Christmas day and my apple tree is budding. In northern Colorado.
Record high temperature of 71°F today. Not good

#COwx

Mindscape Holiday Message 2025 | The Romance of the University. After a tough year for higher education, I give a pitch for the most idealistic, aspirational conception of the value of a liberal-arts education. #MindscapePodcast

Happy Holidays all!

www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...

Science has named the seemingly unstoppable growth of renewable energy worldwide as the 2025 Breakthrough of the Year.

Learn more about this year's #BOTY and other big advances in science: https://scim.ag/493Tpgx

A stunning map of the Atlantic Ocean seafloor — and one woman's pioneering quest to publish it share.google/N2TMELSqRTx4...

The National Science Board, which oversees NSF, has published recommendations to update the foundation's merit review (which was just updated).

Below are the main points. www.nsf.gov/nsb/updates/...

#NSF reorganization has been coming. He is the latest public announcement and link to the updated org chart.

Overall not very telling

See this post for more details: bsky.app/profile/dang...

www.nsf.gov/od/updates/n...

NSF reorganization is, frankly, a bit odd, and we haven't run a story on it partly because it's hard to know what to make of it. The impetus for reorg, as I understood it, was to limit the siloing that occurs because NSF has so many (35ish) divisions. Now there will be 50+ sections.

Seen on Mastodoon 🤣

#Science
#STEM
#Research
#academicsky

www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

#Science
#NSF
#NCAR
#Climate
#academicsky

NSF now planning to let POs largely decide what gets funded, and to send PIs reviews that are only 3-5 sentences long. They don't have to use outside reviewers (except maybe 1) and don't have to convene panels. (1/5)

To ease the burden on a staff that has shrunk significantly since President Donald Trump took office, the National Science Foundation is reducing the role of outside experts in reviewing grant proposals. https://scim.ag/4oUfVhO

Amid a whole host of other upheaval—their last day in the building is this Friday—NSF is making some changes to its grant review process. I spoke to staff about the potential benefits and drawbacks:

www.aplu.org/news-and-med...

#APLU
#HigherEd
#academicsky

For the first time, astronomers have detected a coronal mass ejection from a star other than our Sun, and it was a big one – powerful enough to strip the atmosphere from nearby planets. That's bad news for the search for extraterrestrial life. Here's why: physicsworld.com/a/astronomer... 🧪⚛️🔭

www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

The attacks on #HigherEd are crazy. Efforts like this one should be a non-starter in a well functioning democratic society.

@academicsky

#NSF PIs and prospective PIs: be aware that there is a new supplement to the PAPPG 14-1: Policy Notice: Implementation of Policy Changes to Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) 24-1, Supplement 1 | NSF - U.S. National Science Foundation share.google/ibGqbifrVAqc...

I was asked if I want to #teach #HLM next fall. I'm so rusty- I would need to do a lot of re-engaging and try to work on some old projects again.

But I'm considering it and it could be a fun excuse to get technical again.

#academia
#AcademicSky
🧪

I was with ~40 other STEM educators and STEM Ed researchers who convened @aaas.org HQ in DC last week to talk about issues and opportunities in undergrad STEM Ed. We had great conversations and generated ideas about how to move forward. The group was awesome. Feeling hopeful and positive today