Lisa Will
@dustchick.bsky.social
Astrophysicist, educator, geek. She/her. Professor, Physics/Astronomy, San Diego City College. Resident Astronomer, Fleet Science Center.
Reposted by Lisa Will
#3IATLAS update: we've just pinpointed the comet's path with 10 times more accuracy, using data from our #ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft. 😎🧪🔭
www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
November 14, 2025 at 10:25 AM
#3IATLAS update: we've just pinpointed the comet's path with 10 times more accuracy, using data from our #ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft. 😎🧪🔭
www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
Reposted by Lisa Will
A new state-by-state evaluation of the projected energy and water use of "AI" data centers in the US. Looks… real bad. Like, "undoing tech sector climate gains" bad.
Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA - Nature Sustainability
The rapid expansion of AI server installations in the United States poses sustainability challenges in terms of water usage and carbon emissions. A study now quantifies these potential impacts and out...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:06 AM
A new state-by-state evaluation of the projected energy and water use of "AI" data centers in the US. Looks… real bad. Like, "undoing tech sector climate gains" bad.
Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Reposted by Lisa Will
Prohibited activities include advising Chinese graduate students. For reference, a recent Georgetown report estimated 16% of STEM graduate students in the US are Chinese nationals.
This would take out entire fields at the knees, which is perhaps the point.
This would take out entire fields at the knees, which is perhaps the point.
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Prohibited activities include advising Chinese graduate students. For reference, a recent Georgetown report estimated 16% of STEM graduate students in the US are Chinese nationals.
This would take out entire fields at the knees, which is perhaps the point.
This would take out entire fields at the knees, which is perhaps the point.
Oh, hey, looked what arrived today! Can’t wait to read it. @peterclines.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Oh, hey, looked what arrived today! Can’t wait to read it. @peterclines.bsky.social
Reposted by Lisa Will
CAN LLMs write about science? @science.org decided to find out, and they did it the curious, scientific way. They did an experiment.
Love this thoughtful convo. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/12/w...
Love this thoughtful convo. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/12/w...
The Last Word On Nothing | Why AAAS won’t be using AI to write press releases anytime soon
www.lastwordonnothing.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:19 PM
CAN LLMs write about science? @science.org decided to find out, and they did it the curious, scientific way. They did an experiment.
Love this thoughtful convo. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/12/w...
Love this thoughtful convo. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/12/w...
Reposted by Lisa Will
Kind of crazy that evidence is mounting that the world is run by a group of rapists, pedophiles, and men convinced of women’s inmate natural inferiority, and the pundit class is trying to convince us that the real social crisis is that men are victimized and lonely because women have too many jobs.
You just know that “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” bit would have done NUMBERS in this little clique
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
November 13, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Kind of crazy that evidence is mounting that the world is run by a group of rapists, pedophiles, and men convinced of women’s inmate natural inferiority, and the pundit class is trying to convince us that the real social crisis is that men are victimized and lonely because women have too many jobs.
Reposted by Lisa Will
For the first time ever, astronomers have unveiled the shape of a supernova explosion just a day after detection, as the blast was breaking through the star’s surface.
Achieved by our VLT, this feat will help us understand how massive stars die: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2520/
🔭 🧪 ☄️
Achieved by our VLT, this feat will help us understand how massive stars die: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2520/
🔭 🧪 ☄️
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
For the first time ever, astronomers have unveiled the shape of a supernova explosion just a day after detection, as the blast was breaking through the star’s surface.
Achieved by our VLT, this feat will help us understand how massive stars die: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2520/
🔭 🧪 ☄️
Achieved by our VLT, this feat will help us understand how massive stars die: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2520/
🔭 🧪 ☄️
Reposted by Lisa Will
📣 For the first time ever, scientists have confirmed seeing a giant explosion on a star other than our own!
Our XMM-Newton observatory and the LOFAR telescope contributed to making this long sought-after discovery 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭 🧪 ☄️ ☀️ 1/
Our XMM-Newton observatory and the LOFAR telescope contributed to making this long sought-after discovery 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭 🧪 ☄️ ☀️ 1/
November 12, 2025 at 4:08 PM
📣 For the first time ever, scientists have confirmed seeing a giant explosion on a star other than our own!
Our XMM-Newton observatory and the LOFAR telescope contributed to making this long sought-after discovery 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭 🧪 ☄️ ☀️ 1/
Our XMM-Newton observatory and the LOFAR telescope contributed to making this long sought-after discovery 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭 🧪 ☄️ ☀️ 1/
Reposted by Lisa Will
HiRISE 4K: Of a Martian Dune Field
This image of a dune field in the polar region of Mars allows us to study long-term weathering patterns.
Full cutout on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2rEUcyk
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #NASA #science
This image of a dune field in the polar region of Mars allows us to study long-term weathering patterns.
Full cutout on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2rEUcyk
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #NASA #science
November 12, 2025 at 7:01 PM
HiRISE 4K: Of a Martian Dune Field
This image of a dune field in the polar region of Mars allows us to study long-term weathering patterns.
Full cutout on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2rEUcyk
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #NASA #science
This image of a dune field in the polar region of Mars allows us to study long-term weathering patterns.
Full cutout on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2rEUcyk
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #NASA #science
Reposted by Lisa Will
This is a good illustration of how coronal mass ejections do not move directly outwards from the Sun.
Instead, they follow the spiral pattern produced by the Sun's rotation dragging magnetic field lines with it.
Instead, they follow the spiral pattern produced by the Sun's rotation dragging magnetic field lines with it.
November 12, 2025 at 7:54 PM
This is a good illustration of how coronal mass ejections do not move directly outwards from the Sun.
Instead, they follow the spiral pattern produced by the Sun's rotation dragging magnetic field lines with it.
Instead, they follow the spiral pattern produced by the Sun's rotation dragging magnetic field lines with it.
Reposted by Lisa Will
I’ve seen this shared several times with the header and footer not visible, so you can’t see the artists’s name.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
November 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I’ve seen this shared several times with the header and footer not visible, so you can’t see the artists’s name.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
Reposted by Lisa Will
We have upgraded our geomagnetic forecast today (12 November 2025) to the highest intensity level amid an ongoing solar storm.
Current predictions suggest that the activity will result in potentially the largest solar storm to hit our planet in over two decades.
Current predictions suggest that the activity will result in potentially the largest solar storm to hit our planet in over two decades.
November 12, 2025 at 2:55 PM
We have upgraded our geomagnetic forecast today (12 November 2025) to the highest intensity level amid an ongoing solar storm.
Current predictions suggest that the activity will result in potentially the largest solar storm to hit our planet in over two decades.
Current predictions suggest that the activity will result in potentially the largest solar storm to hit our planet in over two decades.
Reposted by Lisa Will
I am on my way home to Toronto and the aurorae are absolutely phenomenal.
If you are anywhere in the northern half of the continent, get outside and look up! Or better still, put your camera on a 10 second exposure and point it up.
If you are anywhere in the northern half of the continent, get outside and look up! Or better still, put your camera on a 10 second exposure and point it up.
November 12, 2025 at 2:44 AM
I am on my way home to Toronto and the aurorae are absolutely phenomenal.
If you are anywhere in the northern half of the continent, get outside and look up! Or better still, put your camera on a 10 second exposure and point it up.
If you are anywhere in the northern half of the continent, get outside and look up! Or better still, put your camera on a 10 second exposure and point it up.
Reposted by Lisa Will
If you are blessed with halfway clear skies and a latitude north of, like, 40, go look for Aurorae!!
November 12, 2025 at 1:40 AM
If you are blessed with halfway clear skies and a latitude north of, like, 40, go look for Aurorae!!
😢
Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.
Lowell Observatory slashes research funding in the midst of financial struggle
Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.
buff.ly
November 11, 2025 at 1:02 AM
😢
Reposted by Lisa Will
You cannot separate the current nightmare we now inhabit from the collapse/crisis in how rich, powerful middle-aged men perceive masculinity, especially their own insecurities.
I’m sorry, but a goofy looking guy who grew up a privileged son of a pediatrician and has a phd in social theory from the university of Goethe and started in tech by investing an inheritance left to him by his grandfather talking about being a “dude” is very, very funny to me.
November 9, 2025 at 6:22 PM
You cannot separate the current nightmare we now inhabit from the collapse/crisis in how rich, powerful middle-aged men perceive masculinity, especially their own insecurities.
Reposted by Lisa Will
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Reposted by Lisa Will
October 2025 was the 3rd warmest October on record for our planet, following 2023 (1st place) and 2024 (2nd place). This month was about 1.55°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. The last 12-months have been about 1.50°C above it.
Summary of month: climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-... 🛠️🧪🌊
Summary of month: climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-... 🛠️🧪🌊
November 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM
October 2025 was the 3rd warmest October on record for our planet, following 2023 (1st place) and 2024 (2nd place). This month was about 1.55°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. The last 12-months have been about 1.50°C above it.
Summary of month: climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-... 🛠️🧪🌊
Summary of month: climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-... 🛠️🧪🌊
Reposted by Lisa Will
Hey babe wake up. New periodic table of the elements just dropped
please don't @ me like "actually cerium is unique among the lanthanides for its +4 oxidation state"
⚗️🧪 #chemsky
⚗️🧪 #chemsky
November 8, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Hey babe wake up. New periodic table of the elements just dropped
Reposted by Lisa Will
New photos of Jupiter from the #Juno spacecraft, including some from citizen scientists who who use JunoCam’s publicly available raw images to process into image products. #astronomy - www.popsci.com/science/jupi...
Jupiter stuns in new images
Say 'gas giant.'
www.popsci.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
New photos of Jupiter from the #Juno spacecraft, including some from citizen scientists who who use JunoCam’s publicly available raw images to process into image products. #astronomy - www.popsci.com/science/jupi...
Reposted by Lisa Will
Holy moly did we get a close shave from an asteroid last week: it missed Earth by *230 km*! Barely above the atmosphere.
OTOH it was only about the size of a beachball, so no worries either way. Meet 2025 UC11.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-wee-aste...
🔭🧪
OTOH it was only about the size of a beachball, so no worries either way. Meet 2025 UC11.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-wee-aste...
🔭🧪
A wee asteroid came VERY close to us last week
Plus, Rubin is going to find a lot more
badastronomy.beehiiv.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Holy moly did we get a close shave from an asteroid last week: it missed Earth by *230 km*! Barely above the atmosphere.
OTOH it was only about the size of a beachball, so no worries either way. Meet 2025 UC11.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-wee-aste...
🔭🧪
OTOH it was only about the size of a beachball, so no worries either way. Meet 2025 UC11.
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-wee-aste...
🔭🧪
Reposted by Lisa Will
I will also just remind you that NASA used to have a bunch of advisory committees that all would have raised the red flag on this... But we were all disbanded, along with most advisory panels, in the spring.
November 6, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I will also just remind you that NASA used to have a bunch of advisory committees that all would have raised the red flag on this... But we were all disbanded, along with most advisory panels, in the spring.
Reposted by Lisa Will
What is happening at Goddard is absolutely devastating. We are losing history. We are losing an incredible amount of human talent, skill, and knowledge. Rebuilding it will be impossible same for same. Industry can not absorb the people or the equipment. This is undoing space science in the US.
Goddard spacecraft engineer: "I think it just kind of speaks to the atmosphere of the agency and the nation, where people are like, 'Well, laws don't matter for the people at the top anymore.'"
NASA is sinking its flagship science center during the government shutdown — and may be breaking the law in the process, critics say
"There is just a general acknowledgement that a lot of what is happening is illegal…"
www.space.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:43 PM
What is happening at Goddard is absolutely devastating. We are losing history. We are losing an incredible amount of human talent, skill, and knowledge. Rebuilding it will be impossible same for same. Industry can not absorb the people or the equipment. This is undoing space science in the US.
Reposted by Lisa Will
The hed now reads "Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace" and the dek reads "And if so, can conservative feminism fix it?"
✌🏾Conservative feminism✌🏾 is an oxymoron.
✌🏾Conservative feminism✌🏾 is an oxymoron.
November 6, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The hed now reads "Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace" and the dek reads "And if so, can conservative feminism fix it?"
✌🏾Conservative feminism✌🏾 is an oxymoron.
✌🏾Conservative feminism✌🏾 is an oxymoron.