3 forgotten keys to a real scientific golden age for the USA Instead of pouring money into "integrating AI into everything," we should follow the proven roadmap for science in America. These 3 keys were what previously made us great. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #physics #science #usa

3 forgotten keys to a real scientific golden age for the USA

Neither Vannevar Bush's "Science: the Endless Frontier" nor OSTP's "Science: A New Golden Age" got it fully right. Here's what they missed.

bigthink.com

I am a climate scientist in Connecticut, and I did not now that CT has climate risk tool for citizens for free (bought from a for-profit but still). Just to reiterate the point discussed elsewhere in these essays, communicating the benefits to the public is key to this plan's success.

Todd Tucker@toddntucker.com · 6d ago

7. @madisoncondon.bsky.social calls for giving the public real-time and long-term info about how specific towns and regions can anticipate and prepare for climate harms. Make Science Useful! rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Some very interesting work here. I really like the optimistic tone about the possibilities of campaigning on renewable energy. It's so much more interesting than the studied pessimissim of the "climate hushers."

Todd Tucker@toddntucker.com · 6d ago

NEW @rooseveltinstitute.org: as wildfires & heatwaves rage, we are not powerless. As 19 authors argue in our 157-page "Building Up in 2029" report, we can adapt & expand Biden & Trump experiments to create lasting state capacity to tackle climate change. 🧵🧵 rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Today is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:

a wooly man without a face@jojororo.bsky.social · yesterday

archive.org/details/brad...

Which 10 atmospheres are the Solar System’s thickest? Only a few worlds in the Solar System have substantial atmospheres of any type. This top 10 list goes from hero to almost-zero faster than you might've imagined. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #planets #science

Which 10 atmospheres are the Solar System's thickest?

Obviously, the gas giants all top this list. But the fall-off is rapid after that, and the final two spots in the top 10 are truly shocking.

bigthink.com

In this moment, when we’re dealing with a government that is testing every boundary possible in every domain, it’s necessary to take proactive action to defend people and institutions. It requires comfort in uncertainty and a willingness to be wrong in service of a better outcome.

My Yale colleague Robert Post thinks the pending OMB rule putting all federal grants under Trump’s control may have scared the bejeezus out of Yale leadership. 11/ slate.com/news-and-pol...

Harvard Fought Trump’s Abuses. Yale May Fold. I Think I Know Why.

Seeking to set a new course for the conservative movement, J.D. Vance in 2021 declared war on institutions of American higher education.

slate.com

Need to have some frank talk about #Yale President McInnis, General Counsel Alexander Dreier and the trustees. First, they keep saying that they are compelled to enter into a settlement with the #Trump administration. Untrue. 1/

With each passing day I become increasingly convinced that Jared Isaacman will be remembered as NASA's worst and most destructive administrator.

Jeff Foust@jfoust.bsky.social · 4d ago

Over on Twitter, the NASA administrator is using his official government account (not his personal one) to endorse the White House's nominee to be attorney general. x.com/NASAAdmin/st...

Resurrecting an old post...re: the loss of the NOAA reanalysis dataset. One of my former students built this site using the new dataset. It's still a work in progress (and just being constructed in her spare time), but I've been able to use it several times in my classes already: www.pyreweather.org

The point is to make scientists think twice about publishing that paper that goes against the MAGA belief system, lest they too, be taken into the town square and assaulted with tomatoes. See? Whatever thing you think this is about...it isn't. Stop taking the bait!

This whole exercise isn't about COVID-19 or Gain of Function research...this is about Congress putting a retired public servant through the wringer because they want to spook scientists. This is all a part of a plan to chill scientists from taking evidence-based and principled stands against govt.

"administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands."

Derek Lowe@dereklowe.bsky.social · 2w ago

Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:

Making scientific knowledge free for all Scientific research publishing is a particularly lucrative industry. The most recent estimates suggest that it generates around 19 billion US dollars (or 16.67... https://blog.planetary-research.org/2026/07/20/making-scientific-knowledge-free-for-all/

Making scientific knowledge free for all

Scientific research publishing is a particularly lucrative industry. The most recent estimates suggest that it generates around 19 billion US dollars (or 16.67 billion euros) in annual turnover, with margins of around 40 per cent. These staggering figures largely reflect the fact that the “Big Five” commercial publishers, such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor...

blog.planetary-research.org

With the anniversary of the Viking 1 Lander's arrival at Mars' surface, @caseydreier.bsky.social put together a cost comparison between the Viking program and later Mars missions. Totally worth the money, I say. #planetaryscience www.planetary.org/space-policy...

The Cost of NASA's Viking missions

The Viking missions to Mars cost nearly $1.06 billion and resulted in NASA's first successful landings on another planet.

planetary.org

That's $2.1B (minimum) for Jared's hobby rocket. That does not include Skyfall, which nobody wanted, has no point, and will eat the Mars Exploration Program. Isaacman was obsessed with NEP in Project Athena, written before becoming NASA administrator. This is nobody else's project or priority.

NASA’s nuclear Mars mission to cost over $2 billion

The price tag doesn't include the cost of the science mission the new spacecraft would ferry to the Red Planet.

politico.com

I had a reporter ask me if there was any connection between the fires in Canada and the flooding in Texas. I said: of course there is a connection. The connection is increasing temperatures.

Parts of the Northeast US have been under a thick plume of smoke today overspreading the region from fires across south-central Canada - the worst smoke plume to affect the region since the infamous 2023 NYC smoke plume. Thread for the meteorology associated with this:

The comment period for the proposed OMB rule that would shift U.S. science from scientists to politicians is now closed. Now what? We break down what to expect ⬇️  www.planetary.org/articles/omb...

What happens now that comments have been submitted on the devastating…

Nearly 500,000 comments were submitted in response to a rule change proposed by the White House Office of Management and Budget that would fundamentally…

planetary.org

Been over a year since the 5 months late ROSES25 was released. OMB is really going to delay us into skipping an entire year of solicitations.

Michael Battalio@battalio.com · last yr.

ROSES25 is finally out. It's bad. No DAPs. Solar System Science (the pre-planned consolidation of SSW and SSO, but now also PDART) has only $10M this year and is called an "omnibus program element." Trump's budget is just a proposal. Senate already looks to ignore; this is impoundment in advance.

Here are my comments on the proposed OMB rules on Regulations for Federal Financial Assistance. They are a disaster, and should be treated as such. Full text: battalio.com/statements/b...

Here are my comments on the proposed OMB rules on Regulations for Federal Financial Assistance. They are a disaster, and should be treated as such. Full text: battalio.com/statements/b...

Universities in the US are governed now by "liberal autocrats." It's time to bring faculty, students, staff and alumni into leadership. Trustees and presidents are out of touch, unaccountable, and in this moment, selling us out to the Trump administration. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Higher Education Revolution We Need to Have

Our universities are selling us out. If we want that to change, we have to change the way they’re run.

thenation.com

I will guess that NASA adding yet another cutoff to the massive Solar System Science call for November in this year when we are supposed to get the solicitation for next year (ROSES26) imminently. Note they also did not increase the amount of money for this year, so selection rates will be <10%.

New AMS statement responds to a proposed OMB rule that would restructure federal grantmaking. The rule "would damage the nation’s ability to understand, predict, and respond to ... natural hazards with negative impacts on public safety and the economy." Read more: https://bit.ly/4awoYRO

New Rule Would Upend Science and Rewrite Federal Grantmaking

A new AMS statement and resource page respond to an OMB rule that would restructure federal grants and give political appointees vastly more authority over grantmaking.

bit.ly

I'm currently working on map(s) of Titan. Part of this project is new basemap of Titan combining radar and infrared data. I still have a lot of work to do but the radar part is almost done. Here are examples of current state in Mollweide projection and area around Bolsena Lacus at ~full resolution.

This "Promise" pitch/floater will be a good test for the space press who primarily focus on human spaceflight. Talk to planetary scientists. Where's that RTG gonna come from (and take away from)? How in the world do they think it would actually be flight operable?

It’s hard to convey the level of stupidity of this decision. The closest comparison I can come up with is thinking your run down 1950s vintage car you use for spare parts can suddenly compete in an F1 race.

Kevin 🚀@astro-kevin.com · last mo.

I heard about this a while back but couldn’t post about it bc it wasn’t public information. They want to send the engineering model of the curiosity rover to the moon. Every single person I know at JPL is flabbergasted anyone would ever consider doing that.

Slaughter with the OMB rule effectively ruins US science. If science as it has been so successfully performed for the last 80 years is to continue, a core tenant must be SCOTUS reform. They are just making it up to suit their personal politics, have lost all legitimacy, and must be stopped.

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · last mo.

Slaughter is an earthquake: SCOTUS has overturned a 90-year-old precedent that facilitated much of modern governance by granting many agencies meaningful independence from the president. Now SCOTUS crushes that independence ... for seemingly every agency except the Federal Reserve.

I am no constitutional scholar, but this seems pretty bad in combination with the new proposed OMB rules that would essentially make all federal grant making (for science, research, disaster response, poverty reduction, public health, and etc. ) subject to overt political litmus tests...

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · last mo.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court, 6-3, overrules Humphrey's Executor, giving the president broad firing powers over the leadership of federal agencies and limiting Congress's power to limit presidential firings. In a 5-4 decision, however, the court said the Federal Reserve is likely different.