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Matt Bothwell

@mattbothwell.com

Public Astronomer at the University of Cambridge; Bye-fellow of Girton College, Cambridge Author of The Invisible Universe, Astrophysics for Supervillains, The Great Alien Hunt, & more www.mattbothwell.com

258 Posts1974 Follower1012 Folgt
Matt Bothwell@mattbothwell.com · 2w ago

I always find it a bit odd that Hank Green positions himself as a general science communicator. Not biochem (which he has a degree in), but just, like, everything. All science. As an astro sci-comm person (with a PhD) I’d feel weird about positioning myself as an authority outside my own field…

Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 2w ago

Hank Green AI controversy raises questions for science communicators www.scientificamerican.com/article/hank...

Matt Bothwell@mattbothwell.com · 2mo ago

Currently needing multiple people across different departments to read and sign off an extensive risk assessment, all so a small group of adults can attend a daytime lecture and eat a packed lunch. What was that about admin bloat strangling universities?

Matt Bothwell@mattbothwell.com · 3mo ago

Seeing billion dollar publishers using AI book covers is pretty depressing. Who needs graphic designers when you have the magic slop machine

Post nicht verfügbar.
Matt Bothwell@mattbothwell.com · 4mo ago

It's publication day for Mastering the Multiverse, the latest instalment of the Supervillain Academy series from @dkbooks.bsky.social! Black holes, time travel, wormholes, dark matter, and the big one: do we actually live in a multiverse? Available everywhere books are sold 😀🧪🔭

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A recommended read by Hiranya Peiris: "[we] had a quality problem long before LLMs...publish or perish, citation metrics as proxy for impact, volume as proxy for productivity... have been producing incremental, poorly checked, & sometimes wrong papers for decades"🧪🔭⚛️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Deckard was wrong, in the end, not because the replicants were dangerous, but because he had misunderstood the nature of the problem. The question was never really about the machines. It was about what kind of society had produced them and why. The same is true here. LLMs are not a threat to astrophysics. But the mirror they hold up to our profession is not entirely flattering, and we would do well to look at it honestly. The problems it reveals — the perverse incentives, the erosion of mentoring, the substitution of volume for thought — are ours, not the machine’s. Fixing them is our problem. It always was.
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Let me recommend grabbing a cup of tea & reading this really thoughtful piece from the inimitable @hogg.bsky.social on moderating AI/LLM use in astrophysics. 🔭 "the real question we face is not ... how we do astrophysics. It is the question of why we do astrophysics." 📖: arxiv.org/pdf/2602.10181

Simeon Schmauß@stim3on.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A bit of a different take on the amazing Artemis II launch footage. Here I stitched clips from the four Solar Array Wing Cameras to make this panoramic video. This is during the later part of the Core Stage burn until MECO and stage separation, sped up to 10x. 🔭🧪 #Artemis

Matt Bothwell@mattbothwell.com · 5mo ago

I have a new book coming out next month -- my children's astronomy books have become a trilogy 😀 Want to know about time travel, black holes, wormholes, and whether we live in a multiverse? Mastering the Multiverse is out May 7th, and available to preorder now. 🔭🧪 dk.com/products/978...

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The Science, Innovation & Tech committee have written the most amazing letter to DSIT/UKRI/STFC: "What is clear is that, despite your assertions to the contrary... widespread cuts have been proposed before adequate consultation with those affected was undertaken. This is wholly unacceptable" 💪🔭⚛️🧪

The letter reads: We were deeply concerned by what we heard, both from witnesses representing the PPAN community and those who contacted us in advance of the hearing. It is not clear whether the current situation is the by-product of irresponsible financial management and inadequate governance; a conscious decision to set aside the 2009 ‘Drayson partitions’ in order to deprioritise a particular area of scientific research in favour of research facilities; an unintended consequence of wholesale, rushed reforms to the way the UK funds scientific research; or a combination of all three. What is clear is that, despite your assertions to the contrary in evidence to my committee and our counterparts in the House of Lords, widespread cuts have been proposed before adequate consultation with those affected was undertaken.
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Here is my run-down of today's Science, Information & Technology Committee hearing (House of Commons) where @jonbutterworth.bsky.social @si-wills.bsky.social & I argued for no funding cuts, & Prof. Michele Doughtery explained why they were needed. The public gallery again packed with physicists 🔭👩‍🔬⚛️

Rows of people wearing orange lanyards in a House of Commons committee hearing. At the front is Catherine sporting her "I'm about to perform an appendectomy" mask and looking particularly snazzy.
Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 6mo ago

Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes! "Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky

Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

academic.oup.com

Mike Boylan-Kolchin@mbkplus.bsky.social · 6mo ago

David Hogg has written a white paper on doing astrophysics in the age of LLMs. It looks to be thought-provoking. My initial reaction is that either LLMs will destroy the field or they will force a reckoning with and re-imagining of the current system that often prioritizes output over quality. 🧪

Why do we do astrophysics?

At time of writing, large language models (LLMs) are beginning to obtain the ability to design, execute, write up, and referee scientific projects on the data-science side of astrophysics. What implic...

arxiv.org