It’s just a piece of ice, right? Errr, no. Ice has memory, as I write in the Financial Times this week. With thanks to Dr Amy King from British Antarctic Survey, for explaining the secrets locked inside ice that can be millions of years old. www.ft.com/content/b60a...

NEW: A robot hand that can detach, crawl and grasp multiple objects - and could be an industrial boon. One researcher compares it to the helpful disembodied hand Thing T Thing from The Addams Family, rather than the scary spider-like enforcers of Minority Report. www.ft.com/content/39d6...

Excellent, damning analysis of the video of the killing of Ms Good, from the NYT, including a quick debunking of the “evidence” the President showed other Times reporters last night. www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...

Anti-obesity drugs are great for losing weight. But new research finds that when users stop taking them, they tend to regain the weight and lose other health benefits - and it happens fast. How do health authorities deal with this as millions come off the medicines? www.ft.com/content/10f8...

Happy new year, folks! My take on Greenland for the FT: a slippery showman, the Napoleonic wars and why, contrary to belief, the island is no minerals Nirvana. www.ft.com/content/355e...

UK set to rejoin EU’s flagship student exchange programme ft.trib.al/cknsETr

NEW: Our three-part podcast Defying Death follows the quest to live longer from ancient times to today's frontier technologies. Great to work with the wonderful @hannahkuchler.bsky.social, @flophillips.bsky.social, @joshgd100.bsky.social & the rest of the FT pod team. www.ft.com/content/a33d...

My FT column today on the @harva.edu ‘super-elite’ taking on the world’s greatest unsolved scientific problems. Harvard is betting on their cohort of the curious, rather than the merely clever, to be winning Nobels 10-15 years from now. www.ft.com/content/b5cc...

NEW: A sign of the scientific times as the UK scales back collaboration with China. Science minister Lord Vallance says the two countries have agreed to work together in the “uncontroversial” areas of health, climate, planetary sciences and agriculture. www.ft.com/content/edc0...

NEW: Companies selling products that claim to boost health and longevity see a historic opportunity under the Trump administration. Senior officials have ties to those industries - and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is a fan of “wellness” supplements and therapies. www.ft.com/content/ed42...

How safe are UK research institutions from politicisation? @chrischirp.bsky.social & have have written a new blog for LSE on our report blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

This is fascinating stuff

NEW: The extraordinary story of an eye implant to help people blinded by age-related retinal damage read again. One person improved by almost 12 lines of a standard eye test chart. Register here to read some FT articles free: www.ft.com/register www.ft.com/content/c2e8...

Massive crowds gather across US for ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump on.ft.com/3JlrmQR

The nutrient spermidine is at the heart of a growing battle about health products touted as having anti-ageing effects. Its promoters cite evidence that it helps extend lifespan in animals - but sceptics point to the lack of research in humans. www.ft.com/content/7282...

OpenAI is spending at a scale that even Silicon Valley can't quite believe, buying up 20 nuclear reactors' worth of computing power this year. But there are big questions around whether it can turn that power into profit. An #FTEdit 🧵on the ChatGPT maker’s $1tn bet on artificial intelligence 👇

Freshers' Flu, the seasonal viruses that pray on vulnerable students. Great to work with @joshelgin.bsky.social and @sheencr.bsky.social on this piece for BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a beautiful tribute to an amazing person who truly revolutionised our understanding of non-human animals.

On 15th Sept, billionaire & Royal Society fellow Elon Musk called for political & interethnic violence, to pre-empt (ie, begin) a civil war. ("Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die."). A fortnight later, the Society expresses its disapproval

The winner of the Royal Society book prize 2025 is ... Masud Husain

A lovely thread on my FT piece today! So many mentions of Soundgarden, who knew about this before the astronomers 👏🏽

My take on #Tylenol for the FT: The White House is drifting ever farther from scientific reality. Autism has no easy answers. www.ft.com/content/72fa...

Huge thanks to @mja-uk.bsky.social for last night's awards for my brilliant columnist colleague @anjahuja.bsky.social and the @financialtimes.com project on the race against time to defeat mosquito-borne diseases. Congratulations to @ian-bott.bsky.social, @sdbernard.bsky.social and Charlie Bibby!

Honoured to be in the mix here, and congrats to all the finalists! 🙌🏽

@anjahuja.bsky.social here on the phenomenon called “emergent misalignment” where AI models can end up optimising for malice even when not explicitly trained to do so. www.ft.com/content/7f14...

Big thanks to the @mja-uk.bsky.social ‬for the double shortlisting, including for this piece on mosquitoes with @ian-bott.bsky.social, Steve Bernard and Charlie Bibby. www.ft.com/content/816c... Congrats also to my wonderful columnist colleague @anjahuja.bsky.social. mjauk.org/2025/08/15/f...

Janet Yellen in FT oped - Trump’s attack on the Fed threatens US credibility. History teaches us that chaos follows when leaders undermine the independence of central banks www.ft.com/content/d2ea...

The science of starvation - timely column here from @anjahuja.bsky.social on seminal 1940s study that remains hauntingly relevant today www.ft.com/content/fb0a...

The book that explains the billionaire doomers https://on.ft.com/3H4sp6x | opinion

NEW: The incredible shrinking fish: Baltic cod evolve to dodge nets Genetic shift driven by over-exploitation risks undermining populations beyond repair, according to research Register here to read some @financialtimes.com articles free: www.ft.com/register www.ft.com/content/5bf6...

Top chemist gives back Royal Society medal, in deepening Musk fallout. @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Exclusive @ft by @mikepeeljourno.bsky.social and me. www.ft.com/content/8778...

I also skeeted about this conference while it was happening: bsky.app/profile/drml...

This is the big one: Kennedy is firing the entire #ACIP in a move he says is needed to restore confidence in vaccines. "It scares me to think of what’s ahead,” Mike Osterholm of CIDRAP told me. www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/r...

This is on everyone who voted to confirm him, despite his track record. People fail to acknowledge the obvious when their privilege depends on being blind.

If an animal could speak, would we listen? Fascinating column by @anjahuja.bsky.social on.ft.com/4kwGAzC

NEW: EU food safety chief warns of bird flu threat to pigs Europe’s 133mn swine could become ‘dangerous virus laboratory', mixing bird and human influenzas to create pathogens transmissible between people. Register with @financialtimes.com here: www.ft.com/register www.ft.com/content/9c16...

Do we need a new generation of public institutions for ST&I? Join us tomorrow at 4pm for the first in a new UCL-STEaPP seminar series with @geoffmulgan.bsky.social, followed by a discussion with @anjahuja.bsky.social & @williamcb.bsky.social. Details here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/do-we-need...

The cost of Trump’s attack on American science https://www.ft.com/content/67fd40e3-104e-4599-a8b2-3f34cd75c74a

NEW: Researchers have sued the NIH and HHS, alleging that they have engaged in a "reckless and illegal purge to stamp out NIH-funded research that addresses topics and populations that they disfavor" by terminating hundreds of grants, violating the APA, Fifth Amendment and the Separation of Powers.

Even in 2025, some things still shock. Like the apparent selection of a long-time vaccine opponent who was disciplined & fined for practicing medicine without a license to conduct a new HHS study into whether there's a link between vaccines and autism. www.statnews.com/2025/03/26/r...

About that meeting last night, by my colleague @mikepeeljourno.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/abd8...

If you haven't - please do fill this in. If you are a creative of any sort. The ALCS guidelines are very useful as the questions become more impenetrable. Also - you don't have to answer it all. www.alcs.co.uk/news/your-ri...

Recently joined BlueSky? Here's a starter pack of FT journalists to follow go.bsky.app/GhSgfrR

Always amazes me (not) that the people who crow the loudest about free speech, are the least tolerant of others exercising theirs.

Hello! Just getting started here. If you follow me at the other place, please give me a follow here. I’m a bit rubbish there and I’ll probably be a bit rubbish here too, but I love seeing what’s going on. My interests: mostly science, tech & health but also culture, politics, books, Arsenal.