Ian Brooks

I'm a sucker for really good interactive science visualizations.

Check out this one that lets you explore a map of the known universe. It's beautiful, engaging, and very well done.

mapoftheuniverse.net

"How can one well-meaning scientist counter scientific misinformation? Or even a million? The other side is bankrolled by dead-eyed billionaires."

My latest blog post #AcademicSky

occamstypewriter.org/mindthegap/2...

Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?

If we learned nothing else from 2025, it’s that we shouldn’t take for granted that what we love will continue to be funded

If people and libraries don’t buy a certain kind of book, publishers will stop investing in them

That’s also one reason the library book bans are so scary

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

"We believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place."

Britain continues its rapid descent towards fascism.

Wildlife imaging shows that AI models aren't as smart as we think Using AI to identify wildlife reveals a potential "transferability crisis," researchers say. Marketing for AI imaging systems often suggests that models can easily tackle novel scenarios across ecosys...

Reminder: generative artificial so-called intelligence is nothing of the sort.

"Model trained to identify cats using stock images will perform well tested against stock images, not translate into effective cat detection in the wild."

phys.org/news/2026-03...

Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It. 40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.

TIL about a large number of operators/tools that can be used to make Google searches much more focused and productive
🧪 #philsci

cardcatalogforlife.substack.com/p/google-has...

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

Ring ring! Open the door, let me through! The Fish Doorbell Every year in spring, a lovely side of humanity shows in the form of a fish doorbell in Utrecht, Netherlands, but what is it and what does it do?

Every year in spring, a lovely side of humanity shows in the form of a fish doorbell in Utrecht, Netherlands, but what is it and what does it do?
 | Anna Schurer

just a little...but think of the fun you could have! 😀

Mark's History: The curious case of the sunken icebreaker near Armley Mills - West Leeds Dispatch Along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Botany Bay near Armley Mills is a sign that at first glance appears to be Cyrillic characters but is in fact a message […]

How wonderful. I had no idea these were a thing on canals, but...

westleedsdispatch.com/history-sunk...

A two-column status table titled "Stage" and "Start Date" tracks the timeline of a manuscript submission from its preliminary data submission on October 8, 2025, to its eventual withdrawal on March 2, 2026. The log reveals a lengthy and repetitive administrative process, particularly between October 26, 2025, and February 19, 2026, where the status cycled more than ten times between "Contacting Potential Reviewers" and "Waiting for Reviewer Assignment," suggesting significant difficulty in securing peer reviewers. Following these numerous failed attempts to move into the active review phase, the final entry shows the manuscript was officially withdrawn on March 2, 2026, at 09:08:18.

My first paper had to be mailed to Stockholm, Sweden, and then mailed to reviewers around the world. Everything by mail! It was submitted, reviewed, revised, typeset, and published in 3 months. I feel bad for early-career scientists who can't find a single reviewer after 5 months. It's gotta change.

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.

This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.

Please spread the word.

🧵 1/4

I've used this outfit: www.digitalprinting.co.uk/products/per... but you do need capability to produce a commercial print-ready PDF with 3mm bleed and crop marks etc.

#ICYMI our Ocean Tipping Points webinar is now available for replay! 🍿🗣️🌊

youtube.com/watch?v=pmz-...

#COP30 #TippingPoints #Oceanscience

They all do this. And it feels like a reflection on the humans behind them, whose inflated careers are built on never admitting they don’t know the answer. The ‘smartest people in the room’ if ‘smart’ just means glib and facile, turning out lies with complete conviction.

This is a hugely important story: everyone concerned with learning and truth should read it. Presented with prompts about a lesser-known turn-of-the-last-century composer, an LLM produces a nice, clear readable evaluation of her Symphony No. 1 - which DOESN'T EXIST. Everything is made up. 😵‍💫

So, any other news yesterday?
Anything important?

Yes, sectarian Muslims voting for a white female plumber from a party led by a gay Jewish man... Am guessing none of the other parties will learn the right lessons from this result for their own different reasons.

genuinely terrifying

how it started: AI-generated topics (likely possibly OK, but not ideal to be the only way to organise, remember author defined keywords?) docs.openalex.org/api-entities...

how it's going 👇🏼 www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

IPY-5 is approaching. And I am pondering, what is the purpose of IPY-5? Science diplomacy, and international cooperation, is of course vital, as we see renewed attacks on the autonomy of Greenland. The Antarctic Treaty is likely to come under increased stress as the climate changes, changing the ...

Anthropic Accuses 3 Chinese Companies of Harvesting Its Data

Aside from being hilarious, this is absolutely fascinating.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/t...

Plans for AI data centres suggest 50 gigawatts of demand — more than the UK’s national peak of 45.

Alarm bells should be ringing. Are we powering genuine public good — or hype? The environmental cost could be vast.

#ClimateCrisis #ArtificialIntelligence

Second plug for my brief weekend musings about the human cost of the recent UKRI grant pause #AcademicSky

I'm not at #OSM26, but I'd be at this if I was, and recommend checking this out if you are.

Ident for the Ocean Sciences Meeting, Glasgow Scotland, 22-27 February 2026

To Glasgow for #OSM26 where Lukrecia Stulic will be presenting on our data composition collaborations: ED23B-10: Scoring The Ice: Turning Data into Music. Hope to meet like minded travellers involved with the session: Art and Ocean Science: Creative Pathways for Understanding and Engagement

Frontiers | The Antarctic Peninsula under present day climate and future low, medium-high and very high emissions scenarios The Antarctic Peninsula is warming rapidly, with more frequent extreme temperature and precipitation events, reduced sea ice, glacier retreat, ice shelf coll...

Our new paper on the future of the Antarctic Peninsula published today, showing how the various systems across the Peninsula will be impacted by different global warming scenarios.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...

Climate change and its impact on the Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, part of the British Antarctic Territory, is a global biodiversity hotspot, and a focus of tourism, scientific and fishing operations. The region is warming rapidly, at up to t...

The future of the Antarctic Peninsula under three different scenarios - the choices we make today determine the future.
Policy Brief with @granthamicl.bsky.social
spiral.imperial.ac.uk/entities/pub...

Screencap of a page titled "Share this Session" featuring a clean, white interface with a blue back arrow button in the top left corner. Below the header, three vertically stacked white rectangular buttons with rounded corners and subtle drop shadows offer sharing options: "Share on X" accompanied by the X logo, "Share via Email" with an envelope icon, and "Copy Link" with a double-link icon.

Twitter is a cesspool that most of us have abandoned and @agu.org gets almost no engagement there, so why is the only sharing option on the #OSM26 website to that place?

Exploring Down Street Station, one of London's closed underground stations at alondoninheritance.com/under-london...