Astrophysicist and BoV Research Prof at
@NUCIERA
| Gravitational Waves | Humans of
@LIGO
curator | Meme enthusiast | Husband | IG: @/actualdrdoctor | He/him
As someone with a PhD, I can say that you do not need a PhD. You need a PhD and a postdoc (or two) and hundreds of citations and tens of papers and a significant other willing to move with you every few years and
Who wants to be my thousandth follower? Here are some reasons to follow me:
- My name is Dr. Doctor
- My name is Dr. Doctor
- My name is Dr. Doctor
- I tweet about astrophysics
- Did I mention my name is Dr. Doctor?
AT LONG LAST! Pulsar timing arrays show evidence of a low-frequency gravitational-wave background! Itโs likely the signature of many orbiting supermassive black holes across the universe ๐คฏ What does this all mean? A little ๐งตโฆ
To other young scientists: It's always good to remind yourself that it's okay not to understand something the first time. Or the second. Or the third. The important thing is to keep trying to understand and to ask those around you for clarification if you're confused.
Canโt believe an apple fell on Newtonโs head and he thought it was due to a gravitational force rather than the curvature of spacetime. Rookie mistake
Quantum mechanics and general relativity have been irreconcilable โ until now! I just put out a new pre-print describing a path to reconciling the two theories, and it was right under our noses the whole time! Hereโs a link to the pre-print [1/2]
did you like being a physics major?
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Wonder how Einstein would feel if he saw a bunch of us learn GR in a quarter of grad school and then spend the rest of our careers dealing with software package dependencies
A friendly reminder to everyone who is applying for things: Your acceptances/rejections are not a measure of your self-worth! You have a lot to offer, even if you don't get an offer.
Astronomy cliches ranked:
1. We are star stuff
2. We are the universe knowing itself
3. Gravitational waves are a new window on the universe
4. Weโre just a floating speck of dust
5. I have no friends
deleting my dating apps because i want to meet someone the old-fashioned way (orbiting each other, slowly coming together due to gravitational-wave emission, finally touching in a violent merger that shakes the fabric of spacetime before ringing down to a kerr black hole)
I'm extremely easy on myself so I figured I'd list some things I used to know but that I donโt anymore:
Classical mech
Thermo
Stat mech
Quantum mech
QFT
Complex analysis
Special relativity
Solid state
Electrodynamics
Particle physics
What I want to be when I grow up
One of the worst things you can take away from a physics degree is the notion that reductionist thinking based on simple principles is the best approach to understanding everything.
Hello new followers! You came for my name, but now you're gonna get some astrophysics:
Collisions of neutron stars may expel heavy elements like gold. So some of your jewelry might have been produced from neutron stars colliding in our galaxy millions of years ago!
If youโre a STEM major, donโt neglect humanities classes! Beyond the important content of these courses, learning to write clearly and quickly is an invaluable skill that will benefit you in your scientific endeavors.
Please, dear scientists, let's keep using Twitter for only sharing memes and shitposts. I mean, that was the original motivation to start using Twitter among scientists right? For the rest you can still use publications and email.
Physics nursery rhymes:
Mary had a little lambda
Itsy bitsy spinor
Old MacDonald had a far-field approximation
Twinkle twinkle binary star system
Baa baa black hole
If youโre |โ ใand you know it
Astronomers will legit be like โletโs take the data from this perfectly engineered, multi-million-dollar space telescope and fit it with a power lawโ
A gravitational wave detector feels a bump in the night. Astronomers scramble to point their telescopes at the right location of the sky. They see a massive nuclear explosion in space. It is a gender reveal party.
Flight attendant: Is there a doctor on board?
Me: Iโm a PhD
FA: Not that kind of doctor
Me: My last name is also Doctor, so technically Iโm Dr. Doโ
FA: Sir, this man is dying
When I visited MIT during college visits, our tour guide was like โI got my acceptance to MIT on Pi Day, which I remember clearly because of course I was wearing my Pi Day t-shirt!โ and that was when I decided I didnโt want to go to MIT.
Physics isnโt the search for truth. Itโs better thought of as problem solving using concepts like energy and momentum. Solutions in physics donโt have to be โthe truthโ or โrigorousโ โ they just have to be commensurable with the problems at hand. 1/
Me as undergrad: wouldnโt it be cool an equation was named after me?
Me now: forget equations, wouldnโt it be cool if I got a permanent job in a city I like?
In the same way that we donโt need to erect statues to powerful dead white men who often turn out to have been terrible, we donโt need to name
#physics
equations and principles after powerful dead white men either!
Equations of electromagnetism not Maxwell, eg.