This is essentially true for all of federally funded science at this point. 🙃

And it really is a multi-decade thing.

A wild thread:

490 million years ago, the seafloor which would become the city of Baltimore was a serpentinite-hosted hydrothermal vent complex.

Those vents laid the ultramafic structures that would, in 1812, be discovered as America's first chromite mine.

when the meteorologist in the upper midwest says, "it's not ideal" you know you are fucked

Ohh that hurts.

If cyclists were permitted to paint-ball cars that drove within 1.5m of them you’d see a far greater reduction in close passes than you do by saying, “Please don’t terrify us or kill us.”

It’s a shame that some people are more protective of their vehicles than lives of other humans.

Oof, that's ROUGH. I've had to abort a couple of dives for various reasons, but nothing as dramatic as that. Was the ROV eventually recovered?

Us too, Bluesky. Us too.

Then let us descend like scavengers and eviscerate its bloated corpse so something new may grow in its place.

Exactly.

For that matter, why does one of my parking permits have to be part of an AI platform? The parking system has worked perfectly fine as a regular database. Databases don't hallucinate . . .

I'm still trying to understand why on Earth Chipotle would need a chatbot, let alone an AI chatbot.

Getting it to write JavaScript is pretty funny though.

Self care today came in the form of making a pan of butter mochi for a friend's farewell party tomorrow, and plenty of time sitting with my snuggly old man cat while he naps.

Astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch in their orange astronaut suits as they sit inside the side of a helicopter after it has landed

LOL, trying to stay offline and do my work, and friends are sending me

"LOOK AT THIS NEW PIC!" texts ....

This one is worth it.

First PoC and first woman to go around another world. Don't stop talking about this point. It's important.

#ArtemisII

This is absolutely infuriating and completely idiotic. An estimated 95,000 scientists and researchers have left federal agencies since Trump returned to the White House. These are the people tracking hurricanes, studying pediatric cancer, and modeling the climate tipping points that determine whether we can still prevent catastrophe. We lost them because this administration defunded their work, shuttered their offices, and made clear that finding out the truth is no longer a government priority.

Why spend years getting trained in research, building a story, just to watch capricious decisions, not based on science or merit, destroy years of your hard work and career?

I feel this deeply.

🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Pretty much.

Doesn't help that I live very close to DC. I'm ready to relocate west. Very west.

Earth appearing as a bright crescent behind the Moon’s surface

OH. MY. GOD.

THIS IS THE EARTHSET PHOTO FROM ARTEMIS II. IM SPEECHLESS.

Quick - how much can we shuffle the Earth’s tectonic plates in 40 minutes?

Why are scientists, particularly geologists, so excited to get new images and human observations of the far side of the moon?

A planets geology is the ultimate “crime scene”. Let me explain….

#Artemis ⚒️🧪

Holy shit. This is like if a foreign country bombed MIT. Sharif University is the top science and engineering institution in Iran, and one of the top in the world. Absolutely unconscionable www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

I once got scolded by the prof in a seminar on just war theory for asking "What do you do if your competent authorities are incompetent?"* But I maintain it's a damn good question.

Journey to the Moon - NASA Artemis II lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, 2026, and will reach the lunar sphere of influence—when the Moon's gravity exerts more force on the Orion spacecraft than the Ear...

FYI, this gallery has all the photos NASA is sharing from Artemis II in one place, with descriptions.

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

More context on this #Artemis II image:

* This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right

* The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon:
☀️🌍🚀🌕

THIS.

I work in a fairly well-known lab in my field and it's definitely not what you'd expect it to be, and I'm pushing so hard for better.

I'll just leave it at that.

We shouldn't have to rely on gifts like these to replace things that our governments are ultimately responsible for. While this is amazing, it shouldn't be the norm.

That said, infrastructure is something every government should be putting money into, and not just to build and decide is done.

Infrastructure needs maintenance and upkeep. Neglecting it costs everyone so much more in the end than continuing to invest (PROPERLY) in it.

I am SO here for the infrastructure upkeep. What a great gift to the people. : )

The reason the Middle East has so much oil is the same reason it’s all stuck there now A continental collision trapped oil within what is today Iran. The same collision explains why that oil is trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz now

A continental collision trapped oil within what is today Iran. The same collision explains why that oil is trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz now

1/2

This is a good write up from the AMS

The AMS has detected a measurable, unexplained change in fireball data.

"After years of stable baseline activity, something appears to have shifted in Q1 2026, and the signal is consistent across multiple metrics."

☄️📉 🧪🔭
#Meteors
#Fireball
#Bolide

try and imagine a bigger W as an academic