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Dr. William O. Balmer

@balmer.bsky.social

working class astronomer, science journalist, author. phd candidate at jhu/stsci. proudly union, tru-ue blogs from astrowill.page, cv at wbalmer.github.io

219 Posts1137 Follower285 Folgt
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · last mo.

helpful coverage from @elpais.com english.elpais.com/usa/2025-08-...

In the heart of the Miccosukee, the Native American tribe that shut down Alligator Alcatraz

The community found refuge from white persecution deep in the Everglades swamps centuries ago. Together with environmental groups, they succeeded in forcing the closure of the immigration detention ce...

english.elpais.com

Rebecca Nagle@rebeccanagle.bsky.social · last mo.

BREAKING: Alligator Alcatraz has officially closed. A lot of outlets won’t report on this, but the Miccosukee Tribe played a key role in the fight.

Prof Stephen Serjeant@stephenserjeant.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Don’t trust LLMs with your literature searches. Horrible gender biases as found in this paper (from later in the thread below) arxiv.org/abs/2508.02740 🧪🔭

Who Gets Cited? Gender- and Majority-Bias in LLM-Driven Reference Selection

Large language models (LLMs) are rapidly being adopted as research assistants, particularly for literature review and reference recommendation, yet little is known about whether they introduce demogra...

arxiv.org

Mel Andrews@bayesianboy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

Dr. William O. Balmer@balmer.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🔭🪐 my team took this image of 29 Cygni b, a super giant planet 130 light years from us, with JWST. we found some interesting clues that suggest that this planet (~15x the mass of Jupiter) accreted more than 100 times the mass of the Earth in carbon- and oxygen-rich material during its formation

Astronomers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to directly image 29 Cygni b, which weighs 15 times Jupiter. They found evidence for heavy chemical elements like carbon and oxygen, which strongly suggests it formed like a planet by accretion within a protoplanetary disk, and not like a star through fragmentation. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) was used in its coronagraphic mode, in which a wedge (indicated by the blue box) is used to block the light of the host star (labeled A and marked with a star symbol) to reveal the planet. This image combines light from three filters between 4 and 5 microns. The planet is brightest in the blue filter, then green, then red, so it appears as an off-white dot in the color composite. If carbon dioxide weren’t present, the planet would appear noticeably redder. In this image, the color blue is assigned to 4.1 micron light, green to 4.3 micron light, and red to 4.6 micron light.
Benjamin Pope@benjaminpope.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Suleiman Baraka in Gaza says this about his work: “I decided to fight the killing of the children by educating the children.... astronomy “is also a window for breathing freedom that we were denied for our whole life". I think this is the reason the world needs it. All of us need his example.

In Gaza, Scanning the Sky for Stars, Not Drones

A Palestinian scientist's effort to bring astronomy to Gaza has begun to bear fruit, but steep hurdles remain.

undark.org

Erin Grievances@erinbartram.bsky.social · 8mo ago

One legitimate way to be frustrated with graduate education is to think about the fact that grad programs continue to produce PhDs despite there being few job opportunities because those programs need the cheap labor of graduate students. But you need to be able to see yourself as a worker.

Paul T. Levin@paultlevin.bsky.social · 10mo ago

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags

Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

theguardian.com

Aurelien Mondon@aurelmondon.com · 10mo ago

Let that sink in "Despite its extreme population density, Gaza was mostly self-sufficient in vegetables and poultry, and met much of the population’s demand for olives, fruit and milk. But last month the UN reported that just 1.5% of its agricultural land now remains both accessible and undamaged."

George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 10mo ago

When you consider the *ecocide* alongside the genocide being perpetrated in Gaza, you begin to grasp the totality of the Israeli state’s attempt to eliminate both the Palestinians and their homeland. My column today. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Evert Nasedkin@evertnasedkin.bsky.social · 10mo ago

🔭 It's paper day! Today I'm sharing the latest in a series of papers looking at the weather on other worlds, in this case bringing you the weather report from a nearby T-dwarf, SIMP-0136. 🪐 🧵 to follow...

Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X)@markanthonyneal.bsky.social · last yr.

Amazon Union Leader Chris Smalls detained, beaten, and choked in Israel during humanitarian aid trip #ChrisSmalls was among 21 others when he was singled out, detained, and beaten by Israeli forces on Saturday. thegrio.com/2025/07/29/a...

Amazon Union Leader Chris Smalls detained, beaten, and choked in Israel during humanitarian aid trip

Chris Smalls was among 21 others when he was singled out, detained, and beaten by Israeli forces on Saturday.

thegrio.com