On design in science communication. Looks a really interesting project! #SciComm

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing #academicSky theconversation.com/the-5-stages...

When did hydrologists become historians? #FDRI has released 35 years of hi-res data from the Plynlimon Research Catchments! Read about our process of unearthing 35 years of measurements and what it means for understanding river processes: https://f.mtr.cool/grqzmwiqsd 🧪

"Our analysis reveals that ... informal gatekeeping can perpetuate structural inequities in science, highlighting the need for stronger data-sharing mandates & more equitable open access policies."

Watched Oppenheimer yesterday. Good to see science depicted as entwined with politics: from political will to fund certain kinds of science, through disciplinary (including intergenerational) politics, to the personal politics of career-building for scientists & politicians. Science is social.

Farage wants everyone to perform a nationalist narrative, not understand history.

The UK’s largest planned data centre—a project by US firm QTS—is understating its true water consumption by a factor of 50, says new analysis by @watershed-i.bsky.social & @aiarmsracebook.bsky.social @digiconomist.bsky.social No mistake; AI is a heavy, polluting industry. shorturl.at/KXQxJ

Wow. This is a pretty big thing. I do a lot of reviewing and my stance is commonly to focus on the things that researchers can improve, but also discuss the fundamental approach. This "plausibility of the argument" is very dangerous imho.

Came across this on peer reviewers using AI just after reading Loru et al's (2025) 'The simulation of judgment in LLMs'. Epistemia: "the illusion of knowledge emerging when plausibility replaces verification"; an epistemic shift in judgment. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

"...there is a big difference between a process that is efficient and one that is valid." Giorgio F Gilestro on AI 'peer' review.

I hate use of the phrase "marking their own homework" to dismiss self-regulation by an organisation or sector. To be fair I've not used self-assessment with students often, but whenever I have their assessments are realistic, if not overly harsh. It's a lazy trope by politicians & journalists.

"Economics can’t heal the moral, relational, and spiritual crises that most of the world now faces. But stories can."

Special section in the new issue of Area looks good: Gender and Rewilding. #FeministGeographies #Rewilding #Geography rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14754762...

PhD defended! My thesis asks why, in 2025, we still explain housing crises, border regimes and climate breakdown through “overpopulation” – even when the evidence points to extraction, speculation and colonial histories instead.

#geography #CulturalGeography #AcademicSky #AnimalGeographies

Published today! Understanding Cultural Landscapes, by Rachel Hunt & Ben Garlick. Priveleged to have had a preview of this, and very pleased to recommend it! #geography #Landscape #CulturalGeography www.routledge.com/Understandin...

Excellent piece here on Geography and pedagogies for future #highered #academicsky #geography

Used to the 'places' in one-place studies staying put, this place study of the very mobile Mermaid, specifically her 1863/4 England to New Zealand voyage, is as unusual as it is excellent. Applause researcher Maggie Gaffney, whose own relatives were passengers on the Mermaid. mermaid1864.org/about/

If anyone is feeling generous enough to spend a few seconds on a questionnaire on perceptions of English & Scottish folk music, here's a link. You don't need knowledge of either. My nephew will be grateful. 🙏🏻 #folkmusic #identity forms.office.com/e/YY2vieygJd

Extraordinary account of the complexities of identity and data, two very different forms of knowing.

Seriously though, when did April Fools' day move to November? #HigherEd #Academicsky www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Mighty fine weather for graduation week.

Top advice here. Over 20 years in, I feel like I've recently started to figure this out for myself.

"To be of a place is to know the stories of the land. Whether they’re about heroes traversing imaginary worlds, or the complexities of knowledge tied with the shifts of wind or cycles of the fish..." Jamie Tahana on climate change, global responsibilities & Indigenous sovereignty.

We wrote this paper a while ago and since then OpenAI has claimed plans to be "core infrastructure" of education, Google has rammed Gemini into schools via its education platforms, and AWS showed it underpins most edtech platforms... 1/

1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad 2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices. www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...

Save Geography at the University of Leicester. The University of Leicester is proposing to dissolve Geography into a School of Chemical, Earth & Environmental Science. All research-active human geographers are at threat of redundancy. Add your voice to keep #Geography whole! c.org/sbYBqcwrhC

Really great trip yesterday telling the story of the management on the River Hull, from top to bottom. Amazing remeandering work on the beautiful and rare chalk rivers at Driffield Trout Stream!

Excellent #fieldtrip yesterday looking at #RiverManagement across the Hull catchment, from headwaters to the Humber estuary. Organised & led by @geoskinner.games, with insights from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England & Hull City Council. And the weather stayed dry for us!

Often overlooked, small water bodies - streams, damp ditches, small bogs, ponds - support more rare species compared with larger habitats while high-quality ponds support about 2/3 of all freshwater plant + animal species in a landscape. 🧵 1/4 freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/news/start-w...

Geography in the service of the imperial state: Putin speaking at the Russian Geographical Society emphasising the political utility of mapping and geographical knowledge

On language, AI and the loss of embodied knowledge and intuition. "...we are now feeding AI outputs back into training data. The result is linguistic patterns amplifying themselves, detached from embodied experience."

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.” Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability and quality of life. Common sense. Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

9-year-old's letter to BBC Children's programme: Blue Peter (1973) Hollander is now Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Impact and Professor of StemCell Biology at Liverpool University #highered #science #medicine #surgery #edchat #education www.liverpool.ac.uk/researcher/w...

Education & politics, in Aotearoa & internationally. "...if you control the curriculum, you can erase histories and languages. Education is not and has never been a neutral space, it either strengthens the status quo or challenges it” (Tina Ngata).

I wrote about the stupid white paper. In summary, with these people in the driver's seat and apparently unbothered by consequences, we're so cooked.

Good to see this from my former Geography @worcesteruni.bsky.social colleagues Albert Mvula, Alan Dixon & Ian Maddock www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

JOB: Lecturer in #geography, expertise in #geomorphology & #hydrology. Full-time, permanent. Deadline 04 Nov. Come and join a small, highly collegial team! #academicsky #HEjobs #UKHE jobs.yorksj.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Many thanks to @richardfisher.bsky.social for this lovely article on my #urbangeology rambles! www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Oh, such a fabulous piece: on education, the Proclaimers, and the power and limitations of maps... "I think it is sad that you would come to college to be told where to go. I think it is sad that you would go to college and follow a map written by someone else." #academicsky

Great to see this research into an important aspect of rural health, led by my former colleague Nick Evans @worcesteruni.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Today I managed to be both early and late for the same meeting. Early bcs I put the event in my calendar while in Finland, & Outlook 'helpfully' adjusted it to UK time. I turned up 2 hours early. Late (5 mins) bcs I was then concentrating and didn't notice the time. 🙄 How's your day going?

This is what climate scientists have been warning about for decades. We were told, by people sprawled on their fainting couches, that the scientists were just fear mongering. Many of the world‘s largest cities are coastal. It won’t just be towns, but cities that will have to be abandoned. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️

This is so idiotic. Students get exceptional, competent (the vast majority) and mediocre teachers in every single institution. And success depends not on the teacher but on the student and how hard they work

Fabulous couple of days at the Philosophy of Geography conference for doctoral researchers, University of Oulu, organised by Dr Johanna Sitomaniemi-San, Prof Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola & Dr Marika Kettunen. The university's botanical gardens were the perfect setting. 1/2

A super first day at the University of Oulu, Finland. Honoured to be the opening speaker for the Geography Research Unit's inaugural Philosophy of Geography conference for PhD researchers. Discussion time raised lots of big questions about the nature of geography. A bit of sightseeing a bonus!

As a primatologist, Jane Goodall was a huge inspiration to me. I admired the way she describes chimpanzee behavior with such detail and empathy, and she’s inspired so many people and advocated for chimpanzee conservation and welfare. However, I'm dismayed at what her narrative leaves out (1/10)

YSJ Geography is marking Black History Month by celebrating the work of Black geographers past and present on our blog. With thanks to colleagues, esp Olalekan Adekola, Tokunbo Olorundami & Jamie Arathoon. 1/2 #BlackHistoryMonth #Geosky #Geography blog.yorksj.ac.uk/geography/20...

And so starts semester 1 and the Geographical Thought module. Feeling more excited than usual this year, trying something new. Each week I introduce a different approach to research: positivist, structuralist, phenomenological, poststructuralist etc. 1/4 #AcademicSky #Geography

A super piece by John Horton (Northampton) on gentleness in the anything-but-gentle academy. Ever felt nervous about public speaking? Conferences cause existential angst? Wonder whether you fit in as an academic? You're not alone. #AcademicSky rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....