Major update from #SCIMaP, including
* Impact analysis of White House's FY 2027 proposed cuts to NIH and NSF.
* Fact sheets showing impacts in Congressional districts.
* New analysis on how baseline science funding benefits the economy and jobs in local communities.
More via scienceimpacts.org
IF YOU BUILD A BIKE LANE THAT DOESN'T CONNECT TO ANOTHER BIKE LANE THEN YOU DIDN'T BUILD A BIKE LANE
There is no line connecting "chaos"
(popular realization that since 1947 physics has had 3 legs: experiment, simulation, theory) and the day's techno fascists (any advance in our understanding of the world can be used to better or lives, or to commit new kinds of crimes).
None.
Preceding "chaos" there was "gauge invariance" in quantum field theory, to many of us as important as "chaos". But guess what, that never became a popular craze 😂
I remember 😜. chaosbook.org
Artifact of our colleague Jim Yorke using "Chaos" in a title of a math article that had nothing to do with chaos.
Things about fads is that they come an go, but good science is forever. It motivated a few smart kids to become scientists, and that we are grateful for.
This week is infertility awareness week.
Kallmann Syndrome. More rounds of fertility treatment than I can count (high double digits). Six pregnancies. Losses from 8-22 weeks. One amazing five year old.
This journey is really hard, but you are not alone 🧡
This composite black-and-white photograph with an inset movie poster honors Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (née Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962), the Danish author who wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen. In the main portrait, Blixen appears in her later years, seated indoors against patterned wallpaper with a framed painting visible behind her. She wears a dark ribbed cardigan over a light turtleneck sweater, her hair neatly styled. With a gentle, knowing half-smile and direct gaze toward the viewer, she holds a small dark object in both hands, her expression conveying quiet intelligence, warmth, and literary poise. Overlaid in the upper right is the iconic poster for the 1985 Academy Award-winning film Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, directed by Sydney Pollack and based on her bestselling 1937 memoir.The layered composition blends personal portrait with cinematic legacy, evoking a mood of elegant reflection and enduring storytelling. Blixen’s key achievements include her vivid accounts of running a coffee plantation in colonial Kenya (1914–1931), captured in Out of Africa as well as Seven Gothic Tales and the story “Babette’s Feast” (later an Oscar-winning film). Her lyrical prose, written in both English and Danish, made her an international literary icon and two-time Nobel Prize nominee. This image powerfully symbolizes her life bridging Africa and Europe, forever linking her to themes of love, loss, and the African landscape that defined her voice.
Danish author Karen Blixen (known by several pen names including Isak Dinesen) was born #OTD in 1885.
Best known for 𝘖𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢, an account of her life while in Kenya, and for one of her stories, 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦'𝘴 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵. Both were adapted as films & each won Academy Awards. #booksky #litsky #filmsky
A black and white photo of Fermilab’s first Director, the physicist Robert R. Wilson. He is seen from the shoulder’s up, resting his head against his hand as if he was looking up from working on a hard problem at his desk. Wilson has glasses, a while collared shirt, and a dark necktie.
Robert Wilson, Fermilab's first director, testified in front of the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy #OTD in 1969.
In making the case for building Fermilab he delivered a lovely and memorable justification for a national commitment to funding basic science. 🧪 ⚛️ (1/n)
Image: Fermilab
A congressional hearing covered the rise of paper mills and the costs of open-access publishing — but there was little agreement on what reform would entail
go.nature.com/4to6MkE
There’s already a date onboard for a general strike
May 1st, National Strike
No work, no school, no shopping
www.commondreams.org/news/no-king...
I probably spend way too much time laboring over things like photo selection, but when you have a playground like AIP's Segrè collection it's irresistible. I've always thought young JRO has a Bob Dylan vibe, and this parallel was too good to pass up.
Google SNL Alexa Silver 🪙
Escher-esque staircase.
Ford ES&T giving off Escher vibes.
My latest #OpenAccess column in EMBO Reports discusses the perfect storm of hypercompetition, score compression and AI co-authorship for grant success rates, turning prestigious funding schemes into functional lotteries. 1/
A vibrant color studio portrait of Carolyn Widney Greider, the American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate who discovered the enzyme telomerase and shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for revealing how chromosomes are protected from shortening during cell division. In this warm, professional head-and-shoulders photograph, she faces the camera directly with a bright, genuine smile that reveals her teeth and lights up her eyes, conveying warmth, intelligence, and quiet confidence. Her shoulder-length, wavy blonde hair frames her face softly. She wears a bright turquoise ribbed knit cardigan with a draped collar over a black top, accented by small blue stud earrings. The background is a soft, out-of-focus gradient of blues and greens that keeps the focus entirely on her approachable presence. The overall composition is clean and intimate. The mood is one of joyful accomplishment and scientific dedication, powerfully symbolizing Greider’s groundbreaking contributions to molecular biology, our understanding of aging, cancer, and cellular immortality, and her role as a trailblazing woman in STEM.
Molecular biologist Carolyn Greider was born #OTD in 1961.
She shared the 2009 #Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the enzyme telomerase & how chromosomes are protected by telomeres. This has 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 implications for the fields of #aging and #cancer research. #WomenInSTEM
31 consecutive days where domestic wind and solar generation covered 100 percent of national electricity demand with zero fossil fuel input at any hour of any day.
Danish grid operator Energinet confirmed it.
Credit @joelthedane.bsky.social matr.net/news/denmark... #energysky
Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen" is one of the best plays involving science to have ever graced the stage. Chris Sinclair catches up with Frayn about a new revivial of the play at Hampstead Theatre in London. ⚛️🧪
physicsworld.com/a/michael-fr...
Dariia Yehorova preparing to defend her thesis.
Starting the PhD defense of Dariia Yehorova , the 8th PhD student from my group to defend their thesis, and my first GT student to do so at the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry .
Jupiter Captured by the Juno spacecraft!
Celebrating Dariia's defense.
Lynn + Dariia after her defense.
Celebrating the Lady of the Hour.
Congratulations Dariia Yehorova on a great thesis defense, making you the 8th student from our lab to defend their thesis.
A black and white photo of Stanislaw Ulam. He is seated, visible from the chest up, wearing a light gray suit and holding a cigarette to this lips with two finger on his right hand. Ulam is looking directly at the photographer. The left half of his face is partly in shadow, he has dark eyes, and there is a slight wave to his short hair. The photo is tilted a bit, off-kilter.
Mathematician Stanislaw Ulam was born #OTD in 1909. He co-discovered cellular automata with von Neumann, proposed the idea of nuclear pulse propulsion behind Project Orion, and, regrettably, pitched the idea that led Teller to the hydrogen bomb. 🧪 ⚛️
Image: Amer. Phil. Soc.
Gauge theory could reduce the number of qubits required for fault-tolerant quantum computers. 🧪⚛️ ow.ly/T4XN50YIfKu
NEW: We’re joined by 75 organizations in calling on Meta to cancel plans to install facial recognition technology on their “smart” glasses.
This tech would allow anyone who wears the glasses to identify and spy on those around them.
Meta must stop this all-out assault on our privacy and safety.
2,599 applicants offered NSF GRFP awards! Congrats to all the NSF GRFP award winners and recipients of honorable mention. https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList
Massive and important positive news...
#NSF #GRFP awards are out.
2,599 awards!
+
1,440 Honorable Mentions.
A significant boost from last year.
Congratulations to the winners (and HM-s)!
& many thanks to the reviewers & program officers who made this possible.
www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...
Definitely excited to see European governments pushing Linux adoption, but what I *really* want to see some government or institution do is fund a really good open-source alternative to the Google Office suite. (Yes I know there are some existing office solutions, no they don't suit my needs).
London #neuroscience people you may like this. We're hosting a series of talks at Imperial & Crick on how to get experiment and theory working together better. Each session will have a talk around this and extended networking / group discussion on the questions raised. Plus, free food!
🤖🧠🧪
This looks amazing! I would 100% apply if I weren't too senior. Apply to work with the fine folks at @projectdrawdown.bsky.social! 🧪🌊
Here are three podcasts I have contributed to this academic year. some might find them interesting! #1 on representation in neuroscience
This is typical healthcare in America. Oregon ambulance hits a cyclist. Then they charge him 1,800 for the ride to the hospital. Free Luigi.