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William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

@astrolamb.bsky.social

1.9K followers 1K following 150 posts

📡 NANOGrav Gravitational Wave Researcher 🔭 Astrophysics PhD Candidate, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Siaradwr Cymraeg o Eryri ✍️ Writer - Astrobites.org 👽 US “Resident Alien” 🎓 Uni of York Alumnus 🐱 Dad of WiggleWorm 🏊🚲🏃Triathlete 💃 Swing Dancer

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William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @astrolamb.bsky.social · Nov 11

Hello to my many new followers! May I introduce you to my son, WiggleWorm

When I moved to the US during Covid for my PhD, I hadn’t a place to stay. Fortunately, an admin in my dept had an empty airbnb in her attic. Wormi was her “foster failure” (she rescues kittens) and we became best friends 🐱

A photo of WiggleWorm, a long haired orange cat with white fur on his mouth and chin. He rests with this left paw tucked in front of him

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · Aug 4

Silly @texasdemocrats.bsky.social — y’all should know you’re only allowed to skip town to block votes when you’re covering up for powerful pedophile rings, not when you’re trying to save democracy.

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · Jul 24

We’re starting to think it was never about protecting kids

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Paul Hayward @paulhayward.bsky.social · Jul 20

Three stunning and shaming paragraphs, by Rachel Wolf of Public First, in @theobserveruk.bsky.social

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William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @astrolamb.bsky.social · Jul 10

Welp, don’t you dare shill on astrobites…

Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Jul 9

ALL CAPS

THIS IS CATASTROPHIC FOR SPACE SCIENCE AND ASTROPHYSICS ...

GLOBALLY CATASTROPHIC, NOT JUST FOR AMERICANS 🔭🧪

www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

Over 2,000 senior staff set to leave NASA under agency push

The losses could endanger the administration’s plans for landing astronauts on the moon and Mars.

www.politico.com

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William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @astrolamb.bsky.social · Jun 24

I am one of those younger astronomers, lolololol 🌊

CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @cosmicrami.com · Jun 24

At #IPTA25 I walked past this art hanging at Caltech. It reminded me of the 3D magic eye things from the 90s (remember those?!). I tried it but it actually wasn’t.

Then I was trying to explain it to a few younger astronomers and they’d never heard about it!

Yes — we were weird in the 90s 🤣

$Wall art hanging. It shows a fractal pattern and resembles the 3D magic art from The 90s.$

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Black In Astro @blackinastro.bsky.social · Jun 15

Happy #BlackSpaceWeek to all those who celebrate!! As per usual, we’re starting off with our roll call.

If you’re a Black person who does Space-related things, introduce yourself and tell us what cool things you do using the hashtag #BSW2025

a cartoon character with a pirate hat says " roll call "

ALT: a cartoon character with a pirate hat says " roll call "

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · Jun 12

Reporting by @astrobites.bsky.social on the impact of the proposed US budget on astronomy

astrobites.org/2025/06/02/b... by @skylargrayson.bsky.social

🔭🧪⚛️☄️

"And you may not realize it, but many important astrophysics observatories and programs are funded not by NASA, but by the NSF. Figure 4 shows the cuts to some of the biggest. Of particular note is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which operates two locations in the U.S., one in Washington and the other in Louisiana. LIGO found the first detection of gravitational waves, opening up a whole new era of multi-messenger astronomy. This budget request would shut down one of these two locations, which drastically reduces the usefulness of the observatory. Having two detectors makes it much easier to separate out signals from the noise, and having more than one detector allows us to place the region in the sky where the signal could be coming from."

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Tom Hollenstein @tomhollenstein.bsky.social · Jun 5

My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy.
Details found here👇

www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...

Queen’s Special U.S. Doctoral Recruitment Initiative | School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral AffairsDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown arrowDown...

Queen’s University is a globally engaged, research-intensive institution dedicated to attracting and supporting exceptional PhD students who will significantly advance our research mission.

www.queensu.ca

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Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · Jun 4

The 2025 #NASA astrophysics senior review report is public. "Every mission received the highest possible rating for... scientific return", & are "producing important, impactful science in a cost-effective manner". Some important screenshots: assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/...

The Panel appreciates the significant budget uncertainties facing NASA, SMD, and APD. The Panel
recognizes the particular gravity of this report relative to those reports in the recent past. The Panel
nevertheless strongly believes that each mission under review continues to be capable of producing
important, impactful science in a cost-effective manner and would do so if allowed to continue
operations into the next extended mission cycle. This belief remains true if missions had to be extended
with reduced capability, reduced community resources, or both. Cuts to community resources or capabilities
will reduce the science output of these missions, but the missions remain viable and productive.
Furthermore, many of the most insightful science results arise from combining the observations of more than one mission in NASA’s fleet, leveraging complementary capabilities.

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Jun 3

🚨 ACTION ALERT 🚨

Good morning!! It’s easy in these times to feel like the problems are big and we are small. Trump is relying on us to give in to that feeling. But there are steps we can take — in coalition.

Please help us save cosmic science ♥️ 🔭🧪⚛️

more of my thoughts on this here:

Fund astronomy, not genocide.

You can help save cosmic science for future generations. This figure by Skylar Grayson shows how much the univese we will be cut off from studying using...

news.chanda.science

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William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @astrolamb.bsky.social · Jun 3

NASA, the NSF, and scientific research as a whole is under attack under the guise of “money-saving” that will actually explode the deficit and US debt, all while ruining society’s understanding of the world around us and cost people their livelihoods. Read this overview of the proposals 🔭☄️🧪

Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · Jun 2

From Skylar Grayson @skylargrayson.bsky.social : This post summarizes the proposed major cuts to NASA and the NSF and the impacts they would have, and provides resources to help fight back against this wasteful and unnecessary attack on science. 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/06/02/b...

NSF and NASA Budget Requests Pose an Unprecedented Threat to Astronomy

The president's budget requests for NASA and the NSF were released last week. This post summarizes the major cuts and the impacts they would have, and provides resources to help fight back against thi...

astrobites.org

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Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · May 30

TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR, THE PROPOSED NSF BUDGET CUTS NEARLY A QUARTER OF A MILLION PEOPLE FROM NSF ACTIVITIES. FOR INSTANCE, JOBS.

A screenshot of the number of people involved in NSF activities being reduced from 330,100 to 90,000.

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · May 30

NRAO is listed as being hit with a 34.2% cut. Funding to the Green Bank Observatory would be cut by 68.6%, which would be absolutely cataclysmic.

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · May 30

Presidential budget is out. Here's NSF. Biggest cut, by amount, is $1 billion, or 66.8%, from MPS (Physics & Math directorate). nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Skylar Grayson @skylargrayson.bsky.social · May 29

"Why should my tax dollars go to fund your astrophysics research?" A thread. 🔭🧪

Brushing aside how absurdly little of the federal budget goes to science (according to the Planetary Society NASA accounts for only 0.3% of federal spending), the benefits of funding astronomy fall into two camps. (1/n)

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · May 28

There is zero ZEROOO doubt in my mind that AI cults are going to be huge. I don't mean, like, "I LOVE AI SAM ALTMAN IS SENPAI" I mean like, "I have used AI to tap into the deep secrets of the ancient, forgotten texts that tell the future and it tells me that /you/ have been /chosen/...to follow me."

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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · May 26

Target-rich environment, this speech.

1/n

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Chronic Illness Humor @chronicillness.bsky.social · May 26

share this post if you think cats are cute...

[pic of cutie pie cat]

or you are having a physical & mental breakdown

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Neil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · May 26

Then die
t.co/2tcDvU4yDr

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Anshul Kundaje @anshulkundaje.bsky.social · May 23

My sympathy and support for all the international students and postdocs at Harvard. I can only imagine how scary this must feel. Stay strong. And if there's anything I can do to help those in compbio, please reach out. All of us need to rally to help them out. 1/

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · May 23

This is especially important: “We call upon our fellow institutions of higher education in the United States to declare their willingness to facilitate the immediate co-enrollment of Harvard’s international students, including formal acceptance of transfer for immigration purposes.”

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · May 23

“Nakedly authoritarian and retaliatory” — statement from Harvard’s @aaup.bsky.social chapter on the termination of Harvard’s SEVP certification.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · May 20

🤷🏼‍♂️

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Will Hayward - Wales Journo @willhaycardiff.bsky.social · May 19

Latest Guardian column:

The Guardian @theguardian.com · May 19

Owners of second homes in Wales are having to sell up. That’s no disaster: it’s a godsend | Will Hayward

Council tax hikes on holiday homes aren’t ‘anti-English’ or detrimental to tourism. This is about preserving embattled communities, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by William G. Lamb 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Dannagal Goldthwaite Young @dannagal.bsky.social · May 16

Excellent visualizations in this article illustrating how rich tech dudes have tentacles in all the places that would otherwise be holding them accountable. Here are main figures of you do not have subscription

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Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · May 13

Astrobites wants to learn more about our readers, how you use our site, and what you would like to see going forward! Please fill out this quick survey: forms.gle/HCLtcMVbwU11...

Astrobites Readership Survey

Periodically, the Astrobites collaboration likes to learn a bit more about who is using Astrobites. Please fill out this short survey to help guide our work moving forward!

forms.gle

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