Katie Mack
@astrokatie.com
Cosmologist, pilot, author, connoisseur of cosmic catastrophes. TEDFellow, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar. Domain verified through my personal astrokatie.com website. She/her. Dr.
Personal account; not speaking for employer or anyone else.
Personal account; not speaking for employer or anyone else.
Pinned
Katie Mack
@astrokatie.com
· Nov 30
The End of Everything — KATIE MACK, ASTROPHYSICIST
Information about "The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)" by Katie Mack
www.astrokatie.com
This holiday season, why not give the gift of ultimate cosmic destruction?? 💥🌌
www.astrokatie.com/book
Kirkus Reviews calls it “a delightfully unsettling narrative”! @leebillings.bsky.social raves about my “infectious enthusiasm for communicating the finer points of cosmological doom”!
www.astrokatie.com/book
Kirkus Reviews calls it “a delightfully unsettling narrative”! @leebillings.bsky.social raves about my “infectious enthusiasm for communicating the finer points of cosmological doom”!
I agree with all this — sick leave is essential to a healthy society. While we’re working on that, though, we need to make it a general norm that if you MUST be around others while sick, you wear a mask (preferably a good one).
3/ Isolation is important but only works if people can afford it. Many people simply can’t stay home when sick. Without meaningful sick pay, asking people to isolate is unrealistic. Better financial support is essential to reduce transmission.
December 16, 2025 at 12:49 PM
I agree with all this — sick leave is essential to a healthy society. While we’re working on that, though, we need to make it a general norm that if you MUST be around others while sick, you wear a mask (preferably a good one).
Reposted by Katie Mack
4/ Ventilation saves lives. Clean indoor air, through ventilation or filtration, dramatically cuts the spread of respiratory infections. It’s time to treat air quality like food hygiene: a basic public health requirement.
December 16, 2025 at 11:49 AM
4/ Ventilation saves lives. Clean indoor air, through ventilation or filtration, dramatically cuts the spread of respiratory infections. It’s time to treat air quality like food hygiene: a basic public health requirement.
Reposted by Katie Mack
This change will result in more opaque decisions where subject area experts have less input. And feedback to grant submitters will be significantly reduced. It’s a step backward. And it’s a direct result of their reorganization and reduction of the NSF.
🧵 NSF is reducing external review requirements and eliminating routine expert panels, citing staff shortages that this administration implemented. This change expands program officer authority. But the solution to flawed accountability isn't less public accountability.
NSF plans to streamline merit review to heal self-inflicted staffing wound www.science.org/content/arti...
December 16, 2025 at 12:50 AM
This change will result in more opaque decisions where subject area experts have less input. And feedback to grant submitters will be significantly reduced. It’s a step backward. And it’s a direct result of their reorganization and reduction of the NSF.
Reposted by Katie Mack
🧵 NSF is reducing external review requirements and eliminating routine expert panels, citing staff shortages that this administration implemented. This change expands program officer authority. But the solution to flawed accountability isn't less public accountability.
NSF plans to streamline merit review to heal self-inflicted staffing wound www.science.org/content/arti...
NSF pares down grant-review process, reducing influence of outside scientists
Memo cites overburdened staff, but some say move also aims to elevate White House priorities
www.science.org
December 16, 2025 at 12:33 AM
🧵 NSF is reducing external review requirements and eliminating routine expert panels, citing staff shortages that this administration implemented. This change expands program officer authority. But the solution to flawed accountability isn't less public accountability.
Reposted by Katie Mack
Physicist Freeman Dyson was born #OTD in 1923. He was known for his work in quantum electrodynamics and –– among many, many other things –– his eschatological musings about physics and the prospects for life in the far-flung future. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 🎢
Photo: Heka Davis / AIP
Photo: Heka Davis / AIP
December 15, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Physicist Freeman Dyson was born #OTD in 1923. He was known for his work in quantum electrodynamics and –– among many, many other things –– his eschatological musings about physics and the prospects for life in the far-flung future. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 🎢
Photo: Heka Davis / AIP
Photo: Heka Davis / AIP
Reposted by Katie Mack
Today would be a great day to sign up to become a Cosmic Shambles Patreon. No reason… patreon.com/cosmicshambles @robinince.bsky.social
Get more from The Cosmic Shambles Network on Patreon
Independent Creators of Content for the Curious
patreon.com
December 13, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Today would be a great day to sign up to become a Cosmic Shambles Patreon. No reason… patreon.com/cosmicshambles @robinince.bsky.social
Reposted by Katie Mack
More ideas. We’re not going to run out of ideas but generative AI is a tool for people who don’t want to be involved in the step between idea and art. People whose own ideas will never evolve or become more complex because they don’t actually want to interact with or examine them.
December 14, 2025 at 1:34 PM
More ideas. We’re not going to run out of ideas but generative AI is a tool for people who don’t want to be involved in the step between idea and art. People whose own ideas will never evolve or become more complex because they don’t actually want to interact with or examine them.
Heartbreaking and horrifying to go to bed reading about the mass shooting at Brown University and wake up to read about the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. Thinking of the victims, their loved ones, and those affected by the hate that drove these attacks.
December 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Heartbreaking and horrifying to go to bed reading about the mass shooting at Brown University and wake up to read about the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. Thinking of the victims, their loved ones, and those affected by the hate that drove these attacks.
This paper contains some good arguments about an issue that concerns me a lot when I hear my colleagues talking about LLM use in developing their research:
Whose ideas are you presenting as your own?
(Though the fatalist argument the authors make at the end of paper is disappointing/bizarre.)
Whose ideas are you presenting as your own?
(Though the fatalist argument the authors make at the end of paper is disappointing/bizarre.)
December 14, 2025 at 12:38 PM
This paper contains some good arguments about an issue that concerns me a lot when I hear my colleagues talking about LLM use in developing their research:
Whose ideas are you presenting as your own?
(Though the fatalist argument the authors make at the end of paper is disappointing/bizarre.)
Whose ideas are you presenting as your own?
(Though the fatalist argument the authors make at the end of paper is disappointing/bizarre.)
Once again.
It still matters if things are real
In the comments, people note that it’s AI and the poster responds that he just doesn’t care.
That’s an easy block.
That’s an easy block.
December 14, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Once again.
I understand that a lot of folks have been misled by fear-mongering and powerful regressive voices but it’s still astonishing to me that so many have fallen for the idea that oppressively policing other people’s gender identity and expression could in any way be part of an enlightened future.
December 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
I understand that a lot of folks have been misled by fear-mongering and powerful regressive voices but it’s still astonishing to me that so many have fallen for the idea that oppressively policing other people’s gender identity and expression could in any way be part of an enlightened future.
If you love science and comedy and @robinince.bsky.social, now is a great time to discover @cosmicshambles.com and everything they have to offer.
And if you're in the vicinity of London, UK, check out their amazing holiday event, "Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People"
And if you're in the vicinity of London, UK, check out their amazing holiday event, "Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People"
Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People | The Cosmic Shambles Network
cosmicshambles.com
December 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
If you love science and comedy and @robinince.bsky.social, now is a great time to discover @cosmicshambles.com and everything they have to offer.
And if you're in the vicinity of London, UK, check out their amazing holiday event, "Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People"
And if you're in the vicinity of London, UK, check out their amazing holiday event, "Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People"
Reposted by Katie Mack
Just your daily reminder that the occurrence of frequent uncontained measles outbreaks in a country is not a flex, it is a marker of under development and a failed public health system.
December 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Just your daily reminder that the occurrence of frequent uncontained measles outbreaks in a country is not a flex, it is a marker of under development and a failed public health system.
Reposted by Katie Mack
Per my last re-post, twice this year I've been commissioned to write reviews of harms that can arise from the use of LLMs and then, as we surface the harms, told
it's not appropriate to be political.
But LLMs are a deeply extractive technology, they are political by design.
it's not appropriate to be political.
But LLMs are a deeply extractive technology, they are political by design.
December 13, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Per my last re-post, twice this year I've been commissioned to write reviews of harms that can arise from the use of LLMs and then, as we surface the harms, told
it's not appropriate to be political.
But LLMs are a deeply extractive technology, they are political by design.
it's not appropriate to be political.
But LLMs are a deeply extractive technology, they are political by design.
Deeply disappointed to hear that the BBC has pushed out one of the most brilliant presenters in all of science communication for speaking with integrity and honor in support of human rights and dignity.
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
December 13, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Deeply disappointed to hear that the BBC has pushed out one of the most brilliant presenters in all of science communication for speaking with integrity and honor in support of human rights and dignity.
Reposted by Katie Mack
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
December 13, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
Reposted by Katie Mack
I usually post widefield colour "postcard" views of Mars, but today, just for a change, here's a rather more abstract view for you all... Perseverance's tracks meandering across the Martian landscape... Hope you like it! Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/S Atkinson
December 12, 2025 at 10:26 AM
I usually post widefield colour "postcard" views of Mars, but today, just for a change, here's a rather more abstract view for you all... Perseverance's tracks meandering across the Martian landscape... Hope you like it! Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/S Atkinson
Reposted by Katie Mack
I too would much rather kiss on the beach than talk about AI
You heard it here first: Jacob Elordi tells @beccamford.bsky.social he'd rather kiss on the beach than talk about AI vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/frankenstein-jacob-elordi-euphoria-interview
December 12, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I too would much rather kiss on the beach than talk about AI
Reposted by Katie Mack
Great article about NASA's next planetary defense mission. Planetary defense has a lot of interlocking parts, and all the DARTs we can build won't help if we don't have the Rubin Observatories and NEO Surveyors (and their predecessors and successors) to find problem objects before they find us.
NEW: When she worked at NASA’s JPL, Amy Mainzer used to rack up high scores on the 1979 Atari game ASTEROIDS. Very apt, now she’s in charge of a space mission that will save the world from killer asteroids.
Planet Protector, my new feature for @science.org, is live. www.science.org/content/arti...
Planet Protector, my new feature for @science.org, is live. www.science.org/content/arti...
NASA telescope will hunt down ‘city killer’ asteroids
With an infrared eye, NEO Surveyor will target dangerous space rocks glowing in the dark
www.science.org
December 12, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Great article about NASA's next planetary defense mission. Planetary defense has a lot of interlocking parts, and all the DARTs we can build won't help if we don't have the Rubin Observatories and NEO Surveyors (and their predecessors and successors) to find problem objects before they find us.
Doubly offensive because the architects are never the ones sitting out on the beam
I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork
December 12, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Doubly offensive because the architects are never the ones sitting out on the beam
This is just some ordinary dude no one had ever heard of, quietly getting by, and the administration has decided in a fit of pique to hound him for the rest of his life because otherwise they'd have to tacitly admit they're capricious incompetent villains. Just let him live, ffs
BREAKING: At 7am ET, in response to the emergency overnight filing, Judge Xinis issued a TRO barring the Trump administration from re-detaining Abrego Garcia.
www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191...
www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191...
Memorandum and Order – #114 in Abrego Garcia v. Noem (D. Maryland, 8:25-cv-02780) – CourtListener.com
MEMORANDUM ORDER granting 112 Motion for Temporary Restraining Order; Respondents are enjoined from re-detaining Petitioner in ICE custody until this Court can receive further briefing from the partie...
www.courtlistener.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:22 PM
This is just some ordinary dude no one had ever heard of, quietly getting by, and the administration has decided in a fit of pique to hound him for the rest of his life because otherwise they'd have to tacitly admit they're capricious incompetent villains. Just let him live, ffs
Falsely asserting that I’m already using your AI slopbot is not going to convince me to actually do so, Google 😒
December 12, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Falsely asserting that I’m already using your AI slopbot is not going to convince me to actually do so, Google 😒
A bit inconvenient for potential alien life forms if they’re constantly being incinerated by their own suns
For the first time, astronomers have detected a coronal mass ejection from a star other than our Sun, and it was a big one – powerful enough to strip the atmosphere from nearby planets. That's bad news for the search for extraterrestrial life. Here's why: physicsworld.com/a/astronomer... 🧪⚛️🔭
Astronomers observe a coronal mass ejection from a distant star – Physics World
Burst from M-dwarf star could be powerful enough to strip the atmosphere of any planets that orbit it, with implications for the search for extraterrestrial life
physicsworld.com
December 11, 2025 at 11:49 AM
A bit inconvenient for potential alien life forms if they’re constantly being incinerated by their own suns
Reposted by Katie Mack
Flashing my green light in complicated strobe patterns, to hypnotize Gatsby into doing my bidding.
December 11, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Flashing my green light in complicated strobe patterns, to hypnotize Gatsby into doing my bidding.
Reposted by Katie Mack
And, not to be a hater but...
If you hear someone saying cooling will be easier in space, you can instantly write them off as someone who has never read a single relevant book or paper and never talked to a single person with undergraduate level expertise. This is very basic.
If you hear someone saying cooling will be easier in space, you can instantly write them off as someone who has never read a single relevant book or paper and never talked to a single person with undergraduate level expertise. This is very basic.
December 10, 2025 at 3:25 PM
And, not to be a hater but...
If you hear someone saying cooling will be easier in space, you can instantly write them off as someone who has never read a single relevant book or paper and never talked to a single person with undergraduate level expertise. This is very basic.
If you hear someone saying cooling will be easier in space, you can instantly write them off as someone who has never read a single relevant book or paper and never talked to a single person with undergraduate level expertise. This is very basic.