We have had an informal policy of allowing an invited speaker to defer to our next conference if they recently gave birth. But we don't rescind the invitation; we just assume it will likely be turned down and offer the ability to shift to next time.

I'm pretty sure that an essential component of most art is that a person did it with some kind of intention. I can't imagine people having the same interest in a book or song if it wasn't made by anybody. But time may prove me wrong.

Paul Duffell (sitting, left) with Ranadeep Dastidar (standing, right) at the beginning of his thesis defense, titled "Investigating Observational Signatures for Non-thermal Radiation Processes in Gamma Ray Bursts"

Congratulations to my student Ranadeep Dastidar for a successful defense of his thesis!

I want a phone that is impervious to all the elements of the periodic table.

I don't mind xi, it's zeta that's the awful one in my opinion.

It's ok if I use the code to train some AI right?

I don't understand how anyone is comfortable doing that next to strangers. When I'm seated next to a stranger I'm neurotically terrified that I'll accidentally touch them.

lol that essay was probably written by a LLM anyway.

I was rejected by every grad school I applied to, 3 times. Finally, one year, one institution (NYU) took a chance on me. Now I'm a professor of Physics & Astronomy at Purdue.

After reading a bunch of proposals, I would like to say that somewhere (ideally early on) you should say what you're actually going to do. I've read an astonishing number of proposals that read like "we're great at doing all of this science, please give us money".

Needs more Mel.

I always think errors result in the coolest images. Definitely true in my code.

Seeing as how we find ourselves awake in the middle of the night for various reasons, we might try to check it out ourselves!

Arguably papers like that are easier to get published, because they're not making any controversial statements that can upset a referee.

Near the halfway-point in my GR course, I am officially done with "Kerr week". That's a rough metric but we all got through it together! 🎢

I think there are some people who code for a living but don't actually like doing it. I think if you find yourself wanting to offload all of your job to AI, you are probably not doing what you enjoy, and maybe should find another line of work.

I don't hate posters, but I do hate that they are now treated like a high-pressure job interview for junior scientists.

Also when a student has a polished presentation on every section and they won't let me skip ahead or ask questions about one plot until they've finished their full presentation.

Of course, I do all of these tasks every time. For what is parenting if not capitulating to every single one of your daughter's whims?

My afternoon routine with my daugther (who only can say a few words): First, she demands that we each put on lei's, then I need to wear a baseball cap made to look like a dinosaur, then she needs to hold a small statue of an owl, then I need to put on an oven mitt. Every time we come home.

Very surreal to see the names of people I know personally in these files, even when it's just things like this shortlist.

Every prospective postdoc I talk to is experiencing the same thing. It's not over til the Hubble cascade this month, but things are not looking good out there.

I haven't! I will take a look.

Love these results. I've already sent Rana to build off-axis models with predictions for sky images. We will email you once we are further along!

Halfway through feeding my baby, she starts pointing ominously at the clock, making me feel like I'm forgetting an appointment or something. But no, she just really likes clocks.

Logo for The Astrophysics Podcast. Basically it's the name of the podcast above a glowing, fiery ball that looks kind of like the sun. Actually it's a hydrodynamic simulation of a supernova remnant exhibiting hydrodynamic instability.

Photo of Dr. Gurtina Besla, an astrophysicist from the University of Arizona.

🔭🧪

The latest episode of the #astrophysics #podcast is now available! I discuss interesting ways of learning about dark matter in the Milky Way with Dr. Gurtina Besla from the University of Arizona:

rss.com/podcasts/ast...

You should just get chatGPT to read it for you.

Can you come run our faculty meetings?

Pretty much all AI marketing is based on the assumption that you hate doing your job.

"You're a songwriter -- don't you hate having to write songs all day?"

FUNKY SMUNKY, Y'ALL!

Your children will have great childhoods and lives just by virtue of having you as a mom.