In under 24h following the newly identified outbreak of #Ebola in the DRC, the virus has been isolated, sequenced and the virus sequence data made publicly available. virological.org/t/the-16th-e...
Planetary astronomer, studying piles of rock in space. Reader of books. Drinker of tea. He/him. This is a personal account. To bigotry no sanction.
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In under 24h following the newly identified outbreak of #Ebola in the DRC, the virus has been isolated, sequenced and the virus sequence data made publicly available. virological.org/t/the-16th-e...
I fear for all of the kids in my extended family.
I cannot recommend the taste of erythromycin. bsky.app/profile/mich...
When I got my COVID and flu vaccines for the year today; the pharmacist checked that I was current on TDaP. I appreciated that, given how much pertussis is currently circulating.
#subpost No, scientists do not have to write papers that pretend that actually-useful quantum computers are things that exist.
I will keep making calls to my members of the Minnesota legislature.
Likewise for editors.
I was told today to expect it to be another week or two for pediatric doses here in Minnesota.
It would be nice to have a functional public health apparatus to be able to use this effectively in the United States.
This is interesting: Post-exposure prophylaxis for COVID with the antiviral ensitrelvir leading to a three-fold reduction in risk of infection. "New antiviral application for COVID-19 preventive drug submitted to FDA" www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/new...
Everything else being equal, Goldstone has about 40% the range limit Arecibo had.
Radar signal-to-noise is a bit more complicated than that. It goes as (diameter)^(3/2) * (spin period)^(1/2) / (range)^4. Arecibo could just barely detect Apophis, diameter 380 m and spin period ~30.4 hours, at 0.25 au.
COVID vaccine for this year managed; without any need for a prescription. Get your boosters, #Minnesota . And #GetYourFluShot too.
Hawaii announced they are joining California, Oregon, and Washington’s West Coast Health Alliance which will provide their own science-based vaccine guidelines and make vaccines accessible to everyone.
Planetary scientists will be posting under the hashtag #EPSCDPS2025 next week.
Neither 2I nor 3I passed close enough to Earth for #TeamRadar to detect, either with Goldstone or with Arecibo before it collapsed. 1I passed just close enough to potentially detect with Arecibo on 2017 October 15-16; but it was only discovered on October 19, by when it was too far out again.
Tell this state to do likewise, fellow #Minnesota residents.
#Minnesota local news media really needs to stop running lethal disinformation that attempts to "both sides" the need for actual effective gun control. As well as needing to stop giving platforms to transphobic bigots.
Peter Jenniskens, SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, and M. Breukers and C. Johannink, Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS), BeNeLux, report that the chi Cygnids meteor shower was detected this past week. 🧪 🔭 Learn more: www.seti.org/news/chi-cyg...
I have many times compared the LessWrong cult to a fundamentalist Christian sect, since they keep reinventing very specific Christian concepts (Pascal's wager from Catholicism, the rapture from Evangelicals, eternal progression from Mormonism). Perhaps they can be called syncretic?
Me: Explaining to Americans that French shops sell almost exclusively UHT milk. (Yes, I am the tourist who reads the food labels when I can.)
Cambridge, maybe. Cardiff and Buckingham, no.
I submit that RFK Jr. knows that, because he has been told repeatedly. He is simply lying to Congress.
bsky.app/profile/mich...
Medical facilities should be protected spaces, however, these protections have been dramatically eroded in #Ukraine. Despite the repeated condemnations of these attacks, Russian forces continue to bomb hospitals and densely residential areas with drones, shells and missiles.
#Ukraine: The regional hospital in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, has been forced to close, after months of bombardments on and around the hospital. This marks a significant loss in access to healthcare for people living in the region.
As seen by the #PsycheMission, #3I will be a dot. But it will be a very interesting dot.
I remember when RFK Jr. said that he wanted to send me and millions of other Americans to prison camps because we need to take particular medicines.
Next #SETILive: Life in Titan’s Ocean? TODAY, 4 September, 11:00 am PDT Could Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, harbor life? A new study led by @aaffholder.bsky.social suggests that it might—but only in the tiniest amounts, making it incredibly hard to find. 🧪 🔭 👩🔬
Yet another reason to #ImpeachRFKJr and #ImpeachTrump. "RFK Jr. and the White House buried a major study on alcohol and cancer. Here’s what it shows." www.vox.com/health/46008...
I have placed my order.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
Chris Wright has a masters in electrical engineering. He is simply blatantly lying as propaganda. This is malice, not ignorance.
Here is what the founders of the United States actually had to say in 1796: "As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims) ..."
Yet again, USA: Require that Congress do its job and #ImpeachRFKJr. For perjury and fraud, as well for his omnibigotry and being openly genocidal.
#Mars #InSight Data from defunct NASA lander paint a radical new picture of Mars’s interior ➡️ Studies identify a solid inner core and buried remnants of giant impacts 🧪 #PlanetSci www.science.org/content/arti... @science.org
#DRC: Health authorities have declared an outbreak of #Ebola Virus Disease in the Bulape health zone, Kasaï province. As of Sept. 4, 28 suspected cases have been reported, with 16 fatalities, including 4 health workers.
PSA: RFK Jr is a eugenics-supporting piece of shit. He ALSO has spasmodic dysphonia, which is why his voice sounds the way it does. There are endless ways to express what a piece of shit he is WITHOUT mocking his disability. RFK Jr won’t see what you say about him, but other disabled people will
He should name names
Astrophysicist Dr. Jaqueline Hewitt, known for pioneering work on gravitational lensing, was born #OTD in 1958. In 1987 she led the team of observers at the Very Large Array that discovered the first "Einstein ring." (1/n) 🧪 🔭 👩🔬 ⚛️ Images: Hewitt et al, Nature 333, 537 (1988)
#Minnesota: The MNGOP remains a pro-mass-murder and pro-torturing-children party. If you have a Republican state representative, demonstrate to them how entirely unacceptable this is. Require actual effective #GunControlNow and give bigotry no sanction.
🔭 NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge Image Credit & Copyright: José Rodrigues (IA, OFXB) apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25090...
I am confused why you would write this in response to me, an atheist. And also why you would write in response to a thread talking about how some religions are based on practice, not belief.
I have bands across some of my adult teeth because I was growing them when the city I grew up in started fluoridating the water supply. And the difference in dental problems at the same age has been quite dramatic between the age cohort before me, mine, and the age cohort after me.
Our new open access paper: how do we understand plastics as a contemporary archaeological record, and what does this mean for how we mitigate their environmental impacts? 🧪 🏺
As national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations, we call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people. Read our statement: asm.org/press-releas...
I would not call "The Divine Comedy" science fiction. But now I remember encountering Larry Niven's fanfic of "The Inferno" being marketed as science fiction. None of the genre boundaries are strict.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
You have the right to not get vaccinated. You do not have the right to endanger others through the consequences of your refusal. Which is why we mandate vaccination for participation in schools, living in dormitories, and other circumstances.
This is a reminder that JD Vance is an enthusiastic party to Donald Trump's many many crimes. Including mass murder. #ImpeachHegseth, #ImpeachTrump, and #ImpeachVance.
“A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it froze more than $2.7 billion in research funding to Harvard, striking down the freeze in its entirety and delivering the University a major legal victory.”
I have seen people reference Voltaire's "Micromégas" and Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" as "the first science fiction novel". But Margaret Cavendish preceded them both by most of a century.
You are the one replying to a thread in which a rabbi has explained how Judaism and atheism are not mutually exclusive by pretending that they are. I am done.
It's great that states are forming regional public health alliances to ensure people still have access to vaccines. They should take it one step further & include distributing free masks & tests, installing clean air infrastructure etc. The best way to prevent outbreaks is with layered protections!
As a former-Catholic atheist: You are demonstrating the very attitude being critiqued in the post you are replying to. I personally did not leave Catholicism and Christianity to keep referring to all religions in Christian terms.
This is also a side effect of doing radio interferometry.
This isn't abstract. Ending vaccine mandates will kill children. Any one who is trying to do this should be removed from office immediately.
And it is a bit weird that a United States Representative apparently found it necessary to comment on someone in the UK getting arrested for incitement.
As a former constituent: Please go and tell Ro Khanna how unacceptable his apparently defending a violent transphobe is, current residents and voters in #CA17.
Colorado issues orders allowing people to get a COVID vaccination this year without a prescription
On that, I defer to the doctors and relevant legal experts.
The UK and the Nordics prohibit raw milk sales in shops. France only permits raw milk processed into cheese, yogurt, etc. Germany requires raw milk to be stamped "boil before use". Raw milk does not magically become safe from one country to another.
I have long wondered if the promoters of various dangerous disinformation about food have actually grown or raised or cooked anything. Apparently not.
Just reupping this. Idk if we are way behind on positions compared to normal because of *waves hands at everything* or bc I’m not on twitter anymore. I’ve shared it all the same places I normally do.
A story: I had pertussis in grade school, despite having been vaccinated - I simply got unlucky. But because everyone at that school had had their shots, I was one of 4 cases rather than one of 400. And that is why mandating vaccination with only verified medical exemptions is vital.
The Southwest Research Institute is studying mission plans to fly by a future interstellar object: www.swri.org/newsroom/pre.... Following on from @cometinterceptor.bsky.social, which will either fly by an interstellar comet or a new-to-us Oort cloud comet. For what spacecraft can actually do.
Thanks go to the unwelcoming committee.
Ladapo's medical license in California is listed as "Delinquent, No Practice Is Permitted", and he is no longer licensed in New York either. He is licensed in Florida; which would be a matter for the Florida Department of Health - except that Ladapo currently runs it.
Today in the Pioneer Press: "St. Paul @mayorcarter.bsky.social and leaders of other metro-area cities are calling for the Minnesota Legislature to allow them to create local gun control laws if state lawmakers can't reach an agreement." More of this, Twin Cities. And less security theater.
#RemoveDeSantis and those with him, #Florida. Before they kill even more people than they already have.
Thanks go to the unwelcoming committee.
I will be immediately blocking anyone who replies to this suggesting treating people living in any part of the United States as if they were expendable.
Joseph Ladapo is qualified as an internal medicine physician (the equivalent of general medicine). He was disavowed by UCLA for fraud, promoting vaccine denialism, and deliberately encouraging the spread of infectious disease. That was why Ron DeSantis hired him to work in Florida.
bsky.app/profile/luck...
I have just been following US Senate hearings about space today.
Pretty good rocks.
The budget for the Chūō Shinkansen is about 10 trillion yen, which works out to near $70 billion at current exchange rates. The quoted post is probably just a typo. And $70 billion for high speed rail is a great investment (which is why JR Central is building the thing).
I have already told Craig's campaign that I will not vote for her to be a Senator.
I would like a large contingent of US political figures to give up their attempts to claim the Moon.
“We deliver directly through our own clinics and facilities where we treat medical needs,” says @sana.msf.ca to @theglobeandmail.com. More from her on MSF's response in #Afghanistan: www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
#PPOD: Mimas, Saturn's innermost large moon, is a small, icy world with a mean diameter of 396 kilometers. This image was captured on January 30, 2017, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute / CICLOPS 🧪 🔭
"Outer space, including the moon ... shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind" "Outer space ... is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourw...
Yet again, USA: Require that Congress affirm that government agencies will operate and spend money as it has ordered. And #ImpeachTrump and remove him & those with them for this crime against humanity.
And, yet again, USA: Require that Congress do its job, #ImpeachRFKJr, and remove him & those with him before they kill even more people than they already have.
Time for #Minnesota, #Wisconsin, #Michigan, and #Illinois to reactivate the 2020 Midwest Regional Pact?
20 years after Katrina and this is what the governors of Louisiana & Mississippi are doing during hurricane season.
Today on the #arXiv: Salazar Manzano et al. 2025, "Onset of CN Emission in 3I/ATLAS: Evidence for Strong Carbon-Chain Depletion" arxiv.org/abs/2509.01647 Like solar system comets, #3I has a coma loaded with cyanide and laced with carbonyls. The details are interesting. And don't taste the comet.
Again: You are not actually making an argument against what is being talked about here. I am done.
A rare intersection between astronomy and @steventdennis.bsky.social 's #FridayNightZillow.
Interested in owning a part of Australian history? The Molonglo Observatory site is for sale: www.realestate.com.au/property-hou... Don't worry, we stopped scientific operations a few years ago and gave it a suitable farewell (see next post). #RadioAstronomy
Eric Schmitt is so racist that he would apparently exclude my Irish ancestors who came to the United States because they were fleeing the famine. He is just as bad as JD Vance, who wants to bring back lines from the Plantation of Ulster.
The Shinkansen covers a distance equivalent to either of the United States' east and west coasts. Although not all at the speeds of the new maglev.
There is a typo in the price. But $70 billion on high-speed rail is a great investment.
That is a typo. JR Tokai has budgeted ~10 trillion yen for the project, which is near 70 billion US dollars.
SOME GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stop. Reposting. The. Video.
Wright founded a fracking company in 1992, a few years out of MIT and Berkeley. He knows exactly what he is doing when he promotes self-serving and outrageous disinformation.
Thank you for pointing this out. And I remind myself that the blatancy of the lies in propaganda is itself one way of asserting political power.
@carnage4life.bsky.social Chris Wright has a master's in electrical engineering. He is simply blatantly lying as propaganda.
This is less chemistry and more surface physics. The helium atoms get stuck to the crystals in regolith grains - there are no reactions or gas pockets. It disassociates and diffuses out when heated up enough. (I learned this because I had the privilege of having Bob Pepin as a teacher.)