Justin Vasel

Comic. A snake slithers around a hypercube. No two non-consecutive parts of its coils can be on adjacent corners. [Three small 4-dimensional hypercubes showing disallowed options with one large cube with snake wrapped around it. Dimensions = 4. Max Length - 7.] Snake(N) = Longest snake that can fit in an n-dimensional hypercube. Snake(N=1, 2, 3…8) = 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 26, 50, 98. Snake(N>8) = UNSOLVED. [caption] It turns out every scientific field has a key thought experiment that involves putting a cute animal in a weird box for no reason. So far, quantum mechanics and graph theory have found theirs, but most other fields are still working on it.

Snake-in-the-Box Problem

xkcd.com/3125/

The Sun in the month of July 2025. Last month was another moderate-activity month for the Sun. The months of May–July had the lowest sunspot numbers since April 2024, and we went almost the full month without an M-class #SolarFlare – unusual for this phase of the solar cycle!

Thank you! 😄

Thank you!

a black and white cartoon of mickey mouse talking on a phone with a sign that says silence Alt: a black and white cartoon of mickey mouse wearing headphones next to a large machine with various dials and gauges and a sign that says "silence"

Just passed my Technician and General #HamRadio exams today 📻🎉

A few points shy of passing the Amateur Extra, but there's always next month!

lofi Archive radio 🎞️ beats to scan/read microfiche to Off Hours? Watch a 2hr stream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gibUecoF1bEEver wonder how government documents, locked away on tiny sheets of microfiche, b...

🗓️ It’s the weekend, but the #livestream never sleeps. 📡

When our scanners rest, the stream keeps going, with gems from the #InternetArchive: silent films, home movies, early tech, and more.

Tune in now ➡️ www.youtube.com/live/aPg2V5R...

#InternetArchive

10-second ESP FTW

🎉🎉🎉

Every other four-year public university in the state allows alumni to have input in the selection of board trustees. There is no justification for denying that only to Indiana University alumni.

4 12x18 inch posters on a brick and concrete wall. The top left is pink and says funding science saves lives, written in microbes, next to a microscope. The one on the right says Biology is bigger than binaries, with a fish, a lily, and a bee. The bottom left says Protecting wildlife starts wtih you, with a bunch of adiorable woodland creatues in yellow, white and black, including an owl, fungi, a... um. weasel? salamanders, butterflies, slugs, and a rotting log. The bottom right says Will our oceans thrive or nosedive the choice is yours, with the ocean represented in a circle, half of which is dead and half of which is alive, including kelp and a mackerel

🚨 Cool new project alert 🚨

WE- you, me, everyone- need to work together to get important science messages out to people.

4 artists & 3 scientists collab'd on these posters. We hope YOU will put them out in your community. Each poster comes w/info about each topic.

Get 'em Squidfacts.bigcartel.com

The Joynt is hands down the best bar in the world (objectively). It's the only place I will drink premium; tastes like pure nostalgia.

Beating a dead horse here, but higher ed is an incredible source of American soft power

The international students we educate at places like my institution, Harvard Kennedy School, bring their educational experiences to their home countries in ways that greatly enhance US interests

Columbia is proof that appeasement doesn’t work. Harvard is doing the right thing.

Justin Vasel for IU Board of Trustees | Transparency • Shared Governance • Principled Leadership Help put real change on the ballot for the IU Board of Trustees. Justin Vasel is running on a platform of transparency, shared governance, and principled leadership. Sign the nomination petition today...

As Trustee, I commit to publicly explaining my votes and reasoning. No more closed-door decisions without accountability.

Help me get on the ballot today at vaselforiu.com it takes just 2 minutes if you're an IU degree holder!

Deadline: 5pm EDT TODAY

In 2022, I organized an alumni open letter supporting @indianagrads.org right to unionize.

I personally delivered 1,100+ signatures to administration and spoke on the picket line during the strike.

I've fought for graduate student rights both during and after my time at IU.

My experience leading GPSO (now GPSG), serving on Bloomington Faculty Council, and working on university-wide initiatives gives me firsthand knowledge of how decisions cascade through the IU system and impact students, faculty and staff.

With Trustee Winston not seeking reelection, we need independent voices on the Board who will stand firm on principles of transparency, shared governance, and academic freedom even when facing external pressure.

A graphic that says "Justin Vasel for Indiana University Board of Trustees. Put Change on the Ballot! Lux et Veritas. 50 more alumni nomination signatures needed by 5pm TODAY"

TODAY is the LAST DAY to qualify for the Indiana University Trustee ballot! I only need 50 more IU alumni signatures by 5pm EDT!

As someone who has fought for graduate student rights, I want to bring "Lux et Veritas" back to university governance.

Sign at vaselforiu.com

One more--this is just so cool:

Firefly Aerospace has released the full image sequence of a solar eclipse from the surface of the Moon. The dark object moving in front of the Sun is Earth. The lunar landscape is lit red by all the sunrises & sunsets in the world. 🧪

fireflyspace.com/news/blue-gh...

A conference hall at a convention center taken from near the back of the room, looking towards the stage

A man (DOE secretary Chris Wright) giving remarka at a podium in front of an American flag pole and a banner for the conference ("ARPA-E: forging the future")

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright kicks off #ARPAE25 energy innovation summit, sharing his excitement for near-term fusion energy potential and a shout-out to the awesome particle physics research at our national labs.

My two favorite things! ⚛️

Two years ago today was one of the most thrilling moments of my life when I captured this sunrise eruption of Guatemala's Volcán de Fuego. My drone was much closer than I realized, and the eruption was the largest I saw in my two days up there. I may never again film something as remarkable as this:

Daniel Craig saying “It makes no damn sense. Compels me though.” from Knives Out

me staring at my data

A cardinal perched on a tree branch, with some additional out-of-focus branches in the foreground.

CONCLAVE (2024): #birds

brownie moving fast on road

brownie in motion or whatever einstein said happy birthday man

Planet Definitions xkcd.com/3063

I tell my cat “I know” when she meows at me but if I’m being honest? I don’t always know

Have you ever heard of a limnic eruption? Probably not, since only a few have occurred in recorded history. Here is a thread on one of the wildest natural disasters that almost never happen, and the “invisible tsunami” that claimed over 1,700 lives in the middle of the night, without a sound. 1/10🧵

The history and fate of the universe according to a photon.

A thread 🧵

"It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times..."

🧪 🔭

This thing packed a massive 220 PeV punch, which is around 0.035 joules. That’s about the same energy as you lifting a grain of rice a few millimetres …. doesn’t sound big until you remember it’s from a particle!

What could give this ghostly neutrino such enormous energy?!