Since my eyes were opened to how common harassment is at universities, I have become hard to shock. "he propositioned a junior academic when she went to him for support having reported being raped" managed it though. Fucking hell.

Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.

🔭 Catching up on arXiv in a quiet moment, I enjoyed this from the abstract of Balser & Burton (arxiv.org/abs/2511.00720). The inner Milky Way is a disorganised shambles, I've always thought that. Not the most disorganized shambles I've ever seen in a bar, but that's a different matter. 🔭

Interesting journal club with the Exoplanets group at @physicsuol.bsky.social, looking at the transition from giant planets to brown dwarfs (arxiv.org/abs/2511.11818). They don't mention it, but is the gap at 2-3 MJ & [Fe/H]~0.2 called anything? If not, I'm calling it the Leicester doughnut hole 🔭

Alternative possibility: YouTube prank show of some kind

This is going to turn out to be an incredibly brilliant performance art satire about left wing politics

And if you too want to do a PhD with me, then there's an opportunity at the University of Leicester!

So no one is left in suspense: that's Dr Simon Alinder now! 🎉🎉🔭💫

I'm back at Lund University to support/watch Simon Alinder defend his PhD thesis. Simon has studied the Milky Way's disc, especially the 'phase spiral' across the disc.

I've spent much of the last decade trying to convince my family that Sweden isn't the constantly snow-covered and freezing place they think it is. So why does it always look like this when I visit?

"97% of people surveyed found they were regularly or sometimes distracted by oncoming vehicles and 96% thought most or some headlights were too bright" Finding 96% of people agreeing on anything must be very rare. It seems like an easy win to regulate these (meaing I doubt that it will happen!)

The way that university adminstration can pretend that letting an agressor or predator near undergrads is more safe than having them around their colleagues blows my mind. In my past experience, the Prof was not allowed back into the department building, but was given new teaching duties...

Good news for our colleagues in Nottingham! A reminder that industrial action can work, and universty management can negotiate with a union that represents their staff.

Please come and march alongside us tomorrow in the national demonstration called by @ucu.org.uk. We will be on the pickets 9-10.30, and assemble for the demonstration in De Montfort Square at 11. All welcome!

🔭🧪🎢 The University of Leicester is advertising PhD places in Physics & Astronomy starting 2026! They span Astrophysics, Planetary Science, Space Instrumentation and Earth Observation. All of them are advertised on FindAPhD 🔭🧪🎢 www.findaphd.com/phds/departm...

English article version: www.uu.se/en/departmen...

Great show from @5teviem.bsky.social at the firebug this evening. Not just laughs alone, also horse lamps.

Martin Luther. Simon Alinder. Some other people too, no doubt. There's a great history of nailing theses to things and Simon did that yesterday ahead of his thesis defense next month. I watched on zoom, and it turns out quite hard to get a good screenshot!

The University of Leicester's marketing department know that it's the staff who are the lifeblood of the university. Leaving staff under threat of firing for months on end, with no negotiation with our representatives, is awful management

I'm not usually a much of a protestor, but I will try to defend the University of Leicester, and my colleagues, from the bad decisions made by our management. The proposed cuts unneeded, unfair and backed by cherry picked metrics. I support the @leicesterucu.bsky.social strike action.

I'm very sad that the university's leadership has brought us to this point. I will be joining my colleagues in striking to protect the future strength of the University of Leicester

Today's entry in "Astronomers should't get to name things". Hubble's constant being constant in direction rather than time has always made it a bad name.

Astronomers! This year’s A level physics exams included the following question which seems dodgy to me. Anyone got a sensible answer?

Personal opinion: Squirrels are cuter than other rodents because of the bouncy way they run, not because of the tail

🔭🧪🎢 I'll be at the Leicester open day this Saturday. Maybe you can find out why my student feedback included being called an "S-tier" lecturer, which I had to look up, but is apparently positive! 🔭🧪🎢 le.ac.uk/open-days

🔭 On a related note: When students reach out to their former supervisors it can mean a lot to us. I'm going to write to my former Masters project supervisor and thank her. 🔭

🔭 One of the greatest pleasures of my job is when someone I helped and enthused at the start of their astrophysics studies finds success. Congratulations ot Aayush Desai on publishing his first paper! arxiv.org/abs/2509.03216 🔭 "Magnetic Atmospheres and Circumstellar Interaction in J1901+1458"

🔭🧪🎢 Reposting for the feeds 🎢🧪🔭 If you know/are an interested sixth-form student, our open day is a great way of seeing what you could be doing with us. I'll be there telling you about our work on the Milky Way! le.ac.uk/open-days

🔭 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, UK astronomy version. Inspired by a comment from LOC chair David Alexander at #NAM2025 🔭

🔭 Exciting results from my colleagues 🔭

Our Prof @leighfletcher.bsky.social is giving a plenary talk at the National Astronomy Meeting presenting JWST observations of the solar system's gas giants! #NAM2025

A sighting of Leicester's @spacecentre.bsky.social Thor Able rocket during a really interesting (and last minute replacement!) talk by Dr Bleddyn Bowen on the politics of space at the UK's National Astronomy Meeting #NAM2025

Interesting start to #NAM2025 at a session dedicated to Galactic dynamics, and how "Basis function expansions" are useful tools for this. Speakers keep abbreviating this as BFE, pronounced "Beefy", which is a touch distracting

Some student feedback on my lecturing described it as "S-tier", which I assumed meant it was very bad. It turns out to be the opposite, but I remain a bit baffled. The S does not stand for the word I would expect.

'if a forklift truck can pick it up, is it even worth lifting weights in the gym?'

Non-hot take: The "AI will kill us" discourse was a distraction from the real problem: it removes the young end of the skilled knowledge workforce. They are harder to train, because AI can do it for them. They can't get jobs, because AI can do it for their bosses. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

I am very much a child of the 90s. Watching the BBC's stream of this set gave me quite literal chills www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

My lips are sealed. But we can expect incredible data! 🔭

Our final call for expressions of interest for the STFC Rutherford Fellowships, with a deadline tomorrow - do get in touch if you have any questions!

🔭 A compare and contrast that helped me understand how good the Vera Rubin images are:

The next open day for Physics degrees at the University of Leicester is Saturday 5th July 🧪🎢

I designed and 3D printed my own floaty galaxy! 🔭🧪

Brian Wilson was a genius. God Only Knows is the most incredibly beautiful song that YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE PLAYED AT YOUR WEDDING www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

Yes. Plot everything. (Do not put all of those plots in your paper/lab report!) A favourite exercise when I taught stats was to get students to calculate the mean and std deviation of one set each from the 'Datasaurus dozen', and then get them to plot their data! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datasau...

Is "What about selection effects?" the new "What about magnetic fields?" in seminars? Or is it just something I always ask?

🎉 #50YearsOfESA: for half a century, we've been serving Europe as its space agency and inspiring its citizens. Join us this anniversary year to reflect not only on our past achievements, but also on our future perspectives!

I'm incredibly proud of my sister, Dr Beth McMillan, who graduated on Saturday. To have completed her PhD in computational cardiovascular science despite her illness is a huge achievement. I had the honour of helping her through the ceremony itself.

Most commonly "review this paper in the next 2 days, kthx", but otherwise this is bang on.

🔭🧪 Congratulations to Prof Nial Tanvir who has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his work studying gamma-ray bursts, the most violent explosions we've ever seen. le.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...