Hey astrophysicists, a presence (absence) of KH billows in some astrophysical shear flow doesn't always imply a lower (upper) bound on the local magnetic field strength! See arxiv.org/abs/2510.031...

Trump is pronouncing "acetaminophen" the right way. by Ezra Klein

Friends, colleagues, my heart is heavy as I share with you some deeply saddening news: “asymptotically spicy” will not, in fact, survive to final publication of this manuscript. But it will live on in the arXiv preprint, at least

Where do people study MHD turbulence in The Netherlands? Asking for a friend looking for a job

Like most modern astrophysicists, Trump is quickly realizing that he can’t keep neglecting magnetic fields

Suddenly thinking this old proposal idea might have a chance

If this continues, the most talented American students will want to study abroad, because they'll want to study with the most talented students and faculty from around the world, and those people won't want to come to the United States even if they can. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/u...

NYT spelling bee takes all kinds of niche words but NOT “adiabatic”??? Anti-science sentiments from NYT in the Trump era, you hate to see it

BREAKING: The NIH director has ordered an immediate review of all the agency's research activities. Any projects that don't fit agency priorities "may be restricted, paused, not renewed, or terminated." My story:

So bad.The EO institutionalizes and intensifies the politicization of federal research funding. The provisions weaken scientific expertise in funding decisions and effectively cede control to political appointees. The basic logistics here will also further slow walk release of federal research funds

The ratio (length of proposal in pages)/(years of funding awarded) is an important thing. Too large, and the proposal writing process feels like a waste of time if the program is competitive. Too small, and it’s hard to convince people you know your stuff. No idea what the optimal value is.

the one thing i genuinely did not anticipate from this administration was its vicious, know nothing hostility to any and everything that might even be adjacent to science and scientific research. they genuinely one to destroy the entirety of the nation’s research capacity. and for what, exactly?

Fresh on the arXiv today: if you take a thermally stably stratified (AKA subadiabatic AKA Schwartzchild- & Ledoux-stable) layer and sprinkle just a tiny bit of salt on the top, the salt fingers that form drive a helical mean flow that twists them into corkscrews arxiv.org/abs/2506.22581

I have a coauthor who is extremely skilled at cutting down text to fit a word/page limit, and I’m immeasurably pleased to see that they’ve retained “asymptotically spicy” in the draft

The cruelty in today's politics feels horribly corrosive. Bringing up that hard-working immigrant families — undocumented, yes, but not violent criminals — are being ripped apart based on immigration status doesn't bring compassion or even pause, but gleeful cheers.

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

AAS and 52 other science societies and organizations sent a letter to Congress this morning expressing concern over recent organizational and financial developments at NSF, and urging Congress to exercise its oversight authority to preserve American STEM leadership. aas.org/press/letter... 🔭

Accepted into ApJ Letters 🥳

What happens to science under autocracy? The rise of the National Socialist Party in 1930s Germany provides an (admittedly extreme) example. Prior to the early 1930s, scientists at German institutions won a third of Nobels. 10 years later, that number was 5%, and has never recovered.

The new pope was a math major? God save us.

Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection exhibits a rich variety of flow morphologies (e.g., cells, plumes, QG turbulence) depending on rotation rate and heating. Inspired by this, CU PhD student Whitney Powers explored rotating moist convection to seek similar regimes and found very different ones!

Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.

It is a little weird to me countries aren’t more aggressively, formally trying to take advantage of the U.S. science brain drain. Once in a lifetime opportunity to buy low on Non-Dumbass Americans with PhDs who just wanna look into microscopes and quietly cure ass cancer as our country eats shit.

I just got the official email from the NSF about the drastic cuts and I think the correct translation is "if you are a young researcher who still wants to do science strongly consider leaving the United States if you can." which, really, is not an ideal message to be sending.

BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Jupiter Core xkcd.com/3083

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

Einstein was one of many scientists who came to the US in the first half of the 20th century and made us the science & tech (& thus economic & defense, for instance) powerhouse we were for the next several decades. It’s a bit ironic to highlight him now, as we completely gut US basic research.

I’ve been looking at salt fingers in a particular limit where it becomes technically correct to describe the flow as “asymptotically spicy” and thus I am of course obligated to somehow state this in the paper

The problem with most machine-based random number generators is that they’re not TRULY random, so if you need genuine randomness it is sometimes necessary to link your code to an external random process like a physical noise source or the current rate of US tariffs on a given country.

Polluted WDs actively accrete rocky debris. Most models assume accretion to the surface is balanced by material sinking via diffusion + gravitational settling. The resulting equilibria are often thermohaline-unstable—people keep ignoring that process, but shouldn't! arxiv.org/abs/2503.208...

‘I Messed Up At Work Again,’ Crestfallen Michael Waltz Texts Wife, National Geographic Editorial Staff

NASA started terminating grants :(

There’s actually another little-known circle of hell where the punishment is that you have to constantly build software stacks on different clusters and nothing is linked the way the documentation says it is. Not sure what crimes brought me here but here I am

"Okay, I'll go on NPR to talk about it. What do you want me to say when they ask for the grounds for his deportation?" "You'll think of something."

Interested in accreting/polluted white dwarfs? Unsure whether thermohaline mixing really has a meaningful impact on the settling rate of metals in the steady state? Boy will I have the paper for you! In… I dunno like a week or something

I like how this article lists in great detail all the different ways he’s wrong

Call your senators and all that, sure, but more importantly call Loren Matilsky and tell him to stop trying to tear down the Boussinesq approximation!

Harvard has the biggest endowment, so why are they stopping hiring? It helps to understand that endowments provide less of a cushion than you probably imagine. And if Harvard is worried, lots of other universities are doing to be in worse shape. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/no-univers...

Sitting in a bakery that discontinued their popular quiche because of the egg shortage, and I can’t believe how many customers are just now finding out about bird flu this way

Thinking of sign ideas for tomorrow’s protest. Leaning heavily towards “magnetic fields aren’t real, they can’t hurt you”

This temporary restraining order is the only reason I’m still getting paid

Trump claimed the Biden administration spent $8 million "making mice transgender." The White House tried to back up this number with records of funding for research into cancer, asthma, and HIV, some of which used *transgenic* (genetically modified) mice.

It’s my humble opinion that search committees should be hiring me and not whoever else they’re considering

Salt-fingers are fluid motions that occur in both oceans and stars. In oceans, they’re driven by gradients in salt concentration. Stars don’t have salt (duh!), so to avoid confusion, the astro community generally refers to this process as “thermohaline mixing” (from the ancient Greek “haline”=salty)

🚨 Many NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are being cancelled for Summer 2025. www.reddit.com/r/REU/commen...

Funding uncertainty affecting graduate admissions www.wkow.com/news/educati...

Very cool how everyone I know is trying to figure out if they still have a program manager for all of their projects

How does one figure out if one’s NSF program officer is still working at the NSF? Asking for a Fellow