Warren Pearce (@warrenpearce) — Bluesky Profile

4 days ago

Ethics, Evidence, and Policy Network meeting

Dear all,

Welcome to the quarterly meeting of the Ethics, Evidence, and Policy Network!

We are pleased to welcome sociologist Martyn Pickersgill who will discuss Novelty, Normativity, and the Neuro. In this talk, sociologist Martyn Pickersgill will discuss some of his work over the last two decades on the social circulation of neuroscience and neurotechnology. He will argue that expertise far beyond neuro-research is often necessary for its societal impacts, and reflect on some of the ethical implications of claims to novelty and significance in relation to brain technology.

We will also welcome colleagues from EthUcate. EthUcateis a growing initiative aimed at educating diverse stakeholders about responsible science and ethics communication. By contributing to responsible research and innovation, enhancing public trust and fostering informed policy decisions, EthUcate seeks to empower individuals and organizations to engage thoughtfully with scientific information. Katherine Bassil will introduce the work they do and key challenges in ethics communication.

Ethics, Evidence and Policy Network, Wednesday 25 March, 2-3pm.

Martyn Pickersgill talking "Novelty, Normativity, and the Neuro" and EthUcate on responsible science and ethics communication #STS #scicomm

This promises to be very good.

Sign up here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/db0530...

4 1 1 0

6 days ago

Beyond The Frame: Network, Infrastructure and Vernacular in the Making of Environmental Visuals. Very excited to give @unipotsdam.bsky.social Code & Culture lecture next Mon 16/3

Arguing that online visuals cannot be understood in isolation from platform effects www.uni-potsdam.de/de/digital-h...

4 1 0 0

1 week ago

New in Big Data & Society 🗞️

Warren Pearce et al., examine how Google transformed knowledge infrastructure through computer vision, tracing a shift from ranking by authority to ranking by similarity in Google Images.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2053...

2 2 0 0

1 week ago

Multispecies Mutualisms - Join Our Research Team! We’re hiring 4 Postdoctoral Research Associates (PDRAs) In this video, members of the team share insights into four exciting PDRA opportunities currently available. If you are ready to take the next s...

A rare thing: *four* three-year hums/soc-sci posts in animal studies, on the Multispecies Mutualisms project at UoSheffield - with @rosaleenduffy.bsky.social, me, Robert McKay and Alasdair Cochrane; see here for a video explainer: digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk/media/Multis...

24 25 1 1

1 week ago

Happening today - my talk on government, power and AI policy at 5pm Cambridge Judge Business School, Lecture Theatre 3. All welllcome!

2 1 0 0

1 week ago

Spain Denies U.S. Military Use of Its Bases for Iran Attack

"Spain’s defense minister, Margarita Robles, said on Monday that while there was an agreement with the United States on the use of the bases, Spain believed it only extended to use within the framework of international law."

Spain views US war on Iran as illegal.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...

186 60 5 7

2 weeks ago

The Trump Administration is Testing Conversion Therapy By Medically Experimenting on Trans People in Prisons The Bureau of Prisons is subjecting trans people to conversion therapy and denying them care with the goal of helping them "recover." It's trying to prove dangerous conversion practices can work.

Under a new policy released Thursday, the Trump Administration will test conversion therapy on trans people in prisons. It explicitly states that it aims to help trans people “recover,” all the while forcibly detransitioning them both medically and socially.

transitics.substack.com/p/the-trump-...

2,775 1,809 237 1,048

2 weeks ago

Also, if you put this on your office door, it will head off unwanted interruptions

1 0 1 0

2 weeks ago

Times New Roman for gravitas

0 0 0 0

2 weeks ago

Gill Sans?

1 0 1 0

2 weeks ago

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Yaye! We got our paper in @bigdatasoc.bsky.social from
uvahumanities.bsky.social #DigitalMethods Initiative Summer School 2022. Gratitude owed to
sheffielduni.bsky.social and the @wellcometrust.bsky.social
for kindly co-funding my attendance! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #InternetStudies

1 1 0 0

2 weeks ago

Comparison of top 10 Google Images results for climate change in Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico, Netherlands and Nigeria. The images all look very similar to each other, with images of the Earth in stylised, Photoshopped environments

Comparison of top climate change results on Google Images for six countries, colour coded to show dominant image types: earth in hand, landscape, tree, triptych and cartoon Earth

How Google Images, powered by computer vision AI, has transformed the way Google ranks its results, from ranking-by-authority to ranking-by-similarity.

New @bigdatasoc.bsky.social by me, @maudbo.bsky.social @lauvra26.bsky.social + amazing team 😍 doi.org/10.1177/20539517261426452 #STS

2 1 0 1

3 weeks ago

Many coloured record sleeves strewn in a wooden table

Join me trying to make sense of this lot on the 1st Sounds Critical radio show on Swingdash, 5-7pm today.

Meeting the moment by selecting bangers www.swingdash.live/schedule/not...

0 1 0 0

3 weeks ago

Good grief! That is photo of the year material

1 0 1 0

1 month ago

Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why

Joan Scott on why the attack on gender studies by powerful patriarchal men is not a coincidence, but an attempt to silence critique and analysis of their abusive behavior. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

78 44 0 1

1 month ago

DoltBook?

1 0 0 0

1 month ago

If he starts both games, you could be on a winner.

1 0 0 0

1 month ago

I wouldn’t say *total* moron. I played safe with Gabriel.

1 0 1 0

1 month ago

U Glasgow has covered Jay Todd's @jaytoddgla.bsky.social & my critical paper on the 'Sullivan Review' rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Many social scientists whom Jay & I talk to are (still) unaware of the Sullivan Review and its potential implications. Our paper aims to change this

14 10 0 0

2 months ago

News coming through that @sheffielducu.bsky.social members have rejected their employer's blackmail threats.

We need to urgently rush support to the branch!

Invite speakers
Raise (big) donations
Sign petitions
Send solidarity messages
👇

2 4 0 0

2 months ago

Excellent letter which highlights one of the many problems with Nurse and RS's stance that science exists in an asocial bubble.

2 0 0 0

2 months ago

Dear Sir Paul,

Re: Royal Society Code of Conduct

I am sure that many scientists have written to you about the specific question of Elon Musk’s Fellowship and whether, under the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct, his retaining that Fellowship is appropriate. I will not rehash these issues. Instead, as a female scientist with extensive experience of activities aiming to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the engineering and physical sciences sector, I am writing to you (in a personal capacity) to ask you to reconsider the statements you have recently made in this context to the UK press about the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct and how it is applied.

A 2018 report from the joint National Academies of the United States of America, concluded that “sexual harassment is common in academic science, engineering, and medicine” and that “greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia”. This report described codes of conduct that make clear that sexual harassment is unethical and will not be tolerated as a “powerful incentive for change”. The authors also noted that sexual harassment can have significant and damaging effects on the integrity of research. In my own praxis, I have found that clear and consistently-implemented codes of conduct that address these issues make female scientists and engineers safer, and allow them to focus more effectively on their research. For codes of conduct to have such a positive effect, it is vital that sanctions for actions which transgress the code are meaningful and substantial.

I was hence aghast to realise that in an interview with the Financial Times published on 9/1/26, you appear to have suggested that the Royal Society “should only expel fellows if their science proved “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective””. Moreover, in a further interview with the Guardian on 11/1/26 you suggested that the code “may need to be looked at again”, with the implication that your aim would be to remove the option of sanctions on Fellows for reasons not strictly related to faults or defects in their research.

I suggest that changing the Royal Society’s code of conduct so that the likelihood of serious sanctions for sexual harassment is reduced, would directly endanger women who interact with the Royal Society at events or otherwise, and would provide a licence to harass to the already powerful people on whom the Society bestows fellowship. The implications of your words - that under your leadership the only infringements of the code which are likely to receive the sanction of the Fellowship being removed are those related to research misconduct - already risk empowering harassers. You stated, in the Financial Times interview, that “there’s many bad people around, but they have made scientific advances”. Given this awareness of the possibility of bad actors in our scientific community, it is wholly irresponsible to suggest that the Royal Society would not act to sanction these people if they harass more vulnerable scientists.

I am hence writing to request that you retract any suggestion that the Society’s Code of Conduct should be changed so that the only reason a Fellow might be sanctioned by the removal of their Fellowship is “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective” research. This action is necessary to safeguard female scientists, a requirement placed on the Society by safeguarding legislation and UK statutory guidance.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Rachel A. Oliver.

Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.

813 297 25 29

2 months ago

Sorry to hear this Hannah. Chimes with my experience. Could be a few reasons. Common to see “no flowers please” on funeral arrangements. Maybe “cards and flowers welcome” is a necessary counterbalance

0 0 1 0

2 months ago

Good work from @thierryaaron.bsky.social responding to this piece. One thing that is implicit in this though is the way in which natural scientific expertise is given broad scope to pontificate in areas (such as social science) where they lack the knowledge, theories and methods to explain.

10 4 0 0

2 months ago

Agreed. He’s the hero it’s hard (but not impossible) to root for. Just a very original film

1 0 0 0

2 months ago

And more job opportunities: @univie.ac.at aims to fill 40 (!) doctoral positions in the social sciences, humanities and cultural studies

careers.univie.ac.at/en/praedoc/p...

26 17 1 1

2 months ago

I've been talking about both doctoral study (with academic jobs as the goal) AND tenure for YEARS in terms of RISK MANAGEMENT. It is a very calculated, and increasingly speculative, risk. You have to treat it that way.

Faculty hate it when I do this. Especially about tenure.

128 17 7 6

5 months ago

i made a helpful reference

7,084 2,926 74 199

2 months ago

Is Joe Rogan really just a voice of the right? Our new @csmapnyu.org piece for @goodauth.bsky.social shows he’s just as much a space for the left and the center, too. A look inside today’s surprisingly complicated podcast information ecosystem. 🎙️

goodauthority.org/news/podcast...

26 13 5 4

2 months ago

Donate to Support University of Sheffield striking staff!, organized by Mark Pendleton I'm the branch treasurer for the University of Sheffield University and… Mark Pendleton needs your support for Support University of Sheffield striking staff!

As things wind down for the holidays, @sheffielducu.bsky.social members are facing a threat of 100% pay deductions from January, thanks to our Scrooge-like management. We’ve now set up a fundraiser to bolster our local solidarity fund. If you can spare some change, please do! gofund.me/ac2b3adcb

20 21 1 0