The Carnegie EPL Fellowship is officially accepting applications!! We invite theorists, observers, and experimentalists from across Earth, planetary, and exoplanet sciences to apply. Feel free to DM/email me if you have questions! Due date is Nov 1st
Something to consider as you read about the big Venus news today: there is an unfortunate disconnect between what we do as scientists and how "science" is communicated to everyone.
A thread.
scicomm: JWST is the biggest telescope to be sent to space it will help find life and tell us how the universe started isn’t it amazing???
astronomers: my entire career hinges on this bucket of single point failures I’m so nervous I’m crying and throwing up everywhere
🔵 Because the black hole is about 27 000 light-years away from Earth, it appears to us to have about the same size in the sky as a doughnut on the Moon. Squint to see the 🍩 in this video 🎥 ESO/M. Kornmesser/L. Calçada
I'll probably regret this but I need to get this off my chest: I don't care if Pluto is a planet or not, because that is literally the least interesting thing about it (thread)
let's face it, astronomy doesn't have too many practical purposes in society
but what it does better than almost anything else is inspiration and showing people that we are a part of something bigger than us, that there are big ideas out there
taking that away is pretty shitty
It's official! I am thrilled to announce that I will be starting as a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science Earth and Planets Laboratory (
@CarnegiePlanets
) in Washington DC next fall!!
1/7
One of the rarest clouds ever. This was taken over Battle Mountain, Nevada, USA on 8 March 2018.
It's called a horseshoe cloud for obvious reasons.
#nvwx
Credit goes to eagle-eye Christy Grimes.
But therein lies the disconnect: despite what many think, science doesn't provide THE answers - it never has - it provides *an* answer, and a temporary one at that, that may be falsified later. There is inherent uncertainty and skepticism.
I will never understand people who sit at window seats and NEVER OPEN THEIR WINDOW THE ENTIRE FLIGHT
I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE SLEEPING IT’S BEAUTIFUL OUT THERE OPEN THE WINDOW AND WITNESS THE MAJESTY OF THE BASIN AND RANGE PROVINCE
The news is not that there may be life on Venus, but rather that this new discovery will spur further research on our hellish sister planet, its atmosphere, its surface, its formation, its evolution, and yes, its potential habitability. It's an exciting time!
(end)
if you’re worried about PhD admissions just wait until you hear about college admissions - some of my parent friends have older kids who are getting college acceptances and some of them have literally started companies and written books - as high schoolers!
Yesterday I was part of a discussion on paper writing and I would like to share a tidbit that has stayed with me for many years regarding writing a paper's introduction:
Write it like you're crafting the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Fun fact: "Physics" is named after Lenny Physics who in 1903 dropped an apple and discovered gravity, which itself is named after his buddy, Billy Gravity
1/ *NEW* This is not an ethereal landscape of time-forgotten tombs, but rather a haunting Halloween portrait of the Pillars of Creation, taken by Webb's mid-infrared instrument (
#MIRI
).
Read more:
Apparently a thing some people routinely do is make a bunch of slides and then just roughly remember what they were going to say in response to each slide without speaker notes, I cannot imagine being able to do that.
For those freaking out over vaccine passports: I’m getting my tetanus booster tomorrow, without which I literally cannot get my green card in this country
In 2021 I will stop apologizing when my toddler interrupts my zoom calls because frankly you all should be grateful that you get to witness the objectively cutest toddler in existence
I'm feeling a bit stressed out lately and need to shine a light on an issue that maybe others in our shoes are feeling as well. In addition to the "normal stresses" of academia, those of us who are not citizens of the US have additional worries, especially now. /ramble thread
This is bad. ICE just told students here on student visas that if their school is going online-only this fall, the students must depart the United States and cannot remain through the fall semester.
These are not failures of science/scientists, nor do they reveal some flaw in science - this is what science actually is. These discussions will lead to new studies that will in turn generate more discussions and possible falsifications, ultimately taking us closer to the truth
I really need people (mostly men) to understand that “expulsion from a field” is actually an extremely light “punishment” for the damage sexual harassers do, and it’s the LEAST we can do
We can’t turn back time but we are obligated to stop further harm
thinking about this dumbass alien from "signs" (m. night shyamalan, 2002) who was allergic to water & got beaten to death with a bat by joaquin phoenix
It is bittersweet that I announce that after months of uncertainty and stress I have received approval for my H1b visa, which will take effect in a few months. I will be able to stay in the US and start my work as a Sagan Fellow
@ucsc
.
Have you seen this incredible comparison of the same star with
#jwst
and Spitzer?!
*I can't take credit for this, but I don't know who to whom to give credit.
But when we come to the very edge of our understanding, as is the case of new discoveries in astronomy, the sensitivity of the climate, and new viruses, the true scientific process is revealed: a messy molasses of competing ideas, studies, and arguments.
Me: hey do you want to watch something on Netflux?
Them: sure! wait don’t you mean Net-
Me: *opens youtube and puts on 8 hr radiative transfer lecture*
Are you an astronomer who’s having a baby? Here are some astronomical names for your child:
Nebula
Nova
Andromeda
Eris
Venus
Quasar
CCD
Seeing
HD 189733b
IRAF
Extinction
Zerodur
every time some twitter rando goes off on a tirade about scientists being involved in grand conspiracies I think about the fact that we can’t even agree on what to call the most common type of planet in the galaxy
The vast, VAST, majority of studies either disprove a previous study or extend our current understanding only slightly. From the outside, this may make science and scientists look untrustworthy, either due to incompetence or worse, malice
That English-as-a-second-language feeling when you finally hear how a word is pronounced and it’s actually that other word that you’ve heard lots of times and you’re all ohhhhh
it happened to me with hors d'oeuvres
We may not all have the same idea regarding why PH3 exists in Venus's atmosphere, but we all agree that Venus exists and that it has an atmosphere of mostly CO2. In other words, scientists disagreeing on some details of a topic is not an excuse to throw out all of science.
The only reason why it seems like science provides THE answer is that some of those temporary answers have been very hard to falsify, even after centuries, so that they become an everyday phenomenon and an accepted part of general knowledge, i.e. "truth"
Whether it's astronomy, climate change, or COVID, science is often seen as the answer to our problems, a definitive truth that can guide our actions. While some scientific studies may, in the long run, be seen as providing the "right" solution, these are few and far between
I'm super excited to announce that I have accepted a Sagan Fellowship
@ucsc
starting this summer! I have had the privilege to work with several current UCSC folks and UCSC alumni already and it's great to join the family. Looking forward to it!
We had some family friends over this evening and they were super excited to ask me about JWST, and were blown away when they found out that I was going to get data with it
Sometimes I just have to take a step back and realize how lucky I am to do this job