Rebecca Charbonneau
@rebeccacharbon.bsky.social
Historian of Science at The American Institute of Physics. Adjunct Asst Scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Author of Mixed Signals: Alien Communication Across the Iron Curtain (out now!)
rebeccacharbonneau.com
rebeccacharbonneau.com
Pinned
How can we interpret signals from extraterrestrials when we struggle to communicate amongst ourselves?
My new book (out now in the UK, out in the US on Jan 13) "Mixed Signals" delves into how the Cold War forged SETI and radio astronomy as we know it.
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
My new book (out now in the UK, out in the US on Jan 13) "Mixed Signals" delves into how the Cold War forged SETI and radio astronomy as we know it.
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, we look at recent articles by @rhiggitt.bsky.social and Yuto Ishibashi, which show how record-keeping, history, and institutional governance intertwined during the centuries-long evolution of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
History and the governance of the Royal Observatory
AIP History Weekly Edition: January 9, 2026
www.aip.org
January 9, 2026 at 3:29 PM
In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, we look at recent articles by @rhiggitt.bsky.social and Yuto Ishibashi, which show how record-keeping, history, and institutional governance intertwined during the centuries-long evolution of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts
www.nytimes.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
It can sometimes feel like the history of the physical sciences is on its back foot. The AIP History Weekly Edition set out to show that, globally, there's so much going on that you can talk about it weekly and not get to everything. Here's some of what we couldn't get to in 2025. #histsci
A New Year’s open-access smorgasbord
AIP History Weekly Edition: January 2, 2026
www.aip.org
January 2, 2026 at 4:38 PM
It can sometimes feel like the history of the physical sciences is on its back foot. The AIP History Weekly Edition set out to show that, globally, there's so much going on that you can talk about it weekly and not get to everything. Here's some of what we couldn't get to in 2025. #histsci
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
Before the holiday break, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social queued up a spotlight on Peter Pesic's @physicspip.bsky.social article on Einstein's sockless ways. It addresses not only Einstein's motivations, but also the cultural reasons behind why it was a topic of fascination www.aip.org/history/pete...
Article Spotlight: Peter Pesic on Einstein’s socks
AIP History Weekly Update: December 26, 2025
www.aip.org
December 26, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Before the holiday break, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social queued up a spotlight on Peter Pesic's @physicspip.bsky.social article on Einstein's sockless ways. It addresses not only Einstein's motivations, but also the cultural reasons behind why it was a topic of fascination www.aip.org/history/pete...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
The semiannual AIP History Newsletter is out! The feature article highlights a surge in scholarship around experiments on quantum entanglement. The topic is most associated with tests of Bell's theorem but the history predates and is broader than those efforts.
aip.brightspotcdn.com/83/0f/cc825f...
aip.brightspotcdn.com/83/0f/cc825f...
December 22, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The semiannual AIP History Newsletter is out! The feature article highlights a surge in scholarship around experiments on quantum entanglement. The topic is most associated with tests of Bell's theorem but the history predates and is broader than those efforts.
aip.brightspotcdn.com/83/0f/cc825f...
aip.brightspotcdn.com/83/0f/cc825f...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
Luisa Bonolis and Stefano Furlan have a pair of articles in European Physical Journal H on the emergence of scientists' understanding of the universe as awash in physically extreme phenomena. @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social looks at how this shift in perspective transformed the culture of astronomy.
Article spotlight: The “violent universe” and modern astrophysics
AIP History Weekly Edition: December 5, 2025
www.aip.org
December 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Luisa Bonolis and Stefano Furlan have a pair of articles in European Physical Journal H on the emergence of scientists' understanding of the universe as awash in physically extreme phenomena. @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social looks at how this shift in perspective transformed the culture of astronomy.
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
Come work with us at Penn State!
The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is hiring postdocs, and welcomes applicants who can make connections with its sibling centers like @pseticenter.bsky.social doing SETI, Astrobiology, and Planetary Systems Science:
aas.org/jobregister/...
The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is hiring postdocs, and welcomes applicants who can make connections with its sibling centers like @pseticenter.bsky.social doing SETI, Astrobiology, and Planetary Systems Science:
aas.org/jobregister/...
Postdoctoral Research Positions at Penn State Center for Exoplanets & Habitable Worlds | American Astronomical Society
The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds (CEHW) at Penn State invite applications for one or more Postdoctoral Researcher positions.
aas.org
December 4, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Come work with us at Penn State!
The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is hiring postdocs, and welcomes applicants who can make connections with its sibling centers like @pseticenter.bsky.social doing SETI, Astrobiology, and Planetary Systems Science:
aas.org/jobregister/...
The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is hiring postdocs, and welcomes applicants who can make connections with its sibling centers like @pseticenter.bsky.social doing SETI, Astrobiology, and Planetary Systems Science:
aas.org/jobregister/...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
We've squeezed in one last AIP Lyne Starling Trimble Public Event for 2025. Come to our DC location at 6pm on Wednesday, December 10 to catch David DeVorkin's lecture, "The Quiet Genius of George Carruthers."
RSVP here:
www.aip.org/history/davi...
RSVP here:
www.aip.org/history/davi...
November 21, 2025 at 9:35 PM
We've squeezed in one last AIP Lyne Starling Trimble Public Event for 2025. Come to our DC location at 6pm on Wednesday, December 10 to catch David DeVorkin's lecture, "The Quiet Genius of George Carruthers."
RSVP here:
www.aip.org/history/davi...
RSVP here:
www.aip.org/history/davi...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
🔭
Interested in pursuing a PhD in Astrophysics?
The Centre for Astrophysics Research @herts.ac.uk is advertising many projects, including some I'm supervising on Galaxies, Black Holes and Cosmology!
Deadline: February 2nd 2026
www.herts.ac.uk/research/cen...
#astro #cosmology #PhD #uniofherts
The Centre for Astrophysics Research @herts.ac.uk is advertising many projects, including some I'm supervising on Galaxies, Black Holes and Cosmology!
Deadline: February 2nd 2026
www.herts.ac.uk/research/cen...
#astro #cosmology #PhD #uniofherts
Research degrees and studentships
Postgraduate Research Opportunities
www.herts.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 1:37 AM
🔭
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
Hello again, #HSS2025! Despite the Sheraton's weird elevator system, I've made it to the Oak Alley Room for a panel on Astronomical Futures during the #ColdWar.
Our 1st speaker, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social, is discussing the history of #SETI, including Project Ozma.
www.seti.org/research/set...
Our 1st speaker, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social, is discussing the history of #SETI, including Project Ozma.
www.seti.org/research/set...
November 14, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Hello again, #HSS2025! Despite the Sheraton's weird elevator system, I've made it to the Oak Alley Room for a panel on Astronomical Futures during the #ColdWar.
Our 1st speaker, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social, is discussing the history of #SETI, including Project Ozma.
www.seti.org/research/set...
Our 1st speaker, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social, is discussing the history of #SETI, including Project Ozma.
www.seti.org/research/set...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
Hope everyone had a good break over Easter. We're back to our regular opening hours from today: Monday-Friday 09:00-21:00, Saturday 10:00-17:00. Don't forget to check out our #NewBooks display if you are in the Library! 📚📚😊
April 23, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Hope everyone had a good break over Easter. We're back to our regular opening hours from today: Monday-Friday 09:00-21:00, Saturday 10:00-17:00. Don't forget to check out our #NewBooks display if you are in the Library! 📚📚😊
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, guest contributor Don Opitz looks at the multitudinous scholarly and professional contributions of the late Margaret Rossiter in creating a historiography of women in science. #HPS
In memoriam: Margaret Walsh Rossiter, pathbreaker in “writing women into science”
AIP History Weekly Edition: October 24, 2025
www.aip.org
October 24, 2025 at 2:28 PM
In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, guest contributor Don Opitz looks at the multitudinous scholarly and professional contributions of the late Margaret Rossiter in creating a historiography of women in science. #HPS
🚀 We’re hiring a 3-year Postdoctoral Fellow in history of science/STS to join my team at the American Institute of Physics! If you're looking for a fellowship opportunity in the history of the physical sciences post-1850, please see our ad for more details: workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...
Recruitment
workforcenow.adp.com
October 9, 2025 at 5:22 PM
🚀 We’re hiring a 3-year Postdoctoral Fellow in history of science/STS to join my team at the American Institute of Physics! If you're looking for a fellowship opportunity in the history of the physical sciences post-1850, please see our ad for more details: workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
At AIP we've launched a new policy research program to go deep on current questions and pull together more comprehensive pictures. Leading this work, Lindsay Milliken has produced her first public product, a primer on the new $100,000 fee on H-1B petitions.
Policy primer: A new $100,000 fee on H-1B Visas
President Trump has issued a proclamation requiring a $100,000 payment for each new H-1B petition. We examine what it does and does not do, how it is being justified, and what developments to look out...
www.aip.org
September 26, 2025 at 1:41 AM
At AIP we've launched a new policy research program to go deep on current questions and pull together more comprehensive pictures. Leading this work, Lindsay Milliken has produced her first public product, a primer on the new $100,000 fee on H-1B petitions.
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
📣 AIP's Niels Bohr Library and Archives is collecting personal stories from scientists, engineers, students & others in the physical sciences whose careers have been impacted by recent U.S. policy & funding changes. Learn more about how to get involved here ->
www.aip.org/library/ex-l...
www.aip.org/library/ex-l...
Physical Science Careers Disrupted
Documenting the Impact of Federal Funding & Policy Changes
www.aip.org
September 9, 2025 at 3:06 PM
📣 AIP's Niels Bohr Library and Archives is collecting personal stories from scientists, engineers, students & others in the physical sciences whose careers have been impacted by recent U.S. policy & funding changes. Learn more about how to get involved here ->
www.aip.org/library/ex-l...
www.aip.org/library/ex-l...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
The August edition of the AIP History Monthly is out—and it’s packed with exciting updates, new resources, and ways to get involved in preserving and interpreting the history of the physical sciences. -> www.aip.org/history/aip-...
August 2025
AIP History August Update
www.aip.org
September 3, 2025 at 10:52 AM
The August edition of the AIP History Monthly is out—and it’s packed with exciting updates, new resources, and ways to get involved in preserving and interpreting the history of the physical sciences. -> www.aip.org/history/aip-...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
Despite working in a time of tense diplomatic relations, proxy wars, and budget cuts, many US and Soviet scientists collaborated productively during the 1970s and 1980s, writes Anna Doel. Prior exchanges help better understand the challenges to scientific cooperation today.
https://bit.ly/4neNFWQ
https://bit.ly/4neNFWQ
The successes and challenges of US–Soviet scientific communication
Research exchanges between US and Soviet scientists during the second half of the 20th century may be instructive for navigating today’s debates on scientific collaboration.
pubs.aip.org
September 3, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Despite working in a time of tense diplomatic relations, proxy wars, and budget cuts, many US and Soviet scientists collaborated productively during the 1970s and 1980s, writes Anna Doel. Prior exchanges help better understand the challenges to scientific cooperation today.
https://bit.ly/4neNFWQ
https://bit.ly/4neNFWQ
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
Huge thank you to AIP (@aip.bsky.social) History and Rebecca Charbonneau (@rebeccacharbon.bsky.social) for spotlighting my latest article! 🤩 #ligo #physics #history #histstem
In this week's history newsletter from AIP, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights the new article by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social in Isis, digging into the rise and fall of an early proposal to site a @ligo.org detector in Maine's Blueberry Barrens.
Article spotlight: When LIGO might have been in Maine
AIP History Weekly Edition: August 22, 2025
www.aip.org
August 22, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Huge thank you to AIP (@aip.bsky.social) History and Rebecca Charbonneau (@rebeccacharbon.bsky.social) for spotlighting my latest article! 🤩 #ligo #physics #history #histstem
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
For the fuller story of how NSF took over site selection and decided to place the detectors at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, check out Tiffany's lecture here at AIP this past spring
Tiffany Nichols : An Eclectic Array of Expertise:The Federal-Level Site Selection History of LIGO
YouTube video by AIP History
www.youtube.com
August 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
For the fuller story of how NSF took over site selection and decided to place the detectors at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, check out Tiffany's lecture here at AIP this past spring
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
AIP historian @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social has a new article out in @physicstoday.bsky.social looking at a US-Soviet collaboration in the 1960s to combine observations of radio telescopes across the globe, a powerful early initiative in very long baseline interferometry.
From radio with love: A Cold War astronomical collaboration
To construct an interferometer with a baseline spanning the planet, US radio astronomers reached out to their Soviet counterparts.
pubs.aip.org
August 22, 2025 at 3:33 PM
AIP historian @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social has a new article out in @physicstoday.bsky.social looking at a US-Soviet collaboration in the 1960s to combine observations of radio telescopes across the globe, a powerful early initiative in very long baseline interferometry.
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
In this week's history newsletter from AIP, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights the new article by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social in Isis, digging into the rise and fall of an early proposal to site a @ligo.org detector in Maine's Blueberry Barrens.
Article spotlight: When LIGO might have been in Maine
AIP History Weekly Edition: August 22, 2025
www.aip.org
August 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
In this week's history newsletter from AIP, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights the new article by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social in Isis, digging into the rise and fall of an early proposal to site a @ligo.org detector in Maine's Blueberry Barrens.
I wrote a short article on my research in the history of VLBI for Physics Today this week :-) pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...
From radio with love: A Cold War astronomical collaboration
To construct an interferometer with a baseline spanning the planet, US radio astronomers reached out to their Soviet counterparts.
pubs.aip.org
August 20, 2025 at 3:06 PM
I wrote a short article on my research in the history of VLBI for Physics Today this week :-) pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
A huge loss for NASA science.
Another self-inflicted wound to our national science portfolio.
Another self-inflicted wound to our national science portfolio.
David Grinspoon confirms that his term appointment as NASA's Senior Scientist for Astrobiology Strategy will not be renewed and the position itself is being eliminated. He'll participate in Wednesday's Astrobiology Update (which is listed on our Calendar).
August 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM
A huge loss for NASA science.
Another self-inflicted wound to our national science portfolio.
Another self-inflicted wound to our national science portfolio.
Finished knitting my fishy sweater! Now I’m ready for fall.
August 15, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Finished knitting my fishy sweater! Now I’m ready for fall.
Reposted by Rebecca Charbonneau
It gets worse and worse.
If you're interested in the slow-motion train wreck that is Avi's sci-comm on this, here are some of the latest (it's very hard to keep up!)
In which spacecraft can have comae, 3I/ATLAS has a 60% chance of being alien, and new papers validate and adopt his calculations.
If you're interested in the slow-motion train wreck that is Avi's sci-comm on this, here are some of the latest (it's very hard to keep up!)
In which spacecraft can have comae, 3I/ATLAS has a 60% chance of being alien, and new papers validate and adopt his calculations.
More Avi and 3I/ATLAS
Following up on this and this: Today images from the Hubble Space Telescope were published by Jewitt et al., and they show the coma of 3I/ATLAS very well: Would this be enough to convince Avi that it’...
sites.psu.edu
August 6, 2025 at 3:23 PM
It gets worse and worse.
If you're interested in the slow-motion train wreck that is Avi's sci-comm on this, here are some of the latest (it's very hard to keep up!)
In which spacecraft can have comae, 3I/ATLAS has a 60% chance of being alien, and new papers validate and adopt his calculations.
If you're interested in the slow-motion train wreck that is Avi's sci-comm on this, here are some of the latest (it's very hard to keep up!)
In which spacecraft can have comae, 3I/ATLAS has a 60% chance of being alien, and new papers validate and adopt his calculations.