#phd cosmology

[todays-xkcd]

Calligraphy exam: Write down the number 37, spelled out, nicely.

Exam Numbers [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[6 different math test questions.] [The first panel:] Kindergarten math final exam Q. Write down the biggest number you can think of A. [empty box]

[The second panel:] Pre-algebra final exam Q. Write down the value of x if x=3x-8 A. [empty box]

[The third panel:] Calculus final exam Q. Write down the value of [integral sign, from 0 to pi] x sin^2 x dx A. [empty box]

[The fourth panel:] PhD cosmology final exam Q. Write down the Hubble constant to within 1% A. [empty box]

[The fifth panel:] Game theory final exam Q. Write down 10 more than the average of the class's answers A. [empty box]

[The sixth panel:] Postgraduate math final exam Q. Write down the biggest number you can think of A. [empty box]

[simpsforscience]

From the tiniest atoms⚛️ to the vastness of galaxies☄️, ever stopped and wondered what sparked it all?🤔 Well, we did dig a bit deep into it and here we are to walk you through what we found. 🔭Join us in this monthly series to unravel the greatest enigmas of our shared universe. Let's explore the cosmos together!🚀

[victoriaanisa]

Cosmic microwave background experiments could probe connection between cosmic inflation, particle physics

More Details: Title: International Research Awards on High Energy Physics and Computational Science by ScienceFather. Website: physics.sciencefather.com Visit Our Award Nomination : https://x-i.me/hepnom Contact us : Physicsinquiry@sciencefather.com

Get Connected Here: ================== Facebook : https://x-i.me/yHa5 Instagram : https://x-i.me/Vn71 Twitter : https://x-i.me/unl4 Pinterest : https://x-i.me/y7HN Blog : https://x-i.me/IMSO tumblr : https://x-i.me/Z7js

[cosmostephan]

Sometimes, PhD life is just sitting and staring at a data file and a plot and trying to figure out what the heck you did wrong this time.

Like, why are there only 0.1 solar masses of particles in my 60 solar masses heavy star? It implies that 99.8% of the mass of my star comes from interactions, not particle masses.

[cosmiccabana]

The Sensitive Child Comes to Bring Joy

Yours Truly, Savoring this Joysicle It is the sensitive child who brings joy! The sensitive child offers others healing from pain, through humor and art, poetry and dance. The sensitive child emulates Love from the Omnipotent Love they have always known, and never forgotten. They shine this Love to others regularly because it is very deeply ingrained into their hearts to share Love, even when it…

[valyrfia]

how did you know what you wanted to do in life? i’m 19 and i still have no idea!!

I got veeeery lucky in that I was always very good academically so kept seeking out what I saw as the 'hardest' subject for academic validation (so that would be physics, in my head) and then I did an internship in a cosmology department in my third year of uni and I was like "oh! I like research! I want to be a research scientist!"and then what proceeded from there was what I like to call a series of happy accidents. I used to think I loved cosmology until I got dissatisfied with how little data there are in reality, then I thought I wanted to be a theoretical physicist focusing on gravity (and actually that's what I applied to in all my PhD applications), but it's not really applicable to the here and now at all and end of the day I'm quite a realist and I think I would've struggled. Luckily though, I'd applied to do my master's year in the research group I currently work in because it was a lot of big data handling and I thought that could help me career-wise, and an academic in that group encouraged me to apply to a PhD there, and I got it! And a year or so in now, I absolutely LOVE it, it's super applicable, I get to travel to very remote places a whole lot, and every single person I work with has similar drive and mindset. Moral of my story is: fuck around and find out, and don't sneer at the serendipitous!

Also, it's worth me saying I had absolutely NO clue who I was or what I wanted when I was nineteen. You do have time. Fuck it I didn't even know I was a lesbian at nineteen, like you really know nothing at nineteen so there's no shame in taking the time and putting in the work in discovering yourself in ALL aspects of your life. Try that work experience, date that person just because, try out that new hobby. Like, life is all ahead of you.

[jessaerys]

five hyperspecific near headcanons?

(THIS IS SO LONG SORRY. YOU KNOW WHAT I AM!!!!)

gonna take headcanons here to mean “stuff that is entirely not canon” so these are (varying levels of unfounded) personal canonverse facts i’ve come up with as i write him: 

i.

has special interest in space / cosmology / astrophysics / astrobiology / space exploration etc etc etc. (extremely self indulgent of me but i love to have fun) it used to be very all-consuming when he was little and not afraid to want things. 

it was eventually demoted to the backseat as his focus shifted towards his studies so by the time we meet him in canon it has been fully repressed into something he considers childish (though i’d like to think he found an excuse [perhaps through a case] to keep correspondence going with the brightest minds at the SETI institute and they have ocassional videocalls where he pokes holes in their theories on the origins of life he insists it is simply mantaining connections that may one day prove relevant. it is a productive use of my time agent gevanni do not question my methodology) 

when i think of near i think of saint-exupéry’s the little prince and his watercolor illustrations of a little boy on a little round planet -- actually, a lil exerpt:

near is very little-prince coded in his curiosity and love for humanity and golden heartedness and deep mysterious melancholy – he is sad and he doesn’t know he is sad!! to be a cosmonaut is to be an observer, unmoored from the world, not quite of this earth. which actually leads me to,

ii.

he is from nowhere/belongs to no-one/ has no past and no land to return to.

he was in a couple different orphanages since he was a newborn and any paperwork he could’ve had got lost in the shuffle: it was roger who named him nate river just to have something on the records; his oldest memories are from wammy’s, the first person he ever loved was L, there’s never been anything else for him.

i know “has no racial identity” seems like a cop-out but i actually find it interesting to set him up so that he is unlinked from such a basic experience of community in modern society. because of his albinism there isn’t even a melanin scale to point him in the right direction; his looks are very racially ambiguous (ie. 3a/3b curls, very slight/partial double eyelids, etc), his parents untraceable. if he ever took a dna test it would confirm a thoroughly mixed background of many different ethnicities due to european immigration – but he has never taken a dna test because it would mean he cares which means he would have to think about what other people have and he doesn’t which would mean mourning a loss. and there is no use having feelings about that which he cannot change; no use looking back. mello looks back, and look where that's landed him--

(tangent: in contrast mello’s troubled background in the wartorn balkans until he was relatively older (5-6) and his reconnection with his birthplace in croatia after he left wammy’s is a crucial and defining pillar of his identity (personal canonverse courtesy of local mello phd haver @firebuggg) so this is yet another contrast between them. but we do not have time to get into that)

(tangent number 2:

L to mello in private: why does it matter? the war is behind you. looking back slows you down

L to near also in private: how can a detective know anything if he doesn’t first know himself?

near and mello ages 5 and 7, in their minds: i am the only one who understands L)

actually near's john silver slay is thee most important characterization touchstone for me tbh whenever people give him a backstory it just weirds me the fuck out

what do you mean he remembers his mother that would mean being An Individual and Not A Child Soldier !!!! he is wammy's perfect little grooming blank slate thank you very much

iii.

as a baby he was SO cute SO round SO feral. beautiful glowing cherubic marmalade-eyed biting screaming wildchild. wary as a cat with a talent for finding hiding spots inside the walls and so very autistic. an enfant terrible!! this is possibly why he moved through so many foster homes before wammys. 

for a couple of years until age, like, 5, the only people he felt comfortable enough around to speak to in coherent words were L and later mello* 

his method of communication with the rest of the teachers / caregivers / other children was opening his mouth and unleashing the most terrible banshee shriek a 3-4-5 year old could unleash upon god's green earth

through the rest of their childhood known annoyingest older brother on earth mihael "mello" kheel was ocassionally able to figure out how to unlock a Near Nuclear Meltdown, though it was a very rare occurrence as soon enough near graduated to going stiff and heavy on the floor wherever they tried to make him do something he did not want to do. and good luck getting him to move without lifting him corpse deadweight style. garden. hallway. classroom floor. middle of the stairs. he is and has always been a willful little thing !!!!!!!!!

i'm protected under the awning of this readmore so this is My City Now here are some exerpts courtesy of @firebuggg and yours truly

(sequential)

(not sequential)

*(unfortunately, this meant he was accidentally straight up accidentally twilightzoning mello for at least two years after being introduced to each other because what mello kept hearing was [functionally mute kid who usurped your number one spot, exclusively when nobody is around to hear it]: No One Will Ever Believe You) 

iv.

this one’s kind of stupid but i think it’d be funny if wammy’s DOES adopt kids out occasionally possibly from the bottom half of the L successor ranking in order to keep the facade of being an orphanage and not an unethical human child experiment (perhaps to wealthy people who want to skip the bureaucracy of going through the proper channels. you know how it is) (it also makes such a good boogeyman: if you don't get in the bath roger will give you out for adoption !!!!!!)

anyway once feral baby near escaped containment when there were prospective parents over browsing the (available) children and a couple was completely charmed with him and they, as is the fashion of wealthy people to do whatever the fuck they want, took him out for a lovely walk/car ride/park visit/ice-cream sundae, all sunny and warm and sitting on the young woman’s lap, getting loved on, hearing, “would you like to come live with us little one?” 

when they bring near back they are informed that unfortunately near is very much NOT up for adoption (someone definitely gets fired over that one) (dfsddfsdjfdfj)

this gets LEGENDARILY joked about by mello and matt and their popular kids entourage until they leave wammys. this definitely did not give near any complexes whatsoever

anyway once when the three of them are adults it comes up when they’re in the middle of joking around and it triggers yet another round of relentless Unadoptable Near teasing until matt and mello drive the joke right into the ground where it wheezes a last breath into an increasingly awkward silence as they Realize,

v.

ok lighting round:

had L survived as near grew into his teens they WOULD have had an EXTREMELY contentious mother-daughter relationship

much like mello he too has a deep well of unaddressed (repressed) rage within him (like sam winchester. sorry for bringing supernatural into this)

people often write that near only eats bland/white(?) foods but i think being vegan suits him also it's funny as hell. not out of any ideological motivation he was just an extremely picky eater and also do you think that frail body could handle meat. if he could get away with it all he would it is raw fruits and vegetables (chopped into small cubes)(note: this is not bland, just insane)(it’s the scampering rabbit in him) 

extremely at risk of developing a smoking habit. that boy can fit so much tension in his little body do you think his developing teenage brain would not immediately latch onto the treacherous instant clarity and peace of nicotine

5. did i mention repression. did i mention the absolute terror that seizes him at the thought of experiencing desire/hunger/longing/want. if you made it this far have a reward:

[sarcastic-nebula]

*sigh* my gravity falls headcanons

sadly, I'm on gravity falls bullshit. I'm entranced. in an era, if you will. it may last for a few more months. I just rewatched the series. begrudgingly, here are some head canons:

-the kids return to gravity falls every summer, where Dipper is able to do mini apprenticeships with Ford. since Ford has one hell of a background, he's able to give Dipper more than enough skills to look good on college resumes plus a good reference/letter of rec

-Ford's research is only partially funded by the NSF, and gets less and less funding from them every year. he's not quite sure where the rest of the money comes from but he's learned to ignore it so he can focus on other things

-during the summers, stan and ford return to gravity falls. stan and Soos share ownership of the Mystery Shack attraction and take turns being Mr. Mystery so each of them can get breaks

-the Mystery Shack attraction helps fund part of Stan and Ford's current research, especially travel and food. Stan and Soos signed a bunch of paperwork and stuff so that way Stan can still make money and afford to live

-before Ford disappeared for thirty years, he was a well known and successful researcher in his extremely niche field. in other words, the few people who knew he existed and read his papers were pretty big fans. probably in a subgroup of theoretical quantum physics, particle physics, or cosmology

-some of Ford's PhDs are from when he was not in this dimension, so sadly they may not be entirely valid here :(

-I could see Mabel going to college for film. she takes an interpretive dance class and it becomes a regular hobby

-I could also see Wendy being an art or government major

-robby could never be an art major (see his explosion muffin graffiti all over gravity falls)

-stan never forgave Ford for making him teach himself engineering in order to bring Ford back through the portal

-there is an equal and opposite bill somewhere in the universe. she's a she, and bill tricked her into falling into a deep sleep. she is also capable of defeating him. she is order while bill is chaos, with the same power as bill. I'll let y'all know if I develop more of this h/c, bc rn I'm not sure if she has infinite sides (sphere?) or three, or what she would look like.

that's all for now

[abr]

(I)l cosiddetto Modello standard della fisica delle particelle, un impianto teorico che descrive la natura e il comportamento della materia ordinaria (cioè non oscura), (...) è il più solido e verificato sperimentalmente per (...) fare previsioni accurate sui fenomeni naturali. Ma non è ancora perfetto: nel corso del secolo scorso, infatti, astronomi e cosmologi hanno cominciato ad accumulare osservazioni sperimentali, legate soprattutto a fenomeni che hanno a che fare con la gravità, che non potevano essere spiegati né previsti dal Modello standard. (...)

Per questo motivo, già nel 1932, l’astronomo olandese Jan Oort propose la presenza di un altro tipo di materia – la materia oscura, per l’appunto – con la quale riconciliare osservazioni sperimentali e modelli teorici. (Sinora) questo tipo di materia non è mai stata osservata direttamente e non abbiamo ancora un’idea precisa di quali dovrebbero essere le sue caratteristiche.

(S)tando alle stime attuali, questa elusiva entità rappresenterebbe addirittura la maggior parte dell’Universo – l’85% circa di tutta la materia esistente e il 27% circa della massa totale.

via https://www.wired.it/article/materia-oscura-gravita-massa-universo-studio/

Il caso della materia oscura lo uso da tempo ad esempio di come ragioni la scienza, dei limiti che ha e di quel che invece ne ricavano i sarchiaponi col diploma o i laureati con lode e phd in fisica ma recenti, con docenti sessantottini e il pubblico sciolto dal profondo bisogno di FEDE.

Fuorviati da divulgatori cani, esemplificati in quel "ma (il modello) non è ancora perfetto" degno di espulsione da tutte le scuole del regno con calcio in chiulo. Al contrario, gli scienziati ben sanno che non esistono "modelli perfetti" ma solo modelli che approssimano la realtà; di più, quelli che sembrano "perfetti" lo sono solo temporaneamente, come il modello standard fino al 1932.

Torniamo all'esempio Materia Oscura - btw, l'articolo accenna - male - a tentativi di superare il concetto. In sintesi: l'esistenza della materia oscura viene postulata da Oort nel 1932 per "far tornare" le equazioni del modello standard, a fronte di osservazioni che mostravano come in certi casi non fosse affatto preciso, anzi proprio sbagliato.

Lo scienziato "postula" perché vorrebbe salvare il modello standard che al 95% funziona ("é elegante") e inoltre, non esistendo ancora una nuova teoria che lo superi, meglio la toppa dello strappo destabilizzante, del salto nel buio, nell'ammissione "non abbiamo capito bene come funzioni".

Lo scienziato vero però sa bene che trattasi di ipotesi, di roba che esiste nelle equazioni non nella realtà, fin che non si osserva sperimentalmente. Siamo nelle condizioni di fine Ottocento, quando gli scienziati postulavano l'esistenza di una sostanza pervasiva detta "Etere Luminifero" che esisteva all'unico scopo di propagare le onde elettromagnetiche, ad es. la luce delle Galassie, non potendo farlo il vuoto. Poi arrivò Einstein e il suo fotone a dargli il Nobel - non la Relatività - e tanti saluti all'Etere. Oggi il nuovo Etere Oscuro siamo ancora costretti a tenercelo stretto, fino a quando non si sa.

Ripeto, lo scienziato vero sa che il teorico naviga a vista tra teorie (modelli) e ipotesi di lavoro ("postulati") in attesa della spada di Damocle di nuove misure che spacchino regolarmente tutto, tipo quelle sull'accelerazione dell'espansione dell'Universo. En attendant il nuovo Einstein di turno che sistemi la cucina.

Il Fedele, fomentato dal Divulgatore cane, invece tutto questo non lo sa: è convinto che la Scienza rimpiazzi le Scritture, occupandosi di Fatti e Certezze e stabilendo le Verità incontrovertibili. Estendendole stiracchiate sino ai modelli del clima futuro!!! Poveretti, le delusioni che li aspettano.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

[eclipsellium]

Zoe // 16 // she/her/hers // INTJ

Currently studying physics, chemistry, computer science, calculus, photography. Topics in physics I’m learning about are E&M, thermodynamics, relativity, standard model, cosmology, high-energy astrophysics, and fluids.

I’m interested in dark matter and CMB research. My academic goals right now are mostly focused on getting into university with a major in physics. I want to get a PhD in either physics or astrophysics and work in academia doing cosmology research.

Other fun facts: I play golf and am training in calisthenics. I really like listening to music and I have a really cute cat (he’s a little chunky tho). My favorite show is Voltron Legendary Defender, and my favorite movie is a tie between Oppenheimer and The Social Network.

[mirastudiesphysics]

For the studyblr asks: 9 and 15

Hope the studying goes well! 📚☕

9: Favorite class out of everything you’ve ever taken and why?

Definitely the Bayesian Statistics course I took last spring. The professor was super kind and excited to share how to think like a Bayesian (very relevant to cosmology!). The assignments were straightforward, and had a lot of leeway for people who were not statistics PhD students aka me. The only drawback was the group project at the end, because my group mates were extremely unhelpful and attempted to use ChatGPT for building a model...

15: Class that you’ve always wanted to take but never had the chance?

I really wish I had the ability to take some kind of mathematical methods for physics. I went to a liberal arts school, so my physics classes had to sacrifice lectures to go over the bare necessities because gen eds took up a lot of credits and there wasn't really room for a physics specific math class. It was truly not enough, and I seriously wish I had some exposure to things like Fourier transforms and complex analysis prior to grad school.

I wish I had time to study those missing math topics! One day.

[xenopoem]

Clinical report by neuroscientist Germán Sierra: Zak Ferguson vs. Kenji Siratori is the transcript of a communication attempt between digitrashed humans and the anthroporuined algorithm; a language-production system resulting from the compulsion of posthuman entities — fleshy, machinic, or any combination of both — to probe each other through synthetic metamanipulations, or by exchanging esoterically-coded glitchstructions and exploring the two-way xenoerotics of technoparaphilia. "Amid the demise of narrative forms, there comes a piece of glitch stoicism. Delivered as a technological fable and device overload hypo-text, it weaves a tale of media fantasies to augur the quantum karma of data skin and the genericness of human language" - Ania Malinowska, Ania Malinowska, PhD, Professor in Media and Cultural Studies Center for Critical Technology Studies, University of Silesia, Poland All linguists. Messenger's hungry brain. We are progressing. Call the code down. Talk in praise of acid. Parallel conductors exist. Undermine affinity. Appearance and content are always with mental stabilizers. Assassination is not necessarily the existence of life. It is because it permeates that degradation is dizziness, the beginning of habit and economic game... It is rather a humor challenging the virtual of a deep period of devotion that is close to privilege. Celebrities write that they want it. My hollow's local and precise perception sought technology. Circles contact actual millipede data, and the course searches for it, captured gravity is poetic stench and dark people, let them talk, and present Daddy's future order. Many cosmologies in the dunes are not born. Words that force beliefs. Understand that whoever caused the watchmaker to rise is intended, impossible concept. Laughing machinery swirls in the soil. Limitations of intergalactic invisibility. Time. Human things. What you executed.

[frank-olivier]

Consciousness and Cosmos: A Journey to Oneness

Jude Currivan is a cosmologist, planetary healer, futurist, and author. She holds a Master's degree in Physics, specializing in quantum physics and cosmology, and a PhD in Archaeology, focusing on ancient cosmologies. Before her work in cosmology and healing, she was one of the UK's most senior businesswomen. Currivan has traveled extensively and has worked with wisdom keepers from various traditions, integrating cutting-edge science, consciousness research, and universal wisdom teachings into a holistic worldview. She suggests that the traditional understanding of entropy as a measure of energetic microstates is limited. Instead, she proposes expanding this concept to include the informational content of systems. Currivan sees the universe operating as a holographic information system. In this view, space-time and energy-matter are manifestations of underlying informational patterns. The universe's evolution is an unfolding of these patterns, increasing in complexity and coherence. Her perspective is that consciousness is integral to the fabric of the universe, aligning with the principles of quantum mechanics and the holographic nature of reality. She argues that this understanding can reconcile scientific evidence with ancient wisdom, offering a unified view of reality that emphasizes interconnectedness and unity. Her idea is that current global challenges stem from a "dis-ease of separation," and that healing and transformation require embracing a unitive narrative that acknowledges our shared humanity and divinity.

Interview with Jude Currivan (Rick Archer, Buddha at the Gas Pump, July 2017)

Friday, September 13, 2024

[tismcosmology]

hello tumblr welcome to my humble studyblr

im lyra (main: @lyraandco), and after many years of lurking i am actually blogging on the blog website. insane

Academics:

im in my first year of physics and astronomy (BSc)

planning on minoring in biophys

aiming for a phd in cosmology! probably in something to do with black holes, agi / quasars, or galaxy evolution

considering a masters in biophys. I really like quantum biology

i have a college diploma in pre-med sciences :>

About me:

canadian 🇨🇦 ! and bilingual even if i never get to use it lol

trans masc, achillian, aroace spec

I have a pet rabbit!

I work at a zoo during the summer and Will trade animal pictures for fun facts

I have. so many special interests in the sciences. far too many to list here. so go look at the post I made that has all of them :)

[errant-heron]

a lot of the people in my cohort in undergrad went on to do PhDs in theoretical condensed matter, and they mostly did not have such a high opinion of high-energy physics. once, after talking about this, one girl asked me what I was hoping to study, and I said theoretical cosmology. she agreed that interesting things were happening in the field, and told me 'cosmology has its place. and it should know it.'

I think about that a lot