Reposted by Matt Reeceae @aelkus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026(had Dennis Nedry survived, he would have made a great candidate for chief information security officer at OpenAI) 311314
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Remember when NASA used to post a big annual call for proposals in many research areas, on a regular schedule? I wonder if that will ever happen again. 020
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Maybe I was oblivious to other ways it affected me, but the only time I remember feeling out of place in an academic career path as a first-generation college student was the first time I went to a winter conference that paused every afternoon for people to ski (I never learned how). 270
Reposted by Matt ReeceKieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 18/09/2026This gets at something that’s been bugging me about the discourse around AI/N-S/Tao, etc. A lot of people are converting to what’s effectively a Romantic Author vision where they sound like Captain Kirk talking about how computers can never Love, except about Originality, Judgment, or Understanding. 1717
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Lots of discussion here about a claim that Harvard faculty and students can request access to $2500 of Claude tokens a month, but: is that true? 100
Reposted by Matt ReeceMatthew Buckley @physicsmatt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Look, I don't mean to interrupt whatever the hell is going on around here, but you all want to hear about the Hubble Tension and possible solutions to it, right? That's right, it's new paper day. arxiv.org/abs/2609.16120arxiv.orgDark Radiation Sticks Together: Dark QCD and the Hubble TensionWe introduce a model of dark matter charged under a new confining gauge group akin to the Standard Model's quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The fermionic sector contains both heavy and light quark-like f... 3208
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Dear train nerds of YouTube: please learn to pronounce "Fuxing" approximately correctly. Signed, the parents of a boy who really wants to watch videos about fast trains. 030
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Boggling that Harvard invited all faculty and postdocs to attend a "masterclass" on how to use AI for academic writing, run by a guy with only a handful of publications but an extensive YouTube record of his wacky ideas about fractals, Buddha, and Jungian psychiatry. 150
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 09/09/2026This semester I keep asking myself "why are there 20 quantum field theory textbooks and yet not a single book presents the subject in the way I want to teach it?" and of course it's because 20 other people have asked that question before. 130
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 08/09/2026One of my best footnotes: main text said “In some sense this is the frame that is maximally far from Einstein frame, but it is a very useful one; we can refer to it as the keinstein frame“, footnote read “Leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of bad physics puns.” (In a 2015 paper with Wei Xue) 041
Reposted by Matt ReeceBen Safdi @bensafdi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026With Nick Rodd, Tracy Slatyer, & Linda Xu: possible tension with LZ and higgsinos arxiv.org/abs/2609.04175 If the LZ event is from a thermal higgsino, you would also expect events in the high-energy sideband, but LZ reports none. The collaboration can definitively check this with their acceptance.arxiv.orgConfronting the Higgsino Interpretation of the LZ Event with the High-Energy SidebandThe LZ experiment has reported a single 248 keV nuclear recoil event in their $2.84$ ton-yr exposure on a xenon target. The absence of lower nuclear recoil events is naturally explained by inelastical... 081
Reposted by Matt ReeceMatt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 03/09/2026To me, it seems plausible that the uncertainty in the high-speed tail leaves room to fit LZ while pushing delta above their bound. There is a definite tension, though. Escaping their bound requires appealing to very uncertain dark matter astrophysics. 052
Reposted by Matt ReeceMatt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I should follow up my thread from yesterday because of this paper that appeared tonight from Maxim Pospelov and Hari Ramani. They derive a new bound on higgsino dark matter from particles being captured in the Sun through the same inelastic scattering process we proposed at LZ.arxiv.orgStrong Constraints on Higgsino Dark Matter from Solar CaptureHiggsino dark matter remains one of the most convincing dark matter candidates. It can exist in a ``quasi-Dirac" regime, when the splitting between two Majorana components is on the order of $O(\rm fe... 182
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 02/09/2026The LZ dark matter experiment announced today that they observed a single nuclear recoil event at 250 keV. This is not what "vanilla" dark matter does, but it is exactly what you might expect inelastic dark matter to do. Our optimistic take (having known about the signal for days): 1/3arxiv.orgHiggsino Above the Sea of FogHiggsino dark matter is a classic, but still viable, weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) scenario that could point to supersymmetry, a new spacetime symmetry of nature. It is a simple realizati... 1294
Reposted by Matt ReeceScience News @sciencenews.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Is this it? A single dot on a graph could be the first direct detection of a dark matter particle. www.sciencenews.org/article/dark-ma…sciencenews.orgHave scientists glimpsed the first dark matter particle?Shadowy dark matter has eluded scientists for decades. The LZ experiment may have spotted one particle, called a WIMP, but more data is needed to check. 0146
Reposted by Matt ReecePeter Denton @jazzwhiz.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope NASA launch went well! A month or so for it to settle to L2 and then commissioning, but another great space science launch!! Ahhhh!!! 0121
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I love the urgent inquiries my three-year-old comes up with to try to delay bedtime. Tonight's gem: "I don't know if Brisbane has water taxis." 1100
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 07/08/2026“Faculty lounge” discourse is odd to me because, as far as I’m aware, no department I’ve been in has ever had one. There is a (university-wide) Faculty Club, which mostly serves as a place to take interviewees for superficially nice but mediocre meals that are easy to bill to the department. 1/ 100
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 05/08/2026I got a text telling me Maura Healey endorsed Nick Collins for state Senate, which is supposed to make me want to vote for him but somehow just lowers my already low opinion of both of them. 031
Reposted by Matt ReeceThe War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · 23/07/2026A theme here is that if a person inside city government intervenes on behalf of a restaurant losing parking spots or a random driver getting a parking ticket, that's seen as constituent services. If another government insider works on behalf of keeping people alive, that's seen as advocacy. 530181
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Today's talk from Gina Rameika at the Department of Energy at the APS DPF meeting made it clear that the US is completely abandoning any leadership, or even meaningful investment, in experimental particle physics. It's a complete disaster. 040
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 23/07/2026In 2015-ish, an official pre-tenure review from my department told me to do "a major breakthrough," so I can attest that telling a human this doesn't work at all. Luckily, as everyone reminds me, Harvard's tenure standards declined precipitously around the time I was hired, so I didn't lose my job. 040
Reposted by Matt Reecetheseouldan.bsky.social @theseouldan.bsky.social · 23/07/20263 out of 4 of this year's Fields medalists are foreigners who got their phD in the US and would have been impacted by these rules 0112
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Not for the first time I forgot the Red Line was shutting down, took the Orange Line downtown instead of the 1 bus to Harvard, and was confronted with the fact that the Red Line is somehow the only functional transit link from downtown to Cambridge. 000
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 16/07/2026My 3-year-old makes an inference consistent with all available data (i.e., Bluey books): "they don't wear clothes in Australia." 2192
Reposted by Matt ReeceStand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 13/07/2026Today is the final day you can leave a public comment on the OMB proposal that will destroy American science as we know it. Leave your comment at the link in our bio, or go here: zurl.co/1M9hH and register for our OMB Deadline Day meeting today at the link in our bio! Article: zurl.co/3LQxizurl.coStand up for ScienceStand up for Science 18553
Reposted by Matt ReeceSam Nelson @masnoslen.bsky.social · 10/07/2026benjaminsiegel.github.io/enough-is-en... I've just signed this open letter to @mayorwu.boston.gov to resume the many stalled Safe Streets Projects across the City. I'm shaken and devastated by the death of Louisa Gag, cyclist and safe streets advocate.benjaminsiegel.github.ioENOUGH IS ENOUGH — An open letter to Mayor Wu on street safetyBoston has been warned for years that delayed street-safety projects would cost lives. Read and sign the open letter. 0258
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Given the age range on bsky there must be a *lot* of us who keep having to stop and puzzle out that our feed isn't talking about the United States Mutant Ninja Turtles. 050
Reposted by Matt ReeceMark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Iconic line from @stevevladeck.bsky.social here in response to Will Baude’s SCOTUS boosterism www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/o... 173255684
Reposted by Matt ReeceMark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Donald Trump came one vote away from getting the Supreme Court to say that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented and temporary immigrants, a view held only by fringe far-right nativists until VERY recently. This is shocking. I am stunned. 6050871361
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 30/06/20265-4 on reading plain English. This court must be destroyed. 040
Reposted by Matt Reecevortex_egg @vortexegg.com · 30/06/2026I had some people get offended when I pointed out several months ago that Ezra Klein is very obviously falling (or being dragged down) the fascist radicalization pipeline, but Klein is falling down the fascist radicalization pipeline, and chronicling his journey as propaganda in the NYT. 410122
Reposted by Matt ReeceThe Boston LOL 💜 🚲 ⚡ @thebostonlol.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Boston needs to recoup the damage massive passenger cars/trucks cause, both in deaths and road wear, by adding a weight component to our city car tax @wutrain.bsky.social @ruthzee.bsky.social @clrhenrysantana.bsky.social @edflynnforboston.bsky.social @enriquepepen.bsky.social 0106
Reposted by Matt ReeceNed Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/06/2026The three branches of the United States government, as delineated in the Constitution, are the God Emperor, The High Council of the Six Ayatollahs, and the Federal Reserve 1469521538
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 25/06/2026What's wrong with the physics arxiv today? @arxiv.bsky.social The arXiv website shows no new papers in any physics category, but the InspireHEP database does (search, e.g., "find primarch hep-th"). For a resource as widely used as arXiv, there really should be some kind of status announcement.... 110
Reposted by Matt ReeceSusan Stryker @susanstryker.bsky.social · 25/06/2026“Just as monstrous and mutant algae invade the lagoon of Venice … in the field of social ecology, men like Donald Trump are permitted to proliferate freely, like another species of algae, taking over entire districts of New York.” —Félix Guattari, 1989 13935250
Reposted by Matt ReeceVera Tobin @vtobin.bsky.social · 24/06/2026I feel especially great about Brad Lander's whole trajectory through the mayoral campaign to where things stand now. A real win for menschism. 1113
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Relatedly: let me advertise my newest paper, which may have been buried in today's extra-long arxiv listing. We provide more evidence for a claim I've been making for a few years, that the discovery of an axion could be a clue about the fundamental energy scale of quantum gravity.arxiv.orgQuantum Gravity Cutoff from Axions: A Type IIB Landscape StudyExtra-dimensional axions have coupling strength related to fundamental, ultraviolet physics. It has been proposed that the properties of such axions imply a bound on the quantum gravity cutoff: $Λ_\ma... 150
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 23/06/2026A student brought me the perfect gift: an authentic box of "AXION." 040
Reposted by Matt ReeceUniversal Hub @universalhub.com · 22/06/2026How Boston's reflecting pool stacks up - we run the numbers www.universalhub.com/2026/how-bos... 69428
Reposted by Matt ReeceCallalily @callalily57.bsky.social · 13/06/2026They've discovered the cop slide. www.threads.com/@stuart.g.p/...threads.comStuart G P (@stuart.g.p) on ThreadsMy pal discovered it.... 14215
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 06/06/2026Good work, South Enders! (I'm out of town at the moment, so a bit disappointed to miss this, which was filmed in the closest thing I have to a back yard.) 020
Reposted by Matt ReeceJonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 22/05/2026Taxing the rich: it's good. #mapoli www.raiseupma.org/news/dor-fai...raiseupma.orgDOR: Fair Share Revenue Up 20% Over First 10 Months of FY26, Already Exceeding $3 Billion — Raise Up MassachusettsTax on Million-Dollar Earners Continues to Exceed Revenue Projections, Proving Fears of Millionaire Flight False BOSTON – The State Department of Revenue yesterday certified that Massachusetts... 222964
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 20/05/2026My colleagues overwhelmingly voted to restrict our own academic freedom by capping the number of A's for undergrads in a class. I sometimes teach advanced grad classes where maybe 6 of the 20 students are undergrads, and all do spectacularly well. I don't know what will happen to such classes now. 242
Reposted by Matt ReeceJonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 19/05/2026Not enough news coverage of how the insurrectionist reparations fund is a clear violation of the 14th Amendment. We need to enforce the Constitution in its original meaning and plain text. You can't imagine away parts of the Constitution just because it is politically inconvenient. 11343261709
Matt Reece @mreece.bsky.social · 17/05/2026Translations of the Odyssey should just use the word "polytropic"; that way, we know that Odysseus satisfies the Lane-Emden equation, and I would never have gotten there from "complicated." 0100