In case the news is causing nothing but despair

'For instance, “Learn how to use the internet” - a free general computer literacy course - is listed as beginner-level. As is a course called “Git Fundamentals”.' 🤦‍♂️

The article itself even shows those annoying aspects of chatGPT written crap. Every other sentence basically a list. We need a word for it, maybe chatGPGibberish

Amazing sob story: "ChatGPT deleted all the work I hadn't done" www.nature.com/articles/d41...

So many of HE’s problems are the product of these efforts to generate market structures that just simply don’t work because the conditions that markets need to work really aren’t there, and all they do is create uncertainty (and financial problems) for students, staff, and institutions.

Very enjoyable thread!

Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.

Years ago my friend Dave’s then-four-year-old son walked into a room, looked at Dave, and said, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Mr. Daddy.”

The days between December 25 and January 1 are the Lanthanides and Actinides of the Gregorian calendar

Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower

🇮🇪 #Eurovision 1994 winner Charlie McGettigan will return his trophy to the EBU in protest of Israel's inclusion. "In support of Nemo I would like to return my trophy to the EBU as well. Unfortunately our win was in 1994, but if I do find it I will return [it]". [📹 IPSC]

Quantum mechanics has gone from a theory in test to becoming the foundation of new technologies. Learn more in a new #SciencePerspective that looks at the last 100 years of #QuantumMechanics: https://scim.ag/4pVyB1p

Ooh, this is some lovely BOC content. youtu.be/wubkrBd3-gg?...

I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You asked a question at the end of a work meeting. Prepare to die.

Really enjoyed this one. Yes it's true that grain alcohol would avoid autoignition and engine knock, same as tetraethyl lead (TEL). I was teaching my students about it this week. But ethanol was expensive and you would need a lot hence less profitable. Thomas Midgely Jr introduced lead to petrol 1/2

Back to life drawing today. The class did a joint 'frieze' with charcoal.

I see it's time for me to make the point again that the poppy is a fundraising campaign for the Royal British Legion, a specific, mundane entity that is not exempt from scrutiny and does not own the concept of remembrance. You can read its 2024 accounts here: storage.rblcdn.co.uk/sitefinity/d...

In honor of the upcoming #WomenInPhysics Day, let's create a thread of amazing women physicists. I'll start with one my favorites, Chien-Shiung Wu, who is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, which proved that parity is not conserved. ⚛️ 🧪 👩‍🔬 🎢

A new preprint and two firsts: Joana Bustamante's first first-author preprint in our group and us developing a model for thermal conductivity! Feedback welcome! arxiv.org/abs/2510.23133 #compchem

“Now go to sleep, Kevin—or once again I’ll have to knock three times and summon the Floating Head of Death.”

In case you haven't seen it yet, the 2023 film Rye Lane is on the BBC iPlayer and is a total delight ▶️📺 www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

If this intends to make it legally compulsory for every adult in Derry to carry something called a "Brit Card", then I'm willing to offer some high-paid consultancy on why this plan might be flawed.

A piece in the Guardian today focuses on the Irish game of road bowling; it reminded me of this work (1941) by Gabriel Hayes showing the game in action - it used to be confined to West Cork. share.google/6u9a5XNcui7J...

Worrying - Quarter of UK university physics departments at risk of closing, survey finds | Physics | The Guardian share.google/OloD34Di6p9D...

This isn't my idea it's @alicebennett.bsky.social 's as I recall, but I think it's time for this meme to join our HE binfire pantheon.

Remember this? In the 1990s, a popular view of nanotechnology claimed that molecular gears like this, made of diamondoid carbon, were going to be the components of molecular-scale assemblers and nanobots. But that vision hasn't come to pass. My article in Aeon explores why. aeon.co/essays/no-su...

“Oh boy! ... It’s dog food again!”

In my latest (and last!) column for Science’s Expert Voices series, I write about the reasons behind AI chatbots’ “deceptive” behaviors (and why Claude threatened a fictional CEO with blackmail). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

If you’re based in Britain and are hurling-curious, the final will be on BBC 2 tomorrow afternoon: www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/... It might help put the article below (or indeed, my annual fretting about the fortunes of the Cork hurling team) into context.

Claire is very happy with this present! Always love a maths joke. Thanks to @mooseallain.bsky.social !

Bjork bouncing.

Conscientious SUV Shopper Just Wants Something That Will Kill Family In Other Car In Case Of Accident theonion.com/conscie...

Tonight’s huge climbdown is testament to the countless disabled people who have tirelessly fought these cuts. Yes, UC was a loss and there’s more to do on PIP, but let’s not underplay this: a government with a vast majority has been forced to u-turn. Because of the disabled community.

Kneecap set was great. Why is there only 12 mins of Amyl and the Sniffers on iplayer though? #Glastonbury

yeah that's right fuck off

Neighbor-Source Heat Pump xkcd.com/3099/

Alright scrotum throat, what’s the craic?

Collage work from today's life drawing lesson! #art

It's incredible to think that British liberal democracy is (maybe) going under because the labour party outsourced its entire intellectual apparatus to some gobshite from *Macroom.* Truly, the long tail of empire.

The first release of our text-to-crystal model, Chemeleon, is out in @natcomms.nature.com 🌈 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Code: github.com/hspark1212/c... You can sample an inorganic structure in minutes on a laptop thanks to @hspark1212.bsky.social - #CompChem that gives me goosebumps!

Lovely to hear from the Prime Minister that the historical policies which allowed my Mum to remain in the UK after studying here, thus enabling my existence, was a “squalid experiment in open borders”.

First life drawing class since January! The Saturday classes keep getting cancelled and today only 3 of us were there, but hope to have some more in the next few weeks

Unstoppable Force and Immovable Object xkcd.com/3084

poster session B at #QCTIP on day one in Berlin

Was once asked to paint all 31 counties of Ireland as a commission, a task that was uncontroversial and made nobody shout at me.

There are many sides to "defect tolerance" in metal halide perovskite solar cells 🛑. Our discussions with @hoyegroupox.bsky.social led to a new review in @natrevchem.bsky.social led by @ireaml.bsky.social. Out today #ChemSky: rdcu.be/egK3Z