In this week's post I make the case for an #AI #metaphor observatory tracking how we think and talk about and act on GenAI and LLMs makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/14/m...

I'm looking for a freelance editor to help on the Gizmodo science desk. Must be science literate, fast, flexible, and experienced with digital editing. Remote OK. Not a steady gig, but reliable work when it comes. DM or email if interested.

I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge. Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots. A thread 🧵 1/8 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"The era of permanent protection is over" Is this Labour government really saying it was wrong in principle to let these refugees of the last 75 years to stay, settle and become British - and they believe that should NEVER happen again in principle or practice? www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiuR...

New reflections from me about the challenge of countering disinformation when the state itself is distributing it christinapagel.substack.com/p/the-erosio...

For weekend readers, a post calling for an AI metaphor observatory, one of three, second one coming next week. Trying to make sense of how we make sense of #AI through metaphor makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/14/m...

'After vigorous and partially successful attempts to save modern languages degrees at Cardiff...and the University of Aberdeen in the past two years, linguists are now called upon to point out the equally obvious folly of cutting modern languages at the universities of Nottingham and Leicester.' 1/3

"An Information Pandemic Is Supercharging Anti-Science Forces" | Great review of my new book w/ @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social, #ScienceUnderSiege, by Emma Court for @bloomberg.com: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Just because DNA is "colloquially known" as "the blueprint of life" does one have to use that outdated metaphor, with all its deterministic connotations? (see @philipcball.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

For weekend readers, a post calling for an AI metaphor observatory, one of three, second one coming next week. Trying to make sense of how we make sense of #AI through metaphor makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/14/m...

Colleagues of mine in Germany have relaunched their online journal metaphorik.de including an archive of all articles published over the last two decades. Lots of interesting stuff for fans of #metaphor #linguistics!!! journals.uni-due.de/metaphorik

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about the climate crisis

Apart from their vocal skill this vid also shows why if you think a bird is a raven, it’s probably just a big crow. Ravens are HUGE.

In this week's post I make the case for an #AI #metaphor observatory tracking how we think and talk about and act on GenAI and LLMs makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/14/m...

Last year I was supposed to give a presentation titled 'Researching national identity and migration discourses in times of polycrisis'. Unfortunately it didn't go ahead due to illness. I've made the presentation available on Researchgate for anyone interested. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say. Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA#microbiome @wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social

If we allow Ukraine to collapse and be overrun by Russia it will initiate a contagion that will ultimately consume much of eastern Europe and claim millions of lives. Our children will be drafted to fight the barbarian invaders. We will all suffer the pain of war.

NEW The letter the BBC could send back to Trump A proposal for a reply to his $1bn claim By me. Enjoy. emptycity.substack.com/p/the-letter...

For anyone who is like “the creature is also named Frankenstein”; Mary Shelley went to see a play version of Frankenstein and was tickled that they listed the creature as “———“ in the dramatis personae: “this nameless mode of naming the unnameable is rather good” www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3...

How does a scientist go from decoding life to chasing the nature of mind? @matthewcobb.bsky.social joins me on @breakingmath.bsky.social to uncover the lesser-known side of Francis Crick: his poetry, collaborations, controversies, and search for consciousness. Listen now: youtu.be/dU0SRnUk97s

SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten. "I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA

“Immigration status becomes significant when you’re a monster but not when you’re a hero.” My ‪@theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Take a listen back to @iandunt.bsky.social and @dorianlynskey.bsky.social's epic story of the British Broadcasting Corporation — the BBC - play.megaphone.fm/s74mbfkfsnep... #TheBBC #BBCNews #BritishBroadcastingCorporation #originstory

Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?

Annette Karmiloff-Smith. She ended every seminar/keynote I ever saw with a picture of her kids and grandkids as a note on what's important and that succesful women in academia can have a family too. I told her the second time how inspirational I'd found that and she was absolutely lovely.

Our 2017 @nationalacademies.org report on “Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance" (www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/hum...) was designed to prevent exactly this kind of rogue science. One of the many reasons why we need industry-independent regulatory frameworks for emerging tech …

For weekend readers, my reflections of the ending of the BBC World Service programme 'Science in action' and the impact this has on #scicomm makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/07/s...

On the event of James Watson's death, I highly recommend this 2023 commentary from @matthewcobb.bsky.social and Nathaniel Comfort with crucial new insights into the discovery of the double helix. (And also check out Cobb's brand new biography of Francis Crick) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Very sad to hear about Jim Watson’s death. If you think he was always a racist you are wrong. He refused to support genes/IQ research in the 70s. He boycotted Greece because of the military coup in 1967 and he called for a boycott of meetings in Chicago after the police riot of 1968. 1/2

James Watson has died. James Watson, who helped unravel genetic blueprint for life, dies at 97 www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Utterly grim www.cbsnews.com/news/dolphin...

This weeks post is a sort of obituary for the BBC World Service Programme 'Science in Action' (@peaseroland.bsky.social) #scicomm makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/07/s...

1. This is a thread on freedom, and how easy it is to lose. Over the past 2,000 years in Europe, there have been few periods and places of freedom. For much of the time we lived under highly oppressive tyrannies of various kinds, whether small or grand, local or imperial, secular or religious.🧵

Visited Port Sunlight yesterday - the original source of much of my academic funding from @leverhulme.ac.uk It was so impressive to see the workers' houses, hear about all the good stuff the Levers did and to visit the Lady Lever Art Gallery - on the day that Musk got $1 trillion....

This weeks post is a sort of obituary for the BBC World Service Programme 'Science in Action' (@peaseroland.bsky.social) #scicomm makingsciencepublic.com/2025/11/07/s...

Nottingham to suspend music and modern foreign language degrees, warning international fee levy will wipe out income from domestic fee rise. Some nursing, theology, education, microbiology and agriculture degrees hit too www.timeshighereducation.com/news/notting... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social

I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social

More useful material for the @royalsociety.org’s bio of their esteemed fellow. Though I’m still struggling to understand how a society that claims to value scientific rigour continues to honour someone who spreads so much disinformation.

As the Royal Society has published a new report (royalsociety.org/news/2025/11...) on geoengineering, I repost this post on #geoengineering #metaphors between the first report and now - I haven't looked at the metaphors used in the new report! makingsciencepublic.com/2025/05/30/g...

This should interest people in #linguistics

🔴⚠️🌀🇯🇲In the aftermath of hurricane #Melissa, the tropical vegetation of southwestern Jamaica has been devastated by the landfall at almost 300km/h.The first #Sentinel2 images after the event show the extreme consequences on BlackRiver and the wider area. #ClimateEmergency

Interesting review documenting the rise in scholarship on visual misinformation, how it is more persuasive than text misinformation, and how #GenAI is both increasing visual misinformation content and being used to combat it. (!) #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky doi.org/10.1080/1520...

My next Zoom lecture on heritable human genome editing — November 6, 2025. The plan is to provide a worldwind summary of the last 10 years ….

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

Trying to update last year's post on metaphors in/for #AI/LLMs (which will take a while), I came across this interesting collection of articles on AI in education - worth a look if you are interested in #metaphors and, of course, education jime.open.ac.uk/collections/...

This is a job for referees, not AI. (And any referee worth their salt would see that this example is an interesting hypothesis worth testing, not wild speculation beyond the data.)

Language can be tricky to parse without context. For instance, the sentence “Rowan fed his pet chicken” is ambiguous. Is the chicken Rowan’s pet or his pet’s meal? Some AI models can recognize the syntactic differences between these two possible meanings.

Something from last year for a bit of Sunday reading, as the topic is still in the air makingsciencepublic.com/2024/10/04/s...

I had a long conversation with MIT Tech Review’s @willdouglasheaven.bsky.social about AGI; it fed into this very good read on the rise of AGI orthodoxy

No way this is a probability sample. I guarantee by the over-representation of Reese’s that this researcher employed a purposive sampling methodology.