Michael Zingale
@michaelzingale.bsky.social
computational astrophysicist
open source tool developer
professor
blower upper of stars
can recite π to 2 decimal places from memory
star wars fan
coffee aficionado
https://zingale.github.io
open source tool developer
professor
blower upper of stars
can recite π to 2 decimal places from memory
star wars fan
coffee aficionado
https://zingale.github.io
Reposted by Michael Zingale
David Hogg has written a white paper on doing astrophysics in the age of LLMs. It looks to be thought-provoking. My initial reaction is that either LLMs will destroy the field or they will force a reckoning with and re-imagining of the current system that often prioritizes output over quality. 🧪
Why do we do astrophysics?
At time of writing, large language models (LLMs) are beginning to obtain the ability to design, execute, write up, and referee scientific projects on the data-science side of astrophysics. What implic...
arxiv.org
February 12, 2026 at 3:58 AM
David Hogg has written a white paper on doing astrophysics in the age of LLMs. It looks to be thought-provoking. My initial reaction is that either LLMs will destroy the field or they will force a reckoning with and re-imagining of the current system that often prioritizes output over quality. 🧪
Reposted by Michael Zingale
The AIP stats team has released its latest data of physics & astronomy PhD trends, with breakdown by gender. What is extraordinary to me is how clearly the overall trends exhibit an important gender dimension, and that that story is quite different between physics and astronomy.
February 11, 2026 at 9:58 PM
The AIP stats team has released its latest data of physics & astronomy PhD trends, with breakdown by gender. What is extraordinary to me is how clearly the overall trends exhibit an important gender dimension, and that that story is quite different between physics and astronomy.
Reposted by Michael Zingale
![Comic. [Person with ponytail pointing to diagram on wall as she talks to two other people, one with short hair.] PERSON 1: The high carbon content of the skeleton indicates that the individual lived less than 12.6 billion years ago, after the first round of stellar nucleosynthesis. [caption] Cosmologist carbon dating](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreiaaaa2fduedn5fusan4xvikaehxgps2yxdlv7vb3j7ep323zta2u4@jpeg)
February 10, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Michael Zingale
I can’t stop laughing about “and from New Jersey”
February 10, 2026 at 10:58 PM
I can’t stop laughing about “and from New Jersey”
Reposted by Michael Zingale
Mathematician Irene Stegun was born #OTD in 1919.
A major contributor to the Works Progress Administration’s Mathematical Tables Project, she’s probably best known as co-author of the classic reference “A Handbook of Mathematical Functions” — usually referred to as “Abramowitz and Stegun.”
🧪 ⚛️ 👩🔬
A major contributor to the Works Progress Administration’s Mathematical Tables Project, she’s probably best known as co-author of the classic reference “A Handbook of Mathematical Functions” — usually referred to as “Abramowitz and Stegun.”
🧪 ⚛️ 👩🔬
February 9, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Mathematician Irene Stegun was born #OTD in 1919.
A major contributor to the Works Progress Administration’s Mathematical Tables Project, she’s probably best known as co-author of the classic reference “A Handbook of Mathematical Functions” — usually referred to as “Abramowitz and Stegun.”
🧪 ⚛️ 👩🔬
A major contributor to the Works Progress Administration’s Mathematical Tables Project, she’s probably best known as co-author of the classic reference “A Handbook of Mathematical Functions” — usually referred to as “Abramowitz and Stegun.”
🧪 ⚛️ 👩🔬
Reposted by Michael Zingale
I'm going to do a thread of all the references and context behind Bad Bunny's performance and what it means for Puerto Ricans to see this on the biggest stage.
The opening title screen is a street mural in Puerto Rico that comes to life with footballs as coconuts.
Follow along!
The opening title screen is a street mural in Puerto Rico that comes to life with footballs as coconuts.
Follow along!
February 9, 2026 at 5:08 PM
I'm going to do a thread of all the references and context behind Bad Bunny's performance and what it means for Puerto Ricans to see this on the biggest stage.
The opening title screen is a street mural in Puerto Rico that comes to life with footballs as coconuts.
Follow along!
The opening title screen is a street mural in Puerto Rico that comes to life with footballs as coconuts.
Follow along!
Reposted by Michael Zingale
Very happy to advertise a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Exoplanet Science position with me and Christian Schwab at Macquarie University in Sydney.
We'll be working on applying machine learning & differentiable physics models to extremely precise radial velocity surveys.
We'll be working on applying machine learning & differentiable physics models to extremely precise radial velocity surveys.
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Exoplanet Science
PRIMARY DETAIL - Salary Package: $109,272 - $117,108 (HEW Level A.6-A.8) - plus 17% employer's superannuation contribution and annual leave loading. - Full time, 3 year fixed-term role - Macquarie Uni...
mq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:58 AM
Very happy to advertise a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Exoplanet Science position with me and Christian Schwab at Macquarie University in Sydney.
We'll be working on applying machine learning & differentiable physics models to extremely precise radial velocity surveys.
We'll be working on applying machine learning & differentiable physics models to extremely precise radial velocity surveys.
Reposted by Michael Zingale
Astronomers/physicists: is the postdoc job market this year ultra difficult? I know seven people with no job offers right now, and I feel like they would have had many offers in previous years. In my career, I have never seen this lack of jobs at the postdoc level before. 🔭
February 8, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Astronomers/physicists: is the postdoc job market this year ultra difficult? I know seven people with no job offers right now, and I feel like they would have had many offers in previous years. In my career, I have never seen this lack of jobs at the postdoc level before. 🔭
February 8, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Michael Zingale
please consult the chart
February 7, 2026 at 4:02 PM
please consult the chart
Seek shelter in a tauntaun, it's cold out there
February 7, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Seek shelter in a tauntaun, it's cold out there
Reposted by Michael Zingale
The mood music is very bleak for UK astronomy funding at the moment.
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and research facilities
UK’s research funding body says best scientists are taking posts overseas due to lack of job stability at home
www.theguardian.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:57 PM
The mood music is very bleak for UK astronomy funding at the moment.
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
Reposted by Michael Zingale
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Michael Zingale
this lady is the reason I can go anywhere w/out getting lost 🙌
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:41 PM
this lady is the reason I can go anywhere w/out getting lost 🙌
one of my fears with the looming accessibility deadline is that people will remove their online open educational resources. That's why I am learning as much as I can now to get my class notes fixed-up (almost there, I think).
Some of my colleagues are reverting to paper printouts of slides :(
Some of my colleagues are reverting to paper printouts of slides :(
February 6, 2026 at 1:01 PM
one of my fears with the looming accessibility deadline is that people will remove their online open educational resources. That's why I am learning as much as I can now to get my class notes fixed-up (almost there, I think).
Some of my colleagues are reverting to paper printouts of slides :(
Some of my colleagues are reverting to paper printouts of slides :(
couldn't figure out why I had 40+ notifications in slack. Then I remembers I have SLURM dm me when my jobs start at NERSC.
February 5, 2026 at 10:55 PM
couldn't figure out why I had 40+ notifications in slack. Then I remembers I have SLURM dm me when my jobs start at NERSC.
More fun with accessibility: how to add alt-text for a matplotlib figure in a Jupyter notebook when it is converted to HTML.
Lots of github issues about this when you google, but no firm standard. Wound up with a hackish postprocessing script that does the job:
github.com/zingale/matp...
Lots of github issues about this when you google, but no firm standard. Wound up with a hackish postprocessing script that does the job:
github.com/zingale/matp...
GitHub - zingale/matplotlib_accessible: experiments with alt text in matplotlib
experiments with alt text in matplotlib. Contribute to zingale/matplotlib_accessible development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
February 5, 2026 at 10:51 PM
More fun with accessibility: how to add alt-text for a matplotlib figure in a Jupyter notebook when it is converted to HTML.
Lots of github issues about this when you google, but no firm standard. Wound up with a hackish postprocessing script that does the job:
github.com/zingale/matp...
Lots of github issues about this when you google, but no firm standard. Wound up with a hackish postprocessing script that does the job:
github.com/zingale/matp...
Reposted by Michael Zingale
Interesting paper on requirements for undergraduate astronomy degrees and how non-uniform they are, and how this impacts students with these degrees: arxiv.org/abs/2602.03959
The Landscape of Undergraduate Astronomy and Astrophysics Degree Requirements
In this document we summarize the results of a survey of undergraduate degree-granting programs conducted by the 2024-2025 American Astronomical Society Education Committee's Subcommittee on UndeRgrad...
arxiv.org
February 5, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Interesting paper on requirements for undergraduate astronomy degrees and how non-uniform they are, and how this impacts students with these degrees: arxiv.org/abs/2602.03959
also just learned about the `sphinx-rtd-theme-ext-color-contrast` package to fix color-contrast accessibility issues in the popular Sphinx Read The Docs theme.
So far, the pydata-sphinx-theme seems to be the most accessibile (that I've tested).
#accessibility
So far, the pydata-sphinx-theme seems to be the most accessibile (that I've tested).
#accessibility
February 5, 2026 at 1:44 PM
also just learned about the `sphinx-rtd-theme-ext-color-contrast` package to fix color-contrast accessibility issues in the popular Sphinx Read The Docs theme.
So far, the pydata-sphinx-theme seems to be the most accessibile (that I've tested).
#accessibility
So far, the pydata-sphinx-theme seems to be the most accessibile (that I've tested).
#accessibility
alt-text for matplotlib figures!
arxiv.org/abs/2503.20089
gotta add this to my course notes.
#matplotlib #accessibility
arxiv.org/abs/2503.20089
gotta add this to my course notes.
#matplotlib #accessibility
MatplotAlt: A Python Library for Adding Alt Text to Matplotlib Figures in Computational Notebooks
We present MatplotAlt, an open-source Python package for easily adding alternative text to Matplotlib figures. MatplotAlt equips Jupyter notebook authors to automatically generate and surface chart de...
arxiv.org
February 5, 2026 at 12:06 AM
alt-text for matplotlib figures!
arxiv.org/abs/2503.20089
gotta add this to my course notes.
#matplotlib #accessibility
arxiv.org/abs/2503.20089
gotta add this to my course notes.
#matplotlib #accessibility
when did the job of being an astronomer become just reading and responding to emails... ?
February 3, 2026 at 5:07 PM
when did the job of being an astronomer become just reading and responding to emails... ?
Reposted by Michael Zingale
(((ack:"ChatGPT" or ack:"OpenAI" or "Anthropic")) AND year:2023-)
(astronomy db only)
scixplorer.org/search?d=ast...
(astronomy db only)
scixplorer.org/search?d=ast...
February 2, 2026 at 3:37 PM
(((ack:"ChatGPT" or ack:"OpenAI" or "Anthropic")) AND year:2023-)
(astronomy db only)
scixplorer.org/search?d=ast...
(astronomy db only)
scixplorer.org/search?d=ast...
Look who's 15 today!!
My profile pic is from when we adopted her at 6 mos.
My profile pic is from when we adopted her at 6 mos.
February 2, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Look who's 15 today!!
My profile pic is from when we adopted her at 6 mos.
My profile pic is from when we adopted her at 6 mos.
We should have high speed rail between NY and Chicago
February 1, 2026 at 9:15 PM
We should have high speed rail between NY and Chicago