The UK *is* losing a generation of scientists. I know lots of brilliant people who have left their jobs / the country because of the limited jobs & funding. Once lost, they cannot ever be replaced. The UK government is overseeing the death of UK academic science, and it doesn't seem to care.

Our conference #cfp is now live! This year's conference, "Embodied Histories: Body, Mind and Experience" will take place on 17th July 2026 at University of Birmingham! Keep on reading to find out more...(1/9)

Found the perfect job in the perfect city. Clicked through to the recruiter's website... Perhaps not.

Imagine discovering that the entire structure of state secondary education was about to collapse, and musing "Ah well, we'll always have Eton, Harrow and Winchester..." This is basically how the political class thinks about higher education.

Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.

Over 2,200 UK casualties, 616 with life changing injuries, 302 amputees. 457 UK soldiers killed. The second highest total after the US. And I thought yesterday's comment on speeches & schnapps was as insulting as they could get.

Meanwhile, significant voices in the scientific community proclaim that science isn't political and pile onto social science and humanities researchers who suggest otherwise. We need much more attention to histories and philosophies of science at this crucial juncture, including from policy-makers.

February filling up nicely with fab events for LGBTQ+ History Month (UK). Royal Museums Greenwich isn't on here, so I'm hoisting a flag for its impressive programme including Queer History Night at the National Maritime Museum on 12 Feb. 🏳️‍🌈⚓🌊☠️🗃️🏳️‍⚧️ www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/gre... #lgbthm26 #LGBTplusHM

Incredible article which points out that it often collectively costs more to apply for scarce research funding than the funds awarded to the successful proposals. What an absurd system we've built in the service of efficiency and competition. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Finally made it to the Cecil Beaton exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery Struggling to understand why we brought 90s fashion back when this was an option... #museum 🗃

Historians: discuss.

Deadline 15 January 2026! Special edition journal Submit now! The MWHN, in partnership with the JMVHR, will produce its second special issue. With the theme of 'Medical welfare and care of military communities: a collection of historical studies'. #histmed #histnursing #milwelfhist

'Despite persistent myths, employment rates for humanities graduates are comparable to those of STEM graduates, as Humanities Indicators data shows. Early earnings differ but the salary gap narrows significantly mid-career, particularly for graduates who pursue further study'. 1/2

No health without peace - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Recently I had great fun in launching a new Prosthetics and Limb-Loss interdisciplinary network at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social with @sarahds.bsky.social Designed to bring together academics and clinicians, it featured insightful talks and hands-on ideation activities.

It's official: 400 redundancies and a campus closure. At-risk staff will get a letter next week. Absolutely no serious consideration of any of the union's counterproposals. Please share widely.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started

I heard a story about a female academic giving a paper at the IHR who, after receiving a long and aggressive question from a senior male professor, simply leaned back with her hands behind her head and replied “Oh, do fuck off.”

You know what we won't need once handwriting recognition software has done its thing? Archivists, curators, conservators, catalogers, codicologists, or paleographers. We won't need archives either. We won't need diplomatics, editorial theory, book or media history, or material culture studies 🗃️🧵

Methodology

Today’s Green recruitment policy - “we will confiscate family heirlooms from destitute refugees fleeing war.” bsky.app/profile/sund...

"We find that most life-years lost are among civilians... More than 1 million life-years involving children under the age of 15 years have been lost." Over 3 million life-years lost in Gaza - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Happy Fenton Day to all who celebrate. Jesus Christ, fourteen years. youtu.be/3GRSbr0EYYU

From today's Chronicle of Higher Ed briefing. I am *never* an advocate of cutting programs. But I am curious to see if there will be the same type of "students aren't majoring in this, so let's cut the program" discourse around computer science as there always is for the arts and humanities.

The first thing we did as a nation to honour those people’s awful sacrifice was boo Winston Churchill like a panto villain and lurch Britain further left than has ever been thought possible since. Reframing previous generations as nostalgic conservatives is fucking ridiculous.

Interesting piece from @thelancet.com on the new arms race, the vanishing Golden Hour, and the impact on drones on every aspect on military medical care Understanding the health threats of drone warfare - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Hello it’s not just the sciences. The reason we’re in this mess is because they (and I also mean universities themselves) already killed the humanities and social sciences in subservience to the basic sciences and no one has a critical thought to bless themselves with

The publisher who disowns AI will make an absolute killing - it'll be seen as the most independent, trustworthy and imaginative and will be the place to which authors and readers will flock.

“When an emergency sitting was called to (basically) nationalise a steel plant at Scunthorpe to save 2500 jobs, the [House of Commons] was packed. When about 14,000 people have left or been laid off in less than a year from one of this country’s biggest sectors, that gets a parliamentary yawn.”

Had a brief exciting moment, thinking I'd found a big data historian job. Odd for Linkedin, but you never know 🤷‍♀️ Nope... just making AI more fascist

Was looking forward to spending the day sorting out grant & Fellowship applications. Was not expecting to be punched in the stomach by Agatha Christie on the way to work... #AcademicSky

Literally nobody who wants to follow a "vocational" route is prevented from doing so in the UK today by the existence of universities. Entire networks of colleges exist to provide such routes. Many universities themselves have a wide range of "vocational" provision.

Might be wise to do a wee bit of reading up on the actual history of technology.

There is no arrogance quite like an MD treating your expertise as a hobby.

'Even when women were mentioned, the report found they were more often victims than protagonists, with the women murdered by Jack the Ripper more likely to be taught in lessons than the female code breakers at Bletchley Park during the second world war 1/2

Also it’s not a great leap to criminalising women who now take Tylenol whilst pregnant (in a similar way to which women who have miscarriages can now be prosecuted) and also continuing the dehumanising of people with autism in a way that ends very badly.

Utterly absurd that the US has gone from >125,000,000 prescriptions in a single year for opiates alone, to "maybe women shouldn't be allowed painkillers" in 18 months.

Think betting on GenAI is a brilliant PR move? Take a gander at the lovely ratio on that post and think again Delightful that they're getting roasted like this for supporting the assault on actual science & expertise by pushing GenAI-slop

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.

The team at the Centre of Paediatric Blast Injury Studies at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social do amazing work that's more urgently needed than ever, and it's great to see them recognised today www.linkedin.com/posts/save-t...

Trying his best to smile for a picture on Ginger Cat Appreciation Day 🐈🐈

The reactions by historians to *that* Nature paper are because we are routinely consistently told by both laypeople and too many STEM colleagues that our methods are irrelevant, nonexistent or inferior, and our fields pointless. Our institutions agree. Miss me with defending STEM in this moment.

Based on one small 93 year old dataset, that was known to be iffy & unreliable in 1932, and done by someone with no training & no other sources. But "it's science, not speculation" and in Nature, so automatically more reliable & prestigious than actual historians.

Oh for... The 'inter-' in interdisciplinary should be a hint to try and actually work *with* another discipline, instead of ignoring it -Historians exist and they can do useful things! Starting with pointing that you shouldn't use ChatGPT unless you're into public humiliation

The mental health benefits of not knowing any history right now must be massive. Moving through your day with total equanimity. What happens next? Who knows? Maybe something good

No10 spokesman not prepared to criticise anything about Farage speech today. Not his description of "invasion", not his prediction that the UK on brink of civil war, not plans to pay the Taliban or Iran to take back migrants, or indeed to rule out doing so themselves.