12 points to Gryffindor

Award-winning scientist, Andrea Sella, has returned his Royal Society award in protest over the Society's continued apathy over Elon Musk. My latest substack in which I make the case that we need more scientists like Andrea, who are prepared to take a stand: open.substack.com/pu...

This is the best George Wendt joke on cheers by an absolute mile, and its so well done www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FNH...

#ThisWeeksFiddler had a crystalline feel to it... but how many paths are there from the top to the bottom? Answer: Just over a billion. My solution: tinyurl.com/fiddler160525 @xaqwg.bsky.social

It's a shame that international student numbers will be cut, because only 2% of voters want their post-study work limited and they bring £37bn to the country. But Britain has gone mad and willingly chosen poverty, so there it is, nothing to be done. www.russellgroup.ac.uk/news/new-pol...

#chemsky 🧪

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

‘Okay which one of you accidentally added Robert Cecil to the chat?’

1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world. 
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.

#Thisweeksfiddler from @xaqwg.bsky.social asked: if you're randomly situated on a semicircular island, what is your expected distance from the coast? After a lot of geometry, calculus and algebra (plus a bit of help from WolframAlpha) I got a surprisingly simple answer. tinyurl.com/fiddler140325

Hello old friend, it's been a while!

RNA xkcd.com/3056

Complete batshit lunacy on the president's Truth Social account. Yes, he really posted this.

I'm bemused. Is this what people dream of doing in their retirement?

You'll never guess who won the Mentimeter quiz on my organic mechanisms course...

The Wombles play Motörhead

"The perfect gift for science lovers". What do you think, @drmikebooth.bsky.social ?

Some impressive battery technology here - a 2 g battery with 2kWh energy content. Unfortunately it's attached to a device drawing 3.6 kW so it will only last 33 minutes.

TWO PhD opportunities to join my group on the new CDT in Engineering Solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance! Synthetic cells and DNA nanotechnology 🧬🦠🧑‍🔬 - Project details below Open Day 18th December 11 am Application Deadline 26th January 2025 #chemsky 🧪 www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

The fun of recreational maths is working out how to answer a question you don't need an answer to! #thisweeksfiddler by @xaqwg.bsky.social persuaded me to spend my weekend working out ways to fold polygons. I think I got the answers right, but there's probably a smarter method... bit.ly/3Ol3Pyu