Really sad to see a Research Council chair react to Jodrell like this. It's a huge part of British heritage. And we are all stronger together as researchers - we should be growing the pot of money that funds UK research excellence and protects uni jobs - and instead one of our leaders does this.

I realise we have been able to do it for centuries, but the fact that humans can predict solar eclipses never ceases to amaze me. It's just incredible when you stop and think for a moment.

The outcry over Jodrell is showing many things. One that strikes me: for years we have told funders that big science projects like those carried out at the LHC and telescopes play a unique role in engaging the public & driving young minds towards physics and big data. Now they see we weren't lying.

Latest idea: LinkedIn for new parents. Delighted to share that this morning I managed to clean part of the kitchen...

I am all for saving Jodrell Bank, but please don’t lose sight of the fact that it is simply the most visible manifestation of a much bigger problem, which isn’t solved if someone magically finds the money to keep it going, simply to shut people up. 🔭🧪

No other experiment can access the same details about the subatomic universe as LHCb, and no other experiment is likely to until the advent of the proposed future FCC-hh collider in the 2070s. Cutting LHCb will push back science by fifty years.

Lucien Heurtier@lucienheurtier.bsky.social · last wk.

📢UKRI’s decision not to fund LHCb Upgrade II is not just a project cut. It puts UK leadership, access to the future LHCb dataset and opportunities for hundreds of scientists, engineers, technicians and students at risk. 🧪 ↩️This decision should be reversed. #UKRI #STFC @andyburnham.bsky.social

📢UKRI’s decision not to fund LHCb Upgrade II is not just a project cut. It puts UK leadership, access to the future LHCb dataset and opportunities for hundreds of scientists, engineers, technicians and students at risk. 🧪 ↩️This decision should be reversed. #UKRI #STFC @andyburnham.bsky.social

Number 10 North is significantly closer to Lands End than to John O Groats...

no *you’re* crying - and I love how Avtar still sees ChatGPT for what it is www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘I thought, I’ve tried everything else, why not give AI a shot?’: the long-lost family reunited by ChatGPT

Avtar spent decades wondering what happened to the mother he never got to know. Thousands of miles away, Nicci was haunted by the story of a half-brother given away before she was born. How did a chat...

theguardian.com

I completely agree that universities are critical to local economies - students bring money in and their money gets spent locally - but to do this the PM has to ensure unis have a sustainable funding model.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

'Under Burnham, the government is expected to double down on harnessing university research for regional growth, with the prime minister having said growth “comes from placing our universities at the heart of local economies…and bringing the innovation-led approach through startups & scaleups”.' 2/2

If we truly valued growth we would rejoin the Customs Union and Single Market, massively remove barriers to immigration, and invest in capital infrastructure that enables growth. I'm still angry at Starmer's "growth is our number one priority" but he so often picked the anti-growth route.

George Eaton@georgeeaton.bsky.social · 2w ago

Appointment of Dan Tomlinson as Growth Minister, spanning the Treasury and Cabinet Office, is very good news. Someone who truly gets the importance of growth for living standards and is prepared to fight to deliver it.

In addition to everything else, universities serve as a conduit to bring money from outside the UK and invest it in local communities (via staff salaries, catering, all the little things etc - where do you think we spend our pay?)

Will cycles slower than you 🇿🇦🇬🇧🏳️‍⚧️@williamnb.eurosky.social · 2w ago

Paul is talking about universities here, and he's right. Foreign students pay around £44 000/year tuition fees, heavily subsidising UK students, but for some stupid reason, foreign students are counted as immigrants. The UK is destroying the unis to appease a handful of racists.

This is very disappointing. Such an important and undervalued brief which was for years held by a succession of uninterested itinerants. A prisons minister who genuinely cared and who was starting to see results.

Cassia Rowland@cassiarowland.bsky.social · 2w ago

The day’s first casualty: James Timpson resigns as prisons minister. This is a big surprise! Timpson had a long history as a prisons reformer before entering government and seen as one of Starmer’s more innovative & exciting appointments. He’s also delivered a big change programme in gov. So: why?

Personally I think the winner of this match should play the winner of the final to determine who the true world champions are

One of my friends taught English in Argentina for a while. She was often asked if the English hated them for the Falklands. Her answer - correct in my view - was that the hand of God figured far more in the public imagination.

Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 3w ago

What’s the cultural reference you must frequently have to stop yourself from making at work, because no-one else would get it? Mine is “ze price stabilité is ze most important thing”.

One of the greatest ever scenes of cinematic wonder wouldn’t have quite worked without Sam Neill giving us the most human/scientist reactions to seeing dinosaurs alive again. Seared in my mind and etched forever in cinema history. R.I.P.

Richy Craven@richycraven.bsky.social · 3w ago

Sam Neil has so many great performances that it feels almost reductive to focus on one scene. Except it's one of the most iconic scenes in movie history and all of it, The groundbreaking CGI, the sweeping John Williams score *doesn't* work without the authentic joy and wonder of Neill's performance

"Suburbs" is an amazingly bad translation of "banlieue" which almost completely fails to capture Mbappé's point here.

Brett Coughlin@coughlinbrett.bsky.social · last mo.

Kylian Mbappé #WorldCup

Does that include universities?

Jessica Elgot@jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 4w ago

New - Andy Burnham will undertake a summer tour as prime minister to Labour “danger zones” across the country where the party has been losing support, particularly areas hit by controversial government policies. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Sounds impressive until you remember that Djokovic and I have 24 slams between us, which is almost as good

"Qui est le Comte Tete-de-poubelle?" is just perfect

I love how Compte Tête-de-Poubelle sounds like a minor character in a Dumas novel.

John Walton@thatjohn.bsky.social · 4w ago

fascinatingly* the French news is translating "Count Binface" as « le Compte Tête-de-Poubelle » rather than « Visage-de-Poubelle) which is, in fairness, more accurate (his entire head is a bin, not just his face) typical British media not asking the important underlying questions * ta gueule

On display this morning, parliamentary scrutiny at its very best with @chionwurah.bsky.social and her committee questioning Secretary of State Liz Kendall about the STFC funding cuts. Worth watching in full, but here are some of the highlights! 1: Doctoring the minutes!

"I have done nothing wrong" - I wonder if this is the first line many will hear about the scandals

For 6 months the line from DSIT & UKRI on STFC cuts has been that no final decisions have been taken That is no longer the case, after DSIT approved UKRI's proposal for how to save £162m British research at Cern will be hit, along with UK science facilities Scoop by me & @francesjones.bsky.social

UK research at Cern to shrink as government approves STFC cuts - Research Professional News

Exclusive: Science department approves UKRI’s cost-saving proposal, with major UK facilities also facing cutbacks

researchprofessionalnews.com

Visiting my university’s new, expensively-refurbished space for startup incubators and senior management and cannot imagine a better illustration of the American university at this moment in time than a breathlessly press-released “collaboration room” featuring a single desk and chair.

I thought I read somewhere that the UK government was trying not to make any big decisions til the new PM came along?

Lucien Heurtier@lucienheurtier.bsky.social · 4w ago

"the science department has now approved the prioritisation decisions made in the proposal, which are due to be announced within days. DSIT describes the final decision on the STFC savings as being down to the UKRI board." #UKRI must save PPAN 🧪🔭 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

At least we know red cards like that don't result in a ban

Jokes on all my friends working out how/if to watch the game. My baby will wake me up to be fed.