Jason Spyromilio Ιάσων Σπυρομίλιος
@apolitosb.bsky.social
Astronomer, supernovae, spent time at Paranal in prehistoric times, currently ELT telescope scientist www.eso.org/~jspyromi Personal account. Speaking solely for myself
Lately I've aimed to commission scientists to write about the open questions & uncertainties in their field. This essay on 'little red dots' by astrophysicist Jenny Greene is an example. If you're a scientist who'd like to communicate your own work, get in touch #SciComm🧪 aeon.co/essays/why-l...
Really interesting article by @richardfisher.bsky.social www.bbc.com/future/artic...
Chile's Atacama Desert is one of the darkest places on Earth. But now the light is intruding
Humanity’s artificial glow is swallowing the night sky. Even astronomers in this remote observatory in the South American desert cannot escape it.
bbc.com
Recently I went to Chile to see the Extremely Large Telescope being built in the Atacama. The BBC just published my feature about its construction challenges, the discoveries to come, and its fun name...the result of what I call telescopic "nominative magnification". :) www.bbc.com/future/artic...
In the otherworldly Chilean desert, this huge telescope could reveal alien life
In Chile's Atacama Desert, the biggest telescope ever built is taking shape – and it could radically change our view of the Universe.
bbc.com
A journal we should avoid publishing in & citing. Only by doing things like this & spreading the word can we stop this crazy behaviour that damages science Journal: Natural Hazards @springernature.com Authors: U North Carolina & @northeasternu.bsky.social @nu-policyschool.bsky.social 🧪🌍🔥🌳🔥🍁
Cathelijne Stoof@dr-firelady.bsky.social · 2w agoHow long should #AI #ethics investigations take? This #bushfire #wildfire “review”(!) cites 43 references - we retraced 6; 37 references are #hallucinations We informed Natural Hazards @springernature.com 4.5 months ago, still no action. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
the US generates a Kg of CO2 for every 6000 $ of economic activity while China gets only 1500 $ per Kg of CO2. China produces 30% of the global CO2 globalcarbonbudget.org China GDP 19T$, US 30T$ (data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY...)
Sharks eating influencers is the good news story of the week www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Shark selfies: why ‘finfluencers’ need to put their cameras away
More and more people are posting footage of themselves touching sharks or even riding them. This is, of course, a terrible idea
theguardian.com
time series of the 20260812 solar eclipse bit.ly/4wyBeu3 🔭#Astrophotography🔭📷
Does Trump's gold-plated Oval Office reflect the taste of the anti-hero James Bond caught cheating at golf? #TrumpTournament 🧪
The ITU (International Telecommunications Union; the UN organisation which co-ordinations international treaties on sharing of the radio spectrum), is doing a blog series on radio astronomy this August.... 📡🔭👩🔬🧪 (1/?)
🌊 New paper in Functional Ecology: #ClimateChange is projected to favour smaller, shorter-lived, earlier-maturing and faster-growing reef #fish in the NE #Mediterranean, with increasing functional homogenization. doi.org/10.1111/1365... #MarineEcology #traits 🧪🌐🌍
Water companies panic as drought worsens in UK From the new Private Eye, out now.
Meanwhile, as academic programs are cut: 94% of DI athletics programs spent more than they made in 2024, with a median gap of $20.6 million (up from $12.3 million a decade earlier). Over this period, spending increased more than generated revenue in all DI subdivisions. www.gao.gov/products/gao...
U.S. GAO - College Athletics: Most Programs Spend More Than They Generate in Revenue
Many colleges spend millions on athletic programs. Division I college athletic programs, the highest competitive level, spent $20.8 billion in the...
gao.gov
This is extraordinarily bad, as even the UK copyright libraries (e.g. Cambridge) have moved over to frequently only acquiring the ebook version of new publications. If you don't own the hard copy, you're just renting and you are at the mercy of the publisher.
Shannon Mattern@shannonmattern.bsky.social · 3w ago"In 2022, Wiley removed over 1,300 ebooks from academic library collections; [they said] perpetual access is not an option for subscribed content. In 2025, Clarivate,... announced they would stop offering libraries perpetual access licenses for ebooks and primary-source digital collections."
I believe that if an individual did this they would go to jail. Whereas these companies simply say “oops” #aihack www.bbc.com/news/article...
Anthropic AI created fake profiles and impersonated people in attempted hack
The UK's AI Safety Institute said recent behaviour from Anthropic and OpenAI models was malicious and unprecedented.
bbc.com
Let's begin the summer holidays (August) with a classic American naturalist, Aldo Leopold, and his 'A Sand County Almanac' (1949).
Anything near thump is either already a turd or turns into one. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Concacaf countries considering withdrawing support for under-fire Gianni Infantino
The confederation which represents North America, Central America and the Caribbean is pondering its position
theguardian.com
A Sunday reading for you! Chpt 2 of "How to Design a Universe" opens with the philosophical: do you see colour in the same way I see colour? What even is colour? Queue physics of rainbows & electromagnetism to question if we could ever simulate human sense🤔 #BookSky 🔭 www.youtube.com/shorts/Upkww...
Chapter 2: Senses Preorder Now!!
YouTube video by Astronomer Royal Scotland Prof Catherine Heymans
youtube.com
Am 11. September finden im Rahmen der Jahrestagung der Astronomischen Gesellschaft an der @eso.org Supernova zwei Fortbildungen für Lehrkräfte an Grundschulen und weiterführenden Schulen statt - jetzt anmelden! 🔭 #astroedu #blueLZ supernova.eso.org/germany/news...
If only someone had warned us about the change in the climate … If only. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
More than 250,000 people flee wildfires in France and Spain
Hundreds of firefighters battle blazes as strong winds drive fires towards Bordeaux and smoke prompts health warnings in Madrid
theguardian.com
“Standing six stories tall, an eight-sided concave dish had seemingly sprouted from the ground, a cage of scaffolding in front housing vital equipment ... The structure stood alone, but soon it will be accompanied by 262 others” via @supercluster.com #ngVLA #NextGenerationVLA #RadioAstronomy
On Location with the Next Generation VLA Telescope
A new structure has appeared in the desert. It’s a prototype radio dish for what is being called the next generation VLA, or ngVLA for short. When operational, the new and advanced radio telescope wil...
supercluster.com
