📣 AIP's Niels Bohr Library and Archives is collecting personal stories from scientists, engineers, students & others in the physical sciences whose careers have been impacted by recent U.S. policy & funding changes. Learn more about how to get involved here -> www.aip.org/library/ex-l...

The August edition of the AIP History Monthly is out—and it’s packed with exciting updates, new resources, and ways to get involved in preserving and interpreting the history of the physical sciences. -> www.aip.org/history/aip-...

Despite working in a time of tense diplomatic relations, proxy wars, and budget cuts, many US and Soviet scientists collaborated productively during the 1970s and 1980s, writes Anna Doel. Prior exchanges help better understand the challenges to scientific cooperation today. https://bit.ly/4neNFWQ

Huge thank you to AIP (@aip.bsky.social) History and Rebecca Charbonneau (@rebeccacharbon.bsky.social) for spotlighting my latest article! 🤩 #ligo #physics #history #histstem

For the fuller story of how NSF took over site selection and decided to place the detectors at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, check out Tiffany's lecture here at AIP this past spring

AIP historian @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social has a new article out in @physicstoday.bsky.social looking at a US-Soviet collaboration in the 1960s to combine observations of radio telescopes across the globe, a powerful early initiative in very long baseline interferometry.

In this week's history newsletter from AIP, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights the new article by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social in Isis, digging into the rise and fall of an early proposal to site a @ligo.org detector in Maine's Blueberry Barrens.

I wrote a short article on my research in the history of VLBI for Physics Today this week :-) pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

A huge loss for NASA science. Another self-inflicted wound to our national science portfolio.

Finished knitting my fishy sweater! Now I’m ready for fall.

It gets worse and worse. If you're interested in the slow-motion train wreck that is Avi's sci-comm on this, here are some of the latest (it's very hard to keep up!) In which spacecraft can have comae, 3I/ATLAS has a 60% chance of being alien, and new papers validate and adopt his calculations.

More photos from @aip.bsky.social Early Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences! Too bad they couldn’t find us a meeting space with better views ;-)

Monkey spotting at lunch during @aip.bsky.social Early Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences in Salvador, Brazil 😆🐒

We're heading to Salvador, Brazil, for the Sixth AIP Early-Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences. This #histsci meeting gathers young scholars from the world over to exchange work and build a supportive global community. Check out what folks are working on these days:

I've long been a fanboy of the Cambridge HPS / National Maritime Museum Board of Longitude project. It recovered a rich institutional history from a heavily mythologized narrative and digitized the board's papers too. Its capstone book is an excellent contribution to #histSTM & #scipol studies.

Doing a SETI History AMA on r/AskScience, if anyone is curious :-) www.reddit.com/r/askscience...

🔭 Last month, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory wowed the world with its first ultra-high-resolution images. Ahead of Rubin’s 97th on July 23rd, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights Rubin's 1989 oral history with Alan Lightman in this week’s AIP History Weekly. -> www.aip.org/history/oral...

For those who missed it over the 4th, Women in the History of Quantum Physics is a great example of what a multi-author effort can accomplish. Available now from Cambridge UP www.cambridge.org/us/universit...

Excited to speak @shafrhistorians.bsky.social #shafr2025 this week - I'll present on Cuba & communications satellite regulation in the global Cold War Honored to join the panel Empire, Security & Militarism in the Final Frontier w Andrew Ross, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social, @aaronbateman.bsky.social

It was a gravitational spring here at AIP, with our three excellent Trimble lectures: -Peter Galison on imaging black holes -Jaco de Swart on the hunt for dark matter particles -Tiffany Nichols on siting the LIGO gravitational wave detectors Videos here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

"You’re punching a generation-size hole, maybe a multigenerational hole, in the scientific and technical workforce. You don’t just Cryovac these people and pull them out when the money comes back. People are going to move on.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/prop...

Hey @jaimealyse.bsky.social we’re shelf mates :-)

Delighted to be on the shelves of Bristol's Storysmith Books with such excellent company as @helenlpgordon.bsky.social Damian LeBas, Nicholas Jubber and @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social

I'd like to thank @tiffanynichols.bsky.social for visiting us at AIP on Friday and giving us a great #histsci talk on how the sites of LIGO's twin interferometers were chosen. The video is now available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTeX...

“The total solar eclipse of 1869 and American astrophysics” great new article today from @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social for the new weekly edition of AIP’s history newsletter 🗞️☀️🔭 ww2.aip.org/history/the-...

In AIP History's Weekly Edition, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights a new @physicspip.bsky.social article by @bartlettastro.bsky.social & Thomas Hockey on the 1869 total eclipse and the emergency of physical astronomy in America. #histsci

Happening tomorrow!

Rebecca Charbonneau on space wars & why space, while always a point of optimism & exploration, has often equally served as a militarised space in the latest episode of our So, now what? podcast on #astronomy @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social @christscollegecam.bsky.social #GatesCambridge25

3 Gates Cambridge Scholars - @luiswel.bsky.social, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social & Yinuo Han - debate planets, space and the meaning of life in the latest episode of our So, now what? podcast - www.gatescambridge.org/about/news/w... @uniofcam.bsky.social @cambridgeastro.bsky.social #GatesCambridge25

DC friends! Sign-ups are open for our final Trimble lecture this spring, Friday, May 30: Peter Galison, "History, Philosophy, and Culture of Black Holes in the Midst" - a discussion of how historians and philosophers are collaborating in Harvard's Black Hole Initiative. ww2.aip.org/history/pete...

Don't miss out on these fantastic opportunities to come and work with us in Leeds. Deadlines coming up shortly!

The history of thinking about antimatter in the universe is fascinating. One of many interesting tidbits in Kragh's recent Annals of Science piece is Edward Teller musing in the New Yorker about his own obliteration through matter-antimatter annihilation. ww2.aip.org/history/apri...

Nice post from archivist Elizabeth Wood on the history of the American Institute of Physics' Emilio Segrè Visual Archives. AIP's historical collections have and continue to be built from these kinds of gifts from people in the physical sciences community. ww2.aip.org/library/ex-l...

In AIP History's first Weekly Edition, we spotlight Helge Kragh's recent Annals of Science article on how antimatter made its way into cosmology between the 1930s and 1970s. (With a cameo from @beamjockey.bsky.social) You can sign up for our weekly emails here: ww2.aip.org/newsletters

DC friends! Come join us on the evening of May 2 for a lecture by Tiffany Nichols of Northeastern University on site selection for LIGO, which detected the first gravitational waves in 2015. Spoiler alert: it was complicated! ww2.aip.org/history/tiff...

10 days left to apply for AIP’s Grants-in-Aid for History of the Physical Sciences program. Great opportunity for graduate students, undergraduate students, and postdoctoral researchers seeking support for travel to archives or to conduct oral histories. Please share widely.

Well, it's been some week here in Washington DC. If you're into science, join us at AIP near Metro Center at 5:45 tonight for a drink, a little food, good conversation, and a great, free lecture on years of efforts to detect particles that may or may not exist. RSVP: www.aip.org/history-prog...

Man, I love April Fools' on arXiV

Hope to see many of you in DC next Friday April 4th to hear Jaco de Swart discuss "Losing Dark Matter to the Fog: The Historical Arc of the WIMP Paradigm." RSVP if you can join us.

DC friends! RSVPs are open for AIP's first Lyne Starling Trimble Public Event of 2025: Jaco de Swart (MIT), "Losing Dark Matter in the Fog? The Historical Arc of the WIMP Paradigm" Friday, April 4 Reception 5:45pm, Lecture 6:30pm #histsci #astronomy #physics www.aip.org/history-prog...

Abel Méndez (Arecibo) and I spoke to Popular Mechanics about the future (and past) of bio and technosignature research. Check it out here: www.popularmechanics.com/space/telesc...

We are hiring several post-bac positions at NASA Goddard! This is a single application for 8+ positions where you can list your preferred project(s). I am involved in hiring at least one so please feel free to reach out with any questions! aas.org/jobregister/...

Thanks for such a nicely written review, Dan!

AIP's stats team has a new resource parsing data about the physical sciences workforce in the federal government, detailing info such as where they work and what they do. Very helpful to have right now. ww2.aip.org/statistics/f...

Fun times talking w/ Hayden Planetarium's Charles Liu on his show, The LIUniverse. Listen if you want to learn about art history, aliens, and whether or not Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to destroy us. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urr0...

The American Institute of Physics is looking for an associate director who will lead our new policy research and analysis function, which is within my portfolio. We will be busy. americaninstituteofphysics.applicantstack.com/x/openings

Reading Mixed Signals by @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social at the Lovell Room! Some early CETI stories happened in Manchester and @jodrellbank.bsky.social six decades ago! 📡✨

About to head to the airport for this. I will argue for a more constant dialogue between history & policy among other perspectives. In 2020, the Trump administration was touting its focus on DEI even as the seeds of the current campaign were being sown with anti-CRT. Clearly another era.

A new book about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence during the Cold War reminds us that the history of this esoteric quest is bound up with some of the most profound questions faced by inhabitants of Earth.