I don't know if Jason Arday is liar. I do know the person who has dedicated himself to Arday's ruin thinks Black Africans are inferior to white people and makes a career out of trying to prove it. Cofnas should have no place in this arena
Prof Rachel Oliver
@profrachelgan.bsky.social
Materials scientist, mum, mountain-biker.
Many of the toilets in my Department are individual little rooms with their own loo, sink and hand dryer, but they used to be labelled as either male or female. Now they've largely been relabelled for universal use. (We do have toilets with multiple stalls which are still labelled make or female).
Dr Mel T@drmel.bsky.social · 6d agoYou know the quickest solution to the ridiculous new toilet laws in the UK is to make all toilets non gendered? Pop a few ferns in those urinals and make EVERYONE use the stalls. Honestly, this is a ‘cis men wanting to have pissing contests with each other’ problem. Leave the rest of us out of it!
From within the Cambridge ecosystem, I can state definitively that I have never seen any Cambridge professor receive anything like the amount of scrutiny that has fallen on Jason Arday. That is true even of a very small number of people whose behaviour I believe truly merits serious scrutiny.
Chris Bertram@crookedfootball.bsky.social · 6d agoI don't deny the Arday resignation is important news, but to have it as the top item on the Guardian, Times and Telegraph websites says something about the weight they all give to culture wars over substantive news on politics, the economy, the environment, international conflict etc
While higher education has talked a lot about EDI, are Black academics noticing the difference in their day-to-day lives? A conference gave them a space to reflect: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/making-space-black-voices-higher-education #Highered #Academicsky
Making space for Black voices in higher education
While higher education has talked a lot about EDI, are Black academics noticing the difference in their day-to-day lives? A conference gave them a space to reflect
timeshighereducation.com
Detectives in TV shows looking at evidence down an optical microscope and claiming to hence learn information involving features that would not be resolvable in optical microscopy, or data types that optical microscopy does not collect. Also applies of other types of microscopy , such as SEM, tbh.
Sanjay Srivastava@sanjaysrivastava.com · 2w agoWhat is an extremely nerdy/obscure/specific thing you hate with a white-hot wrath?
I talked to Varsity (Cambridge student newspaper) about some of the issues facing women in STEM: www.varsity.co.uk/science/31882
‘Death by a thousand cuts’: Professor Rachel Oliver on why women in STEM suffer
Dhruv Shenai speaks to Professor Rachel Oliver about gender inequality in research grants and the biggest issues women in STEM face
varsity.co.uk
Shadow use of genAI as a reviewer is shitty because you're putting someone else's work into the machine w/o consent, and as an author I'd rather hear Reviewer 2's bad attitudes than LLM platitudes. But if you sanction reviewers you'll just have no reviewers. It's a lose-lose situation.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago'IOP Publishing...does not allow the use of AI in its peer review policy, but it believes that generative AI use has skyrocketed nonetheless. As a result, the publisher is trying out a new system that sees reviewers receive a warning where AI use is suspected.' 1/3
On top of everythng Kirsty says, the funding call for the "AI Lab" was launched with such a short deadline as to make the writing of thorough, well-considered proposals virtully impossible....
Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 2w agoEarlier 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...
The government seems pretty stumped about how to reduce the prison population... but there is a simple solution: free the majority of women prisoners, replacing their custodial sentences with non-custodial measures. Sounds like a sweeping statement but ... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Burnham stirs up political row with review of release plans for violent criminals
PM says he wants to make sure ‘everything has been looked at’ after backlash from family of PC Harper
theguardian.com
The idea of keeping track of who's doing the labour of parenting is getting a lot of hate here. But in many families, not keeping track tends to mean women do more & that that labour is invisible. Keeping a spreadsheet wouldn't be my choice, but I'm not seeing many suggestions for better solutions.
Giles Wilkes@gilesyb.bsky.social · 4w agoBy far the most terrifying opening paragraph I've read in an FT piece giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... omg @soumayakeynes.ft.com
Interesting article - including an account some someone who switched out of academia and then came back. I think the increasing porosity between academia and industry is a really positive thing, and Universities should encourage these less usual career pathways!
Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 4w agoCan quitting academia make you happier? As university life gets tougher, four writers relate experiences of switching to careers outside academia. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-worl...
The sad thing is, we have a travel agent that we are meant to use to book University travel, and they somehow managed to combine all the disadvantages of both the old school human-being approach and the modern web-based version.
Rob Sheridan@rob-sheridan.com · last mo.Saw a meme of GenZ baffled by how pre-internet travel worked, and realized we’ve crossed an enshittification threshold where IRL services that once seemed outdated, like travel agents, now seem luxurious: “You meet with a human expert who plans out your whole trip with you” sounds incredible now tbh
It appears that certain right wing folk really can't cope with people who don't agree with them being allowed to have conversations that don't involve them.
The Telegraph@telegraph.co.uk · last mo.The progressive version of Twitter offers a world of vicious, sneering odium that only those who see themselves as kinder humans dish out 🔗 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/03/is-there-anything-more-pathetic-than-a-bluesky-user/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_li_pathetic-than-a-bluesky-user/
It's not lack of reporting routes that is the problem. It's what happens when harassment is reported. The answer to that question is too often nothing. Or worse, sometimes the person making the report is effectively the one who is punished.
Article here from chemistry world on the Women in Research charter with some comments from me on why I think it doesn't go far enough. I have a lot to say about this (unsurprisingly) and I'm going to expand below on my comments on bullying and harassment. 🧵 www.chemistryworld.com/news/uk-gove...
UK government’s new charter aims to better support women in research
'Now is the time for research institutions to step up and level the playing field for women,' notes one government official
chemistryworld.com
Whilst, I am really glad that PhD students are now more likely to have access to paid maternity leave, this "charter" barely even touches the edges of the issues experienced by women in the sector.
Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · last mo.Over 50 UK research bodies commit to better conditions for women. Government-led charter sets out measures including at least 52 weeks’ maternity leave and safer workplaces. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
There's a very real and obvious unfairness here that the Guardian article overlooks. Students who start off as undergrads on 4 year degree courses don't have to take a post-grad loan, but do get a masters. Students who do a bachelors degree and a separate masters are saddled with punitive debts.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo ago‘Basically you’re trapped’: UK postgraduates burdened with double loan debt
This morning on BBC Today, one of the presenter's somewhat suggested that Kemi badenoch calling Bridget Phillipson a "spiteful class warrier" was justified because Phillipson once suggested a Tory MP was racist. I was aghast at this false equivalence. 🧵 ca.news.yahoo.com/bridget-phil...
Bridget Phillipson Reignites Row Over Tory MP's 'Racist' Attack On Muslims Praying
The education secretary hit out a day after getting into a war of words with Kemi Badenoch.
ca.news.yahoo.com
Remember that FOUR week turn around for a £40M call @ukri.org. Turns out it was actually a £60M call. How does this meet the Nolan Principles of Openess? UK invests £60m in two university-led AI research labs www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
UK invests £60m in two university-led AI research labs - Research Professional News
Minister makes case for “forward-facing” academic research infrastructure
researchprofessionalnews.com
This is one of the things that bothers me about the ban... disabled teenagers, LGBTQ+ teenagers, even just teenagers with unusual hobbies will lose opportunities to make helpful connections that their schools and commuities may not be able to replace...
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo agoUK social media ban could cut lifeline for disabled children, campaigners warn
Hundreds of strangers in Belfast working together. Doing shopping, providing accommodation, driving kids to school, people to hospital appointments. Have just been told of a woman close to us who hasn't left her house since Monday so we'll be sorting her out today and getting her anything she needs
would be nice if my concerns about racists, fascists, and a white supremacist, who’s called for the government to be overthrown, using his far-right skewed social media platform to spread hatred were seen as legitimate as racists’ concerns
We want all our representatives in Parliament to show such unequivocal rejection of the politics of division.
Ben Goldsborough MP@bengoldsborough.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis was a race riot. Families were driven from their homes. People were targeted because of who they are and where they come from. Words matter. Those who fuel hatred and division bear responsibility too. We have more in common than that which divides us.
“What you're seeing is a race-based pogrom. We are seeing men going door to door asking to get the foreigners out based exclusively on the colour of their skin.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cr...
Houses, cars, and bus set on fire in Belfast night of disorder after knife attack - follow live
Northern Ireland's first minister says masked men were "burning families out of their homes". One pastor says black people were targeted, while an MP calls it a "race-based pogrom".
bbc.co.uk
Violence on the streets of the U.K. incited and enabled by Elon Musk, a fellow of the @royalsociety.org. When will our national academy stand up for the values it claims to espouse?
Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 2mo agoThis is a pogrom, incited and instigated by Elon Musk. This is now the second set of pogroms incited by Elon in the UK in 2 years.
Great initiative! Shining a light on the excellent work done by facility managers in microscopy helps facilitate exchange of good practice and will support career development of a sometimes overlooked group. I'd love to see other types of microscopy (and other techniques) get the same treatment!
@jofmicroscopy.bsky.social · 2mo ago📣 New issue: Light Microscopy Core Facility Management Vol 2 The Journal's first Special Issue on Light Microscopy Core Facility Management (Volume 294, Issue 3) sought to support core facility managers by formalizing and sharing experiences across this wide range of adjacent yet essential domains.
Rightly angry piece from @iandunt.bsky.social about the Populist Right BS that followed the awful Henry Nowak murder case and how the media/national conversation has been drawn into it. iandunt.substack.com/p/an-abysmal...
Honestly, if we're going to have bots then acting as the personification of Tower Bridge and letting us know when it is open and why is what those bots should be doing.
Tower Bridge@tb-lifts.bsky.social · 2mo agoI am opening for the Dixie Queen, which is passing downriver