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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · 2d

There was also a really good article in Science the other week with stories of some of the students affected. It's heartbreaking.

www.science.org/content/arti...

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry

The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

www.science.org

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · 2d

@giantmolecular.cloud, Bill Smith and I wrote about why the new modification to the eligibility rules for the premier NSF graduate fellowship is actually A Really, Really Big Deal -- and not in a good way.

Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · 3d

In this bite, the Astrobites authors discuss recent changes to the NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship, their impact, and what you can do to help. 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/10/04/n...

Big Changes to the NSF’s Graduate Fellowship Mean Big Problems

In this bite, the authors discuss recent changes to the NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship, their impact, and what you can do to help.

astrobites.org

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

dr℮w @giantmolecular.cloud · 3d

new from me and a few others at astrobites 🧪 🔭

Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · 3d

In this bite, the Astrobites authors discuss recent changes to the NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship, their impact, and what you can do to help. 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/10/04/n...

Big Changes to the NSF’s Graduate Fellowship Mean Big Problems

In this bite, the authors discuss recent changes to the NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship, their impact, and what you can do to help.

astrobites.org

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

National Radio Astronomy Observatory - NSF NRAO @thenrao.bsky.social · 12d

NEW: NRAO to Outfit the VLBA with New Ultra Wideband Receivers

A major upgrade is coming to the NSF Very Long Baseline Array (NSF VLBA) – state-of-the-art ultra wideband receivers capable of operating across the frequency range of 8 - 40 gigahertz (GHz).

#RadioAstronomy #Astronomy #NRAO #VLBA

National Radio Astronomy Observatory to Outfit the VLBA with New Ultra Wideband Receivers - National Radio Astronomy Observatory

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is upgrading the NSF Very Long Baseline Array with new ultra wideband receivers spanning 8–40 GHz, expanding its scientific reach and enabling Ka-band observat...

public.nrao.edu

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 12d

The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 12d

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · 12d

(To be clear, the NSF GRFP is an awesome opportunity! If you're eligible, you should apply! But the eligibility change is not awesome.)

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · 12d

Ugh. The eligibility change would *completely* screw over anyone who entered grad school last year but decided to wait a year before applying (as well as many folks in the future who may have wanted to take that path).

I know a *lot* of people who are gonna be hurt by this.

Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 12d

Astronomy 🔭 and physics ⚛️ GRFP applications are due Nov 14! Only seniors and 1st-year grad students can apply now (no second years).

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 12d

New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Sep 1

It took me most of an astronomy PhD, but I finally have my own telescope! It's a Tasco 66TE-5 Cosmic II 5-mm refractor, found at a thrift store for $18. It's 59 years old and needs a tripod and more eyepieces (and proper polishing!), but it should be functional enough.

Photograph of the unassembled telescope in its case, lying on a table. It's white with black accents and is packed in styrofoam.

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Aug 3

Hello from Green Bank, West Virginia! We're halfway through the first day of the 2025 Pulsar Science Collaboratory camp. I'm super excited to teach the students about single pulse searching and the Crab. . .

Photo taken at Green Bank, with the Green Bank Telescope in the background in front of the mountains. There are pine trees on the left side and grass in the foreground.

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Jul 31

At this point, I kinda want to point Isaac Chotiner at Loeb and see what happens.

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Jul 30

For folks interested in interstellar objects: There's a new preprint out searching for similar bodies using the latest @nanograv.bsky.social data release, led by @gwacwvu.bsky.social researchers Lankeswar Dey, Ross Jennings, Jackson Taylor, Joe Glaser, and Maura McLaughlin!

arxiv.org/abs/2507.19475

NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Gravitational Scattering of Pulsars by Free-Floating Objects in Interstellar Space

Free-floating objects (FFOs) in interstellar space$-$rogue planets, brown dwarfs, and large asteroids that are not gravitationally bound to any star$-$are expected to be ubiquitous throughout the Milk...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · Jul 23

'Who killed Hannibal'? meme from the Eric Andre show. In the top panel a man in a grey suit (labeled 'NATURE') kills a man sitting in a chair (labeled 'NULL RESULTS'). In the bottom panel the man in the grey suit turns to the camera and says "WHY DON'T SCIENTISTS PUBLISH NULL RESULTS?"

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Sarah Kendrew @sarahkendrew.bsky.social · Jul 21

A companion star …. Inside Betelgeuse’s atmosphere…. You think you know some stuff about the Universe but there’s always more surprises! 🙃🔭✨

US National Gemini Office @usngo.bsky.social · Jul 21

From @noirlabastro.bsky.social: Astronomers using
Gemini North found a hidden companion star orbiting inside Betelgeuse’s atmosphere, the first close-in companion ever seen around a supergiant star.
🔗 noirlab.edu/public/news/...
📷GeminiObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA #astronomy

Gemini North Discovers Long-Predicted Stellar Companion of Betelgeuse - Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals never-before-seen companion to Betelgeuse, solving millennia-old mystery

Astronomers have discovered a companion star in an incredibly tight orbit around Betelgeuse using the NASA and U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ‘Alopeke instrument on Gemini North, one half of ...

noirlab.edu

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Jul 18

🧪 For those following indirect rates (not normally an issue with so much drama!):

Senate bill, out today, seeks to block the admin from making abrupt changes to indirect rates at NSF, NASA, and NOAA: www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

10 SEC. 542. In making Federal financial assistance, the
11 Department of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and
12 Space Administration, and the National Science Founda13 tion shall continue to apply the negotiated indirect cost
14 rates for Institutions of Higher Education in section
15 200.414 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations, including
16 with respect to the approval of deviations from negotiated
17 indirect cost rates, to the same extent and in the same
18 manner as such negotiated indirect cost rates were applied
19 in fiscal year 2024: Provided, That none of the funds ap20 propriated in this or prior Commerce, Justice, Science,
21 and Related Agencies Appropriations Acts, or otherwise
22 made available to the Department of Commerce, the Na23 tional Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Na24 tional Science Foundation may be used to develop, modify,
143
•S 2354 RS
1 or implement changes to such fiscal year 2024 negotiated
2 indirect cost rates.

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · Jul 18

On Avi and 3I/ATLAS:
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
☄️ 🔭

Avi and 3I/ATLAS

Avi Loeb has gained a reputation for suggesting and outright claiming things could be alien spacecraft even when there’s little to no objective reason to think so. So when the third interstellar objec...

sites.psu.edu

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Jul 18

It's not a complete win for GBO -- they propose "multi-agency" funding if needed, and suggest that some radar work could be supported by NASA, DoD (ugh) and industry. But it's way, way, way, *way* better than the White House's cuts. Light-years better.

Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Jul 18

The Senate CJS report is out, and the recommendations are positive! They suggest "full operational funding" for NRAO, and funding for GBO at FY2024 levels. They also -- pretty bluntly -- completely reject the idea of shutting down one LIGO detector. 🔭

www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

www.appropriations.senate.gov

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Emily Moin @emilymoin.com · Jul 18

These are some of the most odious people alive.

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Sabina Sagynbayeva @sabinastro.bsky.social · Jul 18

I received a very scary scam call saying they are going to arrest me cause I didn’t fill out some immigration form. They were very scary, they acted on my fear of prison and deportation, and they do this to many international students. I didn’t send anything, but have to warn all other students.

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Reposted by Graham Doskoch

Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · Jul 17

This reiterates the point I’ve made a few times on here: the US’s loss will be other countries’ gain, but overall it will be an enormous loss. There is no other country that can replicate the US research investment or environment, and the primary brain drain will be out of research, not overseas.

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · Jul 17

If you won't believe me, here's Paul

musgrave.substack.com/p/at-the-coa...

Screenshot from blog post that reads: Nor, especially, can they be addressed by American researchers moving abroad. When someone suggests that researchers just move abroad, I smile wanly, because I know that whoever is suggesting it has no idea of the scale of U.S. higher education relative to other markets nor of the difficulties other countries are facing. (What, just move to the many financially secure institutions of the United Kingdom? If you don’t keep up with UK higher ed news, then you may not recognize that’s a darkly bitter joke.) Some folks will find moving abroad attractive but it is simply not possible for the 1.4 million U.S. post-secondary instructors to just move to Canada.

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Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · Jul 15

It remains way past time to shut down all the automated plagiarism machines.

And it is also way past time for Nature to stop taking money to run "AI" hype advertisements.

Nature @nature.com · Jul 15

Researchers have been sneaking secret messages into their papers in an effort to trick AI tools into giving them a positive peer-review report

Read the full story: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Jul 14

There's now also a short Nature Astronomy meeting report on the conference!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · Jul 12

Professor in the flagship university of the whitest state (Maine) and this absolutely tracks. We’ve been facing the demographic cliff everyone has warned about for years. We also have a campus food bank. Most of our students are first-gen, blue-collar.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Jul 12

I'm a professor at the flagship university for the fourth whitest state in the US. Over 80% of our students are white.

The biggest barrier to access here is that due to lack of state funding, we have top 10 highest tuition per capita of public unis in the country.

We also have a food pantry.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Jul 12

oh, we have some straightforward gutter racism. “the blacks and the browns are the reason white people can’t get ahead” www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · Jul 12

Also, what so many of these xenophobic, racist critics don’t realize is the full-pay international students are how we can afford generous aid packages to in-state, mostly white students. 🙃

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Graham Doskoch @astrohde.bsky.social · Jul 11

I've had the privilege of working at JPL for the last two weeks, doing radio transient studies. Despite the current scientific climate -- or maybe *because* of it -- it's been an unforgettable experience.

Dare mighty things -- and, importantly, fund those mighty things. Fund science, not fascism.

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