A paper from a few years ago by Dung et al. looked at how often programmers were not credited as authors in genetics research papers from the 1970s and 1980s, but were acknowledged as programmers who ran the code for the analysis, and how often those uncredited scientists were women https://academic.oup.com/genetics/article/211/2/363/5931132?login=false
It used to be very common practice to have a programmer do your analysis for you, and they weren't considered a co-author (probably because many were women)
In 1964, the first simulation showing that Pluto is in a mean-motion resonance with Neptune was published: https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1965Obs....85...43C
They ran a 120,000 year simulation that showed libration of the resonant angle for the first time. This must have been terrifyingly hard to do. Punch cards, vacuum tubes, FORTRAN? I don't even know how they did this, but it was run on the Naval Ordnance Research Calculator
This was the first time Pluto's orbital stability was explained.
I'm sorry to see obituaries for Dr. Gladys West this morning: https://thezebra.org/2026/01/18/dr-gladys-west-mathematician-whose-work-made-gps-possible-dies-at-95/
She was brilliant and did a lot of incredibly important scientific work, a lot of which was hidden/uncredited early on, because she was a mathematician in a time when "computer" was a job description.
A paper from a few years ago by Dung et al. looked at how often programmers were not credited as authors in genetics research papers from the 1970s and 1980s, but were acknowledged as programmers who ran the code for the analysis, and how often those uncredited scientists were women https://academic.oup.com/genetics/article/211/2/363/5931132?login=false
It used to be very common practice to have a programmer do your analysis for you, and they weren't considered a co-author (probably because many were women)
I'm sorry to see obituaries for Dr. Gladys West this morning: https://thezebra.org/2026/01/18/dr-gladys-west-mathematician-whose-work-made-gps-possible-dies-at-95/
She was brilliant and did a lot of incredibly important scientific work, a lot of which was hidden/uncredited early on, because she was a mathematician in a time when "computer" was a job description.
My talk at UBC went SO WELL!! I am extremely pleased. I managed to cram a LOT into that hour long talk, I had great audience engagement from professors and students alike, and I had excellent discussions with lots of different people afterwards.
My one major regret: there's a huge solar storm happening and it's foggy and light polluted here in Vancouver!
Now time to figure out how I'm getting over to Victoria tomorrow for my talk at UVic on Wednesday #ProfSamLectureTour
It is very cool to be here at UBC giving the colloquium talk and meeting with profs and students! Especially because I was on the other side of that ~15 years ago as a PhD student.
The impostor syndrome is going to be intense today... I keep reminding myself of a quote from Alie Ward on Ologies: impostor syndrome is a result of a space not being built for you.
UBC physics department, I am here to share my knowledge and I am a tenured professor now! So there.
#ProfSamLectureTour
Tomorrow is my talk for the astronomy portion of the Physics & Astronomy Department at UBC, but it's open to the public, if you're in Vancouver tomorrow (Monday) at 4pm "The Kuiper Belt vs. the Billionaire Space Race" https://phas.ubc.ca/kuiper-belt-vs-billionaire-space-race
Now I guess I better finish putting together that talk (which mostly involved culling slides) before I go to bed... #ProfSamLectureTour
Time to watch @debcha@saturation.social give a talk at UBC in the forestry department! Because I'm just leaning in to the theme of interdisciplinarity as much as I possibly can to end this week.
#ProfSamLectureTour
It is WILD to be listening to this talk on infrastructure and where our materials come from after the week I've had here!
She just talked about the specific example of aluminum smelting using hydroelectric (which gives lots of energy without the externalities of CO2), meanwhile, I was emailing photos of space debris (which is mostly aluminum) to a journalist, and yesterday I visited a lab studying aluminum aerosols in the stratosphere from reentries... It's all connected!! #ProfSamLectureTour
Time to watch @debcha@saturation.social give a talk at UBC in the forestry department! Because I'm just leaning in to the theme of interdisciplinarity as much as I possibly can to end this week.
#ProfSamLectureTour
An astronomer in a meeting this morning referred to SpaceX as "a pet crocodile" and I think this metaphor is delightful, especially with absolutely no additional context.
I could really use a good cat snuggle, but my cats are 1,000 km away (with a kind farm sitter, but still... I need a cat snuggle. And a goat snuggle. And a dog snuggle. And a llama snuggle...) #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam Lawler