Two weeks ago I released curved-text, a small library for drawing labels that follow arbitrary curves in Matplotlib. The response was overwhelming. That attention led to a lot of careful refinement. #Python #Matplotlib #DataViz #OpenSource #ScientificPython

GitHub - thiebes/curved-text: Draw text along an arbitrary curve in matplotlib, with arc-length positioning and a perpendicular offset.

Draw text along an arbitrary curve in matplotlib, with arc-length positioning and a perpendicular offset. - thiebes/curved-text

github.com

Yesterday my 12yo brought home a bottled water and later noticed that it professed to be alkaline water. "Hey it has the pH on the bottle! It says it's pH 9." "Hmm," I murmured with a smirk. "I'm skeptical." She lit up. "Let's test it!"

A small Python tool for cleaner paper figures: curved-text labels each line right on the curve instead of in a legend. Self-contained plots, less work for the reader. pip install curved-text thiebes.org/2026/06/11/l... #AcademicSky #DataViz

Labeling matplotlib curves without a legend

When a chart has a few lines on it, the usual way to tell them apart is a legend: a small box off to the side that maps each color to a name. It works, but it makes the reader do extra work. Your e…

thiebes.org

Reflecting pools work because their floors are dark. That is the whole trick, and it is about three thousand years old. The Lincoln pool is being recoated swimming-pool blue this spring. New essay on what that changes. josephthiebes.substack.com/p/what-the-d...

What the dark was for

Still water in low light gives back the world above it.

josephthiebes.substack.com

In his paper, Turing quoted the neurosurgeon Geoffrey Jefferson, who had argued that a machine could not truly think until it could write a sonnet “because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols.” New essay: josephthiebes.substack.com/p/the-selfis...

The selfish test

Richard Dawkins asked Claude if it's conscious. The answer raised a problem older than AI.

josephthiebes.substack.com

i wrote about holes. the semiconductor kind. turns out they pass every test we use to identify objects. so do you. 🤔

MemPalace made a specific benchmarking error. The palace architecture that defines the system played no role in producing the headline score. The error has a 400-year-old precedent. Giordano Bruno made the same move. New piece: josephthiebes.substack.com/p/giordano-b...

Giordano Bruno's GitHub repository

What MemPalace and Milla Jovovich got right about knowledge systems that prove themselves

josephthiebes.substack.com

What we treat as central is often an effect of duration. A new essay on attention, distribution, and interpretation: The geometry of attention.

The geometry of attention

Meaning emerges from where attention settles and how long it remains

open.substack.com

Alysa Liu & St. Friedrich

Most people who see the aurora say it looked nothing like the photographs. They are right. What few realize is that the longer they stood there, the less true that became.

Why the aurora never look like the photos

Most people who see the aurora say it looked nothing like the photographs.

open.substack.com

After watching Bad Bunny's performance again, I was looking at thumbnails of past halftime shows and thought, wow I bet Shakira sang a lot of Spanish songs. Sure enough, she did. Do you know what else made an appearance? The flag of Puerto Rico. And do you know WHO else made an appearance? Benito!

open.substack.com/pub/josephth...

As I always say: Shamrocks for your real friends, Real rocks for your sham friends. (Unless they are geologists, in which case give them both.)

Got my COVID booster.

Cozying up to kick off my birthday weekend with this remarkable new book by Toby Hendy @tibees.bsky.social. Look closely at the photograph: an inversion hides in plain sight! The fourth dimension may be closer than it seems…

I’m starting a new position as a part-time Middle School Science Laboratory Instructor! I’ll spend an hour each week helping students explore the scientific method, nurture critical thinking skills, and connect with the Montessori tradition of self-directed cosmic education.

@bskyttrpg.bsky.social unsubscribe

Meitner-Auger recombination: A process by which energy transfer between excitons causes one to recombine and the other to be excited to a higher energy state within the same energy band. It was discovered and published in 1922 by Lise Meitner and—independently—in 1923 by Pierre Victor Auger.

Happy Tau Day! We celebrate both Pi Day and Tau Day at our house. Tau (≈6.28) is 2π, and some say it is the better circle constant. Either way, it is a great chance to talk angles, radians, and geometry with kids. Preferably over something round and tasty. #TauDay

Every science award given to multiple people should go to half who identify as women and half who identify as men. For odd numbers, alternate yearly. “Best qualified” is no excuse. There are always more qualified people than awards. All-male award lists should be embarrassing. #WomenInSTEM

Pão de Queijo! Easy to make: 170 g tapioca flour 1 egg 1/3 C olive oil 2/3 C milk 66 g cheese 1 tsp salt Blend to homogeneity, 3/4 fill greased mini muffin pan, bake at 400 F for 15 min. Spray the pan w/ canola oil because it is healthy and to spite RFK who hates it. #ChemistsWhoCook

The White House doubled down on Trump’s absurd claim that #DOGE canceled $8 million for “making mice #transgender.” In reality, none of the projects do anything of the sort. (Do mice even have gender identity?) Here’s what they actually study: 1/

Although she fell asleep every time we listened to Project Hail Mary (audiobook), the 5yo retained enough to draw this picture of Rocky, the alien in the book, almost a week after we finished listening.

My 10yo won first place in her class spelling bee today. So proud of her ❤️

Clearly, my recent paper might find itself in hot water with the ‘bias patrol.’ I suppose ‘systematic error’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it! #Optics #Photonics ⚛️ 🧪

Darby Saxbe@darbysaxbe.bsky.social · 2y ago

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Pleased to share our study on how substrate annealing affects CsPbBr₃ perovskite photoluminescence on TiO₂. We show how annealing temp tunes surface roughness, crystallinity & charge recombination. Grateful to lead author Xavier Vorhies and co-authors! #PerovSky #MatSky #ChemSky 🧪

Photoluminescence lifetime of perovskites on modified substrates

Lead halide perovskites have gained attention for their potential in optoelectronic applications, including photovoltaics and light-emitting devices, due to the

pubs.aip.org

I’m reading Project Hail Mary, and so far it’s a great read for the spectroscopy content alone! #chemsky

My dissertation is now freely available: scholarworks.montana.edu/items/5f1522d5… It examines nanocrystal ligand effects on transport, lamellar structure influence on charge separation, and impact of noise in measures of excited state diffusion in semiconducting materials. �� #chemsky #perovsky

Sweeping restrictions at NIH have halted grant reviews, workshops, and hiring. Travel and communication bans block scientists from presenting work, recruiting for clinical trials, and publishing. Fear and uncertainty now threaten U.S. biomedical research progress. 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring

Researchers facing

science.org

Gasoline (petrol) near me: $2.80/gal (€0.67/L). Eggs: $6.59/dozen (€6.05). Noting these prices today as the newly inaugurated president promised to lower costs.