Karen Daniels
@karenedaniels.bsky.social
1K followers 270 following 310 posts
she's a purple-loving soft-matter physicist at NC State who dabbles in geophysics and engineering and textiles and food
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Reposted by Karen Daniels
courtneymilan.com
MW correctly reading the room
merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
Reposted by Karen Daniels
Reposted by Karen Daniels
physfoley.bsky.social
This is a rather unfortunate change that seems to have come as a surprise to just about everyone. FYI for students and PIs who were looking to apply for the NSF GRFP
dangaristo.bsky.social
As others have pointed out, the fellowship is now available only to 1st year grad students. (Left is last year, right is this year)
Be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident
Intend to enroll or be enrolled full-time in a research-based Master's or doctoral degree program in an eligible Field of Study in STEM or STEM education (See Appendix and Section IV.3 for eligible Fields of Study
Never previously accepted a Graduate Research Fellowship
Declined any previously offered Graduate Research Fellowship by the acceptance deadline
Never previously applied to GRFP while enrolled in a graduate degree program
Never earned a doctoral or terminal degree in any field
Have completed no more than one academic year (according to institution's academic calendar) while enrolled in a graduate degree program (non-degree coursework must be clearly identified in the transcript and does not count toward this limit)
Individuals holding joint Bachelor's-Master's degrees who did not apply while enrolled in the joint program, may apply as second-year graduate applicants if enrolled in an eligible doctoral program the beginning of the academic year immediately following the academic award year of the joint degree
Individuals with prior graduate enrollment who have: (i) completed more than one academic year in any graduate degree-granting program, (ii) earned a previous master's degree of any kind (see guidance for joint Bachelor's-Master's degree-holders above), or (iii) earned a professional degree must meet the following requirements:
not enrolled in a graduate degree program at application deadline
two or more consecutive years past graduate degree enrollment or completion at the application deadline
Not be a current NSF employee. Must, at the time of submission, be a U.S. citizen, national, or a permanent resident (“green-card” holder)
Must intend to enroll or be enrolled in an eligible research-based master's or doctoral degree program in an eligible field of study in STEM, including STEM education (See Appendix and Section IV.3 for eligible Fields of Study);
Never have previously accepted a Graduate Research Fellowship;
Have declined any previously offered Graduate Research Fellowship by the declination deadline (if applicable);
Have completed less than one academic year in a graduate degree program (according to the institution’s academic calendar; non-degree coursework must be clearly identified in the transcript and does not count toward this limit). 
This means individuals in the following statuses at the time of application are eligible:

Undergraduate in the final (senior) year of a bachelor’s degree program
Bachelor’s degree-holder with NO enrollment in a graduate degree program (non-degree graduate coursework allowed)
Individual enrolled in a joint bachelor’s-master’s degree program with at least three undergraduate years completed  
First-year graduate student in their first graduate degree program with less than one academic year completed in the degree program (according to institution’s academic calendar)
Individuals enrolled in joint bachelor’s-master’s degree programs are considered graduate students. For GRFP, joint bachelor’s-master’s degrees are defined as degrees concurrently pursued and awarded.
Not be a current NSF employee.
Reposted by Karen Daniels
itativcs.bsky.social
🧪The NSF has made changes to the GRFP solicitation and eligibility TODAY that may change your eligibility! PLEASE read through the solicitation if you were planning to apply and speak to your mentors about the merits of applying: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
Reposted by Karen Daniels
jasonwilliamsny.bsky.social
Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/
An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
jasonjwilliamsny.github.io
Reposted by Karen Daniels
physicsmagazine.bsky.social
When stressed, amorphous materials undergo plastic transformations aided by low-frequency vibrational modes. Now researchers have found the same association in an entirely separate class of materials: active matter.
Active Matter Breaks like an Amorphous Plastic
Shearing a dusty plasma with a laser shows how vibrational modes lead to weak points in an amorphous active system.
physics.aps.org
Reposted by Karen Daniels
elisecutts.bsky.social
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:
Reposted by Karen Daniels
ncweaver.skerry-tech.com
Why is this horrible for Universities?

Just about everyone who isn't a citizen or green card holder already who's hired for a tenure track faculty position is hired through an H1B and then, after 3-5 years, applies for a green card.

This is literally "No more foreign professors can be hired"
gergely.pragmaticengineer.com
Those on an H1B cannot return to the US from tomorrow (Sunday) unless paying $100K. This is an out-of-the blue presidential action. We’ll see software engineers stranded abroad.

One easy to predict outcome: those on US visas will travel less… for work, for conferences etc.
Reposted by Karen Daniels
shiplives.bsky.social
In 2024, a team of science writers at AAAS ran a long-term experiment to see if ChatGPT could cut it writing news items about scientific research. Here's what they learned. Worth a look. 🧪 #scicomm
www.science.org/content/blog...
Can ChatGPT help science writers?
www.science.org
Reposted by Karen Daniels
albansauret.bsky.social
Excited to share our new preprint on the discharge of granular materials from a silo. Led by @ramsudhirsharma.bsky.social , we went after a simple question: What is the flow rate through the opening? The answer turns out to be "simple" and quite general. See more here: arxiv.org/abs/2509.14415 [1/4]
Reposted by Karen Daniels
davidho.bsky.social
Of all the stupid things that this regime has done, this is right up near the top. Postdoctoral researchers come to the US on H-1B visas. This will further destroy the US science enterprise. Stupid stupid stupid.
Trump administration to add $100,000 fee for H-1B visas
The Trump administration is targeting a visa widely used by tech companies and other employers to hire foreign workers.
www.cbsnews.com
Reposted by Karen Daniels
newseye.bsky.social
NEW: Tonight, this is all that remains of Nepal's seat of government in Kathmandu.

Singha Durbar was the largest palace in Asia; home to the Prime Minister & government offices.

A 48-hour revolution, led by Gen Z protestors, has toppled the government & left large parts of the capital in flames.
Reposted by Karen Daniels
Reposted by Karen Daniels
mclem.org
The US Administration has thus imposed a de-facto ban on most professional and academic interaction with a range of countries around the world. Barring those without a year of planning (or more, at their whim) equates to a ban.
aliyabhatia.bsky.social
The wait time for a visa appointment in Colombia, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nigeria are over 1 year. Among other things, this means people getting notices that they have been accepted to conferences hosted within the same year in the U.S. will not be able to come if they don't have a visa already
ejtaub.bsky.social
Yesterday, the State Dept took yet another anti-immigrant action. It stopped the helpful policy of allowing individuals to apply for visa stamps at any US consular post in the world rather than just in their home country. Effective immediately, that policy is over. travel.state.gov/content/trav...
karenedaniels.bsky.social
Oh, and the next step is to catch a performance of the band we met, A Different Thread: www.adifferentthread.com but they're off to Texas on tour before we'll get to do that. For the moment, streaming some terrific new tunes!
karenedaniels.bsky.social
Ironically, we were supposed to see the show last night, but due to an ill-timed torrential downpour we -- and some members of the Paperhand community -- ended up sharing a table at Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe, discussing Kerala cuisine and all the art that's such a huge part of life in our town.
karenedaniels.bsky.social
Water was represented throughout by a twirling family of droplets, some on stilts. Quite a joyful sight, given that their flood recovery is ongoing: www.paperhandpuppet.org/flood-recovery
karenedaniels.bsky.social
@paperhandpuppet.org's 25th anniversary follows NC (and them, specifically) getting hammered by water from Helene and Chantal over the past year. Yet ... water remains "The Gift" (this year's show) we all depend on, represented in puppetry at the Forest Theater.
internally-illuminated puppet of a humpback, held aloft above the audience who are now now darkness at the end of the show puppet-characters of real women who fight for clean water, and puppets of various creatures who depend on it, in an outdoor stone theater in the middle of a forest 5 human-sized beaver puppets building a dam at the edge of the stage
Reposted by Karen Daniels
ryanestrada.com
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Karen Daniels
karenhallionkenney.bsky.social
Hegseth is now the Secretary of War, which is fitting I guess as RFK jr is basically the Secretary of Pestilence. We just need Famine and Death to round it out.