For first time in decades, some optimism about future of what's left of Sheffield's steel industry, with big expansions at Sheffield Forgemasters & Special Melted Products. How did Sheffield's specialism in steel arise? Some interesting lessons in a 7 century long history: softmachines.org?p=3308

For first time in decades, some optimism about future of what's left of Sheffield's steel industry, with big expansions at Sheffield Forgemasters & Special Melted Products. How did Sheffield's specialism in steel arise? Some interesting lessons in a 7 century long history: softmachines.org?p=3308

For first time in decades, some optimism about future of what's left of Sheffield's steel industry, with big expansions at Sheffield Forgemasters & Special Melted Products. How did Sheffield's specialism in steel arise? Some interesting lessons in a 7 century long history: softmachines.org?p=3308

Great thread & linked piece on the post GFC regional divergence in risk premia demanded by investors across UK, another driver of regional inequality. Some encouraging signs of reductions in Manchester & W Mids. Drawing on brilliant work from Philip McCann & colleagues at @productivity.bsky.social

What does Andy Burnham mean by "Manchesterism"? What's behind his argument that places like Makerfield need to "re-industrialise"? Some clues from the way Greater Manchester's economic strategy has evolved, since the city centre agglomeration story of Bernstein & Leese: softmachines.org?p=3305

A good FT piece from Martin Wolf arguing, rightly imv, that at root of UK's political woes is a 20 yr long slowdown in productivity growth "a good economy — one with widely shared economic growth — is a necessary condition for political stability in a liberal democracy"...

Last week on Wonkhe: The consensus that more research funding will lead to more growth is breaking down. Richard Jones urges the sector to act before it's too late

What does Andy Burnham mean by "Manchesterism"? What's behind his argument that places like Makerfield need to "re-industrialise"? Some clues from the way Greater Manchester's economic strategy has evolved, since the city centre agglomeration story of Bernstein & Leese: softmachines.org?p=3305

What does Andy Burnham mean by "Manchesterism"? What's behind his argument that places like Makerfield need to re-industrialise? I take a look at the evolution of GM's economic strategy to get some clues softmachines.org?p=3305

What does Andy Burnham mean by "Manchesterism"? What's behind his argument that places like Makerfield need to re-industrialise? I take a look at the evolution of GM's economic strategy to get some clues softmachines.org?p=3305

What does Andy Burnham mean by "Manchesterism"? What's behind his argument that places like Makerfield need to re-industrialise? I take a look at the evolution of GM's economic strategy to get some clues softmachines.org?p=3305

Me in @wonkhe.bsky.social on the breakdown of political consensus supporting R&D spending, as the UK economy continues to stagnate & the world looks more dangerous. The science funding system needs to adapt and demonstrate that it is delivering for the nation. wonkhe.com/blogs/uk-sci...

Me in @wonkhe.bsky.social on the breakdown of political consensus supporting R&D spending, as the UK economy continues to stagnate & the world looks more dangerous. The science funding system needs to adapt and demonstrate that it is delivering for the nation. wonkhe.com/blogs/uk-sci...

NEW on Wonkhe: The consensus that more research funding will lead to more growth is breaking down. Richard Jones urges the sector to act before it's too late buff.ly/HFLssJX

Belief in a coming technological Singularity, as predicted in 2005 by Ray Kurzweil, is widespread in Silicon Valley, on basis of progress in AI But Kurzweil’s singularity wasn’t just about AI, it needed Drexlerian nanotechnology, which has seen little progress I discuss here: softmachines.org?p=3302

Will the Singularity be postponed? Twenty years ago Kurzweil predicted 2049; many SV folks think we’re on schedule, thanks to AI developments But Kurzweil’s singularity wasn’t just about AI, it needed Drexlerian nanotechnology, which has seen little progress My blogpost: softmachines.org?p=3302

Will the Singularity be postponed? Twenty years ago Kurzweil predicted 2049; many SV folks think we’re on schedule, thanks to AI developments But Kurzweil’s singularity wasn’t just about AI, it needed Drexlerian nanotechnology, which has seen little progress My blogpost: softmachines.org?p=3302

Sad to say goodbye to our cat Flossy, aged 17.5 Her slight build and kitten like features belied a cat with strong opinions, poor impulse control and an occasional anger management problem. We'll miss her terribly.

The Conservative plan to cut the budget of UK Research and Innovation by 20%, reallocating the money to defence, is a signal that a 20 year old cross-party consensus on science funding has come to an end…

The Conservative plan to cut the budget of UK Research and Innovation by 20%, reallocating the money to defence, is a signal that a 20 year old cross-party consensus on science funding has come to an end…

Important piece from @anjahuja.bsky.social: public trust in science in the UK remains high, but this can't be taken for granted in a polarised political climate. "Science is increasingly seen as a fallible institution run by a liberal elite in its own interests" www.ft.com/content/2c6b...

The UK has just two companies in the world top 100 R&D spenders - both pharma - & while the world landscape is dominated by software and tech hardware firms, UK-owned firms are conspicuous by their absence from those fast-growing sectors...

Cuts to US science proposed by President Trump are astonishing in their scale $5.9 bn cut to National Institute of Health, $4.8 bn cut to National Science Foundation A warning to UK scientists of what happens when a cross-party consensus on science funding breaks down www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Sul y Blodau. In the last two years, my mother asked me to put flowers on my father's memorial on Palm Sunday. This year it's for both of them.

More details on the government's £2.5 billion plan to build a pilot scale nuclear fusion power plant, with a goal of having fusion power on the grid by 2040. I'm surprised that this v ambitious plan doesn't get more coverage www.gov.uk/government/p...

For more than a decade, there’s been a cross-party consensus behind increasing the UK govt’s R&D spending to drive economic growth - & there’s been a substantial real terms increase in the science budget.

Three recent pessimistic pieces from me about the potential fragility of the consensus supporting UK government spending on research and development, given UK’s continuing economic difficulties, global insecurity, & return of energy geopolitics, as effects of climate change start to bite...

For more than a decade, there’s been a cross-party consensus behind increasing the UK govt’s R&D spending to drive economic growth - & there’s been a substantial real terms increase in the science budget. But the economic growth hasn’t arrived, yet. What happens if it doesn’t?

Good to see that the govt is taking forward the recommendations of the Fingleton Review on Nuclear Regulation. But regulatory reform by itself is not enough to get new nuclear power delivered affordably & on time - we need to rebuild national technological capability...

"Lessons from the gas price spike". Written in 2022, but (unfortunately) worth revisiting. softmachines.org?p=2675

The problem of predicting protein structure from sequence has been definitively solved by the AI programme AlphaFold, winning a well-deserved Nobel prize for its developers. But structure prediction is just one of at least four different problems of protein folding...

Biggest contribution of AI to science so far: AlphaFold, which has solved problem of predicting protein 3d structure from 1d sequence. But there are other problems of protein folding: understanding mechanisms & pathways, misfolding, & role of disordered proteins: my blogpost softmachines.org?p=3258

The problem of predicting protein structure from sequence has been definitively solved by the AI programme AlphaFold, winning a well-deserved Nobel prize for its developers. But structure prediction is just one of at least four different problems of protein folding...

This is very very good on the underperformance of the UK graduate premium. It's a demand side problem.* *as people at SPRU have been saying for 40 years.

Great piece from @tomforth.co.uk on the shrinking graduate premium in the UK. The UK's skills problem is not a problem of supply, it's one of demand; our regional economies are not complex & successful enough to absorb the number of graduates we produce. tomforth.co.uk/graduateprem...

One unhelpful aspect of current discourse around universities is tendency to set HE & vocational courses in opposition. Reality is more than half of students in UK universities are doing these directly vocational subjects: -Business studies -subjects allied to medicine -computing -engineering -law

One unhelpful aspect of current discourse around universities is tendency to set HE & vocational courses in opposition. Reality is more than half of students in UK universities are doing these directly vocational subjects: -Business studies -subjects allied to medicine -computing -engineering -law

The biggest upheaval in UK science policy since the 1980s is currently underway, with the creation of a much more direct & explicit link between UK government priorities & £9bn/ yr of R&D funded by the agency UKRI My attempt to explain & set in historical context softmachines.org?p=3252

The biggest upheaval in UK science policy since the 1980s is currently underway, with the creation of a much more direct & explicit link between UK government priorities & £9bn/ yr of R&D funded by the agency UKRI My attempt to explain & set in historical context softmachines.org?p=3252

Excellent background to current UK R&D funding turbulence.

A superb summary. Particularly valuable for comparing the scale of budgets allocated to curiosity-driven research compared to everything else, and therefore judging whether the balance is optimal. I suspect not.

This is very good. I would add the current breakdown in the triple-stream funding model as we shift to buckets is likely to do significant damage to research capability in the short term, even if the overall change is a good one.

The way UK govt funds science is in the midst of a major transition, with creation of a much more direct link between government priorities & UKRI research funding. My attempt to set in context the biggest upheaval in UK science funding policy since the 1980s: softmachines.org?p=3252

Rock-climber Alex Honnold is in the news again, for climbing solo a Taipei skyscraper - an excuse to recycle this old post of mine about the importance of technological innovation in climbing, (contrary to the claims of a well-known economist).

Rock-climber Alex Honnold is in the news again, for climbing solo a Taipei skyscraper - an excuse to recycle this old post of mine about the importance of technological innovation in climbing, (contrary to the claims of a well-known economist).

For followers of the Housing Theory of Everything: Why I don't think all our problems can be ascribed to the 1947 Town & Country Planning Act

As pressure builds on the UK to re-build, re-energise, re-arm and re-industrialise, for an increasingly hostile world, a decades old consensus on science funding is likely to come to an end. Wrote this a few months ago, recent events don't persuade me I was being alarmist. softmachines.org?p=3192

It wasn't high energy prices that caused the historic decline in UK manufacturing: fastest drop happened while energy prices were low and falling, & North Sea oil & gas production at its peak. But energy costs a big problem now & hard choices are needed to hold onto strategic sectors

The decline of UK industry wasn’t caused by high energy prices - largest relative decline in manufacturing occurred between 1995 & 2005, when energy prices were low and falling, & the UK was an energy exporter. But high energy prices are a problem for manufacturing now

This is a great read and contains an early candidate for "Understatement of the Year"