Andrew J. Kavanagh
@stpkav.bsky.social
Space plasma physicist. Radar botherer. "Verbose and not overly fascinating"
Excellent thread. Was very annoyed when I saw @thenewsagents.co.uk post with @lewisgoodall.com comment. I really hope he reads Christina's thread.
Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 5d ago🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12
It is raining in my little part of Cambridgeshire. It has been coming down quite hard for over an hour. It's bizarre how happy this is making me.
I cannot see the 'this looks like performative bs' button.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 6d agoBut without AI slop what's left of LinkedIn?
It was once suggested that private firms were better placed to fund close to commercial R&D, leaving government to fund science with long term and often obscure or unknown outcomes.
If the UK government wishes to make science more efficient and open up money to support strategic areas, they could start by looking at the spending and procurement rules imposed on labs.
Our new @solarstormwatch citizen science project launched today! Can you spare time to help us identify times when the skies in the Arctic are clear? You will see beautiful #aurora and will help us to improve our #spaceweather research. www.zooniverse.org/projects/lep...
Clear Skies - Kiruna | Zooniverse - People-powered research
Can you tell us when the skies are clear? You may even see an aurora!
zooniverse.org
Congratulations to Prof. Pete Convey, terrestrial ecologist at British Antarctic Survey, awarded the 2026 SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research! 🎉 SCAR awards this medal annually for significant contributions to Antarctic research. #PolarScience #Antarctica 🧵1/2
Excellent summary by m'colleague. I run some kit at Rothera and it is bizarre that in recent years one of the things I am increasingly worrying about is water ingress to the electronics building due to rain. Rain! Not snow, rain!
British Antarctic Survey 🐧@bas.ac.uk · last mo.Look, we're SWEATING in Cambridge today. But down at the UK's largest Antarctic research station, our team are also experiencing a heatwave. It's midwinter on the Antarctic Peninsula: it should be -15°C to -20°C at the moment. It's -2°C. There's almost no sea ice, and there has been rain.
Watching all the comparisons between this summer and the summer of 1976 is really triggering as its a constant reminder that I am turning 50 this year and my fixed-at-13 year old brain does not need this stress!!!
I want to repost this again as Jim really hits the nail on the head. There were dark times for STP in the late 2000s, but the community has gone on to thrive. Not least because sensible heads in NERC saw the worth of the field.
Prof Jim Wild@jim-wild.bsky.social · 2mo agoTalk about a week of contrasts. Started on the couch watching myself talk space weather on the BBC. Ended it writing a pretty frank response to UKRI’s budget cuts. Tomorrow I’m heading down to Parliament to see if I can get some MPs to help stop history repeating itself. Some reflections here 👇
Talk about a week of contrasts. Started on the couch watching myself talk space weather on the BBC. Ended it writing a pretty frank response to UKRI’s budget cuts. Tomorrow I’m heading down to Parliament to see if I can get some MPs to help stop history repeating itself. Some reflections here 👇
#spaceweather #spacescience #ukscience #astronomy #researchfunding #publicpolicy #highereducation | Jim Wild
History repeating: why UKRI must not write off fundamental science (again) I’ve been reflecting on these two TV appearances, almost 20 years apart. The week started on a high. I was proud to be inc...
linkedin.com
While the X-ray imaging of the magnetopause will be fascinating it is hard to convey the sheer brilliance of entering a time where we will once again have full auroral oval imaging. This is sooo important for a vast array of space weather studies and has been missing since 2005!
ESA Space Science@science.esa.int · 3mo agoWhat is Smile set out to discover? This groundbreaking mission will observe Earth’s magnetosphere in X-rays while capturing the northern lights in ultraviolet, offering an entirely new way to see how our planet defends itself from solar storms. 🔭 🧪 ☀️
Arrived back in the UK following a hectic week at #EGU26. Those in the know will be shocked to discover that I did not have a single kebab from the Schwedenplatz kiosk. Nor a currywurst.
My poster at #EGU26 showing initial observations from the first dedicated observational campaign of the NERC highlight topic DRIIVE (Drivers and Impacts of Ionospheric Variability with EISCAT-3D).
It is lovely to return to Vienna for #EGU26. There is a large contingent from BAS here including several members of the Space Weather and Atmosphere team.
On the train to #EGU26. Moderately smooth journey with minor delays. Quiet trains and no poster tubes in sight. Either everyone is making a Sunday dash or the train is out of fashion 🤔
Wrote a bit of code this morning in about 30 minutes that would usually take me a day or so. Now I am not saying I approve of AI but I will be taking the rest of the day off.
Excited to be giving a public lecture at the Royal Astronomical Society in London on Tuesday 19 May: "Solar superstorms - Are we ready for another Carrington Event?" ☀️
Royal Astronomical Society@royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 4mo agoTickets are now on sale for 'Solar superstorms - Are we ready for another Carrington Event?' by RAS President-Elect @jim-wild.bsky.social ☀️🎇 🎟️ & ℹ️ ras.ac.uk/events-and-m...
Opposing 4-day weeks is a winning policy. Not because it is right and not because shorter work weeks are shown to fail, but because, sadly, too many people want to race to the bottom. Instead of saying 'we should have that too' they say, 'that's not fair, take it away from them'.
Do we all have our ape costumes ready for when the Artemis crew return?
The CME today may not have been a big one, but there is a cracking looking coronal hole facing the Earth today (image accessed via www.spaceweather.com). Expect some nice high speed solar wind in the coming days.
During solar minimum, the arrival time of coronal mass ejections at Earth is roughly twice as uncertain due to the influence of the ambient solar wind compared to solar maximum. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
🚨 Reminder 🚨 We're supporting the launch of a ground-breaking photography exhibition on space debris in the Burlington House courtyard. 📷️ 🛰️💥 Our Fragile Space will be open to the public for free from tomorrow until 10 May. Come and see it for yourself! 👀
I hope this practice is not rolled out UKRI-wide for several reasons, some outlined in this thread. In person interviews means selecting for skill that are not neccessarily useful in executing the research and potentially puts large numbers of applicants at a disadvantage.
Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe MRC has announced a change to its investigator‑led assessment process: In-person interviews. “shortlisted applicants will be invited to an in‑person panel interview, giving them the best possible opportunity to make their case.” An Equality Diversity & Inclusion🧵 www.ukri.org/news/mrc-cur...
The thing that eventually kills off all innovation won't be AI. It'll be Cyber Security teams desperate to lock down every corporate computer to exactly 3 applications. So they can hit some randomly numbered standard and post about it on linkedin.
Catching up on the select committee session from this morning. Lots of interesting stuff, but it feels like there are a lot of real problems around the terminology of buckets and how the traditional councils interact within them. And that seems to be on both the UKRI and committee sides.
Decided to add my favourite comment I received from a reviewer (on my second paper) to my profile description. I feel it remains apt: "verbose and not overly fascinating".
