Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 1d

Collective hapax legomenon?

Reposted by Bryan J. Field

Physics Magazine @physicsmagazine.bsky.social · 2d

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument has created a cosmic map of unprecedented scale. Its newly published findings, combined with those from other observations, suggest that dark energy changes over time.

Rethinking Our Place in the Universe

The new map of the Universe’s expansion history released by the DESI Collaboration offers hints at a breakdown of the standard model of cosmology.

physics.aps.org

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 3d

For undergrads, I like Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Kreyszig. Incredible number of high quality problems.

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 3d

Call me an old softie, but I loved Arfken and Weber. The edition I am most familiar with is light on differential geometry. My “off the wall” recommendation for this is the first chapter of Chandrasekhar‘s Mathematical Theory of Black Holes. It has everything you need and I could understand it.

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Reposted by Bryan J. Field

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 5d

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Brendan Loper. #NewYorkerCartoons

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Reposted by Bryan J. Field

Francine Lipman @narfnampil.bsky.social · 5d

#GenZombies💔

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 7d

I won't lie to you. A lot of people saw that.

Willow @rockshrimp.bsky.social · 7d

what's the stupidest/randomest Simpsons quote that lives in your head rent free? Mine is the urge to say "you said go to bread" every time I am about to head to bed.

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 8d

I have never seen anything like that in Earth weather...

Zoom Earth @zoom.earth · 8d

#Humberto and #Imelda are so close to each other that their circulating winds cancel each other out in a calm “col” area in between them.

🇧🇲 Bermuda needs to be on alert however as Imelda will likely cause flash flooding and damaging waves from Wednesday into Thursday.

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 9d

This is not a drill people!!

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 12d

My spirit animal...

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @vrubinobs.bsky.social · 12d

You might think the night sky is the paparazzi magnet at Cerro Pachón, but it's actually the viscachas.

(Ok, it's both.)

These local celebrities are a favorite sighting among observatory scientists — they even bask in the sunset glow just like observers do before the night! 🔭🧪

A small rodent with long ears and fluffy tail sits silhouetted on top of a rock against a yellow sunset sky.

A small fat rodent with long ears and fluffy tail sits on a gray rock. It appears almost content and proper, with eyes closed and front paws crossed.

A small rodent with long ears and fluffy tail sits on a rock in the brown Chilean landscape. Scrubby bushes sparsely populate the scene.

A small rodent with long ears and fluffy tail sits among the brown Chilean landscape. Scrubby bushes sparsely populate the scene.

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 13d

One of my absolute favorites. I wish it wasn’t so relevant and had aged at least a little poorly. Literally a masterpiece.

Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 14d

a man sitting in a car talking into a microphone with the words warriors came out to play below him

ALT: a man sitting in a car talking into a microphone with the words warriors came out to play below him

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Bryan J. Field

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 20d

We'll bring crab!

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 21d

RIP Robert Redford.

Growing up, I loved “Sneakers,” “Three Days of the Condor,” and “The Sting.” Can’t argue with “Spy Game,” “The Natural,” “The Great Gatsby,” or “Out of Africa.”

He will be missed.

a group of men are standing in a hallway and one of them is saying we are the united states government

ALT: a group of men are standing in a hallway and one of them is saying we are the united states government

media.tenor.com

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 25d

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPV...

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Reposted by Bryan J. Field

🌕🐺 Wolfmanda Wentz 🐺🌕 @ajwentz.com · 25d

and if some god shall wreck me yet again on the wine-dark berry compote

Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 26d

All I saw was cheesecake boat and ocean for at least 5 minutes

Photo of a missing slice of cheesecake that looks like a cheesecake hull floating in a deep blue ocean. The "ocean" is actually the blueberry topping on the large cheesecake that we don't see completely.

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Reposted by Bryan J. Field

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 25d

“This Is the Greatest Threat to Our Human Future” | @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social and I discuss with @nextbigidea.bsky.social about our new book, #ScienceUnderSiege:

nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/gre...

This Is the Greatest Threat to Our Human Future

Co-authors Michael Mann and Peter Hotez share 5 key insights from their new book, Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World.

nextbigideaclub.com

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 25d

Ah... every cover of Omni magazine from my past!

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 26d

Imagine what you could learn if you spent a year with the greatest shitposters in the greatest subreddits in the world...

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 27d

Exciting times… wapo.st/4mapyHQ

NASA discovers ‘clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars’

Detailed analysis of images of speckled rocks found by NASA’s Perseverance rover has found a “potential biosignature.”

wapo.st

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Reposted by Bryan J. Field

Nature @nature.com · 28d

The Perseverance rover on Mars has observed unusual minerals associated with organic matter — raising questions about the geochemistry of ancient Mars.

go.nature.com/469V1nr

Mystery Martian minerals hint at the planet’s complex geochemical past

The Perseverance rover on Mars has observed unusual minerals associated with organic matter — raising questions about the geochemistry of ancient Mars.

go.nature.com

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Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 28d

This is very exciting...

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 28d

Unusual compounds in rocks on Mars may be sign of ancient microbial life

Surface spots and nodules on rocks in ancient river valley are described in new study as ‘potential biosignatures’ Unusual features found in rocks on Mars may be the handiwork of ancient microbial life that eked out an existence on the red planet billions of years ago. The rocks were spotted by Nasa’s Perseverance rover as it trundled along Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley that was carved into the landscape by water flowing into the Jezero crater in the planet’s distant past. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

Bryan J. Field @bryanjfield.bsky.social · 28d

Dumb And Dumber Comedy GIF

ALT: Dumb And Dumber Comedy GIF

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Bryan J. Field

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 28d

The American Institute of Physics @aip.bsky.social wants to preserve the human stories behind the current dramatic shifts in science policy and funding.

If you work in physical science and want to contribute, anonymously or with attribution, visit this site.
🧪🔭

www.aip.org/library/ex-l...

Physical Science Careers Disrupted

Documenting the Impact of Federal Funding & Policy Changes

www.aip.org

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