We've just recorded the 1st episode of the new series of Rare Earth (out on Aug 14th), all about climate & architecture. Can architects shift their focus from shiny new buildings to more creative and more useful modifications to existing buildings? And will we go with them? cc @tomheap.bsky.social

Batteries at a music/culture festival! And we even had a tent-full of people to listen to us, because what batteries can do, how we use them, and their influence in our world really is going to shape our future. This is also out as today’s Everything Electric podcast.

The Cosmic Shambles Network@cosmicshambles.com · 2d ago

The first Latitude panel of this year's festival is now available for you to watch on YouTube! Batteries Maybe Included sees @helenczerski.bsky.social, @bobbyllew.bsky.social & Saiful Islam chatting about where battery tech is headed in the near future& distant future - youtu.be/YOA-Nbne7-o

A lovely little bit of physics that you might have spotted if you ever play with a slinky. We should all play more, because we should all embrace our curiosity. And finding out how the physical world works is fun!

Last week I got to hear live an amazing cover of Friday I'm in Love (The Cure), by Charlotte Carpenter. It was made for the @cosmicshambles.com music doc cos I chose the original as one of my favourite songs, and it's 58 minutes in here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=quj8... Do listen - it's fantastic!

This week’s chili pepper harvest, which included the world’s tiniest chili. Cute, but not exactly prolific. @davidho.bsky.social thinks that a tiny chili is better than a radish. I’m unconvinced.

Helen Czerski@helenczerski.bsky.social · last yr.

Yesterday, in a garden centre with @davidho.bsky.social : Me: shall we pick out some more plants? David: What grows really quickly and makes something edible? Me: Radishes. They grow incredibly quickly. David: But the problem with that is that then you have radishes.

We still think of wildfires as something that happen to other people, in other places. But the world is changing, and the wildfire in Suffolk is a symptom of that. This is how average annual temperature in Dunwich has changed since 1940, from here: era-explorer.climate.copernicus.eu?lat=52.28&ln...

Oh. I need to travel between Hamburg and Stockholm in a few weeks, and I was looking forward to the sleeper train (such fun!). But apparently it's being discontinued two weeks before I travel, even though it's always full & really popular. Boooo! We need more sleeper trains, not fewer!

Plug-in solar panels are coming to the UK from August 27th! It's been in the pipeline for a while & it's already common in Germany. But it's BRILLIANT because it opens up these technologies to renters & ppl w/o their own roof. Plugs into a normal socket & supplies ~ 10-20% of household needs. ☀️🎉

UK households free to install plug-in balcony solar panels from end of August

Law change means renters and flat owners may be able to cut bills as energy costs soar amid Iran war

theguardian.com

It’s been a LOVELY weekend of science, ideas, brilliant people & curiosity here at the Latitude Festival. Hooray for all the best things humanity can do! It’s also lovely that people are still asking me to sign tea towels. Everyone should know both where their towel is & also how their towel works.

It's the first proper morning at the Latitude Festival and I'm being allowed on a music stage for the first time! I'll spend the rest of the weekend on stage at the @cosmicshambles.com Forest of Science & Culture, talking about science, but it's fab to be part of a live performance of Ocean Songs.

The dates for my Gresham College lectures for next year are now all listed online (six in total, only three shown below), and they'll all be streamed live online. You can also attend in person if you're in London - it's a small but very distinctive venue. www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/se...

I had a lovely day filming for the Everything Electric Show (out mid-August) and not losing my marbles as we discussed the smart homes of the future and a new scheme to help homeowners trade energy at wholesale prices. It was obviously not at all just a pretext for playing with the marble run...

My favourite road sign so far this year, just outside Grasmere. We didn't see one (although when you're going up a really steep hill on a bike it's pretty hard to look), but I hope there was at least one watching us. 🐿️🐿️🐿️

I never quite get over the huge tidal range of the Thames in central London. This is Vauxhall bridge, 40 min before low tide, and it will rise six metres above this level today. And almost no-one in London will notice!

I respect France's commitment to not working on a holiday.

We had a lovely six day cycle trip from Le Havre to Calais. The Eurovelo 4 in that area is fantastic - protected cycle lanes or quiet roads almost all the way, and such beautiful scenery. Ferry from Portsmouth, 370km cycle, ferry back from Dover. Hooray for bikes! cc @davidho.bsky.social

It was great fun to interview David Spiegelhalter about his new statistics book for Intelligence Squared. What does probability really mean and how should we think about it in different situations? Podcast available now on the IQ2 website & feed: www.intelligencesquared.com/intelligence...

Great to see that @jimalkhalili.bsky.social now has a YouTube channel. Well worth a look! www.youtube.com/watch?v=c63X...

Could I Travel Back in Time? How Physics Tackles the Paradoxes – with Jim Al-Khalili

YouTube video by Unbaffled

youtube.com

If you're in or near London, the Royal Society Summer Science exhibition is underway, and well worth a visit (and is free). I'll be there tomorrow (Friday) to join a panel discussion about material pollution in aquatic environments. There will also be loads of demos of the latest research - do go!

The Royal Society@royalsociety.org · last mo.

Our #SummerScience Exhibition is well and truly underway, celebrating cutting-edge, mind-blowing science from around the UK. With free entry all day every day until Sunday 5 July, plan your visit now: royalsociety.org/science-even...

Wow. Now there is an idea I didn't see coming. The tiny particles that wear off tyres can apparently act as ice nucleation sites. Cloud droplets need a starting nucleation site & this new paper suggests global tire pollution might matter for clouds. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The London Ambulance Service responded to the highest number of life-threatening emergencies in its history yesterday. The Chief Executive said this was "driven by the extreme heat across London".

Currently at Köln train station. I had checked the temperatures at either end of this journey, but I should also have checked the temp in the middle. Ooof. I asked about the heat, but meeting orgs were clear that they did not see it as a reason not to travel. I should have been more assertive.

I think that there is a very fundamental reason why AI (any of its manifestations) can't and shouldn't be left to "do" critical thinking. The foundation for critical thinking is a set of values, and values are a human responsibility & a very human thing. They cannot be out-sourced. [1/n]

Just been out for an early run here in Hannover. 25C at 7am but the reason I could go out is the shade - lots of trees here in lovely long avenues. The UK is going to need much more of this. And trees take time to grow, so we’d better start now!

So many university websites are focussed on corporate branding & "selling" the university. If we really want the public to see and relate to their local universities, we need uni webpages to be more like a public botanical garden: a welcoming & interesting place, with added depth if you want it.

Wow. All the trains have stopped across all of Germany because of a nationwide rail communications failure. I'm on one of them. I am fascinated by what could possibly cause this. And... I guess I'm going to have the whole night on a train to ponder it. apnews.com/article/germ...

Trains halted across Germany because of communication system problem

Germany’s national railway operator says it has halted trains across the country because of a problem with a communication system.

apnews.com

So nostalgic for the days when German trains really did run on time. Train late into Koln, perfectly timed to watch the tail end of my connection disappear out of the station. The next train was re-routed, slowed down, & has now completely stopped at a tiny station 100 miles from my destination. 😢🤷‍♀️

Londoners, there is a webpage for you to see where your nearest "cool spaces" are when the extreme heat hits - places with water, air-conditioning & shade. Have a look and spread the word, especially to those who may need this but might not think to look for it: apps.london.gov.uk/cool-spaces/

Irony is dead

Just finished easily the best book I've read in the past year: Minute Six by @drkevinfong.bsky.social Look out for it in September, especially if you're interested in people, systems & teamwork (and you should be - we all depend on all of them). Absolutely essential reading, brilliantly written.