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I love the fact that when scientists needed to make radium stable and transportable for this experiment, they chose to "caramelize" it in a solution of xylitol, a sweetener commonly used in chewing gum. They do not recommend eating (or even chewing) the results. 🧪⚛️ physicsworld.com/a/cold-radio...

Aware that her roomful of 1990s Apple II GSs was obsolete, and unable to send all her students to the lone computer in the library with Internet access, my middle school computer teacher hit upon a novel solution. She taught us touch typing, which I'm still using >30 years later.

I’ve heard that it’s still pretty terrible at transcribing interviews in many non-English languages, but for English I’ve found it a huge time saver. Checking + correcting an AI-generated transcript takes ~1/5 the time of producing a transcript from scratch. You do still need to check it, though!

What's the most viscous substance on Earth that isn't, for all practical purposes, completely solid? Honey 🍯❌ Pitch🛢️❌ Glass 🥛❌ Well, hmm, what about... Glaciers? 🏔️❌ Tectonic plates?? 🌍✅ physicsworld.com/a/geophysici...

I’d like to know more about the life cycle of volcanoes (including mud volcanoes): how they form, why they sometimes become dormant, what makes them reawaken, what happens when they go extinct, etc.

Congratulations on achieving your solidarity goal, and best of luck to your friend as well. 🍻

This is a blunt assessment of what the Trump regime is proposing for US science: they plan to take all the funding, essentially collapsing university-based research, in order to give that money to themselves, and they are lying about it.

"Scientific systems rarely collapse through a single dramatic event. They decline incrementally: one technician dismissed, one laboratory left unrepaired, one instrument taken out of service, one young scientist deciding to build a career elsewhere." physicsworld.com/a/letter-fro... ⚛️🧪

This letter from a physicist in Argentina is a salutary and deeply depressing reminder that Anglosphere countries aren’t the only ones where funding for science is under threat. 🧪⚛️

I’ve supported Liverpool since shortly after moving to the UK, but if you want an underdog club, may I suggest Sunderland? They’ve just returned to the PL after ~10 years but they’re playing in Europe now. Nicknamed the Black Cats, they play in the Stadium of Light & Newcastle are their derby club.

Great interview with Laura Grego of @ucs.org - she gets into Elon Musk and space colonialism, which is 100% a conversation we should be having www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Key question: do they still have an amazing blueberry pancake type dessert at Dolina Chochołowska?

A male-configured person who takes enough oestrogen for long enough is going to end up with some female characteristics. I call that “being somewhat female.” But if you think differently, fine. Best of luck finding ways to be yourself, however you wish to define that.

That really sucks and it’s absolutely terrible that people who don’t fit a gender and/or sex binary are being persecuted on both sides of the Atlantic. I miss the days when conservatives wanted (or at least paid lip service to wanting) government out of the lives of private citizens.

I’m sorry you’ve had people trying to force you into categories, but I’m not one of them. Lots of folks have their own personal mixes of organs, hormones, chromosomes & other features, plus their own ways of expressing gender, and as far as I’m concerned that’s all their business, not mine.

No it doesn’t, and yes they can. Only people with certain female characteristics can carry a child to term (or require an abortion). That group includes some cis women, some trans men, some intersex folks and some non-binary folks. Not ALL. Only SOME. I also never used the word “exclusively.”

Those issues are “specifically female”because only people who are to some degree female can experience those things. Many female people never experience them, and they remain female regardless. And anyone who considers herself a woman is a woman, even if she misunderstands me on the Internet.

I have sympathy for people who wrongly assume their experiences (and those of people they know) are universal, because it’s a common human flaw. The issue arises when people act on those wrong assumptions in ways that harm (in this case) trans people.

Wholeheartedly agree that anyone who has the relevant body parts can experience those issues, regardless of gender. Some intersex folks will also be affected. Short-form posts are bad for nuance.

Personally, I have loads of sympathy for them regarding part 1, a fair amount of sympathy for part 2 (even though these experiences aren’t universal, they are widespread and often hugely important for the women who have them) and no sympathy for part 3.