Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics

Great article. Saving my response to it for when I write my memoirs, ha ha.

A row of trees with rounded tops, behind a row of lamps with rounded tops. Above them, in a blue evening sky, the moon is about the same size and brightness as the lamps.

The lamp that floated free

I took this picture Sunday and couldn’t think why I liked it until I noticed the moon is about the same size and brightness and color as the lampshades on the lights. Location is Tustin public library parking lot.

Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a “sexist attitude”

The one who ended up with the best quality information had asked his mom to vet the person behind the invitation.

www.science.org/content/arti...

We shall see how it holds up!

It’s always easier when you can consume any excess!

I re-caulked my kitchen sink for the first time, please clap.

In the final step, it turns out to be useful having experience icing cakes. The skills are the same. 🧁

A Galaxy Composed Almost Entirely of Dark Matter Has Been Confirmed What scientists thought were four separate star clusters are actually part of one nearly invisible system.

More here 🔭
www.wired.com/story/a-gala...

Case of sampling bias, 🧪🔭
But both sides of a debate were right!

Elite Doctors Served Jeffrey Epstein While Treating His ‘Girls’

NEW: I and colleagues reviewed 15,000 documents to illuminate how Jeffrey Epstein used VIP doctors to control and manipulate young women* — and how the doctors helped him, treating his needs as more important than the patients'. Gift link.

*see next post in thread

Inventions Then and Now: Cristiano Zanetti Researches and Teaches the History of Technology Cristiano Zanetti, the first postdoctoral teaching fellow in a new Caltech–Huntington joint program, researches the history of inventions in the European Renaissance.

Cool #histsci researcher profiled in Caltech weekly: Cristiano Zanetti. His interest is Renaissance architect-engineers and mechanical inventions. He’s drawing on the Huntington’s collections to explore construction and machinery used by the Florentine academies.

www.caltech.edu/about/news/i...

I didn’t know what the Great Unconformity was until @alicianhans.bsky.social recently told me about it with respect to the Sandia mountains near Albuquerque. This article is interesting and understandable even if you’re new to the concept, like me.

Van Gogh and the Meaning of Yellow

The last four paragraphs are particularly interesting. I didn’t know that yellow was the color associated with racy paperback novels in late 19th France. Gift article.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/a...

🔭

I agree! Enjoying it while it lasts.

Snow-covered mountains in background with greenery and bike trail in foreground.

Snow-covered San Gabriel mountains in Southern California on this clear morning.

Distant snowy mountain in the background with hiking trail in foreground and green hills in middle. Afternoon shot with long shadows.

I didn’t manage to get a good picture of the snowy mountains this morning, and low clouds partially obscured the view this afternoon. But I located a good viewing spot to return to when it’s clear.

😲 I hope you conveyed what cool work you do, in the lab and in the studio.

I’d never heard of chaff. Sounds bad for the environment.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Crescent moon and mercury, a small point of light to its lower rights, among branches of trees.

Crescent moon and mercury in gap between pine trees.

Moon and Mercury just now. 🔭

I’ve made progress cutting words from the Frost book, and now I’m working on a short talk for a literary conference in March. (My first!)

The problem is that working on the talk has given me ideas about words to ADD to the ms. Can’t win.

Three California fan palms with shaggy trunks.

Hill and greenery and blue sky.

Distant view of Mount San Jacinto, still with a little snow. Hiking trails in the foreground. Dramatic sky with clouds veiling the sun.

View of hills and mountains under a mostly cloudy sky.

I had a real “day off”! Went on a hike in Palm Springs with a friend.

Not my neighbor’s, but a Western-themed railroad town with a big rock formation, some saguaro cactus, and a cluster of shacks.

Not my neighbor’s. A number of train engines, one of which is labeled Rio Grande. One has a cow-catcher in front. There’s a small figure of a man at a desk.

Not my neighbor’s. A red and orange model passenger train in a flat desert landscape.

One side of my neighbor’s display. There’s a painted backdrop, trains, bridges, buildings, trees, and a mill.

Posting for the model train friends: I popped in to see my neighbor’s display, and others, at the Great Train Show in Orange County (California).

Cool! 🧪🔭

Pop science doesn't reach a "general audience" Pop sci readers are wealthy, educated, and left-leaning

Newsletter up. Rant incoming.

Pop sci mostly reaches educated, left-leaning, wealthy readers — including, of course, scientists and science writers.

I increasingly believe the gap between the real general audience and what's called "general audience" in scicomm is huge and worth talking about: 🧪

Dr. Cheeto Cat Cheeto joined HPC@UCD as a stray scholar-in-residence and has since established himself as a permanent fixture of academic life. Although lacking a formal degree, he has consistently demonstrated exce...

When our daughter was at Davis we heard a lot about Cheeto the physics cat. Now we learn Cheeto has his own bio on the website of the high performance computing department. Very cute. 🧡 Check out his expertise in Box Mechanics, and his publications. 🧪

hpc.ucdavis.edu/people/cheet...

Perfect Trump style: stupid and illegal. Throttles a bunch of important Earth and climate missions, of course, but also wastes OSIRIS-APEX, a smart re-use of an existing spacecraft to fly by Apophis, a big asteroid that will pass near Earth and generate huge scientific and public interest.

‘They All Tried to Break Me’: Gisèle Pelicot Shares Her Story

Gift link, for anyone who wants it. This is an extraordinary interview.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/m...