We're down to the last handful of tickets for my workshop on 'Medicine and the Senses' in Leeds on 10 July. Please share! www.eventbrite.com/e/medicine-a...

You lovely people have got me up to 190 responses, so I'm going to keep going to 200! If you're an academic in UK HE who's had pastoral responsibility for students in the last 5 years under any title, please take 10 mins to share your thoughts about that work. Please do share to widen the pool.

'a new study shows that since 2010 the world has been gaining more mangroves than it has been losing - driven by stronger legal protections and increased public awareness of their importance, sparked by disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.' 1/2

#OneHealth - human, animal and environmental health are tightly interlinked, as #ebola all too tragically demonstrates. #NaturesRights are essential to our own survival www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

At a symposium on Nature & Biophilia in Hospitals and these photos capture historic resonances for today's discussion. The 1st is a photo of the hospital open air balconies that have been blocked in with windows. 2nd is an 1899 description of how hospital roofs should be used for gardens.

I'm really excited to be presenting at this event on Friday with @sashahandley.bsky.social exploring lived experience and co-production in HE and heritage. We'll be talking about our work on @sleepingwelluom.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lived-expe...

As my role on the @englishheritage.bsky.social and @torchoxford.bsky.social Poetry Heritage & Community project ends this month, I've written a little something on the collaborative journey from research to poetry workshops www.torch.ox.ac.uk/article/from...

NEW Officials have admitted Britain’s data centre boom could draw 40 per cent more electricity than thought a few months ago, a surge that could push up energy bills. Story 👇 www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Basking shark chosen, I have to be honest, based almost entirely on this. We shark hard, we bask hard. youtu.be/C1x7x_8RUbc?...

🥾 We're hiring! It's a rare opportunity to play a central role in shaping the future of the Coast to Coast Path National Trail - how it's managed, experienced and valued for generations to come 👇 https://ow.ly/NlpN50Z6xke #YorkshireDales #CoastToCoast #Jobs

‘Universities are independent bodies and need to sort their own finances’ we hear ad infinitum. Yet another demonstration that they are not 👇

Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the 1.5° target is out of reach. Meanwhile, wealth concentration has increased massively. These facts are interlinked: wealth inequality determines who causes the climate crisis & who profits from it. @cmohren.bsky.social @wid.world @lseinequalities.bsky.social

If your only value in the classroom is knowing more than the students, you don’t understand pedagogy

We have research from the students that they prefer physical and digital resources over just digital. A lot of our Welsh collection isn't digitised. These points have been made to the University Executive Board.

Ah Northampton’s finest writer 💙

Alan Moore’s latest novel has an acknowledgements section in which he thanks the universe, a moon goddess, and a python god. it also includes this line: “Existence is a stupefying stroke of luck and we should all feel grateful to be part of it, even when much of it's on fire and overrun by Nazis.”

We’ve hit a year and three weeks since the UK had a permanent National Statistician. My considered view is that this is Not Good.

Irresistible charity shop find. A box of the Penguin 60s series from 1995 - short stories and essays and bits and bobs to mark 60 years of Penguin Books. They were 60p each! There was also a box of classics. But! There are only 55 here. So my task is to identify and acquire the missing.

It cannot be the case that engagement with histories that aren’t North American or Western European becomes the preserve of 5-10 universities in Britain, but that’s where we’re headed.

to paraphrase Homer Simpson, 38% *so far*

🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n

This feels like absolute vandalism as so many books are not e-resources so not available any other way and are absolutely essential for arts and humanities research in particular.

Cardiff Uni wants to scrap the 2nd floor of the Arts and Social Studies Library. We're talking 7km of books and vital study space gone to make way for classrooms. Please help us save this crucial campus resource before it's ripped out in June! Add your name here: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

It may not be the most damaging part of the new proposed rules, but the fact that if you want to attend a scientific conference using a grant, you have to get it pre-approved and written into the award is completely bonkers. When we write proposals, we often don't know what conferences will be held.

Astounding that in these talking points about what universities should do, ‘research’ is just not mentioned at all.

As headlines report 4m U.K. households now have air conditioning, I wanted to write about the part we’re not meant to say: it’s disabled, poor, and older people who are at risk in heatwaves but the wealthy and healthy who get to have the cool homes. Today’s col. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Jesus Christ. Anyone, at any point, raised what *universities actually do*?? Why do we have this lot in charge, who can't even think about what it is the institutions they're 'leading' are for in the first place. In fact, why are they meeting with Starmer's *economic* advisor?

There are so many differences unaccounted for that this is beyond oversimplification. Off the top of my head, 4 deeper factors are key. 1) The Dutch pay high taxes & that makes everything possible. Investment is made for decades ahead, which pays off for individuals & society 1/?

What is stopping UKRI having firm policies around their choice of call deadlines? This is a quality as well as an EDI issue. This is about putting massive demands on the system that is under extreme strain and pressure. This is about the Matthew effect (who is able to respond quickly) etc... etc...

A new TOP FIVE has just dropped. The @ukri.org TOP FIVE shortest timescales from call opening to closing. And you won't believe the winner 👀

I bring together my experience of the menopause with ME in this piece for @the-polyphony.bsky.social. Many thanks to @alyfixit.bsky.social for supporting this work. #pwME #menopause #cyanotype #writing thepolyphony.org/2026/05/29/c...

Still, good to see Reform pledge massive governmental funding to @friendlesschurches.bsky.social right?

"All historians, regardless of experience in environmental history or history of science, can bring the climate emergency into their classroom." - @danielmacfarlane.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2021/09/21/t... #envhist #cdnhist #climhist #energyhistory #climatechange #teaching

Very pleased to share my new article on the legal case surrounding Welwitsch's Angolan botanical collections, part of the @collecol.bsky.social issue in @Endeavour (edited by the lovely @dominikhhh.bsky.social & @nickytheprof.bsky.social) ✨ #envhist Available open access! doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Also closing next Friday, 5 June, the RHS Scouloudi Panel Grants for 2026-27 bit.ly/4nXFzTR Grants enable creation of a conference panel to present on a historical topic, supporting panellists with no alternative funding sources for conference participation #Skystorians

A dog whistle so loud you can hear it from space. Even if it was a mosque... there is nothing wrong with that. At least its being used for something close to its original purpose

Got to the marking end stage where I only have a handful of assignments left to mark but I'm having to bribe myself with cake to finish them 🤪

You can tell a man who hasn't ever cleaned for himself decided on this because if you knew how to clean you would know what you need to do. Someone said that all modern tech is trying to do is replace tech bros mom's and it's not hard to unsee this.

This is absolutely grotesque

Thread: Thanks to everyone who sent me this article on a new roof garden for ICU patients! lnkd.in/ezHri8Ma This is fascinating in its historical context. In 'Therapeutic Landscapes' manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719086601/ I write about the wheeling of beds outside for open air therapies 1/3

Oh yay, the new Bulletin of the History of Medicine is out! It features my positioning paper on objects and materiality in the history of medicine. After years, it is finally out! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Thread: Thanks to everyone who sent me this article on a new roof garden for ICU patients! lnkd.in/ezHri8Ma This is fascinating in its historical context. In 'Therapeutic Landscapes' manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719086601/ I write about the wheeling of beds outside for open air therapies 1/3

It’s a stupidly high bar but I believe this to be Craig Brown’s finest work

Thinly veiled classism here, imho. There's already a huge amount of vocational education that goes on in universities. Everyone should be able to go to university, and every town should have a full-scale university with all the subjects. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/milburn...

icymi: there are several excellent @britishacademy.bsky.social projects/publications on this topic: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/programmes/s...

This looks great! One for @catherinemax.bsky.social too

As I finish work before a much-needed couple of weeks of holiday, here's what we're living with in UKHE right now, for anyone who isn't familiar. Even if you are, it's a compelling account from a real expert.

Well holy crap. Erin Brockovich (yes, the same one the led the Hinkley, CA toxic groundwater lawsuit in ‘93) launched a website tracking AI data centers across the US and the ecological impacts to the environment and drinking water. MN is riddled with them. www.brockovichdatacenter.com