Pleased to be attending symposium honouring Richard Friend. Amazing to think we first met as undergraduates 54 years ago. Also occasional scientific collaborator.

Our Places of Science scheme is now open for applications. If you're a small museum looking to tell stories of science and scientists relevant to your local community, you could get up to £3,500 to support your project. For more info royalsociety.org/grants/place...

It's years since a committee I was on pointed out to Nick Gibb the science national curriculum barely mentioned women. It doesn't look as if the current wider KS3 curriculum has remembered women played their part in history www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Interesting rumours here about visa costs. UK's are completely out of line with other countries (and add in health charges), impacting on possibility of many ECRs coming to the UK eg to do a postdoc www.ft.com/content/3ba2...

Some worrying issues in science teaching - continuing shortages of subject specialists (esp for physics), and lower than average retention rates, all adding up to blockages in the STEM talent pipeline

We need to sort out our science teaching in schools if we're to produce the next generation of STEM qualified workers and researchers for our economy. What's going wrong for teachers? occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Tough life being a secondary school science teacher. I consider recent reports from @instituteofphysics.bsky.social and @rsc.org highlighting what's wrong and what could (fairly easily) be bette occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

As we celebrate 80 years since the first women were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, Ruby Seger-Bernard, Schools Engagement Officer, and Isabelle Moss, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, reflect on the importance of inspiring girls and young women in science:

Looking forward to participating in this conversation about the role of women in science and philosophy, past and present, on October 27th with @cescapeacock.bsky.social and @jennmpark.bsky.social #womeninSTEM www.thephilosopher1923.org/events/on-th...

Time to read this !

Important evidence on lack of physics teachers in today’s report from @instituteofphysics.bsky.social www.iop.org/about/public...

Quarter of schools in England lack a physics teacher, analysis finds

RIP Margaret Rossiter, who coined the phrase the Matilda Effect (amongst many others), a phenomenon too many women will have seen first hand

The NHS is hopeless at treating back pain, partly because serious and minor cases are all put in the same bucket resulting in long waiting lists. But could a physio app piloted in Cambridgeshire allowing patients to start treatment straight away be the answer? open.substack.com/pub/rorycell...

More concerns about ONS statistical data reliability, this time about gender pay gap www.ft.com/content/4cb1...

Innovation and skills....There is a welcome increase in A Level Physics entries, but percentage of girls only creeping up and still not yet at 25%. When will that happen, let alone parity? www.iop.org/about/news/a...

"Oh, so you are still using your bizarre scroll? I just bought the newest technology, a printed book with a binding, wanna have closer a look"? Academic small talk back then, #academicchatter.

Congratulations to Churchill College’s @timminshall.bsky.social on his wonderful book Your Life Is Manufactured making @royalsociety.org’s book prize shortlist

Great to see UK's strengthening its science through funding from Horizon Europe www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

UK has been struggling with getting statistics it needs. Deeply affects good policy-making. New chair for UK Statistics Authority needed uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/applica...

Paperback publication day! Have a good read. Things changing far too slowly for #womeninSTEM

Call for 2025 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science UK and Ireland Young Talent Awards, worth £25,000, now open #womeninstem www.forwomeninscience.com/challenge/sh...

I attended the launch of the Civil Society Covenant this week, an uplifting day with many Parliamentarians lending their voice. My reflections occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

I attended the launch of the Civil Society Covenant this week, an uplifting day with many Parliamentarians lending their voice. My reflections occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Exciting! Just got my hands on the new paperback edition of my book. Publication date July 24th: £8.99 from OUP

Born #OnThisDay in 1819 was Eunice Newton Foote. Her experiments with solar radiation and carbon dioxide may have lead her to be the first to hypothesise the greenhouse effect, three years before John Tyndall FRS published his work. #WomenInSTEM llustration: Carlyn Iverson, NOAA Climate.gov.

The 10ppt drop in disadvantaged 2 year old take up in the past year is really worrying for the Opportunities Mission goals - though there is caution urged around those headline numbers. Our CEPEO Early Years lead, Prof Claire Crawford, is looking into what might be going on. Watch this space 👀

Interesting morning at launch of Civil Society Covenant, with passionate speeches about its importance from PM and Lisa Nandy

Heartbreaking to read of a child in the UK dying from an entirely preventable infectious disease. Measles can be a vicious & deadly illness. The MMR vaccine offers superb protection & there is NO link between the vaccine and autism, contrary to what many medical charlatans try to peddle. (1/3)

We should also remember the Russell Einstein manifesto, celebrated this week by British Pugwash @royalsociety.org britishpugwash.org/watch-online...

📉 UK productivity has stalled for 15+ years. A new report from @niesrorg.bsky.social & @productivity.bsky.social says it’s time to act: ✅ Align skills & industry ✅ Invest in housing, transport, digital ✅ Empower local leaders 🔗 www.productivity.ac.uk/research/joi...

Interesting analysis from @ersatzben.bsky.social on what makes good interdisciplinary research. UKRI doesn’t come out well. ‘Despite integration within single UKRI umbrella, UK government funding seems to remain unusually focussed on silos of activity….’ johnsonb.substack.com/p/what-actua...

Given both the Industrial Strategy and societal needs, what do we need to do to have an adequate engineering talent pipeline? occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Engineering education and the Government's Industrial Strategy. Work to be done at every age to get this right. Upping the Engineering Talent Pipeline occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Home Office is looking for a new CSA. Closing date, July 28th, details www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe12337...

“That meagre 16% still equates to nearly a million women working in engineering and technology in the UK today. We have about 20,000 primary schools, so that is 50 women as engineering role models for every primary school!“ www.ingenia.org.uk/articles/rol...

Another unsung early female scientist coming out of the woodwork: Annie Walker, the first to be paid a salary by a UK observatory (bizarrely illustrated with an image 50 years too early from Cambridge) www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Culturally biased - it's far too easy for all of us to fall into traps of bias without even noticing #diversity #womeninstem occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Some thoughts on how hard it is to spot our cultural biases, spurred on by reading @lawrennd.bsky.social 's informative book The Atomic Human occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

The APEX Awards, jointly awarded with the @britishacademy.bsky.social and the @raeng.org.uk, are now open for applications, giving independent researchers the opportunity to pursue genuine interdisciplinary research. Applications now close on 09 September: #RSGrants royalsociety.org/grants/apex-...

Today is International Women in Engineering Day. So much that needs to be done here in the UK. I wrote a policy brief about some of the underlying issues last month www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/publications...

Highlighting Women in Quantum History - new book. Some names to add to your lectures on quantum physics. 🧪 ⚛️ 🎢👩‍🔬

R&D spending is in the headlines today on the back of a breathless press release. Enthusiastic coverage is always welcome, but - Pretty much flat in real terms - No info on whether increases are backloaded - Could still be tough for UKRI Need the detail on Weds www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Good to see govt announcement of £4.8m to support collaboration between Manchester and Cambridge. Manchester has much to learn from Cambridge's remarkable deeptech innovation system, while Manchester has the capacity to grow new businesses to scale www.cam.ac.uk/news/greater...

Today Bridget Philipson sets out her priorities for Skills England as it formally launches assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683d67...

Technicians are a crucial but underappreciated part of the scientific ecosystem. A recent meeting @royalsociety.org discussed what needs to be done to improve their lot royalsociety.org/blog/2025/06...

An excellent piece - thank you Athene. When the demand for, utilisation of and investment in skills is also taken into consideration; more complexity to the 'skills' debate is added.

Skills can mean so many different things in different contexts. We need to be clearer if we are to fix the 'skills gap' occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

What do you mean by the word 'skills'? It means many things to different people. I argue we need better differentiation, not use the word loosely everywhere occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

In talking to women in STEM about applying for grants, internal demand management comes up incredibly frequently as a barrier to progress. If you have experience of this process (sometimes also called triage or gatekeeping), whether good or bad, please do talk to EDICa about it!