Roger Freedman

Six years ago this week, an unplanned disaster engulfed the world. Trump catastrophically mismanaged it. The economy collapsed and 1m+ died.

Now reelected, he’s on the verge of topping that, only this time the disaster is entirely of his own making.

The results may be even worse.

One of the finest physics colloquia I’ve ever seen was the one presented at Stanford by Don Herbert, aka Mr. Wizard, back in the 1970s. 🎢

AOC: The Pentagon has not passed an audit, and they are out here trying to kick people with disabilities off of Medicaid. It is corruption that is stealing from the public coffers — and that is the actual waste, fraud, and abuse.

I'm very proud of having worked in this wonderful project!

By the great @laloalcaraz.bsky.social!

Historian here no literary scholar but here we are

And yet, not a word indicating agency in the title or subhead. It’s not “upon us”, it is a direct and obvious consequence of choices by US leadership

Moco-Comics | Monitos de Juanele Toda mi vida me ha gustado hacer comics. Intento que cada librito que hago sea único, con identidad propia y mejor que el anterior, tratando de mejorar cada vez. Se ven bonitos todos juntos, ¡Cómprenm...

PS: If you'd like to see more #comics by Juanele, visit his website!

Cover of Dr. Ana María Porras's SciWomen Origin Story

And here's the origin story of microbiologist Dr. Ana María Porras, who creates crocheted models of microbes for science communication! She participates in efforts to make STEM accessible to Spanish-speaking students.

Link: sciall.org/wp-content/u...

🧪 #biology #WomenInSTEM 🧵7/7

Cover of Dr. Earyn McGee's SciWomen Origin Story

Here's the origin story of herpetologist Dr. Earyn McGee, Coordinator of Conservation at the Los Angeles Zoo. Her #FindThatLizard social media campaign educates and inspires a global audience about herpetology.

Link: sciall.org/wp-content/u...

🧪 #herpetology #WomenInSTEM 🧵6/7

Cover of Dr. Ritu Raman's SciWomen Origin Story

Here's the origin story of mechanical engineer Dr. Ritu Raman, who designs adaptive biological materials and is passionate about equity and inclusion initiatives, especially those that inspire women to pursue STEM.

Link: sciall.org/wp-content/u...

🧪 #Engineering #WomenInSTEM 🧵5/7

Cover of Dr. Kristin Lear's SciWomen Origin Story

Here's the origin story of conservation biologist Dr. Kristin Lear, who directs the Agave Restoration Program at Bat Conservation International (www.batcon.org) with the goal of restoring a critical food resource for bats.

Link: sciall.org/wp-content/u...

🧪 #Biology #WomenInSTEM 🧵4/7

Cover of Dr. Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil's SciWomen Origin Story

Here's the origin story of astronomer Dr. Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, who has persevered through religious bans, moving to a new country, and countless other hurdles to become a professor and mentor to the underrepresented.

Link: sciall.org/wp-content/u...

🧪🎢⚛️🔭⭐ #WomenInSTEM 🧵3/7

Cover of Dr. Jessica Esquivel's SciWomen Origin Story

Here's the origin story of experimental particle physicist Dr. Jessica Esquivel—proudly queer, Black, Latina, and neurodivergent, and a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM.

Link: sciall.org/wp-content/u...

🧪🎢⚛️ #WomenInSTEM 🧵2/7

(L-R) Top: Kristen Lear, Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil and Ritu Raman. Bottom: Jessica Esquivel, Ana Maria Porras, and Earyn McGee.

For #WomensHistoryMonth and #InternationalWomensDay, let us celebrate six outstanding women in science through their origin stories — as told in comic book form by the talented artist Juanele (@juaneletamal.bsky.social). Follow along to links to their stories!🧪🎢⚛️🪐🔭 #WomenInSTEM 🧵1/7

Plaque at the Rahlgasse 4 girls' grammar school, from which Marietta Blau graduated in 1914. English translation: Marietta Blau (1894-1970) graduated from this school in 1914. As a nuclear physicist she was a pioneer in the development of the photographic method of particle detection. This method made possible the discovery of "nuclear disintegration stars." Blau was forced to leave Austria in 1938.

Today she is commemorated by the Marietta Blau-Stipendium scholarship offered by the Austrian government. And in 2025 Austria's largest hub for particle physics research was inaugurated—the Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics (www.oeaw.ac.at/en/mbi/). #WomenInSTEM 🎢⚛️🧪 🧵7/7

Marietta Blau wearing a lab coat and examining a photographic emulsion

With aid from Albert Einstein, Dr. Blau was able to find teaching positions in Mexico and later to emigrate to the U.S. to continue her work with emulsions. Despite having been nominated for the Nobel Prize by Schrödinger and others, she was never elected to the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 🧵6/n

Map showing the German annexation ("Anschluss") of Austria in March 1938 and of the Sudetenland in October 1938. Source: https://www.annefrank.org/de/timeline/186/die-expansion-deutschlands-in-karten/

In late 1930s Austria, Jewish scientists such as Dr. Blau were pressured to leave, and so she left for the University of Oslo on March 12, 1938 for a research visit. The following day Hitler's Germany annexed Austria, so it was impossible for her to return to her homeland. 🧵5/n

First observation of a cosmic ray colliding with and disintegrating an atomic nucleus.

In 1937, Dr. Blau and Hertha Wambacher placed emulsions high atop a mountain near Innsbruck. They made the amazing discovery that cosmic rays can disintegrate atomic nuclei, producing a "star" of fragments emanating from the collision. But politics was about to intervene in Dr. Blau's career. 🧵4/n

Photo of a billiards player about to hit one billiard ball with a cue, which will then hit a second ball

Dr. Blau was first to observe proton tracks in emulsions, and used this technique to study neutrons from nuclear reactions. (Uncharged neutrons don't leave tracks. But if a neutron hits a proton in the emulsion, the proton recoils like a struck billiard ball-and that proton does leave a track.) 🧵3/n

Diagram showing a fast-moving particle leaving an ionization track in a photographic emulsion

Born in Vienna in 1894, in 1919 Blau earned her Ph.D. at the University of Vienna for studies of the absorption of gamma radiation (discovered just 19 years previously). In 1923 she turned to the task of identifying subatomic particles by the tracks they leave in photographic emulsions. 🧵2/n

Photograph of Marietta Blau

For #WomensHistoryMonth: Let us celebrate the life and accomplishments of experimental physicist Marietta Blau (1894-1970), a pioneer in the use of photographic emulsions to study subatomic particles, including those from cosmic rays. 🎢⚛️🧪 #WomenInSTEM 🧵1/n

Car suddenly turning into exit meme, with car labeled “car moving at constant speed” straight labeled sigma F = 0, and exit ramp labeled sigma F = mv^2/r

Favorite memes to explain stuff?

🧪 #iTeachPhysics #eduSky

His billionaire corporate donors love that he is giving them another reason to raise prices and gouge the American consumer more to pad their profit margins...

Thank you for sharing those great stories!

Title page of "A Matter of Choices: Memoirs of a Female Physicist" by Fay Ajzenberg-Selove

It's on my list!

Fay Ajzenberg-Selove at the 2007 ceremony where she was awarded the National Medal for Science

Overcoming three cancer diagnoses, Dr. Ajzenberg-Selove went on to be awarded the APS Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service and the National Medal of Science. She fulfilled her longtime goal to “live a life that I would not regret as I lay dying.” #WomenInSTEM 🧵6/6