Perhaps This Is A Hot Take™, But As A Queer Person Old Enough To Have Very Little Formative Concept

I've never seen a cishet dark academic bitch like are yall real??? honestly??? are you hiding from us???? I promise we don't bite, we're busy chewing the homophobes and transphobes

Medieval Astronomy resources 🚀👽🌌

there’s a tiny bit of a tendency in resources on medieval astronomy to ignore either:

the contributions of any medieval thinkers towards ideas that gained traction in the scientific revolution (i.e. ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ is a medieval concept in and of itself! and it applies here!! the Great Man understanding of scientific history really cherry-picks what we remember about the past!!)

the immense contributions and genius of Islamic thinkers towards medieval understandings of astronomy, let alone the fact that Persian and Indian ideas were tied up in all of this 

the close relationship between science and religion in medieval Christianity and Islam (it was seen as a way of understanding God’s creation!! it wasn’t seen as bad unless it contradicted established doctrine!! in which case yes sigh the church would scold/ban/burn your ass, depending)

all of the above

and there’s often this undercurrent of “the Greeks and Romans had it sorted and all this knowledge was lost in the ~Dark Ages~ and until Aristotle was ~rediscovered~ the world backslid into ~primitive~ ignorance” 😪

TLDR: these links aren’t as nuanced as they maybe could be, but they’re better than some, so feel free to try mush them together in your brain and see what emerges 😂:

Medieval astronomy | Medieval Science History part 3 (10 mins)

The Medieval Islamicate World: Crash Course History of Science #7 (13 mins)

Religion and Science History in Medieval Europe | Medieval Science History part 5 (11 mins)

Podcast interview with Seb Falk - the guy in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s video above ^^ (19 mins)

Astronomy and Astrology in the Medieval Islamic World (essay/article)

India, the Islamic world, medieval Europe, and China (essay/article - did not give any person or time period before Copernicus enough credit tbh)

anyway astronomy and astrophysics are so SO interesting to me and i love a cheeky bit of overlap with my other One True Love (medieval history) so enjoy the vibes ❤️❤️⭐

The poetry of the ineffable husbands

It’s me ya boi I gotta go to bed in an hour so I’m writing it as fast as I can so I don’t lose my idea tomorrow. 

So, what do I mean by that? Literally what it says. I’m just going to ramble about how beautiful and full of metaphors their relationship is and how it just gives me a reason to live. It’s not going to be good rambling. Just rambling with a little bit of passion in it.

Ight imma start with the classic things. As a former Wattpad loyal user I know all the angel x demon tropes. And I am sick of them to my stomach, I can’t stand one more uwu baby angel corrupted by demon. And this is what is surprising but does make sense about them husbands. They cannot, in my opinion, be called angel or demon, they literally became 2 halves of the same entity, the supernatural entity that watches over humans and makes sure there is a balance between good and bad. Like Yin and Yang. Good and evil, black and white, light and darkness. Not opposing, but complementing each other.

 Aaaand they were like that from the beginning. Remember when Crowley said  "Funny thing is, I keep wondering whether the apple thing wasn’t the right thing to do, as well. A demon can get into real trouble, doing the right thing. Funny if we both got it wrong, eh? Funny if I did the good thing and you did the bad one, eh?". They somehow knew it, Crowley wasn’t evil and Aziraphale wasn’t as obedient as an angel should have been. From the first time they ever got in touch in each other (we do not have any information on the times before Crowley’s fall) they somehow ended up thinking they didn’t do the thing their roles assigned them to. And this just shows how interesting their relationship that would come will be. In their relationship they always ended up stepping on their values that were assigned and for what? For the sake of each other.

Now, I got into the light-darkness thing and I feel the need to extend it. I somewhere saw a theory that angel’s halo’s are so bright that it blinds them, the angels having to rely only on God’s word. Meanwhile, the fallen angels, the demons, had their halo’s broken, forming the shape of the horns, being able to see and think on their own but not having any form of guidance. Now that we uncovered that doesnt a relationship between a demon and an angel just make sense? Like, the angel, blinded by the divine light, would rely on the demon’s words and rationalizing. The demon would then be guided by the angel’s light, this way both benefiting for each other and having to bond to each other. It just makes me so soft to think about that need of each other, and just a silly little thing my brain just said: “the angel could guide the demon through the darkest of times’’ (yes I just quoted my brain deal with it). I am just a succkerrr for this kind of soft thing and many people would probably not empathize and thats okay.

Now the really corny shit. Like the “forbidden love” kind of. This is, again, a well-known trope, but this time one that didn’t lose as much value as others did. When you think “forbidden love” there are so many posibilities. Like... gays during the history, a maiden and a prince, a gay knight and a prince, mafia gang leader harry styles and crime detective, the entire plot of hannibal, drunken me and a laptop to write, hold on I’m going too far, just young people in love and not affording it aaannndd 2 people from opposite sides. Heaven/Hell I mean. Obviously very opposite. And what we have learned about this forbidden love kinda stuff? They almost always end up running away together. Yes I am proving Crowley is head over heels but like, isn’t that poetic as fuck? Being so sick of having to do your work, to hide your feelings, to just hide yourself and the person you would die for that you just want to dull off together and live the perfect life without being judged?

Related to the past point, even if this was an innevitable choice, just the fact that Crowley chose Alpha Centauri is just making my brain and fingers go nuts. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system, 2 of them forming a binary star, basically two stars that are pretty close to each other. Now I know this doesn’t really make any sense, but what if those 2 stars represent Crowley and Aziraphale, and the 3rd one represents Adam? Like in that moment they went during the time before the world was created. I just think it would be cool as fuck that there would actually be an association made.

Also just the ship’s name: Ineffable. What does it mean? Beyond words, beyond understanding. What we always try is to put our feelings into words, and we more than usual fail. Because feelings aren’t something to be shown by words. They are ineffable.

Where did I go with this? Absolutely. No. Idea. I just poured all I my thoughts on a tired keyboard until my fingers have gone cold. It’s just that there are small details or just small ideas that maybe aren’t that revolutionary or special, but why not randomly post them on the internet?

*screeches in happy*

not me taking a break from instagram and accidentally getting addicted to tumblr

not me

run bish

Astrophysics/Astronomy Recs

Academic Earth: Astronomy (multiple courses)

Class Central: Relativity and Astrophysics (course)

NASA Astrophysics (govt. website)

MIT Astrophysics II  (lecture notes)

Astrophysics and Cosmology by Prof. Somnath Bharadwaj (lectures)

Matrix Operations by Richard Bronson  (maths textbook)

Linear Algebra by Seymour Lipschutz & Marc Lars Lipson (maths textbook)

The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack (book)

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson (book)

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (book)

The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene (book)

The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking (book)

YouTube channels 

What if after Neil died, Todd went and visited Neil's grave every day and one day, a few years after graduation, he went to Neil's grave and set a ring on the head stone asking if Neil would marry him. Neil would have obviously said yes if he were still alive so Todd buries the ring a little under the ground near the headstone and wears his around just to remind him of his first and last love. The ring is engraved with Neil's name and the day he killed himself.

(Thank you for this very sad headcanon @/the.poet.and.the.actor on Instagram.)

Free Astronomy Resources

Astronomy

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Textbook-Like)

Astronomy Notes

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Alaska)

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints (Trinity)

Astronomy Lecture Notes (MIRA)

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints (Rutten)

Modern Astronomy Lecture Notes

Astronomy Lecture Powerpoints (Wickman)

Solar System Astronomy Lecture Notes

Astronomy Lecture Notes

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Mitchell)

Astronomy Lecture Notes (Rochester)

Time Systems Lecture Notes

Earth and Sky Notes

Galactic Structure and Stellar Populations Lecture Notes

Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe Lecture Notes

Astronomical Techniques

Essential Radio Astronomy

Introduction to Astronomy 

Physics

Equations and Formulas

Essential Physics Equations

MCAT Physics Equations

Frequently Used Physics Equations

General Physics Notes

Physics Lecture Notes (MIT) 

University Physics (Textbook-Like)

General Physics I

Physics Lecture Notes (Colorado)

Physics Lecture Notes (Rochester)

Physics Lecture Notes (Cabrillo)

Physics Lecture Notes (Trinity)

Physics Notes

Physics Videos (Flipping Physics)

Physics Ch 1 to 8 Lecture Notes

Feynman Physics Lecture Notes

Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism Lecture Notes

Feynman Electromagnetism and Matter Lecture Notes 

Mechanics

Mechanics (Physics) Lecture Notes

Mechanics (Physics) Powerpoint Slides

Feynman Quantum Mechanics Lecture Notes 

Physics and Astronomy

Physics of the Interstellar Medium Lecture Notes

Physics for Astronomy Lecture Notes (Textbook-Like)

Radio Astronomy (Physics 728)

Physics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology

Inorganic Chemistry

Inorganic Chemistry Chapter Notes

Inorganic Chemistry Lecture Notes

Inorganic Chemistry 2 Lecture Notes

Advanced Inorganic Chemistry Lecture Notes

Calculus

Formulas and Equations

Calculus Cheat Sheet

AP Calculus Basic Formulas and Properties

Calculus 1 Formulas

Basic Calculus: Rules and Formulas (Video)

Differential Formulas

Integral Calculus Formulas

The Basics

Basic Calculus Refresher

Single Variable Calculus

Multivariable Calculus (Textbook-like)

Basics of Calculus (Textbook-like)

Calculus for Beginners

Calculus 1

Calculus (Textbook-like)

Calculus 1 (Textbook-like)

Calculus 1 Video Lectures

Calculus 1 Lecture Notes

Calculus 1 Lecture Notes (Northern Illinois)

Calculus 1 Lecture Notes (Citadel)

Calculus 1 Compact Lecture Notes

Calculus Lecture Notes (Raz Kupferman)

Introduction to Calculus Lecture Notes

Calculus 2

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes (Northern Illinois)

Calculus 2 Notes (Illinois State)

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes (McClendon)

Calculus 2 Lecture Notes (Textbook-like)

Calculus 2 (Textbook-like) (Dawkins)

Calculus 2 Lecture Videos

Calculus 2 Class Notes

Calculus 2 Materials (Notes, Handouts, Etc.)

Calculus 3

Calculus 3 Lecture Notes (Lamar)

Calculus 3 Lecture Videos

Calculus 3 (Dawkins)

Calculus 3 (Notes, Homework, Quizzes)

Notes for Calculus 3

Calculus 3 Class Notes

Other Calculus

Integral Calculus Lecture Notes

Algebra and Differential Calculus

Differential and Integral Calculus (Textbook)

Differential and Integral Calculus (Lecture Notes & Old Exams)

Computer Science Calculus Lecture Notes

Calculus for Physics C

Analytic Geometry and Calculus 2

History

Notes on the History of Astronomy

History of Astronomy Powerpoint

Early History of Astronomy

History of Radio Astronomy

NASA History

Neolithic Astronomy

Mesopotamian Astronomy

Islamic Astronomy

Indian Astronomy

Greek Astronomy

Chinese Astronomy

Egyptian Astronomy

Mayan Astronomy

Space Agencies

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

South African National Space Agency

Canadian Space Agency

National Space Research and Development Agency

Italian Space Agency

Norwegian Space Center

Korea Aerospace Research Institute

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

UK Space Agency

Australian Space Agency

My much requested list of resources for studying astrophysics. Happy learning!

STEM DARK ACADEMIA

I'm a little upset at the lack of stem in dark academia, so here's my list of aesthetic science things, STEM ACADEMIA (dark edition)

• relating a little too much to the mad scientist trope (and telling everyone "no, no I would never do anything like that, I just want to help people" but like imagine if we could resurrect people)

• rereading Frankenstein every year, specifically in the month of october

• "why is STEAM a thing?? Art? who that?"

• minoring in classics because you still like mythology and history and reading

• finding the science in art (why things make you feel a certain way, how they do that, what effect they've had on health and medicine) and finding the art in science (isn't it incredible that dna knows how to tell plant cells to break down chlorophyll and this makes the gorgeous fall colors)

• reading every book that mentions at all a scientist or has a character who is interested in stem (they are few and far between)

• enjoying the structure of math and engineering but thriving off the chaos that is science

• where are the mad scientist women? I need this

• people being surprised when you tell them you're majoring in something "really science-y" after being an absolute bookworm and musician all throughout your childhood and having to defend what your heart desires (no? just me?)

• CARDIGANS are peak stem culture

• "why aren't you a doctor? why aren't you going to med school? why are you doing insert reasonable science degree here and not becoming a doctor? don't you want to help people?"

• wanting to go into genetics but wanting to go into botany but wanting to go into theoretical physics but wanting to go into astronomy but wanting to go into geology but wanting to go into chemical engineering but wanting to go into astrophysics but wanting to go into wildlife biology

• for some reason having a huge obsession with morals, ethics, and philosophy

• watching true crime just for the forensic bits

• watching mythbusters as a kid

• LISTENING TO TCHAIKOVSKY, BEETHOVEN, BACH, AND MOZART those are the stem classical musicians change my mind

• doing all your homework and frying your brain then getting to read a simple book that really refreshes you

• you had the astronomy and archaeology obsession as a kid

• listening to synth wave instrumentals

• MITOCHONDRIA IS THE POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL

• when people tell you that one cool science fact they learned and you try your hardest to encourage them but girl that wasn't even close to being correct

• ScienceDirect and PubMed are your go-to databases

• having lots of intrusive, existential thoughts that sometimes suffocate you, because you know better than most how much dark dna there is or how small we really are in the universe or knowing how much math explains and how little room there is for free will or thinking about how we are made up of mostly four types of atoms

• reading science or math textbooks for fun

• reading the fountainhead by ayn rand when you were way too young and didn't understand it but now parts of it emerge from the depths of your memory and you are struck by the power

• watching marvel and x-men and jurassic park just because

• reading sci-fi because it's the closest thing to real science in literature

• knowing a little too much about radiation poisoning and how to really dissolve a body in chemicals

• wearing white to make up for how little your professors make you wear lab coats

(sorry, I don't know that much about technology and I'm a literal grandpa when it comes to using it myself)