Cat wandered in front of the camera during the #aurora long exposure

Almost certainly the best thing I was ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler at an owl sanctuary and he told me that the wild owls who lived near the sanctuary worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.

Brief life update: My son was born last week. A very proud father here, incredibly grateful to the entire team at the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh. Emily and the boy wonder/Dauphin/etc continue to do very well.

I like the implication in these pictures that on the other 364 days of the year, the zoo has only the vaguest sense of how many lions it should have

Life Achievement: Driving Test passed

10% of profits from this special edition will be donated to Mermaids, a charity that works to support trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse young people in the UK. I'm very happy and excited about this one!

Well, the FIFA Peace Prize committee must be feeling very silly today.

Goodbye 2025! Welcome to 2026!

Early Christmas present from LHCb: the update of our B->K*mumu analysis using the full dataset recorded by the first iteration of our machine! Excitingly, we see significant deviations from Standard Model predictions - roughly '4 sigma' if you look at everything together. arxiv.org/abs/2512.18053

I have achieved peak Will: coffee + The Economist while I wait for 10am to buy some (alcohol-free) mulled wine thanks to Scotland's alcohol trading laws.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Really sad to read this - Robin is one of the kindest and funniest comedians out there. I hope my principles survive the way his have when they get tested.

I have broken the glass on the Xmas jumper!

Exeter City fans have a chant where they just sing the word “cider” to the tune of Amazing Grace. It might very well be the apex of English culture youtu.be/_fFocA4UsN0?...

Just noting that the wording of this includes people who speak Gaelic.

The wreath is up!

RIP the greatest British playwright of our time on.ft.com/4anfEQJ

This is true. It is the best email I got this year.

I'd like to see the response to this if the question added "if that that means universities have less money to spend on UK students".

Cricket: Absolutely awful. Great bowling got us out of a hole but you cannot rely on lightning striking twice. Aussies can work out how to play between innings in a way our lot seemingly can't. Lack of warm up matches an issue but also need to be able to think on the fly.

They're also responsible for one of the best emails I've ever received, when the college office sent out a plea for sightings of Professor Biscuit while conveniently forgetting to mention that he was a cat...(I won't comment on how often a similar email might have gone out about human Professors...)

If there's one cricket side in the world who can take the rough with the smooth, it's one captained by Steve Smith. But I guess sometimes you can't sand over the cracks.

Me waking up and digesting what a “Aus 0-1 (0.2 overs) Weatherald lbw b Archer 0” alert on my phone meant given the time it was sent

Happy International Day of LGBTQIA+ People In STEM! How are you celebrating it? #LGBTQSTEMDay #PrideInSTEM

Are you in Edinburgh? This will be a super talk - don't miss it!

Excited to be speaking to IOP Scotland @ the Royal Society of Edinburgh later today, about the mysteries our fundamental research at CERN is attempting to solve.

Part 125 of 200 in historically interesting things to inspire your ttrpg dnd A 3770 year old Babylonian clay tablet written in Akkadian, containing the oldest known cooking recipes. The tablet includes 25 recipes for stews, 21 meat stews and 4 vegetable stews.

Interested in a fully funded PhD place in Experimental Particle Physics in Edinburgh? We have fully funded studentships, including a specific scholarship for students from a Black heritage (including mixed Black background). More info: inspirehep.net/jobs/3080808

“Wallace Shawn from DS9”

* mind blown*

This weekend, reflecting on the Louvre case, I think I came up with a get rich quick scheme.

From today's lecture: as good physicists we know we can just divide both sides by dx

Spring bulbs planted 💐🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻💐

Age has reached me. I now need reading glasses.

Not to make light of the editorial failure, but look how far Twitter lies now permeate in to normal discourse. We think we know about the racism but the utter contempt for truth since Musk bought the platform is deliberate & very dangerous. You can’t foment racism with fact checkers in the building.

Welcome to the Panopticon!

I remember getting a random message from a friend when we were at uni who was excited that she'd met Ming, and found him to be kind, smart, and funny.

25 September 1942 | A German Sinti girl, Theresie Hellberg, was born in Rostock. In #Zigeunerlager (Gypsy camp) in #Auschwitz II-Birkenau from 15 March 1943. No. Z-3915 She perished in the camp on 28 March 1943. --- The fate of the Roma in Auschwitz: Podcast: https://youtu.be/eb31osDbyk0

I am coming to Otley soon otleycourthouse.org.uk/events/robin...

Vaughan Williams. Quarter zips.

Being non-partisan, unbiased, and information- and knowledge-led now feels like a partisan position. I think that's part of the issue the BBC has.

Quietly self-radicalising by listening to Grace Petrie on repeat.

No comment. Anyway, they still could come in useful. newsthump.com/2025/09/18/m...

My back hurts

The neighbourhood committee welcomes me home after two weeks away

I've said it once, I'll say it again: music peaked with REM.

Farewell to Durham and the STFC HEP summer school...my hotel probably had one of the best views of any hotel room I've had.

I know why the caged bird rings

Omg I love themmmmm 😭