James Fawcett

@james4cet.bsky.social

Astronomy & Public Engagement | Coordinating outreach for the Euclid mission in the UK 🛰️ 🔭☄️ | he/him

Jarvis 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...

Artists, writers and scientists urge UK government to save Jodrell Bank Observatory

New Order and Simon Armitage among more than 100 signatories to criticise ‘foolish and shortsighted’ cuts

theguardian.com

Is “pragmatic” the new, “grown up” word? Andy, there’s nothing “pragmatic” about drilling for more oil & gas - to even consider it with the planet literally on fire is total madness. How many times must we say it will do nothing for energy bills or security? It would be an act of utter recklessness

Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas

PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’

theguardian.com

Meet the team of interviewees, fighting to #SaveJodrellBank on BBC Breakfast this morning.💪 L:Dr David Williams-Baldwin @davidw-b.bsky.social top black hole expert, linking the smallest to the supermassive C:Simon Garrington - Prof Boss! R:Phoebe Ryder - amazing PhD student imaging space debris 🥳🔭

Four people standing in what looks like an empty swimming pool, but it's not.  It's the disk of a massive radio telescope.  Catherine (in sunspecs) is particularly excited to be there.
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

Did I travel all the way to #JodrellBank this morning for a 5min TV interview? Yes reader, I did. Did I then persuade the fab e-MERLIN Director Simon Garrington to let me climb inside the Lovell Telescope? Well, if you can't flex a Royal title occasionally, then what is the point of having it? 😇🔭🧪

"A recent survey found that nearly 80% of early-career physicists were considering leaving the UK after the funding crisis. The loss of even a fraction of that would be a blow for UK science and also national growth. The task now is to persuade them to stay." www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

World-class Jodrell Bank is under threat and UK risks a physics brain drain

Funding crisis could lead to an exodus that would be a blow for British science and national growth

theguardian.com

Think of all the awesome science-ing we could do with an extra £20M......🧪

Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · last wk.

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

There are facilities that do world leading science and there are facilities that inspire the young to dream big and pursue a career in science. The Lovell telescope does both like no other facility I can think of in the UK. I hope sense will prevail 🧪🔭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

Short-sighted, stupid cuts to the UKRI budget include shutting down Jodrell Bank, the icon of British astronomy. (Many other cuts too, including 20% to our brand new @vrubinobs.bsky.social). Interesting politically to shut down a major facility in...um..Manchester 🔭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

“Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it.” 😔

Two telescopes, two epochs, the same nebula. You might have to stare for a little bit to fully appreciate all the movement going. Apologies to any faint stars who got deleted. I tried to remove the NICMOS PSFs from the Hubble view (which is lower resolution/blurrier)

🚨 Call for action 🚨 The RAS is demanding urgent action to address the damage light pollution is doing to astronomy, human health, biodiversity and the natural environment. It follows a conference we hosted last year, where evidence was presented about the impacts of artificial light at night.💡🌃 ⤵️

The Light Pollution conference hosted by the Royal Astronomical Society in 2025.

I’m rapidly discovering that I’m basically incapable of reading anything about #ArtemisII without crying. And I’m OK with that. I hoped but didn’t entirely believe that anything like this would happen in my lifetime, and here it is, happening right now. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Artemis II blasts closer to the far side of the Moon

The mission's last, big push on its lunar journey takes humans out of the Earth's orbit for the first time since 1972.

bbc.co.uk