Brigitte Nerlich
@bnerlich.bsky.social
Metaphor hunter, linguist, social scientist, blogger blog: https://makingsciencepublic.com/ also sorted into categories at https://wakelet.com/@bnerlich https://bnerlich-lang.github.io/ ORCID: 0000-0001-6617-7827
“This award recognizes Ms. Branswell for her exceptional ability to clearly convey complex and often urgent science topics for the public.” They couldn’t have chosen a better person! Congrats @helenbranswell.bsky.social! “Well deserved” doesn’t begin to cover it… 🧪
businesswire.com
As a local cllr, I felt quite insulted by the suggestion that all we do is ‘deal with parking & sorting out the bins’, suggesting that because we’re so trivial it’s OK to put up a convicted anti-Semite as a prospective cllr.
Ian Dunt@iandunt.bsky.social · 7h agoHere are the stupidest things Kemi Badenoch has said so far today inews.co.uk/opinion/kemi...
“A maggot knows things about the outside world in a way that no computer does.” — Matthew Cobb, Manchester University Right on, Dr Cobb, right on. (This article is terrific btw)
Neuroskeptic@neuroskeptic.bsky.social · 6h ago"AI Is Nothing Like a Brain, and That’s OK" www.quantamagazine.org/ai-is-nothin... Hmm... it's a great article, maybe not a great headline.
An excellent article; well-crafted and enlightening. I found the comment by Farid, an expert who investigates deepfakes, compelling: “The companies, he says, “will burn the fucking place to the ground.” A strong, if not surprising, sentiment made by an expert in the field.
Kai Kupferschmidt@kakape.bsky.social · 3mo agoHow are AI images and videos changing the world we live in? How can we even still tell what is real and what is not? In an effort to find out, I visited Hany Farid, „sort of the dean of digital forensics“, for a couple of days in Berkeley. It was eye-opening. My story in @science.org 🧪
Interesting insights into 'vaccination hesitancy' - it's perhaps not hesitancy but accessibility www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The real reason child vaccination rates are falling
As child immunisation rates fall across the UK, one clinic in west Yorkshire is taking aggressive steps to boost immunisations
bbc.co.uk
Time for Andy Burnham to smile on UK science ft.trib.al/YaGOWfr | opinion
Time for Andy Burnham to smile on UK science
Waning support for basic research threatens Britain’s technology ambitions
ft.trib.al
It’s a very odd experience as a US American academic who also spends lots of time working with / in the UK system to see that somehow UK academia is even more screwed by political fuckery. One wouldn’t think that’s possible.
I mean, just look at these beauties.... 🤩
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 2d agoJarvis Cocker, New Order, Elbow, Dr Who (v. Eccleston), @daraobriain.bsky.social, Kraftwerk, Mogwai, Brian May, 2 astronauts (Peake & Hadfield), the Poet Laureate, the Lovell family & many more. Heartwarming to see how much the UK loves Jodrell Bank & astronomy🔭🙏 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
If you're curious about how the right is going to try to frame the horrific fires in Spokane Washington, it looks like they plan to blame them on homeless people, local (DEM) city leadership, and state (DEM) mismanagement of forests. So, many of the same frames as the LA fires.
So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)
So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.
Nor does Anthropic’s report justify a “going rogue” frame: “We saw no evidence in any run described here of a model pursuing a goal of its own.” The report is nonetheless full of embellished language, though: the model “understands” and “convinces itself” and so forth.
in scotland, the lockdowns were so successful we didn’t record a single death from COVID in almost six weeks over summer 2020 then Eat Out To Help Out happened
Nate O@nateo.bsky.social · 3d agoIf we’re discussing covid, back in August 2020 the Prime Minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak, introduced a programme that subsidised £850m for people to congregate in enclosed spaces and get infected with the disease that killed people, then the state broadcaster depicted him as a superhero
Ukraine Foreign Affairs Minister: "We have detected intensive Russian propaganda campaign across Europe using pictures from Ceuta to sow destabilisation." Far-right from EU (& US!) falls with open eyes for hybrid threats from the weaponisation of migration, even fan the flames. #unity #solidarity
I wrote this before the current AI going rogue kerfuffle but it relates to it - deals with the seductive prefix co- in AI speak: theconversation.com/why-the-ai-i... #AI #AIMetaphorObservatory #metaphor
Why the AI industry is so fond of the prefix ‘co’ – by an expert in linguistics
Why AI companies are so fond of the prefix ‘co’.
theconversation.com
A succession of heatwaves and very dry conditions - both driven by human-induced climate change, fueld the severe wildfires in Spain and France - new @wwattribution.bsky.social study www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...
I wrote this before the current AI going rogue kerfuffle but it relates to it - deals with the seductive prefix co- in AI speak: theconversation.com/why-the-ai-i... #AI #AIMetaphorObservatory #metaphor
Why the AI industry is so fond of the prefix ‘co’ – by an expert in linguistics
Why AI companies are so fond of the prefix ‘co’.
theconversation.com
For weekend readers. If you were ever intrigued by Anthropic's Claude 'Constitution' published in January, here is a thorough metaphorical analysis by Yury Sorochkin of how and what it constituted #AI #AIMetaphorObservatory makingsciencepublic.com/2026/07/31/t...
The cage and the core: Metaphor in Claude’s constitution
This is a guest post by Yury Sorochkin, an Independent Scholar ••• In January 2026 Anthropic published an 84-page document called Claude’s Constitution. It was written, its authors say, prima…
makingsciencepublic.com
AI escaping doesn't mean it's an unstoppable supergenius, have none of you owned a spaniel
Just went for a walk with a friend who said her husband was really into AI (i.e. using Google search/Gemini) to get answers to all sorts of DIY questions. And she wondered whether a person gave these answers or how it worked. I think we have to do a lot more about public understanding of AI...
Today's post is a guest post by Yury Sorochkin on Claude's (Anthropic) 'Constitution' analysed using conceptual metaphor theory. It's great! Have a look! #AI #metaphor #AIMetaphorObservatory makingsciencepublic.com/2026/07/31/t...
The cage and the core: Metaphor in Claude’s constitution
This is a guest post by Yury Sorochkin, an Independent Scholar ••• In January 2026 Anthropic published an 84-page document called Claude’s Constitution. It was written, its authors say, prima…
makingsciencepublic.com
A belated footnote on “Spud cells” and “blobs” > there’s some overlap between colloquial language and scientific terminology. (Colloquial) "blobs" largely correspond, in terms of their in vivo formation, to blebs (verb: to bleb, blebbing), which...
Plasma membrane and actin dynamics in a spontaneously blebbing MDA-MB-231 cell
YouTube video by The Company of Biologists
youtube.com
they have a history of false balance on scientific issues; ksj.mit.edu/tracker-arch...
Report says BBC journalists mislead with false balance in climate change coverage - Knight Science Journalism @MIT
One of the most common complaints lodged against journalists these days is the notion of “false balance”. Journalists, so the critics say, too often present fringe scientists in a misguided […]
ksj.mit.edu
christ if that’s not a metaphor for our times
Today's post is a guest post by Yury Sorochkin on Claude's (Anthropic) 'Constitution' analysed using conceptual metaphor theory. It's great! Have a look! #AI #metaphor #AIMetaphorObservatory makingsciencepublic.com/2026/07/31/t...
The cage and the core: Metaphor in Claude’s constitution
This is a guest post by Yury Sorochkin, an Independent Scholar ••• In January 2026 Anthropic published an 84-page document called Claude’s Constitution. It was written, its authors say, prima…
makingsciencepublic.com
I still find it hard to take any government seriously in their pronouncements about the economy whilst their higher education policy is effectively destroying one of the most productive - and regionally diversified - parts of the economy, just to placate racists.
Fascinating article by @bnerlich.bsky.social about "linguistic trends used by AI companies" theconversation.com/why-the-ai-i...
Why the AI industry is so fond of the prefix ‘co’ – by an expert in linguistics
Why AI companies are so fond of the prefix ‘co’.
theconversation.com
