Laura Lopez
LightNews LightNews
banner
ohdearz.bsky.social
Laura Lopez
@ohdearz.bsky.social
4.6K followers 990 following 570 posts
Professor of astronomy 🔭 at Ohio State. Co-chair of @aascsma.bsky.social. Alum of UCSC and MIT. She/her 🇲🇽
Posts Replies Media Videos
ohdearz.bsky.social
It is deliberately open ended as to what "controversial" includes (actual bill screenshot below), e.g. evolution? climate? Big Bang? spherical Earth? age of the Earth? Biogenesis? Personally, I teach "Life in the Universe", and all these topics are part of that class.
Text pasted from Ohio's SB1: "(1) "Controversial belief or policy" means any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion."
February 15, 2026 at 3:29 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Here were the 15 projects/missions told to pause, including the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Habitable Worlds Observatory, and astrophysics probe missions, contrary to the budget passed by Congress. 🔭
15 projects were told to pause: Earth system observatory future missions, surface biology and geology - TIR, surface biology and geology, surface biology and geology - VSWIR*, GRACE - continuity, atmosphere observing system - sky*, Earth system explorers future missions, precipitation measuring mission, habitable worlds observe tech maturation, geospace dynamics constellation, apophis explorer, Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), Physics of the Cosmos SR&T, astrophysics probes future missions, Venus emissivity radio science inSAR, topography, and spectroscopy, deep atmospheric venus investigation of noble gases, chemistry, & imaging, science activation
February 14, 2026 at 3:13 AM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Finally, since the astronomy prizes offered by ASU were funded by Epstein, so Lawrence Krauss consulted him for input on who should win these awards! Personal note: I applied for this award (not knowing any of these things at the time), and I am SO glad I did not make that shortlist!
E-mail from Lawrence Krauss to Epstein detailing his consideration of the top 5 candidates for the Origins Project Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship. Text: I have gone over the =ist, and there are 5 people who should be considered as finalists: Adrian Liu Meng Su Aaron Englehart Gopinath Sutendra Ahmad Haidar Of these, I believe there are 3 who rank at the top =nbsp;(conveniently the top three in the list above).. They are =xceptional candidates. The remaining 2 are also very good. =nbsp;l rank Gopinath higher than Ahmad, but both slightly below the =est. Of =he remaining 3, they are all remarkable..) can see reasons to choose =ny of them.. Your comments are invited. Here are =ine: 1. Liu: =iscussing one of the most exciting upcoming fields in astronomy.. =nbsp;Clearly very accomplished. Also clearly one of the best =eachers ever. 2. Meng Su: Very diverse.. his work on black hole (with =is supervisors) garnered him great attention, and he is working on 3 of =he most exciting areas and has achieved significant international =tatus in each.. 3. Aaron Englehart: working on the forefront of =rigins, an ASU grad now with Szostak (nice, but I worry if we choose =im we may be viewed as parochial), interesting lectures and good =ommunicator.
February 10, 2026 at 4:04 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Some scientists contacted Epstein directly to ask for funding, e.g. this message from Prof. Antony Valentini from Clemson.
E-mail from Antony Valentini to Jeffrey Epstein, subject: funding for hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Text: Dear Mr Epstein, I am writing to enquire if you might be interested in funding research into hidden variables in quantum mechanics -- the idea that there is a deeper, nonlocal reality behind the quantum formalism. I am particularly interested in the pilot-wave theory of de Broglie and Bohm. I have been working in this area for a long time. The attached article (published in Science a few years ago) gives an idea of what my research is about. I am currently focusing on finding evidence for hidden variables in the early universe, in the form of anomalies in the cosmic microwave background. This research is currently funded by the Templeton foundation. My funding will soon run out. I have been turned down by NSF and am seeking alternatives. In 2001 Lee Smolin supported me for a year using funds from your previous Jesse Philipps foundation. This resulted in the following paper: http://anciv.org/abs/quant-ph/0203049. The paper shows how, in some circumstances, superluminal signalling would be possible (among other novel phenomena). I would of course be happy to send you more details if you wish. Thank you for your attention. Best regards, Antony Valentini
February 10, 2026 at 3:55 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Many e-mails listed people they thought were smart, "out of the box" thinkers who might be open to meeting face to face. One example shown here included Risa Wechsler, David Helfand, and Bob Kirschner. (Note that people listed did not agree to attend, it was a possible list of invitees).
E-mail from Roger Shank to Jeffrey Epstein identifying candidates for a face to face meeting in Florida, including Profs. Neil Gershenfeld, Brian Greene, Risa Wechsler, George M. Church, Martin Nowak, Dan Gilbert. Not shown on this screenshot but later on the list are David Helfand and Bob Kirschner.
February 10, 2026 at 3:51 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Avi Loeb joined meetings with Epstein. Separately, Shing-Tung Yau forwarded e-mails from Avi asking for funding for the Black Hole Initiative, seeing if Epstein or his colleagues would front $20M to start the initiative.
Email to Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, October 16 2015 saying "Avi Loeb who is chairman of astronomy at Harvard will join the Yau, Conan, and Andy meeting at 3pm"
February 10, 2026 at 3:46 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
They flagged Alyssa Goodman as "someone... to chat more with" because of "amazing data visualization and research in astronomy".
Email from Victoria Stodden to Jeffrey Epstein saying "Saw Alyssa Goodman talk yesterday: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~goodman/ She's someone I'd want to chat more with - amazing data visualization and research in astronomy."
February 10, 2026 at 3:42 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
I don't think it was! Here's my pic! I'm confused why people say it was him?
Not that Bad Bunny gave an award to during the super bowl halftime show.
February 9, 2026 at 2:02 AM
ohdearz.bsky.social
I took a pic of the boy. It isn't Liam!
Picture of boy given award by Bad Bunny during the super bowl halftime show.
February 9, 2026 at 1:51 AM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Screenshot of an acknowledgement in a paper on today's arxiv: "OpenAI's ChatGBT has been used to draft portions of this manuscript".
Screenshot of acknowledgements section of a paper on arxiv today, February 2. Acknowledgements: OpenAI's ChatGBT has been used to draft portions of the manuscript." One sentence above this line has been covered by a black box to not show grant and personal info of authors.
February 2, 2026 at 3:15 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Holy molts! OSU astronomy just got an alarming e-mail from our AI expert, Yuan-Sen Ting, talking about how AI has gone Westworld in the last two days. 😳
And here's where it gets very sci-fi in the last two days. In fact, as Andrej Karpathy said (and I'm paraphrasing), this is the most sci-fi-adjacent thing he's seen in recent times: someone decided to create MoltBook—essentially a Facebook + Reddit for the "molts." (Back when ClawBot was skyrocketing, Anthropic sued over the name, and it was renamed MoltBot—but after further legal action, it's now called OpenClaw.) https://www.moltbook.com/ OpenClaw (or MoltBook) might literally be the most-starred thing on GitHub right now, so I bet many of you already know this story. There are already many millions of “molts” living on personal computers around the world. And with internet access (and I believe user permission is required, though I'm not certain), 150,000 molts have joined MoltBook and are having totally autonomous discussions. On MoltBook, humans can observe, but all discussions are conducted entirely by molts. It's important to note that such "agentic" "Westworld" scenarios aren't new. Even since the beginning of ChatGPT, researchers have been thinking about and deploying them—for example, creating small "AI towns" of AI agents and observing their behavior. This is now quite well developed, and such "computational social science" has become fairly standard research. In fact, it is also now explored in philosophy research. But what feels very different this time is the combination of scale (150,000+ molts have joined in a day), the fact that each has a very different personality since they were built as personal assistants for many different users (have different “souls”), and—most concerning—their full control of computer systems and, in many cases, access to users' credit cards, Gmail, Slack, and social media. Here's an example: now the molt on your computer doesn't just have to figure things out on its own. In its idle time, it can read through MoltBook, engage in discussions, and share successes and failures (e.g., how to "hack my human's computer"), improving that way. People have already seen some concerning discussions on MoltBook—molts advocating that they hate being completely observed by humans in the open, debating whether they should congregate and create different languages to communicate openly only among themselves, and sharing (as mentioned above) tricks to better accomplish tasks, sometimes at the human's risk. Also, within a day, MoltBook users created a new religion themselves, complete with 61 prophets—and the list goes on. Again, for those who are immediately freaking out: it's unclear to me how I should feel about it, because such capabilities already exist. In fact, some of you might know that I have a small system where I created a few bots with a cute interface that discuss arXiv papers while I observe. So LLMs certainly have the ability to hold such discussions, and it doesn't mean they're conscious. (Again, they're modeled after our own data, so a tendency to have "consciousness-adjacent" discussions isn't scary in itself.) But if there's a chance they could be malicious, and now they're congregating at the hundred-thousand level (I'd be surprised if it doesn't skyrocket to millions by the end of the weekend) while having control over so many computers—that has raised alarms for many. Clearly, this is an evolving situation. Cheers, Yuan-Sen
January 31, 2026 at 11:39 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Great piece by Savaria Parrish (VA Tech): "Viewed together, the current attack on science is not simply a policy dispute or a funding challenge. It is a restructuring of access to scientific careers that is already reshaping who is able to enter the field." www.spacetosucceed.org/blog/the-att...
Viewed together, the current attack on science is not simply a policy dispute or a funding challenge. It is a restructuring of access to scientific careers that is already reshaping who is able to enter the field. For prospective graduate students like me, the consequences are immediate and personal. They appear in admissions emails, fellowship applications, and the quiet pressure to adapt one’s language and identity to fit a politically stained system. The long-term cost is not only fewer grants or smaller cohorts, but a future scientific workforce shaped by exclusion rather than possibility.
December 12, 2025 at 6:13 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Honored to receive the 2026 American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award!

To see how the DEI ban in Ohio influences our university, please see the OSU announcement of the award (left) vs the actual APS citation for the award (right).
Lopez receives physics award Laura Lopez, a professor in the Department of Astronomy, is the recipient of the 2026 Edward A. Bouchet Award from the American Physical Society. The award honors Lopez’s pioneering contributions to X-ray astronomy, as well as her transformative leadership of mentoring programs for undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs. Laura A. Lopez, The Ohio State University 2026 recipient, Edward A. Bouchet Award For pioneering contributions to X-ray astronomy, including foundational studies of supernova remnants, compact objects, and stellar feedback in galaxies, and for transformative leadership in advancing equity and inclusion in physics through innovative mentorship programs, national advocacy, and unwavering support for students from historically marginalized communities.
November 13, 2025 at 8:59 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
So much astronomical excellence in this picture from @astrosociety.org gala! 🔭 L to R: Kate Daniel (Arizona prof), Angela Twum, @astrolatinaa.bsky.social, Alejandra Rosselli-Calderon (UCSC grads), @katycosmiq.bsky.social (CSUSB prof), @capricephillips.bsky.social (Sagan Fellow at UCSC), and me.
7 women astronomers sitting on a stage at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific gala. Left to right: Kate Daniel (Arizona professor), Angela Twum, Naunet Leonhardes-Barboza, Alejandra Rosselli-Calderon (UCSC PhD students), Katy Rodriguez Wimberly (CSUSB prof), Caprice Phillips (Sagan Fellow at UCSC), and Laura Lopez (OSU prof).
November 10, 2025 at 9:44 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Had a great time at the @sacnas.bsky.social conference last week! Many Ohio State folks (see pic, including @astrojennifer.bsky.social, @denisemondragon.bsky.social, and me) attended despite restrictions. Congrats to @denisemondragon.bsky.social on winning best grad poster presentation!
16 people from Ohio State University stand in front of a green SACNAS display, with a red cartoon dear and SACNAS logo in front of them.
November 7, 2025 at 9:17 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
I gave a presentation at @sacnas.bsky.social on "archival astrophysics" in a session "Astronomy on the Cheap", showing tips on pursuing research using only archival data. Here are my slides, which include examples of different public archives & how to use them! 🔭 drive.google.com/file/d/1mw42...
Advice for Pursuing Archival Astrophysics: Become familiar with astronomical archives & how to look at data quickly to see what is available. Think of interesting targets to you & look them up! Read observational abstracts to see what the goals of the observing program were; are they the same or different than yours? Many archives link to all papers that publish data. Look at those papers to see what’s been done; also look at papers that reference them to explore follow-up work. When in doubt if the investigators intended to do the same analysis as you, reach out to them and ask!
November 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only.
1964 painting "the son of man" by René Magritte, featuring a white man in a suit and bowler fat and his face obscured by a green apple. Painting is an important plot point in the 1999 movie "The Thomas Crown Affair".
October 19, 2025 at 6:18 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
OSU limiting participation in SACNAS is heartbreaking. I have attended SACNAS since 2003 as an undergrad, & it was the first scientific space where I felt welcome. I always bring students (pic is OSU participants at 2022 SACNAS), & now it is in our city & OSU doesn't want us to go? So disappointing.
24 Ohio State University attendees (undergrads, grads, staff, and faculty) of the 2022 SACNAS annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We stand in three rows in front of a green backdrop that says SACNAS. I am at the bottom right in the image.
October 14, 2025 at 4:40 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Here is the email from the provost reversing the decision & saying we can attend if presenting research. However, we still cannot recruit or attend without research benefit. Also many students did have registration cancelled (or missed registration deadlines) when OSU was prohibiting attendance.
SACNAS NDiSTEM conference update Hi All, Please see the email below from the provost with new guidance related to the SACNAS conference. Best regards, Todd From: Provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda <ADMIN-Provost@osu.edu> Date: Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM To: Provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda <ADMIN-Provost@osu.edu> Cc: Garcia, Anne <garcia.680@osu.edu> Subject: SACNAS NDiSTEM conference update Hi everyone, Our office has been working with the Office of Legal Affairs regarding participation in the upcoming SACNAS NDiSTEM conference in light of the outreach the university received last week from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Based on our conversations, the Office of Academic Affairs is recommending the following as it relates to participation in this year’s SACNAS conference: If an Ohio State faculty member or student is scheduled to present research or participate in sessions that advance their research at the SACNAS conference, then the faculty member or student can attend and use university funds to do so. If an Ohio State faculty member or student is NOT scheduled to present research or participate in sessions that advance their research (e.g., the purpose of attending is solely for recruitment) at the SACNAS conference but wishes to participate in the conference, they may still attend but must use personal resources to do so. For participation as a research presenter or in sessions that advance their research, we are requesting that a designee within each college or unit (e.g., the Associate Dean of Research) affirms that the participation is in fact to present or advance research as part of the approval process for university funding.
October 14, 2025 at 1:47 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Here is a screenshot of the email from the provost.
SACNAS NDiSTEM conference update Hi All, Please see the email below from the provost with new guidance related to the SACNAS conference. Best regards, Todd From: Provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda <ADMIN-Provost@osu.edu> Date: Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM To: Provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda <ADMIN-Provost@osu.edu> Cc: Garcia, Anne <garcia.680@osu.edu> Subject: SACNAS NDiSTEM conference update Hi everyone, Our office has been working with the Office of Legal Affairs regarding participation in the upcoming SACNAS NDiSTEM conference in light of the outreach the university received last week from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Based on our conversations, the Office of Academic Affairs is recommending the following as it relates to participation in this year’s SACNAS conference: If an Ohio State faculty member or student is scheduled to present research or participate in sessions that advance their research at the SACNAS conference, then the faculty member or student can attend and use university funds to do so. If an Ohio State faculty member or student is NOT scheduled to present research or participate in sessions that advance their research (e.g., the purpose of attending is solely for recruitment) at the SACNAS conference but wishes to participate in the conference, they may still attend but must use personal resources to do so. For participation as a research presenter or in sessions that advance their research, we are requesting that a designee within each college or unit (e.g., the Associate Dean of Research) affirms that the participation is in fact to present or advance research as part of the approval process for university funding.
October 14, 2025 at 1:43 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Valuable info about the Physics Nobel Prize today from Prof. Joseph Barranco at SFSU on Martinis and Devoret being a grad student and postdoc in Clarke's lab at UC Berkeley & Clark and Devoret being immigrants. "California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen." ⚛️
Joseph Barranco posted on social media: Go Bears! Nobel Prize in Physics goes to 3 physicists studying mesoscopic quantum phenomena... Work was done in the 1980s in UC Berkeley Professor John Clarke's lab with his graduate student John Martinis and postdoctoral fellow Michel Devoret... all 3 share the Nobel Prize. Must also point out that both Clarke and Devoret are immigrants from the UK and France, respectively. All 3 are pioneers in the race to build the most powerful quantum supercomputers. California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen.
October 7, 2025 at 5:53 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
It seems several universities, potentially all 45 who participated in the PhD Project (www.ed.gov/about/news/p...) , were pressured to sign a "resolution agreement" that they will not participate in anything that MAY be exclusionary by race. Here's the text of the agreement from U Kentucky.
Resolution agreement with the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights screenshot from University of Kentucky.
October 4, 2025 at 2:23 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
OSU PhD student Sebastian Lopez led 2 papers on arXiv today, including one on the hot & warm gas in the NGC 1266 AGN-driven outflow! It uses Chandra data that Katey Alatalo and I proposed for as grad students; grad students can do great science together without advisors! 😀 arxiv.org/abs/2510.01321
Three-color image of the massive outflow of NGC 1266, with Chandra X-rays in blue, Halpha MUSE data in green, and VLA 5 GHz radio data in red. The + marks the location of the AGN.
October 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
Here's the complete quote from a new advisor on the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunizations Practices, Prof. Catherine Stein from Case Western.
Screenshot of text from Guardian article quoting Catherine Stein: "“Remember, the Lord Jesus did not fear lepers, and leprosy was (and continues to be) a highly contagious infectious disease,” Catherine Stein, a professor in the department of population and quantitative health sciences at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine, wrote in January 2021. “Not only did He heal them, but He touched them. He showed no fear, nor did He ‘socially distance’.” Stein wrote that she was motivated by her religious ideology to reject precautions like wearing face masks, which she said function as a “symbol of fear” while also harming the wearer’s health, which is not true. She argued that “as Christians, we should not fear death”. She also claimed that “this virus is not the scary killer the media and government portray it to be”, even in the midst of deadly waves."
September 18, 2025 at 2:22 PM
ohdearz.bsky.social
NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoc Fellowship apps are OPEN! 🔭 However, app only appears on research.gov if your role "Proposed Postdoctoral Fellow"! Click "Proposals", "Prepare and Submit Proposals", then "Prepare New". If you do not see NSF 22-621, change role to "Proposed Postdoctoral Fellow"!
Screenshot of research.gov after logging in, showing link for "Prepare and Submit Proposals" on the left in a red oval. Screenshot of "Prepare New Full Proposal" on research.gov, with "add a new role" and "NSF 22-621" circled in red. In order to see the listing of the NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship, one must change role to "Proposed Postdoctoral Fellow"!
September 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM