Graham Doskoch

In mildly positive news, Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology sent this letter to Acting NSF Director Stone on Friday, asking the NSF to reconsider its decision and make several other related changes.

democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/do...

🧪🔭

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

There was also a really good article in Science the other week with stories of some of the students affected. It's heartbreaking.

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

@giantmolecular.cloud, Bill Smith and I wrote about why the new modification to the eligibility rules for the premier NSF graduate fellowship is actually A Really, Really Big Deal -- and not in a good way.

new from me and a few others at astrobites 🧪 🔭

National Radio Astronomy Observatory to Outfit the VLBA with New Ultra Wideband Receivers - National Radio Astronomy Observatory The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is upgrading the NSF Very Long Baseline Array with new ultra wideband receivers spanning 8–40 GHz, expanding its scientific reach and enabling Ka-band observat...

NEW: NRAO to Outfit the VLBA with New Ultra Wideband Receivers

A major upgrade is coming to the NSF Very Long Baseline Array (NSF VLBA) – state-of-the-art ultra wideband receivers capable of operating across the frequency range of 8 - 40 gigahertz (GHz).

#RadioAstronomy #Astronomy #NRAO #VLBA

The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.

(To be clear, the NSF GRFP is an awesome opportunity! If you're eligible, you should apply! But the eligibility change is not awesome.)

Ugh. The eligibility change would *completely* screw over anyone who entered grad school last year but decided to wait a year before applying (as well as many folks in the future who may have wanted to take that path).

I know a *lot* of people who are gonna be hurt by this.

Photograph of the unassembled telescope in its case, lying on a table. It's white with black accents and is packed in styrofoam.

It took me most of an astronomy PhD, but I finally have my own telescope! It's a Tasco 66TE-5 Cosmic II 5-mm refractor, found at a thrift store for $18. It's 59 years old and needs a tripod and more eyepieces (and proper polishing!), but it should be functional enough.

Photo taken at Green Bank, with the Green Bank Telescope in the background in front of the mountains. There are pine trees on the left side and grass in the foreground.

Hello from Green Bank, West Virginia! We're halfway through the first day of the 2025 Pulsar Science Collaboratory camp. I'm super excited to teach the students about single pulse searching and the Crab. . .

At this point, I kinda want to point Isaac Chotiner at Loeb and see what happens.

NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Gravitational Scattering of Pulsars by Free-Floating Objects in Interstellar Space Free-floating objects (FFOs) in interstellar space$-$rogue planets, brown dwarfs, and large asteroids that are not gravitationally bound to any star$-$are expected to be ubiquitous throughout the Milk...

For folks interested in interstellar objects: There's a new preprint out searching for similar bodies using the latest @nanograv.bsky.social data release, led by @gwacwvu.bsky.social researchers Lankeswar Dey, Ross Jennings, Jackson Taylor, Joe Glaser, and Maura McLaughlin!

arxiv.org/abs/2507.19475

A companion star …. Inside Betelgeuse’s atmosphere…. You think you know some stuff about the Universe but there’s always more surprises! 🙃🔭✨

10 SEC. 542. In making Federal financial assistance, the 11 Department of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and 12 Space Administration, and the National Science Founda13 tion shall continue to apply the negotiated indirect cost 14 rates for Institutions of Higher Education in section 15 200.414 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations, including 16 with respect to the approval of deviations from negotiated 17 indirect cost rates, to the same extent and in the same 18 manner as such negotiated indirect cost rates were applied 19 in fiscal year 2024: Provided, That none of the funds ap20 propriated in this or prior Commerce, Justice, Science, 21 and Related Agencies Appropriations Acts, or otherwise 22 made available to the Department of Commerce, the Na23 tional Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Na24 tional Science Foundation may be used to develop, modify, 143 •S 2354 RS 1 or implement changes to such fiscal year 2024 negotiated 2 indirect cost rates.

🧪 For those following indirect rates (not normally an issue with so much drama!):

Senate bill, out today, seeks to block the admin from making abrupt changes to indirect rates at NSF, NASA, and NOAA: www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

Avi and 3I/ATLAS Avi Loeb has gained a reputation for suggesting and outright claiming things could be alien spacecraft even when there’s little to no objective reason to think so. So when the third interstellar objec...

On Avi and 3I/ATLAS:
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
☄️ 🔭

It's not a complete win for GBO -- they propose "multi-agency" funding if needed, and suggest that some radar work could be supported by NASA, DoD (ugh) and industry. But it's way, way, way, *way* better than the White House's cuts. Light-years better.

The Senate CJS report is out, and the recommendations are positive! They suggest "full operational funding" for NRAO, and funding for GBO at FY2024 levels. They also -- pretty bluntly -- completely reject the idea of shutting down one LIGO detector. 🔭

www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

These are some of the most odious people alive.

I received a very scary scam call saying they are going to arrest me cause I didn’t fill out some immigration form. They were very scary, they acted on my fear of prison and deportation, and they do this to many international students. I didn’t send anything, but have to warn all other students.

This reiterates the point I’ve made a few times on here: the US’s loss will be other countries’ gain, but overall it will be an enormous loss. There is no other country that can replicate the US research investment or environment, and the primary brain drain will be out of research, not overseas.

It remains way past time to shut down all the automated plagiarism machines.

And it is also way past time for Nature to stop taking money to run "AI" hype advertisements.

There's now also a short Nature Astronomy meeting report on the conference!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Professor in the flagship university of the whitest state (Maine) and this absolutely tracks. We’ve been facing the demographic cliff everyone has warned about for years. We also have a campus food bank. Most of our students are first-gen, blue-collar.

Also, what so many of these xenophobic, racist critics don’t realize is the full-pay international students are how we can afford generous aid packages to in-state, mostly white students. 🙃

Photograph of the sign at the entrance to JPL, reading "Jet Propulsion Laboratory" and "California Institute of Technology" with the NASA meatball logo. The sign is a black rectangle, surrounded by shrubs and trees, under a blue sky.

I've had the privilege of working at JPL for the last two weeks, doing radio transient studies. Despite the current scientific climate -- or maybe *because* of it -- it's been an unforgettable experience.

Dare mighty things -- and, importantly, fund those mighty things. Fund science, not fascism.

Subcommittee Markup of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding.

Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24.

See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it.

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Being Too Helpful At Work Can Hurt Your Career—Here’s How To Say No Women are more likely to take on behind-the-scenes duties at work—extra tasks like onboarding or event planning—and it's hurting their careers. Here's how to say no.

In a study of professors, women got 378 new work requests over 4 weeks vs 118 for men. Women spent more time on service, advising & teaching; men on research. Orgs should track who is taking extra duties & ensure they are rewarded and distributed fairly. www.forbes.com/sites/kimels...

a large, white dish antenna telescope in the distance between the rolling hills. The trees in foreground and background are both golden amber as well as green.

US Friends!

The Green Bank Observatory (GBO) is a vital instrument in the global #RadioAstronomy network (incl. pulsar science), and it is under threat with the proposed funding cuts.

Please take action to keep it open: www.gogreenbankobservatory.org/take-action/

Pls share! 🔭📡🧪

📸 GBO/AUI/NSF

There are also free online fax options you can use if a phone line is busy and you want to keep yelling.

I’ve used this one before: faxzero.com