Come learn how to interview scientists and then play Blood on the Clocktower with me!

ABSW@absw.bsky.social · 8h ago

🐺ABSW Werewolf NightUse this unique opportunity to learn from experienced science writers and write about real-world research. And then, let's just network. 📆Friday, 4 September 2026 ☀️Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol 🌕King William Ale House 🎫zurl.co/2KX2U Join ABSW! zurl.co/hep5J

Not that you'd know it from the headline, but this is in fact a good news story as a new approach called BOADICEA could identify up to eight times as many cases - specifically in people under 50, like my late partner was when she was diagnosed. www.theguardian.com/society/2026... #cancer #cansky 🧪

GPs’ breast cancer guidelines ‘miss’ 95% of young women who will develop disease

Findings prompt calls for review of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence criteria in women under 50

theguardian.com

BP www.upstreamonline.com/energy-trans... and Shell uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/shell-s... are both offloading their solar businesses. The UK giants are apparently uninterested in having a business that can function in a world that's taking serious action on climate change.

BP 'finds buyer' for its last renewable power business

Supermajor lining up sale of Lightsource BP solar operation to Kuwaiti-backed consortium, it is reported

upstreamonline.com

Q&A: Does the world need 'carbon-capture and storage' to reach net-zero? Described by IPCC as "critical", it has repeatedly fallen short Today, it captures just 0.2% of global CO2 from fossil fuels Great piece by my @carbonbrief.org colleague @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social www.carbonbrief.org/...

Following the bad news about influential UK science policy outlet Research Professional closing down, it's great news that its founder William Cullerne Bown is starting a new publication apparently to replace it: william.cullernebown.uk/a-new-beginn... 🧪

A new beginning

Research Professional News is to close on 31 December. This is the announcement of a new, independent publication coming on 1 January

william.cullernebown.uk

It was encouraging to drum in the counterprotest to the far right march in #Taunton today. It was clear that many of the other protesters knew the kind of people marching from daily life, neighbours and workmates. They obviously wanted better. Good to see Gideon Amos, the local MP, there too.

BP's last pretence of being at all interested in a clean future Why is a Kuwaiti company buying a mainly UK business though? There are plenty of examples of local communities buying solar farms - I'd like the Government to step in and give us that chance. www.upstreamonline.com/energy-trans...

BP 'finds buyer' for its last renewable power business

Oil supermajor lining up sale of Lightsource BP solar operation to Kuwaiti-backed consortium, it is reported

upstreamonline.com

Four things you can do to tackle the #ClimateCrisis. 1. Treat your child's asthma 🫁 2. Halve your motoring costs 💷 3. Swap your boiler for something that also does air-con ❄️ 4. Turn your home into a power station ⚡ #ElectrifyEverything

A heartbreaking, important story: www.science.org/content/arti...

Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public

Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals

science.org

This disingenuous commentary doesn’t help anyone. Frauds start unravelling pretty quickly. That you apparently cannot afford to put your oven or treat yourself is quickly undermined by the question “so why are you spending £50 per week on petrol?” Then, it turns out, she has an agent and /1

Ash@queerash.bsky.social · 2w ago

Elaine in this article "can't remember the last time she used her oven" but also spends £200 a month on petrol (so driving probably ~50 miles a day?) (she's also a professional old person; she was on Good Morning Britain last year, and then also at the Nov budget, and the year before lmao)

Interesting use case for laser weapons - at borders shooting down (presumably slow-moving) smuggling drones - and sometimes also accidentally customs drones and shutting down airports www.twz.com/news-feature... Will we also see them in use around prisons, given all the drone smuggling there?

This Is The LOCUST Laser That Reportedly Prompted Closing El Paso's Airspace

The U.S. Army has been acquiring multiple versions of the LOCUST laser weapon system to bolster its ability to shoot down hostile drones.

twz.com

@gmckcypress.bsky.social · 2w ago

The US Army has used lasers to shoot down US CBP drones over US soil. I’m not sure who is winning here. apnews.com/article/mili...

The future of climate change keeps moving into the present. The future of climate action… somehow stays in the distant future. A fascinating new study analysing 240,000+ US news stories reveals how news coverage may be normalising delay. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Temporal horizons in US climate change news - Nature Climate Change

Whether news presents climate change as something happening now or in the future impacts public risk perceptions and climate action. A recent study shows that, in US news, the timing of anticipated cl...

nature.com

Important petition to sign if you are a journalist or any other kind of creator whose work might be used to train AI: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...

Petition: Protect creators' rights: require AI firms to disclose training data

We ask the Government to introduce a statutory duty requiring AI developers to disclose the copyrighted works used to train generative AI in enough detail for creators to identify use of their work, e...

petition.parliament.uk

I have written about the science of laser weapons for over 15 years and I have to say, if they are any good at shooting down drones, why aren't Ukraine and/or Russia and/or the US and/or Iran using them? ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-firm... 🧪

British firm pumping cash into new Laser weapon tech

QinetiQ is investing £20m to accelerate development and production of high-energy laser technology, unveiling its HELENA laser source brand at Farnborough.

ukdefencejournal.org.uk

It was a particular privilege to have a provocation from the amazing @wblau.bsky.social. He shared his insights under strict conditions of confidentiality, so this is one of those occasions where you really did have to be there!

Andy Extance@andyextance.bsky.social · 2w ago

Trust is hard to come by today - but helping people build relationships with expert science journalists can provide what's lacking. That was my key takeaway from the @absw.bsky.social community assemblies earlier this month. You can read about them here: www.absw.org.uk/articles/abs...

Trust is hard to come by today - but helping people build relationships with expert science journalists can provide what's lacking. That was my key takeaway from the @absw.bsky.social community assemblies earlier this month. You can read about them here: www.absw.org.uk/articles/abs...

ABSW community assemblies address challenges facing science journalism and communication

Expanding training, strengthening communication networks, and increasing the visibility of the journalists are some of the proposals. By Andy Extance.

absw.org.uk

Interesting exchanging posts with @georgemonbiot.bsky.social & @drandrewboswell.bsky.social about CCS issues yesterday, which prompted a thought: What's the least problematic CCS project in the world? Suggestions and reposts please. Bonus points if it's operational or in construction. 🧪#chemsky

Large investment for a computational chemistry company! Having reported on AI in science it generates hypotheses quickly but the bottleneck remains testing... not sure how they handle that but Aron Walsh is on the team so I am cautiously optimistic.🧪 #chemsky www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Jeff Bezos and UK government invest in £2bn British startup CuspAI

Company aims to develop AI software that cuts research times and use of rare metals in chipmakers’ supply chains

theguardian.com

Pleased to see this as pushback against recent criticism of carbon capture from @georgemonbiot.bsky.social It's also the second time recently I've seen Myles Allen call for fossil fuel companies to pay for disposal of the CO2 they generate, and I like the idea. www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🧪

Carbon capture is vital in tackling the climate crisis | Letters

Letters: Prof Myles Allen, Stephanie Loo and Toby Lockwood, and Olivia Powis, respond to an article by George Monbiot about ‘the great carbon capture con’

theguardian.com

If this improves safety of the 'cut' and 'burn' types of cancer treatment, that's all to the good. But as a widower to cancer what frustrates me about reporting like this is the lack of discussion of cost, which relates to how likely it is that a patient will get it www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🧪

Prostate cancer trial using focal therapy has fewer side effects

An NHS trial over 10 years followed nearly 3,500 men who received focal therapy, a less invasive treatment.

bbc.co.uk

Just 9% of plastic waste is recycled worldwide. How do you feel about that? Shocked? Unsurprised? Are you happy about it? I'm certainly not happy about it, and am increasingly interested in how we deal with the plastic problem. Though it's very early stage research it's a good possible option. 🧪

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 2w ago

While pretreated polyethylene generated the least emissions, the researchers also show that the technique can work with mixed plastic waste. @andyextance.bsky.social www.chemistryworld.com/news/chemica...

I've been thinking (and saying) for years that e-methanol is surely the solution for replacing liquid fuels especially in shipping, and as also as fuel to balance variable renewable electricity generation without using fossil fuels (with CCS). Well, now there's rigourous academical research for it!

Tom Brown@nworbmot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

ii) All of the carbonaceous demand can be met by (e-)biomethanol, synthesised from biomass and green hydrogen. Methanol is an extremely versatile basic chemical; it can be used in ships, to make kerosene, and for plastics.

I'm consistently blown away that we now have the ability to use telescopes to tell that it might be possible to go for a swim on a planet 49 light years away www.theguardian.com/science/2026... 🧪

Earth-like exoplanet found to have an atmosphere

Scientists discover the first confirmed atmosphere around rocky planet outside our solar system that is within the habitable zone

theguardian.com

Though researchers have previously produced hydrogen from plastic, Woo-Jae Kim from Ewha Womans University and colleagues reduce the energy needed by adding a pretreatment step. @andyextance.bsky.social www.chemistryworld.com/news/chemica...

Chemical treatment slashes emissions of making hydrogen from plastic waste

Process can produce hydrogen from polyethylene and polypropylene more cleanly than from natural gas

chemistryworld.com

My latest @chemistryworld.com story brings together AI, robots, chemistry and climate change - with a cautiously positive conclusion. Watch the reel below then check it out at www.chemistryworld.com/features/ai-... Thanks @variniabernales.bsky.social @fjduarte.bsky.social and everyone else! 🧪

Just an incredible achievement to get a new vaccine to clinical trial in just 8 weeks. Obviously still lots to do, but this shows what pandemic preparedness is capable of. 🧪💉 www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-07-13-worlds-first-phase-i-bundibugyo-ebolavirus-vaccine-trial-launched-by

Listening to "The Everlasting" by @alixeharrow.bsky.social and absolutely loving how it reimagines so many traditions around gender and patriotism. So relevant right now. The line "Nation is a story we tell about ourselves, and stories change if you let them" could become a mantra for me...

Great to be in #Plymouth with the Devon Drummers for #PlymouthPride26. I love to see all the different flavours of people there.

I forgot to share last Friday's newsletter on here, but it didn't affect the stats at all. I think the people who cared have already subscribed, but juuuust in case I missed some of you, here it is. mixture.substack.com/p/the-times-...

The times they are a-changin’ (for science journalism)

I wanted to write an ironic “will we all be replaced by AI” here but I worried that you would think I was genuine

mixture.substack.com

A few weeks ago I, along with @georgemusser.com @jomarchant.bsky.social and others, went to a small meeting about the QBist interpretation of quantum mechanics and why it is so often misrepresented. Here are some reflections on the event. www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/the-qbi...

The QBist Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and the Future of Science Communication

PHILIP BALL | It was, in short, what felt like an immensely valuable exchange of a sort that too rarely happens.

marginaliareviewofbooks.com