Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 1d

well I was wrong this time but honestly I forgot that John Clarke didn't already have a Nobel ⚛️🧪

Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 2d

Going out on a limb with my Physics Nobel prediction/wishlist:

to Paul Ginsparg (ArXiV), Gunther Eichhorn (Astrophysics Data System) and Louise Addis (SPIRES) for revolutionizing the dissemination of physics research literature online

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 2d

Tagging 🧪⚛️

Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 2d

Going out on a limb with my Physics Nobel prediction/wishlist:

to Paul Ginsparg (ArXiV), Gunther Eichhorn (Astrophysics Data System) and Louise Addis (SPIRES) for revolutionizing the dissemination of physics research literature online

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 2d

Going out on a limb with my Physics Nobel prediction/wishlist:

to Paul Ginsparg (ArXiV), Gunther Eichhorn (Astrophysics Data System) and Louise Addis (SPIRES) for revolutionizing the dissemination of physics research literature online

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 3d

If this is sort of sophomore/junior level (prepping for upper division core courses) rather than upper division (prepping for grad GR) look at “Basic Training in Mathematics“ by Shankar.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 5d

In all of his Bond fight scenes he also looked like he'd had his
spine fused

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Reposted by Ben Monreal

The STEVE-il of Frankenstein @snark.bsky.social · 5d

This is my local boulangerie, and they're so goddamn good. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Cleveland bakery to represent US in ‘Bread Olympics’ in France

For the first time since 2017 the US will be represented in the event, by Brian Evans of On the Rise Artisanal Breads

www.theguardian.com

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 7d

I tried to keep a running Tigers-Guardians score in one corner of the blackboard during my physics lecture today. I thought, eh, I can glance at my phone once an inning while they're busy solving a problem (eigenvalues and expectation values). The 8th inning got way ahead of me! #guardsball 🎢

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 7d

Here's a qualitative, draft infographic expressing the following hypothesis: Your urban public transit dollars pay working-class wages within your city; car-ownership dollars pay richer people farther away.

Is that right? If so, is there research that says this quantitatively? 🚫🚗

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Reposted by Ben Monreal

SPIE @spie.org · 8d

The optics industry can’t run without skilled technicians, and there aren’t enough of them.

MCC’s revived training program + the new SPIE Technicians Series aims to bridge the gap & keep innovation moving forward. 💡📕

Read more about the technician shortage in the Sept/Oct issue of #PhotonicsFocus!

Solving the optics technician shortage starts with education

A new Technician Training series published by SPIE Press addresses optics technician training in light of technician shortages.

spie.org

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 8d

It's logged as 8-1, but the lone dissent-in-part Byron White 100% agrees with the Marshall's statement above; White disagreed only on whether SCOTUS or the lower courts were the correct place to apply a malicious-falsehoods test.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 9d

Last chance to submit official comments to DHS this brutal and self-destructive rule change proposal.

Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 10d

DHS is proposing a rule that would end "duration of status" for J, F and other visa holders. This would decimate the international graduate student and postdoc population, which are a crucial part of the United States biomedical workforce. There's still time for you to comment on the proposed rule.

Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media

Unlike most nonimmigrant classifications, which are admitted for a fixed time period, aliens in the F (academic student), J (exchange visitor), and most I (representatives of foreign information media...

www.federalregister.gov

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Reposted by Ben Monreal

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 10d

here are some helpful steps for academics who are considering creating genAI images to use for lab branding:

1. don't

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 11d

Jose Ramirez is so much fun to watch *baserunning*. I don't know why highlight producers have not discovered it. The cameras track some dumb relay throw and ignore the guy windmilling around 3rd, heads up, one hand holding his helmet on, 100% aware of every fielder. Best show in town. #guardsball

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 12d

Today isn't just "another day DOE SBIR/STTR grants were not announced", it's the day grant activities were meant to have STARTED if the announcements had taken place on the (already delayed) date. Can tech/energy/DC people to look into this? @costasamaras.com? @repshontelbrown.bsky.social?

Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 26d

Note that SBIR/STTR grants typically involve collaboration between a small business and a university, with very short (6 to 9 month) funding periods. For a university researcher, there is a HUGE difference in how you plan your research time over a summer vs during the academic year ... 1/2

Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 26d

Remember the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR small business grants, a beloved bipartisan program that's de-facto the seed fund for America's green energy R&D startups? Were Phase I awards announced 5/29, as planned? No, in June they delayed to 8/29. Were awards announced 8/29? Also no.🔌💡🧪

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 15d

I have heard the "superfluid helium films can climb out of containers" fact umpty-ump times, always in a "woOoO it's weird and quaAantum" context I never followed up to try to understand, but today in a zoom seminar Alex Kavner from Zurich showed a potential energy diagram and it finally clicked. ⚛️

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

as always I forgot to tag ⚛️🧪🎢🔭

Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

I want to chime in here to explain why something like "Chemistry BA" probably appears on this list and why it's a bad and stupid thing to cut. Only guessing at the Syracuse-specific details but I know the big picture. Thread: 🧵

Annette Yoshiko Reed @annetteyreed.bsky.social · 20d

“Paused” majors at Syracuse include Classics, Modern Jewish Studies, and Religion, as well as French, German, Italian, Russian

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

The other reason I have these thoughts queued up is that the government of Indiana demanded a similarly destructive "line-go-down"-informed purge of low-enrollment degree programs. Utter madness. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Ind. Public Universities “Voluntarily” Ending 19% of Degrees

Ahead of a new law setting a minimum number of graduates for academic programs, institutions have vowed to cut or merge more than 400 undergraduate and graduate degrees.

www.insidehighered.com

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

So I'm mad about Syracuse cutting ALL of this stuff, but I am focusing on the STEM BA programs because I have 16 years of advising experience. I bet all those threatened humanities programs also represented (a) tiny student populations served well by (b) zero-marginal-cost degree-catalog entries.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

A BA program whose recent enrollment numbers were 0,0,0,1,0? Totally plausible. Ask your registrar what it costs to keep a rarely-accessed course list online. That "1" enrollment had a tuition check behind it, go ask the bursar to see it. Which number is bigger?

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

So this is a message to your real dumbass tier of college administrator/trustees/lawmakers. If your understanding of college degrees is "enrollment line go down? down bad", you're wrong. More degree programs are good. Low-enrollment BAs are good.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

(There's research---we talked about it at UCSB---suggesting that inflexible-looking degree programs scare away first-gen and other underrepresented students, and flexibility attracts them. Your uncurated proliferation of tiny underenrolled degree programs is---or was---flexibility praxis!)

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

The BA degree is the first-choice enrollment degree for a tiny number of students. The BA degree is a lifesaving backup plan for a tiny number of students. The MERE EXISTENCE of the BA in the catalog, as a backup plan, gives some of your BS students the courage to plow ahead through uncertainty.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

Scenario 3: In high school you enjoyed physics and (say) psychology, but you don't know enough about either to lock yourself into a career path. You're clicking through webpages trying to game out double-majors, backup plans, decision points. HEY LOOK COME HERE THERE'S A PHYSICS BA.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

Scenario 2: you wanted a Physics BS but (let's be blunt) screwed up. You failed a do-or-die course in a senior-year two-semester sequence. You told your advisor your study-abroad year would include a transferrable lab and it didn't. SOMETIMES YOU CAN GET OUT ON TIME WITH A BA.

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Ben Monreal @benmonreal.bsky.social · 16d

Or honestly "after 40 credits of physics and math I am sick of it and can't face another 20". Totally fair! It's your life! WE OFFER A BA DEGREE THAT WILL LET YOU GRADUATE IN FOUR YEARS WITH YOUR MID-COLLEGE CHANGE OF PLANS.

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