Alessandra Candian
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donnainfiorino.bsky.social
Alessandra Candian
@donnainfiorino.bsky.social
Assistant Prof. at @api.uva.nl in Amsterdam | Astrochemistry | Carbon Molecules & Dust | Titan | Interdisciplinary Education | #EDI | WiF board @wif.bsky.nl | #OpenScience | Working Mum | Lazy Runner | opinions my own
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
A giant impact between proto-Earth and a planet called Theia produced the Moon. Hopp et al. use isotopic measurements of lunar samples and cosmochemical modelling to show that Theia formed in the inner Solar System, probably closer to the Sun than Earth. ☄️ #planetsci
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The Moon-forming impactor Theia originated from the inner Solar System
The Moon formed from a giant impact of a planetary body, called Theia, with proto-Earth. It is unknown whether Theia formed in the inner or outer Solar System. We measured iron isotopes in lunar sampl...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Our special November issue, celebrating 30 years of exoplanets, is now here! https://bit.ly/483MH9I
#astronomy #exoplanets
November 18, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
⭐️✨🔭The ASPIRE 2026 summer astronomy research programme runs Jun 15th-Aug 7th, with applications due 17 Dec! Please help us get the message out! apply at: aspire.science.uva.nl! [2/2]
ASPIRE
aspire.science.uva.nl
November 18, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
⭐️🔭Applications open at Anton Pannekoek Institute in Amsterdam for the 7th ASPIRE program: aspire.science.uva.nl. This 2026 summer school provides astronomy research experience for talented MSc students from countries where opportunities to move into a PhD program are limited. [1/2]
ASPIRE
aspire.science.uva.nl
November 18, 2025 at 3:41 PM
🔭🪐Applications open at @api.uva.nl in Amsterdam for the 7th ASPIRE program: aspire.science.uva.nl. This 2026 summer school provides astronomy research experience for talented MSc students from countries where opportunities to move into a PhD program are limited. 1/2
ASPIRE
aspire.science.uva.nl
November 19, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Canada has announced an additional $528.5 million investment in ESA programmes at #CM25.
www.canada.ca/en/space-age...
Canada Deepens Space Ties with Europe Through Historic Investment - Canada.ca
Today, at the SpaceBound 2025 Conference, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, made the historic announcement ...
www.canada.ca
November 19, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Nottingham University plans to axe music & languages

Cuts always hit academics & lower-level professional service staff

They never touch the bloated upper bureaucracy

The Vice Chancellor's entourage stays untouched (or even expands)

www.theguardian.com/education/20...
University of Nottingham considers axing language and music degrees
Total of 48 degrees could disappear from Russell Group institution, with falling revenues and rising costs blamed
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Our new biosignatures paper is out in @pnas.org! This time we're using machine learning trained on organic chemical data to identify signs of life—including photosynthetic life—in ancient rocks.
Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean rocks identified by pyrolysis–GC–MS and supervised machine learning | PNAS
Throughout Earth’s history, organic molecules from both abiogenic and biogenic sources have been buried in sedimentary rocks. Most of these organic...
www.pnas.org
November 17, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Book recommendation for 2026: WHEN TREES TESTIFY by Beronda Montgomery coming January 20th 2026.

“Trees hold the transformed breath of decades of human life... and testify to history and those of their past”

I quick thread 🧵 reviewing this book!

#booksky #womeninscience #botany🌱 #BlackHistory
November 16, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Love the idea! We need more of this workshops in the Netherlands, where girls’ disaffection for STEM starts early. Maybe this is something @particleclara.bsky.social might be interested too? :)
#arXiv "Niñas Atómicas" (Atomic Girls): An initiative that generates opportunities for young girls in STEM arxiv.org/abs/2511.05754 an initiative that seeks to encourage high school girls to develop critical thinking and transferable skills widely used in scientific work.
November 16, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
I made a pinhole solargraph with an aluminium drink can, some black tape, a pin and a sheet of ILFORD photographic paper. This image shows the path of the Sun over the course of a day and the trees in front of my house. 🔭 🌞
November 16, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Celebrating Gerty Cori on #WorldDiabetesDay.

Cori, a biochemist, co-discovered the Cori cycle which unlocked how the body regulates glucose--foundational for diabetes treatments & insulin therapy. She was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery. #WomenInSTEM
November 15, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
'People assume that my position is that we can't go to space or explore the Moon. Far from it. I just think the Moon is too important to approach with a narrow western patriarchal, capitalist eye'.

🧪 🔭 #PlanetSci #WomenInSTEM
A feminist map of the Moon
What if we made a feminist map of the Moon? This is a question I posed on Bluesky in October 2024. To me, the question, methods and results ...
zoharesque.blogspot.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:18 AM
I am very happy that my Dutch is improving but I am NOT happy to be able to understand all the racist comments when on public transport 🫠 bubble bursting I suppose… #immigrant #DutchLife
November 8, 2025 at 4:32 PM
I participated to the graduation ceremony for the Bachelor in Physics and Astronomy at @uva.nl officially representing the faculty’s Exam Committee. There was pride, joy, laughs and some tears. The words “general relativity” came up a lot 😆. I feel lucky to work with the youngsters. #AcademicSky
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Wat een geluk hebben we gehad! De rij werd later nog wat langer maar wat een hoop blije enthousiaste gezichten en wat een leuke gesprekken 💫 Hopelijk volgend jaar weer!
Live vanuit Amsterdam bij het Allard Pierson tijdens #museumnacht #stoepsterrenkunde
November 2, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Live vanuit Amsterdam bij het Allard Pierson tijdens #museumnacht #stoepsterrenkunde
November 1, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
I don't know Benjamin, I go for magical realism
November 2, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Grant draft: soft sci-fi
Grant editing: hard sci-fi
CV: heroic fantasy
November 2, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Onderzoek | Spraakverwarring, overmatig gebruik van bepaalde woorden en dramatische metaforen: mede door de taal die de afgelopen 25 jaar werd gebruikt door politici en media zijn we problemen rond migratie gaan beschouwen als een crisis. buff.ly/hDiGiLV
Hoe de taal rondom migratie de afgelopen 25 jaar verhardde – en waarom dat ertoe doet
Spraakverwarring, overmatig gebruik van bepaalde woorden en dramatische metaforen: mede door de taal die de afgelopen 25 jaar werd gebruikt door politici en media zijn we problemen rond migratie gaan…
buff.ly
November 2, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
Soon, we will need to get high-schoolers to write the papers, to make sure they have 5-10 when they start their MsC...
October 31, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Alessandra Candian
The 🇳🇱 elections were not the first (or the last) w AI generated images. But the combination of AI content, systematic far-right circulation, and use of chabots for vote advice was a new ‘AI cocktail’.

Comments in @evahartog.bsky.social @pieterhaeck.bsky.social story
www.politico.eu/article/elec...
The week that AI deepfakes hit Europe’s elections
Dutch and Irish elections show voters now have to worry if the political content they consume is real.
www.politico.eu
November 1, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Ditto!
OK, regardless of source, credit where due: That's a great headline.
November 1, 2025 at 8:55 AM