Adrian Fraser
@fraserlaser.bsky.social
I study turbulence in stars and other things at CU-Boulder but really I’m just here for some funny posts. NSF AAPF fellow on the job market
Hey astrophysicists, a presence (absence) of KH billows in some astrophysical shear flow doesn't always imply a lower (upper) bound on the local magnetic field strength! See arxiv.org/abs/2510.031...
Nonmodal growth and optimal perturbations in magnetohydrodynamic shear flows
In astrophysical shear flows, the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability is generally suppressed by magnetic tension provided a sufficiently strong streamwise magnetic field. This is often used to infer up...
arxiv.org
October 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Hey astrophysicists, a presence (absence) of KH billows in some astrophysical shear flow doesn't always imply a lower (upper) bound on the local magnetic field strength! See arxiv.org/abs/2510.031...
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
Trump is pronouncing "acetaminophen" the right way.
by Ezra Klein
by Ezra Klein
September 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Trump is pronouncing "acetaminophen" the right way.
by Ezra Klein
by Ezra Klein
Friends, colleagues, my heart is heavy as I share with you some deeply saddening news: “asymptotically spicy” will not, in fact, survive to final publication of this manuscript. But it will live on in the arXiv preprint, at least
I’ve been looking at salt fingers in a particular limit where it becomes technically correct to describe the flow as “asymptotically spicy” and thus I am of course obligated to somehow state this in the paper
September 15, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Friends, colleagues, my heart is heavy as I share with you some deeply saddening news: “asymptotically spicy” will not, in fact, survive to final publication of this manuscript. But it will live on in the arXiv preprint, at least
Where do people study MHD turbulence in The Netherlands? Asking for a friend looking for a job
September 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Where do people study MHD turbulence in The Netherlands? Asking for a friend looking for a job
Like most modern astrophysicists, Trump is quickly realizing that he can’t keep neglecting magnetic fields
Trump: "China intelligently went in and they sort of took a monopoly of the world's magnets. Nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody 20 years ago, 'let's all do magnets.' There were many other ways that the world could have gone ... we're heavily into the world of magnets now."
August 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Like most modern astrophysicists, Trump is quickly realizing that he can’t keep neglecting magnetic fields
Suddenly thinking this old proposal idea might have a chance
August 25, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Suddenly thinking this old proposal idea might have a chance
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
If this continues, the most talented American students will want to study abroad, because they'll want to study with the most talented students and faculty from around the world, and those people won't want to come to the United States even if they can. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/u...
Trump’s Tactics Mean Many International Students Won’t Make It to Campus
www.nytimes.com
August 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
If this continues, the most talented American students will want to study abroad, because they'll want to study with the most talented students and faculty from around the world, and those people won't want to come to the United States even if they can. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/u...
NYT spelling bee takes all kinds of niche words but NOT “adiabatic”??? Anti-science sentiments from NYT in the Trump era, you hate to see it
August 17, 2025 at 1:56 PM
NYT spelling bee takes all kinds of niche words but NOT “adiabatic”??? Anti-science sentiments from NYT in the Trump era, you hate to see it
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
BREAKING: The NIH director has ordered an immediate review of all the agency's research activities. Any projects that don't fit agency priorities "may be restricted, paused, not renewed, or terminated." My story:
NIH chief calls for immediate research review, dangling threat of project termination
Jayanta Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has called on the agency’s scientific leadership to immediately review all of their current and planned resea | ...
www.fiercebiotech.com
August 15, 2025 at 9:10 PM
BREAKING: The NIH director has ordered an immediate review of all the agency's research activities. Any projects that don't fit agency priorities "may be restricted, paused, not renewed, or terminated." My story:
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
So bad.The EO institutionalizes and intensifies the politicization of federal research funding. The provisions weaken scientific expertise in funding decisions and effectively cede control to political appointees. The basic logistics here will also further slow walk release of federal research funds
August 7, 2025 at 9:04 PM
So bad.The EO institutionalizes and intensifies the politicization of federal research funding. The provisions weaken scientific expertise in funding decisions and effectively cede control to political appointees. The basic logistics here will also further slow walk release of federal research funds
The ratio (length of proposal in pages)/(years of funding awarded) is an important thing. Too large, and the proposal writing process feels like a waste of time if the program is competitive. Too small, and it’s hard to convince people you know your stuff. No idea what the optimal value is.
August 6, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The ratio (length of proposal in pages)/(years of funding awarded) is an important thing. Too large, and the proposal writing process feels like a waste of time if the program is competitive. Too small, and it’s hard to convince people you know your stuff. No idea what the optimal value is.
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
the one thing i genuinely did not anticipate from this administration was its vicious, know nothing hostility to any and everything that might even be adjacent to science and scientific research. they genuinely one to destroy the entirety of the nation’s research capacity. and for what, exactly?
If you think I've forgotten about the hurricane satellites, think again. The Navy is permanently unplugging them this week, on the brink of the busiest stretch of the season. There's so much more to this story, and I have the latest scoop. ⬇️
Navy Set to Unplug Critical Hurricane Satellites this Week
Abrupt termination of satellite data by U.S. Department of Defense sends forecasters scrambling for a fix on the brink of the busiest stretch of the hurricane season
michaelrlowry.substack.com
July 29, 2025 at 1:49 PM
the one thing i genuinely did not anticipate from this administration was its vicious, know nothing hostility to any and everything that might even be adjacent to science and scientific research. they genuinely one to destroy the entirety of the nation’s research capacity. and for what, exactly?
Fresh on the arXiv today: if you take a thermally stably stratified (AKA subadiabatic AKA Schwartzchild- & Ledoux-stable) layer and sprinkle just a tiny bit of salt on the top, the salt fingers that form drive a helical mean flow that twists them into corkscrews arxiv.org/abs/2506.22581
July 1, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Fresh on the arXiv today: if you take a thermally stably stratified (AKA subadiabatic AKA Schwartzchild- & Ledoux-stable) layer and sprinkle just a tiny bit of salt on the top, the salt fingers that form drive a helical mean flow that twists them into corkscrews arxiv.org/abs/2506.22581
I have a coauthor who is extremely skilled at cutting down text to fit a word/page limit, and I’m immeasurably pleased to see that they’ve retained “asymptotically spicy” in the draft
I’ve been looking at salt fingers in a particular limit where it becomes technically correct to describe the flow as “asymptotically spicy” and thus I am of course obligated to somehow state this in the paper
June 19, 2025 at 10:04 AM
I have a coauthor who is extremely skilled at cutting down text to fit a word/page limit, and I’m immeasurably pleased to see that they’ve retained “asymptotically spicy” in the draft
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
The cruelty in today's politics feels horribly corrosive. Bringing up that hard-working immigrant families — undocumented, yes, but not violent criminals — are being ripped apart based on immigration status doesn't bring compassion or even pause, but gleeful cheers.
June 12, 2025 at 7:25 AM
The cruelty in today's politics feels horribly corrosive. Bringing up that hard-working immigrant families — undocumented, yes, but not violent criminals — are being ripped apart based on immigration status doesn't bring compassion or even pause, but gleeful cheers.
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away
“In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”
June 5, 2025 at 8:15 PM
must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
AAS and 52 other science societies and organizations sent a letter to Congress this morning expressing concern over recent organizational and financial developments at NSF, and urging Congress to exercise its oversight authority to preserve American STEM leadership. aas.org/press/letter... 🔭
May 30, 2025 at 3:48 PM
AAS and 52 other science societies and organizations sent a letter to Congress this morning expressing concern over recent organizational and financial developments at NSF, and urging Congress to exercise its oversight authority to preserve American STEM leadership. aas.org/press/letter... 🔭
Accepted into ApJ Letters 🥳
Polluted WDs actively accrete rocky debris. Most models assume accretion to the surface is balanced by material sinking via diffusion + gravitational settling. The resulting equilibria are often thermohaline-unstable—people keep ignoring that process, but shouldn't! arxiv.org/abs/2503.208...
May 22, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Accepted into ApJ Letters 🥳
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
What happens to science under autocracy? The rise of the National Socialist Party in 1930s Germany provides an (admittedly extreme) example. Prior to the early 1930s, scientists at German institutions won a third of Nobels. 10 years later, that number was 5%, and has never recovered.
May 16, 2025 at 6:17 PM
What happens to science under autocracy? The rise of the National Socialist Party in 1930s Germany provides an (admittedly extreme) example. Prior to the early 1930s, scientists at German institutions won a third of Nobels. 10 years later, that number was 5%, and has never recovered.
The new pope was a math major? God save us.
May 9, 2025 at 4:19 AM
The new pope was a math major? God save us.
Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection exhibits a rich variety of flow morphologies (e.g., cells, plumes, QG turbulence) depending on rotation rate and heating. Inspired by this, CU PhD student Whitney Powers explored rotating moist convection to seek similar regimes and found very different ones!
May 6, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection exhibits a rich variety of flow morphologies (e.g., cells, plumes, QG turbulence) depending on rotation rate and heating. Inspired by this, CU PhD student Whitney Powers explored rotating moist convection to seek similar regimes and found very different ones!
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.
May 4, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
It is a little weird to me countries aren’t more aggressively, formally trying to take advantage of the U.S. science brain drain. Once in a lifetime opportunity to buy low on Non-Dumbass Americans with PhDs who just wanna look into microscopes and quietly cure ass cancer as our country eats shit.
May 4, 2025 at 8:54 PM
It is a little weird to me countries aren’t more aggressively, formally trying to take advantage of the U.S. science brain drain. Once in a lifetime opportunity to buy low on Non-Dumbass Americans with PhDs who just wanna look into microscopes and quietly cure ass cancer as our country eats shit.
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
I just got the official email from the NSF about the drastic cuts and I think the correct translation is "if you are a young researcher who still wants to do science strongly consider leaving the United States if you can." which, really, is not an ideal message to be sending.
May 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM
I just got the official email from the NSF about the drastic cuts and I think the correct translation is "if you are a young researcher who still wants to do science strongly consider leaving the United States if you can." which, really, is not an ideal message to be sending.
Reposted by Adrian Fraser
BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.
www.nature.com
May 1, 2025 at 10:58 PM
BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...