Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · 3h

The physics of airborne COVID transmission in a set of video lectures.

ocw.mit.edu/courses/res-...

Physics of COVID-19 Transmission | Chemical Engineering | MIT OpenCourseWare

MIT OpenCourseWare is a web based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity

ocw.mit.edu

Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · 12h

One of this year’s Nobel prize laureates in chemistry is an immigrant in the U.S. 👍

Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · 2d

At the dawn of the French Revolution, rumors spread like a disease | Journal Club | PNAS www.pnas.org/post/journal...

At the dawn of the French Revolution, rumors spread like a disease

The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, depicted here, sparked the French Revolution. As word of dissatisfaction and revolution spread throughout the country, poor economic conditions and other...

www.pnas.org

Reposted by Augusto Carballido

SpacePolicyOnline @spacepolicyonline.bsky.social · 9d

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), top Democrat on Senate Commerce Cmte, is out with a Democratic staff report: "The Destruction of NASA's Mission: Whistleblowers Reveal OMB's Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency."
www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Nature @nature.com · 12d

Earth’s journey through the Milky Way’s dense spiral arms might have churned up the planet’s surface

go.nature.com/3Ildx4C

How passage through the Milky Way’s spiral arms altered our planet

The chemical make-up of crystals that formed from magma hint at an increase in the number of meteorites battering Earth’s surface.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 24d

Hey, so...Covid rates have gotten real high. Maybe change your behavior to fit this new risk profile? Stop eating indoors at restaurants, mask on mass transit, that kind of thing?

A graph of Covid rates. It's more complex than can be described here, but the important bit is that the rates have gone up a lot since late July, nearly to the heights of last winter.

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 30

bsky.app/profile/astr...

Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 30

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been…nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

–Isaac Asimov

Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 30

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been…nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

–Isaac Asimov

Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Prof Paul Williams @profpaul.bsky.social · Aug 29

Our new study finds that the upper atmosphere is becoming more sheared and less stratified because of climate change. Both these changes are making the atmosphere less stable and more conducive to turbulence.

Covered by the BBC here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reading University research shows turbulent flights to increase

University of Reading research shows that clear-air turbulence, which is invisible to aircraft, is set to get worse.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 28

Mammoths in Mexico? Huge bone trove reveals giant beasts thrived in warmth, too | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Mammoths in Mexico? Huge bone trove reveals giant beasts thrived in warmth, too

Fossils found while building airport contain first mammoth DNA from tropical location

www.science.org

Reposted by Augusto Carballido

California Department of Public Health @capublichealth.bsky.social · Aug 28

COVID-19 is spreading in California. Getting the 2024/2025 COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant is safe, effective & protects you & your developing baby from getting very sick.

📲Talk to your prenatal care provider or visit MyTurn.ca.gov to schedule your vaccine appointment.

Three individuals celebrating at a baby shower with decorations and gifts. One holds a teddy bear and sits near a sign about the importance of vaccination during pregnancy by CDPH. Text "Vaccination during pregnancy protects you and your baby".

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · Aug 28

Here is the official statement from the American Meteorological Society on the "foundational flaws" of the Department of Energy’s recent attempt to deny the reality of #climate change.

www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-am...

The Practice and Assessment of Science: Five Foundational Flaws in the Department of Energy's 2025 Climate Report

Adopted by the Executive Committee of the AMS Council on 27 August 2025

www.ametsoc.org

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 24

“This planet is run by crazy people. Remember what they have to do to get where they are. Their perspective is so narrow, so…brief… They care only about the time they are in power”.

- Carl Sagan, Contact

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 23

“…the discovery of an extended CO2 coma and the abundance of ice water shows that 3I/ATLAS may not be so different from the comets that formed around our Sun”.

spherex.caltech.edu/news/3i-atla...

SPHEREx Discovers Extended Carbon Dioxide Coma in Interstellar Object 3I-ATLAS | SPHEREx

spherex.caltech.edu

Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Latinus @latinus-us.bsky.social · Aug 23

El asteroide Bennu tiene materiales de miles de millones de años del Sistema Solar y de más lejos.
#Latinus #InformaciónParaTi
latinus.us/estilo-de-vi...

El asteroide Bennu tiene materiales de miles de millones de años del Sistema Solar y de más lejos

Los apenas 122 gramos de polvo y roca que nos dejó la sonda OSIRIS-REx y que están siendo analizadas en diversos laboratorios del mundo permiten ir reconstruyendo la historia de nuestra región del uni...

latinus.us

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 15

Is this agency-wide? Just wondering what the situation is for SMD (and particularly for Planetary Science)…

Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Casey Dreier @caseydreier.bsky.social · Aug 7

This is a shocking executive order that undermines the very idea of open inquiry. It turns federal grants into dispensations, subject to arbitrary and capricious withdrawal should the recipient say or believe the wrong things.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

www.whitehouse.gov

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 7

Actually, the best protection is to *combine* vaccines with N95-wearing, indoor space ventilation and indoor air filtration.

All of those things will reduce your risk of developing Long COVID, which can damage your heart, brain and other organs.

California Department of Public Health @capublichealth.bsky.social · Aug 7

COVID-19 is circulating in California. Stay up to date on your COVID-19 vaccine. It is the best way to protect yourself from serious illness.

📲Talk to your health care provider or visit MyTurn.ca.gov to schedule a vaccine appointment.

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Aug 6

Dr. Woodrum’s story is inspirational. It reminded me why space is worth exploring: love.

Dr. Charity Woodrum @charitywoodrum.bsky.social · Aug 2

I am honored to be on this week’s episode of Radiolab! The host @lutimestwo.bsky.social gets excited about galaxies with me! We talk about finding light in the darkest places, both for my research and my life. Lulu was so kind talking about my personal life and so intelligent discussing my research.

Galaxy Quenching

In the midst of unthinkable grief, an unthinkable discovery.

radiolab.org

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · Jul 29

5 big unanswered questions about the origin of life

It's 2025, and Earth is still the only example we have of a planet inhabited by life.

Here are 5 big questions we're seeking to answer about how it came to be, as well as finding life elsewhere.

bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #life #astro

5 big unanswered questions about the origin of life

Somewhere, at some point in the history of our Universe, life arose. We're evidence of that here on Earth, but many big puzzles remain.

bigthink.com

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social · Jul 2

#WallpaperWednesday: #RubinFirstLook edition 🤩

Need a new phone background? Loved the first images from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory?

We've got you! Save one of these to use, set it, and enjoy the cosmos captured by Rubin every time you use your phone 🌌🔭🧪

A field of galaxies scattered across the deep black of space. It is filled with galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the multi-colored points of stars. To the lower left is a region filled with the hundreds of golden glittering gems of a distant galaxy cluster. In the foreground, below and left of center, two blue spiral galaxies look like eyes to the left of the entangled mass of a triple merger. A few bright blue points of foreground stars pierce the glittering tapestry.

A field of galaxies scattered across the black of space. It is filled with galaxies of many shapes, sizes and colors, as well as the bright multi-colored points of stars. The image focuses on a collection of interacting galaxies connected by delicate streams of stars. Like spider silk, these stellar bridges link the large elliptical to the few larger galaxies beneath.

A tapestry of glowing tan and pink gas clouds with dark dust lanes. In the lower right, the Trifid Nebula resembles a small flower in space. Its pink gas petals are surrounded by blue gas, and streaked with dark veins of dust. To the upper left, the larger Lagoon Nebula stretches wide like a churning sea of magenta gas, with bright blue, knotted clumps sprinkled throughout

Dense cluster of bright blue stars shining like beacons against wispy nebula cloud of orange and blue. The background is filled with countless smaller stars.

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

Casey Dreier @caseydreier.bsky.social · Jun 11

The Planetary Society will provide a NASA budget briefing on Thursday, June 12, at 12pm ET! We'll answer the top-rated scientific community questions, share everything we know, and give you our expert perspective on what's going on. Register for free here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: NASA Budget Briefing. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Join The Planetary Society's Space Policy & Advocacy team for a community briefing on the FY 2026 President's Budget Request for NASA. Participants will be able to submit questions during the briefin...

us06web.zoom.us

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

The Planetary Society @planetarysociety.bsky.social · Jun 9

Our global petition to save NASA science closes this Thursday, and we’re just shy of 15,000 signatures! Every name counts, this petition will be hand-delivered to members of Congress. Add yours today, Save NASA Science.
planet.ly/petition

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Augusto Carballido @astroabc.bsky.social · Jun 9

And to think that the distance between those two points is the farthest humans have traveled from Earth.

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social · Jun 9

Those two bright points of light at lower left are Earth and the Moon.

Photographed from the orbit of Mercury.

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Reposted by Augusto Carballido

The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · Jun 2

New model helps to figure out which distant planets may host life

As NASA rolls out more powerful telescopes in the future, scientists will need a way to determine where to point them. A new approach could help.

buff.ly

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