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Pauline Barmby

@pbarmby.bsky.social

6.2K followers 1.4K following 2.5K posts

Science: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2767-0090. Fiction: https://www.galacticwords.com Words in Year’s Best Cdn F&SF Vol 2, Nature:Futures, Analog, Utopia SF, MNRAS, ApJ, etc. Runner, knitter, curler. 🇨🇦 & minor planet 281067. She/her.

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · Dec 8

Here’s the promised retrospective of my 2024 published SFF stories: buckle up (or, mute this thread if you’re tired of my going on about this).

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 4h

Cas & And in the flesh

My pale left shoulder with the constellations Cassiopeia and Andromeda and the Andromeda galaxy. Faint smallpox vax scar visible below.

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 5h

Non-fiction: colleagues from @westernuspace.bsky.social and I wrote an op-ed on Canadian leadership in space: thefutureeconomy.ca/op-eds/scien...

(Tl;dr - build CASTOR, regulate satellite megaconstellations)

Science and Governance: Dual Opportunities for Canadian Leadership in Space - TheFutureEconomy.ca

Dr. Sarah Gallagher, Dr. Valerie Oosterveld, and Dr. Pauline Barmby of Western University highlight the importance of Canada's space sector.

thefutureeconomy.ca

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Reposted by Pauline Barmby

Ann Finkbeiner @annfinkbeiner.bsky.social · 21h

Just look at this thread. Just look at it. Especially if you need a counterweight to a heavy grey Saturday afternoon. I mean, just look at it.

Bevis Musson @bevismusson.bsky.social · 23h

So let's get into it. I'm going to be going alphabetically for the sake of ease and just posting this year's looks (although I'm sure you can find my previous threads if you look for them). Be prepared for three dominating themes - Traditional & Stunning, What The Actual Fuck, and LOOK AT MY TITS.

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 1d

Some Cdn grad programs are now admitting directly to the PhD but it’s less common than in the US. (UofToronto has done this for a long time.)

Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 1d

Some places have grad-std specific housing (mine does, although we don’t guarantee a place).

Visa process more complicated than previously, but not unmanageable.

Many Cdn unis charge higher tuition to intl BSc/MSc but not PhD stds. Many supervisors can’t consider intl MSc stds for this reason.

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 1d

This is a terrible idea.

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 2d

Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 1d

Also includes some Canadian universities, where the process is somewhat different (students are accepted by individual supervisors, not as members of a class) - I’m happy to answer questions about grad school in Canada.

Sarah Tuttle @niais.bsky.social · 1d

Are you someone who is interested in astronomy graduate school? This is a list of many/most departments and their expectations for admissions this year. Please feel free to spread it far and wide. If you are doing admissions and you'd like to update your entry, reach out as per the form!

US Astronomy Graduate Admissions, AY 2025-2026

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Pauline Barmby

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 2d

If Generative AI tech is a threat to humans’ “intellectual supremacy” then surely the chief weapon in its arsenal is that, every time we use it, we make ourselves dumber

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 2d

Earlier today I noted “hmm, it’s been a while since I got a story rejection.”

You’ll never guess what happened.

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 2d

Frost warning on this side of the lake!

Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks to the awesome @jwstobserver.bsky.social folks at their office hours today who told me that ESASky was the tool I needed (and it was! It’s awesome!)

Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 2d

Sorry to see you go. Enjoy your well deserved rest and new ventures!

Reposted by Pauline Barmby

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 2d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 3d

Transparent orthography FTW!

Reposted by Pauline Barmby

Stephen Kotowych 🇨🇦 @ourmankoto.bsky.social · 3d

Submissions are OPEN for Year's Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume Four (the best of 2025). Send me your SFF published in 2025, you crazy Canucks! Details on my site at the link below. DON'T SELF REJECT! You can't win if you don't play ;) Subs close Feb 28, 2026. Pls share WIDELY.

Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction | Stephen Kotowych

kotowych.com

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 3d

Afternoon sunlight
Illuminates a grey hair
On the tile floor: mine?

Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 4d

Thanks.

Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 4d

Can I ask why you are tagging me with a picture of a horse’s backside?

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Reposted by Pauline Barmby

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 5d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 5d

@bgmerkle.bsky.social @stephenbheard.bsky.social you might find this interesting: www.arxiv.org/abs/2510.03493

Surveying the State of Writing Education in Physics and Astronomy

Writing is a critical skill for modern science, enabling collaboration, scientific discourse, public outreach, and more. Accordingly, it is important to consider how physicists and astronomers are tra...

www.arxiv.org

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, physics prize announcement on Tuesday.

Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 5d

Reminding all my physicist colleagues that at least some of our moms will be disappointed tomorrow, yet again.

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Reposted by Pauline Barmby

David Buchanan @retr0.id · 5d

how to deactivate torment nexus

torment nexus deactivation tutorial

torment nexus deactivation tutorial working 2025

deactivate torment nexus no survey

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 5d

See Appendix A of today’s we’re-not-even-pretending-this-is-an-actual-paper on astro-ph.

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Pauline Barmby @pbarmby.bsky.social · 5d

I just wish I could write science fiction that was as imaginative and yet also as self-serving.

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