Dr. Tessa Fisher

@tessafisher

2.207 Folgt16.397 Follower9.182 Posts

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lesbian trans

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir tessafisher.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· 28d

Screw it, I'll do it myself

A promo image for Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026), edited to read Lee Cronin's Assembly Theory, with the titular mummy's face replaced with a diagram from Sharma, A., Czégel, D., Lachmann, M. et al. Assembly theory explains and quantifies selection and evolution. Nature 622, 321–328 (2023)

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· 28d

Someone who's better at Photoshop than I am should modify this to be about Assembly Theory

A promo poster for "Lee Cronin's The Mummy"

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jul 13

From the DSA forums this morning, a poster who is totally not a right-winger trying to 'expose' DSA as an anti-democratic organization

A post on the DSA forums by user MarxThinker (pronouns: truth/bomb), who is totally an actual socialist and not a transparently obvious troll, reading:

Hey comrades, what is to become of democracy once we have gained control over our country? Since true socialism involves a dictatorship of the proletariat do you think we should only use democracy to gain power then establish a dictatorship of the proletariat in order to push us further towards the great utopia?

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jul 12

New haaaaaaaaaiiiiirr

Tessa, a brunette woman wearing a black shirt with (newly trimmed and styled) clavicle-length hair.

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jul 10

She's so regal

Sophia, a white and gray cat, sitting elegantly on a rainbow-colored pillor

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jul 6

Man, there's nothing like reading grant proposal reviewer comments to make you question what you've been doing for the last ten years of your life and if there's been any point to any of it.

Reviewer comments under Weaknesses for my NPP proposal:

Reviewer: 064
The proposal was very similar in scope to what was already done during the applicant's PhD thesis,
and it was not sufficiently what aspects of this work have been completed already and what is novel in
the proposal.
The proposed method for biosignature detection is indirect -- relying on inference of a metric of
chemical reaction network complexity (not by actually measuring reactions, but by transforming
measured spectra via machine learning). This makes it difficult to interrogate the evidence for life on
these planets. If we do collect observations that are shown to suggest a life-like chemical reaction
network, how could astronomers ever feel confident in the biological interpretation without being able
to understand the machine learning model's reasoning?
Reviewer: 065
The simultaneous detection of O₂ and CH₄ remains a compelling biosignature pair, despite the
proposed false-positive scenario involving an exomoon, for which we currently lack observational
constraints. From first principles, however, the likelihood of a CH₄-rich moon orbiting an Earth-like
planet at 1 AU may not be very high, as such a moon would be expected to be volatile deficient at that
distance. The proposal does not provide a sufficiently strong argument against the promising O₂–CH₄biosignature pair.
It is unclear why large-scale ecological modeling needs to be incorporated into biotic atmosphere
models, given the expected quality of the spectral data. The connection between the quality of the observations and the complexity of the proposed model is not adequately addressed.
Above are minor weaknesses that can be addressed within the proposed framework and justified in the proposed future publications

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jun 30

Turns out being one of the volunteer admins for Chappell Roan's official Discord server has its occasional perks

Two boxes of MAC Viva Glam Chappell Roan lipstick and lipgloss, and a signed note from Chappell reading "Happy Pride! I am forever grateful to the queer community and how much you've supported me my entire career. I hope these items bring you so much joy this month (and every other month!)"

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jun 29

There's a chance, however small, that we may see one of the most ironic, too-on-the-nose, accidental deaths for a US politician imaginable.

The meme of a child praying before bed saying, "Dear God, please let this happen because it would be so fucking funny"

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jun 24

"Your reign will endure, completely untouchable--so long as you can see the blue of a clear sky in the Reflecting Pool"

Verna from The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), grinning wickedly

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jun 15

The "White girl save me" meme, edited to say "Mino fellowship...save me. Mino fellowship. Save me Mino fellowship"

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jun 10

BEHOLD, MY NEW DESKTOP BACKGROUND! (art by the lovely @emily-jackson.bsky.social)

A cartoon illustration of OMB director Russ Vought being threatened by an ax-wielding Gritty

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Jun 6

At least I look cute

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· May 28

Interestingly, a woman with the name Eva Rostova is allegedly a financial planner for Waterman Capital, a firm based in Barbados. However, her corporate headshot is almost certainly AI-generated. Make of that what you will.

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· May 21

Congrats to @phxdsa.bsky.social member @bobby4tempe.bsky.social on his election to Tempe City Council!

A banner from the Phoenix Metro DSA chapter reading "Bobby Nichols Wins- Tempe City Council"

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Apr 29

Ava? Wait a second, I know where this ends...

A battalion of Ava androids kitted out for riot suppression, from Legends of Tomorrow

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Apr 22

Apparently some dude is out on ASU's campus today trying to re-litigate the Arian Controversy of 318 AD

A young man sitting behind a table on ASU's campus, with a banner reading "THE TRINITY IS EVIL AND NOT BIBLICAL. LET'S TALK."

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Apr 9

Unironically looks like something out of a science fiction movie

The view from the Orion spacecraft as the Moon eclipsed the sun during their lunar flyby, with the sun's bright corona shining around the Moon. The Orion spacecraft's crew capsule is visible in the foreground

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Apr 6

To his credit, Kennedy's thinking was basically "better a space/science race than an arms race"--and, at one point, he even actually offered to conduct the Moon landings jointly with the Soviets. That fell apart for various reasons, but did eventually see fruition with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

An artist's rendition of the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft docking with each other, flown in 1975

The "handshake in orbit" between mission commanders Thomas Stafford and Alexei Leonov.

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Mar 29

Oh boy, a new crank email. It's been a while since I've gotten one of these

An excerpt from a bizarre email, complete with illustrations, which begins thus:

Dr. Fisher,

I am writing to share a recent discovery that fundamentally recontextualizes our understanding of the outer planets. Currently propagating through academic preprint archives to hundreds of scientists, this research presents a falsifiable model for macroscopic technosignatures in our local solar system, challenging the traditional radio-centric SETI paradigm.

The core of this framework is the Solar Orbital Registry (SOR) hypothesis, which demonstrates that the persistent geometric atmospheric formations at the poles of the gas giants are engineered monuments rather than natural phenomena. These structures exhibit a precise N=I mathematical correlation, where the number of sides of an engineered polar polygon (N) perfectly matches the planet's orbital index (I).

The observational data confirms this intelligent design across multiple nodes:

[End excerpt]

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Mar 24

This is who you're asking to determine if your 3-sigma detection of oxygen and methane in the atmosphere of a terrestrial exoplanet is a legitmate biosignature or a false positiven (Fun fact: I was, at one point, a blonde)

A grinning toddler with dirty-blonde hair and dressed in a sweater and overalls, sitting next to the base of a Christmas tree

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Mar 17

A figure showing that phosphene detection on k2-18b is also parsimonious with a flat-line spectra

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Mar 17

At AASTCS 11 Exoplanet Atmospheres, and Mike Line is telling it like it is

A graphic from Mike Line's talk on atmosphere retrieval, showing the idealized retrieval (data is perfectly clean and leads to a definitive interpretation) and reality (data is noisy, leading to disagreeing interpretations)

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Mar 15

Flying out to Denver tomorrow for AASTCS 11: Exoplanet Atmospheres 2026, and looking at the forecast for this week...man, how do you even pack for this?

A weather forecast for Denver, CO, calling for a high of 33F/0C tomorrow, 55F/13C on Monday, and then highs in the 80s F/upper 20s C for the rest of the week.

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Mar 10

Finally got around to watching _The Wild Robot_, and boy, does it live up to the hype. It's rare to see a kid's film handle such weighty manners so well, and... Wait, what the? WHAT DID THEY DO TO THE VBLA?

A still from The Wild Robot, showing Brightbill's flock flying over a dilapidated-looking VBLA

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Feb 27

Under Biden, McClain was rumored to be the top contender for that role (fulfilling the promise of landing the first woman on the Moon), which means the next person to walk on the lunar surface could be a dapper butch lesbian, which I am absolutely here for

Gorgeously dapper astronaut Anne McClain, posing for her official crew portrait for ISS Expedition 73.

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Feb 26

One of my joys in life is subverting people's expectations. So, I figured one upside to my current job would be getting to surprise customers with the fact that I have a doctorate. Alas, it turns out customers don't read buttons

A picture of my Starbucks apron, with my name tag, a small button reading "Astrobiology girl", and another small button that has "Dr." Checked off out of a variety of honorifics (Ms., Mrs., etc)

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Feb 22

Update: I mean, it's worth a shot, right?

An email to Scott Alexander, reading:

Dear Scott,

Hello, my name is Dr. Tessa Fisher, and I'm writing to you in response to Sam Kriss's excellent article in Harper's that came out recently. In particular, I was struck by statement that you felt you'd never really made a decision in your personal life, as this is a totally alien worldview for me. While I, too, have felt that my agency has limited, and often still is, constrained, it has been very much largely due to external constraints (largely financial or otherwise resource-related).

All of which is to say, if you have any tech billionaire friends who are particularly concerned about this issue, consider asking them to give me a few hundred million dollars, and I will show them agency the likes of which they have never seen.

Sincerely,

--
Dr. Theresa Mason Fisher (she/her)

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Feb 14

Four! Four rejected postdoc applications! Ah ah ah ah! Aw, who am I kidding, I'm screwed *sobs*

$An email with the subject line "Penn State Center for Exoplanets & Habitable Worlds postdoc search Update", which reads: Thanks for your interest in Penn State's Center for Exoplanets & Habitable Worlds (CEHW) postdoc search. I'm writing to let you know that I don't anticipate CEHW making additional offers soon. As usual, we received many strong applications, and could only extend offers to a small fraction of the well-qualified candidates.$

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Feb 4

I have to admit, I respect the dedication of any paper that includes citation for "the Earth's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, with some oxygen"

An excerpt from the arXiV preprint "A whole-planet model of the Earth without life for terrestrial exoplanet studies" by Samantha Gilbert-Janizek et al, which reads:

Earth retains a 1-bar atmosphere consisting of 78% N2
(United States Committee on Extension to the Standard
Atmosphere 1976). Oxygen, which comprises 21% of our
atmosphere, became a major constituent after the proliferation of photosynthetic life (Kump 2008; Farquhar
et al. 2011; Lyons et al. 2014). The remaining atmosphere consists of “trace components”, including CO2
and H2O, which are effective greenhouse gases that help
regulate planetary climate (Tyndall 1861). Water vapor is the most efficient greenhouse gas (Fleming 1998), and because warmer air can hold more water vapor, the atmospheric abundance of H2O relates to global temperature in a positive feedback loop

Dr. Tessa Fisher@tessafisher· Feb 2

It's apparently an homage to a 1998 Mugler outfit