I love being in a large collaboration, but there are cons.

What a neat time to be an assistant professor 😭

So how do my #scicomm colleagues handle "the comments"? (like the semi-anonymous internet kind)

What level of interaction do people engage in?

I tried my hand at some large scale outreach. It was frankly a bit unnerving 🤪 But thanks to the folks at WIRED is was really fun!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U65m...

I have my first formal PhD meeting with a panel of scientists in a few hours, where I have to present my work so far (first 6 months, research plan, etc.) and be locked into the candidature.

My topic for my PhD is 'The Ongoing Stability of Millisecond Pulsars (MSPs)"

Will go down like this:

This time of year I am drawn to every sugar maple tree like a beacon. They feed my soul. Thankfully there are a few on the #oregonstate campus!

#newyorker_in_oregon

Well, here in Oregon I had to use a bright orange soccer ball as a stand in for old Sol. #oregonstate_astro

From William Lamb: Post-detection of a gravitational wave background, pulsar timing arrays could detect individual sources of gravitational waves, called Continuous Waves. Let’s find out what properties we expect them to have! 🔭

astrobites.org/2023/10/12/c...

Fantastic astrobites article featuring results from my latest first-author paper! I’m using this as an excuse to shamelessly promote our paper, which demonstrates how much we can learn about SMBHB populations and evolution from Continuous Waves and GWB anisotropy. 🔭
arxiv.org/abs/2309.07227

My white-ass looking sister got shoved and elbowed in the face today for getting in a semi-heated argument while holding a "Free Palestine" sticker near some Palestinian students tabling. The assailant wasn't even part of the conversation!

This is getting to post 9/11 levels of Arabaphobia.

Can you believe this is the Moon?!

Captured in radio by CSIRO's ASKAP telescope.

The bright spot at the centre is the equivalent of Earth shine, but in radio waves .. and it is reflecting all of humanity's transmissions (TV, phones, radar etc.). 🧪🔭📡

📸 E. Lenc, V. Moss, K. Bannister, D. Price

Pulsar timing astronomers - you like?!

New tee arrived yesterday and it merges together two excellent pop culture pieces with some beautiful science.

I call it: ‘The Gravitational Wave Background’ 🌊📡〰️〰️〰️〰️🔵

Can’t wait to wear this in summer just so I can talk about the GWB to randoms.
🔭🧪

Obvs biased, but still think this has been one of the biggest game changers in modern astronomy. A whole new type of star that complements stellar evolution models and gives us a fantastic lab to test GR!

And now ... gravitational wave backgrounds!

📸CSIROpedia & University of Cambridge

Fascinating story of how an 81-year-old former Air Force chap has come forward to announce he saw pulsars well before they were discovered but could not talk about it for half a century until instrument was decommissioned.

Bell Burnell agrees with him! 🔭🧪

https://www.nature.com/articles/448974a