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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 13d

Heads up, #humanities scholars! @ransomcenter.bsky.social is hosting an online info session about our 2026-27 research fellowships.

Join me & Tracy Bonfitto next Thursday (Oct. 2) at 9 AM, CDT for details about our collections & application process.

events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ad72fe... 🗃️📜📚

Social media graphic promoting the Harry Ransom Center's fellowship program. A photograph of a fellow reading a postcard is surrounded by a blue frame with white text ("FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN") on each side.

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 26

This is tough news. Rai touched so many lives and cultivated a new way of knowing the universe! As I was working on my PhD, he answered every email--literally, was incredibly generous with his time, a huge supporter of the history of science, and so much more.

Rainer Weiss, Who Gave a Nod to Einstein and the Big Bang, Dies at 92

www.nytimes.com

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 23

That is so cool! LIGO members do such amazing outreach and programming (in addition to new detections!)!!

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

Trevor Owens @tjowens.bsky.social · Aug 22

Great read for anyone interested in relationships between big science projects, science policy, and land/landscapes.

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · Aug 22

In this week's history newsletter from AIP, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights the new article by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social in Isis, digging into the rise and fall of an early proposal to site a @ligo.org detector in Maine's Blueberry Barrens.

Article spotlight: When LIGO might have been in Maine

AIP History Weekly Edition: August 22, 2025

www.aip.org

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 22

Huge thank you to AIP (@aip.bsky.social) History and Rebecca Charbonneau (@rebeccacharbon.bsky.social) for spotlighting my latest article! 🤩 #ligo #physics #history #histstem

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · Aug 22

In this week's history newsletter from AIP, @rebeccacharbon.bsky.social spotlights the new article by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social in Isis, digging into the rise and fall of an early proposal to site a @ligo.org detector in Maine's Blueberry Barrens.

Article spotlight: When LIGO might have been in Maine

AIP History Weekly Edition: August 22, 2025

www.aip.org

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 14

Article in emojis: ⚫️🌌🫐🦞

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 13

@ligo.org #historical #histofphysics #siting #envhist #physics

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 13

A drawing of how the LIGO physicists envisioned ideal facility sites in their revolutionary 1989 NSF proposal is featured on the cover of this @isisjournal.bsky.social issue. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...

University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 13

Finding sites for precision instruments, especially in LIGO's case, is no easy task. My article on LIGO's consideration of placing part of their broadband gravitational wave detector in the Blueberry Barrens of Maine is now available in @isisjournal.bsky.social! #histstem #hps #gravitationalwaves

University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

Kathryn Olesko @kathrynolesko.bsky.social · Aug 5

Thanks to Donald Salisbury for the invitation to write a piece on the crisis in American science for the APS FHPP Newsletter. This time I interviewed four colleagues on their areas of expertise. My heartfelt thanks to all.

higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/APS/fc77d112...

higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Aug 5

Check out Kathy's post raising issues around science in the USA and current policy climate. She reached out for comment on my thoughts on the LIGO array, which is spread across two sites that work together as a single broadband gravitational wave detector. #physics #sciencepolicy

Kathryn Olesko @kathrynolesko.bsky.social · Aug 5

Thanks to Donald Salisbury for the invitation to write a piece on the crisis in American science for the APS FHPP Newsletter. This time I interviewed four colleagues on their areas of expertise. My heartfelt thanks to all.

higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/APS/fc77d112...

higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

Kathryn Olesko @kathrynolesko.bsky.social · Jun 20

I ask my new + old followers to circulate this open access roundtable onAmerican science. Please repost! We in the USA are losing our lead in scientific research due to totalitarian tendencies in the current administration. This loss will affect all of us.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The crisis in American science - Kathryn M. Olesko, Anthony Eames, Cyrus C. M. Mody, Ilana Löwy, Thomas Zeller, Mark Walker, Mitchell G. Ash, Donna Haraway, 2025

The second regime of Donald J. Trump has decimated federal science and federally supported science to a greater degree than his first regime, unleashing an unpr...

journals.sagepub.com

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Jun 20

Photo is inside of the vertex of the LIGO Hanford facility. Highly recommend visiting the LIGO facilties!!! Such an amazing and important feat of science and engineering!

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Jun 20

Check out the Humans of LIGO blog! Provides an inside look at the amazing LIGO community! It has been a dream to study the history of the amazing endeavor that is LIGO and those who founded, foster, and research in the LIGO Scientific Community! Thanks so much for featuring me! #gravitationalwaves

LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · Jun 20

"I remember thinking, I would not want to be an engineer on LIGO due to the complex challenges of designing and operating precision instruments. That thought fuelled my curiosity"

Find out more about Tiffany (@tiffanynichols.bsky.social) at #HumansOfLIGO: humansofligo.blogspot.com/2025/06/tiff...

A selfie of Tiffany inside of the LIGO Hanford detector. Tiffany has dark skin and is wearing a hair net and yellow framed glasses. In the background are detector components with many wires, and two other people in hair nets.

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · Jun 5

LIGO and Virgo will resume observing on 11 June joined by KAGRA! All four kilometre-scale gravitational-wave detectors will observe at the same time!

Our observing run (O4) has been extended to run until 18 November 2025 and we look forward to many discoveries

ligo.org/ligo-virgo-k...

☄️🔭🧪

Aerial views of the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA detectors

Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab; The Virgo collaboration/CCO 1.0; ICRR, Univ. of Tokyo

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

Cyrus Mody @ccmmody.bsky.social · Jun 2

I have a new article out in Science & Education (journal of the Int'l History, Philosophy & Science Teaching Group) that should eventually be part of a special issue surveying common ground in the recent-ish history of science and science education literatures:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Where Do, and Should, Science and Science Education Happen? - Science & Education

Wherever scientific research can be found, science education is usually present too, and vice versa. Moreover, the sites of science and science education often contain much else besides: commerce, bur...

link.springer.com

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · May 5

Huge thanks to AIP for providing the opportunity to share my research!

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · May 5

Curious about the process that Dr. Walter Massey (then-Director of the National Science Foundation) used to select LIGO'S Hanford, WA, and Livingston, LA, sites? This talk stems from my extensive research of first impression used to reconstruct this history.

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · May 5

I'd like to thank @tiffanynichols.bsky.social for visiting us at AIP on Friday and giving us a great #histsci talk on how the sites of LIGO's twin interferometers were chosen. The video is now available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTeX...

Tiffany Nichols : An Eclectic Array of Expertise:The Federal-Level Site Selection History of LIGO

YouTube video by AIP History

www.youtube.com

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · May 3

Thank you so much for having me! Really enjoyed my visit to the American Institute of Physics!

Trevor Owens @tjowens.bsky.social · May 3

Big thanks to @tiffanynichols.bsky.social for giving a great talk at AIP, “An Eclectic Array of Expertise: The Federal-Level Site Selection History of LIGO.” Great illustration of how history of science research relates to science policy. For those who couldn’t make it, the video should be up soon.

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · May 2

Nominations for the American Physical Society's Pais Prize for History of Physics are due June 2. The nomination package is a fairly heavy lift, so get cracking! #histsci www.aps.org/funding-reco...

Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society.

www.aps.org

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · May 1

Happening tomorrow!

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · Apr 10

DC friends! Come join us on the evening of May 2 for a lecture by Tiffany Nichols of Northeastern University on site selection for LIGO, which detected the first gravitational waves in 2015. Spoiler alert: it was complicated!

ww2.aip.org/history/tiff...

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · Apr 16

The AIP history, library, and archives teams are excited to launch two new #histsci email newsletters. Our Weekly Edition will offer a short article on the history of the physical sciences and the history community's work. The Monthly is an update on what we're doing at AIP. ww2.aip.org/newsletters

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Apr 11

Really looking forward to this!!! #physics #historyofphysics #histstm

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · Apr 10

DC friends! Come join us on the evening of May 2 for a lecture by Tiffany Nichols of Northeastern University on site selection for LIGO, which detected the first gravitational waves in 2015. Spoiler alert: it was complicated!

ww2.aip.org/history/tiff...

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Reposted by Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD

HPS @ AAAS @hps-aaas.bsky.social · Mar 27

We are delighted to welcome to the AAAS, Section-L ( #HPS ) Steering Committee #histsci @tiffanynichols.bsky.social (as Early Career Representative) & #philsci Wendy Parker (Member-at-Large). Congrats to them both on their election! 🎉
www.aaas.org/sections/his...

Tiffany Nichols faculty page at Northeastern
Assistant Professor of History and Civil and Environmental Engineering; Legacy Surve Space and Time Discovery Alliance

Faculty page for Wendy Parker is professor of philosophy at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on topics in general philosophy of science and philosophy of climate science/meteorology.

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Tiffany Nichols, JD, PhD @tiffanynichols.bsky.social · Mar 22

Huge thanks to the executive committee of @apsphysics.bsky.social Forum on the History and Philosophy of Physics!

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