We shouldn't start caring only, and suddenly, when it's an 'elite' research-intensive university. Like climate change we needed to start caring a long time ago and there's no better time to start than now.

I am very glad to see how widely covered the insanity at Exeter is, but please I beg everyone, understand this is happening EVERYWHERE in UK universities. If people care about anything valuable that this sector does or contributes too, they need to get loud, now.

At today's UKRI board meeting, the fate of UK particle physics and astronomy will likely be decided. Have we done enough to convince the powers-that-be to halt the proposed funding cuts? 🤞 Read Prof. Hiranya Peiris in Nature today eloquently explaining why these cuts are wrong.🧪🔭⚛️ 📖: rdcu.be/friwM

wake up babe new emily gilmore lore just dropped 🏳️‍⚧️

I hate that this — urgent pleas to save prestigious departments from drastic cuts — is becoming a regular occurrence. A program like this takes decades to build and a few strokes of a pen to destroy.

the deep deep irony of the unions trying to block Ed as chancellor bc he’s doesn’t want to drill more fossil fuels the week of an extreme heat emergency thanks to fossil fuel use 🫠

An analysis of 85 British news programmes during a May 2026 heatwave found only 4 mentioned fossil fuels as the cause explicitly. I suspect it'll be the same proportion for this current heatwave. What is the point, if the primary cause isn't stated clearly? climatenewstracker.org/during-the-h...

Shout it from the (currently extremely hot) rooftops

Indeed. It's also surprising that UKRI thinks it can make a dent in a research space where 20 million is several orders of magnitude smaller than the amounts FAANG are shoveling into R&D. Why not fund stuff commercial interests cannot do than try and compete?

A high-risk mission will soon attempt to save the Swift observatory. A rescue spacecraft, designed & built in just 7 months, will rendezvous with the space telescope, grab on, then boost it to a higher orbit. If it works. Report by @danclery.bsky.social 🛰️☄️🔭🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

UKRI sounding eerily like Linton Barwick from @aiannucci.bsky.social’s In the Loop. “Those minutes should not be a reductive record of what happened to have been said, but they should be more a full record of what was intended to have been said. I think that’s the more accurate version don’t you?”

I've had 2 journalists today asking if Miliband as Chancellor would be a "Liz Truss moment" and find it difficult not to just respond "are you on crack?".

The case for Ed Miliband as Chancellor.

Let’s do jobs first, the easy one. Net zero is creating a lot more jobs than it is destroying. The CCC estimated it will create 135,000 to 725,000 *net* new jobs by 2030. Many of them technical jobs. Until the labour market loosened recently, these extra jobs were kind of a problem with net zero

[3/n] Before January 2026, 74% of respondents would have recommended a PPAN career in the UK to their peers. 📉After the proposed cuts, only 7% now say they would recommend it. ❌This collapse in confidence has not recovered since the last UKRI and DSIT announcements.

📢The results from a survey of 449 early-career researchers in PPAN science are out🧪🔭 Only 8% would now recommend a PPAN career in the UK. 79% are less reassured by recent UKRI announcements. 89% report low confidence in UK postdoc opportunities. 👉 ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io/survey.html

'We are clamping down on the harm caused by social media. 'Read all about it on the Nazi pogrom deepfake abuse website'

Scotland defying hate and Haiti in the same weekend

🚨Funding for 2yr postdoc w/ me & @geocron.bsky.social on landslide-tsunami-jökulhlaup project, but (this is the ridiculous part) I need to select someone NOW or I lose the $. If you're NOT in Canada (can be any nationality) and interested, send me your CV and transcripts by midnight MT, June 12. 🧪⚒️

oh my days, where to start with this?

It is extremely funny that we went from "landing the first woman on the Moon" in the first Trump administration to the all-men Artemis 3 crew today. Amazing stuff, no notes

Great to be back at @bpsc2026.bsky.social after a few years I’ve been away from the field, thanks @earthscista.bsky.social for making sure the sun was out on arrival this morning 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😎 #BPSC2026

📣 Calling UK particle physics, astronomy and nuclear (PPAN) researchers. The @royalastrosoc.bsky.social is co-hosting an event for MPs on 15 June as part of our campaign to reverse catastrophic funding cuts. Write to your MP and encourage them to attend! Full details at ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

A reminder of what Nigel Farage said following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.

'If you were minded to appoint me, I should make sure you never regret it.' I hope David Lammy keeps a copy of this note from Mandelson close at hand for whenever he feels the need of a little levity to lift the mood.

🚨A must-read summary of the current STFC funding crisis facing U.K. astronomy by @astroroyalscot.bsky.social

🚨Elon Musk has boosted the public profile of Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe on X, pulling Britain’s political discourse towards extreme content and amplifying his influence ahead of a knife-edge election in Makerfield More @FT: as.ft.com/r/80f4639f-0...

The potential for #physics driven growth is huge, but getting #UKRI funding changes wrong could cause irreparable damage to our scientific capability. @iop.org calls for the pace of change to be slowed and for full consultation, to avoid unintended consequences ⬇️ www.iop.org/about/news/g...

This is a map of land surface temperatures across Europe yesterday. Multiple heat records are being broken and it's only late May. This is climate change, and it is here. But don't lose sight of the fact that a few thousand oil executives and politicians made a LOT of money in getting us here.

"Our Fellowship is strengthened not only by individual distinction, but by the diversity of perspectives and experiences its members bring" "26% of this year’s intake of Fellows and Honorary Fellows are women"

An interesting read. My FLF was demand managed and I very nearly didn't get put forward. My institution at the time could put forward 3 people - they chose 2, the 3rd place was between me and another. I understand someone on the panel championed my application. I worry about the objectivity here 1/2

I guess we might call the assortment of items that the former chief executive of the SNP is alleged to have bought with the cash he is alleged to have embezzled The Murrell Collection.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say he isn't actually sorry.

"ChatGPT, the most heavily used AI service, gave wrong information in 46% of its answers, including making up an expenses scandal, giving inaccurate replies on voter eligibility rules and getting the date of the election wrong by two months." www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

the intense irony of senior environmental scientists posting endless ai slop graphics on LinkedIn about their work

Nearly 2000 signatories now, inc 6 Nobel Laureates! An outpouring of love for the Nottingham group: tremendous physicists, first-rate reasearch, sci-comm & teaching. So confused why Nottingham would decide to kill off such a jewel of a thriving group. ✍️: nottinghamphysics.github.io/Open_Letter/

Alongside the majority of my colleagues in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham, I have received a letter telling me I am at risk of redundancy. To my physics friends - please sign this letter to help us save our amazing School nottinghamphysics.github.io/Open_Letter/

Jobs Under Threat at Nottingham University I saw this picture on a LinkedIn post from a former member of staff in Physics at Nottingham University: It shows a notieboard in the foyer of the Physics Building, which houses the School of Physics & Astronomy. Earlier this week members of staff…

📢 Presidents of the RAS and IoP have asked Science Minister Patrick Vallance for an impact assessment of the proposed UK PPAN science cuts. Meanwhile, the community is already seeing hiring freezes and severe reductions. We need to evaluate the long-term damage this will do to the UK economy. 🧪🔭

is it too much for a girl to ask for some chaos w ed miliband rn

Someone is trying to build 1300 "intergenerational" homes, with assisted living places, social care, health facilities, and 40% affordable homes. On an old landfill site. Even the locals are in favour: 1300 vs 300. What could possibly go wrong? Enter: National Highways

How much do you want to bet that the second Meta agrees to pay Elsevier, all the complaints about integrity and intellectual property will vanish? Bet number 2: of all the money Meta will pay Elsevier, exactly 0% will go to the authors of the papers.

Men are extremely keen to explain to me that Britain *needs* a domestic steel production plant and doesn't necessarily *need* universities. Okay. Steel contributed about £1.7bn to the UK economy in 2024. Universities contributed more than £200bn.

this really does make me despair. this is a woman who has just got elected as a Reform councillor. she works for the NHS and wants to know “where the money is going”. it’s going on social care, babe

not sure it’s me that deserves the ?? here

did anyone make a “is john curtice on tv” bsky yet

I don't think people realise how much local councils do to maintain basic every day services. Reform are going to wreck the country at the local level and then blame the Government for it in 2029.