Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 18/03/2026I’m here to interrupt your doomscrolling with select pictures from Iceland 012
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 03/03/2026i don’t think great thinkers of the reformation and the renaissance could have predicted the levels of serfdom and wealth inequity that would eventually lead to takes like “poor people don’t deserve access to knowledge” not just on an institutional level (ahem, journals), but on an individual basis 010
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 09/02/2026Hi everyone! I am trying to look into demographics + potential recruitment/retention initiatives for minorities in astrophysics, particularly in the EU, and have no idea where to start. Any advice, papers, and academics would be super helpful! 057
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديkarl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 08/01/2026Right. The point is not “it matters extra because it’s a citizen,” the point is “we either hang together or we will all hang separately.” 2960441265
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 08/01/2026There is a huge, anxious hole in my chest after seeing the murder of legal observer Renee Good by ICE. Between that & the threats from Trump @ Greenland, I’ve had a sleepless night. Violence isn’t unexpected from the US, and we see it against Black citizens and Palestinians and Venezuelans and - 130
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025looking for shipping companies to move our personal goods from the US to denmark and the one i trust the most uses a jpeg in place of a hyperlinked phone number. amazing 010
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديArrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 30/07/2025"pre-existing conditions" is eugenicist logic, BTW 1606154
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 14/07/2025wanting to show my advisors something in my terminal window and having to modify my cutesy kirby-themed background and font color so he doesn't hate it (for accessibility purposes he is not a hater it is not unwarranted) 050
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديDr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 24/06/2025I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #sciencejournals.plos.orgToo poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEMFrom student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape... 23410198
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 25/06/2025look im just as happy to celebrate zohran’s victory as the next guy but as a south asian shia woman whose family has begged her to go into local politics for a decade now his win is going to be the talking point for my family for years to come 020
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 22/06/2025this is actually a horrible race science-y way to wipe your hands clean of the climate injustices happening in the global south bc some people are “built to withstand that kind of heat”. No. That’s climate change. None of us are built for it. It will kill you. 040
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 12/06/2025got my ms degree in astrophysics. this is a dream come true — for Shirin in 2015, who started in physics, for Shirin in 2017, who switched to planetary science due to harassment, for Shirin in 2019, who realized she wanted to do nothing but research forever. 2136323
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 07/06/2025my brother, my parents, and my bestie are all flying in for graduation and this is the most excited I’ve been in a minute!! I didn’t get to celebrate my undergrad graduation (2020… oops!) so getting to celebrate my masters in nyc is bringing me so much joy 271
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديDr Jake Taylor @astrojake.bsky.social · 07/06/2025Happy pride! 2201
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 05/06/2025Because I posted this elsewhere here’s me and a bestie @jakepost.tech during @saavikford.bsky.social class this semester — one of the best classes during my masters!! 261
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديDr. Tessa Fisher @tessafisher.bsky.social · 05/06/2025Welp, apparently the NASA Postdoctoral Program has eliminated their July application cycle (with the deadline being rolled over into their November cycle). That certainly doesn't bode well. 1205
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديDr. Tessa Fisher @tessafisher.bsky.social · 01/06/2025Eyyy my research made Universe Today!universetoday.comFinding a Better Way to Distinguish Life from Non-LifeThe search for life on other worlds needs a way to sift through the chemistry of their atmospheres. If another species observed Earth to search for life, they'd look for 2709
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديLupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.blacksky.app · 31/05/2025Trying to reconcile how all positive change had to be incremental, studied in perpetuity & ultimately stalled with ‘how are we gonna pay for that?’ but dismantling everything was done quickly, ham-fistedly & with total disregard for cost of money and lives & no institutional guardrails mattered. 431140301
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 31/05/2025this is a nightmare. Telescopes aside, funding woes are so bad that people like me trying to get into phds are facing great difficulty even breaching the acceptance threshold — it’s been exhausting as someone who first applied in 2020! 1103
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديLaura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 31/05/2025Here's NASA astrophysics, if I read the president's proposed budget correctly. 🔭 241036518
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 30/05/2025I’ve started doing hot yoga/pilates and one thing I need everyone to know is that the women in these workout sessions will be the only survivors of the climate change apocalypse 020
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديNPR @npr.org · 20/03/2025Keith E. Sonderling is the new acting head of The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the main source of federal funding for libraries and museums across the country. President Trump issued an executive order last week saying he aims to close the agency.npr.orgFederal agency responsible for library and museum funding gets a visit from DOGEKeith E. Sonderling is the new acting head of The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the main source of federal funding for libraries and museums across the country. President Trump issued an e... 46462214
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديCosmicRami 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 15/03/2025Had dinner with our friend / neighbour Richard who’s the senior space weather scientist here in Aust (at the BoM) and we were talking about the impacts that the recent cuts at NOAA are having / going to have on global collaboration efforts like space weather monitoring. It’s not at all good. 2283
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 16/03/2025Scientists, the provost of Columbia is one of us. Angela Olinto is a physicist, who chose to avoid mentioning Mahmoud Khalil, who chose not to stand up for him, when telling Columbia faculty that it would be "business as usual" when he was illegal arrested and detained. Our institutions have always 110
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 15/03/2025My roommate has been concerned for a while about the stability of her job, and here are her worst fears being realized thanks to DOGE. The work that she and others do to help fund and start incredible projects remembering queer and BIPOC history and archives have been under threat for so long, and 110
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 15/03/2025Don’t believe a word out of his mouth. I remember that he ran as a progressive. I remember supporting him, canvassing for him, donating to him, back when I thought he was a genuine progressive. He lied about being on the left to us then, and he’ll keep lying to us about it now. 680
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 15/03/2025Don’t believe a word out of his mouth. I remember that he ran as a progressive. I remember supporting him, canvassing for him, donating to him, back when I thought he was a genuine progressive. He lied about being on the left to us then, and he’ll keep lying to us about it now. 670
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 15/03/2025Don’t believe a word out of his mouth. I remember that he ran as a progressive. I remember supporting him, canvassing for him, donating to him, back when I thought he was a genuine progressive. He lied about being on the left to us then, and he’ll keep lying to us about it now. 570
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 23/02/2025so stressed out that I’ve got two different cross-stitch projects going 040
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديElena Litchman @elenalitchman.bsky.social · 22/02/2025NSF employees were unlawfully reclassified from career to probationary, and then fired. www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...reuters.comUS science agency reclassifies hundreds of workers as probationary, US lawmaker saysNational Science Foundation administrators reclassified hundreds of employees from permanent to probationary status in violation of labor contracts, according to a U.S. lawmaker and agency employee. 10618359
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديCarl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22/02/2025WaPo Page One: “If you’re going to just yell at me, that’s not going to be an effective town hall,” McCormick said .. “But we’re pissed!” a woman shouted. #GA07 www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202... 1203322826497
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديJake Postiglione @jakepost.tech · 18/02/2025Ever wonder how gravitational wave detectors like LISA would hear the signal of binary black holes orbiting around a supermassive black hole? 🔭 Well check out my first 1st author paper investigating that very topic, live on the arXiv today! 🔥📄 arxiv.org/abs/2502.10591 Explainer in 🧵👇 1/10arxiv.orgEvolution of LISA Observables for Binary Black Holes Lensed by an SMBHBinary black holes (BBH) are expected to form and merge in active galactic nuclei (AGN), deep in the potential well of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), from populations that exist in a nuclear star c... 46319
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديKatie Mack @astrokatie.com · 28/01/2025I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.washingtonpost.comWhite House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusionThe Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments. 15754323914329
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديwint @dril.bsky.social · 24/11/2024i hae been saying this shit 606342310
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Every few months I have to debate myself on whether I should keep my natural nails or get acrylics… again and again and again 020
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 16/11/2024my therapist enjoys torturing me and i pay him to do it. i was working on an erp script and my suds level went down and he said “how about we open up the unfinished paper you want to write” and uhhh yea that got me crying 050
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديNoah Samsen @nsamsen.bsky.social · 15/11/2024"zionist" was just added to Twitch's list of hate speech terms 1326832
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديChris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 14/11/2024Turns out typical crème brûlée is crunchier than the surface of Saturn's largest moon. And there's data to prove it (14/14) 711121
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 15/11/2024this isn’t a real place so I can still ask this does anyone know how to date casually 010
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 14/11/2024nothing like a birthday party with friends to make you feel loved 020
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 01/11/2023hopped into the NYC halloween parade w @scientistrebellion.bsky.social to spread the news of our impending doom - if we don’t step in now. 130
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 19/10/2023so I just experienced my first “is there a doctor on this plane situation” and it made me wonder - why don’t we have medical staff on all flights? Paid to be there? 000
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 19/10/2023we had a guest speaker in our galactic astrophys class the other day and they kept saying “nobody likes dust. everyone hates dust” little did they know… 020
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 10/10/2023I was so annoyingly lost at this metro station and this message being simultaneously hidden and loud made me chortle 140
Reposted by Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيديGabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 09/10/2023My island was there before 1492. My ancestors were alive before 1492. Decolonize your mind. Decolonize your syllabus. Decolonize your fiction. Happy Indigenous Peoples Day. 5647136
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 15/07/2023Just finished a trip to visit CUNY Astro, AMNH, and the Flatiron CCA and I’m beyond excited to be entering my master’s program with exceptional support and funding for research. I’ve never been more grateful and excited to be in academia. Thank you so much. Cya in August! 💕✨ 010
Shirin Zaidi ✨ شيرين زيدي @shirinzaidi.bsky.social · 10/07/2023I’m so grateful to be exploring New York - being on foot and traveling by bus/train allows me to soak up every last bit of the city. Ultra grateful to be moving here soon (even though the rental situation is pretty bleak) 1122
