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Karen Masters

@karenlmasters.bsky.social

9.6K followers 1.9K following 2.3K posts

Prof. of Astronomy and Physics, Haverford College. PI of Galaxy Zoo. Radio astronomer. Check out my latest book “The Astronomers Library” about books, libraries and astronomy - three of my favourite things. Brit/US.

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 1d

There is still some hopeful news out there! Of course we need coal to go down... not just stay flat (but flat is better than rising...).

Dave Jones @cleanpowerdave.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: GLOBAL RENEWABLES OVERTAKES COAL

How the heck did that happen so quickly?!...🧵

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Reposted by Karen Masters

Get To Know Nature @gettoknownature.bsky.social · 2d

Ok, it turns out #ShroomScrolling already existed before I thought of it this morning. Which means if you click on it you’ll get a delightful stream of excellent mushrooms. Definitely recommend #FungiFriends 🌿

Get To Know Nature @gettoknownature.bsky.social · 2d

Is #ShroomScrolling a thing? Like BloomScrolling but with cute little guys like this

#FungiFriends 🌿

An orange, spotted mushroom with a thick cream color stalk and a tiny orange one at the base. They’re growing in a horizontal log with grooved bark.

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Reposted by Karen Masters

Dr Adam McMaster @adammc.space · 3d

This black hole has one bright jet and one that’s too faint to see. The reason is relativity and the weird things that happen near the speed of light 🧪🔭 three-alpha.space/p/a-black-ho...

A black hole with just one bright jet

Thanks to relativity we can't see the other one.

three-alpha.space

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Reposted by Karen Masters

XingWu🐉ChineseFolklore @xingwu.bsky.social · 4d

In Chinese #folklore, a cat or dog that enters your home uninvited and is kept, ushers in fortune. A fat cat? Even better.
The Yilin tells of Hu Hong, a famed diviner from Ningbo. When a wealthy family puzzled over their sudden luck, Hu Hong revealed the cause: “A cat came to you 1/2
#caturday

《異林》：寧波胡宏，精卜筮術。有一人家暴富，心疑之，宏為設卦曰：「家有狸奴走入室，筮其祥也。」曰：「然。」曰：「狸奴形必大，可稱之，得幾斤？」曰：「七斤許。」曰：「富及七載，狸奴當去。」及期，狸果去，家貧如初。

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 4d

I have a picture just like that of my eldest! She’s now 18! Like @astroroyalscot.bsky.social I had two babies during postdoc. I didn’t want to wait for something that might not happen (aka tenure) and regret it later.

Reposted by Karen Masters

Kieran (But Spookier) @toadally.bsky.social · 4d

Hey, we all like fireflies, right? Of course we do! So please: LEAVE YOUR LEAVES! Firefly larvae need the protection that fallen leaves provide to complete their life cycle. Even just allowing part of your yard to be covered with leaves can help the arthropods/invertebrates/microfauna living there.

a firefly is glowing brightly in the dark

ALT: a firefly is glowing brightly in the dark

media.tenor.com

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 4d

What’s the story behind the “wow!” signal ending up in Ohio? 📡🔭

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Reposted by Karen Masters

Prof. Abel Méndez @profabelmendez.bsky.social · 4d

The #AreciboWow team headed to Ohio to check out the legendary Wow! Signal printout in person and dig up more data! 😃 #RadioAstronomy #Astrophysics #Astronomy #SETI #WowSignal #PHL #UPRArecibo

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Reposted by Karen Masters

All the Galaxies! @allthegalaxies.galaxyzoo.org · 4d

A barred spiral galaxy, observed with the Apache Point 2.5m Telescope in the SDSS survey.

It is at redshift 0.059 (lookback time 819.8 million years) with coordinates (171.09563, 23.32707).

36 volunteers classified this galaxy in Galaxy Zoo 2.

A barred spiral galaxy from the Galaxy Zoo 2 project, classified by 36 volunteers.

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 5d

Almost everywhere I have lived in the UK is in that circle (just excluding parents’ current town in West Wales where I spent almost all holidays).

Brilliant Maps @brilliantmaps.bsky.social · 5d

50% of The UK's Population Live Inside This Circle

Explanation: brilliantmaps.com/half-half...

Reposted by Karen Masters

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 6d

Matthew 15:29-31: And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them after verifying their citizenship status.

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Reposted by Karen Masters

Durham University @durham.ac.uk · 5d

Looking for some weekend listening? 🎧

Prof Andrew Pontzen, in our Department of Physics, looks at the search for element 120 on the periodic table - and what motivates scientists to pursue something possibly only produced in the violent explosions of stars 💥

👉 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

New Elements - BBC Sounds

What does it take to make something which has never existed on Earth before?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 6d

Listening to people view Saturn through a telescope for the first time is one of my absolute favourite things. 🔭👩‍🔬🪐

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 8d

Safe travels.

Reposted by Karen Masters

NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 8d

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD
@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy.

Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.social
I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

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Reposted by Karen Masters

Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 10d

your moment of calm: a mossy waterfall deep in the heart of a Mount Hood trail.

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Not made of dark matter but powered by dark matter annihilation. This is an idea from Cosmin Illie (Colgate) and collaborators. Manolya spent the summer at Colgate.

Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Last talk by Manolya Yatman BMC’26 (Haverford astrophysics) talking about if JWST observations might be revealing stars made of dark matter. 👩‍🔬🔭🎢

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Penultimate talk by Dakarai Lindsay’27 on the eating habits of clams in New Jersey waters (work done at Rutgers). 🧪👩‍🔬🐟

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Now Alina Schechtman-Taylor’26 talking about work on rodent behaviour which included imaging brains and tracking behaviour with the help of ML.

Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Ok. It’s actually a classic @zooniverse.bsky.social project because what they did instead was have a group of undergraduates make the training set by measuring thousands of worms!

Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

This would actually be a good @zooniverse.bsky.social project. Jack used a CNN image analysis machine learner for it.

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Now Jack Weinstein ‘27 talking about work on measuring the lengths of tiny (max 1mm) worms (done at JHU). In bio-speek this is “automated phenotyping of nematodes”. 🧪

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Alan is pretty positive about how helpful these tools might be helping doctors with “frequently misdiagnosed” diseases.

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Karen Masters @karenlmasters.bsky.social · 11d

Now Alan Liu’28 talking about tests of how AI models might help with complex disease diagnosis.

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