This is very sad news. We need more passionate advocates for science and our planet like Goodall.

I’m sad to hear the news that the wonderful Jane Goodall is no longer in the world. Her work with chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania taught us to look at other apes - and ourselves - differently. I was privileged to meet her later in life and tell her what an inspiration she was to me.

A blast from my #UEA past!

"What if tariffs, but we put them on our own exports?"

I’ve been involved with @mathsworld.com for over a decade, since its first inception. I’m a trustee of the charity. So it’s incredibly exciting to see our London venue MathsWorld almost ready for action ahead of the launch next month. Get your tickets here: https://mathsworld.com/

Things you notice while mentally reviewing old maps in the middle of the night: Moir Street, named for the notoriously verbose city councillor James Moir, sits directly opposite the ancient street called Spoutmouth. I think I've detected a bit of sly late-Victorian shade.

A hugely underreported scandal. Those responsible still not adequately held to account. An important, but infuriating watch.

Revisiting old haunts in #Glasgow this evening.

We've been named Sport University of the Year in the Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide! www.bath.ac.uk/announcement...

It's arrivals weekend! A big welcome to all the students arriving to Bath over the next few days.

“Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’.” - business secretary, Peter Kyle. What do they want knowledge for? Heaven forbid that students go to university to learn something!

The flight attendant just asked me if a needed assistance when we land in Barcelona. I replied to say (1) no thanks, I don't need assistance, and (2) I'm on a plane to Gatwick!

🎉 We're delighted to have been announced as the Sport University of the Year 2026 in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide! https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/bath-wins-sport-university-of-the-year-2026-in-the-times-and-the-sunday-times-good-university-guide/

The glamour of air travel at A Coruna this morning: just two officially checking the passports of an entire flight leading to a huge and very slowly moving queue. And I can't even blame #Brexit for this as everyone had to queue regardless of nationality!

Delighted that my former colleague and long-term collaborator Brian Duffy gets a positive (albeit brief) mention in "Flow" by Keith Moffatt, namely as "a very able post-doc ... who moved on to the University of Strathclyde after leaving Bristol". #fluiddynamics

Making good use of my time waiting in Departures reading "Flow" by Keith Moffatt, a book only he could have written. #fluiddynamics

Astonished by the number of young people still up and about on the streets of A Coruna at 6 am this morning!

Santiago de Compostela yesterday.

Generic conference gripes: (1) no, please don't sit at the end of the rows, (2) yes, you do need to use the microphone, and (3) no, please don't "whisper" to your friend during the presentations, it's rude and disrespectful.

Laurence Talini (CNRS & Saint Hobson Research) speaking about non-uniformities in drying liquid films at #ECS25.

Special #ECS25 buses to the Tower of Hercules lighthouse!

ECS27 will be in Cambridge.

Laurent Limat pays tribute to George "Bud" Homsy at #ECS25.

Much else aside: in this scenario the lecturer is still doing all the marking: all the LLM is doing is reading the rubric back to the student with added piffle. How easily impressed does someone have to be to think that the LLM is adding anything whatsoever?

Three stand-out initiatives from the #University of Bath are highlighted as part of a new national campaign launched by @universities-uk.bsky.social to showcase how universities connect skills and knowledge across the country, powering jobs, #innovation and #entrepreneurship.

Professor James Spittles (Warwick) speaking about gas nanofilms in coating flows at #ECS25.

Marc Pascual (Hummink) speaking about capillary printing at #ECS25.

Ignacio Pagonabarraga (Barcelona) speaking about contact lines at #ECS25.

The University of Bath has again been named one of the best universities in the UK, according to the latest Guardian University Guide. https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/bath-ranked-8th-in-guardian-university-guide-2026/

I think the first serious* Comet replica proposal was for the centenary in 1912. That was supposed to be a fully-functioning replica, functioning somehow as a modern cadet training ship. It did not happen, but new-cleckit.dominie.scot/abandon-ship/ * I say serious; the idea came from an academic.

Hadj Benkreira speaking about ECS since 1994 at #ECS25.

Youssef Spade (Cannon) speaking about inkjet printing at #ECS25.

Opening #ECS25 plenary by Tatiana Gambaryan-Roisman (TU Darmstadt) speaking about transport processes in porous coatings.

Opening of #ECS25.

Walking through A Coruna, Spain to the European Coating Symposium 2025 #ECS25 this morning.

PSA: rather than creating a QR code and putting the QR code in a Powerpoint slide and attaching the Powerpoint slide to an email so I can open it and point my phone at the screen and open the link on the wrong device, you could just... email me the link?

I am reading maths-education papers. I am remembering why I do not enjoy reading most maths-education papers. So much theoretical apparatus. So much contempt for practitioners. So much contempt for subject expertise. I'd not trust some of the authors in front of a class of cuddly toys.

Just noticed a small cultural difference between pure and applied maths conferences: in pure maths often just the speakers' names are listed (presumably because you are supposed to know what they do) but in applied maths title of the talks are very much expected.

Now published! For anyone with an interest in solitary waves, steam carriages, canals, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the contest for the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh in 1838, or late-Georgian shenanigans generally: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Hundreds of #sustainability researchers and experts from across the globe will be hosted by the University in September 2026 for the the annual Earth System Governance conference. https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/university-of-bath-to-host-global-sustainability-conference-in-2026/

This comes up every few years but to be fair i think with OpenAlex, Lens, Core, Semantic Scholar etc we are far more prepared than 5-10 years ago. See medium.com/a-academic-l.... Still it's going to be a huge loss if Google Scholar goes away. (1)

Universities! Please do not change the name and contact details of an important support service at a stage of the year when some students have already arrived, others are imminent, and quite a lot of induction materials were supposed to have been finalised. Thank you.

The tl;dr here seems to be that the general public on the whole think universities are a Good Thing but have a fairly vague idea of how important a Good Thing they are. Looks as if HE is yet another issue on which the Westminster/media consensus is significantly more bonkers than public opinion.

Status: brain stuck in the 1830s when it ought to be writing lecture notes for the 2020s. I've seen a lot written about research-led teaching. I think we need also to consider the concept of research-hindered teaching.

Hey everybody! @drjuliawester.bsky.social and I have a new paper! We surveyed over 800 scientists, science communicators, and science educators who use social media. Conclusion: Scientists no longer find Twitter useful or pleasant, and many have switched to Bluesky! 🧪🌎🦑 doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

*does a wee dance* "Making waves: the context and afterlife of John Scott Russell’s canal experiments of 1834-5" is now accepted for publication in an actual academic journal. Many thanks to those of you who've encouraged and gently guided me through the process of researching and writing this.

Sunderland won the FA Cup in 1973, defeating the mighty Leeds United.

1981!