Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 27m

"There's a lot of ways to take bad data."

#ThingsActualScientistsSay

Reposted by Michael Busch

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 39m

Today seems like a great day to re-up my slides from 2017 about the Nazi takeover of German physics, in part because in my estimation, a lot of American physicists in 2025 are confused about whether "agreeing to work with them" is resistance (it's not) and whether it works (it doesn't) 🧪⚛️

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Jan 31

In light of this deeply illegal activity at NSF and the ongoing attack on American science, I'm posting the slides from my 2017 talk at the American Physical Society about the Nazi take over of German physics/why German is no longer science's lingua franca 🧪

🧵 1/26
drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...

nazi germany & physics
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, PhD
Department of Physics,University of Washington, Seattle
APS April Meeting, January 2017
Dismantling the (Nazi) German Nuclear Reactor (Pile) at Haigerloch, 50 km SW of Stuttgart, in April 1945

2 50 95

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 45m

#HeraMission

ESA Operations @operations.esa.int · 1d

Happy launch anniversary to ESA's Hera mission! 🎂🥳

One year ago ESA's first planetary defence mission was stranded on Earth, its launcher grounded, as a hurricane closed in on its launch site. What a difference a year makes! www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Hera’s first year in space

www.esa.int

1

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 55m

Yet another lethally wrong appointment to tell your members of Congress to reverse, USA.

And hold the 51 GOP Senators responsible accountable.

"Senate confirms scientist with ties to 'Sharpiegate' as top NOAA official"

www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 1h

#ImpeachMcMahon

Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · 6h

NEW: As Linda McMahon guts the Dept. of Education, she’s operated in what she calls “a parallel universe” to radically shift how future kids will learn -- seeking to dismantle the public school system in favor of private and Christian schools or homeschooling.

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

Reposted by Michael Busch

Flying Circuits @flyingcircuits.bsky.social · 4h

This accounting of what's been going on at NASA is a gut punch.

It describes the preparations they're making for upcoming disastrous (AND ILLEGAL) cuts in funding, and the first losses of priceless facilities, hardware, and staffing.

Burning our investment.
Dismantling our future.
#saveNASA

Shea (she/her) @solarshea.bsky.social · 19h

Shared with permission from Carl Stahle, Retired, Vice President of Goddard Retirees and Alumni Association, NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center

Link in the document text: www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

(Original LinkedIn post: www.linkedin.com/posts/carl-s...)

@roguenasa.altgov.info

8 16

Reposted by Michael Busch

Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 2h

Well then maybe we let the industry die? Just saying

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

7 24 140

Reposted by Michael Busch

Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) @msf.ca · 2h

Watch Claire Magone, MSF General Director, share the harrowing reality of hospitals in #Gaza, from inside #NasserHospital.

We call for an immediate halt to the violence and concrete measures to protect civilians. Israeli authorities must ensure safe access to humanitarian aid.

1 44 85

Reposted by Michael Busch

Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 2h

Absolutely true. And I’m glad he’s saying it.

AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 12h

"It is going to be disastrous if this continues"

Nobel Prize physics laureate John Clarke says Trump cuts will 'cripple' US scientific research

u.afp.com/SmAy

2 13 68

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 1h

Yet again, USA:

Require that your members of Congress do their jobs and end all of this.

And require also that they #ImpeachHegseth and #ImpeachTrump.

Dylan Williams @dylanwilliams.bsky.social · 2h

Senators will vote today on whether to block Trump’s use of US Armed Forces to attack vessels in the Caribbean.

Trump may soon expand these illegal attacks into a full-on war with Venezuela.

Call your Senators and ask them to vote for the Schiff-Kaine resolution.

Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121

3 2

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 2h

#HeraMission

"ESA’s Hera targets early arrival at Didymos asteroids"

www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

ESA’s Hera targets early arrival at Didymos asteroids

Launched one year ago, on 7 October 2024, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission is roughly halfway to its destination – the Didymos binary asteroid system.At Didymos, Hera will study the aftermath ...

www.esa.int

2 3

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 17h

Thanks. I was trying to decide if I was seeing a pixel-scale color pattern or not.

1 1

Reposted by Michael Busch

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 20h

for those of you who are serious about understanding the eugenic lineage of the whole AGI movement, on the other hand, you can peruse some of the resources at www.dair-institute.org/projects/tes...

The TESCREAL Bundle

The array of utopian ideologies that power Silicon Valley's elite is ultimately bleakly eugenicist.

www.dair-institute.org

2 110 350

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 17h

Is this deBayered or not?

1

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 17h

I understood that reference.

1

Reposted by Michael Busch

404 Media @404media.co · 19h

The Trump administration’s tariff regime and the elimination of fee exemptions for items under $800 is limiting resource sharing between university libraries, trapping some books in foreign countries, and reversing long-held standards in academic cooperation.

🔗 www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs

Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’

www.404media.co

1 87 190

Reposted by Michael Busch

AAS Press Office @press.aas.org · 18h

European Space Agency: ExoMars and Mars Express Observe Comet 3I/ATLAS www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

ESA’s ExoMars and Mars Express observe comet 3I/ATLAS

Between 1 and 7 October, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express spacecraft turned their eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, as it passed close to Mars. 

www.esa.int

2 6

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 19h

We may expect somewhere between one object like 3I per few months to one per few years.

The challenge is to find all of them. Which will become much easier with new telescopes like @vrubinobs.bsky.social .

Per Dorsey et al. 2025 - arxiv.org/abs/2502.16741.

The visibility of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model in LSST

With a new probabilistic technique for sampling interstellar object (ISO) orbits with high efficiency, we assess the observability of ISOs under a realistic cadence for the upcoming Vera Rubin Observa...

arxiv.org

2

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 19h

The MNGOP could try not continuing to be an explicitly pro-mass-murder party.

Minnesota Reformer @minnesotareformer.com · 20h

Minnesota Republicans haven’t won a statewide race in nearly 20 years, and a panel of past and present elected Republicans on Tuesday said that emulating President Donald Trump is not a winning formula, at least in Minnesota.

Republicans: The Trump show won’t sell in Minnesota • Minnesota Reformer

Minnesota Republicans haven’t won a statewide race in nearly 20 years, and a panel of past and present elected Republicans on Tuesday said that emulating President Donald Trump is not a winning formul...

minnesotareformer.com

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 22h

Expand the Court.

But also impeach & remove the illegitimate extremists now on SCOTUS who are making rulings without regard for law or fact because they want to hurt people.

2

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 22h

#ImpeachRFKJr

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 22h

"Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk. This is bigger than politics. It’s about putting the health of Americans first."

- Six former U.S. surgeons general, who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations

Opinion | Six surgeons general: It’s our duty to warn the nation about RFK Jr.

We took an oath to declare dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.

www.washingtonpost.com

1

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 22h

#ImpeachTrump and #UnpackTheCourts

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 23h

How do you find a compromise budget that reflects the priorities of 535 members of the House and Senate when Trump will just withhold any money he doesn't want to spend? A representative democracy cannot function as Trump has broken the US system this year. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 23h

I was able to get my daughter her COVID vaccination for this year at a CVS that happened to have doses in stock, without any undue questions.

My usual pharmacy in Saint Paul has been unaccountably delayed on getting their supply of pediatric doses.

2

Michael Busch @michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 23h

For those unaware:

Mars orbiters have cameras designed to image a bright thing (Mars) that moves across the field of view very quickly.

Many of them use along-track scanners that only sample a narrow stripe of the image at once.

This limits their sensitivity and introduces particular artifacts.

2 4

Reposted by Michael Busch

ESA en français @fr.esa.int · 1d

Le 3 octobre, l'orbiteur TGO d'ExoMars a tourné ses instruments en direction de la comète interstellaire 3I/ATLAS alors qu’elle passait à proximité de Mars.

De toutes nos sondes spatiales, ce sont Mars Express et ExoMars TGO qui ont eu le meilleur point de vue, à seulement 30 millions de km !

ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 1d

First images of comet #3I/ATLAS from Europe's Mars orbiters 😍

Observing the comet from 30 million km away, #ExoMars reveals the halo of gas and dust surrounding the comet's nucleus.

Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭🧪

1 6