Andrew Cole

Seems like a reasonable number have icy planets too (modulo annoying microlensing statistical selection)!

Just in the middle of fighting this fight, again

Stealing this quote: "Comets are like cats: they have tails and they do as they please"

Reposting because I assume that the fundamental arguments are no different whether the stadium is in the US or Australia...

Does that make him a Gnu York Yankee?

More and more these days, science communication is about correcting misinformation. Luckily, this post does so very well!

Thread.

Discovering an old Tom Lehrer record in my parents' collection when I was about 10 set the tone for my whole worldview... this is a great anecdote.

Public engagement cannot just be the job of a couple of celebrity professors at Princeton and a small cohort of impoverished contingents whose projects can't be sustained against the cruel winds of adjunctcy.

It has to be a major priority for the whole field.

Covid on the increase in #Tasmania, along with flu. "The best thing people can do is stay up to date with vaccinations and stay home while unwell." Consistent message that vaccines are "a simple, safe and effective way to protect you and your family...." #vaccine #health

Scientists look to black holes to know exactly where we are in the Universe. But phones and wifi are blocking the view

Dr Lucia McCallum shares "If we want satellite navigation to work, our supermarkets to be stocked and our online money transfers arriving safely, we need to make sure we have a clear view of black holes in distant galaxies – and that means clearing up the radio highway."

Read more: utas.au/hd

Congratulations, Matt! Awesome to see hard work and good leadership rewarded.

Huge congratulations to @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social Director Prof. Matt King @deformedearth.bsky.social and Chief Investigator Prof. Anya Reading on being awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship!

@utas.edu.au @imas-utas.bsky.social | ARC | www.arc.gov.au/australian-l...

Project details below ⬇️

Exoplanets are planets outside our Solar System 🌞 But how many are there? What do they look like? How do we find them? Do they contain other life 👾? We have so many questions!! Fortunately, Dr Erica Thygesen is here to tell us all about these magnificent far-off worlds 🪐 🔭 🛰️

BEAST FROM THE DEEP - Rare 3-metre ‘doomsday fish’ found on remote beach A massive deep-sea "doomsday" oarfish has washed up on a remote beach in Tasmania.

Happy doomsday fish day to all who celebrate. In news totally unrelated to apocalyptic portents, the Premier will address the media at 9.45... #politas #auspol

Well fore-warned is fore-armed 😊. Some new work from a UTas PhD project on the motion of the Large Magellanic Cloud is on the way as well. That will improve our understanding of Local Group Dynamics even more.

YMMV. In my extended family the "correct" course of action depends entirely on if the offspring concerned would view said apparel as a cool/genuine expression of parental support, or as a cringe attempt to curry favour. But we've never had anyone close to a state championship or anything like that.

Sure, there are caveats, but for me the operating position is getting closer and closer to "there are no legitimate uses for ChatGPT in college classes," and I'm not really encountering any compelling arguments to the contrary.

Devo's version of "Satisfaction"

Kosmos 482 Descent Craft reentry forecasts [PERIODICALLY UPDATED] classified military Space (spy satellites) and Missiles

New day, new #reentry forecast for the #Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, a failed 1972 Soviet Venus lander set to reenter in a few days.
Latest #TUDAT reentry forecast: 10 May +/- 21h (nominal: 7:51 UTC +/- 20.6h).
Details in blogpost: sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosm...

Objectively, being able to make things without AI makes us better at making things than the people who can't.

I'm better than the kids who copied my homework, and you're the same person pulling the same crap 30 years later.

I believe the statistics say it's worse now, but when my family came down with norovirus in 2006, the doctor definitely said "you have the cruise ship virus". It's the kind of experience that sticks in the memory...

Australia could be taking advantage of the millions of students now too scared to go to university in America.
Instead both Dutton and Albanese are threatening to *massively reduce* intl student numbers.

The Apollo core rope memory and women's heritage on the Moon Between 1969 and 1972 there were six Apollo human spaceflight missions to the Moon, each leaving a complex site behind. A common joke now is...

Men walked on the Moon - but women made the guidance computers that got them there and back. At the landing sites and command module crash sites the computers are evidence of a unique women's lunar heritage. 🧪🏺

The Douglas Adams quote, as always, sums it up pretty well!

Opinion | The Tech Fantasy That Powers A.I. Is Running on Fumes (Gift Article) A.I. is just what we need in the post-fact era: less research and more predicting what we want to hear.

This piece from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social starts with a bang and just gets better and better. Gift link.

Exactly- it can be applied to so many things!

Shambolic - adjective (informal, British): chaotic, disorganised, or mismanaged.

Very glad that the Australian government has announced they will extend funding of the Anglo-Australian Telescope until at least 2027. So many surveys depend on this facility - which for so long has been a vehicle for bringing wonderful astronomers to Australia to use it and growing our community.

Hi Australian Researchers. I have a plan. Let's thank the amazing @arc-tracker.bsky.social for a decade of selfless work by nominating them for a Eureka Prize (Leadership in science). Are you with me? If so, repost this. Please also reply and state your support for this quest. We can do this people.