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Katie Mack

@astrokatie.com

260K followers 1.4K following 8.7K posts

Cosmologist, pilot, author, connoisseur of cosmic catastrophes. TEDFellow, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar. Domain verified through my personal astrokatie.com website. She/her. Dr. Personal account; not speaking for employer or anyone else.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Nov 30

This holiday season, why not give the gift of ultimate cosmic destruction?? 💥🌌

www.astrokatie.com/book

Kirkus Reviews calls it “a delightfully unsettling narrative”! @leebillings.bsky.social raves about my “infectious enthusiasm for communicating the finer points of cosmological doom”!

The End of Everything — KATIE MACK, ASTROPHYSICIST

Information about "The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)" by Katie Mack

www.astrokatie.com

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AGTMADCAT 🇺🇳 @agtmadcat.bsky.social · 12h

Love when @hankgreen.bsky.social makes a video screaming what I have screaming in my head. It's good to not feel so alone.

Give me a single reason why Sora2 should exist.

YouTube video by Hank Green

www.youtube.com

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 15h

Window Screen

xkcd.com/3151/

4-panel comic. (1) [person in front of window, shaped like a trapezoid with a curved top] This weekend, I had to make an oversized screen for a porch window. (2) [person sitting with hands on head surrounded by images of assorted equations and measurements] It involved countless tiny problems, each somehow way harder than it should be. Oblique angles. Curved edges. Noncoplanarity. (3) [person in front of window with screen on it, with building detritus strewn on the ground] ...I solved them all. I measured precisely. I did trigonometry. I made custom parts. And it fit *perfectly.* No gaps, no ripples. (4) [person typing at computer] I know that your foundation normally limits its purview to physics, medicine, peace, chemistry, and literature. However, if you review the attached photos showing how well the screen fits into the...

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 15h

I saw this statement today bsky.app/profile/aaro...

Aaron Rodericks @aaron.bsky.team · 16h

Every appeal gets reviewed by moderators, but literally no social media site at scale can scan user content in a timely fashion for violations using only humans. They do not retain or train on any Bsky user data or images.

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Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 16h

Valuable info about the Physics Nobel Prize today from Prof. Joseph Barranco at SFSU on Martinis and Devoret being a grad student and postdoc in Clarke's lab at UC Berkeley & Clark and Devoret being immigrants. "California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen." ⚛️

Joseph Barranco posted on social media: Go Bears! Nobel Prize in Physics goes to 3 physicists studying mesoscopic quantum phenomena... Work was done in the 1980s in UC Berkeley Professor John Clarke's lab with his graduate student John Martinis and postdoctoral fellow Michel Devoret... all 3 share the Nobel Prize. Must also point out that both Clarke and Devoret are immigrants from the UK and France, respectively. All 3 are pioneers in the race to build the most powerful quantum supercomputers. California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 16h

Flying cars are the perfect example of a point solution: trying to solve a systemic problem (traffic) with an individual product (fly over the traffic).

But traffic is not a technology problem; it's a social problem. Remote work, congestion fees, and dense transit-connected housing solve it better.

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 17h

which then begs the question of why you want flying cars instead of whatever mass transportation equivalent you imagine

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 18h

🇬🇧 London friends! I will be in town later this week for a cool public event with @chrislintott.bsky.social (wegottickets.com/event/676292) and will be hanging out a few days. Come to the event and say hi if you can!

The End of the Universe

After a magnificent* 13.8 billion years** astronomer Chris Lintott (Sky at Night) and Steve Pretty (Hackney Colliery Band) lead a funeral and wake for the universe, as it sadly heads into heat death. ...

wegottickets.com

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Doctor Logic @saraluckelman.bsky.social · 1d

A fascinating read.

Nome @nome.bsky.social · 1d

A life update: this wound up paying off. I'm still applying to several jobs that are hopefully careers, but I've got my survival needs covered by a job at the airport that I'm apparently pretty good at.

And instead of being in an office alone, which was driving me mad, I see 20k people a day.

Nome @nome.bsky.social · Aug 12

There is a line around this building to get to the line entrance to wait to get into this job fair.

At the airport. For airport jobs.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2d

"There are currently one to two Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every day ... Soon, McDowell told us, there will be up to 5 satellite reentries per day." 😳

1 to 2 Starlink satellites are falling back to Earth each day

earthsky.org

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Paul Guinnessy @paulguinnessy.bsky.social · 1d

Physics students are told their degree is a ticket to anything but during their time at university, it's rarely elaborated on. So Toni Feder has gone out and interviewed physicists with varied careers away from the field (Posts the physicist whose job title is digital experience director...)

What can physicists do?

Interviews offer a glimpse of how physicists get into—and thrive in—myriad nonacademic careers.

pubs.aip.org

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 1d

Amazing thank you

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 2d

I am also checking to see if I need to set my alarm

Reposted by Katie Mack

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 2d

London! Next Friday! The Universe WILL end in the company of @astrokatie.com, Steve Pretty, many musicians and myself. Do please come join us wegottickets.com/event/676292

The End of the Universe

wegottickets.com

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Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 2d

i personally prefer not to marinate in bot driven hate speech & science denial journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... and i hope bsky does not succumb to the forces that degraded most maybe all other social networks

X under Musk’s leadership: Substantial hate and no reduction in inauthentic activity

Numerous studies have reported an increase in hate speech on X (formerly Twitter) in the months immediately following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform on October 27th, 2022; relatedly, despite ...

journals.plos.org

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 3d

The Ig Nobel is incredible , one year an Indian guy won it for calculating the average surface area of an elephant and during his acceptance they had an elephant hold up a sign with the surface area of the scientist on it, they do showbiz better than the Oscars

Jeffrey J. Hall @mrjeffu.bsky.social · 19d

Video: a Japanese scientist was attacked by flies while giving the acceptance speech for his Ig Nobel Prize-winning research paper that proved painting Zebra-like stripes on cows led to a decrease in biting fly attacks.

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 5d

Obviously there are institutions—eg Liberty University—that will find these demands relatively easy to absorb and consistent with their mission.

Everyone else's job right now is to convince the UVAs and Dartmouths of the world that if they go along, they are Liberty University.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

Man those are some clean-looking patterns

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

I actually brought that up last time I spoke to a journalist about this (earlier today)

Reposted by Katie Mack

Emily J @emexastris.bsky.social · 4d

I think a lot of people don't know this Zoom feature exists: under "React" there's a "Be Right Back" button that mutes your audio, turns off your camera, and puts a label on your square. And then when you come back you just click the "Back" button.

Repost to save us all from "BRB" chat messages!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

No; personal theory consultation is not a service I offer.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

😑

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

Aside from all the other obvious points it strikes me as particularly cringeworthy to feel you need to put your own face on BOTH sides of the coin

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 4d

Julius Caesar was the first Roman to put his own living face on coins, weeks before his death. It is one of the deepest cultural signifiers of something autocracies do and republics do not.

“Render unto Caesar.” A practice so notoriously arrogant Jesus himself dunked on it with snarky wordplay.

Treasury Department Has Plans To Mint Dollar Coin Featuring Donald Trump's Likeness | Defector

The United States Department of the Treasury has developed, to the brink of production, a dollar coin that features the face and likeness of President Donald Trump, according to a source within the Tr...

defector.com

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

Okay all the best

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

I dunno, I think there are some kinds of research that start with something more like trial and error or serendipitous discoveries.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

I wrote a whole book about the end of the universe and one thing it did for me was to emphasize how important it is to find meaning in the moment, because there is no after-the-fact meaning to be had. I recommend reading it if this is your area of interest!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

I think for me the most compelling answer for "why fund basic research?" (and the one most relevant to the people doing the work) is that humans are curious and finding stuff out makes us happy and fulfilled. Science is a thing humans like. Life would be more dull and sad if we didn't do it.

end/🧵

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