Prof Rebecca Hoyle

Reading about the past or watching documentaries are a great way to discover the past, but there's noting that compares to seeing the actual bowl a cook wrote his name on 19 years before Shakespeare was born...

#Museum30 #WhyMuseums

Ruby Wax stands confidently in a lush jungle scene. She is wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a beige jacket, red trousers, and a red, white, and blue scarf. The backdrop is filled with green foliage and bright red flowers. Credit: ITV Plc.

Good luck to our former Chancellor Ruby Wax as she embarks on bush tucker trials and jungle adventures in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! 🐍

Could Ruby be swapping her cap and ceremonial mace for a crown and sceptre?

Job Opportunity: Scientific Knowledge Exchange Coordinator - Newton Gateway to Mathematics

Interesting mathematics knowledge exchange job available: gateway.newton.ac.uk/media/news/j...

My individually handmade recycled silver jewellery including intricate casts of real flowers (snowdrop, bluebell etc), casts of dragonfly Wongs & jay feathers & my tiny wearable sculptures of much-loved British bird species

One of my best-selling mounted art prints of flowers I grew & bought from an honesty florist

Victorian ink bottles that form part of my tiny posy-making mental health kits-they make great gifts

The 12 photos that make up my 2026 botanical calendar-each image is designed to improve mental health

Just added to my Etsy shop:
🌿final small print run of my '26 calendars
🪶my handmade recycled silver jewellery designs (incl intricate casts of real flowers)
🌸limited ed'n mounted art prints of my photos
💐tiny posy mental health kits
Last orders for📮 in time for🌲: 19 Nov
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/silv...

Why electricity costs so much in the UK (it’s not all about the weather) Many countries in Europe pay much less for their energy.

Many countries in Europe pay much less for their energy.

Tree of the Day

Share of electric vehicles in light-duty vehicle sales (%) Share of electric vehicles in the light-duty vehicle fleet (%) Reforestation (total Mha) GHG emissions intensity of soil fertilization (gCO2 e/1,000 kcal) Ruminant meat productivity (kg/ha) 1.8x Global private climate finance (trillion US$/yr) d Share of zero-carbon sources in electricity generation (%) Share of solar and wind in electricity generation (%) Share of coal in electricity generation (%) Share of unabated fossil gas in electricity generation (%) Carbon intensity of electricity generation (gCO2/kWh) Energy intensity of building operations (kWh/m2 ) Carbon intensity of building operations (kgCO2 /m2 ) Share of electricity in the industry sector's final energy demand (%) Carbon intensity of global cement production (kgCO2/t cement) Share of new buildings that are zero-carbon in operation (%) WRONG DIRECTION, U-TURN NEEDED INSUFFICIENT DATA RIGHT DIRECTION, OFF TRACK RIGHT DIRECTION, WELL OFF TRACK 1.2x 1.6x 7x 4x N/A Green hydrogen production (Mt) b,d Share of sustainable aviation fuels in global aviation fuel supply (%) N/Ab,d Share of electric vehicles in bus sales (%) N/Ab N/Ab,d 1.8x 5x U-turn needed Mangrove loss (ha/yr) d Number of kilometers of rapid transit per 1 million inhabitants (km/1M inhabitants) 5x N/Ab,d Share of electric vehicles in medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicle sales (%) N/Ab,d Share of kilometers traveled by passenger cars (% of passenger-km) Carbon intensity of global steel production (kgCO2/t crude steel) U-turn needed U-turn needed Share of food production lost (%) U-turn needed Public fossil fuel finance (trillion US$/yr) d Ins. data Ins. data Peatland degradation (Mha/yr) Ins. data Peatland restoration (total Mha) Ins. data Food waste (kg/capita)

New 'state of climate action' report gives you a much better picture than daily headlines about contextless solar panel or EV sales

- Most things are going in the right direction

- Most things are badly off track to the pace of change required

systemschangelab.org/state-climat...

Screen cap from linked article, with heading Significance and then text: Large Language Models (LLMs) are used in evaluative tasks across domains. Yet, what appears as alignment with human or expert judgments may conceal a deeper shift in how “judgment” itself is operationalized. Using news outlets as a controlled benchmark, we compare six LLMs to expert ratings and human evaluations under an identical, structured framework. While models often match expert outputs, our results suggest that they may rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification. Our findings suggest not only performance asymmetries but also a shift in the heuristics underlying evaluative processes, raising fundamental questions about delegating judgment to LLMs. Sentence starting with "While models often" is highlighted in blue.

I'd love to see someone try to estimate just how much time and money has gone into research that is either fully undermined by reliance on LLMs or fully pointless --- because obvious if you start from an understanding of what LLMs actually are.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

It has absorbed the whole world’s lying and spits it back at you.

The Truth About Integration I have been challenged by readers to write something less depressing about the state of the country.

If you want to read an actually good piece about integration in the United Kingdom, try @samfr.bsky.social:

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 was awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.”

Happy Nobel week, when I will tally for you how many prizes go to white guys. Follow this thread! We’re kicking off with 1/3, possibly the lowest share I’ve seen. www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medic...

Unlocking Justice: The Power of Data to Confront Inequity and Create Change Amazon.com: Unlocking Justice: The Power of Data to Confront Inequity and Create Change: 9780691276151: Topaz, Chad M.: Books

I AM STUNNED. Unlocking Justice (now available for preorder) is the #2 public policy book on Amazon, the #1 new release in applied math, and in the top 50 in math overall. Thank you for lifting this work up. If you believe in its optimistic & accessible message, plz share so more people can find it.

Sorbonne University decides to withdraw from the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings As of 2026, Sorbonne University will no longer submit data to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. The decision comes as part of a wider approach to promote open science and ref...

📣 Sorbonne University withdraws from the Times Higher Education World University Rankings!

🎓 This withdrawal is not just a symbolic gesture. The decision comes as part of a broader strategy to promote #openscience and reform research assessment.

Vice-chancellors of UK universities are much less likely to attend private school than other top public servants, with half now coming from a comprehensive school background, finds @suttontrust.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/drop-nu... via @patrickjack.bsky.social

I offer you my solidarity and sympathy, just because [all that], though I’m just another stranger on the internet. Hope you feel less sad, happy even, in due course.

Fairs.

Yesterday I spent a fascinating morning talking maths with a group of GPs. All professions require some level of numeracy, but doctors face particular challenges when communicating mathematical ideas.
I've written up a short blog: robeastaway.com/blog/gp-maths

Nurseries in England bring in Covid-style protocols as measles cases rise Staff deploy infection controls and step up cleaning as cases pass 500 for year to date and after one child dies

While infection control and cleaning is always a good thing, it’s not going to cut it for measles. Measles is airborne and highly contagious. The best approach is vaccination, and local infection control should focus on ventilation and air cleaning www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

In search of a diagnosis How my son’s autism assessment sent me on an investigation into my own past

After my son was diagnosed with autism, I've been thinking about my own relationship to this strange, highly contentious condition. During a sabbatical this spring, I spoke to some experts about it. My essay based on all that has just gone online on FT.Com: on.ft.com/4kKdCfe

Faraday Discovery Fellowships Accelerated International Route | Royal Society The Faraday Discovery Fellowships Accelerated International Route provides a fast-track option for attracting mid-career researchers looking to relocate to the UK from overseas, providing up to £4m ov...

Another route for mid-career international researchers to move to the UK. royalsociety.org/grants/farad... You need to be nominated by a UK university. Our local internal deadline for the first round is Monday 21 July, so get in touch with your UK contacts very soon!

Two scientists in blue lab coats are working in a laboratory. One is seated, using a keyboard, and the other is standing and pointing at data on a computer screen. They are both focused on the monitor.

We are excited to be part of the Global Talent Fund – a new government initiative to bring world-leading international researchers to the UK.

The fund will help Southampton to drive innovation that supports UK industry.

Find out more 👉 tr.ee/ZZdR5k

@ukri.org | @russellgroup.bsky.social

The UK is opening express lanes to lure the world’s best minds The government’s £54 million scheme will bring top researchers’ thinking to life, often spinning out into innovative new businesses, says Patrick Vallance

Opinion: The government’s £54 million scheme will bring top researchers’ thinking to life, often spinning out into innovative new businesses, says Patrick Vallance
#AcademicSky #research #innovation

Come to the University of Southampton! @unisouthampton.bsky.social We’re excited to be part of this new scheme to attract researchers to the UK.

Leading lights of UK research spearhead search for world's best talent 12 leading universities and research institutions selected to deliver government’s £54 million fund to recruit world’s top researchers.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

A graph showing reports of swifts in Britain. The line rises sharply through the first half of May, then more steadily until it peaks in late June. Then a sharp drop off from mid-July until mid-September, when it reaches zero.

The swifts will start to leave in numbers soon. We won’t see them go. And then, obviously, the countdown will begin again.

For anyone who has recently been asking about career opportunities in the UK.

UK launches scheme to attract world class researchers A new initiative has been launched to attract and support the relocation of outstanding international researchers and research teams to the UK.

www.ukri.org/news/uk-laun...

Also no need to apologize. Also Chad probably wants more views on this calling in thing than just mine.

However apparently this didn’t come across. I didn’t phrase my reply especially carefully because Chad is a friend and in the midst of having a difficult day for unrelated reasons I somewhat forgot that others would read it. Apologies.

I agree & I didn’t intend to suggest that autistic people lack empathy. The link that Chad shared centered empathy as a defining aspect of “calling in”. And Chad was asking if calling in was inherently allistic. I aimed to say “no, because allistic people don’t have the monopoly on empathy”.