Will Clarkson
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drcheers.bsky.social
Will Clarkson
@drcheers.bsky.social
31 followers 39 following 2 posts
Astronomer, dad. Faculty at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
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Reposted by Will Clarkson
tedpavlic.bsky.social
#Science in America right now – Half of the tenure-track jobs in math have been lost between 2024 and 2025 (150 to 70) and the Simons Foundation is funding 1/7 of the remaining jobs. Science is being held together with philanthropy and dental floss. 🧪
issues.org/american-sci...
“There Are Two Possible Futures for American Science.”
The Simons Foundation president talks about science philanthropy, the future of the research enterprise, and remaining hopeful.
issues.org
January 9, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
dangaristo.bsky.social
Breaking: NSF is suspending roughly 300 grants with UCLA, following a DOJ finding on Tuesday that the university violated Title VI by "creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students."
July 31, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
leastactionhero.bsky.social
einstein sent this to curie in 1911 when she was being harassed by tabloids. it contains everything you’d want in such a letter:

(1) your haters are trash
(2) you’re a baller, a true queen
(3) i have determined the statistical law of motion of the diatomic molecule in planck’s radiation field 🧪⚛️
Prague, 23 November 1911 Highly esteemed Mrs. Curie, Do not laugh at me for writing you without having anything sensible to say. But I am so enraged by the base manner in which the public is presently daring to concern itself with you!? that I absolutely must give vent to this feeling. However, I am convinced that you consistently despise this rabble, whether it obsequiously lavishes respect on you or whether it attempts to satiate its lust for sensationalism! I am impelled to tell you how much I have come to admire your intellect, your drive, and your honesty, and that I consider myself lucky to have made your personal acquaintance in Brussels. Anyone who does not number among these reptiles is certainly happy, now as before, that we have such personages among us as you, and Langevin(3) too, real people with whom one feels privileged to be in contact. If the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then simply don't read that hogwash, but rather leave it to the reptile for whom i
June 27, 2024 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
sarahkendrew.bsky.social
Check out this incredible image of the nebula forming around a pair of Wolf Rayet (= very massive) stars - taken with #JWST + MIRI at 7, 15 and 25 µm. So gorgeous. 🔭
astroryan.bsky.social Ryan White @astroryan.bsky.social · Jul 22
Exciting news! My second first-author paper is out on the arXiv today!! arxiv.org/abs/2507.14610

We present a brand new JWST image of the Apep colliding wind binary in the mid-infrared, and we study what this nebula can tell us about the THREE stars in it's centre. Read on for more... 1/?🔭🧪
The image shows a false-colour image of the Apep colliding wind nebula as taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the mid-infrared. In the centre of the image, there is an orange-coloured spiral coil of dust, not dissimilar in shape from a snail's shell. There are two concentric repeats of the coil that are larger and encompass the inner shell, and these further out shells of dust are coloured red and get dimmer as they get further from the centre of the image. These far out coils of dust look somewhat like translucent spheres. At the very centre of the image is a small spikey object which are the three stars in Apep that create and hide behind the dust shells. There are stars scattered throughout the image, each with a snowflake-like 'point spread function' that spreads the central brightness of the stars into diffraction spikes. Image credit: Shashank Dholakia for R M T White et al 2025. 'The Serpent Eating Its Own Tail: Dust Destruction in the Apep Colliding-Wind Nebula'. PI: Yinuo Han.
July 24, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
megschwamb.bsky.social
Nice write up about Rubin Observatory - it really is the telescope that’s about to change astronomy for ever observer.co.uk/news/science...
The telescope that’s about to change astronomy for ever
The Rubin Observatory in Chile is set to reveal unfathomable numbers of galaxies, asteroids, comets and more
observer.co.uk
June 30, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
aussiastronomer.bsky.social
PhDs in astrophysics are also suspended, with a 'commitment to merge' with another program in the next academic year.
rlspang.bsky.social Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · Jun 30
So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees
Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.
www.ipm.org
June 30, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
brettmorr.is
The @vrubinobs.bsky.social telescope was designed and built with great care and consideration over decades, so we knew what these images would look like.

But you can’t ever anticipate what they’ll feel like. 🧪🔭🥹
vrubinobs.bsky.social NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social · Jun 23
Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory!

Can you guess these regions of sky?

This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪

#RubinFirstLook
ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream
A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. The image focuses on a collection of interacting galaxies connected by delicate streams of stars. At top center lies a large elliptical galaxy that is dense and smooth, like a polished stone glowing with golden light. Like delicate spider silk or stretched taffy, these stellar bridges link the large elliptical to the few larger galaxies beneath, evidence of past collisions. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black. A cosmic tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the upper right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its soft, pinkish gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark, finger-like veins of dust that divide it into three parts. It radiates a gentle, misty glow, diffuse and soft like the warmth of breath on a cold hand. To the lower left, the much larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout where new stars are born. Both nebulae are embedded in a soft tan backdrop of gas that is brighter on the left than on the right, etched with dark tendrils of dust and sprinkled with the pinpricks of millions of stars. A sprawling, textured field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with the delicate smudges and glowing cores of galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. To the lower left is a region filled with the hundreds of golden glittering gems of a distant galaxy cluster. In the foreground, below and right of center, two blue spiral galaxies look like eyes beneath the entangled mass of a triple galaxy merger in the upper right. A few bright blue points of foreground stars pierce the glittering tapestry. All throughout the image, thousands of galaxies gather in clusters or are spread throughout, like glittering gems strewn on a table. Some are sharp-edged and spiral, like coiled ribbons; others round and diffuse, like polished pebbles. Still others are just smudges of various colors against the black of space. The background is peppered with pinpoint stars in reds, yellows, and blues, crisp against the velvet black.
June 23, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
dangaristo.bsky.social
BREAKING: Judge denies NSF's 15% indirect rate plan. Like the DOE and NIH attempts, it too has now been rejected by courts. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
June 20, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
jluastro.bsky.social
NASA Goddard is pushing through a 48% staff reduction!!! This could impact the upcoming Roman Space Telescope and many other future Astro missions. News coverage seems not sensational enough. Are we really going to let NASA (as we know it) die quietly? www.space.com/space-explor...
NASA begins push to slash workforce with more staff buyouts, early retirements as budget cuts loom
NASA employees have until July 25 to decide if they'll stay or go.
www.space.com
June 20, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Will Clarkson
lisaloe.bsky.social
This tweet sent out 14 hours BEFORE the crash needs to be immortalized in stone.

Or on a plaque in every ATC tower.

Or on a disclaimer before every Mayday: Air Disaster episode.

Or on an Amber Alert type system to every American.

Or on a stamp.

Or maybe currency.

Something.
Tweet sent out 14 hours BEFORE the DC mid air collision by Thomas Schaller on X: “An FAA employee I know confirms agency already lacks sufficient air traffic controllers. The so-called "buyouts" and other attacks on federal employees won't help. Remember that fact when the flight delays (crashes?) commence and Trumpers start falsely blaming DEl or Biden. 08:06 • 1/29/25 • 1.4M Views”
January 30, 2025 at 10:40 PM
drcheers.bsky.social
Astro hive mind: is there a straightforward way to export a cutout of a color HiPS mosaic in a format suitable for printing as a poster?
December 30, 2023 at 6:33 PM