I just sent this letter to the Science Minister and the CEO of UKRI concerning STFC's budgets

I always vote first thing; means that even if I die I have done my civic duty for the day.

We’ve been told our content needs to be more informative so here you go

Slightly diminish a book: The spy who got a bit chilly so put a jumper on

Was very pleased to chat to @lizziegibney.bsky.social about one of LHCb's latest results - about why we're excited but also how 'charming penguins' complicate the picture. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

These are extraordinary findings for the High Court to make. Hard to see how the so-called Office for Students can survive in its current form.

Did you know the only sentence in the English language to contain every letter of the alphabet is "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."

Myself and colleagues recently wrote the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology committee. You can find the text of our letter here. committees.parliament.uk/publications...

A fun piece I wrote yesterday!

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

We have an exciting new result from LHCb about to be published in PRL - my colleague Mark Smith and I took a deep look at it in The Conversation. theconversation.com/our-large-ha...

The Pope is WEAK on crime is so gd funny; I am HOWLING

As a physics teacher, this is the part of student AI use that worries me. (Not all of us have decided that things are different this time.) 🎢 🍎 Ref: ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

Each Peach Pear Plum is basically the Avengers of the nursery book world

THEY TRAINED THE AI ON ACTUAL WRITERS. YOU CANNOT TELL IF SOMETHING IS AI SIMPLY BASED ON IT USING PROPER GRAMMAR. IT STOLE FROM US!!! IT STOLE!!! IT IS A THIEF AND I WILL NOT EVER BE QUIET ABOUT IT!!!!

Since the boy wonder arrived we have it set to 19C all day and night, cos we are up so often in the middle of the night.

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

My long term strategy of not changing any of the clocks back finally is paying off.

This seems to be a wholely new form of the Drayson partitions. In this letter, the government and UKRI are saying that they are actively tensioning CERN costs against PPAN grants. This is completely different to what the Drayson partitions have been in the past.

Good piece by @malcfairbairn.bsky.social: "The STFC turmoil bodes ill for UK plc as well as UK physics" www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/stfc...

Why is "if you see nothing else this year, watch this" only four stars? How do you get five?

School bans Twilight & Terry Pratchett books. Their rationale / excuse (hidden at end of article)? "the school admits that the categorisations of the books were written using AI, writing: “Although the categorisation was generated using AI, I consider this classification to be broadly accurate.”"

Deus ex machina...

We're hosting a virtual town hall on 24 Mar, 3-4pm, where our CEO, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, will outline UKRI's upcoming five-year strategy & new mission. He'll be joined by an executive panel and a Q&A will follow. Registration closes 23 Mar, 5pm. Register here⬇️

I salute the pedantry of the child’s new toy.

The Science, Innovation & Tech committee have written the most amazing letter to DSIT/UKRI/STFC: "What is clear is that, despite your assertions to the contrary... widespread cuts have been proposed before adequate consultation with those affected was undertaken. This is wholly unacceptable" 💪🔭⚛️🧪

We have taken to singing this version of the song to the boy wonder www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOEk...

Does this also mean Goodwin has also lost his 'independent commentator' status? Even if he always has this partisan position, it's now official...

This was fun for a Sunday morning. I was okay up to and including 1300, 1200 had me stymied apart from the odd word though.

These cuts to physics research will be a disaster for UK scientists – and for our standing in the world www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

School really made Benelux out to be far more important than it has turned out to be in my life.

While 100% in support of vaccination (it saves lives) the text here is a bit "you wouldn't steal a car"

This is like men's razor blades all over again. Do we get six cheese macaroni next week?

Isn't it five? MacDonald, Atlee, Wilson, Blair, Starmer

So, if Miliband becomes PM do we get our free owl?

Academics on staff profile photo day

Signed. Thanks to all those who organised this.

it's unbelievable to me that someone could actually be a trillionaire. i think most of us have trouble internalizing how much money that truly is. let me put it in simple terms for you: a trillion dollars is three million dollars

Asking for a friend: it's okay to teach your baby how to sing the modern major general song from about four weeks, right?

Profoundly sad to read news of Roger Barlow's passing. A great physicist, educator and communicator, who lived by his principles and would share his wisdom with anyone who asked. The world is now a poorer place.

A rather grim read from the head of UKRI. Basically, the facilities run by STFC that support research across the UKRI's remit have become too expensive. Rather than cut those costs or spread the pain across research areas, the astro and particle physics unlucky enough to be in STFC gets slashed

Conclusion from the last two weeks: that statutory paternity leave is two weeks is a ridiculous position for our society.

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.