iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 14/08/2026

It's happening. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonp...

A notebook with a handwritten label: commonplace book

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 03/05/2026

On ladders. From The Comfort Book by Matt Haig.

A book opened to a page that reads:

Ladders

We are often encouraged to see life as one continual uphill climb. We talk about ladders without even thinking. Career ladders. Property ladders. Of being on the top rung of the ladder. Or the bottom rung of the ladder. We talk of climbing the ladder. We talk of rising up. We talk of uphill struggles. In doing so we visualize life as a kind of vertical race, like we are human skyscrapers reaching for the clouds. And we risk only ever looking above to the future or below to the past and never around at the infinite horizontal landscape of the present. The trouble with ladders is they give you no room to move around. Just room to fall.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 05/04/2026

Some back of the envelope math: The point where Earth and the Moon appear equal in size is 79% of the distance to the moon, or around 188 thousand miles. Currently, Orion is about 88% of the distance to the Moon, which is why the Moon appears larger than the Earth in this picture.

Handwritten math on graph paper. A diagram at top shows two circles — a larger one labeled R_E (Earth) on the left and a smaller one labeled R_M (Moon) on the right — with two lines crossing between them forming an X, defining distances d_E and d_M from a shared observation point. The derivation begins by setting the angular size condition R_E/d_E = R_M/d_M, rearranging to d_E/d_M = 6,371 km / 1,737 km = 3.67. Substituting into the constraint d_E + d_M = d_EM and solving yields d_E = d_EM / 1.27 = 384,399 km / 1.27 = 302,676 km = 188,074 miles.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 05/04/2026

I checked the live feed to see how Orion is doing today, and wow! At 210,00+ miles away from Earth, the Moon actually appears larger than the crescent Earth at this point.

Two side by side views from spacecraft Orion from two cameras. The view on the left shows a small full moon in the distance, against the blackness of space, with Orion to the left. The view on the right shows the rear end of Orion, with a space panel in view, and a small crescent Earth in the distant on the right, against the blackness of space.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 03/04/2026

And here's the real thing, a live view from Orion (currently coming in and out of transmission): www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rwf...

Close-up view from an onboard camera of the Orion spacecraft's crew module and service module adapter, brightly lit by sunlight. The conical heat shield end of the capsule gleams white, with rivets and panel seams visible along the metallic surface.

Close-up onboard camera view of the Orion crew module's forward end, showing the spacecraft's blue-tinted thermal protection tiles and heat shield hardware in detail.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 03/04/2026

This is a neat visualization for tracking where Artemis is right now: www.nasa.gov/missions/art...

Screenshot of NASA's Artemis II Real-time Orbit Website showing the mission view. The Orion spacecraft's trajectory is traced in blue, looping from Earth out past the Moon and back. The spacecraft is currently on its outbound leg.

Screenshot of NASA's Artemis II AROW tool showing a close-up camera view of the Orion spacecraft against the black of space, with the Moon visible in the upper right.

Screenshot of NASA's Artemis II AROW tool showing the Orion spacecraft from a different camera angle, with a crescent Earth visible behind it.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 20/02/2026

Many of the settings shown in the video have the same names as the ones in the Three.js examples, such as "Mie Directional G". Meanwhile Google's marketing material says Gemini "doesn't just generate the visual code; it builds an immersive experience".

a menu of settings controlling the sky environment, with sliders for elevation, azimuth, turbidity, rayleigh, mie coefficient, etc.

Screenshot of an image from Google's blog post. Caption: "Interactive design: 3.1 Pro codes a complex 3D starling murmuration. It doesn't just generate the visual code; it builds an immersive experience where users can manipulate the flock with hand-tracking and listen to a generative score that shifts based on the birds’ movement. For researchers and designers, this provides a powerful way to prototype sensory-rich interfaces."

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 20/02/2026

A good example of how LLMs don't credit sources: Google says this simulation was created by Gemini 3.1 Pro. But it looks very similar to off-the-shelf examples from Three.js, the most popular 3d javascript library. threejs.org/examples/?q=... threejs.org/examples/?q=... blog.google/innovation-a...

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 04/12/2025

Why do math diagrams on wikipedia look like this? I can't imagine what the author hoped to communicate here.

An indecipherable collection of diagrams of overlapping circles and curves in 3 colors.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 03/12/2025

They really don't write textbook introductions like they used to...

A page from the book Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology by Valentino Braitenberg that reads:

Introduction

Let the Problem of the Mind Dissolve in Your Mind

This is an exercise in fictional science, or science fiction, if you like that better. Not for amusement: science fiction in the service of science. Or just science, if you agree that fiction is part of it, always was, and always will be as long as our brains are only minuscule fragments of the universe, much too small to hold all the facts of the world but not too idle to speculate about them.

I have been dealing for many years with certain structures within animal brains that seemed to be interpretable as pieces of computing machinery because of their simplicity and/or regularity. Much

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 02/11/2025

morning math: trying to understand shallow neural networks

Diagrams to understand how a shallow one layer neural network with ReLU activations can be represented as a series of hinges. The 3N + 1 parameters control the positions, slopes and directions of each hinge, plus an overall offset.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 06/10/2025

Overall, fewer students arrived in August from most countries in the data. Africa and Asia showed the largest decline in international students visiting the U.S. in August, while Europe and Oceania showed small changes.

A bubble chart showing the change in international student arrivals from Asia between August 2024 and 2025. The average change is a decrease of -23.8%.

A bubble chart showing the change in international student arrivals from Africa between August 2024 and 2025. The average change is -32.5%.

A bubble chart showing the change in international student arrivals from Europe between August 2024 and 2025. The average change is -1.7%.

A bubble chart of student arrival changes, with the country of India highlighted. The average change for India between August 2024 and 2025 is a decrease of -44.5%.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 06/10/2025

Iran is one of the countries facing a U.S. travel ban. The travel data shows that the number of arriving Iranian students dropped by 86 percent this August — the largest decline for any country in the data this year.

A line chart titled "August international student arrivals from... Iran," showing data from 2015 to 2025.

The vertical y-axis shows the number of students, with markers for 1K and 2K. The horizontal x-axis shows the years.

The chart shows a general decline in arrivals from over 2,000 in 2015 to under 1,000 in 2018. In 2020, there was a severe drop to nearly zero, with the lowest point labeled "Covid." This was followed by a dramatic recovery, with numbers surging to a new peak in 2023, well above 2,000 students.

From this peak, the number of arrivals falls steeply. The final segment of the line, showing the decline into 2025, is highlighted in red with an annotation that reads: "1,097 fewer students (-86%)."

The source for the data is listed as Trade.gov.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 06/10/2025

Students from Europe make up about 7 percent of U.S. international students. But they made up about 16 percent of international student arrivals in August. Their arrival numbers stayed roughly similar to those of the past year.

A collection of four line charts titled "August international student arrivals from..." showing data from 2015 to 2025. The main chart shows arrivals from the continent of Europe, with three smaller charts below detailing arrivals from Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The source for all data is Trade.gov.

Main Chart: Europe
The large top chart for "Europe" has a vertical axis from 25K to 50K. The line shows that arrivals were very stable at just under 50,000 from 2015 to 2019. This was followed by a sharp V-shaped drop in 2020 to below 25,000, with the lowest point on the graph marked "Covid." A recovery followed, with numbers reaching a new peak in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The line shows a very slight drop in 2025. This final segment is highlighted in red, with an annotation that reads "891 fewer students (-2%)."

Small Charts:

Spain: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 8K. After the 2020 dip, arrivals recovered to a new peak before declining slightly. The final segment is colored red, indicating a 4% decrease (-4%).

United Kingdom: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 8K. Following the 2020 drop, arrivals show a steady and continuous recovery, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The final segment is colored green, indicating a 7% increase (+7%).

Germany: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 8K. After the 2020 drop, arrivals recovered to near pre-pandemic levels. The final segment is red, showing a 5% decrease (-5%).

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 06/10/2025

The number of international students arriving from Africa fell by nearly a third in August. The shares of students arriving from Ghana and Nigeria fell by nearly half. In July, the U.S. placed tighter rules on many categories of visas for citizens of Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Cameroon.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 06/10/2025

This year, the number of international students arriving from Asia in August fell by 24 percent — the lowest August numbers on record outside of the pandemic. The number of international students arriving from India dropped by 44 percent, following prolonged delays in processing student visas.

A collection of four line charts titled "August international student arrivals from..." showing data from 2015 to 2025. The main, large chart shows arrivals from Asia as a whole, with three smaller charts below detailing arrivals from China, India, and South Korea. The source for all data is Trade.gov.

Main Chart: Asia
The large top chart for "Asia" has a vertical axis from 0 to 300K. The line shows that arrivals were steady at just under 300,000 from 2015 to 2019. This was followed by a very steep drop in 2020, with the lowest point on the graph marked "Covid." A recovery occurred from 2020 to 2024, with arrivals peaking at over 250,000. The line then drops in 2025. This final segment is highlighted in red, with an annotation indicating "59,561 fewer students (-24%)."

Small Charts:

China: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 200K. It shows a steep drop in 2020, followed by an uneven recovery that remains well below pre-pandemic levels. The final segment showing the trend into 2025 is colored red, indicating a 12% decrease (-12%).

India: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 100K. After the 2020 dip, arrivals from India surged dramatically, peaking in 2023 at nearly 100,000, well above pre-pandemic levels. This is followed by a steep drop. The final segment is red, showing a 44% decrease (-44%).

South Korea: This chart's vertical axis goes up to 40K. It shows a general downward trend from 2015, and a steeper 2020 dip. The recovery was modest, and the line continues to decline. The final red segment shows an 11% decrease (-11%).

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 06/10/2025

The decline is occurring as the Trump administration has delayed visa processing, instituted travel bans or restrictions for 19 countries, threatened to deport international students for pro-Palestinian speech, and heightened the vetting of student visa applicants.

A line chart titled "International student arrivals to the U.S. in August" showing data from 2015 to 2025.

The vertical y-axis represents the number of students, with labels for 200K and 400K. The horizontal x-axis represents the years.

The line shows that student arrivals were consistently high, just over 400,000, from 2015 to 2019. In 2020, there was a drop to well around 50,000, with this point on the graph labeled "Covid".

After 2020, the number of arrivals recovered sharply, peaking in 2023 at just under 400,000. The line then shows a decline to 2025. The segment from 2024 to 2025 is highlighted in red, with a text annotation pointing to the 2025 data point that reads: "73,802 fewer students (-19%)".

The source is cited as Trade.gov. A note at the bottom reads: "Note: The data for August 2025 is preliminary and excludes visitors who arrived from Mexico via land, and visitors from Canada."

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/09/2025

And here's a video. See a real-time view of Earth here: himawari.asia

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/09/2025

Happy September Equinox! Today the dividing line between day and night runs exactly from the North pole to the South pole, and the sun is directly over the equator. This is an actual image of the Earth today, taken from the Himawari-8 satellite.

A photograph of the Earth taken from Himawari-8, showing the earth perfectly divided into day on the left and night on the right, with the day/night divider running from the north pole to the south pole.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 10/09/2025

Reading Galileo, and learning that he had surprisingly high standards for the astronomical knowledge of his readers!

Highlighted excerpt from the Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo: "To assert that the moon's secondary light is imparted by Venus is so childish as to deserve no reply. Who is so ignorant as not to understand that from new moon to a separation of sixty degrees between moon and sun, no part of the moon which is averted from the sun can possibly be seen from Venus?"

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 13/07/2025

And their Patreon has some great bonus clips, like this paleontologist's thoughts on the Jurassic World movies www.patreon.com/posts/proble...

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 27/06/2025

Can anyone help me identify what these stalk-like structures are on this leaf? I'm not familiar with them.

leaf with protruding stalks and an insect

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 25/06/2025

When my editor asks me how it's going www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

An illustration by Christoph Niemann showing two black and white figures working at desks. The top figure sits with its head in its hand and the bottom figure has arms raised in celebration. There are two paths connecting them, a blue tangled path, and a red direct path. The caption reads "Communicating emotions from person to person through writing, composing or painting is inefficient and inherently human."

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 23/06/2025

We pored through more than 900 grants worth $2.6 billion that the Trump administration canceled at Harvard. “This is larger than any individual grant,” a researcher told us. “What we are losing is a future.” www.nytimes.com/interactive/... With @emmbadger.bsky.social and @ethansinger.bsky.social

A treemap of terminated research grants at Harvard

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 13/06/2025

“I’ve never seen anything that simultaneously really goes after poor people and then really helps rich people,” said Chuck Marr, the vice president for federal tax policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Bar chart titled “How the Bill Would Affect Households at Different Income Ranks.” It shows the estimated average annual change in after-tax resources between 2026 to 2034 for ten income groups. The bottom 10 percent lose 3.9 percent, the 10th–20th percent lose 1.2 percent, and the 20th–30th percent lose 0.4 percent. All higher groups gain: +0.1 percent (30th–40th), +0.5 percent (40th–50th), +0.8 percent (50th–60th), +1.1 percent (60th–70th), +1.3 percent (70th–80th), +1.5 percent (80th–90th), and +2.3 percent for the top 10 percent.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act created the N.S.F.’s Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. This branch’s grant funding has decreased by 17% this year, a moderate reduction compared with the decreases in other areas.

Technology, Innovation & Partnerships directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $110 m → 2025 $92 m (-17 %)
Divisions:
• Translational Impacts $86 m → $44 m (-48 %)
• Innovation & Technology Ecosystems $24 m → $47 m (+95 %)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

There has been a 96 percent decrease in N.S.F. grant funding for multidisciplinary research, which spans biology, physics and engineering. The behavioral and cognitive sciences division has awarded 30 percent more grant funding this year compared with the past decade’s average.

Social & Behavioral Sciences directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $78 m → 2025 $62 m (-20 %)
Divisions:
• Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences $32 m → $42 m (+30 %)
• Social Science & Economics $31 m → $20 m (-37 %)
• Nat’l Center for Science & Engineering Stats $2 m → $0 m (-100 %)
• Multidisciplinary Activities $11 m → ≈$0 m (-96 %)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

This year, the N.S.F. has fired workers at the Office of Polar Programs, which coordinates research in the Arctic and the Antarctic. The polar office has awarded 88% less money in grants this year.

Geosciences directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $305 m → 2025 $204 m (-33 %)
Divisions:
• Ocean Sciences $103 m → $136 m (+33 %)
• Atmospheric & Geospace $63 m → $40 m (-36 %)
• Earth Sciences $78 m → $16 m (-80 %)
• Office of Polar Programs $51 m → $6 m (-88 %)
• R.I.S.E. $11 m → $6 m (-47 %)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

CS divisions that support research in topics like artificial intelligence, data science, computer security and emerging computing technologies have awarded fewer funds this year. But the office of advanced cyberinfrastructure has awarded twice the funding that is typical by this time of year.

Computer Science directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $277 m → 2025 $192 m (-31 %)
Divisions:
• Advanced Cyberinfrastructure $39 m → $80 m (+102 %)
• Computer & Network Systems $96 m → $42 m (-57 %)
• Information & Intelligent Systems $68 m → $27 m (-60 %)
• Computing Foundations $74 m → $43 m (-41 %)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

N.S.F. grant funding for biology is at half of its previous 10-year average. There were fewer funds awarded for research in biotechnology and environmental biology, and less money for the tools, facilities and people that support biological research.

Biology directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $303 m → 2025 $147 m (-52 %)
Divisions:
• Biological Infrastructure $99 m → $32 m (-68 %)
• Integrative Organismal Systems $88 m → $34 m (-61 %)
• Environmental Biology $75 m → $39 m (-49 %)
• Molecular & Cellular Biosciences $40 m → $37 m (-9 %)
• Emerging Frontiers $0.8 m → $5 m (+521 %)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

N.S.F. grant funding for core engineering disciplines has dropped by 57% this year. These divisions fund areas like robotics, manufacturing innovations and semiconductor research.

Engineering directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $221 m → 2025 $94 m (-57 %)
Divisions:
• Civil & Mechanical $80 m → $42 m (-48 %)
• Chemical & Bio $75 m → $22 m (-71 %)
• Electrical $36 m → $19 m (-48 %)
• Engineering Education $27 m → $12 m (-56 %)
• Emerging Frontiers $2 m → $0 m (-98 %)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

N.S.F. grant funding for core scientific disciplines like math, physics, chemistry and material sciences has dropped by two-thirds this year. Math and statistics grant funding is lagging behind previous years by 72%, physics grant funding by 85%, and materials research grant funding by 63%.

Math, Physics & Chemistry directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $432 m → 2025 $143 m (-67%)
Divisions:
• Materials Research $118 m → $43 m (-63 %)
• Chemistry $103 m → $44 m (-57%)
• Math $113 m → $32 m (-72%)
• Physics $72 m → $11 m (-85%)
• Astronomy $26 m → $12 m (-53%)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

The N.S.F.’s directorate for STEM education has had one of the steepest shortfalls in new grants. Its award funding has declined by around 80 percent this year. "You can’t have science without scientists," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House science committee.

STEM-education directorate
• Total: 2015-24 avg $280 m → 2025 $56 m (-80 %)
Sub-programs:
• Undergrad. Education $135 m → $39 m (-71 %)
• Research on Learning $77 m → $16 m (-79 %)
• Equity for Excellence $46 m → $1 m (-97 %)
• Graduate Education $21 m → $0 (-100 %)

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

This year, the N.S.F. has funded new grants at its slowest pace since at least 1990. The funding has slowed even further since April 30, when agency employees were first told to stop awarding funds entirely. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Line chart titled “Cumulative grant funding by the National Science Foundation, 1990-2025.”

• Each thin gray line represents one calendar year’s cumulative intended grant awards (Jan. 1 to May 21) in 2025 dollars.
• Lines for 2021-2024 are shown in dark blue; they reach above $2 billion by mid-May.
• The 2025 line is highlighted in red. It rises more slowly, reaching about $1 billion and then flattening out after April 30, when staff were told to halt new awards.

Footnote: Shows the cumulative total intended award for all grants funded by the N.S.F. from Jan. 1 to May 21 of each year in 2025 dollars. Spikes reflect large multi-year grants.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

While the funding lost from canceling grants were largely focused on STEM education, the slowdown in funding new grants represents an across-the-board hit to American science.

Horizontal bar chart titled “Canceled funding from in-progress grants” that lists eight NSF directorate groups:
• STEM education −$656 million (by far the largest bar).
• Math, physics, chemistry −$61 million.
• Geosciences −$53 million.
• Computer science −$47 million.
• Social sciences −$46 million.
• Technology −$38 million.
• Engineering −$36 million.
• Biology −$28 million.
Footnote: The chart shows the total cut in intended award funding for terminated grants grouped by N.S.F. directorate after excluding money that has already been spent. Source: USA Spending and Grant Watch.

Horizontal bar chart titled “Decline in new grant funding in 2025” that lists eight NSF directorates:
• Math, physics, chemistry −$289 million (largest bar).
• STEM education −$223 million.
• Biology −$156 million.
• Engineering −$127 million.
• Geosciences −$101 million.
• Computer science −$85 million.
• Technology −$18 million.
• Social sciences −$16 million.
Source: N.S.F.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 22/05/2025

NEW: Under Trump, the National Science Foundation is awarding grants at the slowest pace in decades. We took a detailed look at every area of science affected by the funding lag. Here's a gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 05/03/2025

We took a deep dive into what contracts DOGE slashed — and what it left untouched. Most of the biggest contractors were unscathed. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Share of spending among ...

Small businesses
All contracts 23%
Contracts on DOGE site 29%

Minority-owned businesses
All contracts 10%
Contracts on DOGE site 19%

Businesses owned by women
All contracts 5%
Contracts on DOGE site 11%

Nonprofits
All contracts 5%
Contracts on DOGE site 11%

Source: USA Spending, DOGE
Based on obligated spending in the 2024 fiscal year for all federal contracts and those on DOGE's list.

Spending on the largest government contractors

These agencies have the largest share of federal spending on contracts ...

... and these agencies have the largest share of spending on contracts cut by DOGE

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 14/02/2025

You can use this tool to look up your state and see estimates of how Trump's NIH cuts might affect institutions' funding. Our calculations are most likely conservative estimates of the actual drop in funding. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A table of medical and medical science institutions in new york showing the amount of NIH grant funding in 2024 and estimates of how much this funding would have decreased under the new regulations.

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 26/08/2024

I wrote about and visualized the problems that can arise when generative A.I. is trained on its own output. Spoiler alert: it doesn't always end well. Paywall-free gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

An example of text generated by an A.I. large language model after being trained on its own sentences for 4 generations. It reads, "To cook a turkey for Thanksgiving, you need to know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what you are going to do with your life if you don 't know what"

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Aatish Bhatia @aatishb.com · 16/02/2024

This Canadian patent drawing of one from 1992(!) looks a bit like something a child might draw

A hand drawn drawing of a steam locomotive with water heaters and a transformer connected to overhead power lines.

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