Katy Huff
@katyhuff.bsky.social
Into bikes, nuclear energy, vegetables, coffee, scientific computing, & public radio. Currently a professor at UIUC NPRE . Former NE-1. (she/her)
Fielding a lot of questions about the 123 agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since there are conflicting accounts of what's in it (actual media vs. POTUS' social media) & I haven't seen the actual text, it's tough to comment on anything except the broader principles. Here are 10 thoughts:
Research at universities, if not grappled by political whims, can do what other institutions can't. For example, independent, modernized impact assessments of federal work: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c.... Congratulations to Prof. S. Philippe at @uwmadisonneep.bsky.social et al. for the effort.
nytimes.com
A cute, short, 1964 video on the Advanced Test Reactor (digitized by IAEA's Lise Meitner Library) was just uploaded by @whatisnuclear.com ! It's as clever as all AEC reactor videos, but the star of this one is definitely the music. Eerie, quirky, a real 1960s sci-fi mood. youtu.be/8V0VCCXgSw8?...
Advanced Test Reactor (1964)
YouTube video by What is Nuclear?
youtu.be
Since I did do my PhD in cyanobacteria growth and treatment optimization modeling AND work in the water treatment industry, I’m gonna share my theory as to what’s happening here and how to fix it. People are focusing on the painted bottom of the pool increasing residual heat, and while that 1/19
derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2mo agoRIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter
It's so funny/sad to hear from senior scientists at the end of their career talking about how they regret not spending enough time with their families or on hobbies and then within a few minutes mention the importance of working nights and weekends "to get things done"
Whomever decided this is certainly not aware of the institutional cluster tightness in the network graph of specialized scientific subfields.
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2mo agoAnother handful of sand in the gears: Researchers cannot serve on a panel *at all* if anyone from their institution has submitted to that panel. Recusing themselves for the proposal itself is no longer sufficient. This is needless, but will certainly slow things up even further.
Why are so many security questions "Your favorite movie/restaurant/song". First of all, how can you choose? But mostly for me (and I assume every other world-appreciating person) these things are suuuper transient. My favorite song today is mostly out of rotation by next month. Next year, max.
I've reached the age at which an hour must elapse between my morning medicine and my first cup of coffee. On travel days, this creates a narrow but exciting window during which I navigate airports despite being, from a neurological standpoint, only loosely affiliated with consciousness.
Congratulations to Antares for hitting zero power critical yesterday! (www.energy.gov/articles/dep...) This is the first step toward low and high power critical tests. So, it's a great time to review the nice thread from Nick on Low and High Power criticality.
Nick Touran@whatisnuclear.com · 2mo agoWhat does "going critical" mean? If you shoot a neutron into some uranium ore, some atoms will split by fission, but you haven't made a nuclear reactor. Too many secondary neutrons leak out or get absorbed without splitting neighboring atoms. 1/n
The "shake" too! Manhattan Project lingo was kinda fun.
That means Neanderthal is half-cognate with the term for the buffer between a critical (good, stable) and prompt supercritical (bad, runaway) nuclear reactor! "Dollar" since normal operation is a small % (# of cents) over critical. Slotin, who named it, died in a prompt supercriticality.
dollar and Neanderthal are half-cognates. Thal means a dale or valley. Neanderthal/Neander Valley is where the first remains were found. a popular form of coinage in the 1500s was from Joachimsthal, and were called Joachimsthalers or thalers for short, which became dollars in English.
Tim Clare@timclare.bsky.social · 4mo agoWhat's your favourite origin/root of a word? (in any language) I love etymology so much. It's like history & conspiracy theories combined. Our language has secret messages & lizard DNA baked into it. Like how 'gargoyle' comes from gargle / gurgle, because of the water spewing out their mouths
I like that calculate and calculus come from a word for rock, because even when we're doing advanced maths it's a reminder that our monkey brains were only meant to deal with things like rocks
Big fan of our Welsh word for Hamster - Bochdew, which comes from Boch - cheek and Tew - Fat. Fat cheeks. Perfect. Especially because Hamster itself comes from the German word for 'to hoarde'.
A modern example most nuclear engineers love is the 'barn' as a physical unit of (TINY) cross sectional area (1E-28 sq m). If you're a neutron, this area is huge, and therefore easy to hit, like the broad side of a barn. See related: shed & outhouse. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_(u...
Barn (unit) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Tim Clare@timclare.bsky.social · 4mo agoWhat's your favourite origin/root of a word? (in any language) I love etymology so much. It's like history & conspiracy theories combined. Our language has secret messages & lizard DNA baked into it. Like how 'gargoyle' comes from gargle / gurgle, because of the water spewing out their mouths
It is really necessary to publish drafts about AI instantly. If you let them sit for two months after getting readers' reports, they become historical documents and you have to revise them from scratch.
What does "going critical" mean? If you shoot a neutron into some uranium ore, some atoms will split by fission, but you haven't made a nuclear reactor. Too many secondary neutrons leak out or get absorbed without splitting neighboring atoms. 1/n
This home has historic charm as well as some unique renovations ...oh, and a sarcophagus? ...with a landline telephone mounted in it? yeah, ok sure www.zillow.com/homedetails/...
I get more energy questions than I can answer. Should I sign a long-term electricity contract? Do we need tax credits? Starting next week I'm answering your questions on air — every week on @energyempire.bsky.social I want the hard ones. Submit your questions here: octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar
octopusenergy.com
I volunteer to be the astronaut safeguards inspector for space reactors
In case you were wondering, OB/GYNs still don't seem to have access to that fancy suction cup alternative to the tenaculum. You know, the one that's missing the meat hooks. I will not be taking questions at this time. www.nytimes.com/2024/05/17/w...
Will This Antiquated Gynecological Tool Get an Upgrade? (Published 2024)
nytimes.com
We celebrated Mother’s Day with our mothers, our friends’ mothers, and our brothers and others - Thanks for being a part of our community! We will share more soon about our 10 year anniversary celebration!
The youth are simply *abuzz* with today's Canvas cyberattack (www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comme...). Hacking the Learning Management infrastructure during finals week is very reminiscent of pulling the fire alarm a few minutes before the exam. I suppose modern times require modern solutions. 😬
From the UIUC community on Reddit: Canvas Cyberhack
Explore this post and more from the UIUC community
reddit.com
It's Friday night. I've done enough this week. You've done enough this week.
The only reason to do this is a lawless assault on academia, or a traitorous assault on the welfare of the US. The funds are appropriated. Scientific research makes us stronger as a country and better off as a people.
Sam Bagenstos@sbagen.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe story here is that Congress rejected Trump’s proposal to slash funding for the National Science Foundation, but Trump is gutting the agency anyway. The by-now classic Russ Vought play of treating Congress as an irrelevancy. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
There was no wifi on the plane. My notifications upon landing indicate that, uh, perhaps I missed something.
ArXiv, the place where people can put their PDFs that sometimes later get peer-reviewed and turn into academic journal papers, is a treasured part of open infrastructure. The papers that are there however, are not yet newsworthy or policy relevant, they are blog posts sometimes with cool fonts.
Jordan Carlson@jordantcarlson.bsky.social · 3mo agoNews outlets need to stop covering papers posted to arXiv as if they are peer reviewed and scientific. Full stop. Don't care what the topic is. If it's not gone through scientific processes, it should not be getting press releases or media coverage.
