Matthew Bolcar

Ah...one of the classic blunders. Right up there with never get involved in a land war in Asia.

Science goals and science teams After having scored all the goals for the faculty in the first half of our annual soccer game against the graduate students, I decided to…

I would stop, but I have to put in a good word for NASA and how it selects and funds science. I'm starting to think maybe Avi Loeb doesn't know what he's talking about?
medium.com/@steve.desch...

Slightly diminish a band: Semimetallica

what a week for our future✨ #HWO25
🧵coming soon🔭🧪☄️
@mmacgreg.bsky.social @hbhammel.bsky.social @bmacastro.bsky.social @dawngelino.bsky.social
@aussiastronomer.bsky.social @stsci.edu @aura-astronomy.bsky.social @justtheletteru.bsky.social @vividreams.bsky.social @leefeinberg.bsky.social +500 others

Former astronaut (that serviced Hubble) tells how servicing HWO is game changing. #HWO25

Chris Stark asking the tough questions at #HWO25.

At the #HWO25 conference this week to discuss the science and technology of the Habitable Worlds Observatory! Happy to answer questions here or in person if you can find me!

If you think potentially finding life on another planet would be a transformative event for humanity (not to mention all of the other discoveries HWO would make) call your Congresspeople and tell them you want HWO to happen!

Since 2009, I've been working on various teams thinking about how to build this kind of mission, and we're finally taking the first steps towards making it a reality.

YouTube video by NASA Goddard NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory Will Search for Life

Do you want to hear Gimli narrate a video about the search for life in our universe? Of course you do!

The Habitable Worlds Observatory project is still in its infancy, yet paradoxically it's the project I've worked on the longest.

youtu.be/XJwDlLiQpS4?...

The administration’s anti-consensus Mars plan will fail The administration’s anti-consensus Mars plan will fail

"Its legacy will not be boots on Mars, merely a lingering societal regret at throwing away so much, so quickly, to achieve so little."

spacenews.com/the-administ...

(reflects my own opinion, on my own time and my own device)

Don't miss the embedded video of other major hardware highlights from this past Spring.

This test simulates the vibrations the system will feel during the short trip to orbit. We just completed the metrology verifying that nothing moved out of alignment during the test, indicating we have a robust system!

Core Components for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Pass Major Shake Test - NASA The core portion of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully completed vibration testing, ensuring it will withstand the extreme shaking

Meanwhile, we're (not so) quietly making progress on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope! Watch (and hear) us shake the Spacecraft + Integrated Payload Assembly!

www.nasa.gov/missions/rom...

Nooooooo!

I'm so excited for this mission. Such a cool concept!

NASA’s Dragonfly Passes Critical Design Review - NASA Science NASA’s Dragonfly, the first rotorcraft designed for science exploration on another planet, has passed its Critical Design Review. The mission to Saturn’s icy moon Titan will investigate prebiotic chem...

This is such a cool mission!
science.nasa.gov/blogs/dragon...

Put another way: Roman will collect more data in the first month of operation than Hubble has collected over its entire 35-year lifetime (so far).

Canada goose fights off bald eagle in rare, symbolism-laden battle on ice Photographer captures 20-minute clash between birds emblematic of Canada and US amid high trade tensions

*chef's kiss*
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | Roman SCIPA Hyperwall Time-lapse This 3x3-hyperwall-resolution time-lapse video of Roman shows the major integration steps of the key systems to form SCIPA, or the Spacecraft Integrated Payload Assembly. It includes the spacecraft bu...

Great timelapse of the #RomanSpaceTelescope coming together! Most of this happened in about a month and a half right before the holiday (the exception being the installation of CGI, which happened earlier in the fall).

svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14746/#media...

Please support our JPL colleagues impacted by the wildfires!

We'll stay in this configuration for about a year, running through a battery of electrical and environmental tests to make sure everything works and can survive launch, before the final assemblies are added to complete the Observatory.

NASA Joins Telescope, Instruments to Roman Spacecraft - NASA Technicians have successfully integrated NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s payload – the telescope, instrument carrier, and two instruments – to the

This was our Christmas present last year: SCIPA! The team did an excellent job completing the mechanical integration of the Integrated Payload Assembly to the Spacecraft bus.

www.nasa.gov/universe/nas...

Finally, if you're interested in homebrewing, "How to Brew" is a must have. While Papazian's "Joy of Homebrewing" is a great place to get started and learn the ropes, "How to Brew" delves much deeper into the science and art of brewing, and provides all the tools needed to brew great beer.

Nor the legacy of women in science that she left behind. That being said...this book was a slog. I liked Sobel's writing in "The Planets", but here it was just...not engaging at all.

A learned a lot from "The Elements of Marie Curie". Aside from her winning two Nobels, I only vaguely knew she was involved in the discovery of radium. I never appreciated the extent of her contributions to physics, chemistry, and even medicine (especially during WW 1).

I picked up Scalzi's "Starter Villain" after reading "Kaiju Preservation Society" last year, which I really enjoyed. I didn't like "Starter Villain" as much, but I enjoy Scalzi's style and am interested in reading more of his stuff in the future.

But this is classic Weir: preternaturally smart, wise-ass main character is stranded in life-threatening situation and just happens to know all the random things they need to MacGuyver their way out. If you enjoyed The Martian, you'll like this, but don't expect it to blaze any new literary paths.