smbc has a terry tao guest comic and it's nice to be the target market for something www.smbc-comics.com/comic/sphere...

supposed liberals spewing conspiracy theory anti-semitism has been more and more of a thing recently. it is possible some of them are the usual Nazis attempting a disguise, but I also think we're seeing the spread of this stuff into new circles

Multiple PhD projects in New Zealand to work on Rubin/LISA science and statistics 🔭, 🧪 - open now! #astro #cosmo www.gravity.ac.nz/join/phd-opp...

The perfect millenial phishing scheme does not exi-

The FY 2027 NASA budget request hides its science cuts by omitting mission names instead of explicitly zeroing them out. We did the work and found 54 missions cancelled in this proposal. This is another extinction-level event for NASA science. Full list: planetary.org/save-nasa-science

We are looking for two new PhD students to join our group at the University of Southern Queensland to work on exoplanet demographics and atmospheres. See AAS ad below. aas.org/jobregister/...

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: “The Australian government also firmly believes that the ceasefire has to apply to Lebanon as well.”

You can see why the exo-zodiacal light becomes an issue in imaging exo-Earths. Imagine turning this background glow around another star up by say 10x and the pale blue dot getting lost in the glare.

just awful to see how Australia is failing to support the Lebanese diaspora who are such an important part of our community

The very basis of quantum computing and quantum information theory was built on the PPAN physics that the government is now cutting.

This is an absolute smorgasbord of @secondmentions.bsky.social - 'weird breakfast spread' - 'a little yellow-topped jar of black goo with a strangely zoological name' - 'this salty yeast paste'

Disastrous wars, crackdowns, privatisation and austerity, all of it imposed in an atmosphere of increasingly hysterical all-channels denunciation.

I think this is true, and part of the Everything is Gender theory. We are governed by that section of the populace that believes that Father having violent tantrums until everyone else cowers, even as his life falls apart around him, was an aspirational display of power and mastery.

It's the 70th anniversary of the defining paper from Bracewell (1956) - an astronomy paper which later became the foundation of a lot of medical technology .... cross-over from science to industry application. adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1956AuJ...

We’re in the Michael Kirby building here at Macquarie Uni and its really lovely. It’s dedicated in the name of former NSW Supreme Court Justice, Michael Kirby. Kirby is openly gay, and one of Australia’s highest profile queer people. The room we are in today is dedicated to his partner Johan van

Attending the Bracewell 70 here on campus, which is bringing together all of us science nerds with a whole heap of industry folks to talk about how our work can cross over into industry applications. @benjaminpope.bsky.social opening & NSW Chief Scientist Prof. Hugh Durrant-Whyte here too.

Another two weeks. Again.

Trump just openly stating his intention to commit genocide at this point: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

and Australia, and art, science, music, you name it. the production of culture, knowledge, and novelty is being stifled by housing costs and it is printing through to our entire society

The imperial boomerang bringing tickets-of-leave back to England from Port Jackson, after 200 years? is a hell of a thing

In need of a second mention for the Moon? Here are some of our favourites... 🌑 The pale lunar orb 🌒 The crater-strewn rock 🌓 Our dusty grey neighbour 🌔 The tide-changing rock 🌕 The luminous tide botherer Let us know if you've got any more!

Great that this case will finally be prosecuted. Our usual reminder that it's now sub judice and everyone should stfu about it and let the process do its thing.

Coding agents feel like one of the first futuristic consumer technologies out of the software industry in years. But they feel less futuristic than e-bikes or induction cooktops and I don’t know how to think about that

Press conference shout-out to the Australian National University, which is a test site for #ArtemisII optical communications! 🧪

It’s Easter and the US President chose to share this, an unhinged and expletive ridden rant threatening war crimes against the Iranian people. Australians want no part in this and they expect our government to clearly oppose it and organise to prevent it.

20 years ago, I was at a concert where the line "Of course we all remember when Neal Armstrong walked on the moon" was said when talking about the inspiration for a particular song. I think that still may have been true for everyone else there other than me.

Real risk that at 35 I’m the youngest at the James Reyne gig

In my limited interactions with vibe-coding tools it is so clear that they are designed to maximise engagement as intensely as TikTok. Every interaction loop suggests with enthusiastically phrased suggestions for what to do next

Obviously I’m not being literal, but the point is that would rightfully be condemned as strategic support to Iran. Our E-7 will clearly contribute to defending American military assets in the Gulf, working in union with the American command, contributing data to a war of naked aggression.

One week to go to apply for our postdoc on radial velocities at Macquarie University in Sydney! aas.org/jobregister/...

"bluesky is dying" discourse means: check your smoke alarm batteries + reiterate that all text based social media is dying, it's just that X, Threads, Facebook, Substack Notes etc all hide their statistics bsky.jazco.dev/stats

This 👇🏽 “Astronomy does more than deliver discoveries. It inspires students, engages communities, and builds the pipeline of future scientists. Stepping back from a flagship international collaboration at the very moment the world is looking up risks dimming that inspiration for a generation”

ok so genuinely, why are people so upset at the idea of there being tall buildings in cities. what's it about

Announcing massive budget cuts to NASA while we have Astronauts on their way to the moon is such a massive kick in the teeth

I love this. I'm tempted to print this quote on cardboard and bonk my undergrads on the head every time they're terrified that I'll be disappointed that they made a mistake or couldn't solve a problem on the first try. Failures are the curriculum. The error messages are the syllabus.

Very interesting read. www.percepta.ai/blog/can-llm...

Renewables has always been like the famous Keynes quote that the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent - but in the end, the economics and security of renewables wins. Every single time.

Nobody: Literally no one: DAG aficionados:

Went on an accidental rant about this the other day when I heard about [redacted innovative pedagogy thing someone was doing]. Literally said ‘I think some people’s pedagogy is *too* creative… have you considered standing up and speaking knowledgeably about your expertise in an interesting way’

The discourse about colonizing the Moon or Mars is missing the point that it would be easier to colonize Everest, Antarctica, the bottom of the sea, or the depths of the Sahara. There's a reason we don't do this at scale! It would also be transformative to have research stations there!

as far as i can tell, "we'll have to colonise another planet" is the billionaire equivalent of my girlfriend in canada. there's no real plan. this doesn't exist. maybe one day it will, but today it's a discursive pressure release valve to protect us from grasping the horror that there is no exit

Looking forward to doing Pint of Science in Parramatta on May 18 talking about the latest in exoplanet imaging!

things i wouldn’t want to hear in a rocket in space: 5. “houston we have a problem” 4. mysterious hissing 3. “give me a napkin quick. there’s a turd floating through the air.” 2. knocking on the airlock door 1. the outlook email sound

From fighting the cuts here I'm learning that the media is genuinely interested in what we do and write excellent articles that politicians read and then act upon. Is this something you can lobby for? There's still time for a change of mind?

I'm so so sorry - terrible news. A journalist recently asked me if I thought the UK would pull out of ESO in response to our current funding crisis. I said this would be the absolute last thing we stopped funding: membership is the top priority of the whole community as @eso.org is so awesome!

The Australian government have decided not to pursue membership of the European Southern Observatory, the world’s largest astronomy organisation and one where membership was the main request of the decadal review. What are we going to do?

imagine if the amount of money we are about to blow through to stabilise the oil economy, or even a fraction of it, had been spent on public transport, renewables, and cycle lanes

Please spread the word! In addition to becoming an important part of the MESA project, the person in this role would have opportunities to collaborate on scientific software across CCA, which has a vibrant, interactive community of scientists and code developers.