NEW: Hours before a new entry ban is supposed to go into effect, the federal government officially acknowledges for the first time that the restrictions do NOT apply to people who currently have H-1B visas. Link: www.uscis.gov/sites/defaul...

Also to clarify, the cost is $100K per year of the visa, so it is actually $300K for a 3-year visa. As postdocs cost about $100K/year, this fee doubles the cost of postdocs on H1-B visas.

I grew up in a VERY Catholic family, full of nuns, priests, & 2-3 masses / week. The use of Jesus to justify hate and anti-science policy is basically the opposite of what Jesus would want. It really irks me every time religion is invoked to hurt others.

Here's the complete quote from a new advisor on the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunizations Practices, Prof. Catherine Stein from Case Western.

A great, perhaps the best, >10 min song is "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone. Aside: it features strongly in the movie "Thomas Crown Affair" that Michael B. Jordan is remaking right now!! 😀 Yay! I listen to it when I need to feel motivated. open.spotify.com/track/5xRP5i...

1. UCLA is in negotiations with Trump. Now we know the demands. Trump wants a statement that UCLA does not recognize trans student identities, a ban on youth care at UCLA clinics, bathroom bans, and more. Students are fighting back. The latest from S. Baum. Subscribe to support our journalism.

My periodic reminder for #astrosci #astrodon #exoplanets Early Career Researchers to please, please, please have a simple web site with your current email address on it - rationale here: kenworthy.space/advice/

2yo and 4yo successfully vaccinated!! Oh thank goodness!

NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoc Fellowship apps are OPEN! 🔭 However, app only appears on research.gov if your role "Proposed Postdoctoral Fellow"! Click "Proposals", "Prepare and Submit Proposals", then "Prepare New". If you do not see NSF 22-621, change role to "Proposed Postdoctoral Fellow"!

We found a Florida grad student who was able to start it, so we can confirm the NSF AAPF is OPEN!! I will post instructions since it is actually challenging to navigate (none of the OSU grads had been able to figure it out)!

Okay, astro sky! 🔭 Has anyone successfully started a NSF AAPF application on grants.gov or research.gov? My advisee says it is grayed out/not available, but the program officer confirms that the AAPF should be open!

Great story about @capricephillips.bsky.social by @tatyanazaria.bsky.social in the OSU alumni magazine! 🔭 alumnimagazine.osu.edu/story/capric...

Here was guidance handed out yesterday at OSU to all grad studies chairs and coordinators.

Due to SB1, OSU announced that faculty and staff are not allowed to attend conferences to recruit students of particular protected classes, so they will prohibit booths at NSBP, SACNAS, etc. Please note, readers: SACNAS IS IN COLUMBUS THIS YEAR. 🫠

Did you know that the standard Snellen eye chart only uses nine letters, and five of those letters are LOPEZ? It is LOPEZs all the way down!

It's me again. Reminding you to register for our awesome event with our awesome panelists.

One of the awesome bits of supernova science I always love is when someone finds a new ancient record of a supernovae! In this case new Arabic records for SN1181 and SN1006 from poems! arxiv.org/abs/2509.04127

NASA centers and national labs can host Hubble/Einstein/Sagan Fellows now!! 🔭

New Mexico is overriding the federal government on the topic of COVID19 vaccines to ensure their residents can access them. States hold a tremendous amount of public health power. They should use it.

So… will there be an NSF GRFP call this year? 🧪🔭

I mask indoors, but I considered unmasking today while teaching. However, my C02 monitor showed it was 2000 ppm in the classroom the whole hour of my lecture! That is *really* bad for concentration and health. 😱

Reading about Rai Weiss after his passing, I enjoy this 2016 Science article the best: he dropped out of MIT his junior year to be with a love interest, only for them to break up quickly & flunk all his classes (& go onto his PhD, tenure, and the physics Nobel Prize). www.science.org/content/arti...

OSU is using SB1 as reason to prohibit any decorations in campus dorms besides school spirit. 🤯https://www.thelantern.com/2025/08/dorm-floor-decoration-limited-to-ohio-state-spirit-themes-partially-due-to-senate-bill-1/

In time for the new semester for us to show the latest discoveries and updates!

This will end the Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) program (schools with >25% Latino undergrads). For reference, current flagships that are HSIs include Arizona and Arizona State, 5 UCs (Irvine, Riverside, Merced, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz), Rutgers, U New Mexico & NM State, UT Austin & UT El Paso

Hi astro 🔭 sky, I heard that the NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoc Fellowship (AAPF) is not being offered this year. Is that correct? I know it was cut in the PBR, but I wasn't sure what that meant in practice. Typically app would have opened Aug 15. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

The OSU astro faculty have retreated. You can tell how high the retreat bar is given that we celebrated the existence of windows and comfy chairs.

NASA chief to defy agency’s charter, terminating science On August 14, 2025, NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy announced a new direction for NASA, eliminating science and focusing on spaceflight. Who cares if it violates the NASA charter? bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #nasa #ohwell

A faculty retreat should be at a spa, not a 6-hour meeting in another building on campus a few days before classes start. 🫠

I'm watching Northern Exposure currently, and a character mentioned Trump when justifying his own tax evasion and ethics. The episode is from 1991!

Tips and resources for those who would be interested in pursuing an astro PhD outside this US and applying for programs this Fall, put together by Floor Broekgaarden, Ana Lam, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Deana Tanguay! 🔭 docs.google.com/document/u/0...

Honored to celebrate 3 new astro doctors yesterday @joybee8.bsky.social, @capricephillips.bsky.social, @astroalison.bsky.social with @scottgaudi.bsky.social! Thanks to @jajohnson.bsky.social for lending me UC Santa Cruz regalia & to the OSU French & Italian prof who fixed my own backwards hood. 😂

I love this photo collection as a way to document the acts of science and scientists for the future. 🔭🧪

OSU astronomy undergrad alum Trinity Webb and OSU astro PhD student @astrojennifer.bsky.social led this Chandra program showing diffuse X-rays coincident with very young stars identified with JWST! Here's this great work: ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024ApJ....

I was so confused about the astronomer CEO. The company has no astronomy or astronomers, but it is called astronomer and is actually really closeby in Cincinnati? 🙃

Members of all but four cohorts of #CottrellScholars since 1994 were in Tucson this week to welcome a new group of outstanding teacher-scholars to this special community. Congratulations!

2025 Holland Awardees Enrico Ramirez Ruiz @ucsantacruz.bsky.social, Angel Martí, Rice University, and Kevin Hewitt @cise-atlantic.bsky.social @dalhousieu.bsky.social, gave talks about their research and mentorship, receiving a warm welcome as new members of the #CottrellScholar community.

Many programs/proposals have "to be determined" deadlines, but I am glad to see ROSES 2025 out after a 5-month delay (it typically comes out in February) and that programs like ADAP (the Astrophysics Data Analysis Program) are still listed even though the PRB want to cancel them. 🔭🧪

This paragraph in the @arstechnica.com story on why Duffy was selected to head NASA summarizes Duffy's experience and qualifications. 🫠 arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

Also to understand the magnitude of losing 2145 senior researchers: according to @aipstats.bsky.social, in 2024, there were 800 full-time astronomy faculty across the US. So loss of 2145 senior researchers (2.68 times all US astro faculty) is a catastrophic for space sciences. 🔭🧪

For anyone unfamiliar, the ranks of GS-13, GS-14, and GS-15 are equivalent of assistant, associate, and full professor ranks among NASA civil servants. This is the letting go of over 2,000 faculty-level researchers. 🔭🧪

NASA started in 1958, so to cut it to early 1960s levels is back to an era when NASA was just beginning. It is so alarming seeing many senior colleagues at NASA, international scientific leaders and innovators, saying their goodbyes on social media and e-mail.

"NASA science endeavors are exercises in long-term national commitment that pays dividends to the American people... This proposed budget ends nearly all future investments... dozens of... missions on a combined budget that is only 3% of NASA’s annual funding." 🔭 www.planetary.org/press-releas...

NASA is being told to cancel 19 *active* missions to save $6B, which looks to be less than the ICE *hiring/retention* budget going forward. I need people to let that sentence sink into their bones for a minute.

6-3 in favor of Trump in the birthright citizenship case— which at this stage was only about about nationwide injunctions. But Sotomayor brings it back to what this is really about—letting Trump get away with lawlessness. Her dissent is another banger which she is reading from the bench:

Sotomayor issues a blistering dissent that states plainly that this decision renders constitutional protections meaningless.

Important point about all the major changes at NASA -- it is all being done without a Congressionally approved administrator. 🔭🚀🪐

Just saw the exciting news that Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (prof at @ucscscience.bsky.social and my PhD advisor) was named the president of the @astrosociety.org!! 🎉🔭 news.ucsc.edu/2025/06/enri...

🔭🧪 Once more for the morning crowd—HUD secretary, like a vulture, is deciding to kick NSF out of its building with NO plan for NSF staff. This is just after forcing staff to be in person at work. The guy is planning on having a private elevator and gym, among other perks, according to AFGE

In the today times, it is so nice to have something to look forward to!