As usual @apsmunro.bsky.social is a model of good sense More Fuss About Filters open.substack.com/pub/alasdair...

More Fuss About Filters

A new RCT of air filtration devices gets heads spinning...again

open.substack.com

Cambridge have been left holding the parcel for failures elsewhere. How many appointment boards would read the PhD thesis of a candidate for a chair rather than trusting the examining university's award? The papers should have been read but this may say more about standards in the field.

Des Fitzgerald@desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 4d ago

I very much wish there was more focus on C*mbridge University in this discussion, as an unabashedly colonial institution trying to make individual scholars symbolically remediate its own dreadful relationship to the world. But of course individuals cannot possibly play this role, and here we are.

Well said, Lewis. @chrischirp.bsky.social post rests on a lot of shaky assumptions about the effectiveness of interventions. They do not acknowledge the risks of abuse or mental disorder from home confinement. Why no case control study of key worker children in school vs kept home children?

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall.com · 5d ago

There are working class and vulnerable kids who will never have the life they should have had because of school closures. Let’s address that too, shall we?

Devastating news. Where will the residents of Belmont now go for breakfast and sugar rush?

Chicago Tribune@chicagotribune.com · last wk.

Restaurant news: Ann Sather opens new flagship after 81 years of cinnamon rolls in Chicago

Good point about mining & hockey pucks, but can we predict the trajectory of future jobs in the same way that expert eyes can predict a puck's trajectory? And what's happened to 'transferable skills' in the new 'skills'-fixated discourse? The 'transferable' addressed the unknown trajectory issue.

Chris Dillow@chrisdillow.bsky.social · last wk.

If this had been policy in the 70s (as it partly was), towns would have produced lots of mining engineers & metallurgists just before pits & steelworks closed. As the yanks say, you should skate to where the puck's going, not to where it is. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

You're going to hear a LOT today about kids being trained up at school for local jobs, "vocational" work (building, scaffolding, security, care home staff) Just remember they're talking about YOUR kids. Not theirs. THEIR kids will absolutely still be going to University.

Anyone who actually knows about qualitative research knows that the interview was always a small element. Its expanded role is recent thing, driven partly by cost and partly by the ethics police.

The Sociological Review Foundation@thesociologicalreview.org · last wk.

What if qualitative research could expand beyond the interview? Join Professor Les Back for a two-part online workshop exploring Live Methods - creative, contemporary approaches to qualitative research. 📅 4 & 18 Aug 💻 Online 🎟️ Register by 1 Aug: buff.ly/csttcLH

George Arnald, View on the Ouse at York, 1803 https://botfrens.com/collections/14375/contents/1111808

This anthology of climate change blog posts seems strange in the context of a world on fire. We tried so hard to communicate, but.... #climatechange #pyrocene makingsciencepublic.com/2026/07/24/c...

Climate change and language: An anthology of blog posts

I have been interested in climate change and climate change communication for a long time, most recently as part of a Leverhulme Trust funded ‘Making Science Public’ programme of research (2012-201…

makingsciencepublic.com

Two choices do seem to be particularly worth discussion, perhaps reflecting my sociologist’s interest in the nature of order: the “law of Zeus” and the treatment of women.... www.socialsciencespace.com/2026/07/the-...

The Odyssey and the Social Order

A clunky booking website and my failure to check dates before pressing ‘buy’ meant that I saw Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on its opening night here in Nottingham. I have since had a lot of

socialsciencespace.com

I have reviewed two manuscripts today, both of which include huge block quotes that span nearly an entire page, followed by no analysis. Your quotes illustrate your points; they don’t make the points for you. ANALYZE the data; don’t just show it to readers.

Course: Understanding the Media: A Starter Guide for Scientists July 15, 2-3 pm ET This 1-hr course teaches scientists the basics: the news landscape, what makes a story newsworthy & how to talk to reporters. www.sciline.org/learn/media-...

For weekend readers an anthology of blog posts about #synbio, #scicomm, #RRI and, of course, #metaphor makingsciencepublic.com/2026/07/10/s...

Synthetic Biology and Language: An anthology

The blog posts assembled here were inspired by working on two projects. Between 2014 and 2016 I was part of a Synthetic Biology Research Centre project funded by the BBSRC focusing on bringing resp…

makingsciencepublic.com

With the roll-out of Making Tax Digital going ahead, HMRC must provide an in-house, government-developed, fully-functional software that allows easy and confident compliance with MTD. Self-employed people should not be obliged to hand data to private companies. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...

Petition: Create a government-owned, free software for Making Tax Digital (MTD)

With the roll-out of Making Tax Digital going ahead, HMRC must provide an in-house, government-developed, fully-functional software that allows easy and confident compliance with MTD. Self-employed pe...

petition.parliament.uk

Umeå University is advertising two assistant professor positions in the humanities: www.umu.se/en/work-with... I was a postdoc at Umeå and it's a great place to work! @ethannowak.bsky.social would back me up on this.

Two positions as Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities

umu.se

The Vikings were more than bearded marauders but Scandinavia’s national museums continue to project that image theconversation.com/the-vikings-...

The Vikings were more than bearded marauders but Scandinavia’s national museums continue to project that image

The Vikings are big draw for tourists and museums struggle to balance the real history.

theconversation.com

'People who speak more than one language seem to have younger brains and the more languages you speak and the earlier you speak them, the better, according to findings from a study being presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies conference in Barcelona.' 1/2

Learning another language appears to slow brain ageing, scientists say

Study finds those who speak two languages have brains that appear around six years younger than those who speak one

theguardian.com

Iatrocracy…is a perfectly good word, specially coined for the purposes of this paragraph. It comes from the Greek word for doctor, iatros, and it means government by physicians. www.socialsciencespace.com/2026/07/ai-a...

AI and ‘Iatrocracy’ – A Cautionary Tale

I was adding some final flourishes on the topic of ‘iatrocracy’ to my forthcoming book with Natewindé Sawadogo – Sickness and Social Order: Professions, States and Markets since you ask – wh

socialsciencespace.com

For weekend readers a post exploring the ubiquitous and duplicitous metaphor of co-pilot in AI discourse #metaphor #AI #linguistics #scicomm makingsciencepublic.com/2026/07/03/f...

From copilot to co-existence: Changes in human-AI interactions

I have written a lot about the metaphors we use to talk about generative AI, but for some reason, one obvious and deep-rooted metaphor has flown under my radar: ‘copilot’ or ‘co-p…

makingsciencepublic.com

First they came for the languages. In the hope that no one would have the words to say what was happening. 1/9🧵

University of Aberdeen's plans to cut modern language degrees were 'rushed' - review

The University of Aberdeen says it accepts there were "missteps" in its process in 2023.

bbc.co.uk

Empty lectures stem from students’ fractured relationship with effort www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/empt...

Empty lectures stem from students’ fractured relationship with effort

Covid’s cultural effect is difficult to overcome, but we can at least resist the trend of infinite accommodation, say Mario Senovilla and Elena Liquete

timeshighereducation.com

Today's employers are looking for graduates who can think critically, communicate effectively, use technology and data confidently, and apply those skills in real-world settings. This is Sociology, Yall! #academicsky #sociology

The New Career Ticket: Choosing A College Major With Versatility

Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new LinkedIn data shows.

forbes.com

#Sociology has a marketing problem! We need to move away from "learning about society" narratives for students & focus on skills we provide for a wide range of careers. We understand human behavior, analyze complex data, conduct research, solve organizational problems, & communicate evidence.

Yourqueerprof@drcompton.bsky.social · last mo.

Today's employers are looking for graduates who can think critically, communicate effectively, use technology and data confidently, and apply those skills in real-world settings. This is Sociology, Yall! #academicsky #sociology

Hello, Chicago.

Some heatwave sociology (C. Vassy, R.Dingwall, and A. Murcott) ‘Comment analyser l’absence d’anticipation des risques? Le cas de la canicule 2003 en France’, Sociologie et Sociétés 2007, 39;1: 161-80. www.erudit.org/en/journals/...

Comment analyser l’absence d’anticipation des risques? Le cas de la canicule de 2003 en France – Sociologie et sociétés

An article from Sociologie et sociétés, on Érudit.

erudit.org

Gorgeous wild flowers this morning by York city walls

Worth recalling that EPSRC funded FUTURENET (2009-13) linking engineering and social science to study adaptations to transport networks required as a consequence of climate change. A bit of a buzz at the time but largely disappeared into the memory hole. gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref...

A very quick post about the irony of cancelling events dealing with climate change and extreme weather due to extreme weather makingsciencepublic.com/2026/06/24/c...

Cancelled due to extreme heat

I was going to cancel this week’s post due to the heat — then I noticed I wasn’t alone. We are currently living or rather sweating through the second heatwave this year. It’s really qui…

makingsciencepublic.com