iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Preparing my first day of teaching, realizing my grading system (most of the grade is homework) is based on antiquated (3-year-old) assumptions about how much students learn from homework in this new era of AI. I don't want to fall back on exams being most of their grade; what else can I do? 🎢

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

My daughter has recently learned to do a hand motion that means "come closer I want to give you a slobbery kiss" and every time she does the hand motion I feel like I've won an academy award.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

My graduate student Miranda Pikus was featured on the AAS Journal Author Series! We were interviewed by editor Frank Timmes about our paper, check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDTs... 🧪🔭

youtube.com

AAS Journal Author Series: Miranda Pikus and Paul Duffell on 2026ApJ..1002..104P

YouTube video by AAS

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👻 Saavik ‘Spooky Season’ Ford 🎃 @saavikford.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Keep me from posting this to the chat in our faculty zoom meeting… please…

Should you ask a question at a faculty meeting?

Flow chart—essentially the answer is ALWAYS ‘NO’ (if someone is actively dying… you should not ask a a question but call 911…)

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

My student Miranda Pikus just had her paper accepted to ApJ! arxiv.org/abs/2511.08519 She developed a suite of detailed 3D simulations demonstrating how the unusual "spiky" shape of the supernova remnant Pa 30 could be naturally generated via a fluid instability in a rapidly cooling remnant. 🔭🧪

The supernova remnant Pa 30, caused by a supernova that went off in 1181 AD. The left side shows the highly unusual sulfur-rich filaments in the observed remnant. The right side is Miranda's theoretical model, providing an explanation for these filaments via Rayleigh-Taylor instability with fast cooling.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Congratulations to my student Ranadeep Dastidar for a successful defense of his thesis!

Paul Duffell (sitting, left) with Ranadeep Dastidar (standing, right) at the beginning of his thesis defense, titled "Investigating Observational Signatures for Non-thermal Radiation Processes in Gamma Ray Bursts"

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Near the halfway-point in my GR course, I am officially done with "Kerr week". That's a rough metric but we all got through it together! 🎢

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

My afternoon routine with my daugther (who only can say a few words): First, she demands that we each put on lei's, then I need to wear a baseball cap made to look like a dinosaur, then she needs to hold a small statue of an owl, then I need to put on an oven mitt. Every time we come home.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Halfway through feeding my baby, she starts pointing ominously at the clock, making me feel like I'm forgetting an appointment or something. But no, she just really likes clocks.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

🔭🧪 The latest episode of the #astrophysics #podcast is now available! I discuss interesting ways of learning about dark matter in the Milky Way with Dr. Gurtina Besla from the University of Arizona: rss.com/podcasts/ast...

Photo of Dr. Gurtina Besla, an astrophysicist from the University of Arizona.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Tips for writing recommendation letters, by someone reading them: 🧪🔭 1. If you're writing to give a very strong recommendation, say that in the first sentence. 2. If they did research for you, say that in the first few sentences. 3. "First, a little bit about me for context..." <- delete this.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

December's episode of the #astrophysics #podcast is here! This month, I interview Dr. Kaitlin Kratter of the University of Arizona. We talk about how she figures out how the planets form by putting a solar system on the computer! 🔭🧪

Dr. Kaitlin Kratter, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Every now and then, you check into a hotel from a certain era and it's like you're spending the night inside a Denny's.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

My daughter's current frustration: she wants to have her book and eat it too.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

We just got our conference fliers printed out for Rise_Time 2026! Hope to hand out plenty of these at the HEAD meeting next week!

Conference fliers for Rise_Time 2026: QR code leads to https://www.physics.purdue.edu/duffell/rise_time2026.html

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

🔭🧪 Haven't posted here much lately, but I figured @sciencesocks.bsky.social would have words for me if I didn't promote Merel's episode of the #astrophysics #podcast! Dr. Merel van 't Hoff tells us all about the environments that new solar systems are born in! Check it out! rss.com/podcasts/ast...

Photo of Dr. Merel van 't Hoff, professor of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Can't wait til half of these students stop coming to class so I can get a decent parking spot again.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

The universe of Star Trek is set in an idyllic world where humans never invented social media.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

My baby daughter gets pockets but my wife doesn't.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

We're recording this episode soon, so in case you have any astronomy/astrophysics/science questions for us please post them here! The weirder the better. Also feel free to just ask about our lives. We're soliciting questions from a variety of sources! 🔭🧪

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

For the next episode of the #podcast, I hope to do an astrophysics Q&A. I invite you to reply with any questions about astrophysics, or questions about what it's like to be a scientist. To my scientist friends: feel free to reply if you like; just know I may quote your response in the podcast. 🧪🔭

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Infant daughter: exhales air Me: I think she just said "dad"!

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Good Morning! This month's episode of the #astrophysics #podcast is now available! I am interviewing Dr. Andrea Derdzinski and we talk all about black holes and how we search for them! Let's hope we can continue to do so in the future! 🔭🧪 rss.com/podcasts/ast...

Dr. Andrea Derdzinski, postdoctoral research fellow at Vanderbilt University.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

The little one refuses to sleep unless Mama's in the room. So I've tried playing her episodes of the #podcast featuring the voice of Dr. Polin @therocketscientess.bsky.social . Not sure if it's working but maybe some of that astrophysics will absorb into her brain and she'll become a genius 🔭

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

I am now convinced that the words to "hush little baby" were completely improvised on the spot by two very tired parents. Because that's the only way I know how to do that song.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

To anyone wondering why I haven't been answering my email, I just became a dad and suddenly I seem to only care about one thing. I'll try not to post too many photos but here's one:

Dad & baby relaxing after a hard week of existing outside a womb.

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Huei Sears, PhD 🌟 @starlights.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Excited to announce the 'Rutgers Summer Transient Soiree' this July 16-18! To offset the uncertain funding landscape, we are offering a hybrid option + requiring NO registration fee. Non-faculty are especially encouraged to apply! Please apply by May 31! More in the replies! 🧪🔭☄️ #highenergyastro

Poster advertising the 'Rutgers Summer Transient Soiree' this July 16-18 at Rutgers University. There is a QR code on the bottom left, and there is also information about the conference + the invited lecturers.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Another episode of the #astrophysics #podcast is now available! I am interviewing Dr. Jared Goldberg from the Flatiron Institute, and we talk all about Betelgeuse. rss.com/podcasts/ast... 🧪🔭

Dr. Jared Goldberg, postdoctoral research fellow at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

I'm creating a pinned thread here, I'm hoping to get comments from scientists and non-scientists alike. I'm interested in your answer to the following question: In your opinion, why should we study astrophysics? 🧪🔭

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Apparently I am not good at bluesky so I am posting this again, with the appropriate tags 🧪🔭. The latest episode of the #astrophysics #podcast is out! This month, I am interviewing Dr. Yvette Cendes of the University of Oregon @whereisyvette.bsky.social. Enjoy! rss.com/podcasts/ast...

Dr. Yvette Cendes (left) being interviewed by Dr. Paul Duffell (right) on the astrophysics podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/astrophysics/1949013

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

The latest episode of the #astrophysics #podcast just aired today! I'm interviewing Dr. Yvette Cendes, @whereisyvette.bsky.social. We talk about her latest research on the crazy things that we see happen when a black hole eats a star! rss.com/podcasts/ast...

Dr. Yvette Cendes (left) getting interviewed by Dr. Paul Duffell (right) on the astrophysics podcast. https://rss.com/podcasts/astrophysics/1949013

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Google AI with some slick mathemagic:

Google AI seems to do a nice job of finding the planck mass and the proton mass on the internet, and even does the calculation of their ratio correctly. But then apparently it second-guesses itself at the last minute, making them off by an order of magnitude.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Happy Weekend! The latest episode of the #astrophysics #podcast has been released! 🧪🔭 This month I am interviewing Dr. Maxim Lyutikov, who studies fast radio bursts and astrophysical plasmas. We also discuss connections to our own sun and the aurora borealis. rss.com/podcasts/ast...

A photograph of Dr. Maxim Lyutikov, who is a professor of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Very impressive astro seminar yesterday by @whereisyvette.bsky.social -- Incredible new data on tidal disruption events (TDEs), it pays to keep looking in the radio! 🧪🔭 (This plot is old data from 3 years ago -- you'll have to ask Yvette if you want the latest, but the light curve is still rising!)

Radio data from tidal disruption events, interpreted to show luminosity over time; the green stars indicate the event AT2018hyz, with an extremely rapid rise for no obvious reason several years after the original event. The leading theories are an off-axis relativistic jet, or some kind of "late-time injection" both of which are hard to explain.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

My graduate student Dillon Hasenour just got this paper accepted to ApJ! 🧪🔭 He developed methods for incorporating a nuclear network onto a moving mesh and developed benchmark tests to demonstrate the advantages, including a semi-analytic solution for a detonation wave! arxiv.org/abs/2502.02693

arxiv.org

Quantifying Advantages of a Moving Mesh in Nuclear Hydrodynamics

Many astrophysical explosions, such as type Ia supernovae, classical novae, and X-ray bursts, are dominated by thermonuclear runaway. To model these processes accurately, one must evolve nuclear react...

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

🧪🔭 Good Morning! The latest episode of the Astrophysics Podcast is out today! I'm interviewing Dr. Lindsey Kwok, a research fellow at Northwestern University. She uses JWST to learn how supernovae exploded! rss.com/podcasts/ast... #astrophysics #podcast

Dr. Lindsey Kwok, CIERA fellow at Northwestern University and supernova observer.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

After reading through enough personal statements in grad school applications, the phrase "my academic journey" almost starts to sound like something a normal human would say.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

So glad I burned through my NSF grant right away. Always eat the first marshmallow!

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I've always said I hate applying for research grants. So in that sense, good news everyone! Be careful what you wish for!

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

At no point in our curriculum do we teach our students how to make a decent plot, and then on the off-chance we ask for a plot on the homework, we're always surprised when all their plots look hideous. 🎢

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Hope all my astronomer friends are having fun at #AAS245. Some of us have to teach our first day of Stat Mech to a room full of graduate students. By the way, unrelated -- does anyone here know what a partition function is?

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

As we all know, "syllabus" is the latin word for "list of university-wide policies and legal disclaimers".

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Happy Hanukkah! Please ignore the reflection of our Christmas tree in the window.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Happy new year! The latest episode of the astrophysics podcast is now available! Dr. Abigail Polin is hosting this episode. And she's interviewing a MYSTERY GUEST. (ok fine, she's interviewing me, big deal) 🧪🔭 rss.com/podcasts/ast...

Dr. Abigail Polin, professor of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University.

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Just finished editing episode 13 of the astrophysics podcast. Eight hours to spare -- this is about as close as I've ever cut it! But rest assured, season 2 will begin at 12am (I'm sure you'll have nothing better to do than listen to my podcast at midnight tonight). 🧪🔭

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Grades are submitted, and the complaints have been minimal!

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

@sciencesocks.bsky.social Unbeknownst to me, my brother & sister-in-law went to your website and got us this JWST ornament for our tree! We put it in a place of honor, right below the goat. Very nice work, it's shiny!

The JWST mirror ornament on a tree underneath a goat. https://sciencesocks.co if you are interested in this ornament!

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Paul Duffell @paulduffell.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Apparently the standard now is everybody just teaches from slides. I thought that was just for 300-student torture classes. Don't we remember how awful it was when a teacher did that to us? 🎢

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