John Stott

Probability of panpsychism?

If thats true, its insane

Nerc to shut down flying lab amid rising costs - Research Professional News Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements closure will save up to £37 million, research council says

Nerc to shut down flying lab amid rising costs.

Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements closure will save up to £37 million, research council says.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Is someone doing the 2pt correlation on the sn locations (i’m sure they are)?

Oh wow only just realised you can move around on the map and look at them lasair.lsst.ac.uk to see an image like that below 🧪🔭

And we're off! My most favourite telescope, the Vera Rubin Observatory, has turned on its public alert stream and boy, were there a lot of changes in the Universe last night. More coming: ~7 million a night 😮: exploding stars, belching black holes, asteroids cruising through the solar system. 🤗🔭🧪

STFC CEO responds to @jonbutterworth.bsky.social

"it is important for all of our ... programmes ... to contribute to us making savings across our entire portfolio"

No mention that *all* is disproportionately falling on the particle-astro-nuclear programme 🤷‍♀️😡

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Here we go…the marvellous Vera Rubin Observatory has started scanning the sky, telling us about things that change and move. In there there are untold wonders and undoubtedly a few surprises. Let’s go!

What does this mean for Geminis?

Close up on a gorgeous astrolabe in shiny brass and covered in Kufi characters

The astrolabe being dismantled by the gloved hands of the curator

Inside of the mater revealed, covered in a concentric grid of Abjad numerals

Context shot showing the astrolabe on a protected surface, together with a larger astrolabe, a much smaller one (the size of a fob watch), dismantled, a globe and an armillary sphere, all brass

I’ve admired this 1068 Toledo astrolabe in its case and I studied every millimeter of it on digital images, and today I got to handle it with the medieval manuscripts group. Oxford is wild.

Caltech astrophysicist fatally shot on porch in Antelope Valley; suspect charged with murder An accomplished CalTech astrophysicist with more than four decades of research contributions in galactic astronomy and the study of distant planets was fatally shot in the Antelope Valley.

Caltech astrophysicist fatally shot on porch in Antelope Valley; suspect charged with murder

Looking forward to Jenrick leading the husk of Reform while Farage starts another party based on his personality cult

First senior member of the royal family to be arrested since Charles I...

A lot of the AI for science stuff is making feel crazy.

There are apparently serious people saying you should use LLMs for idea/hypothesis generation.

Having ideas and testing them is what a scientist does. If you are just an assistant to do stuff in the physical world for an AI why even bother?

Today the astro-community discussed the devastating proposed 30% cuts to our research funding, cuts that will be offsetting (some of the) rising costs at UK facilities that we don't use. Hard not to feel victimised when those same facilities make a fanfare announcement about an expensive facelift. 🔭

Now you’re starting to sound like a string theorist 😉

If I may… your version of panpsychism sounds a bit like physics. You’re not a million miles away from saying consciousness is just an additional fundamental property like spin or charge 😉

It’s truly frightening

I prefer it when ‘Traitors’ describes the TV program, not the people potentially electing the next government.

#academicsky

Insert gif of Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park saying something about scientists

Oh only because for some reason it only ever looks like the corresponding astronomy graph when reversed. Fingers crossed a non-inverted one comes along soon 🙂

BTC in GBP for last 5 years with x axis flipped

Looks like we’ve found a T dwarf 🧪🔭

Just read this as Im doing it for journal club. Pretty depressing! 🧪🔭 #academicsky

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...

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. 🧪

Police release CCTV image after calculators worth £879 stolen in Lancaster The theft took place on December 18

Lt Frank Columbo of the LAPD told reporters “There’s something about this case that doesn’t add up”

Door with picture of a milkshake on

Interestingly, our 🔭 department at Herts has got a special room for milkshakes. Now, I've never managed to get in, so not sure if this is where you can get hold of a milkshake, or you just have to stand in there to drink one.

😮

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