Astronomical Consortium for High-Energy Calibration (IACHEC) workshop in Osaka - more conferences should close with a filk sing-along! 🔭🧪🛰️

My faves: - Underdog Bookstore in Monrovia, CA (super queer friendly!) (www.underdogbookstore.org) - Book Alley in Pasadena, CA (www.bookalley.com) - The Book Loft in Solvang, CA (www.bookloftsolvang.com) - Vroman’s in Pasadena, CA (www.vromansbookstore.com)

This is sickening.

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

Hubble has spent 35 years in orbit! 🥳 Celebrate with an array of compelling images recently taken by Hubble: Mars, dramatic views of stellar birth and death, and a magnificent spiral galaxy: bit.ly/4jjsAs7 🔭 🧪

Astronomers will keep pointing out to folks that the Roman telescope is *already built* and is being prepped for launch *next year* and I know we live in a stupid timeline but cancelling Roman at this point would be SO STUPID.

Sinners was absolutely fantastic. That blues song scene was one of the most unexpectedly delightful things I have seen in a movie in years. Don't look it up - go in and be surprised!

"And in His pain He thought of all Creation as good enough; still good."

𝗡𝗼, 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝟮-𝟭𝟴𝗯'𝘀 𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲. K2-18b is back in the news, now with a bold claim that biosignature molecules (DMS and/or DMDS) have been 'detected at 3σ'. Most exoplanet astronomers are extremely sceptical about these claims, let's see why (1/n). 🔭🧪🪐 #exoplanet

The local feral parrot flock stopped by the Caltech orange trees for lunch (not pictured - half-eaten oranges strewn all over the path 😂)

Deleting websites is the modern day version of book burning. #Don'tLookAway

I had a Penelope joke but I—hang on, let me start that one again. I had a Penelope joke—

The American Astronomical Society is gravely concerned by the deep cuts to NASA science funding reported to be in the draft President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2026. Read more here: aas.org/press/aas-st... and take action now: aas.org/urge-nasa-su...

By observing the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant in the X-rays over time, astronomers are able to study cosmic ray production in conditions we can't replicate on Earth. It's nature's own particle accelerator laboratory, there for us to see with space telescopes! 🔭🧪 nustar.caltech.edu/news/nustar2...

This will be horrific. NASA's astrophysics missions are an investment of public money. They're *your* telescopes and the science is for you. NuSTAR is a perfectly healthy mission which could happily go on working for another decade. If we have to switch it off, that investment is not coming back.

How do we use X-ray telescopes to hunt for hidden black holes? Astronomer Peter Boorman, part of the NuSTAR science team at Caltech, explains in this video! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILfQ... 🔭🧪

a lesson for every college, law firm, business, etc. — if these chodes demand you do something, your first response should be some form of "make me"

I will regularly buy beer based entirely on a delightfully silly label. (This one also tastes good!)

Observing Transgender Day of Visibility at church this morning. We continue to be visible, and our banner is still hanging, despite the vandalism attempts.

I'm not crying, you're crying. Good job, Gaia.

As Tlaib pointed out, when the strikes happened — killing at least 53 people across Yemen, including over 30 civilians — they went largely ignored by lawmakers. Children were among those killed by the strikes, which Houthi officials said were a war crime. truthout.org/articles/tla...

The Signal leak is a prime moment for Democrats to get caught trying. Call for resignations or impeachment hearings or both. Be omnipresent in the media demanding and explaining accountability measures. Don’t let this fade away. Treat this the way the GOP treated Hillary’s emails. Make it a thing.

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