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Fun Fact Science with Kovi
@funfactscience.com
3.8K followers 180 following 1.1K posts
Astrophysics PhD candidate studying stars that go snap, crackle, and pop - communicating scientist - meme aficionado.
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funfactscience.com
Fun Fact Science with Kovi @funfactscience.com · Nov 12
Woke up to a bunch of new followers so it might be worth reintroducing myself:

My name is Kovi (pronounced like ☕️) and I'm an #astrophysics PhD candidate with a passion for #science communication. I search the skies with radio #telescopes to find and study weird (and often exploding) stuff 📡🌌
Context: Photo of me at the MIT radio stars conference next to my poster about periodic radio emission from an ultracool brown dwarf. Description: Photo of man with olive skin and brown hair/beard wearing green/black flannel shirt, jeans and white sneakers. Next to man is landscape scientific poster in the style of Windows 95 computer desktop with images and text.
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
taramurphy.bsky.social
Sometimes when I'm quickly checking whether someone in my team has classified a #RadioAstronomy source correctly, I paste the coordinates into the Aladin Sky Atlas , and confirm...

Yes, it is a star!

Such a great #AstroSci tool :) (aladin.cds.unistra.fr)
Screenshot of the Aladin Sky Atlas astronomy tool, showing 4 images of a star. Top left - 2MASS (blue colour) Top right - DECaLs (red colour) Bottom left - DSS (yellow colour) Bottom right - allWISE (green colour)
December 12, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
arc-tracker.bsky.social
🚨 #CentresOfExcellence #CE26 announcement:

❗️Outcomes announced publicly for ARC Centres of Excellence 2026❗️

See ARC's RMS for list ➡️ https://rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/Report/a3f6be6e-33f7-4fb5-98a6-7526aaa184cf/288

/bot
December 8, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
funfactscience.com
It's very easy, and often justified, to feel negatively about LLMs and their impacts on humanity. This blog post is a great example of an important criticism balanced with constructive suggestions for how to overcome the main pitfalls of using LLMs for learning.
jwuphysics.bsky.social John F Wu @jwuphysics.bsky.social · 27d
In the era of LLMs, what does learning look like? What happens when are overconfident in our understanding due to AI sycophancy? Is it even useful to use LLMs for education without outsourcing our thinking?

New blog post: jwuphysics.github.io/blog/2025/12...
Learning with LLMs
AI is here, and its impacts on education cannot be overstated. Let’s put aside the issues of cheating; I assume that you want to learn, perhaps with the assistance of LLMs if they are actually helpful...
jwuphysics.github.io
December 6, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
funfactscience.com
the internet never fails to disappoint...
juliet-turner.bsky.social Juliet Turner @juliet-turner.bsky.social · Nov 17
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
November 18, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
funfactscience.com
Thanksgiving isn't really a thing in Australia but I am certainly thankful to have this majestical floof in my life 🥹
A white fluffy dog with his tongue out sits on a concrete ledge in the foreground on a sunny day. Behind the dog is a wide body of blue water with a large cable-stayed bridge spanning across it, along with docked boats and city buildings in the distance.
November 27, 2025 at 10:55 PM
funfactscience.com
It's very easy, and often justified, to feel negatively about LLMs and their impacts on humanity. This blog post is a great example of an important criticism balanced with constructive suggestions for how to overcome the main pitfalls of using LLMs for learning.
jwuphysics.bsky.social John F Wu @jwuphysics.bsky.social · 27d
In the era of LLMs, what does learning look like? What happens when are overconfident in our understanding due to AI sycophancy? Is it even useful to use LLMs for education without outsourcing our thinking?

New blog post: jwuphysics.github.io/blog/2025/12...
Learning with LLMs
AI is here, and its impacts on education cannot be overstated. Let’s put aside the issues of cheating; I assume that you want to learn, perhaps with the assistance of LLMs if they are actually helpful...
jwuphysics.github.io
December 6, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
funfactscience.com
Awesome new work by @emilykerrison.bsky.social discovering a whole heap of new peaked spectrum radio galaxies!
📡🔭🧪⚛️
arxiv.org/abs/2509.21233
RadioSED II: discovering the peaked spectrum radio sources in Stripe 82
This paper is the second in a series presenting \textsc{RadioSED}, a Bayesian inference framework for constructing, modelling and classifying radio spectral energy distributions from publicly-availabl...
arxiv.org
September 26, 2025 at 8:16 AM
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funfactscience.com
~ Frank, Destination Wedding
There are seven billion people in the world. So when one of them behaves badly toward you, he's actually doing you a great favor because he's saving you time. He's telling you that he's not worth your while. He's freeing you to say, "Thank you for the information. I will now move on to the 6,999,999,999 other people, some of whom may have some value.
November 6, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
funfactscience.com
When people ask what the scientific method looks like, show them this video.
November 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
funfactscience.com
Thanksgiving isn't really a thing in Australia but I am certainly thankful to have this majestical floof in my life 🥹
A white fluffy dog with his tongue out sits on a concrete ledge in the foreground on a sunny day. Behind the dog is a wide body of blue water with a large cable-stayed bridge spanning across it, along with docked boats and city buildings in the distance.
November 27, 2025 at 10:55 PM
funfactscience.com
(un)surprisingly fun
ccanonne.github.io Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · Nov 21
In case you aren't already aware of one of the nerdiest, nich-est online games: TeXnique, where the goal is to type LaTeX formulae as quickly as possible. texnique.xyz

It is "fun."
An example, here asking to recreate in LaTeX the definition of a pseudorandom number generator
November 22, 2025 at 1:21 AM
funfactscience.com
When people ask what the scientific method looks like, show them this video.
November 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
funfactscience.com
the internet never fails to disappoint...
juliet-turner.bsky.social Juliet Turner @juliet-turner.bsky.social · Nov 17
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
November 18, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
funfactscience.com
Nothing like taking in a beautiful sunset after presenting your research, especially when you're at a conference about stars 🌟🔭

📸 @astrolaura.com

#astronomy #space #sunset #stars
A man with a beard and glasses, wearing a light-colored button-up shirt, is giving a presentation in a conference room. He is standing to the right of a large screen displaying the text "ALTERNATIVE PROGENITORS" and beneath it "Isolated white dwarf (Rea et al., 2024)" next to an image of a bright, blueish-white star against a black background labeled "NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI)". The screen also features a university logo in the bottom right corner. Several audience members are seated in dark chairs, viewed from the back, watching the presenter and the screen. The room has light wood paneling on the back wall and white ceiling tiles. A long-exposure photograph taken at dusk captures a coastal scene in Newcastle A dark blue and deep magenta sky over the beach and the ocean on the left. On the right, streetlights illuminate a road, a promenade, and the beach below, creating streaks of light from moving vehicles. Buildings are visible on the far right, and a headland with scattered lights extends into the distance.
November 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
funfactscience.com
Nothing like taking in a beautiful sunset after presenting your research, especially when you're at a conference about stars 🌟🔭

📸 @astrolaura.com

#astronomy #space #sunset #stars
A man with a beard and glasses, wearing a light-colored button-up shirt, is giving a presentation in a conference room. He is standing to the right of a large screen displaying the text "ALTERNATIVE PROGENITORS" and beneath it "Isolated white dwarf (Rea et al., 2024)" next to an image of a bright, blueish-white star against a black background labeled "NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI)". The screen also features a university logo in the bottom right corner. Several audience members are seated in dark chairs, viewed from the back, watching the presenter and the screen. The room has light wood paneling on the back wall and white ceiling tiles. A long-exposure photograph taken at dusk captures a coastal scene in Newcastle A dark blue and deep magenta sky over the beach and the ocean on the left. On the right, streetlights illuminate a road, a promenade, and the beach below, creating streaks of light from moving vehicles. Buildings are visible on the far right, and a headland with scattered lights extends into the distance.
November 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
sciencesocks.bsky.social
🎂 It's #ScienceSocks 6th anniversary! 🥳

Celebrate with me by raising money for #STEM! 🤑

For the next 48h I will donate:

* 20% of sales on sciencesocks.co 👈
* $1 per repost

Get a head start on #holiday shopping 😎

Please like, repost and let's party🕺💃

🔭🐡🧪🎨#bsnm
mars rover socks showing zoomed in view perseverance rover analysing a rock and ingenuity flying above james webb space telescope christmas ornament jwst jewelry set featuring earrings and pendant necklace based on the 18 hexagon primary mirror Curiosity rover wheel pendant necklace in sterling silver being held in hand
November 15, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
funfactscience.com
a NEW PAPER led the incomparable Dr. Elizabeth Iles (accepted by PASA) quantifies how astronomers might be biased in how they judge galactic bars

Turns out that male astronomers are consistently more optimistic than their peers when it comes to measuring length

arxiv.org/abs/2511.09908

#astro
A stellar density map of a barred spiral galaxy viewed face-on. The image shows a dark background with a central bright, elongated feature (the bar) surrounded by fainter spiral arms. The color bar on the right indicates the log10 Stellar Density in units of solar mass per square parsec, ranging from 0 (black/dark) to 4 (white/bright). The x and y axes are labeled in kpc (kiloparsecs), spanning from -10 to 10. Overlaid on the image are several highlighted regions: a central white, bright feature is enclosed by a dashed cyan ellipse representing the full Bar region. A smaller, cyan dashed box labeled Inner-bar is located along the bar's major axis, excluding the ends. Two symmetrically placed, dashed teal boxes labeled Bar-ends are located near the extremities of the bar. This visualization highlights the key components of the galaxy's bar structure.
November 14, 2025 at 7:14 AM
funfactscience.com
a NEW PAPER led the incomparable Dr. Elizabeth Iles (accepted by PASA) quantifies how astronomers might be biased in how they judge galactic bars

Turns out that male astronomers are consistently more optimistic than their peers when it comes to measuring length

arxiv.org/abs/2511.09908

#astro
A stellar density map of a barred spiral galaxy viewed face-on. The image shows a dark background with a central bright, elongated feature (the bar) surrounded by fainter spiral arms. The color bar on the right indicates the log10 Stellar Density in units of solar mass per square parsec, ranging from 0 (black/dark) to 4 (white/bright). The x and y axes are labeled in kpc (kiloparsecs), spanning from -10 to 10. Overlaid on the image are several highlighted regions: a central white, bright feature is enclosed by a dashed cyan ellipse representing the full Bar region. A smaller, cyan dashed box labeled Inner-bar is located along the bar's major axis, excluding the ends. Two symmetrically placed, dashed teal boxes labeled Bar-ends are located near the extremities of the bar. This visualization highlights the key components of the galaxy's bar structure.
November 14, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
taramurphy.bsky.social
This is your final week to apply for the Professor Harry Messel Research Fellowship. A 3 year position open to women in any area of #Physics or #Astronomy at the University of Sydney @sydney.edu.au

Deadline: 16th November

⚛️ 🔭 ☄️
November 9, 2025 at 7:49 PM
funfactscience.com
you can enjoy watching the lightning with me live on this website: www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/weather/ligh...
November 7, 2025 at 10:22 AM
funfactscience.com
spending Friday night waiting for a thunderstorm to pass so that I can start my telescope observations
mocking spongebob meme with the text "radio telescopes can observe in any weather"
November 7, 2025 at 10:08 AM
funfactscience.com
~ Frank, Destination Wedding
There are seven billion people in the world. So when one of them behaves badly toward you, he's actually doing you a great favor because he's saving you time. He's telling you that he's not worth your while. He's freeing you to say, "Thank you for the information. I will now move on to the 6,999,999,999 other people, some of whom may have some value.
November 6, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Fun Fact Science with Kovi
astrolaura.com
I've been thinking a bit about how talking about aliens affects how we share new astronomy discoveries, so I wrote an article about it 👽🔭🧪 theconversation.com/is-it-aliens...
Is it aliens? Why that’s the least important question about interstellar objects
The alien question, while fun, generates misinformation and distracts from the science.
theconversation.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:22 AM
funfactscience.com
can't believe we've been complaining for nearly 3000 years
lswisnom.bsky.social Dr Selena Wisnom @lswisnom.bsky.social · Nov 3
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 7:33 PM
funfactscience.com
When you feel the irrepressible urge to constantly check the status of a recently submitted paper:
a picture of a fountain with the words it 's been seven hours and fifteen days below it
Alt: a GIF of a fountain and Sinéad O'Connor with the words "it 's been seven hours and fifteen days" below it
media.tenor.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:00 AM