Nathan Cofnas was hired by my colleague Bouke De Vries, who attended the 2024 London Conference on Intelligence alongside Edward Dutton and Emil Kirkegaard. With more than 400 colleagues, I signed an open email to the rector to argue why we think this is problematic. www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/20...

When questioned on his lack of qualification for judging which grants to cut: "A person can have enough judgement from reading books..." Which books? "There were no books"

A study of social media content 18-24-year olds see in #Finland, #France and #Romania shows that algorithms overwhelmingly feed them right-wing political content - whether or not the users are interested. Three country average for right wing content was 58% - in Finland, 67%! yle.fi/a/74-20214134

I’m at a philosophy conference and it is WILD. You philosophers are fascinating people.

"Like many universities we are responding to sector-wide difficulties including declining participation rates, rising operating costs, and changes in policy relating to international students."

There’s another horrific video circulating on the timeline and this is my regular gentle and loving reminder to *turn off autoplay* on your videos so you can give consent to see these things.

"I really want to encourage more people from backgrounds like mine to get into a system that has always shut us out." Hannah Spencer MP: plumber, plasterer, parliamentarian

Back in 2016, our scientists from @gravitycardiff.bsky.social explained the our first detection of gravitational waves youtu.be/Lcxt097G4Ps?... (Featuring our now spokesperson Prof. Fairhurst enjoying paddling in a swimming pool) #GW10Years

Nobody writes lyrics like Joni Mitchell does.

Black hole art!

Looking in more detail, it's clear even ppl w/name in the database 59+ times may have had no interactions/communication w/Epstein at all. E.g. all instances of "Janna Levin" are from speaker lists at events or cc lists in Edge Foundation emails like below. I should not have posted w/o this context.

This tragic incident highlights the completely exploitative underpinnings of our dependency on digital devices, and the limits of any talk in the global north of 'digital ethics', 'tech ethics' etc. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

I don't know what Janna Levin is doing among this lot.

AITA for not letting my son dress up as an Oompa-Loompa for the school's Roald Dahl themed World Book Day this year?

So Nahla Ake is definitely bisexual, right?

Here's my cousin, Lara Hallett, an inspiring Welsh woman, who I'm very proud of, talking about her career as a diplomat and strategic communicator.

For the last +5yrs my wife and I have collected photos of mid century garage doors. For sheer love of the game, I have compiled more than 150 of my favorites into this coffee table book. 📖

Exciting times.

Adding the X-wing with R2-D2 sounds to my wishlist.

2025 was an eventful year for gravitational waves! Here is a brief round-up of some of the biggest gravitational wave news stories from last year:

This art, depicting the most massive merger detected to date, was created by our GEI PhD student, Sama Al-Shammari:

WTF

2025 was an eventful year for gravitational waves! Here is a brief round-up of some of the biggest gravitational wave news stories from last year:

I still can’t believe the National Science Foundation is being forced to move out of their brand new, purpose-built building because the HUD secretary thought his building was ugly. The Trump administration is destroying the best parts of this country, and it will take decades to rebuild.

Reckless, self-centered, and dangerous. Astrophysicists owe it to everyone to understand the implications of our words and actions on the world, and Avi Loeb is not holding up our end of the deal.

Some have argued to me strongly that even if Loeb is wrong, he’s getting people interested in 3I/ATLAS and that’s a good thing for science. But Loeb isn't just wrong, he's recklessly following an old playbook that got 39 people killed in 1997. sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...

Just submitted an abstract to (hopefully) give my first presentation about numerical relativity in the Welsh language. The title is "Perthnasedd Rhifiadol ar Gyfer y Genhedlaeth Nesaf".

Okay, lets break down this image! Background; I have a masters in architecture, and I have worked for a firm that specialized in custom built, detached family homes, which is what this is obviously supposed to be. I also worked for a firm drafting custom high end kitchens. So lets analyze this...

It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick. Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.

My visit this week to Queen Mary University of London was very productive and fun. I enjoyed the maths building and the view from the room I was working in.

"Biggar advances his arguments not by engaging with his opponents’ position, but by misrepresenting it." (Of course)

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

cc Royal Society

Doing non-causal inference (and being explicit about it), yet using a causal word as second word in the title. If you pay Nature € 10.690, they will publish this in Nature Ageing. I can tell you what I think of that for free. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

When you have no idea who you are replying to.

Half the Answer #47: Caitlin and Trent check in with Daniel Harper of the "I Don't Speak German" podcast. They discuss the controversial interview between Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, the role it seems to be playing in the far right, and various reactions (the good and the goofy).

I guess that doing eugenics pays more than just thinking and publishing about eugenics for Jonathan Anomaly.

A reminder that this anti-trans panic is 100% bullshit and exactly none of our country’s problems are related to someone expressing their gender identity and everyone who isn’t a hate-filled weirdo knows it.

We are pleased to announce our discovery of #GW241011 and #GW241110 Both come from binary black holes where one black hole is much larger than the other. The larger black holes have large spin. Could these black holes have formed in a previous merger? ligo.org/science-summ... #O4IsHere 🔭🧪⚛️☄️

‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...

South Caerdydd? Is he planning a trip to Butetown?

Will someone please explain to my dog that the clocks have gone back.

okay grandpa, let's get you to bed

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

Reform voter quotes Mein Kampf on the streets of Caerphilly, and thinks butterflies turn back into caterpillars.

That’s no ballroom…

I'm feeling very relieved that Reform didn't win this. I'm also curious to know how the 16 and 17 year olds voted.

@walkerbragman.bsky.social was a delightful hang and fantastic guest!

"If we portray breakthroughs as purely human triumphs, we reinforce an outdated view in which machines are just tools." 🤔