I chatted about alchemy and elixirs of life on the Colin McEnroe Show on Connecticut radio yesterday. It was a smart discussion - before me, Tushar Irani gets into some hardcore Platonism! www.ctpublic.org/show/the-col...

Reactions so far range from "you mean some people deny that living things have agency?" to "this is an intentionally unscientific concept". Glad to see it is causing some discussion. (And I just recorded a Quanta podcast with more - coming soon). www.quantamagazine.org/is-life-just...

Is a bird song really a song? What defines what is and isn't music? Is it uniquely human? We tackle all this thorny questions, and a lot more obviously, in For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music. Watch it here - www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

An important paper about protecting science from political interference. Europe needs to defend its science against the kind of attacks unfurling in the US. By Martin McKee, Christina Pagel & Tiago Correia in the European Journal of Public Health: academic.oup.com/eurpub/artic...

Why are living things different from nonliving? In this piece for @quantamagazine.bsky.social I argue that it is because they are purposive and goal-directed: a capacity we can productively characterize as agency. www.quantamagazine.org/is-life-just...

The best part of my job is working with the most generous and intellectually visionary people in the world, and after 5 years of working with Ball, I couldn’t be more honored or excited to announce this role for him. This is why I founded the Institute, with Ball specifically in mind to do this:

I couldn't believe the quote in the original post was real. But yes, it is. What a sad state the political commentary in at least this part of the BBC has fallen into.

My latest piece for @quantamagazine.bsky.social might stir the pot somewhat. It takes on the contentious notion that biological organisms can be considered to possess agency. www.quantamagazine.org/is-life-just...

New joy unlocked: reading about Count Binface - Graf Mülltonnengesicht, comte Face de Poubelle, il conte Binface etc etc - in European papers.

A few weeks ago I, along with @georgemusser.com @jomarchant.bsky.social and others, went to a small meeting about the QBist interpretation of quantum mechanics and why it is so often misrepresented. Here are some reflections on the event. www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/the-qbi...

In politics, we’re torn between ideals and practicalities, aspirations and realities, the world as we want it, and as we find it But one day a manifesto comes along that reconciles both in every pledge. A rare moment of clarity and hope

It's going to be quite a job to unpack the semiotic layers in this, especially to anyone outside the UK.

Part Seven of For the Record is out at 9pm tomorrow night and here's some of the topics we're going to be looking at. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAbD...

Having collaborated with the Marginalia Review of Books for some time now on various projects, I have just become their Senior Fellow of Scientific Integration and Natural Philosophy. The title sounds rather grand, but I'll try to unpack it. 🧵 marginaliareview.substack.com/p/announcing...

This is such splendid company to be in.

"The orthodox interpretation (also called the textbook or Dirac-von Neumann interpretation) of quantum mechanics... is not Copenhagenish." I strongly recommend this paper by Matt Leifer and colleagues to all those who routinely confuse these two things. arxiv.org/abs/2506.00112

@philipcball.bsky.social "How Life Works" is an amazing MUST READ for anyone who wants to understand where biology is right now. It's a masterpiece. Dawkins was wrong. Genes are not selfish and not the deterministic blueprint for life. Just as important, the machine metaphor fails.

This is a good summary of where we are with Trump. First, he can no longer make thoughts, only fragments composed of a grab bag of ingrained tropes. Second, he can no longer distinguish when he's speaking to his lackeys or to the world. It's not even "This isn't fair", but merely...

Well I don't know quite what to make of this but the claim is striking: the first observation of entanglement within the human body, namely from annihilation photons generated during PET scanning. arxiv.org/abs/2606.29421

I just can't get my head around the fact that this bizarre object is whizzing through space at insane speed.

"It is also dawning on those within Reform that Nigel Farage is simply not acting like a man who expects to be PM. Where they might expect him to throw himself into his job, professionalise the party, handle its vetting, and come up with a policy platform, he is disappearing for weeks at a time."

The real story of the FOXP2 gene, & what it can & cannot tell us about human language, is complicated & fascinating, & it does not involve any extraterrestrials. If you want to learn more, some overviews of the science are here: www.cell.com/current-biol... & link.springer.com/article/10.1... 10/n🧪

25 years ago, we implicated rare variants of the FOXP2 gene in a severe speech disorder. I’ve spent much time stressing that FOXP2, while interesting, is not the mythical “gene for language”. Weirdly, on occasion I also need to explain why it’s not “proof of aliens”. Full disclosure in this 🧵. 1/n 🧪

I'm really looking forward to this event (it's in-person and live online) featuring Melanie Challenger, Nick Lane and @philipcball.bsky.social at the Royal Institution later this month. Alive: what life is, how it works, and why it matters. www.rigb.org/whats-on/ali...

I'd go further: if we native English speakers expect English to be the lingua franca (ha!) of most of the world, everyone who uses it gets to influence how it evolves. Phrases that aren't standard English, like "quite some" and "allows to", are then no longer really "wrong" at all.

Joao Alves in Vienna - "Writing is Thinking: If we hand the writing to a machine, we quietly hand over the thinking too." #astronomy #academia #academicchatter #eas2026

Here is my review for @thelancet.com of the excellent Beyond Belief by @helenpearson.bsky.social, on the rise of evidence-based decision making in medicine, social policy, policing, education and more. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Why is anyone today sending forms for expenses etc as pdfs that cannot be fully annotated and so must be printed and then scanned? Why is this still a thing?

What is life? This new paper analyses the views of a whole bunch of folks who think about such things to see what if any coherence and overlap is to be found among them. It turns out that @wiringthebrain.bsky.social is the most centrist of all... link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A reminder of what NAS President Marcia McNutt said in Nov 2024: "As the scientific community continues to do so now, it must take a critical look at what responsibility it bears in science becoming politically contentious, and how scientists can rebuild public trust." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Premieres in half hour.

At last. Now the other government departments please.

I've developed a strong aversion to AI-generated slides in presentations. They look so ugly, and seem to discourage economy in how ideas are presented. Indeed, the problems are akin to those for AI text: the hard work of creation is bypassed, and it shows.

A terrific talk by @philipcball.bsky.social on The Space of Possible Minds

Revisiting this short piece, in preparation for our session on consciousness at #AISB today… jocnf.pubpub.org/pub/htx54kpm...

Do these tech bros actually believe it? I think they kinda do, which is possibly the more disturbing option.

Awesome — younger Hinton gegen present Hinton, via the sadly recently deceased Inman Harvey @anilseth.bsky.social #aisb #aiethics

Damned inconvenient to have to ask people if you can use their work for your own profit. This comment from Clegg crystallizes the problem, not least because it shows folks in the industry don't even understand the problem. musictech.com/news/industr...

One of the TV and Streaming picks of the weeks from both The Guardian and TV Times, the first four episodes of For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music are available to stream on YouTube now at www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Wait, I've seen this movie already.

Great night tonight at the @rigb.org with @helenczerski.bsky.social and @philipcball.bsky.social talking about the physics of sound and music for a For the Record event. Watch the documentary at youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Two excellent people, talking about one who was (IMO) less so. But a deeply interesting discussion nonetheless.

Special For the Record event at the historic RI tonight! Introduced by @trunkmanuk.bsky.social followed by two incredible talks on the physics of sound from @helenczerski.bsky.social & @philipcball.bsky.social. 7pm start, handful of tickets remaining - www.rigb.org/whats-on/rec...

Episode 4 tonight at 9pm. We look at the evolution of instruments and the invention of numerous ways to spread music from oral traditions to records and radio. And for long time Shambles fans, tonight's ep marks the first appearance of one @robinince.bsky.social youtu.be/2LWTLhOJbFA

OMG, they did it! Seriously, I am not worthy. 😍

Oh, 1976, yada yada. The top 5 hottest summers in the UK have all been since 2000. They were 2003, 2006, 2018, 2022 and 2025. This summer looks like being hotter. At the risk of seeming insulting, anyone who thinks climate change is a scam needs their heads examining.

Really looking forward to this.

My new YouTube channel, "Unbaffled", is here. It's where I'll be exploring the biggest ideas in science. Our founding principle is that science doesn’t have to be baffling. The first video (on time travel) is here: youtu.be/c63XUCGg9hM Do subscribe, like, etc

I just came across this, rather late in the day. The final sentence is very apt, and I wonder if I detect in it a hint of irony? cc @scurry.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...