Andy Extance
@andyextance.bsky.social
Bag of chemicals posing as a science journalist; member of the board of the Association of British Science Writers; on the organising committee of the World Conference of Science Journalists 2027 in London, activist, widower.
That politicians in the UK say that net zero is too expensive are obviously missing out the huge benefit floating wind farms like the Celtic Sea projects will bring to former shipbuilding areas, which need the work. Meanwhile, overseas investors cash in. www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/j...
Japanese firm takes stake in offshore windfarm project in the Celtic Sea
Sumitomo Corporation has acquired a third stake in the Gwynt Glas project
business-live.co.uk
🚨 Nature loss isn't just an environmental crisis: it's a national security issue. On 3 Sept, MPs will debate UK intelligence experts' warning on the threat of ecosystem collapse. Write to your MP and urge them to speak at the debate. @zero-hour.bsky.social www.zerohour.uk/nsa-debate
Write to your MP about the National Security Assessment
The Gov's latest national security assessment makes one thing clear: nature is not separate from national security, it underpins it. Act now.
zerohour.uk
Loving this footage of previously unknown 'Kelvin-Helmholtz instability' whirlpools on the sun. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqdq... For more on this, read here: nso.edu/press-releas... 🧪
NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope: Kevlin-Helmholtz on Solar Surface (Full View)
YouTube video by National Solar Observatory
youtube.com
As a society we give financial institutions the right to create wealth by lending money. Now is the time for us all to make our voices heard on whether this is a good use of that right. I really don't like Google risking $200B on Anthropic's future demand, pulling in Morgan Stanley in the process.
Andy Extance@andyextance.bsky.social · 4d agoThis a very weird and worrying network of borrowing and financial finagling involving Crypto companies, Google, Anthropic, banks and investment firms. I'd like governments to rule out bailing them out if it goes wrong. (Paywall, hope you can read on the first click) www.ft.com/content/549f...
This a very weird and worrying network of borrowing and financial finagling involving Crypto companies, Google, Anthropic, banks and investment firms. I'd like governments to rule out bailing them out if it goes wrong. (Paywall, hope you can read on the first click) www.ft.com/content/549f...
Inside Google’s $200bn Wall Street finance machine for Anthropic
Private credit, chip leases and data centre guarantees underpin a vast new model for AI spending
ft.com
Conference proposal alert! @wcsj2027.bsky.social, @wfsj25.bsky.social, and @absw.bsky.social are looking for sessions for #WCSJ2027, happening in London from September 6-9, 2027. Submit by November 30!
WCSJ 2027: Strengthening science journalism through global networks
registration.wcsj2027.org
Been looking over some old stories and magazines, and reminded that a decade ago it looked like there was some constructive progress being made on Iran, until Trump went and abolished the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action... www.chemistryworld.com/news/sanctio...
Come learn how to interview scientists and then play Blood on the Clocktower with me!
ABSW@absw.bsky.social · 6d 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
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 · 3w agoElaine 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 · 3w agoThe 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 · 3w agoTrust 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 · 3w agoWhile 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 agoii) 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.
